Democracy
TOP NEWS: Democracy: July 13, 2012
- Rice’s Name Is Floated as Potential VP Choice
- Pennsylvania Is Key to Republican Vote-Blocking
- Lines Are Drawn Over Opting Out of Medicaid Plan
- Candidates Racing for Future, Gaze Fixed on the Past
- Campaigns Trade Salvos Over Romney Bain After 1999
Excerpts and More Top Stories
ELECTION 2012: Rice’s Name Is Floated as Potential VP Choice
Patrick O’Connor and Sara Murray, Wall Street Journal – A new round of speculation about Mitt Romney’s running-mate deliberations ensued after a media report mentioned an unconventional choice: former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
VOTER RIGHTS: Pennsylvania Is Key to Republican Vote-Blocking
Jonathan Alter, Bloomberg – If Judge Robert Simpson upholds a new Pennsylvania election law at the end of this month and the decision survives appeal, hundreds of thousands of voters, most of them Democrats, may be disenfranchised.
HEALTHCARE: Lines Are Drawn Over Opting Out of Medicaid Plan
Abby Goodnough, NY Times – A battle is brewing here in Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott took to national television soon after the ruling to announce that he would reject the expansion. Advocates for the poor and some players in the health care industry — especially hospitals, a powerful political lobby — intend to push back.
ELECTION 2012: Candidates Racing for Future, Gaze Fixed Firmly on the Past
Peter Baker, NY Times – President Obama’s re-election slogan is “Forward.” But at a time when the country faces an uncertain future economically and internationally, the conversation in the capital and on the campaign trail has dwelled largely on the past as the two contenders for the White House and their allies spend their time and energy relitigating old fights rather than focusing on new ideas for the next four years.
BAIN/ROMNEY: Campaigns Trade Salvos Over a Romney Role at Bain After 1999
Michael D. Shear, NY Times – For weeks, President Obama’s top campaign strategists have tried to establish that Mitt Romney was at the helm of Bain Capital when some of its companies moved workers overseas. But definitive proof about Mr. Romney’s activities remains elusive…
ELECTION 2012: Romney’s New Strategy: Frame Obama as Just Another Politician
Christina Bellantoni and Terence Burlij, PBS News Hour – Mitt Romney and his Republican allies have signaled a new strategy in an attempt to undermine something that was a strength for President Obama in 2008: Tell voters that the president is just like every other politician.
ELECTION 2012: Joe Biden at NAACP: Mitt Romney a threat
Reid J. Epstein, Politico – Vice President Joe Biden came to the NAACP Thursday with a booming message: President Barack Obama needs their help, and Mitt Romney and the Republicans in Congress will hurt them.
ELECTION 2012: Obama Holds Lead; Romney Trails on Most Issues 51% – 44%
Pew Research Center – Despite a steep increase in campaign advertising and other campaign activities in many key battleground states over the past month, there has been no shift in voter preferences. Currently, Obama holds a slim 51% to 44% margin among voters in 12 of the most competitive states.
HEALTHCARE: Why all govs will opt into ‘Obamacare’
Jennifer Granholm, Politico, Opinon – Southern govs to secede from health care? Right. Just like they have from Medicaid expansion. Good luck with that. All this talk about governors opting out of Medicaid expansion in “Obamacare” is startlingly similar to what happened when Medicaid was launched in 1966.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS: Lawsuit Tries to Block New Arizona Abortion Law
Erik Eckholm, NY Times – A group of doctors and women’s rights advocates challenged Arizona’s new abortion limits in a federal lawsuit on Thursday, claiming that they violate the Constitution and pose a threat to women’s health.
LEGISLATION: Split Among House Republicans Over How Deeply to Cut Farm Bill
Ron Nixon, NY Times – The first major overhaul of the nation’s nutrition and farm program is in jeopardy because of a split in the ranks of House Republicans over the degree of spending cuts, pitting conservatives who want deeper cuts against moderates and Democrats who think the bill goes far enough at a time of weak economic growth.
ROBERTS: How to understand John Roberts
Jeffrey Rosen, The New Republic – Conservatives have long feared that Roberts might care too much about seeking common ground with liberal justices. While his political beliefs and judicial philosophy are conservative, Roberts employs a more conciliatory style
ENERGY: How Fossil-Fuel Democrats Became An Endangered Species
Joel Kotkin, The Daily Beast – In an election pivoting on jobs, energy could be the issue that comes back to haunt Barack Obama and the Democratic Party as the cultural and ideological schism between energy-producing Republican states and energy-dependent Democratic ones widens.
