President Barack Obama walks with Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, left, and President Felipe Calderon of Mexico following their joint press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, April 2 (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
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Ed Kilgore: Every day there’s at least one headline coming across the transom that doesn’t make you laugh, cry, cheer, or think, but simply scratch your head in puzzlement. Today’s winner is from Politico’s Lois Romano: “Ann Romney is the Romney Democrats Fear Most.”
…. Huh! Everybody thinks Ann Romney is a “rock star?” I did not know that. The “political arena” is all abuzz about her? Missed that, too; the buzzing must be confined to weekends, when I kinda check out from politics as much as possible.
…. If you read this long piece, however, it begins to appear that most of the buzzing Romano is hearing is coming from busy bees inside the Romney campaign itself….
….. Perhaps the most revealing thing about the Romneys as a team that Romano’s account mentions is that their handlers can’t decide whether Ann is more valuable on the road as a speaker, or behind the scenes as a steadying influence on the candidate. It sounds like Mitt needs a road manager and a psychologist as much as he needs a dazzling opening act. Indeed, he seems to be a very needy dude….
President Barack Obama holds Arianna Holmes, 3, before taking a departure photo with members of her family in the Oval Office, Feb. 1, 2012. Arianna’s mother, Angela Holmes, is a departing Special Assistant in the International Economic Affairs office of the National Security Staff. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
President Obama holds up a book that he was given by author and keynote speaker Eric Metaxas at the National Prayer Breakfast
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Steve Benen: The general trend on initial unemployment claims over the last few months has been largely encouraging, though there have been setbacks. Last week, for example, was a step in the wrong direction. This week’s report, however, was a little more heartening:
U.S. jobless claims dropped by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 367,000 in the week ended Jan. 28, the Labor Department said Thursday….
…. when these jobless claims fall below the 400,000 threshold, it’s considered evidence of an improving jobs landscape. When the number drops below 370,000, it suggests jobs are actually being created rather quickly.
Washington Post (editorial): Higher education is both crucial to America’s economic competitiveness and hard for many students and their families to afford … As President Obama quite rightly insisted in his State of the Union address, institutions of higher learning must do more to hold down their costs if college education is to remain affordable for the next generation of young people. What’s more, he’s talking about using the federal government’s financial clout to encourage cost containment.
…. he is proposing long-overdue reforms to existing formulas for distributing hundreds of millions of dollars in campus-based aid, such as Perkins loans and work-study funds. Current policy skews in favor of better-off students at relatively pricier colleges. The president wants to shift dollars in favor of schools that restrain tuition and graduate more low-income students. Meanwhile, he would establish a $1 billion fund to encourage cost-saving innovations, complemented by $55 million for research, evaluation and dissemination of the best practices….
Needless to say, a lot depends on how the president and Congress would end up defining what constitutes a good value in higher education … what’s important is that the president has put the prestige and power of his office behind this effort.
Jonathan Cohn: Romney’s political strategy here seems clear to me: He’s trying to drive a wedge between the poor and the middle class, convincing the latter that they lose out to the former when Democrats are in charge. And the strategy may work. It’s certainly helped Republicans before. But the big beneficiary of Romney’s plan to reorder fiscal priorities is not the middle class. It’s the very wealthy, who would get substantial tax benefits and who will usually be fine with weakened public services.
MSNBC: ….. presidential hopeful Rick Santorum took a hard line on Wednesday against government getting involved in offsetting the cost of drug prices. Before exiting the stage, Santorum was prodded by members of the 300-person crowd to take one last question from a young boy standing in the front row. The child asked what the candidate would do to lower the cost of medicine. But the former Pennsylvania senator said it was the cost of drugs that allowed for the innovation that keeps Americans with life-threatening illnesses alive.
“People have no problem going out and buying an iPad for $900. But paying $200 for a drug they have a problem with – that keeps you alive. Why? Because you’ve been conditioned in thinking health care is something you should get and not have to pay for. Drug companies, health care companies need to have a profitability, because if they don’t, then how are we going to regulate costs?…..”
While some of in the audience applauded Santorum’s tough stance against government involvement in drug prices, others protested. The mother of the child yelled out that she was going bankrupt just to pay for her child to keep breathing.
