Government is serious. Democracy is sacred. And then there is politics the way it is actually played. The Vote blog looks at politics the way the players talk about it among themselves after work.
A Spanish flag flies above the Bank of Spain in Madrid on Wednesday, June 6. (Paul Hanna/Reuters)
Spain's empty townhouses and Obama's reelection bid: what's the link?
As we drove out of Madrid on the autovia toward our destination in northern Spain, the abandoned, sometimes half-built housing complexes greeted us sadly to the right and left, one after the other.
I’d read about the new but eerily lifeless subdivisions of Las Vegas and central Florida, the ghosts of the American housing collapse of 2007. But the sight of all those empty monuments to Spain’s housing boom and bust gave me an odd thought: Will it be these earth-toned, tile-roofed, and abandoned townhouses in Madrid (and just about every other Spanish city) that will determine if Barack Obama wins four more years in the White House?
My wife and I were in Spain recently to visit our son who is finishing up a semester abroad. In northern Spain, the countryside was gorgeous and Swiss-like. In Bilbao (where our son studied), the transformed industrial city that is home to the fantastic Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the signs of any looming economic collapse seemed sparse.
But elsewhere, the shuttered shops, the strangely vehicle-free highways, and always those lifeless residential developments were vivid reminders that this economy is in deep trouble. In every hotel where we slept, in every bar where we had morning café con leche or afternoon pintxos (better known as tapas outside of Basque Spain), newspaper headlines kept us abreast of how Spain, joining Greece on the precipice, threatened to plunge Europe into economic chaos and considerably deeper recession, and even to bring down the euro.
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Such a grim turn for Europe would travel across the Atlantic like a tsunami, set off by Spain’s economic calamity. That prospect is what conjured up the connection between the abandoned townhouses and President Obama’s reelection prospects.
Those newspapers gave context to the signs of a troubled economy that we saw every day. We skimmed headlines about failed and dangerously undercapitalized banks, about dim prospects for rescue by the European Union, about speculation over the euro’s future. We read deeper into stories about the human toll of Spain’s 25 percent unemployment rate – a rate that flirts with 50 percent among young people – and about how a scarcity of capital is dooming thousands of new small Spanish businesses, many of them started by young entrepreneurs in more promising times just a few years ago.
We read about how at the height of the housing boom, about 1 in 8 Spaniards was employed in construction. Given Spain’s population of about 47 million, that’s a lot of hands hammering and sawing and painting and roofing housing units that too often were destined to sit empty.
As tourists, we reaped some benefits from the economic turmoil. A few restaurants offered “crisis daily menus,” presumably priced a few euros less than what the same three-course meals cost last summer. Some shops trumpeted discounts of 10 or 20 percent in their windows, while those “going out of business” promised much steeper reductions.
But we also encountered a few inconveniences – like the four-hour detour through the mountains of Asturias, occasioned by the province’s coal miners having decided to close down the main highway to protest steep job cuts.
Other than that incident, however, we picked up little hint from Spaniards themselves of a country in economic distress. We saw none of the lines outside banks that we heard were visible in Madrid; we encountered no public-employee demonstrations. If it weren’t for all those empty townhouses, we might have blithely overlooked that this was a country on the brink.
In A Coruna, a port city on Spain’s northwestern tip, I did see an emphatic protest, “No a la Crisis!,” spray-painted in bold black letters on a seawall.
Stopping to photograph the scrawl, I could imagine Mr. Obama, who had made “Si se puede!” part of his campaign repertoire in 2008, adopting this new exclamation for the campaign of 2012.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright speaks in Jackson, Miss., in this March 25 file photo. GOP consultants made headlines this week after urging a super PAC working to defeat President Obama to prepare an ad campaign highlighting Obama's ties to his former pastor. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP/File)
Mitt Romney repudiates idea of using Jeremiah Wright against Obama
Don’t go there. That, in essence, is the message Thursday from Mitt Romney, who said he “repudiates” an idea that was reportedly under consideration by an outside GOP group to run ads using the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. to attack President Obama.
