The Super PAC supporting President Obama’s re-election has a devastating new ad attacking Mitt Romney over his record at Bain Capital.
Romney Was Always a Winner
The New York Times takes another deep look at Bain Capital.
“The private equity firm, co-founded and run by Mitt Romney, held a majority stake in more than 40 United States-based companies from its inception in 1984 to early 1999, when Mr. Romney left Bain to lead the Salt Lake City Olympics. Of those companies, at least seven eventually filed for bankruptcy while Bain remained involved, or shortly afterward, according to a review by The New York Times. In some instances, hundreds of employees lost their jobs. In most of those cases, however, records and interviews suggest that Bain and its executives still found a way to make money…”
“Bain structured deals so that it was difficult for the firm and its executives to ever really lose, even if practically everyone else involved with the company that Bain owned did, including its employees, creditors and even, at times, investors in Bain’s funds.”
Agent Garbo
Coming in a few days: Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day by Stephan Talty.
Ryan Being Vetted as Possible Running Mate
Robert Costa reports that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) “has submitted paperwork to the Romney campaign. Sources confirm that he is being vetted for the vice-presidential nomination.”
Most Don’t Know Obama’s Religion
A new Gallup poll finds that just 34% of Americans know that President Obama is Christian, while 11% say he’s Muslim and 44% don’t know.
Meanwhile, Americans are more likely to know Mitt Romney’s religion, with most Americans correctly saying Romney is a Mormon and a smaller 33% saying they don’t know.
Election Supervisor Becoming a Popular Job in Florida
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune notes that the job running elections is in hot demand.
“For years, county elections supervisor jobs were viewed as mundane administrative posts with so little public policy work that most politicians did not even consider running for them. Now, along Florida’s west coast, seasoned political players are looking to parlay their years of experience in partisan battles into an advantage in becoming elections overseers.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“We don’t need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office.”
— President Obama, quoted by Politico, saying Mitt Romney led the wave of outsourcing American jobs while running Bain Capital.
Getting Married?
President Obama’s re-election campaign opened an event registry to to allow your guests to give a campaign donation instead of a gift.
A Utah Democrat Comes Out of the Closet
Utah congressional candidate Ryan Combe (D) uses humor in an attempt to convince some voters to pick him in Tuesday’s 1st congressional district Democratic primary.
Very well done.
The Voter Suppression Project
Jonathan Alter: “Across the country, the Republicans’ carefully orchestrated plan to make voting harder — let’s call it the Voter Suppression Project — may keep just enough young people and minorities from the polls that Republicans will soon be in charge of all three branches of the federal government.”
“Yes, both sides try to change voting laws to favor their team. The 1993 ‘motor voter‘ law that made voting more convenient by extending registration to the Department of Motor Vehicles helped mostly Democrats. That was at least in the long American tradition of expanding the franchise.”
“The Republican effort to restrict voting isn’t just anti- Democrat, it’s anti-democratic. No fair-minded person believes the tall tales of voters pretending they were someone else… This isn’t about stopping vote-stealing and other corruption, for which there are already plenty of laws on the books. It’s about rigging the system to keep power.”
10 Women to Watch in Politics
The Daily Beast has the list.
The Policy-Free Campaign
John Avlon: “Mitt Romney has learned from experience that policy specifics can cause political headaches.” His recent speech on immigration “was a microcosm of a strategy we’re seeing over and over in this campaign: attack your opponent but avoid saying what you’d specifically do differently to solve the problem.”
Meanwhile, President Obama “has so far failed to lay out a compelling argument about how a second term would be different and better than his first one.”
“For voters, the key question is what the next president will actually do in office. That’s why policy matters, especially for challengers. The addiction to negative attacks offers heat but no light. After all, pointing out a problem is very different from having a plan to solve it.”
Quote of the Day
“Our state is doing extremely well. We still have 800,000 people out of work, but we’re changing it. Tourism is way up, jobs are up, housing prices are staying stable. If you want to buy a house, now is the time.”
— Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), quoted by TPM, apparently not heeding the advice of Mitt Romney’s campaign to downplay positive economic news in Florida.
Mary Cheney Marries Longtime Partner
Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, married her long-time partner Heather Poe this morning in Washington, D.C., the Daily Caller reports.
The former vice president and his wife, Lynne, said they are “delighted” the couple could have their “relationship recognized.”
Campaigns Take a Step Back on Social Media
Clay Shirky: “Clinton used mailing lists in ’92, and every election since then — famously Howard Dean to Barack Obama — has involved considerably more imaginative use of social media. And this election has not. I’ve been quite surprised by that.”
“I had a student looking at Super PACs a while ago, and we said, ‘Let’s try and find out what the Super PACs’ social media strategy is.’ As she came back about 10 days later, she said, ‘I think I know what the Super PAC’s social media strategy is: Don’t use it.’ That’s exactly the whole point of being a Super PAC, to be able to spend unlimited money on the kind of media where no one has the right or the ability to respond, and to minimize transparency. This election feels to me, right now, more Nixon-Kennedy than Obama-McCain because television has become the tool of choice for the source of unlimited fundraising. Politicians like television better; nobody gets to yell back to you if you’re yelling on TV.”
10 Best Passages from Rielle Hunter’s Memoir
The Daily Beast provides 10 juiciest bits from Rielle Hunter’s new tell-all, What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter, and Me.
Didn’t Obama Hate It When Bush Did That?
Jon Stewart takes President Obama to task for asserting executive privilege on documents requested by Congress related to the mismanaged program known as “Fast and Furious.”
An Insubstantial Race
Peggy Noonan: “Actually, it’s amazing that during an existential crisis — a crisis that is economic, cultural and political, and that bears on our role and purpose in the world — both candidates for our highest office have felt free to be so… well, insubstantial. Neither Mr. Romney nor Mr. Obama has caught hold of the overall meaning of his candidacy, Mr. Romney because so far he’s chosen not to, and Mr. Obama because he’s tried and failed.”
