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RELATED: Republicans Plan Race-Baiting Scare With Jeremiah Wright…Again!

Why don’t people embrace subtly anymore?

The New York Times reports:

Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics.

The $10 million plan, one of several being studied by Mr. Ricketts, includes preparations for how to respond to the charges of race-baiting it envisions if it highlights Mr. Obama’s former ties to Mr. Wright, who espouses what is known as “black liberation theology.”

The group suggested hiring as a spokesman an “extremely literate conservative African-American” who can argue that Mr. Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”

A copy of a detailed advertising plan was obtained by The New York Times through a person not connected to the proposal who was alarmed by its tone. It is titled “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: The Ricketts Plan to End His Spending for Good.”

Afterward, ridicule followed with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) quipping: “Well, Ihope they’re as successful with this campaign as the Cubs are on the baseball field.” Burn, Nancy, burn!

Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Hill, “I don’t know what these other people do or why they do it. All I know is the American people vote with their wallets.” Romney himself said, “I repudiate the effort by that PAC to promote an ad strategy of the nature they’ve described.”

‘Twas a smart move given Team Romney knows that going after one’s church isn’t the wisest move for the first Mormon to earn a political party’s nomination for president to make.

When I first read this, I immediately thought about how the Rev. Wright controversy has been old news for a couple of years now — and then laughed. Like, “Obama is a militant Christian who hates America” is no longer the narrative among trendy xenophobes. They’ve progressed to “Obama is a socialist Muslim who wants Jesus and Santa Clause to get married.”

Someone must have alerted Ricketts to this reality since he’s now changing his tune.

A spokesperson for the Chicago Cubs owner told the Wall Street Journal:

“Mr. Ricketts intends to work hard to help elect a President this fall who shares his commitment to economic responsibility, but his efforts are and will continue to be focused entirely on questions of fiscal policy, not attacks that seek to divide us socially or culturally.”

If you believe that you also probably think that Ursula The Sea Witch was merely a misunderstood diva. This is more about their own embarrassment than any real display of a conscious. In fact, if we’re going by some of the other depictions of Obama – i.e. his “celebrity” – thus far, all of the attacks on the president seem like deja vu. This is one that just got immediately shamed for good reason.

Which is why despite growing concerns about the prospect of Obama being outspent thanks to these Super PACs, this story actually gives me a bit of hope. It just goes to show that as much as billions might be able to buy a person, brilliant political strategies don’t make for an easy sale. But you know, go ahead, keep reminding us that he’s a Black guy who is kind of a celebrity at a time when the culture celebrates such novelties. It just won’t do much in the way to scaring the masses into your often perverse point-of-view this time, though. Better luck next election?

Michael Arceneaux is a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer and blogger. You can read more of his work on his site, The Cynical Ones. Follow him on Twitter: @youngsinick

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Joe Ricketts, founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, is the billionaire behind this latest attack. The Obama-Biden campaign address the proposal in emails sent out to supports, claiming that it shows in “vivid and gruesome detail what the President and all of us are up against.”

Unsurprisingly, they plan to paint the president as “slick” and “cocky,” which amount to nothing more than an update of the “celebrity” and elitist” jargon of  ’08. And because people “still aren’t ready to hate this president” they need a token, an “extremely literate conservative African-American” so Africans-Americans don’t think they’re racists.

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Anyone remember Michael Steele and his Hip-Hopping debacle as chairman of the Republican National Committee? How did that work out for you, Republican strategists?

According to the campaign literature, we should expect to see images of the POTUS juxtaposed with Pastor Jeremiah Wright, the September 11th attacks (they forget that was on Bush 43′s watch) and other hot button imagery to remind us that Obama is out to “destroy America.”

The proposal was presented last week in Chicago to associates and family members of Mr. Ricketts, who is also the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs, reports the Times.

“Joe Ricketts is prepared to spend significant resources in the 2012 election in both the presidential race and Congressional races,” said Brian Baker, president and general counsel of a super PAC called the Ending Spending Action Fund. “He is very concerned about the future direction of the country and plans to take a stand.”

There are three things that it might behoove the GOP ‘Super PAC’ and Republican “strategists” to remember:

1.) African-Americans are not a monolith. Those who support the president have their reasons, as do those who oppose him. Bringing up trivial, insulting language with the primary purpose of race-baiting is going to back-fire. Hard.

2.) Nothing you say or do is going to make President Obama look worse than Mitt Romney. Maybe you should spend your time in that corner teaching him how to remember what exactly it is that he stands for.

3.) You’re attacking a president who allegedly raked in over $1,000,000 within 90 minutes of his announcement that he supports marriage equality and $15,000,000 the next evening at a fundraiser at the home of Hollywood superstar, George Clooney. Bottom line: You need more people.

Oh, and President Abe Lincoln was Black — so there is no need to add the racial qualifier before his name.

As usual, I have to wonder if these “strategists” are actually undercover Democrats, because nothing that the Obama campaign could do would make them look more foolish than they already do.

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Talib argued that, if anything, Obama is indeed a symbol, but his presence does not negate a longstanding systematic problem in this country. To him we are not ”post-racial” but in fact “most-racial.” Have enough noticed? I’m guessing not from his series of politically themed tweets.

Talib Kweli writes:

These “we got a black president everything is great” losers kill me lol

This is how backwards ppl are. In 08 I was asked in more than one interview, if Obama wins, what would I have left to rap about? As much respect as I have for Obama as a man & historical figure, the president is a symbol.

Post racial society? Nah. Most racial society. Stop #stopandfrisk

There are MANY criticisms of Obama that I feel are accurate. But when u call him a socialist u expose yourself as a Fox News watching moron.

The president can be criticized for his record. No need to make stuff up just because you don’t understand your real reason 4 disliking him. Obama is Christian, a capitalist and a shrewd politician. He is not a Muslim or a socialist. Even if he was, so what?

I pray for the brain cells of those who posed Talib such an asinine question, but shouldn’t they be revisiting the aftermath of those post-racial proclamations more anyway?