Since publication of The New York Times article Thursday describing the idea, the Chicago billionaire who was reportedly considering funding the $10 million plan has disavowed it.
But that news came after an explosive reaction across the political spectrum, from both the Romney and Obama campaigns, as well as political strategists and observers. And once again, the issue of race has been injected into the campaign.
During the last presidential campaign, videos of incendiary sermons by Mr. Wright, the president’s former spiritual adviser, came to light. John McCain, the Republican nominee in 2008, refused to make Wright an issue and Mr. Romney, the party’s presumptive nominee this year, is furthering that view.
According to Thursday’s New York Times, Chicago billionaire Joe Ricketts was considering a $10 million ad campaign that would highlight Obama’s former relationship with Wright, who espouses “black liberation theology.” Mr. Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade, and a “super PAC” he supports, the Ending Spending Action Fund, were considering various proposals from a group of high-profile Republican strategists, including this idea.
Midday on Thursday, Brian Baker, president of the Ending Spending Action Fund, released a statement on behalf of Ricketts.
“Joe Ricketts is a registered independent, a fiscal conservative, and an outspoken critic of the Obama administration, but he is neither the author nor the funder of the so-called ‘Ricketts Plan’ to defeat Mr. Obama that The New York Times wrote about this morning,” the statement read.
“Not only was this plan merely a proposal – one of several submitted to the Ending Spending Action Fund by third-party vendors – but it reflects an approach to politics that Mr. Ricketts rejects and it was never a plan to be accepted but only a suggestion for a direction to take,” the statement continued. “Mr. Ricketts intends to work hard to help elect a president this fall who shares his commitment to economic responsibility, but his efforts are and will continue to be focused entirely on questions of fiscal policy, not attacks that seek to divide us socially or culturally.”
Earlier in the day, Romney also rejected the proposal.
“I repudiate the effort by that PAC to promote an ad strategy of the nature they’ve described,” Romney told the conservative Townhall web site Thursday. “I would like to see this campaign focus on the economy, on getting people back to work, on seeing rising incomes and growing prosperity – particularly for those in the middle class of America.”
The new world of unlimited spending in support of political campaigns, as sanctioned by the Supreme Court in 2010, has opened the door to increased involvement in politics by wealthy benefactors like Ricketts (whose family owns the Chicago Cubs). He and his super PAC are fresh off an upset victory Tuesday in the Senate GOP primary in Nebraska, in which an underfunded state legislator named Deb Fischer defeated both the Republican establishment and tea party favorites with the help of Ricketts-funded ads.
The Wright proposal would have involved running TV ads around the Democratic National Convention in early September in Charlotte, N.C. The team of strategists presenting the proposal includes former advisers to one-time presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, including adman Fred Davis, according to the Times.
The strategists anticipated charges of race-baiting, and so their plan included “hiring as a spokesman an ‘extremely literate conservative African-American’ who can argue that Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a ‘metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln,’ ” the Times reported.
By law, a super PAC is barred from coordinating its activities with the campaign it supports, but that didn’t prevent Romney from making his views clear through the media Thursday. Other Republicans voiced opposition to the plan.
“This has the potential to be a recipe for disaster,” says Republican strategist Ford O’Connell, who worked for the McCain campaign in 2008. “There could be a significant backlash, and that’s not what Romney needs in this tight race.”
The people who might listen to a racially charged argument against Obama are already not voting for him, while independent swing voters could be turned off.
The argument for leaving race out of presidential politics has long been articulated, including by black conservatives. One, author Shelby Steele, made the case a year ago in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal entitled, “Obama’s Unspoken Reelection Edge.”
Mr. Steele argued that Obama’s race gives him a “cultural charisma” that most Republicans cannot have, and that the way to defeat Obama electorally is to go after his performance in office, not his identity.
“There have really always been two Barack Obamas: the mortal man and the cultural icon,” Mr. Steele wrote. “If the actual man is distinctly ordinary, even a little flat and humorless, the cultural icon is quite extraordinary. The problem for Republicans is that they must run against both the man and the myth. In 2008, few knew the man and Republicans were walloped by the myth. Today the man is much clearer, and yet the myth remains compelling.”
