Campaign News

Coverage Of Trump Birther Claims Overshadows Romney's Clinching Of GOP Nomination It is the near-consensus view of media analysts that Mitt Romney's clinching of the GOP nomination with his decisive win in the Texas primary was "overshadowed" by his appearance at a Las Vegas fundraiser with Donald Trump, who is once again endorsing "birther" conspiracy theories. The Trump controversy accounted for a majority of the network news coverage of Romney yesterday evening, was the subject of a great deal of discussion on cable last night, and was also played up in today's print accounts. For example, USA Today , in an article titled, "Romney Clinches 1,144 Delegates, But Buzz Is About Trump," says Romney "finally clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, but all the chatter around his campaign was about Donald Trump," who "renew[ed] his questions about President Obama's birth certificate."
Brian Williams, on NBC Nightly News, said Romney's "big money supporter, Donald Trump, is grabbing a lot of headlines, raising questions all over again about an issue that was long ago settled regarding President Obama's birthplace, and that could raise some problems for Romney."
David Muir, on ABC World News, reported that Trump is "raising tough questions for the [Romney] campaign: what to do now as Trump again says doubts the President was born in the US?" Muir said the Obama campaign is "asking if John McCain stood up to extremist views four years ago, why won't Romney now?" However, according to Muir, Romney "has repeatedly said he believes the President was born in the US."
Reporters and commentators from across the political spectrum conclude that the focus on Trump works to the advantage of the Obama campaign. According to the Los Angeles Times , "The way the Obama campaign sees it, every day that Mitt Romney and Donald Trump share a headline is a good day," and, therefore, Tuesday "was a very good day." Charles Krauthammer, on Fox News' Special Report, said, "I don't think [Romney] wants to associated with the fringe about the birther stuff because I think he knows that is toxic. I think he simply wants to appeal to the kind of toughness that Trump does," but "this is toxic" and "should be a one-shot deal; do the event, get out of there and don't go back."
The Washington Post says the Romney campaign "opened a multi-pronged attack Tuesday on President Obama's stewardship of taxpayer dollars, pointing to the troubled government investments in Solyndra and other renewable-energy firms as evidence that Obama's policies have been hostile to businesses and have helped to stunt job growth." However, according to the Post, Romney's "economic message" was "overshadowed by...Trump," who "used the spotlight to promote his long-debunked contention that Obama was born in a foreign country."

Facing Recall In Wisconsin, Walker Raises Nearly $6M In Five Weeks The AP reports that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) "has raised about $31 million since he took office 17 months ago, including a remarkable $5.9 million in the last five weeks" as he heads into the June 5 recall election against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D). For his part, Barrett, "who was bound to fundraising limits of no more than $10,000 from any one donor, reported an impressive $3.4 million over the past five weeks. He raised about $4.2 million since joining the race at the end of March and had $1.5 million cash on hand."
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Walker, who "has about $1.6 million" in his campaign warchest, "raised an average of more than $178,000 a day for the latest period."
Politico reports that Walker's "formidable fundraising was thanks in large part to a loophole in the state law that allows the targets of a recall election to raise unlimited cash for expenses tied to the recall."

GOP Texas Senate Hopefuls Dewhurst, Cruz To Battle In Runoff Lt. Gov David Dewhurst (R) and ex-Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz (R) are headed to a runoff in Texas' GOP Senate primary, as neither candidate topped the 50% mark in yesterday's election. With 99% of precincts reporting, Dewhurst led Cruz 45%-34. Ex-Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert (D) finished third with 13%. The candidates are vying to succeed retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R).
The AP reports, "The runoff will be held July 31 and is shaping up to be a referendum on which Republican candidate voters perceive as the more conservative: Dewhurst or Cruz. Dewhurst has long led in public opinion polls, but limited government groups are hoping Cruz can pull an upset similar to Richard Mourdock's ousting of 36-year Senate veteran Richard Lugar in Indiana."
The San Antonio Express-News reports that Cruz, "who relentlessly fought to paint Dewhurst as moderate, had endorsements from national conservative leaders and groups including Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum and the limited-government Club for Growth." Dewhurst, meanwhile, was backed by "Gov. Rick Perry, Texas business groups and state anti-abortion activists, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee."

