HILLARY'S 2016 DNC SPEECH REVEALS HER AGENDA (COMPETENT LEADERSHIP)

Sources: CNN, Bretibart, Youtube

HILLARY'S 2016 DNC SPEECH REVEALS COMPETENT LEADERSHIP:

HILLARY'S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH WASN'T BELLS & WHISTLES BUT IT MADE ME BELIEVE IN HER AGAIN.

***** How Hillary Clinton defined her historic moment

Story highlights

• Clinton offered a stark choice for the nation
• Clinton on Trump: 'A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons'

As Hillary Clinton playfully batted away an avalanche of balloons Thursday night, she appeared proud, happy and reconciled to her historic moment.

She had accepted the Democratic nomination with "humility, determination and boundless confidence in America's promise," taking her place as the first woman to lead a major presidential ticket on a night pulsating with emotion.

Her speech lacked the poetic sweep of the President Barack Obama's address Wednesday, but it was in keeping with someone who presents herself as a practical, dogged, policy-oriented striver who gets knocked down and then gets straight back up. 

The choice she defined for the nation in 2016 is stark: a "moment of reckoning."

The former first lady, senator and secretary of state set her sights on the White House and blasted Republican nominee Donald Trump, portraying him as a small man who got rich by stifling workers, who peddles fear and who lacks the temperament to be commander-in-chief.

She quickly reached out to disappointed Bernie Sanders voters at the end of a convention dedicated to healing the deep rift from their contentious primary race. With the Vermont senator watching from the arena, Clinton told his supporters: "I've heard you. Your cause is our cause."

President Barack Obama congratulated Clinton at the conclusion of her speech.

"Great speech," he tweeted. "She's tested. She's ready. She never quits. That's why Hillary should be our next @POTUS. (She'll get the Twitter handle, too)"

In the audience, Clinton supporters were moved to tears, including 16-year-old Victoria Sanchez.

"This is more than I ever could have imagined," she said. "I know that I have just lived history and I can follow in her footsteps. This changes my entire life." 

After a lifetime in a polarizing political spotlight that has left her with plenty of enemies and dented approval ratings, Clinton set out to prove to voters that she could be trusted. 

Dedicated fighter

She avoided any show of contrition for controversies like the one over the private email server she used for official business while secretary of state that has again provoked questions about her honesty and integrity among many voters. 

Instead, she presented herself as a dedicated and indefatigable fighter for children, the disabled, blue-collar workers, women and the poor, while promising a backbone of steel as she vowed to take out ISIS.

Throughout a speech punctuated by roars of applause and watched by a misty-eyed former President Bill Clinton, she repeatedly returned to attack Trump -- who laid out a much darker vision of America's future at his own convention last week.

"Don't let anyone tell you we don't have what it takes," Clinton said. "Most of all, don't believe anyone who says: 'I alone can fix it,' " a reference to a part of Trump's acceptance speech last week.

"Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart," she said. "Bonds of trust and respect are fraying. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we all will work together so we all can rise together."

Turning to national security, Clinton warned that a president has to make decisions about war and peace, life and death.

"Ask yourself: Do you really think Donald Trump has the temperament to be commander in chief? Donald Trump can't even handle the rough-and-tumble of a presidential campaign." 

She added: "A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons."

Trump hit back -- with a series of tweets.

"No one has worse judgement than Hillary Clinton - corruption and devastation follows her wherever she goes," he wrote. "Hillary's wars in the Middle East have unleashed destruction, terrorism and ISIS across the world."

Stephen Miller, Trump's senior policy adviser, blasted Clinton's speech as an "insulting collection of cliches and recycled rhetoric."

"She spent the evening talking down to the American people she's looked down on her whole life," he said.

Persuading Americans

But Clinton is working to persuade Americans that she understands their frustration and economic anxiety at a time when many of them still do not trust her. Her prime-time televised address is especially crucial because she has not so far generated the kind of passion among her supporters that Trump has garnered from his backers by channeling anger about the direction of the country.

She spoke of her wholesome middle class upbringing and said her family were builders of the American dream and not people "with their name on big buildings" -- another dig at Trump. 

Clinton took pains to reach out to white blue-collar workers, many of whom have been left behind by economic globalization and technological change and have been attracted by Trump's anti-elite message.

"Right now, an awful lot of people feel there is less and less respect for the work they do," she said, and admitted that politicians had not done a good enough job of showing they understand.

One of the major themes of the Democratic convention has been an attempt to reintroduce one of the most famous women in the world to the American people. And she admitted that if many Americans knew little of the woman behind the image, it may be her fault.

"The truth is, through all these years of public service, the 'service' part has always come easier to me than the 'public' part," Clinton said.

