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!
Sep 12, 2012
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U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, 3 other Americans die in Libya consulate attack
By Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy NewspapersLibya's interior minister said Wednesday that the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was killed when armed Islamist militants overran the U.S. consulate in Libya’s second largest city, in a day of rage that also struck the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, where demonstrators hauled down the American flag, tore it to pieces and burned it.
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Israeli sharpens call for United States to set Iran trigger
By David E. Sanger and Isabel Kershner, The New York TimesPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel inserted himself into the most contentious foreign policy issue of the American presidential campaign on Tuesday, criticizing the Obama administration for refusing to set clear “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear progress that would prompt the United States to undertake a military strike. As a result, he said, the administration has no “moral right” to restrain Israel from taking military action of its own.
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Mitt Romney panic syndrome
By John Dickerson, SlateIt happens every four weeks. Conservatives get a very scary feeling that Mitt Romney is blowing this election for all the wrong reasons.
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Software, not just bullets, puts military at odds
By Tom Gjelten, NPRMilitary commanders, government officials and members of Congress have long wrangled over which weapon systems are needed. Now, there's an argument over what computer software should be provided to soldiers in Afghanistan. It's a defense dispute for the digital age.
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Sep 11, 2012
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Big government: impact on the markets?
By Eamon Javers, CNBC Read more -
Romney on tax loopholes
By John Harwood, CNBC Read more -
Master campaigner summons the spotlight for Obama (and himself)
By Peter Baker, The New York TimesElvis is back in the building, and everyone is singing from his song sheet. Twelve years after leaving the White House, four years after his wife’s failed presidential campaign and six days after his well-received convention speech, Bill Clinton is hitting the campaign trail as the role model both sides claim to emulate.
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Among likely voters, Obama-Romney close
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen, The Washington PostLast week’s Democratic National Convention helped President Obama improve his standing against Republican Mitt Romney, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, but did little to reduce voter concern about his handling of the economy.
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No 'credible or specific' terror threat on 9/11 anniversary
By Pierre Thomas, Jack Cloherty, Jason Ryan and Richard Esposito, ABC NewsIntelligence sources tell ABC News that there is no "credible or specific" information that al Qaeda or any other terrorist organizations are plotting attacks timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of 9/11.
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Sep 10, 2012
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Will acceptance of gays by high court influence rulings?
By Joan Biskupic, ReutersA tall, hulking man in his late 70s, William Rehnquist, then chief justice of the United States, crawled down on all fours to say hello to the two little girls who had scurried under the table when he approached at a luncheon.
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Romney struggles to gain traction in battlegrounds
By Sara Murray and Laura Meckler, Wall Street JournalWith two months to Election Day, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney faces the disconcerting reality that he isn't winning most of the states he would need to beat President Barack Obama.
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With $114 million, Obama just outraises Romney in August
By Jeff Mason and Sam Youngman, ReutersPresident Barack Obama's campaign and its Democratic partners raised more than $114 million in August, narrowly beating Republican rival Mitt Romney for the first time in months as the race for the White House approaches its final stretch.
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Romney aims to neutralize Obama's narrative
By James Kitfield, National JournalRead Mitt’s lips: no new taxes on the middle class, no net tax decrease for high earners, no cuts in defense spending.
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Romney and Obama trade shots over tax-cut math, Medicare
By Maeve Reston and Christi Parsons, Los Angeles TimesAfter a week in which Democrats repeatedly attacked his economic plan as beneficial to the rich and devastating to the poor, Republican nominee Mitt Romney insisted Sunday that his tax and budget proposals would help rebuild the middle class in America.
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Sep 07, 2012
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Economy adds 96K jobs
National JournalU.S. payrolls grew by a weaker-than-expected 96,000 in August, but the unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent, Labor Department says
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Two Conventions Down, No Signs of Quick Help for the Jobless
By Jim Tankersley, National JournalThe voters demand action on jobs, and on Thursday night, the incumbent president running amid the worst election-year labor market in modern American history responded with the following: A bloody evisceration of his opponent’s economic philosophy. (“Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning!”)
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In Democratic convention speech, Obama vows ‘our problems can be solved’ — with more time
By Dan Balz and David Nakamura, The Washington PostPresident Obama appealed to the nation Thursday night for another four years in office, asserting that his policies are slowly returning the country to economic prosperity while arguing that his Republican opponents would pursue a course that would set the country back and harm the well-being of middle-class families.
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Obama makes case for 2nd term: ‘harder’ path to ‘better place’
By Helene Cooper and Peter Baker, The New York TimesPresident Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for a second term on Thursday night, making a forceful argument that he had rescued the economy from disaster and ushered in a recovery that would be imperiled by a return to Republican stewardship.
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Dispatches From the Democratic National Convention
By John Dickerson, SlateIn 2008, if Barack Obama's outdoor convention speech had been moved inside, he still would have raised the roof. When he was denied the chance to speak in the elements at Bank of America stadium this week, the closed venue seemed fitting. Obama's speech to the 2012 Democratic National Convention, like his presidency, has a lid on it. It was workmanlike from a president who had to strain with the reality of being in office. “The times have changed,” he said, “and so have I.” At his 2008 address in Denver, audience members cried at the end of his speech. Tonight, one delegate said Biden had been more inspiring. Another said Bill Clinton's speech was the one she would be sending around to barber shops and beauty parlors.
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Two conventions tell the tale of 2012
By John F. Harris and Jim Vandehei, PoliticoRepublicans last week in Tampa and Democrats this week in Charlotte were not faking it. Partisans on both sides really do regard the other party’s nominee with contempt, and both sides look at the other’s agenda with genuine incomprehension.
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