A new Bloomberg poll finds 45% of Americans say they are better off than at when President Obama took office compared with 36% who say they are worse off.
However, there are hints of unease in the findings: 32% of Americans say they’re hopeful about improvement in the economy, down from 37% in March. And 19% say they’re fearful, compared with 17% three months ago.
McKay Coppins looks at web traffic for stories about Mitt Romney and finds they almost always lag stories about President Obama.
“In a sort of controlled experiment, BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski created two sets of similar, photo-heavy posts focused on the early lives of President Obama and Mitt Romney. One set focused on Obama’s and Romney’s childhoods, the other on Obama and Romney as young men. They were comparably promoted — with all four posts featured on the site’s front page, and pushed out into the social media sphere — but in both cases the Obama-centric posts vastly outperformed those about Romney.”
Politico: “Tim Pawlenty has jumped to the top of the vice presidential shortlist of several Mitt Romney advisers after emerging as the most effective — and well-liked — surrogate for the GOP nominee-to-be… The former Minnesota governor has impressed top Romney officials with his winning onstage presence at a grueling roster of Republican events throughout the country and with his low-maintenance personal style that has made him a favorite with the campaign’s tight-knit inner circle at the Boston headquarters.”
Wall Street Journal: “As is pro forma among potential picks, Mr. Pawlenty has shrugged off
questions about the No. 2 slot. But over time, his denials have shifted
from suggesting that Mr. Romney take his name off the list to noting
that anybody would be honored to serve, if asked.”
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The Super PAC backing Mitt Romney said it would launch a $7.6 million television ad sweep across nine states, Reuters reports.
The ads will begin airing Wednesday and run through the end of June in presidential battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The purchase ends weeks of silence from Restore Our Future, “the independent spending group that emerged as the deep-pocketed heavyweight that barraged Romney’s Republican competitors in the race to become their party’s nominee.”
Despite reports to the contrary, Mitt Romney told the media that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is being “thoroughly vetted as part of our process” to select a vice presidential running mate.
“Elephants are among my favorites, partly because I’m Republican and partly because I’m big. Elephants make me feel like I’m the right size.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by ABC News, in an interview at the National Zoo. He added, “They’re very smart animals.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he’s waiting for Mitt Romney “to announce a position on whether he supports deporting young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children,” Roll Call reports.
Said McConnell: “He is the leader of our party from now until November.”
Romney has repeatedly avoided taking a position on the issue.
Backers of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) want President Obama “to grant a pardon that would prevent the ex-Democratic officeholder from returning to prison for his 2006 bribery conviction,” the AP reports.
“Indicted in 2005 and tried the next year, Siegelman was convicted of selling a seat on a hospital regulatory board to former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in exchange for $500,000 in donations… Sentenced to more than seven years in prison, Siegelman served about nine months, mostly in a Louisiana federal prison, before being released in 2008 on an appeal bond.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was asked whether he plans to bring the Dream Act to a vote in an effort to get Republican senators on record on the immigration issue.
His response: “I don’t want to answer that question. That’s a clown question, bro.”
Reid, of course, was repackaging a comment made last week by Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper that quickly went viral.
“I get a kick out of some of the speculation that goes on. I’m not going to comment on the process of course, but I can tell you this: only Beth Myers and I know who is being vetted.”
— Mitt Romney, quoted by NBC News, on his search for a vice presidential running mate.
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%.
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.”
Just out: Swing States 2012: The American Presidential Election, a solitaire board game simulating the U.S. presidential election.
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.”
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.”
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) will become the next president of Purdue University, WISH-TV reports.
Daniels’ office had no comment.
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.”
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.”
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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