Rise and Shine

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Today (all times Eastern):

2:0: President Obama signs the bipartisan student loans bill, cutting student loan interest rates

3:0: Holds a press conference

4:15: Meets with Secretary of State John Kerry

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Bloomberg: Is Obamacare Forcing You to Work Part-Time?

Here’s the next conservative argument against President Barack Obama’s health care law: It’s causing employers to shift full-time workers into part-time. Too bad it’s wrong…..

Read here

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10 job openings created by Obamacare. http://t.co/5Jn3mNGgmp

— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) August 9, 2013

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Greg Sargent: …. Republicans are caught in an Obamacare trap. They know proposing repeal while not offering a serious alternative is untenable. But when they do propose alternatives that would accomplish the popular parts of Obamacare, conservatives revolt, because they don’t want to sap the repeal-Obamacare drive of its energy and don’t want to legitimize an interventionist role for government. Which just highlights what Republicans are trying to obscure in the first place: the party is in the grip of an anti-Obamacare animus that has come unhinged from any normal policy considerations, and doesn’t envision a meaningfully constructive role for government in solving our health care problems.

Full post here

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Democrats win in 2014 by sticking to the big issues on which virtually everyone agrees with us. Stay out of the weeds.

— allanbrauer (@allanbrauer) August 8, 2013

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TPM: Poll: Hispanics Favor Democrats Over GOP By Big Margin

Hispanics in the United States, whether they were born in America or not, overwhelmingly favor the Democratic Party, according to new findings from Gallup released Thursday.

Fifty-seven percent of Hispanic immigrants born outside the U.S. said they identify with or lean toward the Democrats, while only a quarter gave the edge to the GOP…

…. President Barack Obama claimed a strong approval rating among all three groups of Hispanics, with majorities in each giving him high marks.

More here

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Civil Rights Icon John Lewis Praises Edward Snowden? THEY LIE | The People’s View: http://t.co/XCVBga5nqT

— adept2u (@adept2u) August 8, 2013

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FROM THE BLOG STAFF: The Top 10 Most Inaccurate and Exaggerrated NSA Stories (So Far) http://t.co/cVjhLeGK15

— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) August 9, 2013

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NYT: House Majority Leader’s Quest to Soften G.O.P.’s Image Hits a Wall Within

Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, has been trying for months to remake the image of the Republican Party, from one of uncompromising conservatism to something kinder and gentler.

It isn’t working so well.

On Wednesday, Republican leaders abruptly shelved one of the centerpieces of Mr. Cantor’s “Making Life Work” agenda — a bill to extend insurance coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions — in the face of a conservative revolt. Last month, legislation to streamline worker retraining programs barely squeaked through. In May, Republican leaders will try again with legislation, pitched as family-friendly, to allow employers to offer comp time or “flex time” instead of overtime. But it has little prospect for Senate passage.

So it has gone. Items that Mr. Cantor had hoped would change the Republican Party’s look, if not its priorities, have been ignored, have been greeted with yawns or have only worsened Republican divisions.

More here

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President Obama will award the Medal of Freedom to openly gay black civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. http://t.co/900GnvzH6W

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 8, 2013

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Mediaite: …. actor Alec Baldwin is getting his own weekly show in MSNBC’s primetime lineup.

According to our source, the so far untitled show will air Fridays at 10 p.m. ET and will feature a large dose of Baldwin’s outspoken liberal politics.

More here

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US wholesale inventories dwindle in June on ongoing demand http://t.co/WcDWH6d0c9

— WBP Online (@WBPOnline) August 9, 2013

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TPM: I’m sure many of you got a kick over the mini-implosion of Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign yesterday, with his own campaign manager admitting that he thinks McConnell sucks and is only working for him to further the hopes of Rand Paul. It all ended up with this cringey-not-going-to-fix-the-damage picture of Mitch and his disser…

…. I’m coming around to the idea that Mitch McConnell could actually lose his reelection battle next year, through a mix of deep unpopularity, a tough and well financed primary challenger and a decent Democratic opponent. But …. McConnell’s problems at home make a government shutdown and a lot of other nonsense much more likely. Whether or not McConnell finally wins or loses is basically a secondary point. It’s what he’ll do trying to win from now until election day 2014…..