Anyone who consults with Steele is likely to advised to steer clear of Jeremiah Wright. It would only enhance the myth.
President Obama delivers the commencement address to graduates at all-female Barnard College, on the campus of Columbia University, in New York, Monday, May 14. (Richard Drew/AP)
With graduation speeches, Obama, Romney target 'must win' audiences
It's commencement season – and the time-honored tradition of politicians using graduation speeches as a platform for their messages is in full swing.
On Monday, it was President Obama's turn, as he spoke to the women of Barnard College in New York.
"Don't just get involved," he told the Barnard audience. "Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table."
His words were, for the most part, the kinds of platitudes to be expected at a commencement (in addition to urging grads to be activists, he also told them to "persevere" and "never underestimate the power of your example"). But the location was particularly notable – just as it was for Mitt Romney's commencement address two days earlier.
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Mr. Obama, whose campaign has been targeting women voters this election year, zeroed in on Barnard – a top women's college that has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900 – back in February. He requested the speaking slot back then, and the Barnard president replaced New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, who had originally been designated the speaker.
It's a natural fit for Obama. It helps reach women and young people – both key parts of the electorate he wants to mobilize. Moreover, Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, graduated from Barnard, and Obama graduated from Columbia.
Mr. Romney's choice of commencement venue was also illuminating – and perhaps not quite so comfortable for the GOP presidential candidate.
On Saturday, he spoke at Liberty University, the Evangelical college founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.
For a candidate who has been struggling to resonate with evangelicals – though his approval ratings among that group are finally rising – it seemed like a very targeted appeal.
And coming shortly after Obama's headline-making support for gay marriage, Romney earned some of his loudest applause for stating his position on the issue:
"As fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate. So it is today with the enduring institution of marriage. Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman."
Romney went on to emphasize America's Christian roots. "It strikes me as odd that the free exercise of religious faith is sometimes treated as a problem, something America is stuck with instead of blessed with," he told his audience. "From the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man. Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution."
And he added that “culture – what you believe, what you value, how you live – matters."
The speech was a major foray into a key constituency that Romney needs to step up for him this fall – and that, during the early primary season at least, was reluctant to embrace him.
In Obama's Barnard talk, meanwhile, the president was urging young people to be politically active – and, presumably, to head to the polls for him in November.
"It’s up to you to hold the system accountable and sometimes upend it entirely," he told his audience. "It’s up to you to stand up and to be heard, to write and to lobby, to march, to organize, to vote. Don’t be content to just sit back and watch."
The audiences couldn't be more different, though Romney did, through some creative advertising, try to reach some of those same New Yorkers and young people interested in Obama's Barnard remarks.
According to Politico.com, Romney's campaign on Monday purchased Web ads targeted specifically to the 10027 ZIP Code in which Barnard is located. When Google users in that area searched for "barnard commencement" Monday – perhaps looking for logistical information about the speech – the first ad they saw was a link to Romney's website entitled "Obama's Wasteful Spending." (Underneath, it said: "leaving graduates with an economy not creating the jobs they deserve.")
Obama's speech was just the beginning of a swing through friendly New York territory. He also taped an interview on ABC's "The View," (which will air Tuesday) and planned to attend a fundraiser hosted by singer Ricky Martin.
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In this April 2 file photo, then Republican presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks in Shawano, Wis. The ex-presidential candidate told Jay Leno on 'The Tonight Show' Tuesday night, the endorsement for Romney was 'kind of buried,' as Leno put it, in the e-mail to supporters. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
Rick Santorum tells Jay Leno why Romney endorsement was 'buried' (+video)
Rick Santorum had a reason for endorsing Mitt Romney late at night, in the 13th paragraph of an e-mail to supporters.
“We decided to put it out late at night so it would be sort of the first thing people would see in the morning,” the ex-presidential candidate told Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” Tuesday night. The endorsement had gone out at 11 o'clock the night before.
