Rise and Shine

This video is dedicated to Alex Okrent, the staffer in President Obama’s campaign office who died yesterday. May he rest in peace

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You can see President Obama’s speeches in Virginia yesterday on C-Span

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Bloomberg: President Barack Obama has gained an advantage over Republican Mitt Romney in a Pew Research Center Poll showing public confidence in either one’s handling of the economy shifting toward the president in the past month.

Obama leads Romney by 50 percent to 43 percent among registered voters surveyed, Pew reports, with the Republican Party’s presumed presidential nominee losing 3 percentage points of support since its previous poll in early June.

Public opinion on which candidate would do a better job of improving economic conditions has shifted from an advantage for Romney in Pew’s June survey to support for Obama in the latest survey of 2,373 registered voters conducted June 28-July 9.

More here

Thanks amk

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Charles Blow: Mitt Romney’s stories just don’t jibe.

First, there is the issue of when he left Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he founded.

….Second is the issue of Romney’s tax returns.

…The narrative is starting to take hold that he is dishonest, devious and irreconcilably different. These are simple, deadly character flaws in a candidate because they’re antithetical to the American ideal of the presidency.

… My mother used to say: “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said.” The simple truth makes sense, stands on its own and can be proved. Nine times out of 10, things that require constant clarification and endless appending aren’t the simple truth.

That’s mother’s wit, and everyone has a mother.

Full article here

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Charles Pierce: As entertaining as all the When-Did-Willard-Leave-Bain-And-How-Thoroughly-Did-He-Leave-It? whoop-de-doo is, doesn’t fighting over the subject imply that you’re accepting the notion that Bain only went all predatory and pirate-ish as a result of Thoroughly Moral Mitt’s departure? And isn’t that really the wrong question to be asking, and doesn’t that really make you sort of a sap? Discuss.

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Cagle

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Today:

The President will hold campaign rallies in Glen Allen (Richmond) and Centreville (Northern VA.).

The rally at Centreville High School starts at 4 p.m. ET – not sure yet about the Glen Allen speech.

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Morning everyone 😉

west wing week: ‘mutual disposition’ (july 29, 2011)

once a hero, always a hero

JS: Jeff Skiles, the co-pilot in the famous “Miracle on the Hudson” landing in January 2009, has been involved in the budget protests that engulfed Madison in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, he took another big step, choosing to withdraw what he said was hundreds of thousands of  dollars of his own money from M&I Bank to protest the actions of bank executives there who backed Gov. Scott Walker.

Skiles said Wednesday that he put the money in other financial institutions, and did not technically close his M&I accounts.

“They have supported Gov. Walker and I wanted to send a message to them,” Skiles said.

Skiles, on a leave of absence from his U.S. Airways job, said he had no plans to run for public office. He is the highest-profile person who has acted to boycott certain businesses for their support of Walker’s bill that would eliminate most collective bargaining for public-sector unions. The bill is set to become law on March 25.

More here

delivered

President Barack Obama exits from Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House. The President was returning from an overnight trip where he attended fundraisers for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and US Senate candidate Robin Carnahan. July 2010.