The animation that Chris Hayes used should be turned into an Obama ad right now. Much was made about the 2006 Romney quote defending his job record, which at the time was a whole lot like Obama’s is today, but only when the Obama job creation chart is joined with Romney’s remarks does one really get a sense of the power of his words.
To see Romney tracking Obama’s job creation record with his finger is powerful stuff. It is something that can really hit home with voters if it is run as a 30 second ad.
President Obama wasn’t pleased with the new jobs numbers, but he urged Americans today to remember the mess he inherited and appreciate the progress.
Using exactly the kind of rhetoric Republicans dismiss as “tired excuses,” the president told reporters, “I came in and the jobs had been just falling off a cliff…. It takes a while to get things turned around. We were in a recession; we were losing jobs every month. We’ve turned it around and now we’re adding jobs…. We want to keep that going to the extent we can.”
Wait, did I say Obama today? I meant Mitt Romney, six years ago.
[maddowblog/Steve Benen/06 Jul 2012]
• Romney’s Tax Confusion – [T]he campaign looks confused in addition to being politically dumb. … [T]he Obama campaign is assailing Mr. Romney as an out-of-touch rich man, and the rich man obliged by vacationing this week at his lake-side home with a jet-ski cameo.
So after the health care decision, Romney could have come out there. He has a health care plan. And it’s pretty detailed, at least within, I would say, this little box he keeps in the subbasement of his 12-car garage in deep secret.
He’s not letting anybody know it, but it is a secret plan, and it’s a pretty good plan.
And I would like him to say what it is, in part so he can say, this is what I believe.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You know that he has a plan, but you are saying. . .
DAVID BROOKS: Well, he has announced the outlines of his plan. That’s public. I also know that he has the private details of the plan which is in secret.
But it’s just fleshing out the plan he has announced publicly.
E.J. DIONNE: And the problem is, it looks like the plan that John McCain put on the table four years ago, which President Obama, then Senator Obama, trashed to great effect in the election.
I don’t think the plan would be popular if he put it out there, which is why it is in the subbasement.
DAVID BROOKS: It happens to be popular with people like me.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So that’s why he’s keeping it secret.
E.J. DIONNE: Right.
DAVID BROOKS: That’s why, yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Because you are in the minority. You are a columnist.
DAVID BROOKS: Well, I like. . .
E.J. DIONNE: He leaks it to you, but not to the public.
DAVID BROOKS: I like being a part of the reality principle.
[crooksandliars/Heather/06 Jul 2012]
Exactly who you thought they were:
• Your Congress at work: For the third straight month, the job picture in the United States has been disappointing. Any chance lawmakers might pick up the major provisions of the American Jobs Act, most of which have traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, and which independent economists believe would have a significant impact? Well, no. Republican lawmakers are absolutely convinced the jobs report is Obama’s fault, even though they killed his jobs plan, and despite the fact that they were taking credit for themselves when the jobs picture looked strong earlier this year. (How does the GOP get credit for February 2012 jobs, but avoid blame for June 2012 jobs? The answer is simple: shut up.) [maddowblog/Steve Benen/06 Jul 2012]
• Right Wing Attacks Stephanie Miller, Sobbing Ohioan Hugged by POTUS – By last night, the Right wing was in full attack mode, calling her a plant replete with accusations of conjuring evil and issuing fake tears over her sister’s death, claiming her sister deserved what she got because she “chose not to get insurance.”
• Things got downright HOSTILE on the Jersey Shore last night — with NJ Governor Chris Christie getting into a heated verbal altercation right on the boardwalk … and it was all caught on tape.
• The House of Representatives’ latest version of the farm bill — crafted as a “compromise” between House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-MN) — would cut $35 billion in spending, including $16.5 billion from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program — known as SNAP or, informally, food stamps.
• Another sign of the (heat) times: thousands of dead fish – In lakes and rivers across parched areas of the U.S., heat and lower water levels are reducing oxygen levels — and killing fish populations by the thousands.
