According to newly released poll from Gallup, Romney has a large lead when it comes to veterans, cow-milking gaffes aside. This is not super surprising, as the group tends to lean conservative, but the numbers are pretty stark: 60 percent of them support Romney for president. Analysts note that 24 percent of adult American men are veterans, and their preference for the Republican candidate accounts for his current lead among men generally.
"Well Ken, maybe you can teach the vets to milk cows." — Then-Senate candidate Mitt Romney responding to a homeless veterans' shelter director's complaint that state aid wasn't enough to afford milk for the men. [Buzzfeed]
No, Rudy Giuliani did not save anyone from a burning building. The former mayor did, however, insult his party's presidential candidate on national television. Rudy's explanation for his past criticism of Mitt Romney, which he gave this morning on CNN's State of the Union, didn't do much to convince viewers that he really believes in his fellow Republican, despite having technically backed him in April (not that he had much of a choice).
"At that point, I was probably comparing his record to my record."
"[He] is frequently profane (cycling through jokes about weight, Viagra and Rogaine), smokes a pipe, carries a fish-skinning knife with a three-inch blade and dons an almost cartoonishly retro wardrobe of knee-high tube socks, bright white sneakers and Magnum, P.I.-era Tom Selleck beige shorts." That's Jim Wilson, profiled in today's New York Times, a near-septuagenarian former insurance salesman from Virginia who's been following the Romney campaign since last summer, driving 40,000 miles in his poster-festooned pickup truck. Mitt, make this man your chief stylist and speechwriter now.
In a video posted online yesterday, Obama took credit for tapping out a perfect, efficiency-maximizing 140-character-long tweet (apparently, a 'twoosh') about green energy during a Thursday Twitter Q&A session. Hate to burst your bubble, POTUS, but we see an extra space after 'wind' and an extra period right at the start. And isn't bio fuels all one word? So, really, it should only be 137 characters long. No twoosh for you!
Yesterday, the Internet met — and kind of fell in love with — Jeff Barth, the commissioner of South Dakota's Minnehaha County and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for South Dakota's lone, at-large congressional seat, which is currently occupied by freshman Republican Kristi Noem. Barth's five-minute web ad is charmingly low-budget yet totally surreal: While walking along a forest path, the would-be congressman regales us with odd factoids about his life — he learned chess in Iceland, once rode an ostrich, and raised daughters with straight teeth — supplemented by props placed strategically along the trail and a few computer-generated graphics. We talked to Barth by phone today about the strategy behind the ad, which other animals he'd like to ride, and chess.
The real news in Mitt Romney’s interview with Mark Halperin, as Charles Pierce points out, is that Romney openly repudiated the central argument his party has been making against President Obama for the last three years: that he spent too much money and therefore deepened the economic crisis. Indeed Romney himself had been making this very case as recently as a week ago (“he bailed out the public sector, gave billions of dollars to the companies of his friends, and added almost as much debt as all the prior presidents combined. The consequence is that we are enduring the most tepid recovery in modern history.”) But in his Halperin interview, Romney frankly admits that reducing the budget deficit in the midst of an economic crisis would be a horrible idea:
“I misspoke: I should have said, Polish." — Marion Barry's entire, seven-word statement on using the word "Polack" yesterday.
The political alliance between Mitt Romney and Donald Trump, consummated in February with a very awkward handshake, is about to get even closer. Romney is headed to Las Vegas on Tuesday for a Trump-hosted fund-raiser, the campaign is holding a fund-raising lottery for the chance to eat dinner with Trump (possibly at Famous Famiglia), and Trump is thinking about forming his own Romney-supporting super-PAC. Clearly, Trump is good for Romney's bank account. But he also remains, to this day, a very confident, very unapologetic, very embarrassing birther:
Marco Rubio is hurt and deeply wounded by President Obama’s criticisms of Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital. "Obama goes straight for the argument that his opponents are bad human beings, bad people that don’t care about the plight of other Americans,” said Rubio yesterday. “I think that’s deeply unfair.” To be sure, Obama always takes care to note that he considers Romney a patriot and a decent person but one who has merely drawn the wrong lessons from his business experience. But Rubio is a sensitive soul.
Ranking the major veep candidates based on the eagerness of their most recent veepstakes-related remark»
Hope: The Sequel
For Obama & Co., this time around it's all about fear.
By John HeilemannA SCOTUS clerk never tells.
By Jason ZengerleBiden's blunder made Obama tie the knot sooner than planned—but he still may get to live happily ever after.
By John HeilemannObama lost 42% of the vote in both states' primaries. A brief look at why.
By Dave WeigelWhy the Newark mayor's "gaffe" was just part of his larger career plan.
By Steve KornackiAnalyzing the dumbing down of political rhetoric.
By Lee DrutmanWhy Obama and McCain, funny guys both, are loathe to crack a joke.
By Kurt AndersenOn the rise of a 32-year-old political golden boy running for mayor of Newark—Cory Booker.
By Seth MnookinInside the campaign of the "viable, but also vulnerable" third-party candidate. Recommended reading for Americans Elect organizers.
By Michael Kramer
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How They Met Their Wives
