Washington News

Obama Campaign Ad, Aides Tout Bin Laden Raid The anniversary of the successful raid on Osama bin Laden's compound generated a great deal of positive network television coverage for the Administration Sunday. Both NBC Nightly News and ABC World News aired portions of the new Obama campaign ad featuring Bill Clinton praising the President's decision to approve the mission last year. NBC also previewed clips from an interview with the President on the raid that will be shown later this week.
NBC Nightly News reported that former President Clinton is "appearing in [a] new ad touting the President's decision to order the killing of Osama bin Laden one year ago this week." Clinton: "He took the harder and the more honorable path." According to NBC, the ad "has angered Mitt Romney supporters who blame President Obama for using the raid as a political weapon." However, NBC reported that "Obama campaign advisers argue the successful campaign to hunt down the Al Qaeda leader is fair game." Robert Gibbs: "Mitt Romney said...he wouldn't move heaven and earth to get Osama bin Laden."
On ABC World News David Muir said the President is "fighting to keep his job" and so "not surprisingly, team Obama [is] pointing to" the bin Laden raid. Muir reported that Mitt Romney said, "a couple of years back," that "we shouldn't be spending billions to catch one person, referring to bin Laden." ABC's Rick Klein added, "While Mitt Romney's folks are saying that this is inappropriate politicizing a moment of national unity, the Obama campaign doesn't care at all."
White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said on ABC's This Week, "I don't do politics. I don't do the campaign. ... All that I know is that the President made the decision when he was given the opportunity to take a gutsy decision, to carry out that raid with our Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The President made that decision. I think the American people are very appreciative and supportive of that decision."
Vogel, in post for Politico , reported that former RNC chair Gillespie, also on NBC's Meet The Press, said "suggestions by Barack Obama's reelection team that Mitt Romney might not have acted to kill Osama bin Laden are 'a bridge too far' and 'a sign of a desperate campaign.'" Gillespie is quoted as saying, "This is one of the reasons President Obama has become one of the most divisive presidents in American history. He took something that was a unifying event for all Americans -- an event that Gov. Romney congratulated him and the military and the intelligence analysts in our government for completing the mission in terms of killing Osama bin Laden -- and he's managed to turn it into a divisive partisan political attack."
Obama Discusses Monitoring Last Year's Raid In NBC Interview NBC Nightly News reported, "President Obama and members of his national security team are speaking out about the [bin Laden] raid in exclusive interviews with Brian Williams for this week's 'Rock Center.' The President reflects on the tense moments and that now iconic photo snapped inside the White House Situation Room." Obama: "This is -- if I not mistaken, this picture was taken right as the helicopter was having some problems. But you may not remember -- that's what it feels like. Because I remember Hillary putting her hand over her mouth at that point. There's silence at this point inside the room."
Brennan: Al Qaeda Threat Has Been "Degraded Significantly" White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said on ABC's This Week, "Their capability has been degraded significantly. We have taken off the battlefield the founding leader as well as other leading operatives. We have degraded their infrastructure, their capability to train, their capability to deploy operatives. So their capability has been degraded."
Similarly, on Fox News Sunday, Brennan "We have degraded the organization significantly over the past decade and over the past several years in particular as we have taken off of the battlefield of the founding leader."
Analysts Conclude Bin Laden's Death Did Not Eliminate Threat From Al Qaeda USA Today reports "intelligence experts" believe that "the death of Osama bin Laden...was a setback to al-Qaeda, but the Islamic terror organization remains a potent threat around the world. ... 'It's on the defensive, but it's far from defeated,' said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer now at the Brookings Institution." Reuel Marc Gerecht, "a former CIA official and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies," adds, "I don't think his death fundamentally affects the future of jihadist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
Author Seth Jones, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corp, in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled, "Al Qaeda Is Far From Defeated," makes a similar case, highlighting al Qaeda's growth in North Africa and the Mideast.

Boehner Criticizes Obama's Focus On Student Loan Rates The Washington Post , in an article titled, "Boehner: Obama Picking Fake Fights," reports that in an appearance on CNN's State Of The Union, Speaker Boehner "scolded President...for politicizing issues upon which Democrats and Republicans agree, including the need to prevent a hike in interest rates on federal student loans. 'The president is getting some very bad advice from his campaign team, because he's diminishing the presidency by picking fake fights, going after straw men every day,' Boehner said."
Jeff Poor, in the Daily Caller quotes Boehner as saying, "The president and I have a very good relationship, and as a result, I try to avoid personal attacks on the president. ... And the point I've been trying to make here in the last couple of weeks is that the president is bigger than this."
Anna Palmer, in a post for Politico , adds that Boehner is "defending House Republicans' plan for extending subsidized student loan interest rates for another year, even though" the President "has said he'd veto the bill because it the $6 billion comes from a preventive fund that is part of his signature health care law." According to Palmer, Boehner "said he believes this issue will be resolved."
WPost: 3.4% Student Loan Rate A "Campaign Gimmick That Democrats Cooked Up" The Washington Post , in an editorial, says, "The current 3.4 percent rate" on student loans "began as a campaign gimmick that Democrats cooked up to help them retake Congress in 2006. It has all of the drawbacks it did then, and more: It's expensive, it's poorly targeted, and it diverts attention and money from bigger problems facing federal support for higher education." According to the Post, the President and Democrats in Congress "could best demonstrate their commitment by explaining how they will pay for the robust Pell program he favors," but, "instead, he seems more interested in pumping up a sense of emergency to justify a $6 billion-dollar commitment to a less important cause."

