Rise and Shine

President Obama joins in singing “Sweet Home Chicago” during the “In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues” concert in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 21, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Today (all times Eastern):

10:0: President Obama meets with the Dalai Lama

11:15: Attends the Democratic Governors Association Meeting, State Dining Room

1:15 Press briefing by Jay Carney

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Michael Tomasky: Obamacare Wins on Specifics

If Republicans can keep discussion around the Affordable Care Act vague, they’ll win in the midterms. The party of health care should collect stories of success and confront the party of no.

The big electoral question hanging over Democrats, of course, is what to do about Obamacare this fall. The pundits say: It’s death! The Democrats are gonna get killed. The Democratic consultants advise their candidates to be as mealy-mouthed as they can possibly get away with being and change the topic as quickly as possible.

The pundits might end up being right after all the votes are counted. But I say the quickest way for Democrats to guarantee that the pundits end up being right is to take their consultants’ advice and pussy-foot around the issue. Democrats who do that will be hoping they sound “reasonable,” but what they’ll really be sounding, and everyone will hear it, is timorous, callow, and totally without conviction. If Democrats are going to say they support the ACA at all—and most of them are going to have to—they might as well do it in a full-throttle and in-your-face way. And they can. The material is there if they just have the onions to use it.

More here

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More than $200 a month in savings: #ThisIsWhy the Affordable Care Act matters to Jake. http://t.co/Tcen2Ic1Dw pic.twitter.com/zDL7W0IaYw

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 20, 2014

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Steve Benen: A closer look at latest ACA ‘horror story’

It’s hard to miss the pattern: the right identifies an “Obamacare victim,” who receives a fair amount of attention and finds themselves featured in a misleading attack ad. Soon after, reality sets in – the ACA “horror story” draws closer scrutiny and the story turns out to be quite different than the one first presented to the public.

I tried to keep up with all of them for a while, but I’ve literally lost count of how many times this has happened.

The new one is an attack ad in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race, sponsored by the Koch-financed Americans for Prosperity, featuring a woman named Julia Boonstra….

More here

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Help tell the story of how the Affordable Care Act is working for Americans: http://t.co/bc8iVNTwLY

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 20, 2014

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Jonathan Bernstein: Catch of the Day: Republicans Fire, and Miss, at Obamacare

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones asks the obvious question about yet another overinflated or inaccurate Obamacare sob story from Republicans, in this case, from an advertisement produced by Americans for Prosperity:

So here’s my question: if this is the best AFP can do, does that mean that no one is truly being harmed by Obamacare? … If this is happening to a lot of people, finding a dozen or so of them shouldn’t be hard. But apparently it is. So maybe it’s not actually happening to very many people at all?

…. It’s not as if the occasional Obamacare horror story turns out to be exaggerated; every single one propagated by Republicans has fallen apart under scrutiny.

…. The lesson for the press? If you want a nice, easy, debunking story, focus on Republican claims about Obamacare.

Full post here

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FACT: Under President Obama, we’ve reduced the deficit by more than half. http://t.co/eG1xu4PuZa, pic.twitter.com/vCP36dKjkv

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 20, 2014

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Steve Benen: Obama moves away from chained CPI

Last spring, President Obama signaled to congressional Republicans that he was serious about a long-term debt-reduction deal. GOP leaders made it explicitly clear: if the White House really wants a deal, Obama will have to accept a change to how Social Security benefits are calculated – a policy called “chained CPI,” in reference to the Consumer Price Index.

To the severe disappointment of his progressive allies and Democratic base, the president agreed, including chained CPI in his budget as a demonstration of his commitment…

In theory, this was poised to be a breakthrough moment for a bipartisan debt-reduction agreement. But in practice, the president’s effort was for naught …. A year later, the president has decided there’s no point in offering Republicans what they want if they’re not prepared to take “yes” for an answer – Obama’s new budget plan drops chained CPI.

More here

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John Boehner: “I’d commit suicide before I vote on a clean minimum-wage bill.” No, really: http://t.co/xF8JGMOUie

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) February 21, 2014

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THEY’RE LISTENING: We’re in talks with Facebook to #EndFacebookGunShows for good. Keep up the good work!

— Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) February 21, 2014

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I’m working on a Buzzfeed list of the top 50 states in no particular order.

— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) February 20, 2014

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On This Day:

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama cheer during their daughter Sasha Obama’s basketball game, Feb. 21, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama smile as they walk through the crowd at the Governors Ball in the State Dining Room of the White House, Feb. 21, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Pete Souza: “The President and First Lady were dancing along to the music of the Harry Connick, Jr., Big Band at the Governors Ball. Mrs. Obama turned towards me and, for one split second, looked right at me. Usually I strive to capture moments when the subjects are unaware of the camera. But this an exception where I actually liked that she was looking at me.” Feb. 21, 2010

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama applaud the performance of Harry Connick Jr. and the Big Band during the Governors Ball in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 21, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama gestures during a meeting in the Oval Office, Feb. 21, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama reads a document in the Oval Office, Feb. 21, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama and VP Biden following remarks on the extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance, Feb 21 2012

Mick Jagger performs “I Can’t Turn You Loose” during the “In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues” concert in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 21, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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MoooOOOooorning everyone, I ran out of news-gathering time again, will catch up later. Happy Friday!

