Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Jim DeMint's Support of Tea Party Candidates Could Boost His Senate Profile


When Marco Rubio embarked on his campaign for the Republican nomination in the U.S. Senate race in Florida, he had very little public support among Republican power brokers, who overwhelmingly backed Charlie Crist, Florida governor and odds-on favorite at the time.
Enter Jim DeMint.
The junior Republican senator from South Carolina, who has developed a reputation for bucking authority in the Capitol, met with Rubio, the former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, in Washington on May 12, 2009. DeMint liked what he heard enough to endorse Rubio a month later. Rubio now has a commanding lead in the polls over Democrat Kendrick Meek and independent Crist, who bolted the GOP when it became clear he would lose to Rubio in the primary.
Rubio is among candidates DeMint has backed in the midterm elections as part of a multimillion-dollar effort to push the Senate's Republican caucus to the right. Those candidates -- mostly associated with the Tea Party movement -- also could help DeMint consolidate a leadership role in the Senate, assuming some or all of them win.
DeMint's early support of the then-relatively unknown Rubio did not go unnoticed. Across the country, other outsider, conservative hopefuls approached DeMint, looking for help in their battles against the establishment.
"There was a line of candidates down the street who wanted to talk to him," said Matt Hoskins, a spokesman for DeMint's political action committee, the Senate Conservatives Fund.
In an effort to bring more like-minded conservatives to the Senate, DeMint endorsed and funded alternative candidates in Republican primaries throughout the country. His Senate Conservatives Fund is still supporting 10 of these candidates in their general election bids, and all but one, Delaware's Christine O'Donnell, are either leading in the polls or in very competitive races.
When the victors arrive in Washington in January -- and political analysts project four to nine of the DeMint picks will win -- they will bring with them a heightened level of influence and power for their benefactor within the Republican Party.
DeMint's goal throughout the election season has been to steer the Senate to the right. With his own re-election assured well before the Nov. 2 vote, DeMint focused his efforts on raising money for the types of conservatives he'd like to serve with in the Senate, especially those with an appetite for reigning in the federal budget. DeMint regularly found himself the only national Republican supporting certain candidates.
"He was the first one," said Owen Loftus, spokesman for Ken Buck, the Republican nominee for Senate in Colorado. "It wasn't until after the primary that others followed."
And DeMint has given more than his name to these candidates. Hoskins estimated that the Senate Conservatives Fund has spent more than $4 million so far on the 10 Senate candidates DeMint is backing.
In the process of nudging the Senate to the right, DeMint almost inevitably will provide a boost to his own influence within the chamber.
"DeMint is a faction leader now," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "He'll have some votes. When you have votes that you can potentially deliver, you have power."
Sabato and other Beltway experts foresee the formation of a small but outspoken Tea Party caucus within the Senate Republicans. The belief is that these new senators will regularly side with DeMint because of a shared view of the role of government and, perhaps, a sense of debt.
"They will come in with sort of a natural affinity in terms of their ideas," said Robert Oldendick, a professor of political science at the University of South Carolina. "Plus, given the role that DeMint is playing in each of their campaigns, there is some kind of, 'OK, I owe some chips to this guy.' So he has become the de facto leader of this."
Hoskins insisted that DeMint's support of these candidates comes with no strings attached. But he expressed optimism that an influx of DeMint-backed candidates could change the direction of the Republican caucus in the Senate.
"I think you're going to see maybe a little more fight from the Republican Party in terms of its principles," Hoskins said. "A lot of people just focus on the numbers but in the Senate sometimes you don't need to have 50 votes. You need three people willing to stand up and speak out on something. If you've got that you can begin to rally the American people and before long you have 50 votes."
Some observers question DeMint's motives in getting so involved in the midterm elections. They claim DeMint is angling to become the Republican leader in the Senate or even to run for president. But Hoskins said DeMint's sole goal is to pack with the Senate with fellow hard-right conservatives.
"He wants to support these candidates to strengthen the Senate," Hoskins said.

Rick Santorum Chris Dodd Sharron Angle Pat Toomey Jan Brewer

California?s Brown Leads Whitman Among Female Voters




Jerry Brown, the Democrat running for governor of California, is drawing more support from women than Republican Meg Whitman even as a recording of an aide calling her a ?whore? hangs over their final scheduled debate.
Brown led Whitman among likely women voters 47 percent to 37 percent in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll Oct. 3, up from a virtual tie, 45 percent-44 percent, on Sept. 20. The results came after Whitman was accused of employing an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper, though before the Los Angeles Times published the ?whore? recording Oct. 8.
Whitman, 54, the former EBay Inc. chief executive officer, has spent $119 million of her own fortune, a U.S. record by a self-funded candidate, as she battles Brown, 72, to run the state with the most people and the biggest economy in the nation. The two are to appear in a debate tonight moderated by former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.
?Brown supporters will stay with Brown, Whitman supporters will be somewhat outraged and continue supporting Whitman,? said Ann Crigler, a professor of politics at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Brown spent $10.7 million on his campaign from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 and had a fund balance of $22.6 million, according to the California secretary of state?s office. Whitman spent $120.6 million in that period, with $9.2 million remaining.
?An Insult?
The recorded slur won?t change Brown?s standing with women voters since Brown himself didn?t say it, Crigler said in a telephone interview.
Brown, California?s governor for two terms, from 1975 to 1983, and now attorney general, was inadvertently recorded by voicemail after leaving a message for a Los Angeles police union official. In a conversation about a potential advertisement over pension issues, an aide says, ?What about saying she?s a whore?? according to the Times.
?The use of the term ?whore? is an insult to both Meg Whitman and to the women of California,? Whitman spokeswoman Sarah Pompei said in an Oct. 7 statement. ?This is an appalling and unforgivable smear.? The release of the recording prompted an apology from the Brown campaign.
Sterling Clifford, a Brown spokesman, said the candidate didn?t make the comment.
?As to who it was, it?s not the best recording in the world,? Clifford said in an interview. ?It?s hard to say.?
Regret Expressed
If the comment is raised at tonight?s debate at Dominican University of California in San Rafael, he said, the campaign has already expressed regret ?and I don?t think we?ll go much beyond that.?
Darrel Ng, a Whitman spokesman, declined to comment when asked whether the remark would sway female voters and declined to say whether Whitman would raise the issue.
?I certainly expect Whitman to press it hard as a way of communicating to female voters and emphasizing her status as the potential first female governor of California,? Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College politics professor, said in a telephone interview. Claremont is located east of Los Angeles.
?It?s hard to say that this is going to be a decisive issue,? Pitney said. ?Voters know that politicians and political operatives use bad language in private. That?s not a revelation.?
?Anti-Women Candidates?
The controversy didn?t stop the California chapter of the National Organization for Women from endorsing Brown the day after the tape was made public.
Patty Bellasalma, the group?s president, called Whitman one of ?the most anti-women candidates to run in California in decades? and cited Brown?s record for hiring women.
?When you are armed with the facts and record of these two candidates, the choice is very easy, the choice is Jerry Brown,? Bellasalma said in a telephone interview.
Bruce Cain, a professor of politics at the University of California, Berkeley, said Whitman may use the remark to distance herself from her former housekeeper?s claim that Whitman kept her on while aware that she was in the U.S. illegally -- an issue that dominated the last debate.
Whitman accused Brown of engineering the housekeeper?s Sept. 29 news conference as a political stunt. She said she dismissed Nicky Diaz Santillan immediately after the woman admitted falsifying immigration documents.
?I?m sure she?ll ask for an apology or something,? Cain said. Still, the aide?s remark isn?t likely to gain as much traction as the immigration flap, he said.
?There?s so much going wrong in California right now, it doesn?t really tie into the pressing issues,? Cain said. ?The undocumented issue ties into a major issue, which is: What are we going to do about immigration reform? I?m not sure how you tie this one in, in a way that helps Meg Whitman.?

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President Obama Signs West Virginia Emergency Declaration

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of West Virginia and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Hurricane Sandy beginning on October 29, 2012, and continuing.
The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in all counties in the State of West Virginia.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.  Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding.
W. Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Dolph A. Diemont as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area.