More here

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Steve Benen: Rand Paul’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week

It’s probably safe to say Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has had better weeks. Just over the last few weeks he started to lose his cool on NPR when asked about a neo-confederate he co-authored a book with; he was caught making ridiculous boasts about his record on minority rights; and he repeated a bizarre conspiracy theory about George Stephanopoulos that’s already been debunked.

And then, after all of this, the Kentucky Republican sat down for a chat with Businessweek’s Josh Green….

More here

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Steve Benen: Immigration reform’s odds improve – a little

It’s pretty easy to assume that fierce Republican opposition will doom comprehensive immigration reform. Indeed, for much of the summer, House GOP extremism on the issue has reinforced fears that the odds are poor.

But there’s been some gradual movement of late, and it’s given new hope to reform proponents.

More here

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Wow! Military to give same-sex couples up to 10 days to travel to a state where #gaymarriage is legal & get married. http://t.co/hYNVfwcpiP

— Jake Grovum (@jgrovum) August 9, 2013

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On this day…..

Aug. 9, 2011 – Pete Souza: “The President, in the process of saluting, participates in a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer of U.S. and Afghan personnel who died in Afghanistan a few days earlier. Many family members and friends of the special forces who died in this incident requested a copy of the photograph and later wrote me how much it meant to them.”

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MoooOOOooorning!

rise and shine

This video includes the Q&As with David Axelrod – it doesn’t start, for some reason, until about 23 minutes in (thanks Hopefruit)

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Morning everyone. Have to go out for a bit, but will catch up asap 😉

evening all

President Obama pets Bo after returning to the White House from an event at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Md., March 15 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Friday

10:30: PBO departs the White House en route Joint Base Andrews

12:40: Arrives Chicago

1:20: Delivers remarks at a campaign event

2:35: Attends a campaign event

4:00: Departs Chicago en route Atlanta, Georgia

5:30: Arrives Atlanta

6:35: Delivers remarks at a campaign event

8:25: Delivers remarks at a campaign event

9:20: Delivers remarks at a campaign event

10:55: Departs Atlanta, Ga., en route Joint Base Andrews

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Because you can never see it enough:

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….. greeting Sergeant First Class Leroy Petry

Official White House photos

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the road we’ve traveled

so, who’s tuning in tonight?

Friend –

You signed up to watch the premiere of the new documentary The Road We’ve Traveled, which will take you inside President Obama’s first term.

Tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, click this link to our YouTube page to start watching.

The President made some tough calls to bring our country back from the brink — and this film, directed by Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim, captures it perfectly.

Over the next few months, we’ve got to make sure as many people as possible see this film — because when they do, they’ll come away knowing just how much is riding on the outcome this November. This film is going to be a great way to get them involved now.

So click here tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time to get your first look.

Right after the film, senior strategist David Axelrod will be answering questions. You can submit yours on Twitter using this hashtag: #RoadTraveled.

Thanks,

Jeremy

Jeremy Bird
National Field Director
Obama for America

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rise and shine

Don’t forget, the full version of The Road We’ve Traveled is released tonight (8:0 ET) – sign up here (at OFA) to see it first

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Bloomberg: Claims for jobless benefits dropped last week in the U.S., matching the lowest level in four years, more evidence the labor market is improving.

Applications for unemployment insurance payments fell by 14,000 to 351,000 in the week ended March 10, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 357,000….

Companies have slowed the pace of firings and are expanding their workforces as sales and confidence improve and the threat of financial contagion from a European default diminishes. A Labor Department report last week showed job growth in February capped the best six months since 2006.

More here

See Steve Benen here on the jobs’ news

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CNN: More veterans are coming back from war and getting back to work in the civilian job force, thanks to efforts by both employers and the government, as well as the improving economy.

The jobless rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans has fallen to 7.6%, well below the overall U.S. unemployment rate of 8.3%, and nearly five percentage points below the 12.5% rate for veterans a year ago.

