Essential Reads
Essential Reads is your one-stop source for the top stories of the day as reported by your favorite Washington Week panelists. It's a simple way to save time and stay informed about the news you need to know. Check it out every day!
Jun 04, 2012
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Obama Aims at Romney in New Ad
By Laura Meckler, Wall Street JournalWith a new TV ad, President Barack Obama’s campaign is putting more muscle into its effort to paint Mitt Romney’s tenure as Massachusetts governor as a failure on job creation. The Obama campaign began making this case last week with a news conference and a Web video. Now the campaign is out with a TV spot that will run in nine battleground states in what a campaign official called a “significant” purchase of air time.
Mitt Romney on the campaign trail (CNN, File Photo) -
Recall Battle in Wisconsin May Snarl Obama Camp
By Jeff Zeleny, New York TimesPresident Obama holds multiple paths to re-election, with a handful of battleground states being able to slip away without leading to his defeat. But each possible outcome on his campaign map has always shared a common trait: winning Wisconsin.
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The Politics of Jobs
With John Harwood, CNBCDiscussing what the third spring slowdown in a row means for the Obama campaign, with CNBC's John Harwood.
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From Alabama, an Epic Challenge to Voting Rights
By Joan Biskupic, ReutersFour years ago, in this small city of gentle hills, tall oaks and nine stoplights, an invisible line was drawn a few miles north of the center of town. It stretched up beyond Highway 22 and looped west across Interstate 65, sweeping in recent housing developments, the brown-brick Concord Baptist Church and a new Wal-Mart. The narrow five-square-mile rectangle enlarged Voting District 2.
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Salmon Fishing in Yemen? No, Says Tourism Board
With Martha Raddatz, ABCABC's Martha Raddatz talks salmon fishing in Yemen.
Watch Video on ABC News
Jun 01, 2012
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Gamesmanship Abounds as Obama, Romney Campaigns Duel over Jobs
By Ros Krasny and Sam Youngman, ReutersThe campaigns of President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney took their political gamesmanship up a notch on Thursday, with dueling events that featured raucous heckling, a secret trip for reporters and symbolic backdrops that reflected the increasing intensity of the tight race for the White House.
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Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran
By David E. Sanger, New York TimesFrom his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.
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Mitt Romney Visits Solyndra Headquarters, Knocks President Obama
By Nia-Malika Henderson, Washington PostMitt Romney visited the shuttered headquarters of the bankrupt Solyndra solar energy company Thursday, venturing into the physical heart of his political argument against President Obama’s stewardship of the economy. The Republican presidential candidate has repeatedly invoked the failed energy company as evidence of Obama’s economic failure and his hostility to the private sector.
A Romney campaign event at Solyndra headquarters in California (CNN) -
Sex Selection Is New Front in Abortion Battle
By Janet Hook, Wall Street JournalRepublicans opened a new front in their battle against abortion Thursday, by calling a House vote on legislation to ban abortions conducted for the purposes of sex selection. But the bill, which would punish doctors who perform sex-selection abortions, failed to pass the House because GOP leaders brought it to a vote under fast-track procedures requiring a two thirds majority. The bill drew a 246-168 majority, but fell short of two thirds.
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Obama, Romney Execute Game Plans, Amid Distractions
By Dan Balz, Washington PostThe narratives are flying at warp speed in the presidential election. Private equity. Public equity. Bain. Solyndra. President Obama undercut by Newark Mayor Cory Booker and ex-governor Ed Rendell. Mitt Romney drowned out by The Donald. What’s a person to think? The general election is only a few weeks old. What has happened in those weeks is not insignificant, because of what they say about the directions the two campaigns are heading and the arguments they want to make, rather than because one candidate or the other has seized the temporary advantage.
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Portrait Unveiling Reunites Bushes and Obamas
By Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPolitics"What would George do?" became a White House laugh line Thursday as three presidents gathered in the East Room for what President George W. Bush jovially described as his "hanging." The official unveiling ceremony for the portraits of the 43rd president and first lady Laura Bush included warm appreciations for peaceful transfers of power after hard-fought elections, the solemn responsibilities of the presidency, and the shared honor of occupying the “people’s house.”
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May 31, 2012
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Mitt Romney Wins the Republican Nomination!
By John Dickerson, SlateYesterday Mitt Romney crossed the magic threshold of 1,144—the number of delegates he needs to win the GOP nomination. You didn't think you needed a yawn, but there … I've given you a chance to open wide. This is a news-free event—we’ve known Romney has had it locked up for weeks—but there was a time when this was not considered such an eventuality. Not long ago, who would win the Republican nomination was a hotly contested question, an object of intense speculation, theorizing, and sharp retorts. But then everything fell into place.
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Democrats Want a Fighting President
By Janet Hook, Wall Street JournalAmericans increasingly want their presidents to fight for what they believe in rather than seek compromise — and much of the attitude change comes from Democrats, a fresh look at the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll shows.
A smart phone captures a snap shot of President Obama in the East Room of the White House (CNN) -
For the White House, a Wary Wait as Syria Boils
By Peter Baker, New York TimesAfter ordering American forces to Libya last year, President Obama declared that he had tackled a humanitarian crisis more decisively than his predecessors. “When people were being brutalized in Bosnia in the 1990s,” Mr. Obama told a national television audience, “it took the international community more than a year to intervene with air power to protect civilians. It took us 31 days.”
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An Early Look at the General Election
With John Dickerson, CBS NewsExactly 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidency. CBS News estimates Obama can count on 212 and Romney can rely on 191. CBS News political director John Dickerson reports on the battle for the 135 up for grabs.
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Obama Still Crushing Romney in Spanish Media
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalAnother day, another set of Spanish-language ads from President Obama's re-election campaign. This third batch will boost an investment already estimated at $1 million since mid-April, in contrast to Mitt Romney's meager $13,000 in Spanish media so far.
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Poland Seeks Stronger Apology after Obama's 'Death Camps' Remark
By Christi Parsons, Los Angeles TimesThe Polish prime minister is demanding a “stronger, more pointed response” from President Obama after he referred to “Polish death camps” during a White House ceremony Tuesday. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday that Obama should have made it clear that the death camps were run by Nazis in occupied Poland. White House officials issued a statement expressing “regret” for the reference, but Tusk said he is not completely satisfied by the White House explanation that the president misspoke.
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Software Raises Bar for Hiring
By David Wessel, Wall Street Journaln an essay in this newspaper last fall, Peter Cappelli, a professor of management and human resources at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, challenged the oft-heard complaint from employers that they can't find good workers with the right skills. "The real culprits are the employers themselves," he asserted. "It is part of a long-term trend," he adds in an interview, "and the recession caused employers to be able to be pickier, to get even more specific in the skills they think they can find outside the company and to cut back on training."
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May 30, 2012
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Nomination His, Romney Steps Up Attack on Obama
By Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg, New York TimesMitt Romney, having initially weathered the first sustained general election attack, is entering a critical 90-day stretch to the Republican convention on relatively equal footing with the White House and is unleashing a new offensive to win over independent voters and further undermine confidence in President Obama’s stewardship of the economy.
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Romney Clinches Nomination, Attacks Obama on Solyndra, but Trump Steals the Spotlight
By Nia-Malika Henderson and Philip Rucker, Washington PostMitt Romney and his allies opened a multi-pronged attack Tuesday on President Obama’s stewardship of taxpayer dollars, as Romney won the Texas primary and clinched the Republican presidential nomination. Romney garnered at least 88 delegates in the Texas primary, bringing his total past the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press count.
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