Charles P. Pierce (Esquire) read a a swooning piece about Fox ‘News’ in Politico…. he didn’t like it very much:
“Stuff in Politico That Makes Me Want to Guzzle Antifreeze…. I say only that, in my own, personal, constitutionally protected opinion, this may very well be the worst bag of pulverized, unexpurgated, beat-sweetening chickenshit in the history of American political journalism. It makes Peggy Noonan read like Thuycidides….
Charles P. Pierce (Esquire): No matter what Willard Romney said on Tuesday night, a tough primary can really damage you. If these latest PPP numbers are in any way accurate, the rockfight between Romney and N. Leroy Gingrich, Definer of Civilization’s Rules and Leader (Perhaps) of the Civilizing Forces, has pushed Romney’s unfavorability ratings in Ohio northward toward 60 percent……
….. Eighty-four percent of the respondents are white and, even with that, Romney is six points down with a 57 percent disapproval rating. He better tack like hell, is all I’m saying.
Well, actually, Byron Tau has been hanging around GOPolitico for a while, but a week ago he became the boss man on their ’44’ section – you know, the bit that’s devoted to telling us the President hates Israel and the First Lady is a food fascist.
Whatever happened our beloved Julie Mason? Did she get bored with her dearest hobby at GOPolitico – counting black faces in the White House?
Any way, just to let you know, Byron has started fantastically well. Here’s most of what he expertly picked out as the big news the past week:
Not since Woodward and Bernstein has a journalist broken a story so monumental: Joe Manchin doesn’t support the President? Who knew?! Spectacular start Byron! Pulitzer stuff!
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So, Byron listened to the President’s speech at Fort Bragg about the ending of the Iraq war and was moved. Moved to be stunned by the President’s failure to give a ‘love you lots’ shout-out to the man who started the war, thereby giving PBO the very lucky opportunity to end it. Breathtaking ingratitude. Keep it up Byron, you’re doing great.
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Next, Byron watches the VP’s interview with Rachel Maddow and is just gobsmacked when the VP completely fails to describe the ending of a pointless war as a ‘failure’. Well spotted Byron. VPs have been impeached for less. Well, no, they haven’t, but you get the point.
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Woot, only three days in to his new ’44’ job and Byron’s really hotting up! He spots an op-ed by that most principled of Blue Dogs, Dennis Cardoza, on The Hill site and almost faints with delirium as he links it for us! Byron Tau, the Walter Kronkite of our generation!
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After OFA promised to send a thank you email to your GOP-supporting relatives if they annoyed you enough to donate to Obama/Biden 2012, Byron was clearly pissed after his inbox was stuffed with emails …. after his Dem-supporting aunties, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers, nieces and nephews passed on his address.
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Byron didn’t have much to say about the Obama family portrait, apart from quoting a GOPolitico colleague’s revelation that Sasha’s dress cost $73.99. That much?!? Jeez, a bit uppity!
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Another scoop by Byron – who knew Orrin Hatch still existed?
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We’re on a roll now! Byron shares with us Alex Burns’ story about the President shamefacedly letting the American people know the Iraq war is over. Thanks so much Byron, this outrage needed to be exposed. A commendable unveiling of an ugly truth.
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More brilliance. Byron’s take on that AP-GfK poll that had a gazillion different talking points, but this is the one he liked. Quite understandable too. Thanks Byron, your poll-dissecting abilities are special.
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Superb Byron! It never hurts to point out the President’s Godlessness! True, Amy Sullivan didn’t ‘lament’ anything, she simply pointed out how tricky it is for a President and his family to visit a ‘public’ church – from a security and ‘fuss’ point of view – and noted (although Byron must have missed this bit when he summarised) that “more often, Obama and his family have followed the lead of the Bush family, joining the congregation at Camp David …. but staying home on Sunday mornings when in Washington”.
But, never mind – great headline!
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You know, I was beginning to worry for Byron’s job security – a whole week had gone by and he hadn’t written about the President and Israel at GOPolitico. Phew, at last! Now, those of you who argue that the President didn’t “defend” his policy on Israel today, that he simply re-stated it, are just a bunch of picky Obots.
I’d like to think, though, that someone here helped Byron keep his job by sending him this reminder today:
Although, we can’t be sure if he actually read it, the fella is awfully busy on Twitter:
(Note: it’s never ‘President’ or ‘Pres’, it’s ‘Obama’ – but that’s okay Byron, we understand 😉 )
And re-tweeting the Drudge Report can be very time-consuming:
But, awesome job this week Byron, you’re destined for a stellar career at GOPolitico!