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Remarks By The President on Hurricane Sandy

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                           October 28, 2012
Remarks By The President on Hurricane Sandy
FEMA Headquarters
Washington, D.C.
1:55 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, good afternoon, everybody.  Obviously, all of us across the country are concerned about the potential impact of Hurricane Sandy.  This is a serious and big storm.  And my first message is to all the people across the Eastern seaboard, Mid-Atlantic, going north, that you need to take this very seriously and follow the instructions of your state and local officials, because they are going to be providing you with the best advice in terms of how to deal with this storm over the coming days.
We just had an excellent meeting with the FEMA team here, the various agencies that are in charge, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and others that are going to need to respond very quickly. 
Under Craig Fugate's leadership here at FEMA we've had a chance to talk to the regional officials as well.  And I just had a phone call with the governors of the potentially impacted states, as well as some of the major cities in the region.
At this stage, everybody is confident that the staging process, the prepositioning of resources, commodities, equipment that are going to be needed to respond to this storm are in place.  But as Craig has emphasized, this hasn't hit landfall yet, so we don't yet know where it's going to hit, where we're going to see the biggest impacts.  And that's exactly why it's so important for us to respond big and respond fast as local information starts coming in.
I want to thank all the members of the team for the outstanding work that they’re doing.  But the other thing that makes this storm unique is we anticipate that it is going to be slow moving.  That means that it may take a long time not only to clear, but also to get, for example, the power companies back in to clear trees and to put things back in place so that folks can start moving back home.
So my main message to everybody involved is that we have to take this seriously.  The federal government is working effectively with the state and local governments.  It’s going to be very important that populations in all the impacted states take this seriously, listen to your state and local elected officials. 
My message to the governors, as well as to the mayors, is anything they need, we will be there.  And we’re going to cut through red tape.  We’re not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules.  We want to make sure that we are anticipating and leaning forward into making sure that we’ve got the best possible response to what is going to be a big and messy system.
So again, thank you, everybody.  Craig, would you like add to something?
MR. FUGATE:  Again, as the President says, it’s going to really come down to the public heeding those evacuation orders, taking protective measures.  If they haven’t gotten ready, they can go to Ready.gov.  Get information on how to protect them and their families, but also check on your neighbors.  This is going to be a big storm.  We need to be there for each other.
THE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Let me emphasize that again -- Ready.gov -- for the general public.  If you need to know how to respond, that’s where you can get centralized information.
But I think Craig’s point is exactly right.  In times like this, one of the things that Americans do is we pull together and we help out one another.  And so, there may be elderly populations in your area.  Check on your neighbor, check on your friend.  Make sure that they are prepared.  If we do, then we’re going to get through this storm just fine.  But we’re going to have to make sure that we are vigilant, and vigilant for a couple of days.  Don’t anticipate that just because the immediate storm has passed that we’re not going to have some potential problems in a lot of these communities going forward through the week.
All right.  Thank you very much, everybody.

Karl Rove Palin Sarah Palin Chelsa Clinton Michelle Obama

Climate Change And Natural Disasters Related, Most Americans Say: Poll

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Tennessee's Herron Joins Dems Eschewing Pelosi Views




Yet another major Democratic congressional candidate is running away from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Roy Herron, the Democratic candidate in Tennessee's 8th Congressional District, says he won't vote for her to continue as speaker if he?s elected and Democrats remain in control of the House, Politico reports. Herron says he wouldn?t support House Minority Leader John Boehner for the position, either.
"I think both of them are too extreme," Herron said in a speech, according to the Jackson Sun.
There seems to be a good reason Herron came out against Pelosi. He?s in a close battle with Republican Stephen Fincher for a seat that's important for Democrats to win if they hope to maintain their majority in the House.
Like Herron, who has the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, a number of conservative Democrats have criticized Pelosi in their campaigns.


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The Knockout Punch

The ad is entitled "My Job" and it is the latest of pro-Obama ads either from the Obama campaign or from groups supporting the re-election of the President. This ad was produced by the Obama campaign and is slated to run in just seven swing states. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post calls it "brutal". I concur. It is a knockout punch.



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President Obama Signs Maryland Emergency Declaration

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Maryland and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Hurricane Sandy beginning on October 26, 2012, and continuing.
The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in all counties and the Independent City of Baltimore in the State of Maryland.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.  Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding. 
W. Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Michael J. Lapinski as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area.

