President of the United States
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Obama, Senate Dems court women with fair pay bill
President Barack Obama and his allies in the Senate pushed today for a bill that calls for equal pay in the workplace, an election-year effort to merge political appeals to women with the No. 1 concern for all voters: the cash in their wallets on the heels of recession.
Obama win could cost Romney $5M in personal taxes
To see where the presidential candidates stand on taxing the rich, just look at how they’d tax themselves. Under his own proposal, Mitt Romney would pay half what he would under President Barack Obama’s tax plan. For a man of Romney’s means, that could save almost $5 million a year.
GOP spends one hour talking about 15 seconds
TACOMA – An axiom of academic politics is that they tend to be very nasty because very little is at stake. The axiom can sometimes be applied to partisan or “real” politics, particularly at a time like this, when one major party is trying to get its president re-elected and the other has a nominee with all the delegates he needs to be the nominee. Why, then, would sensible people give up their weekends, travel scores or hundreds of miles, and argue over seemingly minute changes in obscure rules, like Saturday morning’s debate on whether would-be delegates to the national convention should speak for 30 seconds or 15 seconds when making the pitch to fellow partisans that they should have the privilege of traveling to Tampa, paying exorbitant rates for meals and hotel rooms?
Recalling mission time with Romney
Mulloy Hansen had been a Mormon missionary in France for just a few months in early 1967 when he got word he was getting a new roommate and partner to seek converts in a working-class section of Paris. The 19-year-old Canadian teenager, who’d spent part of his life on a farm in Alberta, knew only a little about his new mission partner: He was the new leader for that district of the Mormon mission to France. He was a bit older, and had been in France about eight months longer. His father was a former Detroit auto executive who’d become a governor.
Romney’s playbook on Bain unclear as attacks grow
The core of his presidential candidacy under attack, Mitt Romney has yet to shape a playbook to defend a quarter-century in the business world that created great riches for him and great hardship, at times, for some American workers.
Obama touts record to Seattle supporters
SEATTLE – Barack Obama acknowledged he hasn’t been a perfect president as he asked some 2,000 supporters to consider a different question than the standard “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” The question he wants to frame the election: “Will we be better off if we keep moving forward?”
Gregoire lauds Obama’s ‘courageous’ act
OLYMPIA – A day after announcing support for same-sex marriage, President Barack Obama today visits a state that recently went through a legislative battle over the issue and faces a ballot fight over it. When he arrives in Seattle for a pair of re-election campaign fundraisers, he’ll share the stage with at least one politician who shifted her stance to support gay marriage late last year, Gov. Chris Gregoire.
Santorum, Gingrich expected to endorse Romney
WASHINGTON — Rick Santorum wants to ensure the GOP’s policy platform represents conservatives’ interests. Newt Gingrich wants help retiring his campaign debt and repairing his reputation. Both Republicans are expected to endorse their former rival Mitt Romney — and signal to their backers to fall in line behind the party’s presumptive nominee — but each wants assurances that Romney will deliver for them. Neither is rushing toward the task.
Dana Milbank: Arizona law won’t help Romney
WASHINGTON – Aficionados of the Etch A Sketch will recall a certain flaw in the toy: If you use it often, some of the lines drawn no longer disappear when you shake the device, leaving an indelible trace of where you have been. This is the problem Mitt Romney is encountering: He is shaking the device, trying to erase impressions left during this year’s primary contest. But he just can’t shake away the image of Russell Pearce.
Romney wins five primaries
WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney laid claim to the fiercely contested Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night with a fistful of primary triumphs, then urged all who struggle in a shaky U.S. economy to “hold on a little longer, a better America begins tonight.” Eager to turn the political page to the general election, Romney accused President Barack Obama of “false promises and weak leadership.” He declared, “Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired, and many of those who are fortunate enough to have a job are working harder for less.”
Romney remarks draw criticism
PHILADELPHIA – When President Barack Obama told a Russian leader that he could be “more flexible” after the election – during what he thought was a private conversation – Mitt Romney came down like a hammer. He accused his Democratic rival of “pulling his punches with the American people” and hiding his real agenda. Romney found himself in similar circumstances Monday after he was heard telling donors at a Florida fundraiser that while he planned to slash government programs, he probably would not share those plans with voters before November. Romney told guests at the Sunday night fundraiser that he might eliminate the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and that he would likely consolidate the Education Department “or perhaps make it a heck of a lot smaller.”