Hugs!
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Update – Byron’s very latest story:
Woot! And he even quotes Keith ‘I hate Michelle Obama so much I could cry’ Koffler in the story – you know, the guy who makes Michele Bachmann seem like Jane Fonda! Byron? You rock!
President Barack Obama waves to people gathered along the motorcade route from Osawatomie High School to Osawatomie-Paola Municipal Airport in Osawatomie, Kan., Dec. 6, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Paul Krugman: One crucial thing you need to understand about political journalists is that with some honorable exceptions, they don’t know or care about actual policy …
…. Hence, the awful decision of Politico to give Paul Ryan an award as healthcare policymaker of the year.
…. what became painfully, embarrassingly clear during the debate over the Ryan plan was that Ryan is, well, incompetent …. it’s true that the plan “got everyone talking”, as Politico says – but mostly it got people talking about what a mess Ryan’s effort was.
Oh, and it was pretty clear that Ryan wasn’t being honest about his own numbers.
What’s going on here, I suppose, is that Politico is mistaking theater for policy. Ryan isn’t an important health care reformer, or even minimally competent in his attempted wonkery, but he plays a deep thinker on TV. And the people at Politico either don’t understand the difference, or they don’t care.
President Obama returns to the White House after a visit to Kansas
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Steve Benen: President Obama has decided that, from now on, foreign aid decisions will take into consideration how countries treat their LGBT citizens, and he directed U.S. agencies abroad to ensure our humanitarian and diplomatic efforts “promote and protect” the rights of gays and lesbians.
…. today’s announcement marks a historic first …. It also adds to a rather extraordinary record for Obama in this area in his first three years….
…. I realize there are still a sizable number of people in the LGBT community who are unsatisfied with the pace of change, and consider President Obama someone who has ignored, and even betrayed, their interests. Some have even vowed not to lift a finger to help with the president’s re-election effort.
I suspect many social-conservative activists find this inexplicable.
First Lady Michelle Obama with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at a South Side Walgreens today in Chicago
Chicago Tribune – Read the text of the First Lady’s remarks here – thanks Jovie
First lady Michelle Obama holds up a worm from a compost pile as she visits Iron Street Urban Farm
First Lady Michelle Obama and Mayor Rahm Emanuel greet Newt Gingrich in Chicago
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Denver Post: A new statewide poll released today to coincide with President Obama’s trip to Colorado shows the first-term Democrat is more popular than any of his major GOP presidential challengers, particularly among unaffiliated voters and Hispanics, two crucial groups.
…. “At this point in the presidential race, President Obama is running against himself,” Project New West president Jill Hanauer said today. “At the same time, the Republican field is not reaching a majority of Coloradans due to their extreme views in very centrist state where voters vote for the person not the party and the policy vision, not a political ideology.”
…. PNW’s poll showed that 49% of likely Colorado voters view the President in a positive light, compared with 45% who have a negative opinion of him. Comparatively, Mitt Romney has a 40/38 favorable/unfavorable rating, and Rick Perry is underwater with a 29/38 rating.
Importantly, the President is even more popular with unaffiliated voters, who constitute a crucial 29% of the Colorado electorate. 54 percent of unaffiliated voters have positive feelings about the president, compared with 37% who view him negatively. Romney (38/37) and Perry (24/33) have similar ratings among Unaffiliateds as they do with the broader electorate.
The President also remains popular with Hispanic voters, who made up roughly 12% of the Colorado electorate in 2010. Obama has a 59/36 approval/disapproval rating among Colorado Hispanics, compared to 31/35 for Romney and 28/39 for Perry.
Go to Political Correction to see an enlarged version of the graphic – ‘A Timeline Of GOP Economic Sabotage’. Thank you BWD.
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OMG! Ex-pat GG briefly left Brazil to visit America for an appearance on Maddow to promote his shiny new book! Awesome! It was a complete love-in – Rachel even wrote the huggy blurb on the back of the book! And she nodded knowingly when he went on about the elites who rule America (but she ran out of time before she could ask him about the Koch brothers and GG’s work for their CATO Institute).
