3:0 CDT: President Obama delivers remarks at The Delta Center, Milwaukee
CBS * CNN * Fox6
Greatest. Dress. Ever:
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Later today:
5:25 CDT: Delivers remarks at Washington Park, Dubuque
10:40 ET: Delivers remarks at Jiffy Lube Live, Bristow (with Bill Clinton)
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Coming up:
Sunday: The President will remain at Camp David and has no public events scheduled.
Monday: The President will travel to Boca Raton, Florida where he will participate in the third Presidential Debate at Lynn University. The First Lady will also attend. The President and the First Lady will stay overnight in Boca Raton, Florida.
Tuesday: The President will travel to Delray, Florida and Dayton, Ohio for campaign events. He will return to Washington, DC in the evening.
Later in the week, the President will visit six states in two days. He will make stops in Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Virginia, Illinois and Ohio, sleeping on Air Force One and spending time calling undecided voters and volunteers, the campaign said Sunday.
Adapting the campaign’s “Forward.” motto, the trip is being billed as the “America Forward!” tour.
He will begin Wednesday in Iowa, then travel to Denver for a rally and then on to Las Vegas for a late night grassroots event.
Rather than staying in a hotel, Obama will get back aboard Air Force One for a red eye flight to a Thursday grassroots rally in Tampa, Fla., and an event on the tarmac in Richmond, Va.
Then, he’ll travel west again to Chicago to cast his vote under Illinois early voting rules. The President will wrap up his travels with a grassroots event in Cleveland on Thursday night.
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Cagle
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Thank you Mary
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Helloooooooo everyone! Just a word for all the new people trying to join in on the chat the last while, including a few today - thanks a million, but in an effort to keep out the trolls please read here first: House Rules
Thanks.
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Today:
2:45 ET: Michelle Obama speaks at a campaign event at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware
5:45 ET: Michelle Obama speaks at a campaign event at Cuyahoga County Community College, Cleveland
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NYT Editorial: There are many unanswered questions about the vicious assault in Benghazi last month that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. And Congress has a responsibility to raise them. But Republican lawmakers leading the charge on Capitol Hill seem more interested in attacking President Obama than in formulating an effective response.
It doesn’t take a partisan to draw that conclusion. The ugly truth is that the same people who are accusing the administration of not providing sufficient security for the American consulate in Benghazi have voted to cut the State Department budget, which includes financing for diplomatic security. The most self-righteous critics don’t seem to get the hypocrisy, or maybe they do and figure that if they hurl enough doubts and complaints at the administration, they will deflect attention from their own poor judgments on the State Department’s needs.
More here
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Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, October 13 (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
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Washington Post: President Obama is regarded as significantly more honest and trustworthy than Mitt Romney in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll — a finding that could inform the incumbent’s strategy heading into the second debate of the general election Tuesday night.
Fifty-five percent of likely voters said that Obama is “honest and trustworthy,” while 41 percent said he was not. For Romney, on the other hand, 47 percent said he could be described as honest and trustworthy, while an equal 47 percent said that he could not.
…. But in the handful of swing states identified by the Post (along with Democratic-leaning Ohio), Obama’s lead is even more pronounced on the question. Fifty-six percent of swing-state voters said the incumbent is honest and trustworthy, while just 44 percent said the same of Romney.
More here
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Virginia Gazette: …. The president arrived at the office, where he came into the lobby carrying a stack of pizzas …. he introduced himself to a small group of campaign workers in the lobby before heading into a back room, where 11 volunteers were phone banking. Obama introduced himself to the volunteers before taking a seat between Alexa Kissinger and Suzanne Stern to make his own phone calls to local volunteers. “I’ve got to get to work,” Obama said.
After joking with Stern about “old school” phones Obama …. then called Ellen and Chuck Hawkins. “Is this Ellen?” Obama asked. “Ellen this is Barack Obama.” Hawkins seemed not to believe she was getting a call from the president of the United States.
“It is. It is. Really, truly,” Obama said. “I’m over here in the Williamsburg office. They have told me some of the great folks that have been doing work, and I know you and Chuck have been working so hard.”
After making phone calls Obama, shook hands with and hugged a line of roughly 20 volunteers standing outside in front of the office, before heading back to Kingsmill to continue preparing for the debate.
With campaign volunteer Suzanne Stern at a campaign office in Williamsburg, October 14 (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
AP
OFA
…. greeting supporters outside the Williamsburg campaign office (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
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NYT: BOSTON — When the ceiling collapsed in the Big Dig tunnel here, Gov. Mitt Romney was at his vacation home in New Hampshire. When the Bush administration warned that the nation was at high risk of a terror attack in December 2003, he was at his Utah retreat. And for much of the time the legislature was negotiating changes to his landmark health care bill, he was on the road.
During Mr. Romney’s four-year term as governor of Massachusetts, he cumulatively spent more than a year - part or all of 417 days - out of the state, according to a review of his schedule and other records. More than 70 percent of that time was spent on personal or political trips unrelated to his job, a New York Times analysis found.
More here
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Reuters: U.S. retail sales rose in September as Americans bought more cars and gasoline, while a gauge of consumer spending pointed to stronger-than-expected economic growth in the third quarter.
Retail sales increased 1.1 percent, the Commerce Department said on Monday, beating expectations after an upwardly revised 1.2 percent rise in August.
…. The details of the report showed broad strength across retailers, with sales of motor vehicles and parts up 1.3 percent … Other categories were also strong, with sales at electronics retailers up 4.5 percent, while sales at food and beverage stores rose 1.2 percent.