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event in Nashua, NH

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                            October 27, 2012
Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event in Nashua, NH
Elm Street Middle School
Nashua, New Hampshire
1:59 P.M. EDT
     THE PRESIDENT:  How’s it going, Nashua?  (Applause.)  Are you fired up? 
     AUDIENCE:  Yes!
     THE PRESIDENT:  Are you ready to go?
     AUDIENCE:  Yes!
     THE PRESIDENT:  This is an unbelievable crowd!  (Applause.) And this is what the weather is always like in late October in New Hampshire -- 70 degrees and sunny.  (Applause.)  
     Can everybody please give it up for your outstanding United States Senator, Jeanne Shaheen?  (Applause.)  Your next governor, Maggie Hassan.  (Applause.)  Your next congresswoman, Annie Kuster.  (Applause.) 
     And I’ve just got to say something special about one of the most talented singers and songwriters that America has ever had. He has just been a great friend.  This guy has been working his tail off on behalf of this campaign.  I couldn’t be prouder that he’s working with us -- James Taylor.  Give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.)
     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!
     THE PRESIDENT:  I love you back.  (Applause.) 
Ten days, New Hampshire.  (Applause.)  Ten days.  Ten days and you’ll be stepping into a voting booth and making a defining choice about the future of our country.  Not just a choice between two candidates or two political parties, it is a choice between two fundamentally different visions for America.
     We believe in the values that built the largest middle class, the strongest economy the world has ever known; the promise that hard work will pay off; the promise that responsibility will be rewarded; the idea at the core of this nation that no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, this is a country where everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does their fair share, everybody plays by the same rules.  (Applause.)  That's what we believe here in America.  (Applause.)
     We believe that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.  We insist on personal responsibility.  We don't believe anybody is entitled to success -- we know we all have to earn it.  We honor the strivers, the dreamers, the risk-takers, everybody who has been the driving force behind our free enterprise system, the greatest engine of growth and prosperity the world has ever known. 
     But we also believe that the true measure of prosperity is more than just a running tally of corporate balance sheets, quarterly profit reports.  We measure prosperity not just by how many millionaires and billionaires we produce; we measure prosperity by how well a typical family is doing -- (applause) -- by whether our kids are getting a great education and can go as far as their dreams and hard work will take us.  (Applause.)
     We understand that in this country people succeed when they’ve got a chance at a decent education, when they can learn new skills.  And by the way, so do the businesses that hire them or the companies that they start.  We believe our economy grows when we support research into medical breakthroughs -- (applause) -- or new technologies like clean energy and fuel-efficient cars. (Applause.) 
We know that our country is stronger when we can count on affordable health insurance and Medicare and Social Security -- (applause) -- when we protect our kids from toxic dumping and mercury pollution; when there are rules in place to make sure that we aren’t taken advantage of by credit card companies or mortgage lenders or unscrupulous financial institutions.  (Applause.)  
We know we’re better off when politicians in Washington aren’t allowed to make decisions about health care that women are perfectly capable of making for themselves.  (Applause.)
That's what we believe.  That's the vision that we embrace. 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We believe in you!
THE PRESIDENT:  I appreciate that.  (Laughter.) 
Governor Romney, now, he’s got an entirely different view about what this country is about.
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
THE PRESIDENT:  Don't boo --
AUDIENCE:  Vote!
THE PRESIDENT:  -- vote.  Vote.  (Applause.)  
He’s been running around saying he’s got a five-point plan for the economy -- turns out it’s a one-point plan.  (Laughter.) Folks at the very top get to play by a different set of rules than you do.  They get to pay lower tax rates, outsource jobs.  They want to let Wall Street run wild and make reckless bets with other folks’ money.  That was his philosophy when he was a CEO.  That was his philosophy as governor.  And as President Clinton said, he does have a lot of brass because he’s not talking about big change, but all he’s offering is a big rerun of the same policies that created so much hardship for so many Americans. 
And Governor Romney has been out here making a lot of last-minute promises lately -- said he’s all about fighting for the middle class; says he’d cut taxes for everybody, and ask something from nobody.  But the problem is we’ve heard those promises before. 
Now keep in mind, Governor Romney lives just a few miles south of here in the state of Massachusetts.  (Applause.)  Love Massachusetts.  (Applause.)  But during Governor Romney’s campaign for governor down there, he promised the same thing he’s promising now -- said he’d fight for jobs and middle-class families.  But once he took office, he pushed through a tax cut that overwhelmingly benefitted 278 of the wealthiest families in the state, and then he raised taxes and fees on middle-class families to the tune of $750 million.  Does that sound familiar to you? 
AUDIENCE:  Yes!
THE PRESIDENT:  Now, when he’s asked about this, he says, no these weren’t taxes, these were fees.  (Laughter.)  But keep in mind there were higher fees to be a barber, higher fees to become a nurse.  There were higher fees for gas.  There were higher fees for milk.  There were higher fees for blind people who needed to get a certificate that they were blind.  He raised fees to get a birth certificate -- which would have been expensive for me.  (Laughter and applause.)
He raised fees for marriage certificates and fees for funeral homes -- so there were literally cradle-to-grave tax hikes and fees.  (Laughter.)  And when he left office, there were only three states in the country that had created fewer jobs than Massachusetts.  And by the way, one of them was Louisiana that had been hit by Hurricane Katrina.  (Laughter.) 
     He talked a lot about small businesses -- still talks about it.  Says, I’m a business guy, I know about small businesses.  Massachusetts, when he was governor, ranked 48th in small business creation.  And one of the two states that ranked lower was Louisiana that had gotten hit by Hurricane Katrina.  So this is a guy who has a track record of saying one thing and doing something else.   
On the other hand, when I ran four years ago, I made promises, too.  I promised to cut taxes for middle-class families -- and I did, by $3,600.  (Applause.)  I promised to cut taxes for small business owners -- and I did, 18 times.  (Applause.)  I promised to end taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts -- and we have.  And by the way, we got every dime worth of money that we used for the bank rescue, and we got interest with it, too.  (Applause.)  I promised to take on those financial institutions that were charging too much for student loans -- and we, as a consequence, were able to make college more affordable for millions of Americans.  (Applause.) 
     I promised I’d never walk away from the millions of jobs that were in jeopardy when the auto industry was on the brink of collapse.  We decided to ignore Governor Romney’s business advice when he said Detroit should go bankrupt -- and now, America, we are building the best cars on Earth.  (Applause.) 
     Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq -- and we did.  (Applause.)  I promised that we would begin the transition in Afghanistan -- and we are.  (Applause.)  I said we’d go after the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 -- and thanks to the brave men and women in uniform, the courage of our Navy SEALs, al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama bin Laden is dead.  (Applause.) 
     After losing 9 million jobs under the theories that Governor Romney is now promoting, our businesses under the ideas we’ve been working with have added more than 5 million new jobs over the last two-and-a-half years.  (Applause.)  Manufacturing -- highest job growth in manufacturing since the 1990s.  The unemployment rate is falling.  Manufacturing is coming back to our shores.  Our assembly lines are humming again.  Housing prices are starting to pick up.  Housing starts are all on the move. 
We’ve got a lot of work to do.  But, New Hampshire, the country has come too far for us to turn back now.  (Applause.)  We can’t afford to go back to the policies that got us into this mess.  We’ve got to continue with the policies that are getting out of the mess.  We’ve got to move forward.  And that's why I am running for second term as President of the United States.  (Applause.) 
     AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!
     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  You can do it, Mr. President!
     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I’m going to do it with you.  We can do it together.  (Applause.)  
     Unlike Governor Romney’s plan -- he doesn’t like to talk about it too much -- I have a plan that will actually create jobs; that will actually lower our deficit; and will actually provide the middle class with a greater sense of security.  And the good news is my plan -- the math actually adds up.  (Applause.) 
     If you want to check it out, you can go to BarackObama.com/plans.  And I want you to share it with your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers.  There are still people out there who are trying to make up their minds.  Some of you who are here may be trying to make up your mind.  Maybe your girlfriend dragged you out here.  (Laughter.)  No, no, maybe Grandma said, you’ve got to go to the Obama rally -- (laughter)  -- and you’re still trying to figure it out.  So I’m asking you to compare my plan with Governor Romney’s.  I want you to know what we’re proposing, each of us, and see which plan is better for you and what is better for the future of America. 
     So, number one, I want to end tax breaks for companies that are shipping jobs overseas.  (Applause.)  I want to reward small businesses and manufacturers who are putting down roots here, hiring American workers, creating American products stamped with three proud words:  Made in America.  We can bring those jobs back to our shores.  (Applause.)
     Number two, I want to cut our oil imports in half by 2020 so we control more of our own energy.  Because of the work we’ve already done -- increasing oil production, increasing natural gas production, but also emphasizing renewables like solar and wind and biofuels -- today we are less dependent on foreign oil than in any time in the last two decades.  (Applause.)  That’s good for your pocketbook.  That’s good for our national security.  It’s good for the environment. 
     And one reason we’ve been able -- we have confidence we can keep on making progress is we’ve doubled the fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks.  So in the middle of the next decade, you’ll go twice as far on a gallon of gas. (Applause.)   I want us now to build on that progress.  We’ve got to keep making those investments.  I don’t want fuel-efficient cars and long-lasting batteries and wind turbines and solar panels produced in China.  I want them produced right here in New Hampshire.  (Applause.)  I want them made right here in America. And we can do that.
     Number three, we have to make it a nation mission to educate our kids and train our workers better than anybody else in the world.  (Applause.)  I want to recruit 100,000 new math and science teachers because we know that’s an area where we can’t afford to fall behind.  I want to train 2 million workers at our community colleges for the skills that businesses are hiring for right now.  And I want to work with colleges and universities to make sure that tuition does not keep on going up -- because our young people can’t afford the debt that they are taking on, and that’s something we can do.  (Applause.)
     Number four, my plan will reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years in a balanced way.  We’re going to cut out spending we don’t need -- we’ve already cut out a trillion dollars’ worth of spending.  We can do more, but I’m also going to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little bit more so we can invest in the research and technology and education that will keep new jobs and businesses coming to America. 
And under the guise of reducing the deficit, I will never turn Medicare into a voucher system -- (applause) -- because no American should have to spend their golden years at the mercy of an insurance company.
     And by the way -- I think we saw just this past week -- we don’t need a whole bunch of politicians in Washington, most of whom are male, making health care decisions for women.  (Applause.)  I don’t think your boss or your insurance company should be making those decisions either.  I believe women should be making their own health care decisions for themselves.  (Applause.) 
That’s why the health care law we passed put those choices in your hands, where they belong, and that’s where they’ll stay as long as I’m President of the United States.  (Applause.)
     Now, finally, number five, we’re going to use the savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to put our people back to work.  Let’s do some nation-building here at home.  Let’s rebuild our roads, our bridges, our schools.  Let’s lay broadband lines into rural communities all across the country.  And as we’re doing that, we’re going to be putting our veterans back to work.  We’ve got to serve them as well as they’ve served us -- because nobody who fights for this country should have to fight for a job, or a roof over their heads, or the care that they’ve earned when they come home.  (Applause.)
     So that's the plan we need, New Hampshire.  That's how you build a strong, sustainable economy.  That's how you make sure that middle-class jobs that pay a good wage are out there.  That's how you encourage new businesses to start here and stay here in America.  That's how you increase take-home pay -- not just by talking about it.  That's how you build an economy where everybody who works hard can get ahead.  And that's what we can do together.
     But here’s the thing, New Hampshire, it’s now up to you.  It’s your choice.  It’s up to the young people who are here to choose -- (applause) -- a future that is worthy of all your dreams.  It’s up to the not-so-young people here, including me -- I’m included in that category -- (laughter) -- to make sure we’re leaving the kind of America we want for future generations. 
     You can choose the top-down policy that got us into this mess, but I think we need to build on the policies that are helping us to make real progress all across this country.  You can choose a foreign policy that's reckless and wrong, or you can choose the kinds of leadership that I’ve provided that's steady and strong.  (Applause.)
     You can choose to turn back the clock 50 years for women and immigrants and gays -- or in this election, you can stand up for that basic principle enshrined in our founding documents that all of us are created equal -- black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, abled, disabled. No matter who you are, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, you’ve got a place in America.  You can make it here if you try.  That's what we believe.  (Applause.)
     New Hampshire, we’ve been through tough times, but we’ve been through tough times before and we are tougher.  We always come out on top.  We always bounce back because we pull together. Because we look after one another.  Because we don’t leave anybody behind.  Because when we succeed, we prop that door open and bring those who are following behind us -- we pull them through.  That’s who we are.  (Applause.)  
Our destiny is not written for us; it’s written by us.  We don’t go backward.  We look forward to that distant horizon, to that new frontier.  We imagine a better America and then we work hard to make it happen.  That’s who we are. 
That’s why I’m asking for your vote.  And if you give me your vote, I promise you, you will always have a President who hears your voices, who will fight for your families, who will spend every waking moment thinking about how to make your lives a little bit better.  (Applause.)  
     New Hampshire, I still believe in you.  I need you to keep believing in me.  (Applause.)  And if you’re willing to work with me, and roll up your sleeves with me, knock on some doors with me, make some phone calls for me, we’ll win Hillsborough County again.  (Applause.)  We’ll win New Hampshire again.  (Applause.) We’ll finish what we started.  And we’ll remind the world why the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth.  (Applause.)  
God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)
 
 

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Biden: GOP May Sue to Overturn Social Security




Vice President Joe Biden says Republicans may issue a court challenge to Social Security, just as they have done to the new healthcare law, The Hill reports. No Republicans are suggesting such a step, but obviously it serves Democrats? political purposes to point to Republicans threatening Social Security.
At a fundraiser for Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato, Biden noted that his opponent Tom Corbett "is one of a dozen Republican attorneys general actually suing? to overturn the healthcare law.
"I wonder if next it?s Social Security," Biden says. "We mandate you do that, too.?
The Republican challenge to the healthcare law is that it is unconstitutional to require Americans to buy health insurance. But obviously Biden is making quite a leap in logic.

� Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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President Obama Signs West Virginia Emergency Declaration

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of West Virginia and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Hurricane Sandy beginning on October 29, 2012, and continuing.
The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in all counties in the State of West Virginia.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.  Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding.
W. Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Dolph A. Diemont as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area.

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President Obama Signs Pennsylvania Emergency Declaration

The President today declared an emergency exists in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and ordered federal aid to supplement commonwealth and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Hurricane Sandy beginning on October 26, 2012, and continuing.
The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in all counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.  Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding.
W. Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Thomas J. McCool as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area.

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President Obama Signs West Virginia Emergency Declaration

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of West Virginia and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Hurricane Sandy beginning on October 29, 2012, and continuing.
The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in all counties in the State of West Virginia.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.  Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding.
W. Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Dolph A. Diemont as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area.

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Under Fire From Democrats, Chamber of Commerce Helps Blue Dogs


Republicans and their allies in business are howling that a Democratic charge that "secret foreign money" is fueling GOP campaigns is a dog that just won't hunt. Now the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is helping conservative Blue Dog Democrats in a bid to prove it is bipartisan after all.
The powerful business lobby quietly began running ads last week in the congressional districts of 10 endangered Democrats who opposed President Obama's health-care bill or have parted ways on taxes and other fiscal issues with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
The "voter education" ads were first spotted by political media trackers and have been all but lost in the sturm und drang over the chamber's cable-dubbed "plot to buy America."
"The chamber has a broad political program," spokesman J.P. Fielder told Politics Daily. "We're supporting pro-business candidates who have voted with the chamber," he said, noting that includes Democratic Senate hopeful Joe Manchin in West Virginia.
Among the lucky "dogs" getting help from the chamber are Reps. Glenn Nye in Virginia, Travis Childers in Mississippi and Alabama's Bobby Bright, the first Democrat to say he won't vote for Pelosi for speaker if he is re-elected.

In one "voter education ad," the narrator thanks Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia for voting no on Obama's health-care bill. "Tell him to keep fighting for seniors and against Washington's government health care takeover," it urges.
Jessica Klonsky, a spokeswoman for Rep. Frank Kratovil, a freshman Democrat who represents Maryland's conservative Eastern Shore, would not comment on the ads running on his behalf. "We can't control what the chamber is doing," she said, "but the endorsement is just another example of (Kratovil's) independent leadership."
The officially nonpartisan lobby is spending nearly $1.9 million to help conservative House Democrats this year, according to Federal Election Commission records. That's a fraction of the nearly $22 million in outside expenditures that the Center for Responsive Politics calculates the chamber has plunked down. Most of that money has gone to Republicans.
The new ads are likely to do little to douse the firestorm over "attack ads" by outside groups. In campaign stops last week, Obama railed against the chamber for funding spots partly with dues paid by foreign corporations. The ads are "a threat to our democracy," he said. "The American people deserve to know who's trying to sway their elections."
The New York Times reported that "a closer examination shows that there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual." Republicans have accused Democrats of hypocrisy since left-leaning labor unions helping Democrats also have dues-paying international affiliates.
The report didn't keep the Democratic National Committee from launching its own attack ad against the chamber. Such "shills for big business," it said, are taking "secret foreign money to influence our elections."
On Tuesday, after appearing to back down on the foreign connection, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs pushed back against critics. He said the president would continue to ask questions about GOP donors, whether they are foreign or domestic.
ThinkProgress, the liberal blog that first raised the specter of foreign influence, suggested the Democratic spots are a smokescreen. "While the chamber ads may lead many to believe that the organization is taking on a more bipartisan stance, the truth is that it has a long history of allying itself closely to Republicans," it said, noting the group's directors have given six times as much money to GOP candidates as Democrats.
"The chamber wants to give substance to its claim of being bipartisan. That matters for appearances, of course. But it also is important because the chamber does not in fact want to be wholly captured by a single party and thus lose its ability to negotiate with both parties," said Mark Rozell, a George Mason University political scientist.
"If the GOP wins the House, while some moderate-conservative Democrats also win with chamber support, that sends an even stronger message of the group's ability to hurt the president's standing," he said. "The message to Democrats over the next two years would be heard loudly: support this president, look what happens. Stick with us, then we can help you."

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Remarks By The President on Hurricane Sandy

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                           October 28, 2012
Remarks By The President on Hurricane Sandy
FEMA Headquarters
Washington, D.C.
1:55 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, good afternoon, everybody.  Obviously, all of us across the country are concerned about the potential impact of Hurricane Sandy.  This is a serious and big storm.  And my first message is to all the people across the Eastern seaboard, Mid-Atlantic, going north, that you need to take this very seriously and follow the instructions of your state and local officials, because they are going to be providing you with the best advice in terms of how to deal with this storm over the coming days.
We just had an excellent meeting with the FEMA team here, the various agencies that are in charge, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and others that are going to need to respond very quickly. 
Under Craig Fugate's leadership here at FEMA we've had a chance to talk to the regional officials as well.  And I just had a phone call with the governors of the potentially impacted states, as well as some of the major cities in the region.
At this stage, everybody is confident that the staging process, the prepositioning of resources, commodities, equipment that are going to be needed to respond to this storm are in place.  But as Craig has emphasized, this hasn't hit landfall yet, so we don't yet know where it's going to hit, where we're going to see the biggest impacts.  And that's exactly why it's so important for us to respond big and respond fast as local information starts coming in.
I want to thank all the members of the team for the outstanding work that they’re doing.  But the other thing that makes this storm unique is we anticipate that it is going to be slow moving.  That means that it may take a long time not only to clear, but also to get, for example, the power companies back in to clear trees and to put things back in place so that folks can start moving back home.
So my main message to everybody involved is that we have to take this seriously.  The federal government is working effectively with the state and local governments.  It’s going to be very important that populations in all the impacted states take this seriously, listen to your state and local elected officials. 
My message to the governors, as well as to the mayors, is anything they need, we will be there.  And we’re going to cut through red tape.  We’re not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules.  We want to make sure that we are anticipating and leaning forward into making sure that we’ve got the best possible response to what is going to be a big and messy system.
So again, thank you, everybody.  Craig, would you like add to something?
MR. FUGATE:  Again, as the President says, it’s going to really come down to the public heeding those evacuation orders, taking protective measures.  If they haven’t gotten ready, they can go to Ready.gov.  Get information on how to protect them and their families, but also check on your neighbors.  This is going to be a big storm.  We need to be there for each other.
THE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Let me emphasize that again -- Ready.gov -- for the general public.  If you need to know how to respond, that’s where you can get centralized information.
But I think Craig’s point is exactly right.  In times like this, one of the things that Americans do is we pull together and we help out one another.  And so, there may be elderly populations in your area.  Check on your neighbor, check on your friend.  Make sure that they are prepared.  If we do, then we’re going to get through this storm just fine.  But we’re going to have to make sure that we are vigilant, and vigilant for a couple of days.  Don’t anticipate that just because the immediate storm has passed that we’re not going to have some potential problems in a lot of these communities going forward through the week.
All right.  Thank you very much, everybody.