President Obama will record an interview with Jay Leno this morning – it won’t be shown until late night but NBC will release some excerpts in the afternoon
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President Obama leaves Air Force One upon his arrival in Los Angeles on Monday
LA Times: President Obama opened an aggressive Western fundraising swing Monday, closing out the day in Los Angeles with an appeal to supporters to prepare for a grueling reelection effort.
At an intimate fundraising dinner in Hancock Park, Obama spoke softly to a few dozen supporters who had paid $35,800 each to greet him.
“I’ve said this before — this election will not be as sexy as the first one,” the president said. “Back then it was still fresh and new. I didn’t have any gray hair. Everybody loved the ‘Hope’ posters and all that. This time it’s — we’ve got to grind it out a little bit. We’ve got to grind it out. But the cause is the same. And my passion is the same. And my commitment is the same.”
The gathering, at the home of movie producer James Lassiter and his wife, Mai, was one of six events Obama had planned in three days of stops in Nevada, California and Colorado, as he kept up a torrid fundraising pace that is far surpassing that of the GOP presidential field.
Two Los Angeles gatherings Monday were celebrity-flecked, with the first including actor Will Smith and former Laker Magic Johnson. The second and larger event was at the home of actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, with per-seat tickets starting at $5,000.
12:55 Delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee reception in Detroit
3:45 Discusses access to healthy food with mayors from around the country in Chicago
4:50 Delivers remarks at a Walgreens in Chicago and visits Iron Street Urban Farms with Mayor Rahm Emanuel
6:40 Delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee reception in Chicago
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Today the administration will announce plans to create jobs for veterans continuing on President Barack Obama’s efforts to boost the economy through a series of executive actions.
“While we will continue to work with Congress to bring up the American Jobs Act piece-by-piece, we will increase our focus on taking executive actions that fight for the middle class because the American people simply can’t wait for the Republican Congress to act. … Today, we are announcing two new initiatives that will help create jobs for veterans at community health centers and expand opportunities for veterans to become physician assistants,” a White House official said.
The initiatives will be announced during a conference call with reporters at 10 a.m. today with Matt Flavin, director of the White House Veterans, Military Families and Wounded Warrior Task Force; HRSA administrator Mary Wakefield; and president of the National Association of Community Health Centers, Tom Van Coverden.
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Steve Benen: …. Yesterday, President Obama unveiled a new, and almost certainly better, initiative as part of the White House’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign. The point to provide assistance to 1 million households, helping them refinance at today’s strikingly-low interest rates and lowering their mortgage payments.
There are, of course, concerns about the scope of the effort. It’s a modest program that won’t directly affect most of those underwater…. Still, Brian Beutler reports there are some experts who see cause for cautious optimism:
“Under the restrung HARP, I expect an additional 1.05 million [refinancings] through the end of 2012 and 1.6 million [refinancings] through the end of 2013 when the program ends,” said Moody’s top economist Mark Zandi in an email. “While HARP won’t live up to the initial expectations of 4-5 million in refinancings, the program will ultimately provide a meaningful boost to the broader economy as financially stressed households will benefit from much lower mortgage payments. It will also provide a bit of help to the housing market by forestalling some mortgage defaults.”
…. It’s a modest step, but at least it’s in the right direction. Coupled with other steps, we might even start to see some larger progress. It certainly beats watching Congress implode into an obstructionist mess.
The first part of the video is about Condaleeza Rice’s new book, but if you forward to three minutes in there’s good stuff on the madness of Herman Cain.
Eugene Robinson: For the clueless or cynical diehards who deny global warming, it’s getting awfully cold out there.
The latest icy blast of reality comes from an eminent scientist whom the climate-change skeptics once lauded as one of their own. Richard Muller, a respected physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, used to dismiss alarmist climate research as being “polluted by political and activist frenzy.” Frustrated at what he considered shoddy science, Muller launched his own comprehensive study to set the record straight. Instead, the record set him straight.
“Global warming is real,” Muller wrote last week in The Wall Street Journal.
Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the neo-Luddites who are turning the GOP into the anti-science party should pay attention.
…… It is the know-nothing politicians – not scientists – who are committing an unforgivable fraud.
President Barack Obama greets neighbors near the Bonilla residence in Las Vegas, Nev., where he spoke about the mortgage refinancing proposal and ‘Project Rebuild’, a piece of the American Jobs Act, Oct. 24. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
The Obama Diary 
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