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!
May 21, 2012
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Supply Lines Cast Shadow at NATO Meeting on Afghan War
By Helene Cooper and Matthew Rosenberg, New York TimesPresident Obama was struggling to balance the United States’ relationship with two crucial but difficult allies on Sunday, after a deal to reopen supply lines through Pakistan to Afghanistan fell apart just as Mr. Obama began talks on ending the NATO alliance’s combat role in the Afghan war.
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President Obama speaks at a NATO summit in Chicago with British Prime Minister David Cameron, left (CNN) -
Economy v. Favorability in Campaign 2012
With John Dickerson, CBS NewsCBS News Chief White House Correspondent Norah O'Donnell and CBS News Political Director John Dickerson on the real issues in Campaign 2012.
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G-8 Leaders Endorse Policy of Economic Growth
By Christi Parsons and Don Lee, Los Angeles TimesIn a significant political victory for President Obama, the leaders of Germany and other European nations endorsed a policy of economic growth over austerity and emphasized that Greece, which is trying to battle its way out of a crippling debt crisis, should remain in the Eurozone. Meeting on the cloistered grounds of the presidential retreat here, the leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized nations said in a joint statement that Eurozone economies should work to narrow deficits through "fiscal consolidation" and that each country must decide for itself the best mix of policies for promoting economic recovery.
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May 18, 2012
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Europe's Fate, and Obama's, May Ride on G8
By Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPoliticsPresident Obama has a weekend challenge ahead of him: Can he persuade European leaders gathered in the Maryland woods outside Washington, D.C., to adopt the U.S. fiscal example of short-term bailouts, government stimulus and long-range plans for belt-tightening in order to promote growth and stave off a fiscal meltdown in the Eurozone?
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Mitt Romney Distances Himself from Racially Fueled Proposal to Attack Obama
By Karen Tumulty and Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington PostMitt Romney wants to talk about the economy. But his ostensible allies keep interrupting him, and his own party is threatening to drown him out. A reality of modern campaigning is that any candidate — even one as buttoned-down and disciplined as Romney — has to contend with stronger political crosswinds than in the past.
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Boehner: No Budget Brinksmanship From Me
By Naftali Bendavid, Wall Street JournalHouse Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) professed bafflement Thursday about the reaction to his comment Wednesday that any increase in the debt limit at the end of the year must be accompanied by spending cuts and other savings of greater value.
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The 1 Percent Solution
By Jim Tankersley, National JournalNick Hanauer toddled through his early years in a cramped Greenwich Village apartment. His mother waited tables at the Bitter End. His father worked low-level jobs on Wall Street and as an editor at a publishing house. When Nick was 5, his folks left New York to join a family pillow-making business in the Pacific Northwest.
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Clinton and Reagan Draw Praise (but Not From Whom You’d Think)
By Peter Baker, New York TimesIt says something about American politics that it has come to this: For the record, Bill Clinton does not actually support Mitt Romney for president no matter how many times Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, cites him in his speeches. And for that matter, just for clarity, Ronald Reagan certainly would not be supporting President Obama, either.
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Magnate Steps Into 2012 Fray on Wild Pitch
By Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg, New York TimesJoe Ricketts, an up-by-the-bootstraps billionaire whose varied holdings include a name-brand brokerage firm in Omaha, a baseball team in Chicago, herds of bison in Wyoming and a start-up news Web site in New York, wanted to be a player in the 2012 election. On Thursday he was, though not in the way he had intended.
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Romney’s Path
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalStuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s top campaign strategist, talks about the race against President Obama. Edited excerpts of his interview with National Journal follow.
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May 17, 2012
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Obama and House Republicans Offer Taste of Renewed Fight Over the Debt Ceiling
By Helene Cooper, New York TimesPresident Obama and Congressional Republicans staged a preview of a looming end-of-year battle on Wednesday, as the president warned Republicans that he would not allow Congress to hold the economy “hostage” to another fight over whether to raise the country’s debt ceiling without accompanying cuts in spending.
(CNN, File Photo) -
Biden Plays Attack Dog on Bain
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalFor the first time, Vice President Joe Biden is expected to take up a leading attack against presumptive nominee Mitt Romney in the general election: Romney's record at the private equity firm Bain Capital. A manufacturing plant in Youngstown, Ohio will offer the optics for today's assault on Romney's practice of taking over struggling companies and in some cases, walking away with multimillion-dollar profits while the employees got sacked. In other cases (frequently overlooked by Obama's campaign), the companies thrived.
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G.O.P. ‘Super PAC’ Weighs Hard-Line Attack on Obama
By Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg, New York TimesA group of high-profile Republican strategists is working with a conservative billionaire on a proposal to mount one of the most provocative campaigns of the “super PAC” era and attack President Obama in ways that Republicans have so far shied away from.
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Seeking the Missing Five Million Workers
With David Wessel, Wall Street JournalIn the past two years, the over-age-16 population of U.S. has grown by 5.4 million. But the "labor force" hasn't grown at all. David Wessel on The News Hub looks at what's behind the drop and why you should care.
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Bush and Clinton Team Up for 9/11 Memorial Fund-Raiser
By Peter Baker, New York TimesThe odd-bedfellows tandem of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton got together again Tuesday night to promote their latest shared post-presidential cause, a memorial to the heroes of United Flight 93. The 42nd and 43rd presidents headlined a fund-raiser at the Newseum in Washington in hopes of bringing in enough money to honor the passengers who confronted hijackers and brought down their plane on Sept. 11, 2001, rather than let it be crashed into the nation’s capital.
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May 16, 2012
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Why 2012 Is Reality TV at Nightfall, Not Morning in America
By Beth Reinhard and Jim Tankersley, National JournalTwo handsome presidential candidates have been displaced by hard-knock folks with unkempt beards and furrowed foreheads. These surrogates wear hooded sweatshirts and baseball caps. They gaze mournfully at vacant lots, chain-link fences, and snowy graveyards. This is not “Morning in America;" this is reality TV at nightfall.
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George W. Bush Endorses Mitt Romney
By Karen Tumulty, Washington PostAs presidential endorsements go, this one could hardly have been more low-key. ABC News caught up with former president George W. Bush in an elevator in downtown Washington on Tuesday and asked the question that elicited the sound bite. “I’m for Mitt Romney,” Bush said, just as the doors slid shut.
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Geithner Sounds Warning Over Debt Ceiling
With David Wessel, Wall Street JournalSpeaking at the Peter G. Peterson Fiscal Summit in Washington, D.C., Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Congress needed to act smartly this time around on raising the debt ceiling.
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High Stakes in Romney-Obama Battle over Bain, Economy
By Dan Balz, Washington PostPresident Obama’s Chicago-based campaign team has been waiting months to launch a real attack against Mitt Romney’s experience at Bain Capital. Even before Romney’s Republican presidential rivals started going after him, Obama’s campaign was preparing for the moment that arrived this week.
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Boehner: No Debt Ceiling Increase Without Cuts
By Susan Davis, USA TODAYHouse Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will not allow an increase in the debt ceiling to move through the House unless the amount of the increase includes an equal or greater amount of spending cuts. His pledge once again sets Congress on a collision course with Senate Democrats and the White House over what was once a routine vote to raise the federal debt ceiling, which allows the U.S. government to continue to pay its bills without the risk of default.
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