Besides, Mr. Santorum joked, it wasn’t really all that late. “We have seven kids so we don’t sleep,” laughed the former Pennsylvania senator, wearing his trademark sweater vest. (He gave Mr. Leno one, too.)
Why was the endorsement “kind of buried,” as Leno put it, in the e-mail to supporters? Because, in essence, the message was about him, not Mr. Romney.
“This was a letter to my supporters – who were for me – to say, ‘Well, here’s now why I think we should rally around Mitt Romney and support him,’ " Santorum said.
Leno reminded Santorum that he had once called Romney “the worst Republican” to take on President Obama. Santorum said he was referring specifically to “Obamacare,” the health-care reform based on Romney’s fix of the Massachusetts system when he was governor. Leno defended “Romneycare,” saying people in his native state seemed happy with it – and asked Santorum how he’d feel if all the states put in place similar reforms, given conservative support for states’ rights.
Santorum: “Can you imagine what ‘The Tonight Show’ would look like if the government ran ‘The Tonight Show’?”
Leno: “I see what it looks like with NBC running it!”
Leno also asked why Republicans, known for promoting strong defense and fiscal policy, now focus so much on cultural issues, which he called “diversions.”
“It’s the culture, it’s not the economy,” Santorum said. “The culture matters. Look at every great civilization. They don’t fail because a foreign power overtakes them. Oh, ultimately a foreign power destroys them, but they were all destroyed before the foreign power took them over. They were falling, they were failing as a culture.”
“The economy – yeah, it’s important,” he added. “But the culture is what holds people together.”
Perhaps this was a hint at Santorum’s next step? In his e-mail to supporters, he had promised a “big announcement” soon – one that will involve asking them “to once again join forces with me to keep up the fight, together.”
Santorum is best known as a culture warrior. The socially liberal Leno peppered him with questions about gay adoption and teen contraception. Santorum happily stood his ground. But he made clear he doesn’t think the government should ban all things he personally believes are wrong, such as contraception and smoking.
“So a gay couple smoking with a contraceptive would be the worst thing,” Leno quipped.
“Heaven forbid!” Santorum laughed.
Sen. Dick Lugar (R) of Indiana is video recorded by a cell phone during a visit to the West Lafayette wastewater treatment center Monday, May 7, in West Lafayette, Ind. (Michael Heinz/Journal & Courier/AP)
A possible blessing for Dick Lugar in fight to retain US Senate seat
Richard Lugar, currently the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, could get pushed out of office by a rival from with his own party.
Tuesday's primary vote in Indiana pits Senator Lugar against state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, whose challenge is rooted in the themes that Lugar is out of touch both with his state and with an increasingly conservative Republican Party.
Mr. Mourdock's insurgency has shifted in recent weeks from a long-shot bid to an odds-on favorite as Hoosiers head to voting stations.
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But with Lugar seeking to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, here's one thing that the six-term Senate veteran can be glad of: Rick Santorum is no longer competing against Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination.
The primary outcome hinges on what types of voters turn out, and a hot presidential contest involving former Senator Santorum of Pennsylvania would have drawn more hard-core conservatives, including evangelical Christians, says Brian Vargus, a professor of political science at Indiana University in Indianapolis.
"If there was still a fight for the nomination between Santorum and [Mitt] Romney, Lugar would be toast," Mr. Vargus says. He notes that Santorum has endorsed Mourdock's bid to replace Lugar as the state's Republican Senate candidate.
In contrast to the live presidential battle that was being waged a few weeks ago, Tuesday's Indiana primary coincides with a move by Santorum to officially endorse Romney. The former Massachusetts governor, for his part, held a fundraiser in Indiana Monday.
Still, Mourdock appeared to have the momentum heading into voting day. A Howey/DePauw poll of 700 likely voters, released last week, showed Mourdock leading by 10 percentage points.
Mourdock is banking on voters who are in a mood of tea party rebellion. Lugar's best hope is that lots of moderate and independent voters show up for the open primary vote.