• Metro officials on Saturday said excessive heat was the probable cause for a train derailment Friday in Prince George’s County. Investigators said a “heat kink” due to extreme high temperatures and direct exposure to sunlight likely caused the rails to expand, resulting in the derailment. The derailment was reported on the inbound stretch of the Green Line near the West Hyattsville Station around 4:45 p.m.
• Cooler weather was on the horizon for the Midwest, but not before two weeks of oven-like temperatures had taken their toll: at least 46 deaths were tied to the heat over that period, according to a list compiled by the Weather Channel.
Women:
• There’s something pretty fucking condescending about a person who has never experienced the pressures of female beauty ideals telling women that the symptoms of those pressures are no big deal.
Since leaving the White House, former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush have pursued humanitarian work abroad in an area that has become particularly contentious for Republicans at home: women’s health. The Bushes recently opened a women’s health clinic in Zambia, a country that has the second highest rate of cervical cancer in the world.
The former president made a push for bipartisan initiatives to combat HIV/AIDS during his time in office. In the years since, he has raised over $85 million for cervical cancer programs. Bush explains his commitment to women’s health in moral terms:
BUSH: We care because we believe that to whom much is given, much is required. And those of us, who live in America, live in the most blessed nation ever and therefore when we see suffering, we ought to act. But the saddest thing of all is to know a lady’s life has been saved from AIDS but died from cervical cancer. And so starting in Zambia, the Bush Center, along with our partners, are going to put on a cervical cancer crusade to save lives.
In 2010, conservatives tried to block the Affordable Care Act in Congress. They lost, and President Obama signed the landmark legislation into law.
Rather than respect the legitimate act of a democratically elected legislature, health reform’s opponents responded by immediately asking the courts to invalidate what the American people’s representatives brought into being. They lost again — although by a depressingly narrow margin considering how absurd their legal arguments were.
State Rep. Mike Ritze said Tuesday he plans to reintroduce a bill to “nullify” the individual mandate in the 2010 federal health care legislation in Oklahoma.
“I disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling and believe that state governments were intended to serve as a check on the federal government,” said Ritze, R-Broken Arrow. “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is better known as ObamaCare, is an example of federal overreach and my legislation will authorize the state to resist it and ban the enforcement of it.”
Of course, Ritze’s bill violates the express language of the Constitutional, which states that Acts of Congress “shall be the supreme law of the land . . . anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.” Yet, while his tactic is clearly unconstitutional, it is not unprecedented. In the 1950s, when Jim Crow lawmakers objected to the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, they too claimed the power to simply decree that the Court was wrong and act like they can do whatever they choose.
• Senior IDF officer: Israel is preparing for the next Lebanon war – Officer says instability in Syria could ignite violent confrontation with the Lebanese army, says ‘Goldstone report will pale in comparison to what will be here next time.’: In IDF simulations of what a third Lebanon war would look like, ground maneuvers in villages that are considered bastions of Shiite Hezbollah become particularly important. “The next war will be different, and therefore we should stop it as quickly as possible, in order to make things easier for the home front. This means carrying out a very strong attack against Lebanon, and the damage will be enormous,” says a senior officer in the Northern Command. “The Goldstone report will pale in comparison to what will be here next time. There is no choice but to fight against the enemy where he is, and that is in the heart of a populated area. ” [haaretz/Gili Cohen/05 Jul 2012]
F.D.Brightly
Romney makes an Obama ad [Shorter Question Everything]
• Watch Romney’s Magic Finger as He Endorses Obama’s Jobs Record:
[politicususa/Jason Easley/07 Jul 2012]
More on taxes, Healthcare:
• A simple defense:
[maddowblog/Steve Benen/06 Jul 2012]
• Romney’s Tax Confusion – [T]he campaign looks confused in addition to being politically dumb. … [T]he Obama campaign is assailing Mr. Romney as an out-of-touch rich man, and the rich man obliged by vacationing this week at his lake-side home with a jet-ski cameo.