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No Daylight Equals a Whole Lot of Darkness

There has been a debate within the Romney camp as to whether it suits the flailing candidacy of Mitt Romney to use the turmoil in the Middle East for political advantage. Mind you, Mittens already has tried this inappropriate if not heinous comments in the wake of Ambassador Chris Stevens' death in Benghazi.You would think having being once burned, actually twice burned because he of the recent summer tour in which he managed without even to batting an eyelash to disparage friend and foe (at least from his perspective the Palestinians are foes) so unwittingly that it raised issues of mental competency, Mittens might be shy about wading into issues that have singed him in the not so distant past. But if at first you fail, then fail, fail, fail again.
Probably at the behest of John Bolton, the arch neo-conservative who served as George W. Bush's Ambassador to the United Nations and who just last week thought it appropriate to describe US foreign policy during the Obama Administration with a homophobic slur, Mitt Romney has taken to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal to demonstrate how utterly unfit he is to be President of the United States.
There are numerous outright fabrications in his piece. He writes for example that "in recent years, President Obama has allowed our leadership to atrophy." By what measure and over what time frame? Because while a June 2012 Pew Research Center poll found that "global approval of President Barack Obama's policies has declined significantly since he first took office, while overall confidence in him and attitudes toward the U.S. have slipped modestly as a consequence" but nonetheless remain significantly higher than at anytime during the George W. Bush years.
Romney goes on to write "our economy is stuck in a 'recovery' that barely deserves the name. Our national debt has risen to record levels. Our military, tested by a decade of war, is facing devastating cuts thanks to the budgetary games played by the White House." Well if the economy is in a recovery that barely deserves such assignation, it is thanks to your party which in the words of Senate Majority Mitch McConnell believes that "single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president" and never mind the welfare of the American people. Thus for example it was your party which just last week defeated a jobs bill that would have put some 30,000 veterans returning from serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan to work. The line about the national debt would be more believable if not for the fact that under Reagan-Bush your party tripled the national debt and under Bush the Dumber doubled it. And that line about the military facing "devastating cuts" is an outright fabrication. The Obama budget proposal called for spending $36 billion more on the Pentagon in 2017 than in 2013. Only in the mathematically challenged world of the GOP is more less.
But no line is more egregious nor more dangerous than when Romney writes that there should be "no daylight between the United States and Israel." Now think about what this means. For starters, it means jettisoning a bipartisan bedrock principle of US foreign policy as regards the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Notwithstanding the fact that Israel is an ally, it has been the policy of the United States government to at least back to Nixon Administration to act as a honest broker between the two sides. Romney would have throw us this away. Let's be very clear here. Both publicly and privately, Mitt Romney has expressed a rather one-sided, if not racist, view of the Palestinians. Even when he has a former US Secretary of State expressing that there might be a pathway to a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Romney is so entrenched in his views that he fails to ask that learned, experienced voice to expound on his views. Such incurosity in a president isn't just remarkable, it is remarkably dangerous and unbelievably dismissive.
No daylight also means accepting the policies of the Likud government as our own. Those policies include an ethnic cleansing of proportions that would make Slobodan Milosevic blush, an apartheid regime unlike even that of P.W. Botha. If Mitt Romney is to believed as he suggests at the beginning of his Wall Street Journal op-ed that US foreign policy has a "human rights" component than means accepting that Palestinians are human beings with human rights. It is not clear that Mitt Romney believes this.
Accepting Mitt Romney's premise that there be "no daylight" between the United States and the Israeli Likud government means accepting a whole lot of darkness.
 



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Monday, October 29, 2012

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event -- Richmond VA

The Carillon at Byrd Park
Richmond, Virginia
1:11 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Virginia!  (Applause.)  Are you fired up?
AUDIENCE:  Yes!
THE PRESIDENT:  Are you ready to go?
AUDIENCE:  Yes!
THE PRESIDENT:  I'm sorry -- are you fired up?
AUDIENCE:  Yes!
THE PRESIDENT:  Are you ready to go?
AUDIENCE:  Yes!
THE PRESIDENT:  Let's begin by giving it up for your outstanding United States Senator, Mark Warner.  (Applause.)  And the man who's going to join him in the United States Senate,
Tim Kaine.  (Applause.)  These guys are great friends of mine. They were great governors of this great commonwealth, and they will be an extraordinary team fighting for you in Washington.  (Applause.)
You also have a great Congressman coming out of Virginia, Bobby Scott, in the house.  (Applause.)  Your Mayor, Dwight Jones, is here.  (Applause.)  And all of you are here.  (Applause.)  Can I just say this is a nice-looking crowd here.  (Applause.)
Now, you may have noticed that my voice sounds just a little hoarse.  (Laughter.)  We are right in the middle of our 48-hour fly-around campaign extravaganza.  (Applause.)  We pulled an all-nighter last night.  We just came from Florida.  We were in Iowa and Colorado and Nevada before that.  We're heading up to Ohio later today.  And I'm going to stop in my hometown of Chicago to vote.  (Applause.)  
I can't tell you who I'm voting for because it's a secret ballot. (Laughter.)  But the good news is Michelle said she voted for me.  (Applause.)  She did.  And I've come to Virginia today to ask you for your vote just 12 days from now.  (Applause.)  I need your vote!  (Applause.)  I've come to ask for your help in keeping America moving forward.  (Applause.) 
You've now seen three debates, months of campaign events, and way too many TV commercials.
AUDIENCE:  Yes!
THE PRESIDENT:  So you've heard what the argument is about here.  You understand what the choice is.  You've heard Governor Romney's sales pitch.  He's been running around --
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
THE PRESIDENT:  No, no, don't boo -- vote!  (Applause.)
He's been running around saying he's got a five-point plan for the economy -- turns out it's a one-point plan.  (Laughter.) Folks at the very top get to play by a different set of rules than you do.  They get to pay a lower tax rate.  They get to outsource jobs.  They want to roll back Wall Street reforms that we put in place to make sure we don't have taxpayer-funded bailouts. 
That was his philosophy in the boardroom; that was his philosophy as governor.  And if it sounds familiar, it's because that's exactly what we tried in the last decade, before I came into office.  It led to falling incomes and record deficits and the slowest job growth in half a century, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. 
We have now been working for four years to clean up the mess those policies left behind.  (Applause.)  And now Governor Romney wants to take us back to those policies, but he knows that they're probably not very popular.  He knows his plan isn’t any different than the policies that got us into trouble.  So in the final weeks of this election, he’s counting on you forgetting.  He’s hoping that you come down with a case of what we call Romnesia.  (Applause.)
He’s hoping you won’t remember that his economic plan is more likely to create jobs in China than it is in America -- because it actually rewards companies that ship jobs and profits overseas.  He’s hoping you won’t remember that he wants to give millionaires and billionaires a $250,000 tax cut -- because the only way he can pay for that tax cut is by raising your taxes or blowing a hole in the deficit.
He’s hoping that you’ll come down with a severe case of --
AUDIENCE:  Romnesia!
THE PRESIDENT:  -- Romnesia before you cast your ballot.  But, Richmond, I want you all to know this.  This is a curable disease.  If you feel any symptoms coming on, if you’re starting to get a little woozy -- (laughter) -- your eyes are getting a little blurry, some ringing in your ears, if you can’t remember what you said just a week ago -- (applause) -- if you can’t remember the plans on your own website, and you’re worried you might be coming down with a case of Romnesia, I want you to know -- Obamacare covers preexisting conditions.  (Applause.)  We can make you well.  We can fix you up.  All you’ve got to do is vote. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT:  Richmond, I want to explain something.  We joke about this, but this goes to a pretty serious issue, the most serious issue of any presidential contest, and that is the issue of trust.  Trust matters.  You want to know that whoever is in the Oval Office is going to fight for you.  You want to know that they’re not just going to take the politically expedient path, that they’re guided by a compass in terms of how are we going to make sure the American people have a chance to succeed if they’re working hard, and more importantly, that the next generation is going to have the kind of America we want them to have.  (Applause.)   And you know what, you know me.
AUDIENCE:  Yes!
THE PRESIDENT:  You know I say what I mean, and I mean what I say.  (Applause.)  We haven’t finished all the work we set out to do in 2008 just yet, but every single day I set foot in the Oval Office, you know I’m thinking about you.  I’m fighting for your families.  (Applause.)  And with your help, we have met major commitments that I made four years ago. 
I told you we’d end the war in Iraq -- we did.  (Applause.) I said we’d end the war in Afghanistan -- we are.  I said we’d refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11 -- al Qaeda is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead.  (Applause.)  There’s a new tower rising above the New York skyline.  Our heroes are coming home.  I’ve kept those promises. (Applause.)
I was proud and humbled to learn that we have Colin Powell’s support in this campaign.  (Applause.)  I’m grateful to him for his lifetime of service to his country, both as a soldier and as a diplomat.  And every brave American who wears this uniform of this country should know that as long as I’m your Commander-in-Chief, we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known.  (Applause.)  We will be relentless in pursuit of our enemies.
Those are promises I’ve kept.  Four years ago, I promised to cut middle-class taxes for families and small businesses -- and we have.  I promised not only to end taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts, but I said we’d get every dime of money that was used to rescue the financial system -- we have, with interest.  (Applause.)
I promised we’d repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”  (Applause.) Today, you can’t be kicked out of our military because of who you love. 
I said I’d make sure that Americans don’t go bankrupt when they get sick -- and we passed Obamacare, and it was the right thing to do.  (Applause.)
I promised that we’d get help to young people so they could afford college -- and we have.  (Applause.)  I bet on American workers and American ingenuity, and saved a dying auto industry that’s back on top of the world.  (Applause.)  On issue after issue, we are moving forward.
After losing 9 million jobs in the Great Recession, our businesses have now added more than 5 million new jobs in the last two and a half years.  The unemployment rate is falling.  Manufacturing is coming back.  Our assembly lines are humming.  Housing prices are beginning to rise. 
We’ve got a long way to go, Virginia, but we’ve come too far to come back now.  (Applause.)  We can’t afford to go backwards to the same policies that got us into this mess; we’ve got to go forward with the policies that are getting us out of this mess. And that’s why I’m running for a second term.  And that’s why I need your help.  (Applause.)
I’ve got a plan that will actually create jobs, not just talk about creating jobs; a plan that will actually create middle-class security, not just use the words but not deliver on the promise.  Unlike my opponent, I’m actually proud to talk about what’s in my plan, because the arithmetic works.  (Applause.)
 
