Coming Up: President Obama in West Palm Beach (4:50 ET)

Melbourne, Florida, Sept 9

4:50: President Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at West Palm Beach County Convention Center

C-Span * CNN * CBS 1 * CBS 2

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He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother!

President Barack Obama holds on as he is hugged and picked up by Scott Van Duzer at Big Apple Pizza and Pasta Italian Restaurant in Fort Pierce, Florida, September 9

afternoon all

Charles Pierce: …. Emboldened by enablers, the bishops have expanded their demands for exemptions from simply Catholic institutions to every business in America. There’s a reason for this …. they’ve been sitting back on their ermined duffs, believing that they were done so very wrong in the investigation of their crimes, and nursing the mother of all grudges, for over a decade. Now they’ve decided to strike back for the power they’ve lost. Women’s health is the issue they’ve chosen, because, in their little unindicted world, women don’t count, and never have….

There were a couple of ways all of this could have been avoided. One … would have been to toss a whole lot of bishops in jail for conspiracy to obstruct justice, enough of them so their power to influence the secular law was destroyed forever. They needed to be humbled, unmercifully, until the hubris was wrung out of every damn one of them. Now, a woman working a low-income service industry job under the supervision of a Catholic boss will have her access to essential health-care truncated by a discredited encyclical to which no Catholic has paid any heed since the administration of Lyndon Johnson. These bastards needed to be broken, publicly, and into a thousand pieces that were scattered to the winds. Instead, they are “voices of conscience” again. It is to weep.

Full post here

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Greg Sargent (Washington Post): Is media getting politics of contraception all wrong?

Since the controversy over the White House’s new contraception policy broke, it’s been widely assumed that the battle is terrible politics for Obama, because it will cost him among Catholic swing voters.

But some polling from August suggests a majority of Americans supports the White House position – and that the opposition to the provision from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops makes no difference to them. Even a majority of Catholic respondents said the same.

….. The White House very well may buckle in this fight. But these numbers do suggest at least the possibility that leading commentators have been far too quick to declare this a certain political loser.

Full post here

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You can sign the petition here

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Greg Sargent: Since details of the big foreclosure settlement began leaking out, liberals have been watching to see how New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman would react, as a sign of whether the deal is a giveaway to big banks – or whether it contains the promise of real accountability.

In an interview with me just now, Schneiderman – who has gained a national liberal profile for his insistence on true accountability for financial institutions – conceded the settlement announced today was “small” in financial terms, given the struggles of underwater homeowners and people who lost their homes.

But he insisted that time will show that today’s settlement was a win – that it secured a framework that will ultimately result in a true accounting of the role big banks played in sparking the economic meltdown…..

More here

Attorney General Eric holder listens as President Obama speaks about a mortgage settlement in the Eisenhower Executive Office building

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President Obama arrives to deliver remarks on the No Child Left Behind law in the East Room of the White House

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Jonathan Bernstein (Washington Post): Today’s economic news is that new claims for unemployment benefits have fallen again, with the four-week average now at the lowest point since spring 2008. That’s not all; the stock market is also at its highest point since spring 2008, and Gallup’s economic confidence numbers are also approaching post-recession highs.

It’s no coincidence that the run of good economic news – and employment is only a part of that – has been accompanied by a climb by Barack Obama in the polls. Indeed, the Pollster average now has Obama with an average 5.5 point lead over Romney.

….. It’s certainly possible that the new economic momentum will, again, dissipate. But the signs are mounting that people are being a bit too pessimistic. And if so, there’s a chance that Democrats and the president could be about to receive a whole lot of unexpected good news indeed.

Full post here

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Steve Benen: How many counties did Romney win in Missouri’s doesn’t-really-count primary this week? Zero:

TPM

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President Obama and Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti meet in the Oval Office, February 9

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First lady Michelle Obama greets U.S. Air Force personnel in the dining facility at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville

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see you tomorrow ;-)

“all i’ve got to offer is a last name that ends in a vowel”

President Obama on stage with Rep. Nancy Pelosi after delivering remarks at the National Italian American Foundation Gala in Washington. Also on stage is television journalist Maria Bartiromo

rise and shine

BBC

Some news agencies (eg Reuters) are reporting that he has died – but there is no confirmation yet.

Update: He’s dead.

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President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama talk with staff while ordering pizza at Anna’s Pizza and Italian Kitchen in Hampton, Va., Oct. 19, 2011. The President and Mrs. Obama had lunch with four veterans during the stop, a part of the President’s three-day American Jobs Act bus tour. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Love this:

Thanks Meta – original video here

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Woot! Thanks Meta 😉

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From yesterday:

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Poor Mitt …. if this is what his GOP buddies are doing to him, just wait for the 2012 campaign 😉

More here from Steve Benen on Romney v Perry

The pulled Romney ad:

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A gazillion thank yous to everyone who has helped the Drive for Five (Thousand) – my eyes nearly popped out when I saw the figure this morning:

You’re a bunch of gems 😉

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Tim McCarver, the Fox Sports guy, will probably be hired soon by Romney as an economic advisor – he’s, eh, really good with numbers:

SportsGrid

lunch guests

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have lunch with veterans at Annapolis’s Pizza and Italian Kitchen in Hampton, Va

berlusconi …. bonkers

I have only two words of Italian – Paolo Maldini – so I have no clue what’s been said in this video. 😳

But read below, and watch the ‘WTF’ body language of the President!

Reuters: Silvio Berlusconi’s latest international gaffe, when he complained to a bemused President Barack Obama about his problems with magistrates, was met with mockery, embarrassment and scorn at home on Friday.

Obama looked baffled when television cameras picked up the Italian prime minister buttonholing him at a Group of Eight meeting in France and treating him to one of his trade mark tirades about magistrates who have hauled him into court for four concurrent trials.

Microphones picked up Berlusconi telling Obama during a pause in the G8 meeting: “We have presented a justice reform that is fundamental to us. In Italy we have almost a dictatorship of leftist judges.”

“The prime minister has clearly lost his head,” said left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper in a front page editorial.

Pierluigi Bersani, leader of the largest opposition party, quipped that Berlusconi was probably asking Obama for NATO military action against the judges…..

(Berlusconi, 74, is currently on trial for having sex with an underage prostitute)