More here

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White House live

11:0 AM: Vice President Biden speaks at a campaign event in Toledo, Ohio (CNN live streaming)

12:30: Jay Carney briefs the press

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Charles Blow (NYT): The Republican Party has a big problem. Huge!

Their likely nominee isn’t much liked by the base of the party. Yet even as he loses primaries in the most conservative parts of the country, he continues to stack up delegates. He is Mitt of the Indomitable Math…. but according to some new polls, the primary season is taking a devastating toll on Romney and the Republican brand as a whole, fueling something of a surge for the president.

The findings of a Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday show that President Obama has steadily increased his lead over Mitt Romney in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, which now stands at a whopping 12 points, 54 percent to 42 percent. These results echoed a Reuters/Ipsos poll released earlier this week that showed Obama leading Romney by 11 points, 52 percent to 41 percent. As Reuters pointed out, that is “nearly double the margin from February.”

More here

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AFP: Vice President Joe Biden will Thursday seek to set the contours of the 2012 general election, lauding President Barack Obama as a man with a “spine of steel” who fights for the middle class.

Biden will deliver the first of a series of speeches in the swing state of Ohio …. “Ours is a philosophy that values the role of workers in the success of a business, and values the middle class in the success of the economy,” Biden will say, according to excerpts of his speech released by the campaign.

“Stated simply, we’re about promoting the private sector. (Republicans) are about protecting the privileged sector. We’re a fair shot, and a fair shake. They’re about no rules, no risk. And no accountability”…

Biden will also praise Obama for rescuing the US auto industry with an unpopular $80 billion bailout opposed by many Republicans, but which has nursed the iconic sector back to health. “He said, ‘we are not going to give up on a million jobs, and the iconic industry America invented. Not without a fight’.”

“The President and I have a fundamental commitment to dealing the middle class back in to the American economy. And ultimately that’s what this election is all about. It’s about a choice. A system that trusts the workers on the line, instead of just listening to the folks in the suites. That’s a stark choice. To my mind it isn’t a choice at all.”

More here

11:0 AM: Vice President Biden speaks at a campaign event in Toledo, Ohio (CNN live streaming)

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TPM

Thanks Desertflower

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Michael Tomasky on Mitt’s Months of Misery in the Primaries to Come. How long can this go on? Pretty darn long. Take a look at the calendar …. He’ll have lots of time to fix things up, if he is the nominee. But think back about how your own view of Mitt Romney has changed in the last six months. Half a year ago, I’d say most people thought: successful, smooth, maybe a little too smooth, but formidable. Now? He’s a punch line. And a punching bag. And the calendar shows that he’s going to continue to be both for a while yet.

Full post here

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Greg Sargent: You constantly hear top Democrats and neutral commentators warning that Mitt Romney’s embrace of extreme positions on immigration have effectively dashed his hopes of making inroads among Latinos in the general election …. this sentiment is now being privately voiced to the Romney campaign by top Republicans, who worry his lurches to the right are undoing years of GOP outreach to a consistuency whose share of the vote will only grow in the years ahead.

The worry has been prompted by a recent poll showing only 14 percent of Latinos support Romney over Barack Obama…

More here

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President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama talk with Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom and Mrs. Samantha Cameron on the Truman Balcony of the White House, March 14, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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See the rest of the sequence at Messynessychic, it’s flippin’ hilarious

Thanks Loriah

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Thanks Dotster

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Cagle

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Morning everyone 😉

rise and shine

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10:50: PBO meets with the 2012 Intel Science Talent Search finalists.

11:10: PBO will deliver a statement in the Rose Garden about a new effort to enforce U.S. trade rights with China.

1:00: Jay Carney briefs the press.

4:15: Michelle Obama hosts a mini-Olympics competition in celebration of the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

4:20: PBO and Prime Minister Cameron leave the W.H. for Andrews Air Force Base.

4:35: PBO and Cameron depart for Dayton, Ohio.

5:55: PBO and Cameron attend an NCAA Tournament game (live on truTV)

9:00: PBO and Cameron depart Ohio for D.C.

10:35: PBO and Cameron arrive back at the White House.

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Sign up here to get a link to the livestream of the film which will be shown on Thursday

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Bloomberg: The U.S. public’s economic outlook is turning from fear to hope with the presidential election campaign under way. More than twice as many Americans view the economy’s prospects as brightening as see them darkening, a reversal from nine months ago, when more people expected deterioration ahead, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted March 8-11.

“It’s starting to get better,” says survey respondent Kelsey Simeon ….. “Strip malls that were empty are starting to fill up. Everyone’s going out to eat more. People are spending more money on non-necessities…. ”

More Americans now say they are personally better off since President Barack Obama took office than worse off, the first favorable reading for the president on that question since Bloomberg began asking in December 2010.

More here

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TPM

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Washington Post: How much does the president have to do with the price of gasoline?

A lot, say American voters. According to oil experts and economists, not so much – at least in the short term.

Today’s oil prices are the product of years and decades of exploration, automobile design and ingrained consumer habits combined with political events in places such as Sudan and Libya, anxiety about possible conflict with Iran, and the energy aftershocks of last year’s earthquake in Japan.

“This notion that a politician can wave a magic wand and impact the 90-million-barrel-a-day global oil market is preposterous,” said Paul Bledsoe, strategic adviser to the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former Clinton administration official.

More here

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See the full infographic here

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Link (Thanks Meta)

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Steve Benen: Mitt Romney called in to a popular sports talk show in Alabama yesterday, a day ahead of the state’s Republican presidential primary. As interviews go, this seemed like a fairly easy one…. it’s not like Romney would go on the show, repeat his mistake from two weeks ago, and talk about being friends with millionaire team owners again, right? Wrong:

At one point, Mr. Finebaum asked Mr. Romney, as a New England Patriots fan, where he thought Peyton Manning should go as a free agent, and the candidate highlighted his friendship with football team owners – echoing comments in which he explained his affinity for Nascar by noting he knew the owners of Nascar teams.

“I’m surprised to hear that Denver’s thinking about him,” Mr. Romney said. “I don’t want him in our neck of the woods, let’s put it that way. I’ve got a lot of good friends, the owner of the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets, both owners are friends of mine,” he added. “But let’s keep him away from New England.”

Romney really is approaching self-parody here….

More here

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Cagle

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Morning everyone 😉

‘tough decisions’

rise and shine

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Robert Shrum: ….. unrequited love has transformed Romney’s progress toward the Tampa convention into a rough and rutted road, steadily weakening him for the contest with President Obama, and almost certainly strengthening Democratic chances not just in 2012, but in 2016.

….. Romney is a recurringly hard sell in a political party that has morphed, as one GOP strategist privately puts it, into a sectarian religious party….. The long contest, the constant pandering, and his own tendency to sound like a political incarnation of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous have taken their toll on Romney as a general election candidate … As the economy improves, Romney’s rationale wanes: Why do we need an out-of-touch, unlikeable, asset-stripping ex-CEO to secure a recovery that’s already underway?

Full article here

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TampaBay.com: Vice President Joe Biden slipped into the bay area for a fundraiser Wednesday, where he cheered for the spirited Republican presidential primary to continue for as long as possible. “God love them, as my mother would say. I hope they have another 20 debates,” Biden told more than 200 people gathered at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort in downtown St. Petersburg.

“…. I have never seen a time in my lifetime when Republicans haven’t tried to hide the ball, to use a sports metaphor – when they said they were ‘compassionate conservatives. We care about health care. We must preserve Medicare,’ etc. They’re not hiding the ball any more at all, guys. God bless them, they’re saying exactly what they believe. This is going to be the starkest choice the American public is going to make in a long, long time.”

….. It may be one of the few times where a candidate walked into a fundraiser wearing one tie and left wearing another. In the $1,000 photo line, one man admired Biden’s red tie. The VP returned the compliment about the man’s purple tie and suggested they trade. They did.

….. Democrats have long complained they can’t distill their campaign theme to a simple bumper sticker phrase. Biden offered one for 2012: “Osama Bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive.”

More here

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Cagle

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Morning everyone 😉

night all

Thanks for a great day everyone, see you tomorrow 😉

And tomorrow …. the third anniversary: