Barack Obama’s Arkansas primary problem
Two weeks after an imprisoned felon received 41 percent of the vote against President Obama in West Virginia’s presidential primary, Arkansas could provide another potential embarrassment for the incumbent.
That’s because only Obama and John Wolfe, a Tennessee lawyer, are on the Democratic presidential primary ballot in the Razorback State. (Wolfe took 12 percent — and nearly 18,000 votes — in a four-way fight in the Louisiana Democratic presidential primary in late March.) And a recent independent poll showed Obama running just seven points ahead of Wolfe in the southern Arkansas 4th district, which covers one-quarter of the state.
Justice Department probing donations to Josh Mandel and Jim Renacci
The Department of Justice is looking into campaign donations to two Ohio Republican candidates, Dick Lugar isn’t over it, Bob Corker is optimistic and Romney is ready to raise $10 million.
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Obama on Bain: ‘This is what the campaign is going to be about’
Updated at 5:51 p.m.
President Obama on Monday declined to back down from his campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital despite criticism from some Democrats.
Asked at a press conference in Chicago about criticism from Newark Mayor Cory Booker regarding his campaign’s attacks on Romney’s work in private equity, Obama defended the tactic and said it’s fair game in a race where Romney has played up his business credentials.
“This is not a distraction,” Obama said. “This is what this campaign is going to be about.”
Corporations are (Democratic) people, too
If there’s one lasting lesson of the Cory Booker saga over the weekend, it’s that nothing in politics is as clear cut as it seems.
Democrats have been trying all election cycle to make the coming race about the rich paying their fair share, reining in fat cat bankers and helping the 99 percent, with Mitt Romney serving as the foil.
That’s a great strategy — except for when you and/or your Democratic friends need the financial support of the 1 percent to win elections and make money.
Bill Maher calls Mormonism a ‘cult’
Talk show host Bill Maher, a major financial supporter of President Obama’s reelection, referred to Mormonism as a “cult” on Monday.
Mitt Romney’s only foreign policy experience, Maher quipped via Twitter, was “trying to brow-beat Frenchmen into joining his cult” — a reference to the former Massachusetts governor’s time as a Mormon missionary in France.
David Axelrod scolds Cory Booker on Bain Capital
President Obama’s chief political strategist hammered comments made by Newark Mayor Cory Booker regarding former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s work at Bain Capital as “wrong”, the latest attempt by the White House to get out from under the burgeoning controversy.
“In this particular instance he was just wrong,” Axelrod told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell — speaking about Booker’s defense of private equity firms. “There are specific instances here that speak to an economic theory that isn’t the right economic theory for the country.”
April fundraising winners and losers
Mitt Romney, President Obama and a whole bunch of super PACs and party committees filed their April financial reports on Sunday.
And we know you guys don’t want to have to comb through them all (the FEC Web site? — fuggedaboutit!). Which is where we come in.
(AP)
Below, we take a look at some of the winners and losers from the April reports, followed by a chart listing the amount raised and cash on hand for each major group.
What did we miss? The comments section awaits.
Cory Booker commits the classic Washington gaffe
In Washington, there’s an old cliche: A gaffe is when a politician is accidentally honest.
That’s what happened to Newark (N.J.) Mayor Cory Booker during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Booker, who is widely regarded as a fast riser in Democratic politics, veered badly off message when he defended Bain Capital — the longtime employer of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — and described the negative tone of the campaign as “nauseating”.
American Crossroads has five times as much cash as Priorities USA
Republicans are still winning the super PAC game. As of the end of April, American Crossroads has five times the cash of its Democratic counterpart, Priorities USA Action.
Crossroads’s fundraising has been declining, but the group has saved a solid pile of cash while its nonprofit sister arm spends.
Priorities and Crossroads were about evenly matched in fundraising last month, according to reports filed with the FEC. Crossroads raised $1.84 million; Priorities raised $1.6 million.
How Mitt Romney might outraise Barack Obama
Political observers have spent the last four years marveling at President Obama’s fundraising might. But now even Democrats are admitting that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — and his allied party and outside groups — may very well outspend the current occupant of the White House between now and the Nov. 6 election.
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