Clinton also indicated she understood the need to reassure Americans shaken by a violent summer at home and an epidemic of terror attacks in Europe and the US. While Clinton and Obama have argued that ISIS is on the run, the economy is on the upswing, and Americans are safer than they have been in years, they are struggling to counter the dark image that Trump has painted of a nation in decline, chaos and disorder that resonates with many voters.

National security threats

Amid charges by Republicans that the optimistic mood of the Democratic convention has ignored the threat from ISIS and terrorism, Clinton was specific about the global national security threats that loom -- though she didn't use the term Islamic terrorism as the GOP repeatedly has called for.

"Anyone reading the news can see the threats and turbulence we face," Clinton said. "From Baghdad to Kabul, to Nice to Paris and Brussels. From San Bernardino to Orlando, we're dealing with determined enemies who must be defeated. No wonder people are anxious and looking for reassurance -- looking for steady leadership."

Following a spate of killings by police of African-American youths and massacres of police officers, Clinton laid out a firm stance on gun control, vowing that America should not have a president in the "pocket" of the gun lobby.

"I'm not here to take away your guns," she said. "I just don't want you to be shot by someone who shouldn't have a gun in the first place."

Ahead of her speech, retired four star General John Allen, the former head of US and international forces in Afghanistan, delivered a powerful address in which he told delegates that Clinton would be "exactly the Commander-in-Chief America needs." 

'America will continue to lead'

"With her as our Commander-in-Chief, America will continue to lead this volatile world. We will oppose and resist tyranny and we will defeat evil. America will defeat ISIS and protect the homeland," said Allen, who was surrounded on stage by 37 military veterans.

Clinton delivered her speech at the end of a largely successful convention, which helped mend the party after her divisive primary against Sanders. The mood on the convention floor Thursday was festive and upbeat — in contrast to the discontent that festered on the opening night Monday when die-hard Sanders fans loudly make their disappointment known.

Samantha Herring of Walton County, Florida, was a Sanders supporter but has decided this week to work hard to elect Clinton.

"Is it hard? Yes. I loved Bernie, but that's why I have to vote for Hillary," said Herring, who made signs reading "He has my heart, but she has my vote."

Cory Booker & Joe Scarborough: Scarborough Was Right! Booker's Admonishment Hurts Democrats; Turns Off Independents

“Inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.”
John Addison


"Morning Joe" Host Joe Scarborough's analysis of Cory Booker's first Apology Video following his appearance last week on "Meet The Press" DID in fact make him appear as if he were being "held Hostage".

Cory Booker's recent Admonishment by the National Democratic Party for speaking out on "Meet The Press" proves Independent Minds are NOT welcome in 21st Century Politics.
Its 100% Partisan Politics or Else!

The Democratic Party’s recent Attack on Cory Booker hurts his Political Brand & Disrupts his legacy of Helping the Poor and being able to reach across the Aisle as an Effective Bi-Partisan Leader.

As a result Independent Voters have been Turned off by how Poorly Booker was treated by Democrats following his "Meet The Press" comments.

Cory should NOT have Apologized!

I don't know WHO advised him (Male or Female) to Apologize but they offered him some very Damaging Career Advice.

Instead he should have just reiterated his Stand for Pres. Obama & also reiterated his Support for Private Equity.

However he should NOT have Apologized.

Here's Why.

During his appearance on "Meet The Press", Mayor Booker criticized Both Political Parties for Negative Ads which further Divide American Voters.

Millions of Voters & Political Leaders from all walks of life and ethnic groups agreed with Cory's Straight-From-The-Heart comments.

Voters are so tired of Politicians saying ANYTHING just to get Elected & Re-elected.

Thus when Cory Booker spoke so eloquently about Negative Campaign ads which revisit the Jeremiah Wright drama & attacks Private Equity, the Clouds opened up for American Voters.

However while Independent Voters were Lauding Booker, Leaders within the Democratic Party and many within Pres. Obama's Re-election camp obviously viewed Cory's comments as a Spotlight stealing gimmick.

It Wasn't!

Cory Booker has primarily been a Staunch Advocate of Pres. Barack Obama, even when he was just Senator Obama.

So why would he suddenly become a "Turn Coat" or a Traitor to Pres. Obama?

Cory merely stated an Opinion. An Independent Opinion.

How could an Honest Opinion in which he criticized the Negative Actions of Both Political Parties, cause Cory's Loyalty to Pres. Obama's Administration to be Questioned?

I thought all American Citizens regardless of their Ethnicity, Economic & Social Status were legally Afforded Freedom Of Speech rights as provided by the U.S. Constitution.

Hold It!

Cory Booker was an Obama Surrogate right?

Apparently Political Surrogates are NOT allowed to Express their Own, Independent Opinions.

Especially NOT BLACK, Political Surrogates within the Democratic Party.

You see its acceptable for WHITE Political Surrogates to Express their Independent Opinions once in a while, but BLACK, Political Surrogates are ALWAYS expected to do as they are told versus practicing Independent Thinking.

i.e., Slavery Group Think Mentally!