• David Brooks: Romney Has a Secret Health Care Plan No One Knows About, But It’s a Good Plan:
[crooksandliars/Heather/06 Jul 2012]
Exactly who you thought they were:
• Your Congress at work: For the third straight month, the job picture in the United States has been disappointing. Any chance lawmakers might pick up the major provisions of the American Jobs Act, most of which have traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, and which independent economists believe would have a significant impact? Well, no. Republican lawmakers are absolutely convinced the jobs report is Obama’s fault, even though they killed his jobs plan, and despite the fact that they were taking credit for themselves when the jobs picture looked strong earlier this year. (How does the GOP get credit for February 2012 jobs, but avoid blame for June 2012 jobs? The answer is simple: shut up.) [maddowblog/Steve Benen/06 Jul 2012]
• Right Wing Attacks Stephanie Miller, Sobbing Ohioan Hugged by POTUS – By last night, the Right wing was in full attack mode, calling her a plant replete with accusations of conjuring evil and issuing fake tears over her sister’s death, claiming her sister deserved what she got because she “chose not to get insurance.”
• Things got downright HOSTILE on the Jersey Shore last night — with NJ Governor Chris Christie getting into a heated verbal altercation right on the boardwalk … and it was all caught on tape.
• Romney Endorser Ted Nugent: ‘I’m Beginning To Wonder If It Would Have Been Best Had The South Won The Civil War’
• The House of Representatives’ latest version of the farm bill — crafted as a “compromise” between House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-MN) — would cut $35 billion in spending, including $16.5 billion from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program — known as SNAP or, informally, food stamps.
• Texas Voter ID Law, Which Accepts Gun Licenses But Not Student IDs, Challenged In Court
Still don’t believe in Global Warming?:
• Another sign of the (heat) times: thousands of dead fish – In lakes and rivers across parched areas of the U.S., heat and lower water levels are reducing oxygen levels — and killing fish populations by the thousands.
• Metro officials on Saturday said excessive heat was the probable cause for a train derailment Friday in Prince George’s County. Investigators said a “heat kink” due to extreme high temperatures and direct exposure to sunlight likely caused the rails to expand, resulting in the derailment. The derailment was reported on the inbound stretch of the Green Line near the West Hyattsville Station around 4:45 p.m.
• New storms down trees as sweltering heat spreads east
• Cooler weather was on the horizon for the Midwest, but not before two weeks of oven-like temperatures had taken their toll: at least 46 deaths were tied to the heat over that period, according to a list compiled by the Weather Channel.
Women:
• There’s something pretty fucking condescending about a person who has never experienced the pressures of female beauty ideals telling women that the symptoms of those pressures are no big deal.
• Former President George W. Bush Breaks From His Party’s ‘War On Women,’ Advocates For Women’s Health Abroad:
[thinkprogress/Tara Culp-Ressler/06 Jul 2012]
• Sore Loser Oklahoma Lawmaker Lashes Out At SCOTUS With Unconstitutional Bill To Nullify Obamacare:
[thinkprogress/Ian Millhiser/06 Jul 2012]
Bits and pieces:
• Glenn Greenwald: How America’s Surveillance State Breeds Conformity and Fear
• Senior IDF officer: Israel is preparing for the next Lebanon war – Officer says instability in Syria could ignite violent confrontation with the Lebanese army, says ‘Goldstone report will pale in comparison to what will be here next time.’: In IDF simulations of what a third Lebanon war would look like, ground maneuvers in villages that are considered bastions of Shiite Hezbollah become particularly important. “The next war will be different, and therefore we should stop it as quickly as possible, in order to make things easier for the home front. This means carrying out a very strong attack against Lebanon, and the damage will be enormous,” says a senior officer in the Northern Command. “The Goldstone report will pale in comparison to what will be here next time. There is no choice but to fight against the enemy where he is, and that is in the heart of a populated area. ” [haaretz/Gili Cohen/05 Jul 2012]