Rise and Shine

President Obama hugs Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., on the floor of the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., before delivering the State of the Union address, Jan. 24, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Today:

The President has no public events scheduled for today

12:45: Press Briefing by Jay Carney

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Greg Sargent: More cracks in GOP resistance to Obamacare

There are increasing signs that the GOP’s total war opposition to Obamacare is becoming tougher to sustain. The basic organizing principle – that only maximum resistance is acceptable in the face of such an existential threat to American freedom – is still widely dominant. But there are scattered indications it’s giving way to an implicit acknowledgment that the law’s fundamental goal — expanding health coverage and security to those who lack it, through more federal oversight and spending – has some moral validity.

More here

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ThinkProgress: Pennsylvania Man Confronts His Governor For Refusing To Expand Medicaid: ‘How Many People Have To Die?’

This week, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) had a run-in with one of his constituents as he was leaving a fundraising event. Scot Rosenzweig — who identified himself as a fellow Republican — showed Corbett a large photograph of his fiancee, Dina Nelson, who died at the age of 41 because she was uninsured and couldn’t afford a liver transplant. “I think maybe we should consider accepting the Medicaid expansion,” Rosenzweig told his governor, explaining that people like Nelson need access to lifesaving health treatment.

“I can’t do that,” Corbett responded.

Corbett is one of 25 governors who have declined to accept Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion, a move that is preventing an estimated 700,000 low-income Pennsylvanians from accessing public health insurance…..

More here

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With Utah’s announcement, a majority of states now expanding Medicaid. #txlege pic.twitter.com/zmlkvZB8Us

— Michael Li (@mcpli) January 24, 2014

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Remember when insurance companies denied people for completely random reasons? http://t.co/UYDyZjl8mr #TBT pic.twitter.com/dd5s4awvJX

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 23, 2014

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Michael Tomasky: Why Women Do Not ♥ Huckabee

What galaxy do Republican men live in? Apparently one where ladies who use contraception are ‘helpless’ and this potential 2016 contender could have been the fifth Beatle.

A few weeks ago, right after the dark clouds gathered over Chris Christie’s presidential prospects, some friends and I were having the usual Washington conversation of discussing the rest of the field. After we agreed that it was an awfully B-list bench, someone piped up: Hey, don’t forget Mike Huckabee! He’s losing all the weight!

Clearly, some of that vaporized body mass came out of his brain matter, based on his unhinged comments Wednesday at the Republican Party’s winter meeting. Discussing the GOP’s need to get more of the women’s vote, he said the Democratic Party tells women “they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government.”

More here

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2005: Huckabee requires insurers to cover contraception. 2014: Huckabee condemns Obama for doing what Huckabee did http://t.co/V9Inn4Jjx6

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen) January 24, 2014

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TPM: 2014 Could Be A Bad Year For Tea Party Senate Candidates

One of the craziest potential match-ups in the Republican Senate primaries this year promised to be Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) — but early momentum for Stockman quickly fizzled.

Stockman, whose tea party bona fides include threatening to impeach President Barack Obama over new gun control restrictions and comparing Obamacare to sexually transmitted diseases, doesn’t seem to be making much of a dent in the poll numbers after his last-minute entry into the Senate primary. Stockman couldn’t even emerge victorious in a local Texas tea party straw poll and has even recently been missing from congressional votes. And though it’s still early in the 2014 cycle, Stockman’s lackluster campaign might be indicative of how insurgent tea partiers challengers are faring against establishment Republicans. So far, it’s looking increasingly like the so-called tea party wave, which peaked in 2010, might be headed toward a valley this time around.

More here

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BREAKING: Justin Bieber gets a DUI. In other news: Syria, South Sudan, Iran, Central African Republic…

— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) January 23, 2014

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Ooops:

Wisconsin State Journal: Scott Walker upset sex offender allowed on stage with him

Gov. Scott Walker said Thursday he was frustrated that a registered sex offender and felon was allowed to stand alongside him during his State of the State speech.

Christopher Barber, a 32-year-old welder, was one of 13 newly hired workers Walker brought out to stand behind him during the opening minutes of his Wednesday speech as examples of how an improved economy is leading to more people finding work.

Barber wore his welding helmet and work gloves on stage. He waved to the audience in the Assembly chamber as he left the podium and Walker turned around and applauded …. Walker didn’t know that Barber, of Two Rivers, is a registered sex offender with two felonies and three drunken driving offenses.