In essence Cory Booker largely known for being an Effective Bi-Partisan Leader, was Forced by the National Democratic Party and by some of his Inner Circle Socialite Friends to become a completely Partisan Political Leader or ELSE!!!

In other words pick a side or we will Black List You!

Sure sounds like "Hostage Politics" to me.

Cory Booker was Celebrated by Independent Voters for his "Meet The Press" comments because not only did he speak from the Heart but he demonstrated a Human trait so many 21st Century Politicians have lost.

How Sad such an Admirable Human Relations Trait is no longer welcome in the world of Partisan Politics.
Both Parties!

Partisan Politics are to blame for a Broken Congress & a Dysfunctional Executive Branch Government.

Booker sees American Citizens NOT just as Voting Blocks or as Separate Voting Groups, but Cory Booker sees American Citizens as Individual HUMAN BEINGS Created in GOD's Image.

Cory Booker was Admonished for simply Daring to be Independent & for Daring to be Human versus a Political Machine.

For that Mayor Booker's Political Career has been Damaged, All the Good he has done to help Clean Up a Corrupt Metropolitan City Forgotten & his Once shining light as a Rising Political Star Dimmed.

In 2008 Barack Obama was Praised by Registered Independent Voters for being a seemingly Effective Bi-Partisan Political Leader, willing to Compromise for the sake of the Collective American Electorate.

Fast forward to 2012.

Cory Booker another rising star within the National Democratic Party is Whipped, Admonished & Blacklisted for attempting to be an Effective Bi-Partisan Political, also willing to Compromise for the sake of the Collective American Electorate.

Perhaps there will Always ONLY be room for just ONE rising, BLACK Political Star within the National Democratic Party at a time.

I suggest Cory Booker choose some New Inner Circle Social Friends (Male & Female) and....a New Public Relations Adviser.

I also suggest Cory Booker decide if he should remain a Staunch Democrat or consider becoming a Registered Independent like one of his Mentors Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

After all what is the use of remaining a Staunch, Loyal Democrat Surrogate if the Democratic Party will treat you like Horse Manure if you choose to "Step Out Of Line"?
i.e., Political Slavery!
i.e., "Held Hostage"!


But Republicans shouldn’t laugh at this latest misstep by Democrat Leaders.

Key GOP Leaders have also been known to recently Attack rising Republican Leaders & Candidates who stray off-message.

So much for Authentic American Democracy.

So much for Bi-Partisanship.

So much for Independent, Critical Thinkers.

Dear God Help Us!

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Cory Booker’s truth — and its consequences

The past several days of Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s life have been painfully amusing to watch.

Painful because Booker, a rising Democratic star, is such a good guy. Amusing, because rarely are Americans treated to such premier seats in the political theater of truth and consequence.

That is, tell the truth and beware the consequences.

Booker has gained much unwelcome attention from his own political party, while being nearly sanctified by Republicans, for the singular offense of telling the truth.

And then untelling the truth.

And then . . . stay tuned.

To know Booker is to like him. He’s one of those political figures whose persona telegraphs “honest broker.” Educated at Stanford, Oxford and Yale Law School, he’s also a popular mayor in one of America’s toughest, most challenged cities. Open-minded and solution-oriented, he’s what we hope for in public officials. Or say we do.

But honesty is not always a rewarding trait in politics, especially during high-stakes election years, as Booker promptly learned when he recently spoke from the heart on “Meet the Press.” He said that attacks on Bain Capital, where Mitt Romney made a fortune, were “nauseating” to him, as were similar attacks from the right to resurrect the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

“I have to just say from a very personal level, I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity,” Booker said. “To me, it’s just this — we’re getting to a ridiculous point in America, especially that I know. I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, it ain’t — they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses.”

Hearts leapt.

While regular folks shielded their eyes from the blinding light of Truth, political operatives left and right shifted into warp speed. Republicans produced an insta-ad capitalizing on Booker’s remarks — See? Even Democrats dislike President Obama’s attack on Bain — while their counterparts on the left began launching correctives.

David Axelrod promptly made the rounds and explained to talk show hosts what Booker really meant. (As though Americans can’t understand what they plainly hear.) Others pointed out Booker’s own cozy relationship with equity capital political donors. And Booker, obviously scrambling to recapture favor with the Obama campaign, posted a YouTube video before another sun had set.

What he “really” meant: “Let me be clear. Mitt Romney has made his business record a centerpiece of his campaign,” Booker says in the video. “He’s talked about himself as a job creator. And therefore it is reasonable — and in fact I encourage it — for the Obama campaign to examine that record and to discuss it. I have no problem with that.”

Commentators have all cast their ballots as to whether Booker should have corrected himself. Almost unanimously, the answer was no.