More on Election 2012
ELECTION 2012: Mitt Romney faces new round of calls to release tax returns
Philip Rucker, Washington Post – Six months after Mitt Romney’s reluctance to release his tax returns tripped him up in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary, the now-presumptive nominee is once again grappling with whether to disclose more information about his personal finances amid mounting pressure from his opponents.
ELECTION 2012: Bill Clinton: Attacks on Mitt are legit
Mackenzie Weinger, Politico -Bill Clinton says Mitt Romney’s record at Bain is “relevant” to investigate since the Republican is running for president on his business experience.
BAIN/ROMNEY: Do Bain SEC documents suggest Mitt Romney is a criminal?
Robert Bauer, Washington Post – We had examined many SEC documents related to Romney and Bain in January, and concluded that much of the language saying Romney was “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president” was boilerplate that did not reveal whether he was actually managing Bain at the time.
BAIN/ROMNEY: Former Olympic colleagues defend Mitt Romney
Darren Samuelson and Josh Gerstein, Politico -Getting the Salt Lake City games into shape after an international bribery scandal was a grueling task that demanded nearly all of Romney’s time, former colleagues from both sides of the political aisle said.
ELECTION 2012: At the NAACP, Mitt Romney got what he came for
Melinda Henneberger, Washington Post, Opinon – Instead of getting more credit than he deserved for strategically standing up to his own supporters, as Bill Clinton did in 1992 when he took on a hip-hop singer’s comment about killing white people — way out on a limb, right? — Romney is getting more credit than he deserves for strategically standing up to voters who weren’t going to pick him anyway.
ELECTION 2012: Rove hits big: The birth of a mega-donor
Kenneth P. Vogel and Steve Friess, Politico – In the new Wild West of giving and getting campaign money, the marriage of casino mogul Steve Wynn and political guru Karl Rove was an exceptionally powerful — and secretive — one.
ELECTION 2012: President Obama, Mitt Romney and truth in outsourcing
Grover G. Norquist and Patrick Gleason, Politico, Opinion – The gang in Chicago has dubbed Mitt Romney the “outsourcer-in-chief” from his time at Bain Capital and the team in Boston highlights how much taxpayer money President Barack Obama has sent abroad to create jobs in Scandinavia. Yet both arguments miss the mark when it comes to the true cause of outsourcing.
ELECTION 2012: A Subdued Race in a Time of Crisis
Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal – The 2012 presidential election is unusual. It is a crisis election like 1932 or 1980, with the American people knowing we’re at a turning point and knowing that who we pick now really matters. But crisis elections tend to bring drama—a broad sense of excitement and passion. We’re not seeing that this year.
ELECTION 2012: Romney’s Government of the 0.01 Percent
Paul Krugman, NY Times – “Is there a V.I.P. entrance? We are V.I.P.” That remark, by a donor waiting to get in to one of Mitt Romney’s recent fund-raisers in the Hamptons, pretty much sums up the attitude of America’s wealthy elite. Mr. Romney’s base — never mind the top 1 percent, we’re talking about the top 0.01 percent or higher — is composed of very self-important people.
ELECTION 2012: As Obama goes on trail in military-rich Va., GOP points to proposed defense cuts
Amy Gardner, Washington Post – Republicans are launching an aggressive effort to blame President Obama for deep cuts due to hit the Pentagon next year, spotlighting a potentially dangerous issue for the president a day ahead of a two-day campaign swing through military-rich Virginia.
ELECTION 2012: Why Obama May Be Stronger Than His Approval Ratings
Nate Silver, NY Times, Op-Ed – There is a small but reasonably persistent gap between President Obama’s net approval ratings and his head-to-head polls against Mitt Romney. Whereas Mr. Obama’s approval ratings have been almost exactly breaking even for most of the past few months, he has more often than not enjoyed a slight lead in head-to-head polls against Mr. Romney.
ELECTION 2012: Obama’s Risky Campaign Strategy
James Taranto, Wall Street Journal – The campaign’s narrow appeals to particular voting blocs could alienate other Democratic or swing voters.
ELECTION 2012: Green Party Strains to Be Heard Now That Its Voice Isn’t Nader’s
Susan Saulny, NY Times – When Jill Stein officially accepts the nomination at the Green Party’s convention this weekend in Baltimore, she will be the party’s first candidate to have qualified for federal matching funds — a milestone for this 11-year-old alternative party and potentially a major boost for a campaign that does not accept corporate donations.
