Democracy
TOP NEWS: Democracy: July 12, 2012
- Romney Speaks to the N.A.A.C.P.
- Romney Faces Calls to Deliver Counterpunch
- Eric Holder vows to aggressively challenge voter ID laws
- Toward a Supreme Court Showdown
- Insurers Pay Big Markups as Doctors Dispense Drugs
Excerpts and More Top Stories
ELECTIONS 2012: To Boos and Polite Applause, Romney Speaks to the N.A.A.C.P.
Ashley Parker and Michael D. Shear, NY Times — Mitt Romney appeared on Wednesday before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People with a bold claim: “If you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him,” Mr. Romney said. -video-
ELECTIONS 2012: Romney Faces Calls to Deliver Counterpunch
Jeff Zeleny and Ashley Parker, NY Times - Mitt Romney’s restraint over the last two weeks has opened a round of second-guessing about his insistent focus on the economy.
ELECTIONS 2012: New Romney TV Ad Rebuts Obama Charges On Outsourcing at Bain
Terence Burlij and Katelyn Polantz, PBS - Mitt Romney is fighting fire with fire. The presumptive Republican presidential candidate released a new television ad Thursday taking aim at President Obama’s charges that he was responsible for outsourcing jobs during his time at the private equity firm Bain Capital.
ELECTIONS 2012: Obama and outsourcing: a guide to the GOP’s charges
Glenn Kessler, Washington Post – The Obama campaign has made unsupported charges about Romney’s record on outsourcing while at Bain Capital, and now Republicans want to try to argue that the stimulus law is, in effect, Obama’s Bain Capital — and that Obama did even worse things than he is accusing Romney of. But this is a slippery slope into silly season.
ELECTION 2012: Money gap may not matter so much in November
T.W. Farnam, Washington Post – Top Obama officials would have you believe they are in desperate financial trouble. Their e-mailed pleas for cash bleed with urgency: “We could lose if this continues.” “A big problem right now.” “This is no joke.”
ELECTION 2012: Cheney to Hold Campaign Fundraiser in Wyoming
Colleen McCain Nelson, Wall Street Journal – Former Vice President Dick Cheney will open his Wyoming home Thursday for a Mitt Romney fundraiser, underscoring the complex relationship the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has with the last GOP administration
ELECTION 2012: No Sign of Voter Polarization Waning
Gerald F. Seib, Wall Street Journal, Opinion – Though many in Washington don’t like to admit it, one of the reasons the capital is so polarized is that the country itself is polarized. And so far, there is little to suggest that the campaign of 2012 will do much to change that.
ELECTION 2012: Obama’s Shrinking Majority
Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal, Opinion – Elections are about numbers, and right now the President’s are bad. To understand why, consider 2008 as a reference point. That year, Barack Obama received 69,456,897 votes to John McCain’s 59,934,814. But a big chunk of President Obama’s 9.5 million-vote advantage is probably gone.
ELECTION 2012: Mitt Romney at Bain Capital longer than admitted, report says
Mackenzie Weinger, Politico – New questions are being raised about Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital after a bombshell report Thursday that he stayed as CEO of the private equity firm for years longer than he has previously admitted.
ELECTION 2012: Romney’s fundraising background pays off
Anna Fifield, Financial Times – Mr Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, is bringing in cash at a blistering pace, outraising Barack Obama during the past two months
ELECTION 2012: How Raising Taxes Can Be a Winning Issue for Obama
Ezra Klein, Bloomberg, Opinon – This week, Obama scheduled a special statement in the East Room of the White House to announce that he would raise taxes on the rich. Insofar as this election can be reduced to a single policy question, it’s this: Which is more unpopular? Raising taxes? Or refusing to raise taxes on the rich?
VOTER RIGHTS: Eric Holder vows to aggressively challenge voter ID laws
Sam Horwitz, Washington Post – Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday vowed to be “aggressive” in challenging voting laws that restrict minority rights, using a speech in Texas to make his case on the same day a federal court was considering the legality of the state’s new voter ID legislation
SUPREME COURT: Toward a Supreme Court Showdown
New York Times, Editorial – Six federal courts have ruled on the Defense of Marriage Act and reached the same conclusion: the 1996 law violates the Constitution by denying same-sex couples, who are legally married under state law, federal benefits afforded to heterosexual couples for no good reason. The issue has now officially landed at the Supreme Court.
HEALTHCARE: Insurers Pay Big Markups as Doctors Dispense Drugs
Barry Meier and Katie Thomas, NY Times – Doctors operating their own in-office pharmacies are raising the costs for insurance companies, employers and taxpayers.
HEALTHCARE: Medicaid expansion a tough sell to governors of both parties
N.C. Aizenman and Karen Tumulty, Washington Post – While the resistance of Republican governors has dominated the debate over the health-care law in the wake of last month’s Supreme Court decision to uphold it, a number of Democratic governors are also quietly voicing concerns about a key provision to expand coverage.
HEALTHCARE: Repeal of Health Care Law Approved, Again, by House
Robert Pear, NY Times – The House passed a bill on Wednesday to repeal President Obama’s health care overhaul law less than two weeks after the Supreme Court upheld it. It has no chance of approval in the Senate and would face a veto from Mr. Obama, but the House debate suggested that the fight would continue next year, regardless of who wins in November.
HEALTCARE: Still no GOP plan to ‘replace’
Jake Sherman and Matt Dobias, Politico – Even as they cheer their “Obamacare” repeal vote, here’s a reality check: House Republicans have done next to nothing they promised they would when it comes to health care.
LEGISLATION: House Agriculture Committee Agrees on Farm Bill
Ron Nixon, NY Times – The bill cuts $12 billion more from the food stamps program than a Senate bill passed last month and adds several new crop insurance and price support programs to protect farmers during natural disasters or when prices fall.
TAXES: President Presses Democrats to Support Tax Plan
Janet Hook and Laura Meckler, Wall Street Journal – President Barack Obama used a White House meeting Wednesday to rally Democratic leaders behind his proposal to raise taxes on families with adjusted gross income above $250,000, an issue that people in both parties see as working to their advantage.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS: U.S. Judge Again Stalls Mississippi Abortion Law
Cameron McWhirter, Wall Street Journal – A federal judge on Wednesday extended a temporary restraining order that blocks a new Mississippi law requiring abortion doctors to have visiting privileges at a local hospital. U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan III in Jackson, Miss., issued the indefinite extension after hearing two hours of arguments from the state, which defended the law as a regulation to protect women’s health, and from lawyers representing Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic, who argued that the law is unconstitutional and geared to put the clinic out of business
SUPREME COURT: The Mystery of John Roberts
Linda Greenhouse, NY Times, Op-Ed - I’m not surprised by the claim that the crucial vote by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to uphold the health-care mandate under the Congressional tax power represented a late switch, having suggested that scenario myself in a column written the day of the decision. But I’m amazed by the leaks (to be clear, I had none) and by the invective that continues to be heaped on the chief justice.
JESSE JACKSON, JR: For a Soaring Political Career, Uncertain Turns
Monica Davey, NY Times – A few years ago, the political career of Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr. was soaring. But Mr. Jackson’s prospects have tumbled precipitously since the end of 2008. Most recently, Mr. Jackson, 47, has been absent from Congress since June 10, and in the last few weeks his office has released three brief statements, which seemed to set off as many questions as they answered.