O'Rourke Defeats Incumbent Reyes In TX16 Democratic Primary TX16 Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D) was defeated in Tuesday night's Democratic primary by ex-El Paso City Councilman Beto O'Rourke (D). O'Rourke topped Reyes 50%-44%. The AP calls the outcome "a...stunner," and notes that "Reyes was the lone congressional incumbent ousted in the primary while almost all others cruised to victory." Roll Call notes that O'Rourke's "bid was boosted by a Texas-based super PAC, the Campaign for Primary Accountability," and adds that the Reyes camp "both sought and secured the endorsements of Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton."

Washington News

Syrian Envoys Expelled From Western Nations As Annan Warns Of "Tipping Point" The ongoing crisis in Syria continues to receive heavy media attention, with an uptick in coverage during the past twenty-four hours. Two network news broadcasts, for example, led with the story, which also generated a front-page headline in today's New York Times. While reports draw attention to UN envoy Kofi Annan's warning that the situation has reached "a tipping point," they also note that few options remain for the international community to stop the violence.
NBC Nightly News opened its broadcast, "As one Middle East expert put it, there's two ways the US and the rest of the world can look at this situation in Syria: boots on the ground or head in the sand. What's happening in Syria right now is making it harder for anyone to look away." Friday's massacre in Houla has led Annan "to say we are right now at a tipping point, and he means the rest of the world." NBC noted that "after months of threats," the US yesterday "ordered Syria's top diplomat expelled," and "Germany, Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Canada, Bulgaria and Australia, all told Syrian diplomats to get out."
On its front page, the New York Times says that "even while Mr. Annan made his appeals, in a coordinated action at least 11 nations expelled the Syrian diplomats to express outrage over the deaths of 108 villagers in Houla," but "Syria's diplomatic chastening did little to sway its public posture." The Times notes that "there is little appetite among Americans for a military campaign, officials said, and there is concern that if the government of Syria falls it could be replaced by an extremist Islamist leadership." At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney "said that military intervention was not the right course of action at this time because it would provoke wider carnage and chaos."
Carney, the AP reports, said the Administration "will continue offering non-lethal assistance to the Syrian people," while Reuters notes that he told reporters the US will not take any options--including military action--off of the table.
The CBS Evening News reported that the White House is still "opposing military intervention, saying that it would lead to greater chaos and carnage. For now, the President's strategy is to further isolate and pressure Syrian President Assad diplomatically." Officials "say that this is going to be a very methodical step-by-step diplomatic approach to tighten the noose around President Assad and his allies" to "try and get Assad to step down, to have a peaceful political transition. But there's growing concern that it's not working and they're not saying what will happen if it doesn't work."
Also noting the "administration and its major allies said they would continue to rely on diplomatic, political and economic pressure," the Washington Post reports that "despite the harsh denunciations...arguments against international military intervention 'are still the same,' said a senior European diplomat." Said the unnamed diplomat, "We're just not convinced that our intervening is going to make the conflict any nicer," and "we are worried that we are going to unleash something that we will not be able to control."
US Implicates Iran In Massacre NBC Nightly News briefly noted at the end of its leading report that "the State Department accused Iran of aiding and abetting" the "pro-Assad militia" blamed for the massacre in Houla. "Activists say the militia is trained by Iran and uses the same tactics that Iran employed to crush its own rebellion."
The Wall Street Journal reports State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland yesterday implicated Iran in the massacre saying, "We took this action [to expel Syrian diplomat] in response to the massacre in the village of Houla-absolutely indefensible, vile, despicable massacre against innocent children, women, shot at point-blank range by regime thugs, the shabiha, aided and abetted by the Iranians, who were actually bragging about it over the weekend. Over the weekend we had the deputy head of [Iran's] Qods Force saying publicly that they were proud of the role that they had played in training and assisting the Syrian forces; and look what this has wrought."
Romney's Calls For Action In Syria Fall Short Of Those From GOP Lawmakers The New York Times reports that while Mitt Romney has criticized President Obama for having "a 'policy of paralysis' toward Syria," his own "prescriptions for ending the mounting death toll in Syria have been less definitive than his denunciations of the president." Romney has "called for the United States to 'work with partners to organize and arm Syrian opposition groups so they can defend themselves' -- a policy that goes somewhat further than Mr. Obama's but falls short of the airstrikes advocated by Republicans like Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina." The Times notes, "Such caution, from both the incumbent and the challenger, reflects the complexities of the Syrian uprising as well as the recognition that Americans have little appetite for another large-scale military engagement."

