Worth Clicking: Hillary Clinton's $100 Million-a-Month Apology to Pakistan
July 05, 2012
Andrew Rosenthal says the debate over whether the individual health insurance mandate is a "penalty" or "tax" reminds him of the hilarious
Saturday Night Live skit in which Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner argue over whether a new product is a floor wax or a dessert topping.
Chevy Chase intervenes to point out that it's a floor wax AND a dessert topping.
See more...
"Lemon. Wet. Good."
-- Mitt Romney, quoted by
ABC News, when asked how a glass of lemonade tasted.
"More than 758,000 registered voters in Pennsylvania do not have photo identification cards from the state Transportation Department, putting their voting rights at risk in the November election," the
Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
The figures represent 9.2% of the state's 8.2 million voters.
A week after Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) announced he was taking a leave of absence, his office released a statement saying his condition is "more serious than initially believed" and he is being treated in an "in-patient facility," the
Chicago Tribune reports.
The statement said "recently we have been made aware that he has grappled with certain physical and emotional ailments privately for a long period of time. According to the preliminary diagnosis from his doctors, Congressman
Jackson will need to receive extended in-patient treatment as well as
continuing medical treatment thereafter."
Dan Balz looks at Mitt Romney's "remarkable retraction" in which he
now argues that the individual health care mandate was a tax.
"When the candidate disagrees with his chief spokesman, it's clear who will prevail. And maybe Romney believes he has moved the debate to the place it should be, however contorted it all looked. But the sausage-making by the Romney campaign on an issue of such fundamental importance brought unwelcome attention, including a
savage editorial in Thursday's
Wall Street Journal..."
"Romney has tried to talk his way past his health-care dilemma for more than a year. Faced with the choice between calling his support for an Obama-like health-care plan in Massachusetts a mistake or sticking with it while trying to draw distinctions between the two, Romney chose the second option. Calling it a mistake would have opened him up to a new charge of flip-flopping for political convenience."
A new
Economist/YouGov poll finds Americans continue to have a slightly more favorable opinion of President Obama than Mitt Romney.
Overall, 50% have a favorable opinion of Obama to 44% unfavorable, For Romney, it is 41% to 49%.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) "are set today to shift the central focus of their family's long libertarian crusade to a new cause: Internet Freedom," according to
BuzzFeed.
The two lawmakers "will throw their weight behind a new online manifesto set to be released today by the Paul-founded Campaign for Liberty. The new push... will in some ways displace what has been their movement's long-running top priority, shutting down the Federal Reserve Bank. The move is an attempt to stake a libertarian claim to a central public issue of the next decade, and to move from the esoteric terrain of high finance to the everyday world of cable modems and Facebook."
William Kristol is the latest conservative to press the panic button on Mitt Romney's campaign.
"Remember Michael Dukakis (1988) and John Kerry (2004)? It's possible to
lose a winnable presidential election to a vulnerable incumbent in the
White House... Adopting a prevent defense when it's only the second quarter and you're not even ahead is dubious enough as a strategy. But his campaign's monomaniacal belief that it's about the economy and only the economy, and that they need to keep telling us stupid voters that it's only about the economy, has gone from being an annoying tick to a dangerous self-delusion..."
"The Romney campaign will answer that they're imitating Bill Clinton in 1992, who famously focused on 'the economy, stupid.' But Bill Clinton was a full spectrum presidential candidate, with detailed policy proposals on welfare reform, health care, education, and foreign policy. He also made real efforts to convince the voters he was different from the losing Democratic candidates who preceded him..."
New York state Sen. Marty Golden (R) canceled an event for women to learn "posture, deportment and the feminine presence,"
NBC New York reports.
Golden sent out a mailing advertising the July 24 etiquette event noting women would be taught to "sit, stand and walk like a model" but canceled the event "after critics said he was out of touch with the lives of working women."
A new
Pew Research survey finds most Americans say the presidential campaign already has been too long and dull and 53% say it has been too negative. At the same time, an overwhelming majority - 79% - views the presidential campaign as important.
"Republicans and Democrats differ about whether the campaign is dull or interesting: 60% of Republicans describe the campaign as dull, compared with 46% of Democrats. There has been a sharp rise in the percentage of Republicans saying the campaign is dull since late March, before Mitt Romney effectively wrapped up the GOP nomination."
NBC News: "Overall, since the general election contest began in the spring, the campaigns and the outside groups have spent nearly $200 million on ads, with Obama and his supporters outspending Team Romney, $110 million to $85 million."
The
Atlantic Wire has the photos.
A senior official tells the
Toledo Blade the Obama Administration "will file an unfair trade complaint today against China's new duties on some American-made cars and sport utility vehicles, including the Toledo-made Jeep Wrangler."
"The enforcement action ties in with the President's campaign message that his administration went to bat for workers in the auto industry in early 2009 to save as many as 1 million auto and auto-parts jobs that could have been lost in bankruptcy liquidation of the two companies."
The action comes as Obama begins a campaign bus tour in Ohio.