Obviously, if you’re a surrogate for the president, as Booker described himself on “Meet the Press,” your job is to regurgitate talking points. No wandering around the reservation, no independent thinking, certainly no personal confessions. You absolutely do not declare the centerpiece of the president’s attack on his opponent to be “nauseating.”

Unless it is. And unless it’s true. For you, you know when you’re alone with your conscience. Or having lunch with your private-equity donors, as the case may be. But definitely not while on TV!

On Rachel Maddow’s show, Booker dug a little deeper: “Obviously, I did things in the ‘Meet the Press’ interview, as I told you, that did not land the points that I was trying to make. And in some ways, you know, frustratingly, I think I conflated the attacks that the Republicans were making with Jeremiah Wright with some of the attacks on the left. And those can’t even be equated.”

Worse, from the party’s perspective, Booker described himself as an “independent Democrat.” Oops.

We may like independents in theory, but surrogates don’t get to be independent. You gotta pick one or the other. This has been the immediate lesson for Cory Booker. But the broader lesson for the public is that there’s no space in our body politic for an independent mind, even though more Americans describe themselves as independent than either Democrat or Republican.

Thinking outside the box may solve problems in the real world. But in the political realm, creative noodling will get you cast into the outer darkness. No matter which way you lean, The Machinery requires cogs, not cognizance.





Cory Booker’s Brand takes a hit

It only took 15 seconds on “Meet the Press” to turn Cory Booker’s gold-plated political brand into an imperiled commodity.
Booker has cemented a reputation as a rising Democratic star with crossover appeal, whose open secret is his desire to become either senator or governor.

But the Newark mayor may have done himself serious damage before he gets the chance to act on his long-held ambitions, thanks to his pointed criticism of the Obama campaign’s assault on Mitt Romney’s private-equity tenure, which he equated with the GOP using the Rev. Jeremiah Wright against Obama.

Booker’s words, combined with his painful, videotaped walk-back hours later, may have done the Democrat more harm than good.

“Mayor Booker forgets there’s Democratic primaries you have to [go] through before you get the nomination and statements like that don’t help you with the Democratic primary base,” said Julie Roginsky, a New Jersey-based Democratic political strategist.

Some Democrats, and Republicans, believe that the telegenic, African-American mayor emerged from the week — in which he called the attacks on Romney’s record at Bain Capital “nauseating” on “Meet the Press” — as a pragmatist, one who could work with the Republicans in the Democratic-leaning Garden State.

But while the mayor’s “No Labels” centrist appeal may work with donors and center-right voters, it will do little for him in a Democratic primary against, say, Sen. Frank Lautenberg in 2014 — especially if Obama is reelected, and holding onto a grudge.
“It is absolutely crazy to go and blast the president,” said one Democratic operative who knows Booker well, and asked not to be identified. “And he could have gotten away with it. He could have bemoaned negative campaigning. That would have been fine and that would have been great. (But) he compared the Bain attack to Jeremiah Wright. That’s crazy.”

Booker, who has fundraised heavily from the financial-services sector and is a player in the private-equity-financed, education reform movement, has been eyeing statewide office for years.

He is believed to most covet the governor’s office, although he would never challenge Gov. Chris Christie, who’s been a political friend and has deftly moved to co-opt the Newark mayor, unless the Republican was truly vulnerable.

A potential Lautenberg challenge is seen as likelier — and it’s a fact of which that the senator is keenly aware. Following Booker’s comments, the 88-year-old senator went on a media tour to rub salt in the wounds after the mayor’s walk-back, which was made after national Democrats contacted him.

“Now we have a different record,” Lautenberg cheerily told Roll Call of the difference between himself and Booker, accusing Booker of “sabotage” against the president.

Not everyone thinks Booker did himself damage.

“I just don’t see any situation where this really hurts him politically in New Jersey,” said Bradley Tusk, who managed New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s 2009 reelection campaign and who has worked with Booker on education initiatives. “I don’t think voters will remember this if he runs for office. I don’t think they’d care even if they did remember.

Nor do I think anyone would challenge him from the left.”

“I don’t think that will” damage him, agreed former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean.
“He’s a very attractive candidate — there aren’t that many of them around.

He is one of them. … I think what people like about candidates these days is when they’re honest — so what he said about ‘a plague on both your houses,’ I think it was very well received.

I don’t think it helped him or hurt him in the end.”

The counter-argument to why Booker has hurt himself, according to a number of Democratic operatives, is simple: he’s black and will pick up nearly every African-American vote, he can raise infinite sums of money, and he’s a terrific and tireless campaigner who has made good use of social media to grow his base of support. It’s the Obama playbook on a statewide stage.

Yet Kean pointed to what may have been the biggest problem for Booker out of last week — that his tortured-looking YouTube reversal of his “nauseating” remark, a nearly four-minute mea culpa in which he tried to stick with his original words while saying Romney’s Bain tenure is fair game — didn’t help someone trying to maintain a brand as a straight talker.