Why not dissect the overt racism President Obama’s political opposition has leveled against him since he was sworn in? We had plenty of well-intentioned — albeit grossly superficial — fantasy works on America’s potential in light of his candidacy.

How about something revisiting the reality? The boldly racist, consistently xenophobic, vitriol often hurled Obama’s way.

Watch President Obama on “The View” this week:

Even during his appearance on “The View,” President Obama (pictured below) responded to Sherri Shepherd’s question about how competitive his reelection bid will be by quipping, “When your name is Barack Obama it’s always going be tight.”

There are countless other examples of divide to highlight, too. Say Travyon Martin’s death and the racial divide with respect to the perception of his killing, or the spectacle less-subtle Americans have made of it – i.e. using Trayvon’s image to sell target sheets. There’s a lingering hostility in the air as it pertains to race, and while it would be wrong to not denote improvement, it’s even more so to sweep it under a dusty rug completely.

Just a week ago, I tweeted: “How are all of you post-Black, post-racial, and other post-posturing folks enjoying the headlines of the week?”

I never got an answer, but perhaps I’m just as silly to expect that I’d ever get an answer on that or any one similar to it. What to do? I’m not sure, but I guess I’ll start humming Mariah in the meantime.

Tell us!

Michael Arceneaux is a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer currently based in Los Angeles. You can read more of his work on his site, The Cynical Ones. Follow him on Twitter: @youngsinick

Obama made his remarks during a discussion on ABC’s “The View,” a daytime talk show. That interview will air later Tuesday, but ABC broadcast an excerpt on “Good Morning America.”

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He said churches should have the right to make their own determinations about marriage. But he said that as a matter of civil law, all Americans should be treated equally.

Obama became the first sitting president to support same-sex marriage last week. Before, he had said his views had been evolving.

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As polarizing as our political culture has become, I’m not at all surprised that Republicans largely condemned President Barack Obama’s decision to publicly state his personal support of marriage equality – framing it as some declaration of war on marriage itself. Frankly, Obama could’ve been sitting on Jesus’ lap when he offered his position on this (or any other given issue) and he would continue to be looked upon as some immoral leftist. However, the more troubling opinions I’ve seen have come from people more than likely to vote for him this November.

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Yes, the line in which he took to state his position was thin and intended to remain within the realm of the political center as much as possible, but President Obama did a very great thing in articulating why he believes gay men and women deserve the right to be married.

Of course, it’s fair to point out that his note saying that states should still have the right to decide on the issue is a politically convenient thing to say. And it is also ironic that the marriage of his own parents might still very well be illegal today if you left the right to miscegenation in the hands of select states in (ditto, our collective right to vote). Still, the semantics of President Obama’s historic decision to publicly declare support for same-sex marriage should not strip the significance of the symbolism behind it. Moreover, in the end, the issue of same-sex marriage will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court anyway.

At this point, all that the president can do is continue not defending the Defense of Marriage Act and essentially help set the tone of the debate as it moves forward. Already, others like Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I have begun to follow Obama’s lead and are expressing their support for same-sex marriage. Obviously, Obama helped spur that.

That’s why I can’t be consumed on whether or not the president is a flip-flopper, a hypocrite, or wonder aloud as to why he waited so long to state what many (like me) assumed was a belief he long shared. I’ve already written about my desire to see him come forth with this announcement, so I don’t see the point in nitpicking so soon after it. Likewise, I can’t be bothered with the doom and gloom and scenarios that have since come since footage of Obama’s now historic “Good Morning America” interview surfaced.

Will some Black people be bothered by Obama’s words in support of gay and lesbian couples? Surely, but do I expect some mass exodus from the polls in November? Hardly, and I’d like to give my own people more credit than that. Besides, anyone who ties their political support to a single issue deserves everything they get in the aftermath.

As a gay man not even sure if I ever want to get married, I do know that I deserve the right to be just as happy or miserable as the millions of American heterosexuals in marital bliss or bitter divorce cases.

A sitting president offering his support to a civil rights case of this magnitude while the country remains heavily divided on the matter – which proves the choice is not as politically beneficial as some would argue – is worthy of celebration.

I’m especially happy to find that a Black man is the president doing so – proving yet again that Black people are not the monolithic and grossly homophobic bloc others (and sometimes ourselves) paint us to be.

Was Obama’s proclamation perfect? No. But nothing ever is, particularly from a politician. What matters most is that Obama did the right thing, and in this very moment, I just want to focus on that.

Michael Arceneaux is a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer currently based in Los Angeles. You can read more of his work on his site, The Cynical Ones. Follow him on Twitter: @youngsinick

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Speaking at the NRA’s national convention in St. Louis, the musician and perpetual nonsensical accusation-hurler called President Obama a criminal and denounced his “vile, evil America-hating administration,” which is “wiping its ass with the Constitution.” Worse, he declared that “if Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” He then proceeded to warn the audience that, “If you can’t galvanize and promote and recruit people to vote for Mitt Romney, we’re done.”

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In theory, only CVS patrons are subjected to this kind of stupidity – and that’s because they have no choice because a crazy man is hurling his unfounded worldviews at them via megaphone in the parking lot. Unfortunately, as the obviously overextended election cycle has taught us, we’re doomed to consistently be burdened with the musings of the nonsensical until the presidential candidates shift the conversation until something substantive – say, around August, when they have no choice.

And for the record, sometimes the campaigns are just as guilty as lending credence to the fanatical, thus making them culpable. Enter, Mitt Romney’s son, Tagg Romney, who last month tweeted, “Ted Nugent endorsed my Dad today. Ted Nugent? How cool is that?! He joins Kid Rock as great Detroit musicians on team Mitt!”

In response, Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement:

“Mitt Romney surrogate Ted Nugent made offensive comments about President Obama and November’s elections this weekend that are despicable, deplorable, and completely beyond the pale. Yet what have we heard from Mitt Romney and the Republican Party, who should be outraged that someone representing them is using language like this to make a political point? Absolutely nothing.”