More here - thank you DesertFlower
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Melissa Harris-Perry interview with President Obama in the November edition
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Mooooooooooorning everyone. I’m late starting today, had to go out and about earlier, but will check to see what news I’m missing. Happy Monday ;-)
Steve Benen: …. I watch a whole lot of Obama’s speeches, and I’d say he seemed a little more fired up than usual. (Pay particular attention to his tone of voice in the last 90 seconds.)
Las Vegas, August 22
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Politico: President Obama said he’s beating Mitt Romney “by a few points” and said time is running out in the 2012 presidential election.
“I can’t resist a basketball analogy,” he told donors at a Lincoln Center fundraiser that featured NBA commissioner David Stern and current and former basketball stars including Michael Jordan. “We are in the fourth quarter. We’re up by a few points but the other side is coming strong and they, they, they play a little dirty. We’ve got a few folks on our team in foul trouble. We’ve got a couple of injuries and I believe that they’ve got one last run in them.”
“I’d say there’s about seven minutes to go in the game. And Michael’s competitiveness is legendary and nobody knows better than Michael that if you’ve got a little bit of a lead and there’s about seven minutes ago, that’s when you put them away.”
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Cagle
Politico: President Obama mocked Missouri Rep. Todd Akin here, telling a fundraising crowd packed with pro basketball stars that the embattled Senate candidate “somehow missed science class.”
“Recently some of you have been paying attention to the commentary about the senator from Missouri, Mr. Akin,” Obama said. “The interesting thing here is that this, this is an individual who sits on the House Committee on Science and Technology but somehow missed science class. And it’s representative of the desire to go backwards instead of forwards and fight fights that we thought were settled 20 or 30 years ago.”
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A young boy salutes President Obama after the President spoke at the NALEO Conference in Orlando (Pete Souza)
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President Obama holds 10-month-old Jameson Reeder at the Orlando International Airport
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NALEO conference, Lake Buena Vista, Florida
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President Obama greets people after arriving at Tampa International Airport
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President Obama speaks to an overflow room before a campaign rally at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa
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Hillsborough Community College, Tampa
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President Barack Obama returns to the White House from the Los Cabos G-20 Summit, June 20
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Sensible people, of course, ignore polls at this point ….. so, I’m sure most of the media will ignore this one:
Bloomberg: Barack Obama has opened a significant lead over Mitt Romney in a Bloomberg National Poll … Obama leads Romney 53% to 40% among likely voters …
The survey shows Romney has yet to repair the damage done to his image during the Republican primary. Thirty-nine percent of Americans view him favorably, about the same as when he announced his presidential candidacy last June, while 48% see him unfavorably - a 17% point jump during a nomination fight dominated by attacks ads. A majority of likely voters, 55%, view him as more out of touch with average Americans compared with 36% who say the president is more out of touch….
……. Beyond Romney’s low favorability ratings, the poll reflects perceived weaknesses for the Republican challenger both in style and substance. Only 31 percent of likely voters say they’d want to sit next to Romney on a long airplane flight, compared with 57 percent who prefer Obama as a seat mate.
Full article here
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Washington Post: The seven Bain Capital founders believed they were so destined to make millions that the young men posed for a photo on the grand marble staircase of Boston’s Copley Place with $10 and $20 bills popping out of their shirt collars, tucked behind their eyeglasses and clutched in their teeth.
… At the 1984 photo shoot, Romney and his partners were celebrating not only their new company but also the ethos of their era …. years later, as Romney pursued the presidency, the photo surfaced on the front page of the Boston Globe, part of the newspaper’s 2007 biographical series about Romney…
“I was stunned when I saw it,” said Graham, who was not in the picture. “I was upset. I thought it was tacky. I thought it was inappropriate. They must’ve done it in a moment of giddiness.”
…. Robert Shrum, a longtime Democratic strategist … called it “an iconic image of what could be perceived of greed or a total focus only on the bottom line and making a buck. That’s why it’s so powerful. It’s iconic.”
… The founders came to Bain from different backgrounds, yet they were a homogenous group. Each was white and male, and by 1994, a decade after the company started, there were still no black or Hispanic employees among the 40 professionals and eight support staff members, the Boston Globe reported at the time.
Full article here
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Washington Post: Republicans’ emerging problem with Latino voters looks even worse when you factor in the electoral college.
A look at Latino population trends in swing and key red states shows just how ominous the GOP’s future could be if it doesn’t do something about its current struggles with Latino voters.
We noted yesterday that nationwide population and minority voting trends paint a haunting picture for the GOP. But the problem is particularly acute because of the states where Latino growth has been strongest — particularly several key swing states and red states that Democrats are hoping to put in play in the coming elections…..
More here
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Cagle
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Washington Post: The tax reform plan that House Republicans have advanced would sharply cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and could leave middle-class households facing much larger tax bills, according to a new analysis set to be released Wednesday.
The report, prepared by Senate Democrats and reviewed by nonpartisan tax experts, marks the first attempt to quantify the trade-offs inherent in the GOP tax package, which would replace the current tax structure with two brackets — 25 percent and 10 percent — and cut the top rate from 35 percent.
…. The net result: Married couples in that income range would pay an additional $2,700 annually to the Internal Revenue Service, on top of the tax increases that are scheduled to hit every American household when the George W. Bush-era cuts expire at the end of the year.
Households earning more than $1 million a year, meanwhile, could see a net tax cut of about $300,000 annually.
Full article here
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Denver Post: First lady Michelle Obama will speak in Colorado today as part of an outreach campaign aimed at grassroots supporters.
…. she will start the two-stop state tour at Arapahoe High School in Centennial at 10:30 a.m. and will then travel to the Creative Arts Building at the Colorado State Fairgrounds in Pueblo around 1:40 p.m.
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Thanks Jovie
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Morning everyone ;-)
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