“The problem is he backtracked, so that makes him look like one of them, not one of us,” Kean said. “But I think the initial comments were on target. (I) don’t think they were critical of the president, they were critical of an ad strategy.”
Booker’s aides did not return calls for comment.

Booker’s words on last Sunday’s “Meet the Press” provoked a week of national scrutiny never before faced by the mayor criticizing the first black president.

He became the first Democrat to question whether the president should be launching attacks on private equity — which invests in New Jersey pension funds, and the Democratic Party — and was soon followed by other Democrats, such as ex-Rep. Harold Ford, and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Ed Rendell.

Although Democrats quickly piled on Booker — including Obama himself, stating clearly the Bain attacks would continue — Republicans embraced Booker as an ally. The GOP launched an “I Stand with Cory” campaign, and Romneyland has repeatedly emailed out his money quote, that the Bain attacks are part of a “nauseating” pattern of negativity in national politics.

It’s just a matter of time before Booker stars in a future Romney campaign ad, containing some version of this sentence: “Even Obama ally Cory Booker believes the Bain attacks are wrong…”

The two-term mayor, who’s in his early 40s, is at a crossroads in terms of his political future. A rising star for a decade, his chances for statewide office may start to dim if he doesn’t make a move soon.

Andrew Tisch, whose family runs the Loews Corp. and who is a major Booker donor himself, insisted that the mayor leaves this week in good shape, and is not running out of time.

“He’s 42 years old!” Tisch said. “When you say, name the great mayors in the United States, you start with Bloomberg, you go to (Rahm) Emanuel, you get to (Antonio) Villaraigosa, and then you get to Booker. He’s on the top of everybody’s tongue, and he’s made a hell of a name for himself at a very young age — and he’s one of the few people I’ve ever met in politics who has patience.”

But the “young gun/rising star” brand tends to have a shelf life.

“The challenge for Cory is, how many years can he keep his brand fresh and still be a viable statewide candidate,” said one Democratic operative.

One option is to run for a third term as Newark mayor, a city where he’s become famous for engaging with his citizens on Twitter, showing up to shovel people’s yards during a blizzard in 2010 and recently performing heroics during a building fire.

But Booker’s national presence and his social media prowess belies the fact that his own numbers in his city have not improved in recent years, and neither have some of the key indicators of urban success, most notably the perennial Newark crime scourge.

Crime statistics went down for his first years in office, but some rose again after the fiscal crisis. He only got about 59 percent of the vote in 2010 against a central rival who was soon after sentenced to prison.

He is not generally part of what one source called “the fabric of the Democratic party in New Jersey that wins elections.”

The $100 million investment that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg pledged to the Newark school system, during a famous Oprah Winfrey chat with Booker and Christie, is actually a matching grant. And while Booker has made major progress toward matching it, he hasn’t yet completed his end.

Booker’s close connections to donors across the river in New York City have given him an air of distance from his state, and while his ties to Christie have helped him nationally, they inspire some distrust among Democrats statewide.

Lautenberg, meanwhile, is, as one Democrat said, “no shrinking violet,” and he has the personal wealth to help fuel a bloody intraparty challenge.

Booker also has an insular circle, and tends to heed his own counsel — which is fine on a local level, but difficult to pull off more broadly.

What the mayor may have demonstrated in his Sunday show outing, said one Democrat, is this: “He may not be ready for prime time.”

Where Booker has been successful is as a communicator — he gives strong speeches, and was frequently deployed as a surrogate for Obama during the 2008 campaign.

“He’s a solid Democrat, but he’s built this (reputation) where he speaks his mind and is unafraid to speak is his mind,” said Republican operative Mike DuHaime, a top Christie adviser.

Kean raised the prospect of Booker becoming a Cabinet member in a second Obama administration if he doesn’t run for office again.

“There could be a number of Cabinet positions open, one of them might be attractive to him,” Kean said. “He could do what certain candidates have done in the past, these cable shows would love to have you. (A) number of ex-candidates who have done pretty well there.

There are a number of doors open to him if he wants to take them. He’s still an attractive, compelling candidate.”

But despite insisting that they welcomed the focus on the Bain debate, Obama aides were displeased with Booker. Several Democrats suggested he was more loyal to the donors who fund his campaigns and his education reform efforts than he was to the president, and that he simply showed where his sympathies really lie.

And Booker’s remarks helped muddy the message that Chicago was trying to deliver.

A second-term Obama administration may not inspire much more fear than the first-term one did. But there are ways that an incumbent president can make things difficult for an aspiring candidate.

Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf, who has handled New Jersey races, said that only time will tell whether Booker suffered damage this week — but that he can’t exist without the donors who would fund a statewide campaign.

