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President Barack Obama and Jay Leno joke backstage before taping the Tonight Show (Pete Souza)

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San Francisco tonight – no sound until 8 seconds in 😳

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The First Lady in Detroit – photos from Anne Savage Photography via Eclectablog

Thanks Hopefruit 😉

Loved this one from Anne Savage:

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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.

Full post here

Thanks Marlz

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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).

Buy the book now!

timeline

Larger version of chart here

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Steve Benen:

1980: Ronald Reagan runs for president, promising a balanced budget

1981 – 1989: With support from congressional Republicans, Reagan runs enormous deficits, adds $2 trillion to the debt.

1993: Bill Clinton passes economic plan that lowers deficit, gets zero votes from congressional Republicans.

1998: U.S. deficit disappears for the first time in three decades. Debt clock is unplugged.

2000: George W. Bush runs for president, promising to maintain a balanced budget.

2001: CBO shows the United States is on track to pay off the entirety of its national debt within a decade.

2001 – 2009: With support from congressional Republicans, Bush runs enormous deficits, adds nearly $5 trillion to the debt.

2002: Dick Cheney declares, “Deficits don’t matter.” Congressional Republicans agree, approving tax cuts, two wars, and Medicare expansion without even trying to pay for them.

2009: Barack Obama inherits $1.3 trillion deficit from Bush; Republicans immediately condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.

2009: Congressional Democrats unveil several domestic policy initiatives …. which would lower the deficit. GOP opposes all of them, while continuing to push for deficit reduction.

September 2010: In Obama’s first fiscal year, the deficit shrinks by $122 billion. Republicans again condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.

October 2010: S&P endorses the nation’s AAA rating with a stable outlook….

November 2010: Republicans win a U.S. House majority, citing the need for fiscal responsibility.

December 2010: Congressional Republicans demand extension of Bush tax cuts ….. GOP continues to accuse Obama of fiscal irresponsibility.

March 2011: Congressional Republicans declare intention to hold full faith and credit of the United States hostage – a move without precedent in American history – until massive debt-reduction plan is approved.

July 2011: Obama offers Republicans a $4 trillion debt-reduction deal. GOP refuses, pushes debt-ceiling standoff until the last possible day, rattling international markets.

August 2011: S&P downgrades U.S. debt, citing GOP refusal to consider new revenues. Republicans rejoice and blame Obama for fiscal irresponsibility…..

Full post here

Tweeters? Tweet it! Please use the direct link to Steve Benen’s blog (here) rather than to mine – the more people who read this guy the better 😉

‘steeper pullout is raised as option for afghanistan’

NYT: President Obama’s national security team is contemplating troop reductions in Afghanistan that would be steeper than those discussed even a few weeks ago, with some officials arguing that such a change is justified by the rising cost of the war and the death of Osama bin Laden….

These new considerations, along with a desire to find new ways to press the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to get more of his forces to take the lead, are combining to create a counterweight to an approach favored by the departing secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates, and top military commanders in the field. They want gradual cuts that would keep American forces at a much higher combat strength well into next year, senior administration officials said.

…A sharp drawdown of troops is one of many options Mr. Obama is considering…. The decisions on force levels in Afghanistan could mirror how Mr. Obama handled the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Senior Pentagon officials noted that after Mr. Obama set a firm deadline for dropping to 50,000 troops in Iraq, he then let his commanders in Baghdad manage the specifics of which units to order home and when. The argument over where to set those “bookends” promises to be one of the most consequential and contentious of Mr. Obama’s presidency…

Full article here