Five Years Ago This Week….

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Five Years Ago This Week – What A Perfect Choice. Love and Best Wishes to @BeauBiden, @VP and @DrBiden pic.twitter.com/z1DHb82AJn

— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) August 21, 2013

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Rise and Shine

The front pages, five years ago today

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Today:

10:30: The President delivers a statement, The Rose Garden

11:10: The President and Chilean President Sebastián Piñera hold a bilateral meeting; the VP also attends

1:0: Press Briefing by Jay Carney

2:20: The President departs the White House

2:30: Arrives Bethesda, Maryland

2:50: Visits the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

4:35: Departs Bethesda

4:45: Arrives at the White House

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From left: Cornelia Pillard, Patricia Millett and Robert L. Wilkins

NYT: President Obama will nominate a slate of three candidates on Tuesday to fill the remaining vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a White House official said Monday.

The president will name Cornelia T. L. Pillard, a law professor; Patricia Ann Millett, an appellate lawyer; and Robert L. Wilkins, a federal district judge, to fill out the appeals court, which is often described as the second most powerful court in the country because it decides major cases and often serves as a launching pad for future Supreme Court justices.

By making his choices in a group, the president and his strategists are hoping to put pressure on Senate Republicans to confirm them.

More here

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Steve Benen: …. At the outset, let’s emphasize how uncontroversial this is – there are vacancies on an important federal bench, so the president is sending qualified nominees to the Senate for consideration. Republicans are characterizing this as a scandalous power-grab, while many political reporters are describing this as Obama thumbing his nose at his political rivals. In reality, it’s neither – presidents filling judicial vacancies is basic American governance. It’s Civics 101. That today’s announcement is seen as somehow remarkable is evidence of just how broken the process has become.

…. This is far more consequential than much of the public realizes …. the D.C. Circuit is likely to have considerable influence over the future of the Affordable Care Act, Wall Street reform, immigration reform, and perhaps most importantly, efforts to combat the climate crisis.

This is, in other words, a fight worth having, and the outcome will have a lasting impact for many years to come.

More here

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last 30 days: car sales way up. home prices way up. Dow way up, consumer confidence way up. so yeah, makes sensecable obsesses over IRS

— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) June 4, 2013

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Michael Tomasky: Obama’s Economic Triumph

It’s increasingly clear that the president has steered the country back from the brink – and, in the process, exposed (yet again) the central lie of conservative economics…..

More here

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If Romney were president and the Dow were up 20 days in a row, would today be a national holiday or would we all just get Mitt tattoos?

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) June 4, 2013

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Greg Sargent: As I’ve been saying here for some time, behind all the GOP noise and hoopla about Beltway scandal-palooza is a stark reality that can’t be obscured. House Republicans are confronting two major challenges – what to do about the debt limit and about immigration reform, both of which will require cooperation from House conservatives that they aren’t prepared to give — and they don’t have an answer to either one.

This is driven home in fresh and vivid detail by today’s big Post story on the deep divisions within the House GOP caucus.

More here

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Steve Benen: We talked yesterday about the new report from the College National Republican Committee, detailing their party’s difficulties in connecting with younger voters. As the College Republicans explained, it’s a “dismal present situation” with focus groups, led by GOP pollsters, finding that voters under 30 consider the party “closed-minded, racist, rigid, [and] old-fashioned”…..

….     In focus groups in January, the report said, young voters were asked to list leaders of the Democratic Party. “They named prominent former or currently elected officials: Pelosi, the Clintons, Obama, Kennedy, Gore. When those same respondents were asked to name Republican leaders, they focused heavily on media personalities and commentators: Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck.”

