A Project New America/Public Policy Polling survey in Arizona finds Mitt Romney just ahead of President Obama in the presidential race, 49% to 46%.
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Six Sordid Details on John Edwards from Rielle Hunter’s Book
The Week: “It appears the disgraced two-time presidential candidate still has a little farther to fall before he reaches rock bottom — and Hunter is helping him get there.”
Swings States 2012
Just out: Swing States 2012: The American Presidential Election, a solitaire board game simulating the U.S. presidential election.
Romney Won’t Condemn Hecklers at Obama Speeches
Mitt Romney has declined to call on his supporters to stop heckling President Obama’s campaign, the AP reports.
Romney said that he doesn’t believe in “unilateral disarmament,” but said it would “be a nice thing” if both sides would stop yelling at each other during campaign events. However, he noted that American politics has a “long history of heckling and free speech.”
Montana GOP Ends Effort to Make Homosexuality Illegal
The Montana Republican Party “is ending its call to make homosexuality acts illegal, but reinforcing its opposition to gay marriage,” the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports.
“The GOP had held the position seeking to criminalize homosexuality since a 1997 Montana Supreme Court case striking down similar state laws. The party had been criticized in recent years for continuing its request to criminalize homosexuality.”
Daniels Will Be Next Purdue President
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) will become the next president of Purdue University, WISH-TV reports.
Daniels’ office had no comment.
Dog Gets Voter Registration Form
WSLS-TV: “When Tim Morris got his mail last week he found a pretty big surprise, a document asking his dog Mozart to register to vote. Not only is Mozart a dog but he’s been dead for two years.”
Is the White House Too Politicized?
Coming soon: The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty.
Daily Beast: “The book covers in nitty-gritty detail the particulars of how presidents raise money, how the White House has been used as a political organ (both officially and unofficially), and how the marriage of policy and politics in the Oval Office affects our democracy.”
How the ObamaCare Ruling Will Affect the 2012 Race
The Week has four theories.
Will Leak Force Rubio Vetting?
“An ill-timed leak to ABC News that Marco Rubio isn’t being vetted for the vice presidency has prompted head-scratching among the Florida Senator’s allies, coming as it does on the day his autobiography is released,” BuzzFeed reports.
Said Republican consultant Ana Navarro: “You better believe if he wasn’t already being vetted he’s going to get a call this week.”
John Avlon: “So why not include him on a short list? Perhaps the answer lies in Stuart Stevens, the Romney campaign’s epically interesting chief strategist. Stevens is a Mississippi maverick — a sometime author, libertine and extreme athlete. Most relevant to this instance, he also served as strategist for former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who Rubio trounced in a hotly contested 2010 election. Bad blood between warring camps doesn’t just fade away overnight, and in some cases it grows more malignant with time.”
Obama Still Leads in Colorado
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Colorado finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney by seven points in the presidential race, 49% to 42%.
“When you look at all of our Colorado polling this cycle here’s the big picture: Obama’s a definite favorite to win the state again this year, but it will probably be by a more moderate margin than in 2008.”
Few Want Bush Tax Cuts Extended
A new United Technologies/National Journal Poll shows that only 26% of the public wants to see all of the Bush tax breaks extended for at least another year. And only 18% want the tax breaks across all income levels made permanent, the position taken by Mitt Romney.
New Book Raises Questions About Obama Memoir
The New York Times notes that Dreams from My Father has long been the foundation of Barack Obama’s political biography, but now a new book by David Maraniss “claims to document the many ways — some very small, a few large — in which Mr. Obama’s youthfully constructed narrative appears to be contradicted by the people and events in his life.”
In particular, Barack Obama: The Story “suggests that the real story of Mr. Obama’s life was less dramatic — and more routine — than the president made it out to be in the memoir.”
Said Maraniss: “I don’t think it’s a venal reason. I think it says more about a
writer’s pressures to try to tell a story than anything about his larger
character.”
Has Cory Booker’s Career Stalled?
Jack Bohrer: “Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s star has been rising for what seems like an eternity. His fame rests largely upon a number of almost absurdly heroic acts, which have varied from harrowing to Hollywood-esque: saving a resident from a burning building, cradling a twelve-year-old dying from gunshot wounds, hunger-striking for better police protection in the projects, sleeping in a trailer for five months to halt open-air drug markets. Along with Booker’s media-friendly persona, these superhero moves have ensured a steady stream of adulation.”
“His first spate of national press came in the spring of 2000 — the same year that another attractive young political figure flew from Chicago to Los Angeles for the Democratic National Convention, had his credit card declined at the rental car station, and went home without even getting inside the arena. Yet this summer, Barack Obama will attend the second convention in his honor and compete for another term as arguably the most legislatively successful Democratic president in a half-century — while Booker is little further along than where he started.
“…Booker and Obama made their names by rejecting the business-as-usual
politics of Newark and Washington, respectively. But Booker is still
defined more by his promise than by his accomplishments.”
The TV Ad Battleground
First Read: “So where is the TV ad war taking place in the presidential race? Eight of the 10 hottest advertising markets (in terms of advertising points from June 18-24) are in the three battleground states of Virginia, Ohio, and Colorado. In fact, three of this week’s top four markets are in Virginia, including No.1 Richmond (which was No.2 last week). Three Ohio markets make our list (Cincy, Cleveland, Columbus), compared with just one from last week. Also, for the first time on our weekly list, we have two Colorado markets (Colorado Springs and Denver). This shouldn’t be surprising after our NBC-Marist poll showed a tight race in the state and especially after that Peter Hart focus group there. And finally, there’s just one North Carolina market (Charlotte) after four Tar Heel State markets were on our list last week (Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Greensboro, and Asheville).”
“Bottom line: This week, it’s all about Virginia, Ohio, and Colorado. By the way, for those scoring at home, a Virginia market has been No.1 in the most saturated category for two of the last three weeks.”
Lawmaker Performs “Vagina Monologues” at State House
Michigan state Rep. Lisa Brown (D) — who was banned from speaking on the House floor for saying “vagina” — led a reading of the play, The Vagina Monologues, at the Michigan state Capitol last night, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Eve Ensler, who wrote the play, agreed to fly in from California to oversee the performance: “I’m over dudes who can’t even say ‘vagina.’ I’m over the Michigan state Legislature… censoring and rebuking and removing Lisa Brown. My vagina’s got decorum.”
Obama’s Immigration Trap
Roger Simon: “Bypassing the sucking, hopeless, sinkhole that is the U.S. Congress, Obama announced a new immigration policy, one that invokes an old, and therefore legal, power: He is taking ‘deferred action’ on whether to proceed against hundreds of thousands of people who came to this country illegally.”
“It is not permanent. He, or any other president, can revoke it. And therein lies part of the brilliance…”
“The choice for Hispanic voters is now simple: Vote for Obama and you are guaranteed a humane immigration policy for your children, relatives, friends, neighbors and fellow Hispanics for the next four years. Vote for Romney and you get the uncertainty of which ‘setting’ he chooses to take.”
Rubio Not Being Vetted
Republican sources tell ABC News that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “is not being vetted by Mitt Romney’s vice presidential search team. He has not been asked to complete any questionnaires or been asked to turn over any financial documents typically required of potential vice presidential candidates.”
“Although it is possible that Rubio may yet be asked to go through the vetting process, it has been nearly two months since Romney named his long-time aide Beth Myers to run his vice presidential search. The fact that Rubio has not been asked to turn over any documents by now is a strong indication that he is not on Romney’s short list of potential running mates.”
