From extra shifts at auto and steel plants in Ohio to office buildings rising in Northern Virginia, the geography of the U.S. economic rebound is providing an edge to President Barack Obama’s re-election. The unemployment rates in a majority of the 2012 battleground states are lower than the national average as those economies improve. Coupled with the growth of adult minority populations in those states, the trends create a higher bar for presumed Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney in his quest to unseat Obama. “There are jobs out there,” said Chris McGiffen, 47, of Zanesville, Ohio, who moved to the state in 2010 from St. Louis to look for work. He found a job as a welder at Columbus Castings, a steel foundry that ... Continue reading →

The justice is, of course, John Roberts and the case involves the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a.k.a. Obamacare, which would be affordable only if the Supreme Court upholds the individual mandate requiring all Americans to buy health insurance.The left’s narrative goes as follows: If the justices side with the Obama administration, they will be viewed as brilliant and nonpartisan. If the reverse occurs, why then, the justices are partisan, judicial activists who have delegitimized the court.Writing in the New Republic, Jeffrey Rosen laid it out for Roberts, whose vote is likely to be decisive: “In addition to deciding what kind of chief justice he wants to be, he has to decide what kind of legal conservatism he wants to embrace. Of course, if the Roberts ... Continue reading →

Congressman: Photoshopping Mom A Brilliant Media Trick Rep. Brad Sherman sent Jewish voters a picture of his family including his mother, while other voters got the same picture, minus mom. Today, he claimed it was a clever scheme aimed at forcing the press to print pictures of his family. He doesn't seem to be joking. posted May 22, 2012 10:50pm EDT Continue reading →

Enlarge image President Barack Obama Greets Supporters Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images President Barack Obama greets supporters after speaking at a campaign fundraiser at the Sheraton Hotel in New York. President Barack Obama greets supporters after speaking at a campaign fundraiser at the Sheraton Hotel in New York. Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are on track to raise more than $1.5 billion to finance their presidential campaigns, and only an elite segment of the electorate will see them do it: their own donors. At an Obama fundraiser in February, reporters waited in a damp garage for more than an hour before being ushered into the Seattle-area mansion owned by Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) Chairman Jeff Brotman and his wife. They stayed inside for ... Continue reading →

Obama Allies Attack Romney’s Business Background by Quoting Republicans By Jonathan Salant | May 22, 2012 11:11 AM EDT | | 0 Comments Priorities USA Action, the super-PAC run by allies of President Obama, is up with a new web video attacking presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital LLC, the private equity firm he co-founded. Even as Obama supporters such as Newark Mayor Cory Booker called attacks on private equity “nauseating to the American public,” the super-PAC indicated today that it would not let up. The web ad features former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Governor Rick Perry, and a senior aide to former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum — all vanquished by Romney in the Republican primary — attacking the former ... Continue reading →

It’s hard to escape the impression that Mitt Romney’s campaign is about everything but Mitt Romney. In an era of personality-driven politics, he is running on a central idea—fixing the economy—without the personal flair and calculated charisma that often define White House contenders. It’s not the world’s worst strategy for a guy who is never going to match Barack Obama on the charm front or feel comfortable chatting with the ladies of The View. Romney is nonetheless running almost neck and neck with the incumbent after a bruising primary battle. But to the extent that many Americans remain uneasy with Romney, it may be because he reveals so little of himself. Indeed, Romney has cordoned off major sections of his life, leaving him little to ... Continue reading →

The Great Beer Parade Stimulus of 1932 Beer parade in Detroit where 10,000 marched, May 14, 1932 Source: Walter P. Reuther Library By Philip Scranton 2012-05-21T15:59:59Z By 1932, Prohibition had obviously failed. But how could the U.S. legally bring back booze? A constitutional amendment had authorized the ban, and only another one could erase it. Luckily, during the Great Depression, anti-Prohibitionists had an economic argument. Defiant “drys” mocked “wet” schemes to refloat the economy by legalizing beer with low alcohol content and taxing it, which they said would create jobs for craftsmen, bartenders and teamsters, and raise much-needed federal revenue. The jobs claim was bogus, for tens of thousands were working daily, if secretly, to slake the nation’s thirst for suds. But the taxation point ... Continue reading →

Romney Is About to Make Bush’s Health-Care Blunder By Ramesh Ponnuru 2012-05-21T23:00:13Z Mitt Romney, so long bedeviled by the politics of health care, may be about to make another serious mistake. He is on the verge of spelling out a plan to replace President Barack Obama’s health plan. Romney’s advisers, both inside and outside the formal campaign, want the main component of his alternative to be a change in the tax code’s treatment of health care. But there are two versions on the table, and Romney is leaning toward the one that would offer much less help to the uninsured. For decades, people have paid taxes on their wages but not on their health benefits. This policy gives people an incentive to get health insurance ... Continue reading →