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Washington News
Obama Touts End Of Iraq War, Approaching End To US Military Role In Afghanistan President Obama's Memorial Day remarks received a great deal of very positive coverage last night and this morning. The focus of the coverage was about evenly split between the political implications of the day's remarks from the President and Mitt Romney, and Obama's attempt to reach out to Vietnam veterans in a speech at the Vietnam Memorial.
Two of yesterday evening's network newscasts reported that the President noted that US combat operations in Iraq had ceased in the last year, and that the war in Afghanistan is in its final stages. At the opening of its broadcast, the CBS Evening News reported that at Arlington National Cemetery, the President "noted for the first time in nine years no Americans are fighting in Iraq and that the end of fighting was also near in Afghanistan." NBC Nightly News said the President "hailed what he sees as his achievements, drawing down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Similarly, the AP reports that, "as he seeks re-election, Obama has reminded audiences about the end of the war in Iraq and the move to bring all troops home from Afghanistan by 2014." However, USA Today says the President warned that "that tough days lie ahead for Americans in Afghanistan."
Fox News' Special Report also reported that the President "pointed out it is the first such holiday in nine years with no Americans fighting in Iraq." Ed Henry added that the President "offered a not so subtle reminder about his record." The President was shown saying, "For the first time in nine years, Americans are not fighting and dying in Iraq. ... We are winding down the war in Afghanistan, and our troops will continue to come home."
The Los Angeles Times , in an article titled, "Obama Highlights End Of Iraq War During Memorial Day Commemoration," reports that the President said "the nation had reached a 'milestone' of relative peace, noting the end of the Iraq war and plans to end America's role in the Afghan war. 'After a decade under a dark cloud of war we can see the light of a new day on the horizon,' Obama told a crowd of military families."
Obama Decries Those Who "Denigrated" Vietnam Vets The CBS Evening News reported that the President and First Lady "made a rare visit to the Vietnam Memorial and honored another generation who fought in a deeply unpopular war." Obama: "Even though some Americans turned their back on you, you never turned your back on America."
NBC Nightly News reported that at the Vietnam Memorial, the President "acknowledged the nation failed the veterans of that divisive war." President Obama: "You came home and sometimes were denigrated when you should have been celebrated. It was a national shame."
According to the AP , the President was "pointing to Vietnam veterans as an under-appreciated and sometimes maligned group of war heroes who remained true to their nation despite an unwelcome homecoming. 'You were sometimes blamed for the misdeeds of a few,' Obama said."
Romney Appears With McCain NBC Nightly News reported that Mitt Romney "mark[ed] Memorial Day with President Obama's former rival and one of the nation's most well known veterans, Senator John McCain," and "the political symbolism was lost on no one." According to NBC, Romney "didn't miss the chance to take a swipe at President Obama's foreign policy." NBC also noted that the President "lost veterans to John McCain in 2008 by 10 points, and the latest polls show he is trailing Mitt Romney in that group."
The Washington Times (5/29, Dinan, 77K) reports Romney "criticized looming defense-budget cuts at a time when he said the country is facing new threats such as a nuclear-armed Pakistan and emerging Chinese military strength."
Romney Holds 58%-34% Lead Over Obama Among Veterans Fox News' Special Report reported, "The votes of 22 million veterans [are] up for grabs. A new Gallup poll shows Romney has a 24-point edge among veterans," 58%-34%, "while the President has just a four-point lead among nonveterans," 48%-44%.
Falling Unemployment Rate And Gas Prices Boost Consumer Confidence The CBS Evening News reported that "consumer confidence is at its highest since October, 2007, two months before the recession started." CBS added, "Normally, gas prices rise heading into the Memorial Day weekend but this year they've fallen 18 cents in the past month." According to CBS, "Another big boost for consumer confidence is an improving job outlook," because, "although unemployment is 8.1%, that's the lowest level since January, 2009."