More here

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On This Day:

Senator Barack Obama alongside Republican Senator Richard Lugar at the start of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee business meeting on Iraq resolution, on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 24, 2007

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President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama tour the White House South Grounds with Curator William Allman, left and Chief Usher Admiral Stephen Rochon, Jan. 24, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama works on his State of the Union address with Director of Speechwriting Jon Favreau in the Oval Office, Jan. 24, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama greets Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before his State of the Union address, January 24, 2012

President Obama hugs Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., on the floor of the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., before delivering the State of the Union address, Jan. 24, 2012

Guests applaud First Lady Michelle Obama during President Obama’s State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012

In a phone call from the U.S. Capitol immediately after the State of the Union Address, President Obama informs John Buchanan that his daughter Jessica was rescued by U.S. Special Operations Forces in Somalia, Jan. 24, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama and Vice President Biden hold a meeting in the Situation Room of the White House, Jan. 24, 2013 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Bo, the Obama family dog, plays in the snow in the Rose Garden of the White House, Jan. 24, 2013 (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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MoooOOOooorning – Happy Friday! And welcome back Nathkatun!

night everyone

A very, very, very big thank you again to Henry VIII (!) for visiting us today (here) – thrilled to have you here, Mr Healy!

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Bye bye Muppets, hello the Living Dead…..

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Worried about Huntsman?

Nate Silver: …. polling worse than Mr. Gingrich was Mr. Huntsman. About half of the views Republicans expressed about Mr. Huntsman were negative, producing an Unacceptably Index of 51 percent.

Thank you Suzanne

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See you tomorrow 😉

the muppet show just lost a muppet

Huckabee has announced he isn’t running.

You know, the only thing these people are running for now is the hills.

(If God told him not to run, then my faith is renewed!)

Jon Huntsman: “It is unfortunate that we will not have his voice – or his bass guitar – in the presidential debate, as our party would have benefited from his involvement.”

😕

Obama/Biden 2012 😉

‘beyond parody’

Steve Benen: … This week, Mike Huckabee launched a new educational company called Learn Our History. As the Fox News personality sees it, mean liberals have destroyed history lessons, and he intends to put things right: “America’s youth aren’t excited about our past because they’re being taught history in a way that minimizes what has made America a beacon of hope around the world for over 200 years.”

….Those who buy Learn Our History’s shameless, nationalistic propaganda lessons will finally get “historically accurate and unbiased education.”

And what, pray tell, does “historically accurate and unbiased education” look like? Apparently, it looks like this.

(If you have a weak stomach, do not click play)

As one wise observer put it, “Zombie Reagan saved America from the blacks, the Disco, the terrorists, the Russians, and maybe in a future chapter the alien invasion.”

It’s true. Knife-wielding black people wearing disco t-shirts were apparently a real problem, right up until January 1981…..

See full post here

funniest. headline. ever.

Oliverwillis.com

‘has-beens, nobodies and deadbeats’

Richard Adams (The UK Guardian): …. Compared with the same stage in 2007, when the presidential primary season was running at full steam, 2011 is a flat tire. But it’s not just the lack of activity – the Republican candidates being touted are a collection of has-beens, nobodies and deadbeats, several of them barely household names in their own households. And those are the most electable ones.

Which is strange because the Republican party has just enjoyed an election triumph in the 2010 midterm elections that would suggest a party surging towards the 2012 contest. Instead, it’s more like the Simpsons parody of the football world cup finals: “This match will determine once and for all which nation is the greatest on earth – Mexico or Portugal!”

So far, the 2012 primaries will determine once and for all who is the greatest Republican presidential candidate: Tim Pawlenty or Mitch Daniels?

Mitch who? Exactly. This Republican crop of candidates is a veritable “Who’s that?” of American politics.

Despite all that, talking to intelligent Republicans finds them brimming with enthusiasm for their party’s candidates. It’s a fantastic field, they insist – for 2016. Yes, they are very excited about the 2016 presidential elections, and reel off a list of top-notch candidates: Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Scott Walker, David Petraeus, Chris Christie, even Jeb Bush. Ask them about the 2012 candidates and they go quiet or start sighing….

…There’s the 2008 retreads, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. One has money, tons of baggage and zero charisma. The other has zero money, tons of baggage and folksy charm. There’s the retreaded retread, Newt Gingrich. There’s the no-hopers, Rick Santorum (defeated senator, swivel-eyed) and Michele Bachman (like Sarah Palin but without the gravitas). Ron Paul, anyone? And it’s not worth mentioning Donald Trump…..

Full article here

NY Daily News: Nineteen months is a millennium in politics, but today’s smart money says Barack Obama will be tough to beat in 2012 – if the economy continues to mend …it’s amazing how many Republican mandarins privately brood about their chances of unseating Obama only five months after voters decisively repudiated him in the November midterms. “We have a far better chance of taking back the Senate than taking back the White House,” a gloomy party strategist told the Daily News.

Last month, GOP bigwigs in town for the annual Gridiron Club media dinner reached a sobering consensus: The slate of Republican contenders for 2012 is unusually lame. The best of the least, ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is suspect with the Republican base. One prominent party thinker believes only ex-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has any chance of beating Obama – and rates Pawlenty’s prospects as weak. The pros know Tea Party darlings like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have Obama aides salivating.

…”Every lesson that needed to be learned from last November has been learned,” a top Obama counselor said.