More here

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This — in 1 powerful photo — is why wingnuts are losing it. The browning of America. Giddy up. (h/t @nerdywonka) #TFY twitter.com/AngryBlackLady…

— Imani ABL (@AngryBlackLady) June 4, 2013

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As long as we’re listing Eric Holder’s accomplishments at DOJ, let’s not forget this one immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/06/as-lon…

— Smartypants (@Smartypants32) June 4, 2013

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The Day in Images: President Obama in Minneapolis

President Obama high fives a youngster at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Feb. 4 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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The Marine One helicopter, with President Barack Obama aboard, top, prepares to land at Andrews Air Force Base (Photo: Cliff Owen)

Andrews Air Force Base (Photo: Brendan Smialowski)

(Photo: Cliff Owen)

  …. with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Al Franken and and Rep. Betty McCollum at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport (Photo: Brendan Smialowski)

(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(Photo: Hannah Foslien)

(Photo: Hannah Foslien)

A man holds up a gun control sign while President Obama’s motorcade passes on the way to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Special Operations Center (Photo: Brendan Smialowski)

Minneapolis Public Schools School Resource Officer Mike Kirchen, left, President Obama and Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau listen during a round table discussion at the Minneapolis Police Department’s Special Operations Center (Photo: Brendan Smialowski)

(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(Photo: Brendan Smialowski)

President Obama enters the Minneapolis Police Department Special Operations Center (Photo: Jeffrey Thompson)

(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(Photo: Jim Mone)

(Photo: Elizabeth Flores)

President Obama greets law enforcement officials, including St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith, after speaking on ideas to reduce gun violence at the Minneapolis Police Department Special Operations Center (Photo: Scott Takushi)

Five years ago today….

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama hug after his victory rally at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center January 26, 2008 in Columbia, South Carolina. Sen. Obama is the winner of the South Carolina Democratic primary, a critical one for him, followed by Sen. Hillary Clinton with former Sen. John Edwards coming in third.

Heading West

PDT

1:20: President Obama arrives Los Angeles

2:0: Attends a campaign event at a private residence (closed press)

6:05: Delivers remarks at the Nokia Theater, Los Angeles (pooled for television)

9:15: Delivers remarks at the Ritz-Carlton, LA (print pool coverage)

President Barack departs the White House, October 7 (UPI/Olivier Douliery)

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Rise and Shine

Las Vegas Sun: About 11,200 people stood for hours in 90-degree heat Sunday for a chance to see a campaign rally for President Barack Obama (Desert Pines High School, September 30)

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Monday and Tuesday: The President will remain in Henderson, Nevada.

Wednesday: He will travel from Henderson to Denver where he will participate in the first Presidential Debate at the University of Denver. The First Lady will also attend. The President and the First Lady will remain overnight in Denver.

Thursday: PBO will deliver remarks at campaign events in Denver and Columbus, Ohio. He will return to Washington, DC in the evening.

Friday: PBO will deliver remarks at campaign events in Vienna, Virginia and Cleveland, Ohio. He will return to Washington, DC in the evening.

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Retweet!

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President Obama goes comedy-book shopping:

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106 Years Old and Voting for President Obama

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Coming up (all times ET):

Sunday: The President departs the White House (11:15 AM); Arrives Las Vegas (3:55); Delivers remarks at a campaign event at Desert Pines High School, Las Vegas (9:30)

Monday and Tuesday: The President will remain in Henderson, Nevada.

Wednesday: He will travel from Henderson to Denver where he will participate in the first Presidential Debate at the University of Denver. The First Lady will also attend. The President and the First Lady will remain overnight in Denver.

Thursday: PBO will deliver remarks at campaign events in Denver and Columbus, Ohio. He will return to Washington, DC in the evening.

Friday: PBO will deliver remarks at campaign events in Vienna, Virginia and Cleveland, Ohio. He will return to Washington, DC in the evening.

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Cagle

Cagle

Rise and Shine

Golden, Colorado, Sept 13

Today:

10:0: President Obama and Michelle Obama welcome the 2012 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House

White House live

11:15: Jay Carney briefs the press.

1:35: Michelle Obama attends a campaign fundraising event in Washington, D.C.

7:0: President Obama attends a campaign event (Private residence, closed press)

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Morning everyone, I’ll be back in a while with a bit of this and that, meanwhile: chat away 😉

Rise and Shine

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NYT Editorial: After three days of Mitt Romney complaining about attacks on his record at Bain Capital, it’s clear that President Obama has nothing to apologize for. If Mr. Romney doesn’t want to provide real answers to the questions about his career, he had better develop a thicker skin.