Michelle

Fredericksburg, September 13 (Han Nguyen for Obama for America)

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Thank you Rita!

rise and shine (and heads up)

White House live

CNN live streaming

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James Fallows (The Atlantic): … but then he gets a chance to sing at the White House tonight, doing Sweet Home Chicago with Mick Jagger and also B.B. King?? Jeesh, talk about being the most powerful man in the world.

…. The guy does have a charm that is hard to imagine the Santorums or Romneys ever matching ….  for extra enjoyment check out the shots of White House chief of staff Jacob Lew bopping in the background. A real hep cat, for sure!

More here

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AP: A surging Rick Santorum is running even with Mitt Romney atop the Republican presidential field, but neither candidate is faring well against President Barack Obama eight months before Americans vote, a new survey shows.

Obama tops 50 percent support when matched against each of the four GOP candidates and holds a significant lead over each of them, according to the Associated Press-GfK poll….

….. Obama holds an 8-point lead over Romney, 9 points over Santorum and 10 points over Gingrich or Paul…. Notably, the survey showed the president dominating among independents, a group central to Obama’s 2008 victory, whose support for him had faltered in recent months. According to the poll, 6 in 10 independents would choose Obama over any of the Republicans.

More here

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MSNBC

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Marquette: President Barack Obama leads each of his Republican rivals in Wisconsin, according to the new Marquette Law School Poll. Obama leads former Senator Rick Santorum 51 percent to 40 percent and leads former governor Mitt Romney by 53 percent to 38 percent. In January, Obama’s lead over Romney was 48 percent to 40 percent. The president holds a 52 percent to 36 percent lead over Rep. Ron Paul and a 56 percent to 33 percent margin over former Speaker Newt Gingrich.

More here

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Esquire

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Charles Pierce: It should be A Very Special Episode, this Wednesday night’s season finale of the 1,329,465,771.5 Republican debates. They should invite the whole cast back, all the people who left the show for their own spinoffs, the way they brought Rhoda and Phyllis back when Mary Richards got fired at WJM. Look, here’s Herman Cain, and there’s Michele Bachmann, and there’s Rick Perry, stumbling and falling into the potato salad. And there’s the formerly invisible Jon Huntsman. Who knew he was so tall?

More here

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The Week

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Chris Matthews video here, Ed Schultz here

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TPM

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Steve Benen: Last week, the House Oversight Committee, led by Chairman Darrell Issa, held a one-sided hearing on contraception access, featuring an opening panel of five conservative men – and no one else. Democrats on the committee had invited a witness, Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, but Issa refused to allow her to participate.

House Dems aren’t taking “no” for an answer …. Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday that a Democratic panel will meet this week to hear testimony from just one witness: Sandra Fluke….

…. There was, however, an unexpected twist yesterday afternoon … the Republican-controlled Committee on House Administration has refused to allow the hearing to be televised ….. what is it, exactly, about Fluke’s perspective that has Republicans so concerned? The law student wants to share the story of a classmate who lost an ovary due to an ailment that could have been treated with birth control.

Full post here

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Morning everyone 😉

ah hey, he sang again: sweet home chicago!

afternoon all

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)

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Text of the President’s remarks here

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.

More here

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The Week

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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.

More here

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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.

More here

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TPM

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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.

More here

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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….

More here

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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.

More here

home (updated)

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama return to the White House after a visit to Fort Bragg

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

eye to eye

President Barack Obama talks with children during a tour of the Lab School’s early childhood education classrooms at Eastfield College in Mesquite, Texas, Oct. 4, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

more souza/appleton genius

President Obama holds a baby as he arrives for lunch at the Old Market Deli in Cannon Falls, Minn., during a three-day bus tour in the Midwest, Aug. 15 (Pete Souza)

President Obama greets children from the Valleyland Kids summer program outside a school in Chatfield, Minn., Aug. 15. (Pete Souza)

President Obama greets people outside the Old Market Deli in Cannon Falls, Minn. Aug. 15 (Samantha Appleton)

President Obama waves to people along a road in Harmony, Minn., Aug. 15 (Pete Souza)

President Obama greets people at Nancy’s restaurant in Oak Bluffs, Mass., Aug. 21 (Pete Souza)

More here

vote ian dress (in 2042)

Ian Dress, 8, holds a sign separating himself from protesters while waiting for President Barack Obama to pass on his way to the Rural Economic Forum at the Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta, Iowa, Aug. 16

Thank you LOL 😉

And don’t forget to vote for Amber in 2050:

“Does Daddy make you watch Fox News?”

😯

No, Amber’s dad looks like he has a brain.

thonline