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!
Aug 07, 2012
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Obama Tells a Tale of ‘Romney Hood’
By Peter Baker, The New York TimesPresident Obama has been looking for new ways to keep pressing the same attack on Mitt Romney’s tax plan, and on Monday, he coined a phrase he hopes will stick: “Romney Hood.”
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Convention Challenge: VIP Speakers Who Send Wrong Message
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalPity the organizers of the Democratic and Republican conventions this year. The host governors -- Bev Perdue in North Carolina and Rick Scott in Florida --happen to be two of the least popular state executives in the country. But geographic protocols demand that they address the convention hall. What to do?
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Romney Veepstakes: Who Would Add Internationalist Cred to the Ticket?
by James Kitfield, National JournalWhen first-term Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was looking for a running mate to bolster a résumé short on foreign-policy experience and to help navigate the treacherous shoals of international relations during a time of war, he chose Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., the chairman and longtime member of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Texas Gov. George W. Bush, also short on overseas experience, did something similar when he chose Dick Cheney, a former White House chief of staff and secretary of Defense who had successfully managed the Persian Gulf War.
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Political battle of the incumbents
by John Harwood, CNBCElection season bringing an unusual race in a battleground state this november, thanks to redistricting, two incumbent representatives are facing off in Ohio's 16th District.
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After Sikh Killings, Obama Calls for "Soul-Searching"
By Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPolitics.comPresident Obama, reacting gingerly to the weekend's deadly shooting rampage at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee, steered clear of the gun control debate on Monday, emphasizing instead that "we are all one people and we look after one another and we respect one another."
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Aug 06, 2012
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Pollsters Struggle to Pin Down the Right (Cell) Number
By John Harwood, The New York TimesAs they gauge voter sentiment in this tight presidential race, pollsters face a big challenge: more and more voters hang up on them.
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Romney’s heavy August workload
By Dan Balz, The Washington PostThe best that can be said about how Mitt Romney fared in July is that he survived. That has only raised the stakes for what the presumptive Republican presidential nominee needs to do in August.
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Rice, McCain and three would-be running mates to headline Republican convention
By Sam Youngman, ReutersA who's who of Republican leaders, including three thought to be possible running mates for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, will kick off the party's convention this month.
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Democrats Embrace Once Pejorative ‘Obamacare’ Tag
By Peter Baker, The New York TimesAs thousands of people gathered on a sweltering night outside a local high school draped with flags and bunting, the speaker talked about the president’s controversial health program. “That’s why he passed Obamacare!” she declared.
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Romney Misleads with Israel Ad
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalThe truth sure is a slippery thing in the 2012 campaign. "It's beginning to seem as if everyone's at the prow of a Swift Boat, pants on fire and conscience on ice,'' writes a fired-up Frank Bruni of The New York Times, rightfully lambasting Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid for calling Republican Mitt Romney a tax scofflaw without offering an iota of proof.
Read more in the National Journal
Aug 03, 2012
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Can Obama Overcome Job Numbers -- and History?
By Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPolitics.comWhen 8.3 percent of Americans are unemployed and an election is a little over three months away, it's a flat-out certainty that President Obama is going to have to defy some historical assumptions to find a path to victory.
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U.S. Jobs Grew 163,000 in July
By Jim Tankersley, National JournalU.S. economy added 163,000 jobs in July, a faster-than-expected pace, but the jobless rate rose.
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Lost on the Campaign Trail: A Real Jobs Debate
By Jim Tankersley, National JournalIn January 2001, Bill Clinton’s final month in office, 132.4 million Americans were employed. Eleven years and six months later, that number has grown … all the way to 133 million. A whopping 600,000 more Americans have jobs today than at the dawn of the 21st Century.
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President Again Blasts Tax Proposal of Romney’s
By Jackie Calmes, The New York TimesPresident Obama on Thursday continued his swing-state offensive against Mitt Romney’s tax-cut plans, deriding them as a boon to the rich at the expense of everyone else — “trickle-down tax-cut fairy dust,” he called them at a college here.
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Obama Brings "Middle Class'' Tour to Nation's Richest County
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalPresident Obama brings his "middle class tax relief'' tour Thursday to Leesburg, VA., -- which sits in the richest county in the country. Loudon County's official web site notes its median income of $119,540 is "#1 ranked in the USA
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Ad Watch: Obama Campaign Seeks to Recast Romney as Tax Raiser
By Peter Baker, The New York TimesThe Obama campaign is wasting no time getting an ad on the air touting a new study showing that Mitt Romney’s plans would mean additional large tax cuts for millionaires at the expense of other Americans.
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Deciding the undecideds: Tough for Obama, Romney
By Charles Babington, Associated PressUndecided voters in swing states hold the key to the presidential election, but neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama has an easy recipe for winning them over.
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Still Waters
By Major Garrett, National JournalA lot has happened, but nothing has changed. This, believe it or not, is what passes for searing insight into the race for the White House from the top advisers to President Obama and Mitt Romney.
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Aug 02, 2012
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Obama Says Romney’s Tax Plan Favors Wealthy Only
By Jackie Calmes, The New York TimesAKRON, Ohio — President Obama assailed Mitt Romney for “top-down economics” in his ninth trip this year to this battleground state, brandishing a new study showing that Mr. Romney’s plans would mean additional large tax cuts for millionaires at the expense of other Americans.
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What is the Fed Waiting For?
By Jim Tankersley, National JournalIt's best to think of the Federal Reserve today as a seventh-grade boy at a school dance, shuffling up to a girl, with all their friends watching. That music has a great beat, he says, and you sure do look like you enjoy dancing. She blinks expectantly. He opens his mouth. Then closes it, and walks away.
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