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!
Apr 30, 2012
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Hardly a Close Ally, Clinton Teams With Obama to Raise Cash and Votes
By Peter Baker, New York TimesFour years ago, Barack Obama wrested control of the Democratic Party after portraying Bill Clinton as a symbol of small-ball ambition and outdated politics. Now, as president, Mr. Obama is turning to his Democratic predecessor for help as Republicans breathe down his neck.
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Hispanic Leaders Divided on President Obama
With John Dickerson, CBSBecause Hispanics, the fastest-growing segment of the US population, will play a big role in November's presidential election, leaders from the Hispanic community reinforced the notion that they are not a monolithic voting bloc.
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Apr 27, 2012
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A Choice, Not an Echo
By Jim Tankersley, National JournalArguably, no presidential campaign in the past 30 years has dawned with voters as singularly focused on a single issue as they are this year. In the aftermath of a debilitating financial crisis and amid a feeble and halting recovery from recession, polls show that voters want economic growth and more jobs. President Obama and Mitt Romney are offering dramatically different paths to those ends—in philosophy and in the fine print of policy; in the targets of their campaign-trail attacks; and even in what they’re not saying about the nation’s most pressing economic problems.
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Can You Be Honest With Me?
by John Dickerson, SlateExpecting presidential candidates to be candid with voters is such a quaint idea you'd expect to find it on Pinterest. There it is, next to the adorable confectionery and wedding dog photos. Well, I like quaint, and if you also like a Dr. Seuss saying stenciled on an ambiguous decorative item, then join me on my search for candor in the 2012 presidential campaign. I need your help.
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Twitter becomes a key real-time tool for campaigns
By Karen Tumulty, The Washington PostThe bully pulpit has a new kind of altar call: “Tweet them. We’ve got a hashtag. Here’s the hashtag for you to tweet them: #dontdoublemyrate.” President Obama repeated that Twitter hashtag twice more during a Tuesday speech opposing an increase in student loan interest rates. For good measure, he even had his Chapel Hill, N.C., audience chant it back to him.
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Supreme Court moves to center of presidential race
By Charles Babington, Associated PressThe Supreme Court, suddenly at the heart of presidential politics, is preparing what could be blockbuster rulings on health care and immigration shortly before the fall election. The court, sometimes an afterthought in presidential elections, is throwing a new element of uncertainty into the campaign taking shape between President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
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On Day of Reckoning, Recalling Horror That Swallowed Liberia
By Helene Cooper, The New York TimesWhen I heard the news Thursday that Charles G. Taylor, the former president of Liberia, had been found guilty of war crimes in Sierra Leone, I immediately telephoned one of the people whose life had been ripped apart by his soldiers: my sister Eunice, back home in Liberia.
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Apr 26, 2012
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Two Parties Find a Way to Agree, and Disagree, on Student Loan Rates
By Peter Baker and Jennifer Steinhauer, New York TimesAs President Obama wrapped up a barnstorming tour of college campuses in swing states on Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans agreed that they wanted to avoid a steep increase in the student loan interest rate this summer. But the chief issue remained unsettled: how to pay the cost of doing so.
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Supreme Court Examines Arizona Immigration Law
With Pete Williams, NBC News Watch Video on NBC News -
Obama to Launch Campaign With Ohio, Va. Rallies
By Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPoliticsOhio and Virginia -- he's back! President Obama and wife Michelle will officially launch the president's re-election campaign May 5 with rallies in Columbus and Richmond, his campaign announced Wednesday.
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10 Questions for Timothy F. Geithner
By John Harwood, New York TimesThe attacks on Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner that marked the early part of the Obama administration have died down somewhat as the economy has recovered. But struggles in Europe have created new economic challenges as Mr. Geithner serves out the remaining months of Mr. Obama’s first term, as the president implored him to.
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U.S. High Court Appears to Back Arizona on Immigration
By James Vicini and Joan Biskupic, ReutersConservative justices who hold a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to endorse Arizona's immigration crackdown on Wednesday, rejecting the Obama administration stance that the federal government has sole power over those who illegally enter the United States.
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Apr 25, 2012
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Romney says ‘Better America Begins Tonight’
By Dan Balz and Philip Rucker, Washington PostMitt Romney, whose first campaign for the White House ended in failure and disappointment, claimed the Republican nomination Tuesday night after a five-state sweep and turned his full focus to the general election with a charge that President Obama has been a failure in office and a promise of a better America.
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GOP Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney's victory address in Manchester, NH (CNN) -
Victory on Arizona Immigration Law Could Cost Republicans in the Long Run
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalIf the Supreme Court rejects the Obama administration’s challenge to the Arizona immigration law, the ruling would be widely viewed as a victory for the Republican Party, whose leadership spearheaded the law in the state and championed its spirit nationwide. But at what cost?
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Rob Portman is Likely Veep Pick
With Major Garrett, National JournalNational Journal's White House correspondent Major Garrett talks to Charlie Rose and Erica Hill about Mitt Romney's five-state primary sweep and the upcoming presidential race.
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Warmth of Campus Spotlight Beckons Obama Back
By Peter Baker, New York TimesThe arenas are rocking, the students are whooping and President Obama is feeling the love. “I love you back, I really do!” he calls out to thousands of young people packed to the rafters. When one shouts, “We believe in you!” he yells back, “I believe in you!” When he emphasizes a point, he calls out, “Can I get an amen?” For a president facing a tough re-election and a stubborn economy, there is no better amen corner, no more invigorating audience, than on campus.
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Marco Rubio Is This Election’s Sarah Palin
By John Dickerson, SlateMarco Rubio is this year’s Sarah Palin. As a possible vice presidential pick, he is popular with the grassroots. He is an envoy to a key part of the electorate and has crossover political appeal. He has successfully bucked his party establishment, and those who have seen him work say he’s skilled. He’s an easy and talented campaigner, and he’d wow them in Tampa the way Palin did in St. Paul, Minn.* He is also fundamentally at odds with his potential running mate’s message and criteria for his vice president.
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Apr 24, 2012
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Boehner: 1-in-3 Chance Democrats Could Take House
By Naftali Bendavid, Wall Street JournalHouse Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) is sending a cautionary message about the danger that the Democrats could retake the House in November, saying there is a one-in-three chance the GOP will lose its majority. “I would say that there is a two-in-three chance that we win control of the House again, but there’s a one-in-three chance that we could lose,” Mr. Boehner told Fox News in an interview to air Tuesday. “We’ve got a big challenge and we’ve got work to do.”
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House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio (CNN, File Photo) -
Working-Class Concerns Don’t Cause Romney or Obama Pain
By Lisa Lerer and Julianna Goldman, Bloomberg NewsAmanda Thomas wanted to share with Mitt Romney her long list of worries: a health-care law that will hurt her husband’s business, the debt that will burden her 2-year-old daughter’s generation, and the financial anxieties of her parents in their golden years. “I’m worried about my baby and I’m worried about my parents,” she told the Republican presidential candidate, sitting at a picnic table in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
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State Attorneys General: New Republican Power
By Joan Biskupic, ReutersIn the ornate Chinese Ballroom of Washington's Mayflower Hotel, nine Republican state attorneys general gathered last month at a long, white-cloth covered table for an unusual news conference. One by one, as TV news cameras rolled, they catalogued their many lawsuits against President Barack Obama's administration.
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