Wasserman Schultz referring to Nugent as a surrogate is obviously tactical, but arguably not that great a reach for her to make.

Unlike the Hilary Rosen controversy over comments she made about Ann Romney where President Obama’s campaign had no real direct connection to the CNN paid contributor, Nugent is someone whose views are clearly fancied by Mitt Romney’s campaign. To see Mitt’s son take pride in Nugent’s point-of-view only emboldens him to offer it more. To that end, if they’re going to feign rage over Rosen’s legitimate point that a women of immense privilege – free from work, full of wealth, and ample amounts of paid help – probably isn’t the best person to consult about working women’s economic issues, certainly they can see why Nugent’s conspiracy ought to be condemned.

Well, I’m betting they see it but are choosing to be “Ray Charles” about it. Andrea Saul, a Romney spokeswoman, wrote in a statement:

Divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from.  Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil.

So tepid, considering it was only a few days ago the campaign wrote in a blog post:

If you’re a stay-at-home mom, the Democrats have a message for you: You’ve never worked a day in your life. That’s exactly what Obama adviser Hilary Rosen said about Ann Romney last night.

What a difference a week makes.

Michael Arceneaux is a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer currently based in Los Angeles. You can read more of his work on his site, The Cynical Ones. Follow him on Twitter: @youngsinick

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Romney told the National Rifle Association convention Friday in St. Louis that he will stand up for the rights of hunters and those seeking to protect their homes and families. He said Obama fails to do so, but he didn’t offer any specifics.

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Obama’s re-election campaign said the president supports and respects gun rights.

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Romney said Obama is among those who see the Constitution as a living and evolving document rather than as a timeless one. He said Obama is trying to browbeat the Supreme Court on the major health care decision pending before th HTML

Visual e nine justices.

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“There’s no tougher job than being a mom,” Obama declared, standing up for Republican rival Mitt Romney’s wife with Democrats suddenly on the defensive over women’s issues for the first time this election year.

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Obama, in an interview with Cedar Rapids, Iowa, TV station KCRG, said, “When I think about what Michelle’s had to do, when I think about my own mom, a single mother raising me and my sister, that’s work. So, anybody who would argue otherwise probably needs to rethink their statement.”

The president’s remarks were his answer to consultant Hilary Rosen’s comments and the Twitter war they ignited. The mere fact that he weighed in on the uproar left no doubt that Democrats want to leave nothing to chance in their effort to keep female voters in the party fold. Women, who are the majority of voters in presidential election years, lean heavily Democratic, and polls show Obama holds a commanding lead among this group so far this year in battleground states.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, must win about 40 percent of female voters to have a chance at beating Obama, and he’s targeting married women and mothers who tend to be more conservative. Among this group, Ann Romney is popular and has been the candidate’s chief surrogate on how the struggling economy has affected women and families.

So his campaign pounced when Rosen said on CNN Wednesday that Ann Romney was no expert on the economy.

“His wife has actually never worked a day in her life,” Rosen said. “She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of women in this country are facing.”

Rosen apologized late Thursday, after first lady Michelle Obama tweeted her own support for women and mothers.

The backlash to Rosen’s comments was bipartisan, brutal and swift, crackling across Twitter, cable television and old-fashioned telephone lines. It appeared to have reignited the “Mommy Wars” debate, at least for now, over choices many women make as they juggle motherhood with the work most need to pay bills, college tuition and a semblance of financial security for their families.

Ann Romney fought back on Twitter and television, tweeting: “I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.”

Later, on Fox News, she Romney noted that her career choice was being a mother, and while she hasn’t faced financial hardship she has confronted the ordeals of cancer and multiple sclerosis. Finally, she noted that her husband has said her work is more important than his as family breadwinner.

“He would say, `My job is temporary. … Your job is a forever job that’s going to bring forever happiness,” Ann Romney said. “Mitt respects women that make those different choices.”

Two decades after Hillary Rodham Clinton famously declared that she could have stayed home and made cookies rather than pursue a career, the role of women in American society remains a hotly contested cultural question. It’s a deeply personal matter to anyone with children. And by midday Thursday, it seemed they were all weighing in.

Rosen is one such parent. She describes herself on her Twitter feed as a “mom with opinions” and is a longtime Democratic consultant and CNN political contributor. She’s a managing director of SKD Knickerbocker, a communications and public relations firm she joined in 2010 that has been paid $120,000 by the Democratic National Committee in this election cycle, financial disclosure records show. A party official said the services were provided by former Obama adviser Anita Dunn, another managing director at the firm.

However close Rosen is or isn’t to Obama and his Democrats, her comments about Ann Romney clearly caused them problems.

Vice President Joe Biden said on MSNBC that she had made “an outrageous assertion.” David Axelrod, Obama’s top campaign strategist, tweeted that Rosen’s comments were “inappropriate and offensive.” The president’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, said Rosen should apologize.

Michelle Obama tweeted, “Every mother works hard, and every woman deserves to be respected. – mo.” Such tweets tagged “mo” are from the first lady, a mother of two with a law degree.

Rosen initially refused to back down.

“I am raising children too,” Rosen tweeted to Ann Romney. “But most young American women HAVE to BOTH earn a living AND raise children. You know that don’t u?”

By the time Obama’s remarks had been released, Rosen had done what he suggested: rethought her stance and said sorry.

“I apologize to Ann Romney and anyone else who was offended,” Rosen said in a statement. “Let’s declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance.”

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The Atlantic reports:

“I have a question I want to ask you, Mr. President,” I venture, once I catch his attention. “Sure,” the president says. “Kanye or Jay-Z?”

The president smiles. “Jay-Z,” he says, as if the answer should be obvious.

Still, he’s got plenty of love for his fellow Chicagoan:

“Although I like Kanye,” Obama continues, with an easy smile. “He’s a Chicago guy. Smart. He’s very talented.” He is displaying his larger awareness of the question, looking relaxed, cerebral but friendly, alive to the moment, waiting for me to get to the heart of the matter.

“Even though you called him a jackass?,” I ask.

