Norm Ornstein:
“In many ways, Obama faces the same kinds of challenges that hit every
second-term president. His opportunities to excel are there–but the
combination of the typical and the added complication of rampant and
intense tribalism make break-the-mold success an uphill battle.”

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) told constituents that Republicans have the votes in the House to impeach President Obama, TPM reports.

Said Farenthold: “I’ll give you a real frank answer about that, if we were to impeach the President tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it. But it would go to the Senate and he wouldn’t be convicted.”

“Well, I don’t know, was there a birth certificate? You tell me. You know some people say that was not his birth certificate. So maybe it was; maybe it wasn’t.”

— Donald Trump, in an interview on ABC News, continuing to suggest President Obama was not born in the United States.

A rodeo clown dressed as President Obama at the Missouri State Fair, KMOX reports.

Show Me Progress: “Just prior to the start of the bull riding event, one of the clowns came out dressed in this. The announcer wanted to know if anyone would like to see Obama run down by a bull. The crowd went wild. He asked it again and again, louder each time, whipping the audience into a lather. One of the clowns ran up and started bobbling the lips on the mask and the people went crazy. Finally, a bull came close enough to him that he had to move, so he jumped up and ran away to the delight of the onlookers hooting and hollering from the stands.”

Pete Rouse, a former White House chief of staff and arguably President Obama’s “most-trusted West Wing adviser, has told friends he will be leaving the administration this fall,” Politico reports.

“The white-thatched Rouse, 67, occupies a unique niche in Obama’s tight-knit world. He’s a reassuring problem solver, one of Obama’s few congressional fixers and, in his role as counselor, serves as a both mentor and sounding board to a president who keeps his circle small and confidences close.”

A new Fox News poll finds 42% of Americans approve of the job President Obama is doing while 52% disapprove.

President Obama appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and talked about his recent lunch with Hillary Clinton:

OBAMA: “I invited her. … She had that post-administration glow…. By the end of my first term, we had become genuinely close and I could not have more respect for her. She was a great Secretary of State, and I’m very, very proud of the work she did.”

LENO: “Did you notice her measuring the drapes or anything like that?”

OBAMA: “No. Keep in mind, she’s been there before. … So she doesn’t have to measure them.”

The Week: 7 takeaways from Obama’s interview with Leno.

“What we feared would happen, is happening… The administration has made things worse, not better. It is enough to make some people simply throw in the towel.”

— Mitt Romney, quoted by WMUR, at a New Hampshire fundraiser.

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) told constituents at a town hall meeting that though he thinks questions about President Obama’s birth certificate are mostly a “distraction,” but he is supporting legislation to investigate further because if it is true, “we can get rid of everything he’s done,” Salon reports.

A new Quinnipiac poll finds President Obama gets a divided job approval rating as 46% approve and 48% disapprove.

But this is much better than the negative 19% to 73% job approval for congressional Republicans and the negative 31% to 61% score for congressional Democrats.

American voters also trust President Obama more than Congressional Republicans on the economy, 45% to 39%.

During a Q&A session with Democrats on Capitol Hill, President Obama offered what Democratic sources said was a testy response to a question about a federal loan guarantee program, with one source in the room telling CNN it “rude and dismissive.”

Freshman Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) began his question “by recognizing it was an issue that may be better discussed on the staff level, rather than with the president.”

Responded Obama: “You’re right. You should have talked to staff about this.”

Obama “then said in a testy way to Maloney that at least now he can go back and tell his constituents he stood up to the president for them.”

President Obama “is planning to bypass congressional Republicans with a surge of executive actions and orders on issues like voting rights, health care, job creation, the economy, climate change and immigration,” Politico reports.

“Obama’s started to sell his pitch to congressional Democrats, meeting with caucus groups at the White House and going to the Hill on Wednesday morning to speak with House and Senate Democrats.”

The South Carolina Republican Party called the Internal Revenue Service “Obama’s Gestapo” in a fundraising email “in yet another reference to Adolf Hitler by one of the state’s two major political parties,” the Columbia State reports.

“There’s not an action that I take that you don’t have some folks in Congress who say that I’m usurping my authority. Some of those folks think I usurp my authority by having the gall to win the presidency.”

— President Obama, in an interview with the New York Times.

“I’ll worry about my legacy later, or I’ll let historians worry about my legacy.”

— President Obama, in an interview with the New York Times.

President Obama “will make a rare trip to Capitol Hill to meet with House and Senate Democrats on Wednesday,” Politico reports.

“Topics for discussion are expected to include the economy and job growth, especially the president’s proposals to address both issues.”

“Since the beginning of his second term, President Obama has appointed campaign fundraisers, party allies and other political figures as ambassadors at a level that is now almost double what has prevailed in the last few administrations,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“More than 56% of Obama’s 41 second-term ambassadorial nominations have been political, compared with an average of about 30% for recent administrations… Of the political nominees, at least half have had fundraising roles.”

Zeke Miller: “Obama’s address, spread over an hour and six minutes, read like a laundry list of prior policy announcements, from job training and education programs to mortgage relief, health care and raising the minimum wage. But there is little appetite in Washington for making these programs a reality. The administration sees value in just talking about them.”

“Officials are approaching the speeches as part of a coordinated, campaign-style effort to gain the upper hand in the looming fiscal fights over the debt limit and the budget this fall. The White House wants to increase funding from the current levels under sequestration, but House Republicans are opposed to any measure that would raise taxes to pay for a fix.”

Wonk Wire: Obama signals new perspective on the economy.