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 2:42 PM, May 25, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERMatt Continetti, writing for the Washington Free Beacon:
We are rapidly approaching the moment at which Washington reevaluates the Obama campaign’s reputation for competence and expertise. Every week, one or several of Obama’s surrogates trip over their own words; every day, Jim Messina and David Plouffe and David Axelrod must scratch their heads in wonder at the mess they are creating. One gaffe is an isolated event. Two is an embarrassment. But three or more form a pattern, one that is damaging not only Obama’s precarious chances for reelection but also the fortunes of the Democratic Party.
The most recent trouble arrived last Sunday in the person of Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who went fantastically off message when he said his fellow Democrats’ attacks on Mitt Romney’s background in private equity are “nauseating.” The Obama for America hazardous waste disposal team leapt into action, forcing Booker torecord a hostage-video-like recantation of his comments by the end of the day. It was too late, though. Booker had tested the waters of intra-Democrat dissent and had found they were warm. Dianne Feinstein, Chris Coons, Steve Rattner, Ed Rendell,Artur Davis, Harold Ford Jr., Mark Warner, and Joe Manchin all followed him in.
What Obama intended as an attack on the business practices of Bain Capital transmogrified into a debate over the fairness of that attack. The press hates hypocrites, and it did not take much digging to report that Obama raised more from private equity in the 2008 cycle than any other candidate, and that the president’s negative ad buy went up on the very day he held a $35,800 per plate fundraised in New York City with the president of private equity firm Blackstone.
Whole thing here.
Obama's enemies list is working9:02 AM, May 12, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERBusinessman Frank Vandersloot, the CEO of Melaleuca, has been targeted by the Obama campaign after donating money to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. "Three weeks ago, an Obama campaign website, 'Keeping GOP Honest,' took the extraordinary step of publicly naming and assailing eight private citizens backing Mr. Romney," Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal reported. "Titled 'Behind the curtain: a brief history of Romney's donors,' the post accused the eight of being 'wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records.' Mr. VanderSloot was one of the eight, smeared particularly as being 'litigious, combative and a bitter foe of the gay rights movement.'"
The attacks are working.
Read more... 10:28 AM, May 7, 2012 • By WILLIAM KRISTOLPresident Obama's reelection prospects look grim. The New York Times, in its account of Saturday's campaign launch, reported:
Read more... 10:20 AM, May 4, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPEROn Sunday evenings, President Obama meets with his top ten campaign officials to "gather for a confidential briefing on his re-election," according to the New York Times. Present at these meetings, which, we learn, usually take place after the president's Sunday golf outings, are a slew of White House and campaign officials.
Read more... "I think Jon Stewart's brilliant."9:08 AM, Apr 25, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERPresident Barack Obama sat down with Rolling Stone for an hour long interview, which the editors there are billing the "most substantive interview the president has granted in over a year." The president used the opportunity to single out two conservative Americans for attack.
Read more... 6:00 AM, Apr 19, 2012 • By JAY COSTSean Trende has an important column that connects presidential job approval to reelection results. You really should read the whole thing, but here is the big take home point:
Read more... 12:45 PM, Apr 10, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERPresident Obama is in Florida to tout his economic policy of raising taxes on the wealthy. But first he's holding a fundraiser. And it seems that many in the Palm Beach Gardens gated community, where the fundraiser is being held, are excited to see the president.
Consider how the president was received, as reported by today's White House pool reporter:
Lots of ladies in their tennis outfits (literally dozens) took photos of the motorcade as it drove by.
Motorcade arrived at a two story Mediterranean style home with a spanish tiled roof.
Read more... 1:22 PM, Mar 23, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERAt a campaign event in Coconut Creek, Florida today, Vice President Joe Biden was introduced as . . . "President Biden." Here's video:
Read more... 10:41 PM, Mar 16, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERAt a posh fundraiser in Atlanta, where 40 guests each paid $35,800 to attend, President Obama talked about . . . the weather. As today's White House pool reporter notes:
Potus talked about how he had been in Chicago and Atlanta and how the weather was so warm. “It gets you a little nervous about what is happening to global temperatures. When it is 75 degrees in Chicago in the beginning of March, you start thinking. On the other hand, I really have enjoyed nice weather.”
Read more...
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- Conservative Intelligence
- Satirical Wit
- Foreign Policy Insight
- Sophisticated Perspective
Ethan Epstien, in a New York System state of mind
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Washington plays by TSA rules.
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Reflections from the thinking man’s knuckleballer.
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Really?
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A film without pretension about warriors as heroes.
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With American evangelicals on the ground in South Sudan.
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Romney’s challenge is to address the deep uneasiness in America and point the way to a comeback.
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The American and his/her car.
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   Obama’s overblown tax breaks
for business.
 Why we need to break up the banks.
 Why we build memorials.
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