Strategically, Democratic and GOP strategists alike calculate that African-American and Latino voters will stick with Obama regardless. Given the Hispanic population growth surge, that means millions more voters Obama didn’t have last time. A key Republican analyst also predicts the youth vote, which enthusiastically backed Obama in 2008 but stayed home last fall, will return in 2012. “He can’t win without kids, and he’ll bring them back out this time,” he said.

…”It’s advantage Obama,” said Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson. “Unless the economy gets worse and the Republicans put up a stronger person, he’s in pretty good shape.”

Article here

‘the dim-witted freak show’ (updated)

Joe Klein (Time): ….It is excruciating watching the Republican Party presidential candidates who, on a daily basis, pronounce some ignorant racist or irreligious twaddle…today’s example primo is Newt, who really needs to get back on his meds, worrying about his grandchildren:

“I have two grandchildren – Maggie is 11, Robert is 9,” Gingrich said at Cornerstone Church. “I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.”

There is genius in this: no other human had located the secular humanist wing of radical Islam before. And then there is Herman Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza who is pretending to run for President, proving that a black man can be as gutter-cheap bigoted as anyone. If elected, he would not appoint a Muslim to his cabinet or the federal bench because: “There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government.”

…This is my 10th presidential campaign, Lord help me. I have never before seen such a bunch of vile, desperate-to-please, shameless, embarrassing losers coagulated under a single party’s banner. They are the most compelling argument I’ve seen against American exceptionalism. … this is the dim-witted freak show the Republicans want to present in 2012…

Full article here

Here’s a reply from Steve Benen to Klein’s ‘plea’ for Mitch Daniels and Jeb Bush to run (see the link above, Klein mentions them at the end of his article):

“….where I part ways with Klein is his expectation that Daniels and Jeb Bush could somehow put things right. For one thing, when it comes to the major issues of the day, the substantive differences between these two and the Seven Dwarves (Romney, Pawlenty, Huckabee, Barbour, Gingrich, Santorum, and I suppose Bachmann) are quite narrow.

For another, Klein doesn’t explain how a sensible, self-respecting, qualified Republican is going to win primaries without also becoming some ridiculous caricature. Indeed, note that Klein made no mention of Jon Huntsman — who presumably would qualify as a reasonable GOP candidate unwilling to “behave like a public clown” — probably because no one seriously believes the party base will tolerate him.”

‘gop’s adult deficit disorder’

Boston Globe: The Republican Party has a serious problem. Or rather, a seriousness problem … Although the left sometimes chafes under President Obama’s measured and mild manner, grousing that he lacks the combativeness the political era requires, Obama understands something they don’t: Voters want a calm, reasonable adult, not a partisan warrior, in the Oval Office.

Obama takes a page from both Ronald Reagan, who perfected the role of national leader high-minded enough to rise above his detractors, and Bill Clinton, who projected the air of a reasonable man ruefully trying to reason with a horde of hyper-partisans who preferred combat to compromise. The president knows that he enhances his image by comporting himself that way. But mostly, that’s just Obama leaning into who he is.

And as for the men and women who would replace him? ….Mike Huckabee spent some time mucking about in that favorite quagmire of conservative kooks: the Obama-really-isn’t-one-of-us swamp. First, Huckabee transplanted Obama’s four out-of-country boyhood years from Indonesia to Kenya, maintaining that that (supposed) span of time in a former British colony explained the president’s (supposedly) anti-British outlook. Huckabee later portrayed it as an innocent mistake and said that in his new book he had “clearly said’’ that Obama “grew up’’ in Indonesia.

Two problems. The book actually doesn’t say that. And the section Huckabee cited traffics in equally egregious — and revealing — nonsense … the best one can say about Huckabee’s insidiousness is that it’s not as outright idiotic as Gingrich’s new book, in which the author asserts that Obama and his allies represent “as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.’’ But then, when it comes to howl-at-the-moon hysteria, Newt is tough to top.

…It has been a diverting spectacle, certainly. Unfortunately, it’s one that suggests part of the Grand Old Party is suffering from Adult Deficit Disorder.

Full terrific article here

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Thanks so much for the link to this article, Suzanne, absolutely loved it. 😉

‘no clear skies for most 2012 gop contenders’

Michael Scherer (Time): When news broke of Jon Huntsman’s serious consideration of a run for president last month, several conservative pundits, including the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin, dismissed the former Utah governor’s chances by pointing to his moderate record on global warming, which they predicted would play poorly among the GOP’s conservative base.

….But Huntsman is far from the only 2012 GOP contender who will have to explain past support for confronting climate change on the campaign trail. In point of fact, carbon regulation was not so verboten in the GOP just a few years ago. Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Newt Gingrich all have supported efforts to combat climate change…..

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Read the full article here – it’s terrific. It includes videos of potential GOP 2012 candidates comparing what they had to say in the past about tackling climate change, cap and trade, etc, to their latest positions.

Of course, if you’re not a climate change denier (or sceptic, at least), you won’t get any loot from the Koch brothers (see here and here)

the muppet show

Gallup

3% of Republicans have never heard of the Half-Termer from Alaska 😆 Aren’t they lucky?