Activist's Escape Casts Pall On Clinton's Trip To China Media reports last night and this morning cast the high-profile attempted defection of dissident Chen Guangcheng as overshadowing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's upcoming trip to China. A number of print stories note that, on TV yesterday, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said the US would seek an "appropriate balance" as it addresses the issue of human rights with China.
On its front page, the New York Times casts the Administration as rushing "to contain a growing diplomatic crisis between the United States and China, sending a senior diplomat to Beijing to discuss the fate of a blind dissident who fled house arrest last week." The Times adds that "amid intense secrecy," assistant secretary of state Kurt M. Campbell traveled to Beijing "to meet with Chinese officials concerning Mr. Chen's case, and to try to keep the matter from undermining the administration's longstanding effort to improve economic and security relations with China." The Washington Post also mentions in its story that "Campbell, the State Department's top diplomat for East Asia, appeared Sunday in Beijing on an unannounced trip, apparently to deal with the Chen situation in advance of Clinton's arrival."
ABC World News remarked on the "mystery...on the eve of...Clinton's trip to China. The big question": "Is the US Embassy there protecting a famous Chinese human rights activist who escaped from Chinese authorities? The blind activist has been under house arrest, it's believed he escaped by scaling a wall managing to make it past security guards." The CBS Evening News reported that "Chen's accomplices are already paying a heavy price. His driver was taken away by police after talking about her role on China's version of Twitter. Others who sheltered Chen in Beijing have also disappeared into detention."
Noting that "neither the United States nor China have commented on the case," NBC Nightly News reported that "this is playing out just days before" Clinton's trip, "and it's not the only high-profile incident that has the US concerned and China's communist government on edge."
The CBS Evening News said that "human rights is always a sensitive issue between the US and China," and "this case threatens to overshadow a crucial diplomatic visit. Still, the Administration is saying 'No comment.'" State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland was shown saying, "I don't have anything for you on that subject. ... Nothing at all."
The AP reports Chen's saga "is buoying China's embattled dissident community even as the government lashes out." While "it's not known what Chen's intentions are... negotiating any exit from US custody is likely to be difficult for the Obama administration. Beijing is likely to be wary of any concessions, fearing they might embolden other activists."
Romney: US Should Champion Reform In China The Washington Post notes that Mitt Romney said in a statement that "US policy toward China must address human rights violations: 'Our country must play a strong role in urging reform in China and supporting those fighting for the freedoms we enjoy.'" The Hill's Meghashyam Mali reports in a blog entry that Romney also said, "My concern at this moment is for the safety of Chen Guangcheng and his family. ... My hope is that US officials will take every measure to ensure that Chen and his family members are protected from further persecution."

Campaign News

Obama And Bill Clinton Appear Together At Virginia Fundraiser The AP reports President Obama and Bill Clinton "made the first of three planned joint appearances...Sunday evening, at the suburban Washington home of longtime Clinton supporter Terry McAuliffe." The AP adds, "The two presidents have had a sometime testy relationship, but they appeared relaxed and friendly Sunday." Clinton "told about 500 supporters that Obama's presumed Republican rival wants to return the United States to failed economic policies, and do so 'on steroids." But "neither Clinton nor Obama mentioned...Mitt Romney by name in the first of two addresses at the McAuliffe home."
The Washington Times reports that at the event, Clinton said "the economy is recovering faster than expected under Mr. Obama but that 'full employment' could still be years away. 'If you go back 500 years, whenever a country's financial system collapses, it takes between five and 10 years to get back to full employment,' Mr. Clinton told supporters," and "by that standard, he said, Mr. Obama 'is beating the clock, not behind it.'"
Clooney-Hosted Fundraiser Could Net Obama $10 Million The Wall Street Journal , in an article titled, "Hollywood Returning To Obama Fold," reports that despite concerns from Democrats that the entertainment industry might not donate as much to the Obama campaign as it did in 2008 due to lingering bad feelings over the Administration's handling of anti-piracy legislation, there appears to be little evidence that is the case. The Journal reports that a May 10 event for the President hosted by George Clooney is expected by some to bring in $10 million. While the Obama campaign says that figure may be high, co-host Jeffrey Katzenberg is quoted predicting the event will rank as one of the most lucrative fundraisers the President will attend this cycle.

RNC Intensifies GOTV Efforts In Battleground States USA Today reports that the RNC "will open a series of campaign offices over the next few weeks in a half-dozen swing states to help mobilize GOP voters this fall and try to catch up with President Obama's head start in campaign organization. These 'victory offices'...will develop and share voter contact information, grass-roots organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts with state party committees." According to USA Today, "The offices being established by mid-May in Iowa, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin join those opened by the RNC in March and April in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia."
Cillizza: Romney Unlikely To Win More Than 290 Electoral Votes Chris Cillizza, in the Washington Post , writes, "A detailed analysis of Romney's various paths to the 270 electoral votes he would need to claim the presidency suggest he has a ceiling of somewhere right around 290 electoral votes," which is "a paper-thin margin for error." According to Cillizza, "The key for Romney this fall is to win in places that Bush, McCain and other Republican nominees over the past two decades have struggled to make inroads," including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Obama Up 1 In Gallup, Down 2 In Rasmussen The Gallup daily presidential tracker shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney 47%-46%. The previous day, Obama led 48%-45%. The poll surveyed about 2,200 registered voters from April 23-28.
The Rasmussen Reports daily presidential tracker shows Romney leading Obama 48%-46%. The poll surveyed 1,500 likely voters from April 26-28.