“He is a jackass,” Obama says, in his likable and perfectly balanced modern-professorial voice. “But he’s talented.”

Now can we get him to talk about Nicki Minaj and 2Chainz?

Read more at The Atlantic.

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From CBS News:

Romney dismissed a question posed to him in an interview on Fox News about the perception that he doesn’t understand the problems of average Americans. “The campaign started yesterday – the general election campaign,” he said, arguing that voters would get to know him better over the next seven months while also taking a closer look at the president.

“They’ll look at his record, which ultimately is the record upon which a campaign is going to be waged. But the person I’m out of touch with is Barack Obama,” Romney said. “I’m in touch with the American people. They want to see good jobs and rising incomes.”

Romney has made several references to his wealth that have been interpreted poorly, including remarks about his friends who own sports teams and his wife’s two Cadillacs. Mr. Obama, meanwhile, scores higher than Romney on poll questions about who better understands people’s problems.

Imagine that.

You can read more at CBS News.

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Via the Palm Beach Post:

The conservative tea party icon also got in shots at Democrats and President Obama, who spoke Tuesday at Florida Atlantic University. West said Obama was “scared” to have a discussion with him. He later said “he’s heard” up to 80 U.S. House Democrats are Communist Party members, but wouldn’t name names.

Oh, that doesn’t sound the least bit crazy at all, now does it? I imagine he wouldn’t name any names because there aren’t any. I’ll wait for him to not share that information with you all later, though. I’d hate to ruin the suspense.

I will say this: Herman Cain endorsement or not (because it’s oh so valuable), Allen West will not be sharing anything but a handshake this election season.

Read more at the Palm Beach Post.

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The Academy Award-winner will welcome the president and approximately 150 guests into his Los Angeles home for the event scheduled for May 10. The event is not cheap, though. It will cost attendants $40,000 per ticket to have the opportunity to hobknob with Obama, Clooney, and all their fancy friends. Proceeds will go to the Obama Victory fund, a joint fundraising committee of Obama for America, the Democratic National Committee and several state Democratic parties. Clooney told ET, ”I’m proud to do whatever I can to support the President… as long as no one asks me to sing.”

Clooney has been a staunch advocate for the president and consistently vocal about his support. Last fall, Clooney told an ABC News reporter, ”I’m disillusioned by the people who are disillusioned by Obama, quite honestly, I am.” He went on: ”If he was a Republican running, because Republicans are better at this,” and then added, “they’d be selling him as the guy who stopped 400,000 jobs a month from leaving the country. They’d be selling him as the guy who saved the auto-industry. If they had the beliefs, they’d be selling him as the guy who got rid of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ who got Osama bin Laden. You could be selling this as a very successful three years.”

And Buzzfeed reported that the Obama campaign had to refund Clooney on some of his donation after he maxed out on the legal limit last year.

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Politico reports:

“I wish they weren’t called the Bush tax cuts,” the former president said as he kicked off the Bush Institute Conference on Taxes and Economic Growth in New York City. “If they’re called some other body’s tax cuts, they’re probably less likely to be raised.”

When President Barack Obama agreed to a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts in December 2010, it outraged many congressional Democrats. But on Tuesday, White House campaign strategist David Axelrod said that Obama was “absolutely” committed to blocking any continuation of the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.

Meanwhile, the former president also said that he doesn’t miss his old job.

“I’m often asked ‘Do you miss the presidency?’ I really don’t.” Bush said.

“I have decided to stay out of the limelight. I had plenty of the limelight,” he said. “I enjoyed it. It was unbelievably interesting experience.”

“It’s inconvenient to have to stop at some stop lights coming over here — I guess I miss that,” he said jokingly.

Well, I’m sure the feeling is mutual among many, Mr. President.

On another note, Bush commented that when it comes to the notion of undercutting our current president by way of public criticism, he’s dead set against it. On President Obama, Bush said, “I don’t think it’s good, frankly, for our country to undermine our president, and I don’t intend to do so.”

Read more at Politico.

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“When we talk about these issues that primarily impact women, we’ve got to realize that they are not just women’s issues,” he said at a White House forum on women and the economy. “They are family issues. They are growth issues. They are issues about American competitiveness. They are issues that impact all of us.”

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Obama’s comments came as women’s concerns, and the role women will play in choosing the next president, have taken on intensifying importance. Some Democrats have accused Republicans of waging a “war on women” and have turned national controversies over women’s rights into a vehicle for raising campaign cash.

The president has not used that phrase. He appealed for a debate that respected the role and needs of women as a driving economic force.

“There’s been a lot of talk about women and women’s issues lately, as there should be,” Obama said. “But I do think that the conversation has been oversimplified. Women are not some monolithic bloc.”

Still, after talking of his commitment to women in personal and policy terms, he offered the political context for his remarks: women and the election. Women have made up a majority of the electorate in each presidential year since 1984, and Obama is seeking to defend and expand a gender gap now working in his favor.

Without naming Republican Mitt Romney, his likely competitor in the presidential race, Obama warned of the perils of giving power to people who would seek to end coverage for preventative care such as mammograms and contraception, or slash college aid that disproportionally helps young women.

“That’s what’s at stake,” Obama said.

In the 2008 election, exit polls showed Obama won women by 13 points while splitting men about evenly with his Republican opponent, John McCain.

This time around, in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll of voters in 12 swing states, Obama held a lead of 18 percentage points among women.

Nationwide, the gender gap appears smaller, but still yields a double-digit edge for Obama, other polling shows.

The president had plenty of applause lines for the women surrounding him, including when he pointed out that women hold less than one-fifth of the seats in Congress.

“Is it possible that Congress will get more done if there were more women in Congress?” he said to cheers. “Is that fair to say? I think it’s fair to say.”

The White House is promoting its efforts across the government to help girls, working women and women in their retirement, on issues ranging from matters of health coverage to salary fairness to the prevention of domestic violence. Obama’s aides point to efforts since the start of his administration, not just in this election year.