White House Pressed On Leak About Obama's Efforts In War On Terror Brett Baier, at the opening of Fox News' Special Report, said, "The President, who wanted to 'end torture' and close the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison to try enemy combatants in US courts, personally orders the execution of suspected terrorists never charged or convicted in a court of law. That is the headline from a new report detailing President Obama's take-no-prisoners philosophy in the war on terror." Ed Henry said White House press secretary Jay Carney "was pressed...about how a Nobel Peace Prize winner can justify the program," while "Republicans also question the timing of this massive leak" to the New York Times and "whether it was aimed at making the President look more hawkish in an election year."
Charles Krauthammer, on Fox News' Special Report, commented, "We can understand why Obama is doing this, why they clearly leaked this to the press. They want Obama to look tough, hawkish," but "there are a few problems with this." Krauthammer claimed the President "went around the world preening about how there is a new moral direction of the United States," and "how terrible the Bush administration was for enhanced interrogation." However, according to Krauthammer, the Bush Administration "didn't go around killing people from the air, and...their families as well, so they kind of lost the moral high ground here."
In a Heritage Foundation blog posting, James Carafano questions the New York Times report on Obama's participation in the selection of al Qaeda operatives who will be targets for drone strikes. Many observers "will recoil at what seems to be a crass political ploy to leak information that portrays the president as a hands-on, effective commander-in-chief," but there is "a deeper and more troubling concern. It all sounds a bit too much like LBJ picking targets for the Pentagon during the Vietnam War." It is "also all too easy to become victim of a belief in 'push button' war - the notion that the president can solve all the world's problem from his plushy chair in the White House," which "works on TV shows like 'The West Wing' and movies like 'Air Force One,' not in the real world."

Consumer Confidence Declined Unexpectedly In May The Conference Board's index of consumer confidence fell to 64.9 this month, its "lowest level in four months," Bloomberg News reports. The unexpected decrease came "as optimism about employment prospects faded." Bloomberg adds, "The decline in the Conference Board's measure is in line with readings from the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, which dropped for four consecutive weeks after reaching a four-year high in mid-April. Both gauges are at odds with the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's measure, which climbed this month to the highest level since October 2007."
Home Prices Down In Case-Shiller Index The CBS Evening News reported, "The housing market is showing signs of modest improvement. A survey of 20 major US cities shows that prices are rising in more than half of them including Seattle, Phoenix, Dallas and Tampa. Overall prices are back where they were in late 2002 but still 35% below the highs they reached in 2006."
Bloomberg reports, "The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values fell 2.6 percent from a year earlier after a 3.5 percent drop in February, the group reported today in New York." Bloomberg adds, "Thirteen of the 20 cities measured had a year-over-year decline, led by an 18 percent plunge in Atlanta. Phoenix showed the biggest increase, with prices rising 6.1 percent in March from a year earlier." The Wall Street Journal says the report is evidence that the real estate market is recovering. The Christian Science Monitor notes that the dip in home prices "is a reminder that the stabilizing process has been slow and arduous, and that it's not over."

There has been plenty of media blunders recent times.. There must be some strict law to control it..