“He did help himself with Wall Street,” Sheinkopf said. “You can’t buy TV ads with great compliments — you gotta pay cash.”


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Sources: AOL, Crooks & Liars, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Mediaite, Meet The Press, Politico, Washington Post, Youtube, Google Maps

"Fair Game!" Obama Challenges Romney's Bain Record & Booker's "Nauseated" Remarks

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Obama: Bain's fair game

President Barack Obama on Monday stood strongly behind his campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s work at Bain Capital, telling reporters in Chicago that his opponent’s business experience is fair game in the race for the White House.
“This is not a distraction. This is what this campaign is going to be about,” the president said at a press conference wrapping up the NATO Summit in his hometown.

“The reason this is relevant to the campaign is because my opponent, Governor Romney, his main calling card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience,” Obama said. “You know, he’s not going out there touting his experience in Massachusetts. He’s saying, ‘I’m a business guy and I know how to fix it,’ and this is his business.”

The president’s comments came after Cory Booker, the Democratic mayor of Newark, N.J, on Sunday described the Obama campaign’s attacks on Romney’s Bain record as a “distraction from the real issues.”

Booker later said that he was trying to voice his “profound frustration” with negative campaigning but, along with criticisms coming from former Obama car czar Steve Rattner and former Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.), his remarks have been taken as a sign that not all Democrats are satisfied with this Obama campaign tactic.

Obama tried to stress Monday that while there’s nothing wrong with the kind of work Bain Capital does, it’s not necessarily the right background for the president of the United States to have.

“When you’re president — as opposed to the head of a private equity firm — your job is not simply to maximize profits. your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot,” he said. “If your main argument for how to grow the economy was ‘You knew how to make a lot of money for investors’ then you’re missing what this job is about. That doesn’t mean you weren’t good at private equity. But that’s not what my job is as president.”

Obama wouldn’t directly say whether Romney was responsible for the job losses of the workers featured in the Obama campaign’s video released last week about a steel company that shuttered years after Bain took it over, after Romney had left his job as CEO of the firm.

“Mr. Romney is responsible for the proposals he’s putting forward for how he says he’s going to fix the economy, and if the main basis for him suggesting he can do a better job is his track record as the head of a private equity firm, then both the upsides and the downsides are worth examining,” the president said.

Obama also spoke about the future of American involvement in Afghanistan and other issues discussed with the NATO members in the two-day conference. Monday evening, he heads to deliver a commencement speech at a Joplin, Mo. high school which was ravaged by tornadoes last year.


Sources: CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, Politico, The Blaze

David Axelrod Attacks Mitt Romney Over Gas Price & Keystone Pipeline Comments: "Snake Oil"

Axelrod: GOP's gas price talk is "snake oil"


The president's top campaign adviser, David Axelrod, charged Republican presidential candidates and Republicans in Congress with making false promises about how to reduce the cost of gas.

On CBS News' "Face the Nation," Axelrod specifically attacked Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney for saying he would fire three cabinet officials charged with energy production: Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Axelrod said Romney is making false promises to voters. "Mr. Romney will pander, and the poor American consumer will be left in the same position," he told host Bob Schieffer. "So we need to keep going forward with an 'all of the above' strategy on energy."

Axelrod also criticized "the notion that we can simply drill our way out of this" by attacking Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's claim that his plan would reduce gas prices to $2.50 cents per gallon. "That's not oil talk, but snake oil talk," Axelrod said.

Axelrod said the president's "all of the above" strategy includes increased production (including from renewable sources) and decreased consumption.

"If we don't do all of those things we're going to be right back here again every election season," Axelrod told Schieffer.

Schieffer questioned Axelrod if the president is doing his own pandering. He asked Axelrod about campaign speeches in 2008 made by then-candidate Barack Obama where he blamed President Bush for gas that cost "two-and-a-half times what it cost when George Bush took office."

Axelrod said the president has taken action to lower gas prices by increasing oil production, raising fuel efficiency standards and increasing renewable energy production.

When Schieffer asked about the president's decision to halt the construction of the XL Keystone pipeline from the Tar Sands in Canada to refineries in the Gulf Coast and whether he thought it was a mistake, Axelrod blamed the Republicans in Congress for playing politics. He pointed to the House GOP's passing a measure that would have forced the president to speed up approval of the pipeline.

"What they did was force a premature decision on this," Axelrod said. "The State Department said they needed more time to evaluate the project and all of its implications" for the land and the environment, such as water aquifers in Nebraska.

"The Congress wanted to force a decision for political reasons; they did," Axelrod said. "Not having the time to make a proper decision, [the administration] had to decline this proposal. If it's resubmitted it will be considered again, hopefully in the the time frame that is appropriate.

"But understand this president has approved dozens of pipelines," Axelrod added. "He certainly is not hostile to transporting oil, but we have to do it in the appropriate way and protect the public safety in doing it.