The forum focused on the enormous challenges that remain, such as the underrepresentation of women in fields of science and technology.

“When creativity is limited or ingenuity is discouraged,” Obama said, “that hurts all of us.”

Obama said he thinks of the future of his two daughters when he starts work each day and that all of his efforts to help women are personal, as a man who has been shaped by strong women in his life. He said women make up 80 percent of his household if you count his mother-in-law – “and I always count my mother-in-law.”

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The sum, announced Friday, shows he’s picked up the pace from his $23 million-a-month average of the final three months of last year

Financial reports released Friday show roughly $11.8 million in contributions to Obama’s campaign, as well as an additional $13.4 million to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint venture of his campaign and the DNC. The remaining sum of contributions would come from contributions to the DNC and the campaign’s Swing State Victory Fund.

That fundraising concluded before the campaign’s announcement this month that, in a reversal, Obama would embrace the big big-money fundraising groups he once criticized and let them help in his re-election. Those so-called super PACs, financed with large donations from a small group of individuals, have been prominent in the Republican presidential primary and are also poised to spend millions in the general election contest.

The Obama campaign said 98 percent of January donations were $250 or less. Federal Election Commission filings show Obama’s campaign alone pulled in more than $5 million in unitemized contributions, usually less than $200 apiece.

Many of those donors, however, are repeat contributors, meaning that their aggregate donations over the past year would exceed $250. Still, the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute, which analyzes contributions, found that small donors, those whose aggregate contributions amounted to less than $200, accounted for 48 percent of Obama’s campaign income in 2011.

That more than doubles the small donor contributions to his campaign in 2007, as he mounted his first campaign for president. What’s more, the institute found that small donors accounted for only 9 percent of 2011 fundraising for Republican Mitt Romney, who is battling for front-runner status in the GOP presidential primary and is the top fundraiser in the Republican contest.

Obama also relies on an extended team of more than 440 supporters who help him raise money, including 61 people who each raised at least half a million dollars. Altogether, those top dollar fundraisers collected at least $75 million last year to help Obama win a second term.

Friday’s filings also underscored the national infrastructure that Obama’s campaign had in place by the end of key primary elections for his GOP opponents last month, having spent cash nationally for office space, staff salaries and political strategists.

Presidential candidates must submit January fundraising reports to the Federal Election Commission by Monday.

The January numbers were being reported as Obama concluded a three-day swing of California and Washington that included eight fundraisers, most of them high-dollar events. All told, the president was expected to raise more than $8 million during the trip.

Obama repeatedly tells his audiences of donors that this election will be more difficult and encourages them to rekindle the vigor of his supporters in 2008.

“And that’s not going to be easy because, first of all, I’m older and I’m grayer,” he told about 70 high-dollar contributors in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood Thursday night. “So it’s not as new, it’s not as trendy to be part of the Obama campaign — although some of you still have your posters, I’m sure.

“And part of it is we’ve gone through three tough years and so people want to hope, but they’ve been worn down by a lot of hardship.”

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The president’s proposal is laden with election-year politics and faces a difficult path in Congress. Obama wants to pay for the estimated $5 billion to $10 billion cost with a fee on the nation’s largest banks, a proposal that has failed to win support even when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate.

In addition, its potential impact could be limited by the fact that it would not apply to borrowers who are behind on their home loan payments, those most threatened by foreclosure.

The housing issue, while national in scope, particularly resonates in election battlegrounds such as Nevada and Florida that have faced record foreclosures. Obama himself drew attention to the politics surrounding the issue with a jab at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, now the front-runner in the Republican presidential contest. Romney in October suggested the foreclosure process should be allowed to “run its course and hit the bottom.”

Without naming Romney, Obama said: “It is wrong for anyone to suggest that the only option for struggling, responsible homeowners is to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom. I refuse to accept that, and so do the American people.”

Obama is asking Congress to pass legislation that would make it easier for more borrowers to refinance their loans, creating a new program through the Federal Housing Administration that would have the government assume the risk for the new mortgages.

Obama cast the effort as not only a needed step to spur the economy but as a necessary boost to America’s sense of identity.

“This housing crisis struck right at the heart of what it means to be middle class in America: our homes, the place where we invest our nest egg, place where we raise our family, the place where we plant roots in a community, the place where we build memories,” Obama said. He spoke at a community center in northern Virginia, outside Washington.

Obama’s proposal is the latest administration effort to help homeowners in the face of a massive number of foreclosures and plunging house values that have left millions owing more than their homes are worth.

Banks have been reluctant to refinance loans of such “underwater” homeowners. Under Obama’s plan, an eligible homeowner would be able to refinance a loan through the FHA, which would guarantee the new loan, assuming the risk if the borrower should default. The fee on large banks that Obama is proposing would finance the FHA’s insurance fund.

The plan faces long odds in Congress. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the refinancing plan proposes “to get out of the hole we’re in by digging deeper.”

“He wants lenders to make more of the same risky loans without documentation of income or ability to repay that got us into this mess in the first place,” Bachus said.

Seeking to reassure such skeptics, Obama emphasized that the program would apply only borrowers who have been current on their payments for at least six months and not missed more than one payment in the six months preceding that. Their loans would have to fall within the mortgage limits set by the FHA in their home counties – a range from $271,050 in lowest cost areas to $729,750 in the highest cost areas.

The plan, Obama said, would “not help the neighbors down the street who bought a house they couldn’t afford and then walked away and left a foreclosed home behind.”

The administration estimates that 3.5 million borrowers with privately held mortgages have high enough interest rates that they would have incentive to refinance their mortgages through the FHA.

That’s in addition to 11 million borrowers who have loans guaranteed by the government-affiliated mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who could be eligible for refinancing under the administration’s proposed changes.

Still, economists say that without reducing the burden on homeowners who are late on their payments, any new housing program will achieve little.

“Anyone who is already behind on their mortgage payments, and is therefore much closer to actually losing their home, won’t benefit,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics. “As such, the policy won’t do anything to reduce the mountain of 3 million homes that are still at risk of foreclosure.”

