
President Obama boards Air Force One at Des Moines International Airport en route to Washington DC, May 24
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Morning everyone, back in a while

President Obama boards Air Force One at Des Moines International Airport en route to Washington DC, May 24
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Morning everyone, back in a while

President Barack Obama greets people in the audience at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service, an annual ceremony honoring law enforcement who were killed in the line of duty, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., May 15. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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NYT: President Obama and the Democrats raised $43.6 million in April, adding to the president’s edge over his rival, Mitt Romney, even as money continues to pour in to outside groups ahead of the fall campaign.
The $43.6 million is a slight dip from March, when Mr. Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised a combined $53 million. But it does not count several large fund-raisers — including one in Hollywood that reportedly raised $15 million — that took place in early May.
More here
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USA Today: Vice President Biden will deliver a blistering attack on Mitt Romney’s business career in a speech to be delivered later today in Youngstown, Ohio.
…. “He thinks that because he spent his career as a ‘businessman,’ he has the experience to run the economy,” Biden plans to say. “In the 1990s, there was a steel mill in Kansas City, Missouri. It had been in business since 1888. Then Romney and his partners bought the company. Eight years later it went bankrupt.”
The vice president goes on to tell the story of GST Steel, one of the companies taken over by Bain Capital that didn’t fare as well as, say, Staples or Sports Authority.
It’s the same company the Obama campaign will feature tonight in a two-minute campaign ad airing briefly in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado and Iowa.
More here
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TPM: A new Quinnipiac poll shows that President Barack Obama is a strong favorite to win New Jersey in November — even when he is matched up against the Garden State’s popular governor.
In the statewide poll of registered voters, Obama bests presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, 49 percent to 39 percent. For a state that has voted Democratic in the past five presidential elections, that is not necessarily surprising. But the poll gets intriguing when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie enters the equation. When Quinnipiac asked voters to decide between the incumbent ticket of Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and a Republican ticket of Romney and Christie, the president’s team still comes out on top — 50 percent to 42 percent.
More here
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ThinkProgress: The White House has issued a veto threat should the House version of the Violence Against Women Act reach the President’s desk.
In a statement, the administration said that the House version of the bill is unacceptable. Sponsored Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL), the House version removes the protections for marginalized communities, stripping out provisions that were passed in the Senate version of the bill.
More here
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10:30: President Obama holds a roundtable discussion with small business owners and SBA Administrator Karen Mills.
11:30: Meets for lunch with Congressional Leadership.
12:00: VP Biden delivers remarks at a campaign event in Youngstown, Ohio.
1:10: Jay Carney briefs the press.
3:10: PBO awards Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., U.S. Army, the Medal of Honor; Michelle Obama also attends.
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Morning everyone
See the non-shaky video at ABC! (Thanks UT)
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Wednesday: PBO will deliver remarks in the Washington, DC area, where he will continue to call on Congress to act on a “To Do List” that will create jobs and help restore middle class security. Also on Wednesday, the President will award Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., U.S. Army, the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry. The First Lady will also attend.
Thursday: PBO will attend meetings at the White House.
Friday: PBO will deliver the opening keynote to the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC. Later on Friday, the President will travel to Camp David for the G-8 Summit, which will address a broad range of economic, political and security issues. The President will remain overnight at Camp David.
Saturday: PBO will remain at Camp David for the G-8 Summit. Later on Saturday, the President will travel to Chicago where he will welcome NATO allies and partners to his hometown for the NATO Summit on May 20-21. The First Lady will travel to Chicago with the President.
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ABC: …. When asked whether his crooning embarrassed his daughters, he retold a story from his 50th birthday party last summer, explaining that they think he’s “embarrassing, but not too embarrassing.”
“Malia and Sasha and a bunch of my friends and Michelle had sort of like a roast, a little private roast, each one of them read something and Malia and Sasha had written out why I am such a wonderful dad. And they had this list, it was so sweet and one of the items on Malia’s list was you are just the right amount of embarrassing,” he said to laughter from the audience.


More clips here – full show at 11 AM ET today
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10:55: PBO delivers remarks at the National Peace Officers Memorial
2:15: Welcomes Major League Soccer champions, the LA Galaxy, to the White House
3:0: Michelle Obama hosts a Let’s Move! soccer event with students from across the country and the Major League Soccer champions, the LA Galaxy, in the State Dining Room
7:0: PBO and Michelle Obama host a dinner for the Combatant Commanders and spouses at the White House, VP Biden also attends

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OFA: “I need to sit down…” That’s what Beth, a teacher in New Jersey, said when she found out she was one of the grassroots supporters who had won the chance to meet President Obama at a fundraiser at George Clooney’s house.
…. “When the President arrived, we went into George Clooney’s living room. The anticipation of actually meeting him … I didn’t want to mess up! But the President was so calm and down to earth, it put us right at ease.”
….Beth: “It was like meeting a friend. As a teacher, I thanked him for his STEM initiatives. And we talked about his daughters, what sports they’re in, and how he misses having time with them now that they’re older and busy with activities. He said when they run into the house they go blasting by and give him a peck on the cheek. The day before we left the President spoke out in support of gay marriage, and when I saw how he talked about his daughters’ reaction … it’s neat that he cared about how they see the world.”
More here
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Tom Junod: …… And so it was with a shock of recognition that I heard last week’s revelations that Mitt Romney was a prep-school bully …. he blew the report off. Mitt Romney said that he didn’t remember the incidents in question – that he didn’t remember orchestrating an attack on a long-haired classmate, that he didn’t remember pinning the boy down and personally taking the scissors to him, that he didn’t remember the boy weeping and begging for mercy. Mitt Romney apologized for “whatever pain” his “prank” may have caused ….. He has to remember, because no one forgets doing something like that, and the ones who do forget….
…… What if Mitt Romney is telling the truth? What if he doesn’t remember because he thought nothing of it? The language of his statement suggests that he’s copping to being a prankster but not a bully ….long ago, I made an innocent kid suffer; one of the great gifts of my life is that I suffered in return. Mitt Romney doesn’t appear to have suffered at all for the suffering he inflicted; but as one lucky enough to have broken the mean bone in my body and to have worn it in a sling, I can tell him that what he’s accused of doing to the boy whose hair and existence was such an affront to him was not a prank; it was a punishment, to both the victim and the perpetrators. The victim almost certainly remembered it to the day he died; the least the perpetrator can do, if only for himself, is to try and do the same.
Full post here
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Charles Pierce: So truthless hack Ed Klein is back with another book, this one about Barack Obama, and it’s pretty much as bad as you think any book would be that the New York Post would choose to excerpt. None of which should matter to any thinking primate, except as an excuse to savor, once again, the greatest segment in the history of the late Air America radio network – see here
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From yesterday:

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Morning everyone
by Barnard College president Debora L Spar

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Audience members applaud President Obama as he appears on a taped episode of The View


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