Mr. Romney’s descriptions of when he left Bain have been erratic and self-serving …. now that Bain has been accused of helping other companies outsource jobs overseas, laying off steel company employees and wiping out their pensions, Mr. Romney says he had no management role after 1999. A Kansas City steel plant that Bain bought in 1993 under Mr. Romney’s control, for example, went bankrupt in 2001, costing 750 workers their jobs and pensions. After the Obama campaign made an ad featuring several of the angry workers, the Romney campaign said he couldn’t be blamed because he left Bain in 1999.

….. Mr. Obama’s criticism is fair…. The right way to respond to Mr. Obama is to release his tax returns from that period, or open up Bain documents. But Mr. Romney told CNN he would not release more than the one year’s return he has already released and the one for 2011 when it is finished. “That’s all that’s necessary for people to understand something about my finances,” he said. It’s not even close.

Full editorial here

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Charles Pierce: …. All weekend, the question arose: What could possibly be in those tax returns that is so goddamn awful that Romney — who is still, remember, no worse than 50-50 to win this thing — is fighting so hard to keep it secret? The more I think about it, the more I believe that this is the answer to that question.

Nothing.

There is nothing in those tax returns that is in any way illegal …. He is not fighting the release of these returns to keep us from finding out the dark secrets about how stupid-wealthy he and his family are. He is fighting the release of these returns because he doesn’t think he should have to release them.

….This isn’t stubbornness. That’s often an acquired trait. What this is, fundamentally, is contempt. Contempt for the process, and contempt for the people who make their living in that process, and contempt for the people whose lives depend on that process. There are rules for The Help with which Willard Romney never has had to abide, and he has no intention of starting now. My dear young fellow, this simply is not done.

Full post here

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USA Today: Good morning from The Oval, on a day when President Obama and his re-election team are taking the fight to Mitt Romney and, geographically at least, House Speaker John Boehner.

The campaign kicked off the day with a memorandum entitled “Unanswered Questions About Mitt Romney’s ‘Retroactive Retirement.'” It’s intended to create even more doubts about Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, which he either left in 1999 or 2002, depending on your interpretation.

…. Ben LaBolt:

While Romney has repeatedly tried to distance himself from Bain’s decisions after February 1999, he has also hypocritically taken credit for jobs created well after the 1999 end date that he cites. He can’t have it both ways.

If Romney followed decades of precedent set in motion by his father, who released 12 years of tax returns, as well as the minutes from Bain Capital board meetings, the American people could finally learn to what extent Mitt Romney was involved with the actions at Bain Capital following 1999.

This week, Mitt Romney has the opportunity to provide a full accounting of his tenure at Bain Capital, the central premise of his campaign and the opportunity to demonstrate whether or not he was the job creator he claims to be.

More here

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John Cassidy (New Yorker): …. With even prominent Republicans saying that his current stance is unsustainable, the obvious question to ask is: Why is the Mittster being so obstinate? He surely isn’t standing on principle, for what principle would that be?

…… It’s only fair to assume that Mitt is doing what he always does: acting on the basis of a careful cost-benefit analysis. Will’s comments on this were spot on: “The cost of not releasing the returns are clear,” he said. “Therefore, [Romney] must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.” But what information could the earlier tax returns contain that would be so damaging if it were brought out into the open? Obviously, we are entering the realm of speculation, but Romney has invited it. Here are four possibilities:

1. Extremely high levels of income…..

2. More offshore accounts….

3. Politically explosive investments….

4. A very, very low tax rate….

….as Matthew Dowd noted, “there’s obviously something there, because if there was nothing there, he would say, ‘Have at it’”.

Full article here

Thanks Dotster

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Bill Keller (NYT): On the subject of the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare, to reclaim the name critics have made into a slur — a number of fallacies seem to be congealing into accepted wisdom. Much of this is the result of unrelenting Republican propaganda and right-wing punditry, but it has gone largely unchallenged by gun-shy Democrats. The result is that voters are confronted with slogans and side issues — “It’s a tax!” “No, it’s a penalty!” — rather than a reality-based discussion. Let’s unpack a few of the most persistent myths.

OBAMACARE IS A JOB-KILLER. …After years of trying out various alarmist falsehoods the Republicans have found one that seems, judging from the polls, to have connected with the fears of voters…..