If you want to take a careful look at it, go to BarackObama.com/plans.  I want you to share it with your friends and your neighbors and your co-workers.  There’s still people out there who are undecided, trying to make up their minds.  Maybe somebody in this crowd got dragged by your girlfriend or your boyfriend.  Your grandma said you got to go to the Obama rally and you said, all right, grandma.  (Laughter.)  But you’re not yet convinced.  Take a look at this plan.  Compare it to what Governor Romney’s plans are.  See which plan you think is better for you.  I want you to have the information you need to make an educated choice about this issue, about America’s future and your own.  (Applause.) 
The first thing in my plan -- I want to end tax breaks for companies that are shipping jobs overseas.  I want to give those tax breaks to companies that are investing in Richmond, investing in Virginia, helping small businesses and manufacturers create jobs right here at home.  That’s a priority.  (Applause.)
Number two, I want to cut our oil imports in half by 2020, so we control more of our own energy.  (Applause.)  Because of what we’ve done to increase oil production and natural gas production, to invest in clean coal technology, to make sure that we’re also investing in the clean energy source of the future like wind and solar and biofuels -- (applause) -- we today are less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in the last two decades.  (Applause.)
We passed regulations to make sure that fuel standards on cars and trucks are doubled, so that you’ll go twice as far on a gallon of gas.  And that will save you money.  That’s good for our national security.  It’s good for our environment.  I want to build on that progress.  I don’t want the cars of the future,  long-lasting batteries, wind turbines, solar panels -- I don’t want them made in China.  I want them made right here in Virginia.  (Applause.)  I want to put people back to work here in the United States.  (Applause.)  We can do that.
Number three, I want to make it a national mission to educate our young people, to train our workers.  (Applause.)  I want to recruit 100,000 math and science teachers.  (Applause.)  We’ve got to step it up when it comes to math and science and technology.  I want to train 2 million workers in our outstanding community colleges so they’ve got the skills to get the jobs that are out there right now.  (Applause.)  And I want to work with colleges and universities to cut the growth of tuition in half.  (Applause.)  I want to make sure that young people are not burdened with debt when they’re pursuing the education they need to compete.  We can do that.
Number four, my plan will cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years in a balanced way.  Yes, we’re going to cut spending we don’t need -- we’ve already cut a trillion dollars.  But I’m going to ask the wealthiest to pay a little bit more so we can invest in the research and technology that will keep new jobs and businesses coming to America.  (Applause.)  And in the process of making sure that we’re reducing our deficit, I’m not going to turn Medicare into a voucher program.  No American should spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies.  (Applause.)
And you know what -- I think we’ve seen again this week -- I don’t think any male politician should be making health care decisions for women.  (Applause.)  I don’t think your boss or your insurance company should be making those decisions for you either.  I believe women are capable and should make their own health care decisions for themselves.  (Applause.) 
That’s why the health care law we passed puts those choices in your hands, where they belong.  That’s where they are to stay as long as I’m President of the United States of America.  (Applause.)
Finally, I’ll use the savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to put our people back to work to do some nation-building here at home -- fixing our roads and our bridges, repairing our schools, laying out broadband lines into rural communities so they can compete in the global economy.  And when our veterans come home, we are going to make sure we’ve got the resources to serve them as well as they’ve served us -- because nobody who fights for this country should have to fight for a job, or a roof over their heads, or the care they need when they come home.  (Applause.) 
This is the plan we need, Virginia.  This is how you build a strong, sustainable economy.  This is how you create good, middle-class jobs.  This is how you encourage new businesses to start here and to stay here.  This is how you increase take-home pay.  This is how you build an economy where everybody who works hard has a chance to get ahead.  That’s what we can do together. (Applause.) 
But it’s up to you, Virginia.  You’re going to have to make a choice.  It’s up to the young people here to decide what kind of future you want for yourselves.  It’s up to the not-so-young people, like me -- and some of you -- (laughter) -- to make sure we make the right choice for future generations.
Sure, we can choose the top-down policies that got us into this mess -- but I think we have to choose the policies that are getting us out of this mess.  (Applause.)  You can choose a foreign policy that’s wrong and reckless -– or you can choose one that’s steady and strong.  (Applause.) 
You can choose to turn back the clock 50 years for women, and immigrants, and gays -– or in this election, you can stand up for that basic principle, enshrined in our founding documents, that we’re all created equal.  (Applause.)  That everybody has a voice in America.  That it doesn’t matter who you are, or what you look like, or where you come from, or who you love -- (applause) -- black or white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, abled or disabled -- (applause) -- it doesn’t matter, you have a place in America.  You can make it if you try.  That’s what’s best in our country.  That’s what we’re fighting for.  (Applause.)
Virginia, we’ve been through some tough times, but we always bounce back -- because the American people are always tougher than any tough times.  We always come out on top because we pull together, because we look after one another, because we don’t leave people behind.  We don’t close the door behind us if we’re successful -- we open it up a little wider so folks can walk through.  We don’t turn back.  We look forward at that distant horizon, at the next destination.  (Applause.)  Our destiny is not written for us, it’s written by us -- and we’re going to write that next chapter together.  (Applause.)   
That’s why I’m asking for your vote in this election.  (Applause.)  That’s why I’m asking for your vote.  And I promise you, if you give me four more years, you’ll have a President who always hear your voice; a President who will always fight for you and your family; a President who spends every waking hour trying to make your lives just a little bit better.  (Applause.)   
Virginia, I believe in you.  I’m asking you to keep believing in me.  (Applause.)  And if you’re willing to roll up your sleeves with me, and work with me, knock on some doors with me, make some phone calls with me, we’ll win Richmond.  (Applause.)  We’ll win the Commonwealth of Virginia again.  We’ll win this election.  (Applause.)  We’ll finish what we started.  And we’ll remind the world why the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth.  (Applause.) 
God bless you.  Thank you, Virginia.  God bless America.  (Applause.) 

END
1:30 P.M. EDT

Rubio Charlie Crist Scott Brown Congressional Budget Office Michael Steele

Early voting victory in Ohio, but more challenges to come?

In a once sentence ruling, the Supreme Court left intact a US Appeals Court ruling that restored early voting rights for all OH voters the weekend before the Nov. 6 election.  Questions remained over how quickly Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted -- who has led the state Republicans' push to shrink the early voting window aggressively -- would uphold his promise to restore statewide early voting hours.
Steve Benen with some good news: 

Husted has now issued a directive setting uniform hours on the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before the election, and it's online here (pdf). In a statement, he grudgingly conceded, "Today I have set uniform hours statewide, giving all Ohio voters the same opportunities to vote in the upcoming presidential election regardless of what county they live in." That this is a concession the Ohio Secretary of State fought tirelessly not to make is rather remarkable, but as of this afternoon, it appears the fight is over.

Big win.  But Rick Hasen says voting rights battles may not be over in Ohio.

The state of Ohio still has not announced whether it will appeal further in the other Ohio voting case, involving wrong precinct ballots.  This is by far a more important case in terms of the consequences for the election.
[...]Ohio had a stronger argument in the early voting case on equal protection grounds than they’d have in the wrong precinct case.  But because this is more consequential, potentially outcome determinative in Ohio, there will be partisan pressures to appeal.
Stay tuned.

 



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Under Fire From Democrats, Chamber of Commerce Helps Blue Dogs


Republicans and their allies in business are howling that a Democratic charge that "secret foreign money" is fueling GOP campaigns is a dog that just won't hunt. Now the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is helping conservative Blue Dog Democrats in a bid to prove it is bipartisan after all.
The powerful business lobby quietly began running ads last week in the congressional districts of 10 endangered Democrats who opposed President Obama's health-care bill or have parted ways on taxes and other fiscal issues with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
The "voter education" ads were first spotted by political media trackers and have been all but lost in the sturm und drang over the chamber's cable-dubbed "plot to buy America."
"The chamber has a broad political program," spokesman J.P. Fielder told Politics Daily. "We're supporting pro-business candidates who have voted with the chamber," he said, noting that includes Democratic Senate hopeful Joe Manchin in West Virginia.
Among the lucky "dogs" getting help from the chamber are Reps. Glenn Nye in Virginia, Travis Childers in Mississippi and Alabama's Bobby Bright, the first Democrat to say he won't vote for Pelosi for speaker if he is re-elected.