Fewer Americans Receiving Unemployment Aid Or Food Stamps USA Today reports, "Three years after the recession officially ended, most of the nation's safety-net programs finally are serving fewer people, an analysis of government data shows. The downward trend that started with unemployment insurance in 2010 and welfare benefits in 2011 has reached food stamps, which have seen a two-month dip -- the first time that's happened under President Obama." USA Today adds that "only Medicaid...remains at its peak, due to the slow recovery, the erosion of employer-sponsored insurance and federal rules that prohibit states from slashing eligibility."
More Than 100,000 Americans To Lose Unemployment Benefits This Summer USA Today reports that in a development economists say will lower the unemployment rate but harm consumer spending, more than 100,000 Americans who are out of work for linger than a year in six states and Washington, D.C., "are expected to lose their unemployment checks this summer, pushing the total cut off this year to more than 500,000." USA adds, "Affected are extended benefits, paid by the federal government, which provide an additional 13 to 20 weeks of payments to those already out of work 60 to 79 weeks. Congress mandated the reductions this year and they join other cuts in place or coming."
In Wake Of Houla Massacre, Pressure Mounts On Assad International reaction to Friday's massacre in Houla is receiving ample media attention -- including over eight minutes of combined airtime on all three network news broadcasts last night -- with reports casting the Assad regime as under increased pressure. Calling the massacre "some of the worst violence yet," NBC Nightly News reported former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is now in Syria "trying to salvage a peace deal in tatters as the violence continues," but he "is losing credibility: Syrian activists say his cease-fire is a sham, just a cover for the Assad regime's relentless crack down." And in Moscow yesterday, British and Russian foreign ministers met to discuss Syria. British Foreign Minister William Hague called the attacks in Houla "part of the pattern of behavior of the Assad regime," while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "blamed both sides for the massacre and opposed regime change."
ABC World News said there is "brand new pressure" on Syria following the massacre "from not only from the US, but from Russia." ABC added, "Even Russia, one of Syria's closest allies, has joined the rest of the UN Security Council in condemning Syria's use of tanks and heavy artillery," but "the White House wants Russia to go even farther and pressure Syrian President Assad to step aside."
The CBS Evening News reported, "The wave of weekend killings in Syria was condemned" by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, who said, "The events in Syria over the weekend are just horrific, atrocious, really. I expect that the international community, the pressure will mount." But CBS noted that "pressure so far has failed to budge...Assad, who's ignored repeated calls from President Obama to step down." International economic sanctions "are biting hard," and "the US is also supplying humanitarian aid and communications gear aimed at helping the opposition groups battling Assad's forces. But the US has not provided weapons to the rebels and, while direct US military intervention remains an option, there's no sign it's imminent."
The New York Times reports Dempsey, in an interview with Fox News, "said that he was prepared with military options in Syria should they be requested by the White House," but "otherwise spoke cautiously about American intervention by force." Said Dempsey, "There is always a military option, but that military option should always be wielded carefully." Still, he said, "it may come to a point with Syria because of the atrocities." According to the Times, "White House officials said on Monday that General Dempsey's television appearances were not a coordinated administration response to Syria, but had been previously planned as part of the commemoration of Memorial Day."
Campaign News
Obama Camp Confident "Demographics Will Trump Economics" This Year John Heilemann, in a piece for New York Magazine , says that last November, Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin of the Center for American Progress "identified the prevailing dynamics" of the presidential campaign, which they said "would boil down to 'demographics versus economics.'" According to Heilemann, "That the latter favor Mitt Romney is incontestable." However, Heliemann says the President's 2008 victory was "won...by fashioning a potent 'coalition of the ascendant,' as Teixeira and Halpin call it, in which the components were minorities (especially Latinos), socially liberal college-educated whites (especially women), and young voters." And, according to Heilemann, "The growth of those segments of the electorate and the president's strength with them have his team brimming with confidence that demographics will trump economics in November."
Obama Campaign Still Testing New Slogans The Hill reports that the Obama campaign "has yet to find a clear 2012 reelection slogan that carries the heft of 2008's 'Change You Can Believe In.'" The Hill notes that the President "formally launched his campaign this month with the message of 'Forward,' but one senior Democratic Party official told The Hill that people who thought that would be the campaign's lasting official slogan should 'stay tuned.'" According The Hill, the Obama campaign is currently using the slogan "Can't Lose," which is "borrowed from the TV show 'Friday Night Lights,'" and "has been adopted as a semi-official rallying call by Obama loyalists, and can be seen displayed...around the reelection team's Windy City headquarters."
