When asked how he would grade President Obama, Mitt Romney told CBS News he would give him an “F” in every area, including foreign policy and the economy.
Said Romney: “Oh, an ‘F,’ no question about that,” adding that the grade applies “across the board.”
Peggy Noonan: “Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have risen to the top of the American political system in an intensely political era. And yet neither loves politics or appears to have a particularly oversized gift for it. This is a central and amazing fact of the national election.”
“Mr. Obama has become actively bad at politics. Here is an example of how bad. Anyone good at politics does not pick a fight with the Catholic Church during a presidential year. Really, you just don’t. Because there’s about 75 million Catholics in America, and the half of them who go to church will get mad. The other half won’t like it either…”
“Mr. Romney, too, has had his bad moments. Donald Trump this week is an example. Mr. Trump brings with him the freak-show aspects of the primaries. Mr. Romney has to kick away from that, start a new chapter, begin an appeal to the sane center. Does he think keeping Trump close gains him some kind of right-wing street cred? My goodness, who does he think lives on that street?”
“I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong, and there is no one else responsible for my sins.”
— John Edwards, quoted by CNN, after a judge declared a mistrial in his federal trial on campaign finance charges.
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The Federal Election Commission has approved Gary Johnson’s request for primary season matching funds, according to Ballot Access News.
The only other presidential candidate who has received primary season matching funds this year is Buddy Roemer, but he is no longer seeking the presidency.
The jury in the John Edwards trial could not reach a verdict on five of six counts of campaign finance violations against him, the AP reports. The judge sent them back for further deliberations.
However, the jury found Edwards not guilty on whether he received an illegal campaign contribution from Bunny Mellon.
Update: The Raleigh News & Observer reports the judge declared a mistrial.
At the unveiling of the official portraits of George W. Bush and Laura Bush, President Obama has some kind words for his predecessor.
Said Obama: “Finally, on a personal note, Michelle and I are grateful to the entire Bush family for their guidance and example during our own transition. George, I will always remember the gathering you hosted for all of the living former presidents before I took office. Your fine words of encouragement. Plus you also left me a really good TV sports package. I use it.”
Bill Clinton will head to Wisconsin on Friday to campaign on behalf of Tom Barrett (D) in the race to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R), CNN reports.
Clinton will be the most high profile Democratic surrogate to travel to Wisconsin to campaign for Barrett. As of now, there are no plans for President Obama or Vice President Biden to travel to Wisconsin prior to next Tuesday’s election.
“You can chant down speakers, my friend, but it’s hard to Etch-A-Sketch the truth away.”
— David Axelrod, quoted by National Journal, on being shouted down by Mitt Romney supporters at a rally in Boston.
A new Rasmussen survey in Ohio shows Mitt Romney just ahead of President Obama by two points, 46% to 44%.
A new Kaiser Foundation poll finds people think President Obama would be better for women than Mitt Romney on a host of issues.
“On who looks out for the best interests of women, Obama leads 52-26%. Among women voters, it’s 59-25%.”
“But on who’s best to deal with the deficit, Obama and Romney are essentially tied, with Obama getting the narrow edge, 40-39%, hardly a good sign for an incumbent president. That vulnerability is one reason the Romney campaign has been pushing
the issue. Even on jobs and the economy, President Obama has a 10-point
lead.”
Elizabeth Warren acknowledged for the first time “that she told Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania that she was Native American, but she continued to insist that race played no role in her recruitment,” the Boston Globe reports.
Said Warren: “At some point after I was hired by them, I provided that information to the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. My Native American heritage is part of who I am, I’m proud of it and I have been open about it.”
“Warren’s statement is her first acknowledgment that she identified herself as Native American to the Ivy League schools. While she has said she identified herself as a minority in a legal directory, she has carefully avoided any suggestion during the last month that she took further actions to promote her purported heritage.”
“A Boston court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, in the second federal appeals ruling this year to side with gay-marriage proponents,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The court said the 1996 law denying benefits to same-sex spouses improperly targeted a minority group and infringed on states’ prerogatives over family law. Neither ruling this year, however, has recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, instead citing narrower grounds. Both cases raise issues expected to be resolved ultimately by the Supreme Court.”
“I’ve been assigned six states. Pennsylvania, my home state. Ohio, Iowa, believe it or not, New Hampshire, Florida… Now they are talking about assigning me either Virginia, Nevada or North Carolina. We started off with Michigan, but we look like we are in pretty good shape in Michigan.”
— Vice President Joe Biden, in an interview with Time magazine, on the 2012 presidential race.
Larry Sabato: “Over the past eight elections, Gallup — the most recognizable of polling organizations — has only identified the eventual popular vote winner twice in its early June horse race polling.”
Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer announced that he was ending his independent campaign for president and will instead create an organization focused on getting big money out of politics, Politico reports.
Said Roemer: “As I am no longer a candidate for president, I am free to pledge a good portion of the rest of my life to enacting campaign reform in the halls of Congress and the corridors of the White House. Instead of using my right to the floor of Congress to lobby for corporate clients, I will lobby for the American people who want reform. To be successful, this endeavor must cross party lines. In truth, the two major parties are addicted to special interests and corporate money. I have said it many times: they are joined at the billfold. The two parties have been graveyards of reform too often in the past. They don’t want reform. They only want victory and reelection.”
New NBC News-Marist College polls show President Obama and Mitt Romney deadlocked in three important battleground states.
Iowa: Romney, 44; Obama, 44
Colorado: Obama, 46; Romney, 45
Nevada: Obama, 48; Romney, 46
These three states are all battlegrounds that Obama carried in 2008, but George W. Bush won in 2004.
NPR talks to three political scientists and gets three different answers.
1936 — “The Republicans tried to attack FDR for his New Deal programs, saying they were too expensive and moved the country toward socialism — sound familiar?”
1980 — “Young, unknown president is elected after an unpopular administration… economy in the doldrums, problems with Iran, sense of malaise. Republicans nominate the person who finished second place in the previous nomination… after a divisive nomination struggle.”
2004 — “You have an incumbent president running for re-election in a polarized and closely divided electorate… And the result is again likely to be a close election in which the outcome will come down to a few swing states.”
Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra (R) said he’d like to “create a federal office in Washington that would verify that presidential candidates meet the minimum requirements to hold the office,” the Detroit Free Press reports.
Said Hoekstra: “This is not brain surgery. It should be an FBI person, maybe a CIA person. If you want to run for president, you’ve got to go with the proper documentation and get it certified that you meet the qualifications to be the President of the United States.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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