"It may have been a mistake for the Republicans to force the decision so quickly -that I agree with," Axelrod offered. "But that's their decision to explain. Not ours."

Also on "Face the Nation," head of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, said he "chuckled" when he heard Axelrod's statement.

Priebus said "the Republicans have been in favor of this Keystone pipeline," which he said would create 20,000 jobs, a figure that has been widely disputed. "It wouldn't be the whole deal [to lowering gas prices]. But it's a step closer."

Priebus said the president is not doing all the things necessary to reduce the cost of oil.

"We're sitting on a wealth of energy to get us to a place where we don't have $4 and $5 gas. This president isn't there. He's talking out of both sides of his mouth."


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GOP 2012 Candidates NOT Interested In JOBS During CNN's Tea Party Debate!

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Quote of the Day: Axelrod on why GOP debate lacked real substance

David Axelrod, senior strategist for President Obama's re-election campaign:

“I think if you are an independent voter watching that debate last night, you’d kind of scratch your head and say ‘How can we spend 10 minutes talking about whether we should have created Social Security and not one minute on education?’ ‘How can we spend all this time talking about the inoculation program in Texas and not talk about how we get research development and innovation going in this country?’ There was nothing there. The only thing they seem to agree on is that we ought to roll back Wall Street reforms and give Wall Street the right to write its own rules again, and I don’t think anyone believes that’s the answer to our economic problems."


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Sources: CNN, The Guardian, MSNBC, Google Maps

Obama's Camp Plans To Annihilate Romney On 2012 Trail; Mass. 47th In Jobs!

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Obama plan: Destroy Romney

Barack Obama’s aides and advisers are preparing to center the president’s reelection campaign on a ferocious personal assault on Mitt Romney’s character and business background, a strategy grounded in the early-stage expectation that the former Massachusetts governor is the likely GOP nominee.

The dramatic and unabashedly negative turn is the product of political reality. Obama remains personally popular, but pluralities in recent polling disapprove of his handling of his job, and Americans fear the country is on the wrong track. His aides are increasingly resigned to running for reelection in a glum nation. And so the candidate who ran on “hope” in 2008 has little choice four years later but to run a slashing, personal campaign aimed at disqualifying his likeliest opponent.

In a move that will make some Democrats shudder, Obama’s high command has even studied former President George W. Bush’s 2004 takedown of Sen. John Kerry, a senior campaign adviser told POLITICO, for clues on how a president with middling approval ratings can defeat a challenger.

“Unless things change and Obama can run on accomplishments, he will have to kill Romney,” said a prominent Democratic strategist aligned with the White House.

The onslaught would have two aspects. The first is personal: Obama’s reelection campaign will portray the public Romney as inauthentic, unprincipled and, in a word used repeatedly by Obama’s advisers in about a dozen interviews, “weird.”

“First, they’ve got to like you, and there’s not a lot to like about Mitt Romney,” said Chicago Democratic consultant Pete Giangreco, who worked on Obama’s 2008 campaign. “There’s no way to hide this guy and hide his innate phoniness.”

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A senior Obama adviser was even more cutting, suggesting that the Republican’s personal awkwardness will turn off voters.

“There’s a weirdness factor with Romney, and it remains to be seen how he wears with the public,” the adviser said, noting that the contrasts they’d drive between the president and the former Massachusetts governor would be “based on character to a great extent.”

The second aspect of the campaign to define Romney is his record as CEO of Bain Capital, a venture capital firm that was responsible for both creating and eliminating jobs. Obama officials intend to frame Romney as the very picture of greed in the great recession — a sort of political Gordon Gekko.

“He was very, very good at making a profit for himself and his partners but not nearly as good [at] saving jobs for communities,” said David Axelrod, the president’s chief strategist. “His is very much the profile of what we’ve seen in the last decade on Wall Street. He was about making money. And that’s fine. But often times, he made it at the expense of jobs in communities.”

Romney officials shrug off the tough talk, arguing that there’s nothing Obama can do that will turn the campaign away from functioning as a referendum on his stewardship of the economy.

“There’s so many wonderful ironies here: Obama spent his whole political career perfecting the best argument against Bush 43, and now he’s going to run as 43?” said Romney strategist Stuart Stevens, who also worked for Bush. “They can try anything they want — but this race is going to be about the economy.”

The Democrats laying the groundwork for this strategy are well aware of its echoes. In 2004, the polarizing incumbent and his allies successfully raised doubts about the character and fitness of another stiff, wealthy patrician politician from Massachusetts with attacks on his alleged “flip-flopping” and even his war record.

“If you were to write the history of his political career, it would be called ‘Extreme Makeover,’” Axelrod said of Romney.

