Associated Press: “The voter registration form arrived in the mail last month with some key information already filled in: Rosie Charlston’s name was complete, as was her Seattle address. Problem is, Rosie was a black lab who died in 1998.”
What the Bain Attacks are Really About
Michael Crowley: “The current debate is really about setting battle lines for the
campaign. Above all, the Obama team is opportunistically — but also
cleverly — shaping the political debate around a subject that’s good for
them (heartless capitalism) instead of the one that’s good for Romney
(the terrible economy). Chicago is trying to define Romney — and Bain, a
company most Americans don’t really understand — on their own terms.”
“They’re also after something deeper. Attacking Bain, and Romney’s candor about his role there, is a way of
defining the Republican’s character. Modern Democrats often bemoan the
GOP’s alleged advantage in mounting character attacks. They haven’t
forgotten the way the Swift Boating of John Kerry (unfairly) undermined
Kerry’s credibility and patriotism, and the flip-flopping windsurfer
attacks that followed. This week’s Bain offensive has partly been aimed
at making Romney look slippery about a business record allegedly defined
by selfishness and greed.”
The strategy: “Keep the target on the defensive, define the political conversation, and
raise constant new ‘questions’ that can only be answered by the release
of documents — in 2004, Kerry’s military records; in this case, Romney’s
back tax returns — that promise to be complicated, hard to interpret and
sure to open the door to still more questions.”
RNC Launches Ads for Romney
The RNC will spend $5 million on television
advertisements promoting Mitt Romney’s campaign in seven states
beginning tomorrow, National Journal reports.
First Read: “This is the RNC’s first TV buy of the general election. Why is the RNC
getting into the act? Remember we told you earlier this week that the
Romney campaign is being outspent right now because it can’t use
general-election funds until after the GOP convention? Well, don’t be
surprised if the RNC is now hitting the airwaves to help make up the
difference — and more.”
Nelson Holds Narrow Lead in Florida
A new Mason-Dixon poll in Florida finds Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) holds a 5-point lead over Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) in the U.S. Senate race, 47% to 42%.
Said pollster Brad Coker: “Anytime there’s an incumbent under 50 percent, that’s a warning sign that people are against you. The healthcare vote could be hurting Nelson.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“The rigidity of those pledges is something I don’t like. The circumstances change and you can’t be wedded to some formula by Grover Norquist. It’s — who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?”
— Former President George H.W. Bush, in an interview in Parade, on Grover Norquist’s “no new tax” pledge.
Florida Lieutenant Governor Implicated in Sex Scandal
As part of her defense in a criminal trial, a former aide to Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll (R) said she caught the lieutenant governor in “a compromising position” with a female aide shortly before being fired last year, the Miami Herald reports.
“The charges could prove explosive among social conservatives who form
the backbone of the Republican Party and have long admired Carroll.”
What They See on TV in a Battleground State
The NewsHour put together a video of the ads shown in a half hour of television in Virginia.
“Some, as you can see, were on more than once. Some were funded by the presidential campaigns, while others came from outside groups or super PACs. The Senate contest received nearly as much air time as the White House race. All but one of the ads were entirely negative in tone.”
The Speech that Put Condi Rice on Romney’s Short List
BuzzFeed has the audio of Condoleeza Rice’s “forceful, and surprisingly partisan, 13-minute address” that she gave to a gathering of big-money Republican donors that put her in the middle of veep speculation.
Young Voters Not As Excited About Election
A new Gallup survey finds just 58% of registered voters between the ages of 18 and 29 say they are “definitely likely” to vote, down from 78% who said they were in October 2008.
Why Romney’s Bain Explanation Makes No Sense
Steve Kornacki notes that Mitt Romney’s explanation for leaving Bain Capital only makes sense in the context of when he made it: When Romney left to run the Olympics, there was no reason for him to think he would be running for public office any time soon. In fact, he fully expected to return to his old job.