Bankers oppose Obama’s proposal to impose a fee on large banks to pay for the program and Obama has been unable to win support for such a fee in Congress.

Frank Keating, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, said such a fee would “directly reduce lending capacity.” And Brian Gardner, a senior vice president at Keefe, Bruyette and Woods, a Washington investment bank, called the proposed bank tax a “poison pill” for the legislation.

Keating also referred to the refinancing plan as “uncoordinated” and part of a collection of ever-changing government programs that “create uncertainty in the market, increase the cost of homeownership and reduce credit availability needed to support homeownership and the economic recovery.”

Administration officials said Obama was open to other means of paying for the program if the bank fee becomes too much of an obstacle.

About 11 million Americans – roughly one in four with mortgages – are underwater, according to CoreLogic, a real estate data firm. Half of all U.S. mortgages – about 30 million home loans – are owned by nongovernment lenders.

Past administration initiatives have fallen short of expectations. For instance, an earlier plan, the Home Affordable Refinance Program, which allows borrowers with loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance at lower rates, has helped about 1 million homeowners, well short of the 4 million to 5 million the administration had expected.

“I’ll be honest, the programs we’ve put forward didn’t work at the scale we’d hoped,” Obama said. “Not as many people have taken advantage of it as we wanted.”

Obama also announced new industry standards for mortgage servicers, a sort of “bill of rights” for borrowers that would protect them in their transactions. During his remarks, Obama brandished a simpler, three-page loan document to illustrate the new standards.

The administration will also undertake a program that would allow the sale of foreclosed homes by Fannie Mae to investors who would then offer the properties for rental.

“As we know and a lot of families know,” Obama said, “that empty house or `for sale’ sign down the block can bring down the price of homes across the neighborhood.”

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1) Awarded $1.2 Billion To Black Farmers

President Obama’s administration oversaw the $1.2 billion settlement awarded to Black farmers who have been denied loans and assistance by the Agricultural Dept. for decades.

This is the second round of settlements in a case filed in 1997, which alleged that thousands of black farmers had been discriminated against between 1983 and 1997. This round is directed at farmers who were not awarded payment because of missed filing deadlines. The judge said payments would likely be dispersed in a year or so, after neutral parties reviewed the individual claims.

This agreement will provide overdue relief and justice to African American farmers, and bring us closer to the ideals of freedom and equality that this country was founded on,” Obama said in a statement.

Source: The Huffington Post

2) Expanded Funding For HBCUs

In February of this year, President Obama signed an executive order increasing funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to $850 million over the next 10 years. The funding is being administered through the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities that was, ironically, started by the late Ronald Reagan.

Source: theGrio.

3) Signed The Crack Cocaine Bill (Fair Sentencing Act)

Crack users are disproportionately sentenced to longer jail terms than those who use powder. This unfair sentencing practice punished African Americans more severely than their white counterparts. With the signing of the Fair Sentencing Act, though, President Obama narrowed that disparity significantly.

President Obama signed into law Tuesday the Fair Sentencing Act, which narrows the huge disparity in punishment given to those convicted of possessing crack cocaine versus those found with the drug in powder form.

The gap has been of particular concern to the African-American community. Crack users tend to be poorer than those who use powder – and disproportionately African-American.

Under the old law, someone convicted of possessing five grams of crack cocaine received a mandatory five years in prison. Those convicted of possessing powder cocaine had to be holding 100 times that amount to get the same mandatory sentence.

Source: The Washington Post

4) Passed Health Care Reform (Affordable Care Act)

More than 19 percent of African Americans do not have health care, according to TheRoot. When the highly debated health care reform bill was signed into law in March of 2010, millions of African Americans benefited.

As reported by the blog “Jack and Jill Politics,” Blacks will enjoy a number of benefits that the bill provides:

The Affordable Care Act expands insurance coverage by a number of mechanisms the some examples include establishing the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, which is working to  make health insurance coverage available to individuals who have been uninsured for at least six months and have been denied health insurance because they have a pre-existing condition. By 2014, this program will end and will be replaced by new health insurance exchanges.

Also by 2014 Medicaid will be expanded  to cover  individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level. In 2014, using 2010 federal poverty guidelines, 4.1 million African Americans making less than $14,403.90 and a family of four making less than $29,326.50 will be eligible for Medicaid. In addition, individuals without dependent children or who are not pregnant will now be eligible for Medicaid once this provision is enforced beginning in 2014.

Coverage for preventative conditions many of which disproportion ally impact African Americans.  As of September 23, 2010, requires health plans to cover certain preventive and immunization services without charging a deductible, co-pay or coinsurance. This applies only to care delivered by in network health professionals. Specifically, new health plans will have to offer consumers 45 free screenings and other preventive services, similar changes will affect Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries Seniors enrolled in Medicare will no longer have to pay for preventive services starting January 1, 2011.

Additionally, the health reform law provides new funding to state Medicaid programs that choose to cover preventive services for patients at little or no cost starting January 1, 2013. These include (note from Jill, I’ve bolded the ones that impact African-Americans especially):

• Blood pressure testing

• Cardiovascular screening

• Cervical cancer screening

• Cholesterol measurement

• Colorectal cancer screening

• Depression

• Diabetes screening

• HIV testing

• Immunizations and vaccines

• Mammograms

• Obesity screening and counseling

• Screening newborns for sickle cell disease

Already in 2010, adults enrolled in Medicare Part D received a tax-free, one-time rebate check of $250 when they reached the Medicare drug coverage gap or “donut hole.” The donut hole refers to the gap in coverage enrollees face between the initial coverage limit and the yearly, out-of-pocket limit known as the catastrophic coverage threshold during which beneficiaries have to pay for the entire cost of their prescription drugs.

Beginning in 2011, enrollees with high prescription drug costs that put them in the donut hole will get a 50% discount on covered brand-name drugs and reductions in the cost of generic drugs while they are in the hole. Between 2010 and 2020, Part D enrollees will get increasing, continuous Medicare coverage for their prescription drugs; by 2020, they will pay only 25% out of pocket for the total cost of their drugs and the donut hole will be eliminated.