Obama's Ads Attacking Bain Continue To Spark Debate Correspondent Carl Cameron, on Fox News' Special Report, reported that "each candidate's attempt to define the other got off to a historically early and controversial start when the President opened with the negative attack ads on Mitt Romney's business record." According to Cameron, "The surge of Democrats who disagreed, and complained that the president's campaign stumbled with its attacks has united Republicans who are trying to" portray Obama as "anti-business." Cameron concluded his report with the claim that the President, "who came into office promising to change Washington, is the first ever to launch his re-election with negative commercials."
The Financial Times , in an article titled, "Romney Emerges As A Potent Adversary," reports that the Obama campaign's attacks on Bain have backfired because they split Democrats while failing to weaken Romney.
USA Today , in an editorial, says the Obama campaign's "new ad attacking Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital" is "a fairly typical political attack that portrays an opponent in a harsh light by focusing on one unflattering episode in his past," and "follows in the tradition of trying to turn an opponent's perceived strength - for Romney, his reputation as a job-creating Mr. Fix-it for the economy - into a negative."
Yaron Brook and Don Watkins of the Ayn Rand Institute, in an op-ed for USA Today , argue that "whatever you do, if it involves making profits, President Obama will be right there criticizing you," although "anyone who's sincerely interested in jobs for Americans needs to understand that the only source of jobs is profitable enterprises."
Romney Likely To Secure GOP Nomination In Texas Primary Today Mitt Romney is set to secure the 1,144 delegates necessary to secure the Republican presidential nomination in Tuesday's Texas primary. The Washington Post reports that Texas voters "are expected to push Romney over the finish line in the delegate race. And with that, the Republican Party will have selected an unlikely standard-bearer for 2012: a New Englander in a party rooted in the South; a man of moderate temperament in a party fueled by hot rhetoric; a Mormon in a party guided by evangelical Christians; a flip-flopper in a party that demands ideological purity."
The Wall Street Journal notes that according to an Associated Press tally, Romney currently has 1,084 delegates, meaning he needs less than half of the 155 delegates available in Texas to reach the 1,144 threshold. The Journal also notes that Romney may still be short of the number of delegates required in the eyes of the RNC which only recognizes delegates officially bound to the candidates.
In Today's Texas GOP Senate Primary, Dewhurst Hoping To Avoid Runoff The Dallas Morning News reports that with Texas voters heading to the polls today, the GOP Senate primary in the race to succeed retiring Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) "is the big draw." Noting that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is the "front-runner" in the GOP contest, with ex-Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz and ex-Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert his leading rivals, the Morning News says that tonight, "the candidates will finally find out if Dewhurst can win outright or if Cruz or Leppert can draw him into a July 31 runoff." Dewhurst must win at least 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.
The AP reports that should he force Dewhurst into a runoff, Cruz "says he'll win since those Republicans most-energized by his populist message are likely to turnout in droves amid the late-summer doldrums. 'This race is ground zero in the fight between the moderate establishment and the conservative tidal wave sweeping the country,' said Cruz spokesman James Bernsen." However, Dewhurst "dismisses national tea party groups that have spent heavily on advertising branding him as too moderate. ... 'It's a race between a Texas, conservative businessman and a lawyer who's funded by D.C. special interests,' said Matt Hirsch, a spokesman for Dewhurst, referring to limited government groups that support Cruz, such as the Washington-based Club For Growth."
The Wall Street Journal reports that Cruz, who portrays himself as a fighter for conservative causes, has won the support of conservative leaders like Sarah Palin, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, and the Club for Growth, who see him as a leader of the next generation of conservatives. Dewhurst has spent millions on ads attacking Cruz's representation of Chinese tire interests and pointing out his lack of experience. Meanwhile, Cruz portrays Dewhurst as a weak, moderate, saying, "The establishment has circled its wagons around David Dewhurst."
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