First Read: "Perhaps no one is looking forward more to tomorrow's jobs report than Romney -- as simply a way to change the subject. If you think about it, the past three weeks or so have been dominated by issues other than the economy and not-so-coincidentally, it coincides with Romney's roughest poll patch of the general since the primaries. The president's immigration announcement. The Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's immigration law. And the Supreme Court's decision on health care. All of these issues have put Romney on the defensive, and all of them have exposed some of his flaws as a candidate. Tomorrow has the potential to get him back on the subject he wants this election to be about: the economy."
The
Wall Street Journal editorial page hits Mitt Romney for not offering a plan for the economy and "squandering an historic opportunity."
"The Romney campaign thinks it can play it safe and coast to the White House by saying the economy stinks and it's Mr. Obama's fault. We're on its email list and the main daily message from the campaign is that 'Obama isn't working.' Thanks, guys, but Americans already know that. What they want to hear from the challenger is some understanding of why the President's policies aren't working and how Mr. Romney's policies will do better."
"Meanwhile, the Obama campaign is assailing Mr. Romney as an
out-of-touch rich man, and the rich man obliged by vacationing this week
at his lake-side home with a jet-ski cameo. Team Obama is pounding him
for Bain Capital, and until a recent ad in Ohio the Romney campaign has
been slow to respond. Team Obama is now opening up a new assault on Mr. Romney as a job
outsourcer with foreign bank accounts, and if the Boston boys let that
one go unanswered, they ought to be fired for malpractice."
Ann Romney tells
CBS News she thinks Mitt Romney could pick a female running mate.
Said Mrs. Romney: "We've been looking at that. And I'd love that option as well. There are a lot of people that Mitt is considering right now."
Rep. Thad McCotter (R-MI), who was effectively ousted from Congress when he couldn't get enough valid signatures for the primary ballot, has turned to another aspiration: writing a TV show.
The
Detroit News obtained a copy of the script "from a former staffer who offered it as evidence of what the five-term congressman was pitching while in elected office and the tawdry humor unbecoming of a public official who had become disinterested in serving the 11th Congressional District."
The show has McCotter "hosting a crude variety show cast with characters bearing the
nicknames of his congressional staffers and his brother. They take pot
shots about McCotter's ill-fated bid for the White House while spewing
banter about drinking, sex, race, flatulence, puking and women's
anatomy."
McCotter said the work "was unfinished and was given to a reporter without his permission" but was "a cathartic creative outlet that helped him through the humiliation of the presidential campaign flop."
Peña Nieto's win in Mexico's presidential election was tainted by "the heavy hand and dirty tricks associated with his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for seven decades until 2000," the
Washington Post reports.
"PRI activists allegedly handed out prepaid gift cards from the grocery chain Soriana to voters in some districts, according to amateur videos broadcast Wednesday on Mexican television networks and reports in Mexican media. The alleged card recipients mobbed at least one store on the outskirts of Mexico City in a panic after rumors spread that the cards would be invalidated... each card was worth 100 pesos, about $7.50."
Said one election watchdog: "It was perhaps the biggest operation of vote-buying and coercion in the country's history."
July 04, 2012
Entrepreneur has a roundup of quirky state laws that took effect this month.
Mitt Romney told
CBS News that the individual mandate in President Obama's health care law is "a tax."
The candidate's remark contradicts what his
campaign asserted earlier this week when adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney believes the mandate is a "penalty," not a tax.
Mitt Romney's investment portfolio "has included an offshore company that remained invisible to voters as his political star rose," the
AP reports.
"Based in Bermuda, Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd. was not listed on any of Romney's state or federal financial reports. The company is among several Romney holdings that have not been fully disclosed, including one that recently posted a $1.9 million earning -- suggesting he could be wealthier than the nearly $250 million estimated by his campaign."
"The omissions were permitted by state and federal authorities overseeing Romney's ethics filings... But Romney's limited disclosures deprive the public of an accurate depiction of his wealth and a clear understanding of how his assets are handled and taxed."
"After a month in which some prominent Democrats openly questioned President Obama's campaign strategy, the mood at the White House has risen, with strategists believing their efforts to define Mitt Romney as a corporate outsourcing specialist are proving a success with swing voters," the
Los Angeles Times reports.
"The shift can be seen in several recent polls that have shown Obama ahead in key states and moving upward nationally... The upward movement for the president, which has now been sustained for six days, began before the Supreme Court's decision upholding most of his signature healthcare law, so it does not reflect a reaction to that ruling."
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) vetoed Republican bills that would have "required a photo ID for absentee voting, restricted voter registration drives and mandated a ballot box affirmation of citizenship," the
Detroit News reports.
"Citing concern the three bills might confuse voters, Snyder's veto hat trick represented the first major rejection of legislation from his fellow Republicans, who control the Legislature, during his 18-month tenure as Michigan's chief executive."
Bloomberg Businessweek debunks the latest GOP talking point while the
Wonk Wire "chart of the day" illustrates the point.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
--
The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
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