In one "voter education ad," the narrator thanks Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia for voting no on Obama's health-care bill. "Tell him to keep fighting for seniors and against Washington's government health care takeover," it urges.
Jessica Klonsky, a spokeswoman for Rep. Frank Kratovil, a freshman Democrat who represents Maryland's conservative Eastern Shore, would not comment on the ads running on his behalf. "We can't control what the chamber is doing," she said, "but the endorsement is just another example of (Kratovil's) independent leadership."
The officially nonpartisan lobby is spending nearly $1.9 million to help conservative House Democrats this year, according to Federal Election Commission records. That's a fraction of the nearly $22 million in outside expenditures that the Center for Responsive Politics calculates the chamber has plunked down. Most of that money has gone to Republicans.
The new ads are likely to do little to douse the firestorm over "attack ads" by outside groups. In campaign stops last week, Obama railed against the chamber for funding spots partly with dues paid by foreign corporations. The ads are "a threat to our democracy," he said. "The American people deserve to know who's trying to sway their elections."
The New York Times reported that "a closer examination shows that there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual." Republicans have accused Democrats of hypocrisy since left-leaning labor unions helping Democrats also have dues-paying international affiliates.
The report didn't keep the Democratic National Committee from launching its own attack ad against the chamber. Such "shills for big business," it said, are taking "secret foreign money to influence our elections."
On Tuesday, after appearing to back down on the foreign connection, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs pushed back against critics. He said the president would continue to ask questions about GOP donors, whether they are foreign or domestic.
ThinkProgress, the liberal blog that first raised the specter of foreign influence, suggested the Democratic spots are a smokescreen. "While the chamber ads may lead many to believe that the organization is taking on a more bipartisan stance, the truth is that it has a long history of allying itself closely to Republicans," it said, noting the group's directors have given six times as much money to GOP candidates as Democrats.
"The chamber wants to give substance to its claim of being bipartisan. That matters for appearances, of course. But it also is important because the chamber does not in fact want to be wholly captured by a single party and thus lose its ability to negotiate with both parties," said Mark Rozell, a George Mason University political scientist.
"If the GOP wins the House, while some moderate-conservative Democrats also win with chamber support, that sends an even stronger message of the group's ability to hurt the president's standing," he said. "The message to Democrats over the next two years would be heard loudly: support this president, look what happens. Stick with us, then we can help you."

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Jim DeMint's Support of Tea Party Candidates Could Boost His Senate Profile


When Marco Rubio embarked on his campaign for the Republican nomination in the U.S. Senate race in Florida, he had very little public support among Republican power brokers, who overwhelmingly backed Charlie Crist, Florida governor and odds-on favorite at the time.
Enter Jim DeMint.
The junior Republican senator from South Carolina, who has developed a reputation for bucking authority in the Capitol, met with Rubio, the former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, in Washington on May 12, 2009. DeMint liked what he heard enough to endorse Rubio a month later. Rubio now has a commanding lead in the polls over Democrat Kendrick Meek and independent Crist, who bolted the GOP when it became clear he would lose to Rubio in the primary.
Rubio is among candidates DeMint has backed in the midterm elections as part of a multimillion-dollar effort to push the Senate's Republican caucus to the right. Those candidates -- mostly associated with the Tea Party movement -- also could help DeMint consolidate a leadership role in the Senate, assuming some or all of them win.
DeMint's early support of the then-relatively unknown Rubio did not go unnoticed. Across the country, other outsider, conservative hopefuls approached DeMint, looking for help in their battles against the establishment.
"There was a line of candidates down the street who wanted to talk to him," said Matt Hoskins, a spokesman for DeMint's political action committee, the Senate Conservatives Fund.
In an effort to bring more like-minded conservatives to the Senate, DeMint endorsed and funded alternative candidates in Republican primaries throughout the country. His Senate Conservatives Fund is still supporting 10 of these candidates in their general election bids, and all but one, Delaware's Christine O'Donnell, are either leading in the polls or in very competitive races.
When the victors arrive in Washington in January -- and political analysts project four to nine of the DeMint picks will win -- they will bring with them a heightened level of influence and power for their benefactor within the Republican Party.
DeMint's goal throughout the election season has been to steer the Senate to the right. With his own re-election assured well before the Nov. 2 vote, DeMint focused his efforts on raising money for the types of conservatives he'd like to serve with in the Senate, especially those with an appetite for reigning in the federal budget. DeMint regularly found himself the only national Republican supporting certain candidates.
"He was the first one," said Owen Loftus, spokesman for Ken Buck, the Republican nominee for Senate in Colorado. "It wasn't until after the primary that others followed."
And DeMint has given more than his name to these candidates. Hoskins estimated that the Senate Conservatives Fund has spent more than $4 million so far on the 10 Senate candidates DeMint is backing.
In the process of nudging the Senate to the right, DeMint almost inevitably will provide a boost to his own influence within the chamber.
"DeMint is a faction leader now," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "He'll have some votes. When you have votes that you can potentially deliver, you have power."
Sabato and other Beltway experts foresee the formation of a small but outspoken Tea Party caucus within the Senate Republicans. The belief is that these new senators will regularly side with DeMint because of a shared view of the role of government and, perhaps, a sense of debt.
"They will come in with sort of a natural affinity in terms of their ideas," said Robert Oldendick, a professor of political science at the University of South Carolina. "Plus, given the role that DeMint is playing in each of their campaigns, there is some kind of, 'OK, I owe some chips to this guy.' So he has become the de facto leader of this."
Hoskins insisted that DeMint's support of these candidates comes with no strings attached. But he expressed optimism that an influx of DeMint-backed candidates could change the direction of the Republican caucus in the Senate.
"I think you're going to see maybe a little more fight from the Republican Party in terms of its principles," Hoskins said. "A lot of people just focus on the numbers but in the Senate sometimes you don't need to have 50 votes. You need three people willing to stand up and speak out on something. If you've got that you can begin to rally the American people and before long you have 50 votes."
Some observers question DeMint's motives in getting so involved in the midterm elections. They claim DeMint is angling to become the Republican leader in the Senate or even to run for president. But Hoskins said DeMint's sole goal is to pack with the Senate with fellow hard-right conservatives.
"He wants to support these candidates to strengthen the Senate," Hoskins said.

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Angus Stone's 'Monsters': Australian Singer Debuts Mystical Video For New Song (VIDEO, INTERVIEW)

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Press Gaggle by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest aboard Air Force One en route New Hampshire

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                            October 27, 2012
PRESS GAGGLE BY
PRINCIPAL DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST
 
Aboard Air Force One
En Route New Hampshire
Please see below for corrections (marked with asterisk) to the transcript.
11:35 A.M. EDT                           
     MR. EARNEST:  Good morning, everybody.  Welcome aboard Air Force One as we wing our way to the Granite State this morning. 
As we speak, President Obama has convened a conference call with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, FEMA Director Craig Fugate, Homeland Security Advisor John Brennan, and Dr. Knabb from the National Hurricane Center.  The President has received regular briefings from his team on the updated weather reports, ongoing preparations and planning as the degree of coordination between FEMA officials and their state and local counterparts increases. 
     Preparation is critical for citizens as well.  So, as always, we encourage folks all across the country to monitor weather reports and to follow the instructions of local officials.
     We'll have a more detailed readout of the call that will be sent by the White House probably shortly after we land.
     MS. PSAKI:  Just two quick things as we're on our way to New Hampshire.  Today is the last day to register in person in New Hampshire or postmark your registration in New Hampshire.  There is in-person registration on Election Day in New Hampshire, so that just means between now and then.
     Also, we sent out a blog post from Jeremy Bird, our National Field Director, because early voting also begins in Florida today.  And I just wanted to highlight a couple of quick points on that.  Since 2008, Democrats have dramatically cut into Republicans' advantage in vote by mail, an area where Republicans have historically been stronger.  At this point four years ago, the Republican advantage exceeded 250,057 votes.  But this year it's just over 33,500 -- an 87 percent drop. 
     Let's see -- one second, please.  Also, Florida's electorate, just like the rest of the nation, has grown much more diverse since 2008.  Of the over 300,000 Hispanics who have registered to vote since President Obama was elected four years ago, nine out of 10 signed up as Democrats or independents, and only 10 percent registered as Republicans.  More than 100,000 African American and Caribbean American voters registered since November 2008.  And among those who have cast mail ballots already, 14 percent are African American, Latino, or Latino -- Democrats or independents, up from 12 percent at this point in 2008.  We estimate minority voters will make up more than 30 percent of the vote in Florida this year, up from 28 percent in 2008.
     I wanted to point those out because I know there was a rumor mill earlier this week pushed by allies of our opponent that we were somehow giving up on Florida.  That makes pretty clear this is a state that we're not only contesting but we absolutely believe we can win.  And Mitt Romney is there today for three events -- that's not the kind of steps you take as a candidate if you think that the state is in the bag.
     With that, we'll take your questions.
     Q    How are you guys trying to adjust the President's travel schedule because of the storm?  And also, what are you doing in places like Virginia and North Carolina in terms of early voting?
MS. PSAKI:  Well, a couple of things.  One, obviously we defer to state and local authorities, as the administration has been encouraging people across the country in those states that will be impacted to do as well.  We’re closely monitoring the storm, and we’ll take all necessary precautions to make sure our staff and volunteers are safe. 
     And as you know, we have a historic organization, grassroots organization already underway in many of these states, encouraging people to participate in early voting between now and Election Day, absentee voting if the law allows in the state, and also persuading undecided voters.  We’re continuing to focus on that. 
We can’t predict, just as no one can predict, exactly how the storm will impact local communities.  And early voting is important and an opportunity because it provides flexibility.  So whether it’s the storm, or whether it is people having to take their kids to soccer practice, or working double shifts, it’s something we’re continuing to encourage people to be a part of.  But we’re monitoring this day by day, just like the administration is, and just like local and state authorities are.
     Q    Josh, what is the President’s schedule?  Has it been impacted by the storm, or will it change?
     MR. EARNEST:  Well, I know that the one change that we’ve already announced is that the President will depart the White House on Sunday evening in advance of his campaign activities on Monday.  But other than that, I don't have any scheduling announcements to make.  As Jen pointed out, we’ll continue to watch the weather reports and make decisions on his schedule moving forward, as needed.
     Q    Is there any concern that it’s going to look weird for President Obama to be campaigning at rallies in the middle of the storm?
     MR. EARNEST:  Well, we began this gaggle by talking about the President’s focus on -- on talking to his national security team and his homeland security team to ensure that all the preparations are in place for the storm.  That is something that began a couple of days ago and it’s something that's still ongoing.  That's something that the President is focused on and is something that will continue to take up time in his schedule, even as he does campaign.
     This is an example, yet again, of the President having to put his responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief and as leader of the country first, while at the same time he pursues his responsibilities as a candidate for reelection.
     But at this point, the President’s priorities are clear, which is ensuring that state and local officials have all the support they need from their federal counterparts to prepare for the storm and to prepare their communities to weather the storm. But we’ll certainly continue to watch the weather reports, and we’ll certainly watch -- stay in close touch with local officials to assess the consequences of the storm, to assess the impact of the storm, and to make sure they have all the support they need from the federal government to respond to it and to keep their communities safe.
     Q    Are you concerned about the possible --
     Q    -- you guys could theoretically lose a couple days of early voting in Virginia, other swing states.  Given the emphasis you’ve put on early voting, how big a concern is that?
     MS. PSAKI:  Look, I think we’re not going to get ahead of where we are now.  As Josh has mentioned and I have mentioned, we’re closely monitoring the storm.  The safety of not only our staff but also our supporters and volunteers is the top priority.
There is a great opportunity to early vote for many days in many of these states.  It’s something we have been encouraging people to participate in.  But safety comes first, and that's the case with early voting as well.
Q    -- possible politicization of the storm response? 
We're a week out from the election.  Governor Romney might say something about how you guys are responding to it or going to rallies and that stuff.
MR. EARNEST:  Well, I don’t want to predict what Governor Romney may or may not say.  He certainly does have an interesting track record on this.  I can tell you where the President's focus and attention is on, and right now his first priority is making sure that his topnotch team is taking advantage of the opportunity they have now to prepare for the storm before it makes landfall, and to make sure they're in close touch with state and local officials who are -- who ultimately will be responsible for directing the response to this storm.
But there's a role for the federal government to play, to lend resources to those efforts to make sure that they're successful and responding promptly to the storm and keeping people safe.  And that's where the President's focus will be for the next few days as we watch -- as we assess the impact of the storm.
Q    You guys have a small ad buy in Minnesota; Romney has got a small ad buy in Minnesota.  And I know the campaign said yesterday that it was targeted at Wisconsin.  Can you say definitively that you're not trying to go after Minnesota at this point, that it's solid for you guys?
MS. PSAKI:  I will repeat just so everybody has it that the ad buy was -- we have spent money in that particular market before because a great percentage of it -- a large percentage of it goes into Wisconsin, which is the strategy behind it.  Minnesota is a state that we feel confident about going to Election Day, and not only because we have volunteers and supporters on the ground, but because the President's record on issues like fighting for the middle class and helping the manufacturing sector recover resonates strongly in the state.  And I'll leave it at that.
Q    Josh, is the White House crafting an alternative to the payroll tax cut, as The Washington Post reported this morning?
MR. EARNEST:  I saw the -- I read The Washington Post story today.  I can tell you that the report is not correct -- the administration is not contemplating at this time a tax cut as the way that it’s described in the Post.
     What I can tell you is that when the President ran for office in 2008, one of the central planks of his agenda was cutting taxes for middle-class families.  That's a promise he made good on.  Middle-class families over the course of the President’s first year [term] in office have enjoyed a tax cut of about $3,600.* 
     Moving forward, the President does believe that cutting taxes for middle-class families is an important part of his economic agenda.  It’s something he’ll continue to push for.  And if we see Republicans in Congress sharing the same commitment to cutting taxes for middle-class families that the President has, then the House will do what the Senate has done, and that's to extend tax cuts for middle-class families.  In fact, it will actually cut taxes for 98 percent of American families, 97 percent of American small business. 
That's something that we should all be able to agree on pretty quickly.  It’s a way that would provide certainty to middle-class families all across the country.  And it’s exactly in line with the President’s -- with the emphasis that the President has placed on reducing the tax burden for middle-class families.
     Q    Given your emphasis on the phrase "as described," is there something new in the works?
     MR. EARNEST:  I’m not trying to be clever.  I’m trying to be as clear as I can, which is to tell you that that Post report today is not correct. 
What is accurate is the President does believe that we should have as our priority tax cuts for middle-class families.  There are a variety of ways to do that, and it’s something that the President will continue to push for.  The most important way right now, in the President’s view, is to extend the Bush tax cuts for middle-class families.  That's something the Senate has already done. 
And again, if Republicans do share the priority that the President has for cutting taxes for middle-class families, then what they’ll do is they will come back into session, either before Election Day or right after, and move quickly on legislation that the Senate has already passed, to pass tax cuts for middle-class families and 97 percent of small businesses. 
     Q    Governor Romney and his campaign have accused you guys of running a negative campaign.  What kind of campaign do you think they’re running?
     MS. PSAKI:  Well, first I’ll say I’m 5’3”, as you know.  I could tell you I’m 5’10” in this gaggle, but you know the truth and will report that I’m actually 5’3”.  And I would use the same discretion as you take their talking points and figure out if they’re actually factual.  Because you -- many of you cover the President every single day.  Many of you have covered Mr. Romney every single day.  Ninety-five percent of the President’s remarks he delivers to the American people every day is about his positive vision for the country, moving forward, and the steps he’s taken to bring the economy back from the brink and fight for the middle class. 
     On the flip side, Mitt Romney and his team are working overtime to spin that he has momentum, that he has a positive plan for the middle class.  But facts are not their forte.  And as far as I can tell, the economic speech he gave yesterday that was supposedly laying out his vision was a nothing burger.  And they go out every single day and question the President’s record, the President’s plans, when we’ve had full back-up by private-sector economists, by people from the outside, saying many of the steps the President has taken have worked.
     So we rely on the smarts of the American people.  We know they’re paying attention.  We know they’re looking closely at the records and the visions for -- and the differences between the candidates moving forward.  And we have every faith that they’ll see through the bluff and bluster of our opponent.
     Q    Is it negative, though, what they're doing -- are they running a negative campaign?
     MS. PSAKI:  I think there is a contrast laid out in every election.  The President does that.  That's part of what the President talks about every day, too, because he thinks the American people deserve to have someone they can trust in the White House. 
     But when you have a candidate like Mitt Romney and his team suggesting that they’re not running a negative campaign, when they’ve questioned whether the President understands America or freedom, and they have surrogates questioning everything from his record to his place of birth, you have to question whether they have -- they should be throwing stones from their glass house.
     Q    Thank you, guys.
     MS. PSAKI:  All right, appreciate it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
 
 

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