Sources: cbsnews, Jack and Jill Politics and TheRoot

5) Created The Civil Rights Division Of The Justice Department

The U.S. Justice Department is leading one of the most aggressive defenses of civil rights in recent memory. Whether it is clamping down on Arizona for its bias against Latinos or fighting unjust state voter ID laws, this Justice Department has been fully engaged in fighting for the rights of all minorities. When President Obama chose Eric Holder to lead the department, he picked a true champion of civil rights. For a rundown of how powerful the Civil Rights Division has become, check out this article by TheRoot.

Sources: The New York Times, cbsnews

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Four days after President Obama laid out the American Jobs Act for Congress, he took his message to a public forum attended by over 100 African Americans at the White House and live-streamed over the Internet, imploring them to help get the bill passed.

“We are at a critical juncture in our country and this Jobs Act can deliver,” said Obama. “I need people to get out there and support this. If Congress doesn’t get it done, we know exactly who is holding this up.”

With Black unemployment at a 27-year-high of 16.7 percent, the President laid out specifics of his plan and how it would help to get the African-American community back to work.

The plan would provide summer jobs for youth (45 percent unemployment for Black youth) and boost the paychecks of 20 million Black workers through an extension and expansion of the payroll tax. It would also extend unemployment insurance for nearly 1.4 million African Americans who have been unemployed six months or longer.

The forum, titled “Open for Questions with InteractiveOne,” featured various administration officials discussing how the administration’s polices have affected and will affect the Black community, taking questions from NewsOne.com and its sister sites in the InteractiveOne network, TheGrio.com, TheUrbanDaily.com, HelloBeautiful.com, and BlackPlanet.com.

The featured speakers included Director of Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes, US Secretary for Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, Deputy Administrator of the US Small Business Administration Marie Johns, Ambassador and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

For over two hours, panelists and audience members peppered administration officials such as Valerie Jarrett with comments and questions from Twitter and social networking site, BlackPlanet.com.

The president urged the panelists and audience members to knock on doors to help educate the American public about the benefits of this bill.

“We must pump it up to pass this Jobs Act,” said Obama.

Below is a video of the event:

The number of liberal Democrats who strongly support Obama’s record has plummeted from 53 percent to 31 percent. The number of African-Americans who support Obama’s performance on the economy once stood at 77 percent — that number now sits at just over half of those surveyed.

Obama’s shrinking approval comes on the heels of a recent study which showed a surge in the wealth gap between Whites and minorities, an unprecedented Black unemployment rate of 16.2 percent, and a collective attitude from the Black community that the Obama Administration’s policies do little to nothing to aid the compounded scarcities that plague Black Americans.

Read more at Huffington Post

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Fitzgerald is the fourth openly gay person to be nominated as a judicial candidate.

Huffington Post:

“I am honored to nominate Michael Walter Fitzgerald to the United States District Court,” Obama said in a statement. “His impressive career stands as a testament to his formidable intellect and integrity. I am confident he will serve the people of California with distinction on the District Court bench.”

On Monday, Paul Oetken became the first openly gay man to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a federal judge.

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Walter Bagdasarian was convicted in 2009 of two felony counts of threatening a major presidential candidate. Bagdasarian posted several messages to a Yahoo Finance message board, including one that called Obama a racial epithet and another that said “he will have a 50 cal in the head soon”–a reference to a .50 caliber gun.

Your Black World Reports:

A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that violent and racist creeds against Obama were “repugnant” but not criminal. The court also said it was obvious the San Diego man wasn’t planning to attack the candidate and that the postings were protected by Bagdasarian’s free speech rights.

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This is Mr. Obama’s sixth straight quarter below the 50 percent mark, however it is virtually unchanged from his 9th quarter rating of 46.7.

Obama joins a cluster of former presidents who experienced sub-50 percent, and later won re-election–Bill Clinton (49.3), Richard Nixon (49.2) and Ronald Reagan (44.4). Former President George W. Bush’s 10th quarter approval rating was an exceptional 73.6 percent.

According to Gallup, it is too early forecast what these numbers will mean for Obama during the 2012 president election, considering there’s no consistent pattern in the quarterly approval averages of previous presidents to say whether 46.8 percent pinpoints a re-election or defeat.

SOURCE

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But based on the congressional gridlock surrounding the country’s deficit, it’s clear Republicans and Democrats are oblivious to what the American people really want, or need for that matter.

Republicans and Tea Party members say “The American people want spending cuts” and “The American people don’t want tax hikes.”

Democrats and President Obama say “The American people want the rich to be taxed,” “The American people don’t want Social Security and Medicare to be cut.”

“The American people want jobs,” “The American people want a balanced budget,” and so on.

Annoying, huh?

The hackneyed catchphrase is nothing more than an exploitative ploy to sway political debate, and undermine the American people.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said on MSNBC, “Why in the world is there not a balanced budget amendment in the U.S. Senate? That’s the question the American people should be asking…I think the American people would like to see us do that.”

View Sen. Coburn’s comments below:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Coburn and nearly all politicians do more harm than good when they invoke their personal views onto the American people. Policy, especially those that pertain to the nation’s economy, should literally come from the people — if you’re going to put words in their mouth, that is.

Rather than speculating what the American people want, politicians should flat out say what it is they personally believe congress should do. A congressman, or senator expressing his or her personal views does not imply that he or she is somehow disingenuous — it implies quite the opposite. What is disingenuous, however, is implicating “the American people” for the sake of political squabble, or persuasion as opposed to actually carrying out the will of the people — which is very skewed at best.

President Obama, too, succumbed to “the American people” mantra. During a press conference, Mr. Obama told reporters that the American people were “sold” on a balanced approach to reaching a debt deal.

Video of President’s statement below:

The difference between Obama and Coburn, and other Republicans, is that Obama (although he exaggerated the numbers) was somewhat accurate in his statements. A majority of the people are sold.