OBAMACARE IS A FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF HEALTH INSURANCE. Let’s be blunt. The word for that is “lie.”…..

THE UNFETTERED MARKETPLACE IS A BETTER SOLUTION. To the extent there is a profound difference of principle anywhere in this debate, it lies here…..

LEAVE IT TO THE STATES. THEY’LL FIX IT. The Republican alternative to Obamacare consists in large part of letting each state do its own thing. Presumably the best ideas will go viral…..

OBAMACARE IS A LOSER. RUN AGAINST IT, RUN FROM IT, BUT FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE DON’T RUN ON IT. …Unfortunately, the benefits of Obamacare do not go wide until 2014, so there are not yet testimonials from enthusiastic, family-next-door beneficiaries. This helps explain why the bill has not won more popular affection. (It also explains why the Republicans are so desperate to kill it now, before Americans feel the abundant rewards.)

…. If the Obama campaign needs a snappy one-liner, it could borrow this one from David Cutler: “Never before in history has a candidate run for president with the idea that too many people have insurance coverage.”

Full article here

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9:30: President Obama departs the White House

11:15: Arrives in Ohio

12:30: Attends a campaign event at Cincinnati Music Hall (closed press)

2:20: Attends a campaign event at Cincinnati Music Hall (live coverage)

4:45: Departs Ohio

6:25: Arrives at the White House

7:10: Attends the United States vs. Brazil women and men’s basketball games at the Verizon Center

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Morning everyone 😉

rise and shine

President Barack Obama high fives a young boy outside an event in Palm Beach Garden, Fla., April 10, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama returns to the White House after a visit to Florida, April 10

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**** 10:15 AM ET: President Obama delivers a statement on the Buffett Rule ****

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EJ Dionne: Conservatives are not accustomed to being on the defensive. They have long experience with attacking the evils of the left and the abuses of activist judges. They love to assail “tax-and-spend liberals” without ever discussing who should be taxed or what government money is actually spent on. They expect their progressive opponents to be wimpy and apologetic.

So imagine the shock when President Obama decided last week to speak plainly about what a Supreme Court decision throwing out the health-care law would mean, and then landed straight shots against the Mitt Romney-supported Paul Ryan budget as “a Trojan horse,” “an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country,” and “thinly veiled social Darwinism.”

….. Romney pronounced himself appalled …. yet could neither defend the cuts nor deny the president’s list of particulars, based as they were on reasonable assumptions. When it came to the Ryan budget, Romney wanted to fuzz things up. But, as Obama likes to point out, math is math.

And when Obama went after the right’s willingness to use the power of the Supreme Court for ideological purposes, conservatives were aghast – and never mind that conservatives have been castigating activist judges since at least the 1968 presidential campaign….

More here

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Cagle

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Paul Krugman: Oh, boy. It turns out that the WaPo featured on its front page a report by Charles Blahous of the (yes, Koch-funded) Mercatus Center – although the Post describes him as a Medicare trustee, giving the impression that this is somehow an official document – claiming that the Affordable Care Act will actually increase the deficit. Jonathan Chait does the honors…..

….. this is basically a sick joke that doesn’t pass the laugh test. Unfortunately, it seems that some news organizations don’t have mandatory laugh-testing.

More here

Steve Benen: ….. The problem, which the Post article didn’t mention, is that Blahous’ research falls apart under scrutiny. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Paul N. Van de Water easily dismissed the Republican’s report.

…. I can appreciate the fact that these budget figures can seem complex, but certainly a guy who worked on entitlement policy for Bush/Cheney should understand the basics here, and the basics tell us that Obama’s health care law helps lower the national debt. Whether the right finds this inconvenient or not is irrelevant.

More here

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ET can exclusively reveal that George Clooney is hosting a fundraiser for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign – but there’s one thing he won’t do to help the president.

Clooney tells ET, “I’m proud to do whatever I can to support the President… as long as no one asks me to sing.”

… Clooney will host the president and about 150 supporters at the event on May 10 at his home in Los Angeles, California …. tickets will run $40,000 each, with proceeds going to the Obama Victory fund, a joint fundraising committee of Obama for America, the Democratic National Committee and several state Democratic parties.

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Morning everyone 😉