“What made the Bush people successful and made theirs a very smart strategy was that they pitted something deeply ingrained about Bush against something that they were trying to convince people of regarding Kerry,” said another top Obama adviser. “Specifically, they knew Bush was seen as stubborn but very firm in his beliefs. The opposite of that, of course, is not firm in your beliefs, and that’s how they portrayed Kerry from early on. It was a nice, sharp contrast.”

Obama’s team won’t portray the incumbent as stubborn but principled. Voters can expect to see a portrait of a president making the difficult decisions in tough times set against an opponent they’ll claim has bent, like the windsurfing Kerry, with the breeze. And they may do it before Romney has even formally wrapped up the nomination in the event he ends up on a glide path to the GOP nomination.

“When it’s clear we have an opponent in our eyes and in the eyes of public, we’re going to be in that discussion,” the Obama adviser said.

They don’t have a choice. Even Obama’s top aides don’t expect unemployment to be below eight percent when next November rolls around.

“When you have these difficult economic circumstances, everybody is going to have to make a choice,” said the Obama adviser. “We’re going to have to color both sides of that choice.”

Romney, currently the front-runner for the Republican nomination, isn’t the candidate Democrats would most like to face. That honor goes to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, vocal conservatives who may not be able to reach swing voters. Romney’s moderate record as the one-term governor of a liberal state — the target of conservative rivals’ criticism — could also make him a strong general election candidate.

Obama officials, however, believe they’ll have more grist for their flip-flop line of attack after the primary because Romney will eventually have to veer right to convince the GOP base he can be trusted with the nomination.

“He’s going to take some unpopular, right-wing stands,” said an adviser. “That was one of the main things that hung McCain up — how he had to go through the nominating process.”

Democrats say it’s Romney’s decade-plus of political maneuvering to win a Massachusetts Senate seat, the governorship and the White House that collectively will be his undoing.

“There’s a question of public character,” said Axelrod. “Are you principled, consistent — are you who you say you are? Can you be counted on?”

The character attacks on Romney will focus on what critics view as a makeover, both personal (skinny jeans) and political (abortion).

“People already knew that he’s a political opportunist of the highest order — changing his positions to suit the day’s polling,” said Bill Burton, Obama’s former White House deputy press secretary who now heads Priorities USA, an independent group expected to lead Democratic attacks on the Republican nominee. “But the last couple weeks, this lack of principles has translated into a total lack of leadership on issues like the debt ceiling.”

Burton said his group has begun conducting polling and focus groups on perceptions of the Republican candidates and has found doubts about Romney’s character.

Democrats also plan to amplify what Obama strategists described as the “weirdness” quotient, the sum of awkward public encounters and famous off-kilter anecdotes, first among them the tale of Romney having strapped his dog to the roof of his car.

None of the Obama advisers interviewed made any suggestion that Romney's personal qualities would be connected to his minority Mormon faith, but the step from casting Romney as a bit off to raising questions about religion may not be a large step for some of the incumbent's supporters.

And Obama officials have made “weirdness” an epithet for Romney the way they tagged John McCain “erratic” in the fall of 2008 after the Arizona senator suddenly left the campaign trail and nearly backed out of the first debate as part of an attempt to get a deal on the bailout

“Presidential campaigns are like MRIs of the soul,” said Axelrod. “When he makes jokes about being unemployed or a waitress pinching him on the butt, it does snap your head back, and you say, ‘What’s he talking about?’”

“It’s not just a matter of dodging the debate, not just a matter of flip-flopping and putting his finger to the wind — it is that he’s not comfortable in his own skin, and that gives people a sense of unease,” added a Democratic consultant expected to be involved in the reelection campaign.

An aide to Obama’s reelection campaign who declined to discuss the campaign’s strategy framed Romney’s careful positioning on the debt ceiling debate as more than a matter of policy.

“He took six different positions — and I can send you bullet points — during the debt debate and then ended up opposing an agreement that was critical to our economy,” said the aide, who followed up with a set of bullet points. “That’s certainly not the kind of economic leadership the American people are looking for.”

The attack on Romney is, to the Massachusetts Republican, nothing new. Sen. Ted Kennedy used elements of it against him in the 1994 Senate race, and his former adviser, Bob Shrum, summarized the current case this way: “You don’t know what he really believes; he’s been on both sides of issues, and by the way, he didn’t create jobs — he destroyed jobs while getting rich.”

The Democrats who are planning the assault on Romney believe they can avoid a referendum on Obama’s handling of the economy, in part, because both political parties are in such poor public favor.

Romney’s campaign is “making the assumption that the American people trust the Republicans on the economy,” said Giangreco. “People are so frustrated with the economy and so frustrated with both parties, so it’s a wash.”

“And so there’s only one thing left,” he said: “Who do I trust to do the right thing? And that’s the president.”


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Sources: Boston Globe, Current, MSNBC, NY Times, Politico, TPMTV, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps