The Obama Diary

President Barack Obama waves from the Colonnade to visitors as they tour the White House grounds and gardens, Oct. 19, 2012. Members of the public were invited to tour the grounds as part of the 2012 White House Fall Garden Tours. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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NYT: If Mitt Romney and his vice-presidential running mate, Representative Paul Ryan, were to win next month’s election, the harm to women’s reproductive rights would extend far beyond the borders of the United States.

In this country, they would support the recriminalization of abortion with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and they would limit access to contraception and other services. But they have also promised to promote policies abroad that would affect millions of women in the world’s poorest countries, where lack of access to contraception, prenatal care and competent help at childbirth often results in serious illness and thousands of deaths yearly. And the wreckage would begin on Day 1 of a Romney administration.

….. House Republicans want to cut the nation’s investment in international family planning severely. Mr. Romney’s record of bending to suit the most extreme elements of the Republican Party suggests that he may well go along on this critical issue as well.

Full editorial here

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‏@BarackObama

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An Inch at a Time

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NYT: Three leading Democratic “super PACs” raised more money in September than in any other month this election cycle, officials said, underscoring the growing willingness of wealthy Democrats to bankroll groups whose existence they had long opposed.

Priorities USA Action, the group backing President Obama, will report raising $15.2 million in September, thanks in part to aggressive fund-raising by party leaders like former President Bill Clinton and Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago. The group has already reserved millions of dollars in advertising for the closing weeks of the campaign.

Majority PAC, which supports Senate Democrats, raised $10.4 million in September and has brought in an additional $9.7 million through mid-October, officials announced on Friday, a period during which the party’s chances of holding a majority in the chamber appeared to be improving. House Majority PAC, the Congressional Democrats’ super PAC arm, raised $5.9 million, a figure the group said it was on pace to double this month.

More here

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Racine, Oct 19 (Gregory Shaver/Journal Times)

The Journal Times: Celia Poole was outside Memorial Hall at 4:15 a.m. Friday waiting to get inside to see first lady Michelle Obama. When the doors opened at 10:30 a.m. she was one of the first inside and she was followed by approximately 2,500 more people.

…. So many people were inside that approximately 400 people were directed to the hall’s basement, where they were told they could hear the first lady but there was no video screen to see her.

But the first lady did not ignore those supporters. Even before she went up to the main floor and started talking to the crowd there, she went downstairs.

Linetta Davis, 38, an 8th grade teacher from Milwaukee who was in the basement, said it meant a lot for Obama to go downstairs. “With all the political discussion going on right now, it’s easy to feel overlooked,” Davis said, “but for the first lady to be aware people were downstairs and to acknowledge them meant a lot.” If she had been on the fence about who to vote for, she said that would have been a turning point for her.

More here

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Newseum

Wausau Daily Herald: …. The first lady appealed to the crowd — 980 people, plus 600 more in an overflow room — at Friday’s rally to vote early, when early voting starts Monday. And she asked the audience to encourage others to vote for her husband, noting that an election can be decided by just a few votes in each ward.

Wausau, October 19 (Wausau Daily Herald)

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@LJSearles

Thank amk

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Chron

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Mooooooooorning everyone ;-)