Polls from Gallup and the Washington Post revealed that a majority of Americans do support a mixed approach of spending cuts and tax increases. However, the slippery slope of polls is that a percentage of the people (the minority and undecided) are always ignored, forlornly pushed aside for the accommodation of the “majority.”

Politicians need to be honest with the public, and most importantly honest with themselves. It is understood that congress is elected by the people to serve the people, which implicitly gives them the authority to use their discretion, opinions, etc.

The truth of the matter is that no politician can go before a camera and declare what the American people want, because the American people, and politicians for that matter, will never stand on one solid platform. There is no one, monolithic way of dealing with the economy, nor will there ever be one general opinion from the American public.

So please politicians, I beg you, kill it with the speeches, and get down to compromising for the ones you claim to serve: the people.

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White House spokesman Jay Carney said the president “long called for a legislative appeal for the so-called Defense of Marriage Act which continues to have a real impact on families.”

The president is “proud to support” the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, Carney said.

Huffington Post Reports:

The Obama administration announced in February that it believes the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and would no longer defend it in court.

At the time, Carney said that Obama was still “grappling” with his personal view of gay marriage but has always personally opposed the Defense of Marriage Act as “unnecessary and unfair.”

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House Republicans zeroed out all three parts of the president’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiatives: the school-centered Promise Neighborhoods, the housing-focused Choice Neighborhoods and the law enforcement-oriented Byrne Criminal Justice Initiative.

City Limits Reports:

All three programs reflect the administration’s belief in place-based strategies that coordinate multiple agencies and programs to improve a particular neighborhood, city or region. This approach undergirds not only anti-poverty funding but also Obama’s urban-planning strategy, where the Partnership for Sustainable Communities is pooling funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation to address interlinked housing, transit and environmental challenges that particular places face. In 2009, the White House ordered all federal agencies to conduct a place-based review of their policies to see where arbitrary borders between departments might be adjusted to make programs work better and cheaper.

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According to A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother, a biography written by Times reporter Janny Scott, Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, had health insurance during her 1995 battle with cancer. Such a claim disputes the narrative told by Mr. Obama.

The significant line that questions Obama’s account reads:

“Ann’s compensation for her job in Jakarta had included health insurance, which covered most of the costs of her medical treatment. Once she was back in Hawaii, the hospital billed her insurance company directly, leaving Ann to pay only the deductible and any uncovered expenses, which, she said, came to several hundred dollars a month.”

However, the president referenced a rather different story:

“For my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they’re saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don’t have to pay her treatment, there’s something fundamentally wrong about that.”

The White House did not dispute Scott’s claim, however, spokesman Nicholas Papas told the Times, “The president has told this story based on his recollection of events that took place more than 15 years ago.”

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Republicans said that after a heated disagreement with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the president “abruptly” walked out of the meeting.

Democratic lawmakers, however, said that Obama gave a lecture to Cantor and Republicans and left the meeting because it had ended, not because of anger.

Mr. Obama did have ardent words for Republican lawmakers, however.

“Would Ronald Reagan be sitting here? I’ve reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this,” the president said just shortly before concluding the two-hour meeting.

The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, warned on Wednesday of a “huge financial calamity” if President Obama and the Republicans cannot agree on a budget deal that allows the federal debt ceiling to be increased.

The NYTimes Reports:

Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, said he raised the idea of taking what savings could be achieved now — roughly $1.4 trillion — and then having additional votes to raise the debt limit again before the elections in November 2012, with Republicans ultimately seeking a total of at least $2.4 trillion in cuts with no tax increases.

At this, Mr. Cantor said, the president “got very agitated, seemingly.” Mr. Cantor quoted the president as saying: “Eric, don’t call my bluff. I’m going to the American people with this.”

Then, Mr. Cantor said, “He shoved back and said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’ and walked out.”

Read More At NYTimes.com

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McConnell’s proposal suggests a lack of confidence in Congress’ ability to reach a bipartisan agreement on spending cuts.

Republican lawmakers adamantly refused to approve any deal that would include tax hikes, while Democrats rejected the idea of possible cuts on Social Security and Medicare.

President Obama urged lawmakers to come to an agreement, calling daily meetings to reach a deal before the Government is obliged to default on its loans on August 2.

The NY Times Reports:

Mr. McConnell’s proposal would give Mr. Obama sweeping power to increase the government’s borrowing authority, in increments, by up to $2.4 trillion — enough, it is estimated, to cover federal obligations through next year — only if Mr. Obama specified spending cuts of equal amounts. But Congress would not have to approve the spending cuts prior to the debt-limit increase.

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House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Ca.), who has the power to issue subpoenas, accused Mr. Obama of mixing official and political activities.

The probe mainly highlights the president’s DNC meeting with Wall Street executives (who are known donors), and a campaign video allegedly filmed in the White House, promoting a raffle to win a dinner with the president and Vice President Joe Biden.

Salon Reports:

To this, Painter responded by saying that social events are different from meetings — a distinction that may well come under further scrutiny in Issa’s probe. However, Politico’s Sherman notes:

The Obama activities targeted by Issa are hardly new. Top aides in previous White Houses were involved with reelection efforts in their spare time. Experts and lawyers have said publicly that all of what the Obama team is doing is above board, and a White House aide provided Politico with more than a dozen news clips and videos showing previous presidents using the trappings of the presidency in similar ways.

Read More At Salon.com

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The Daily Beast Reports:

Republican presidential candidates are still vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, of course, but they are mainly going after President Obama’s economic record. That makes sense because the lagging economy is by far the top concern of voters. It also makes sense because with each passing month, the health-care law is woven more tightly into the fabric of American life and becomes more difficult to unravel.

David Axelrod, Obama’s top political adviser, says Republicans will make a mistake if they dwell next year on repealing the law. “The American people want to move forward. If there are problems with reform, fix it. They don’t want to start all over again,” he told me.

The article also reports that Republican candidates would have to not only repeal the bill, but formulate an alternative, which could be difficult.

Read More At TheDailyBeast.com

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