“The point here isn’t that Romney was running Bain Capital and making all of its key decisions from 1999 to 2002. But the story he tells now absolves him of all responsibility for anything and everything Bain did in those years. This would be reasonable if Romney had forged a clear and total break with the company in 1999, but he didn’t. His statement to the ballot law commission 10 years ago was supported by just about all of his actions between 1999 and 2002: Until the final few months of his Olympic tenure, Romney’s break from Bain was supposed to temporary.”
The Worst Congress Ever?
Ezra Klein: “Hating on Congress is a beloved American tradition. Hence Mark Twain’s old joke, ‘Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.’ But the 112th Congress is no ordinary congress. It’s a very bad, no good, terrible Congress. It is, in fact, one of the very worst congresses we have ever had.”
Brown Claims Calls from Democrats
First, it was kings and queens. Now, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) tells CNN that President Obama and other powerful Democrats are regularly phoning him to get help passing their legislation.
Said Brown: “I can name a litany of Democratic-sponsored bills that I’ve done that never would have passed hadn’t it been for me. And the president had called me, and vice president calls me, and Secretary Clinton calls asking for my vote all the time.”
But the Boston Globe reports Brown has spoken by phone with Clinton just twice during his Senate career and he’s spoken to President Obama by phone just once.
5 Ways Mitt Romney Can Rescue His Campaign
The Week looks at how Romney can get back on track.
LePage Says IRS Not Far from Gestapo
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) attempted to clarify his recent comment comparing the Internal Revenue Service to the Gastapo, the Nazi secret police, but instead reignited the controversy, the Kennebec Journal reports.
Said LePage: “What I am trying to say is the Holocaust was a horrific crime against humanity and, frankly, I would never want to see that repeated. Maybe the IRS is not quite as bad — yet.”
A reporter asked, “But they’re headed in that direction?”
LePage responded, “They’re headed in that direction.”
The governor was then asked if he thought the IRS was going to kill a lot of people like the Nazis and he responded, “Yeah.”
Quote of the Day
“I know a lot of people are saying, ‘When is he going to get back to work?’ Why should he get back to work to a Congress that does no work?”
— Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanual (D), quoted by the Chicago Sun Times, reacting to Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s (D-IL) medical leave from Congress.
Meanwhile, The Week has a guide to Jackson’s mysterious disappearance.
Romney Hits Obama for Going Negative
Mitt Romney’s campaign is out with another ad reacting to Obama campaign attacks on his tenure at Bain Capital.
Alex Burns: “The ad sticks with Romney’s strategy of not engaging the attacks against him in too much detail, and trying to make the negativity of Obama’s campaign a liability for the president.”
First Read: “But remember this little rule in politics: If someone is complaining about negative TV ads, that usually means they’re working…”
Democrats Dump Opposition Research on Veep Prospects
A Democratic-leaning super PAC unveiled a new website called VeepMistakes.com which features more than 1,300 pages of opposition research and scores of video clips of possible running mates for Mitt Romney, ABC News reports.
“Political prognosticators can only speculate who is on Romney’s short-list, but now we know who the Democrats are preparing to target. The super PAC is shining their spotlight on three of the mostly likely contenders: former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.”
Most interesting: “In addition to the written material, the super PAC, which was formed
primarily as a tracking and research organization, is making public
large amounts of video footage of the three vice presidential hopefuls.
American Bridge trackers have been following Pawlenty since May 2011,
Rubio since this February and Portman since May.”
How Romney Walked Into a Bain Trap
Ben Smith notes that two weeks ago the Romney campaign was forced to rebut claims of a Washington Post article that Bain Capital was a “pioneer in outsourcing” by claiming Mitt Romney left the firm in February 1999, before much of the activity questioned in the article took place.
“The argument over the Washington Post story ran for a few weeks, with
Romney and his allies making arguments that depended centrally on his
date of departure. Today, the trap — set by Obama and his allies or
happened upon by reporters, or some combination — sprung: A Boston Globe story called into question that premise.”
“Romney now finds himself in a place he’s spent months avoiding:
Offering a complex, technical explanation of his role running a venture
capital firm and of why some documents showed his continued involvement
after he says he left.”