Lugar has been a US senator since January 1977, making him the longest-serving Republican along with Orrin Hatch of Utah, who arrived in the same Senate class. On the Democratic side, Patrick Leahy of Vermont has served two years longer, and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii took office in 1963.
Mourdock's ads have sought to turn Lugar's age and long tenure into a liability, talking about the senator moving to Washington at a time when disco and leisure suits were in fashion. The ads have also labeled Lugar "Obama's favorite Republican."
Lugar's voting record puts him in the dwindling ranks of moderate Republicans, with a conservative voting score of 65 percent over his Senate career, according to the Club for Growth. In the conservative group's ratings, many Republican senators post scores in the 80s or 90s, and Lugar himself moved from a score of 70 in 2010 to 80 last year.
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Stanhope Elmore High School Junior ROTC Cadet Mike Snyder bows his head in prayer during National Day of Prayer ceremonies at the Dexter Avenue United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Ala., Thursday. (Dave Martin/AP)
On National Day of Prayer, plenty of politics
"One Nation Under God." That line, enshrined in the American Pledge of Allegiance, is the theme selected by a self-appointed "task force" that seeks to set an agenda for Thursday prayer events around the country.
But if you were expecting this day to be all about quiet reverence and heartfelt petition, well, just remember that this is an election year, and that religion is a topic that sometimes generates a wee bit of controversy in the public square.
Yes, legions of Americans including Marines in Georgia and residents of Colorado Springs are gathering to pray, whether led by pastors or kneeling in silence among church pews.
The other reality of this day, however, is that it has become an annual part of the political fabric. It's a day when politicians appeal to voters as people of faith, when interest groups cast wary judgment on politicians, and when many atheists and civil libertarians seek to cast doubt on the very concept and constitutionality of an annual day for prayer in the US.
Start with the fact that it's the president who proclaims the National Day of Prayer (following a 1952 law), but the task force publicizing the "One Nation Under God" theme – the National Day of Prayer Task Force – is headed by the wife of James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and a leader in the evangelical Christian movement.
Where President George W. Bush welcomed evangelical National Day of Prayer enthusiasts to the White House, President Obama has taken a more aloof approach to the task force and to the Day of Prayer itself.
The White House lists the president's schedule for May 3 as including a lunch with the vice president, a meeting with senior aides, and some remarks at a Cinco de Mayo Reception in the Rose Garden. (An aside: Is that odd, to be celebrating Cinco de Mayo two days early? Just curious.)
The president's proclamation included an exhortation to pray for members of America's armed forces, and for "those who are sick, mourning, or without hope," and to "ask God for the sustenance to meet the challenges we face as a Nation."
Mitt Romney, poised to become the Republican nominee for president, released his own statement of prayer. “Today I join with people of all faiths to express devotion and gratitude to the Lord, who has so richly blessed us," he said. His concluding phrase appeared to be a nod to the task force evangelicals, calling on "the Lord [to] keep us strong and free and we will remain one nation under God."
Groups including the the Freedom From Religion Foundation protest against the prayer day as an imposition of religion by government. A few days ago the American Humanist Association praised Rep. Pete Stark (D) of California for embracing the alternative concept of a National Day of Reason, on the same day as the National Day of Prayer.
A year ago, a federal appeals court overturned a ruling that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional.
Mr. Obama took an effort to be inclusive of the many views Americans have on religion, saying that the nation's democracy "respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience."
At the same time, some critics say the Obama administration hasn't stood up strongly enough for religious freedom.
The Catholic News Agency, for example, quotes legal expert Robert Tyler of Advocates for Faith and Freedom, raising questions about Obama's statement supporting a "democracy that respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain....” Mr. Tyler said this could be understood as supporting freedom of worship but not freedom to fully to practice a religion.
That distinction came up, in the context of the Roman Catholic faith, when the Obama administration issued a mandate that employer health insurance cover contraceptive services.
The idea of an annual day of prayer was enshrined in law under President Truman (D) in 1952, and President Reagan (R) signed a 1988 law calling for the event to be held on the first Thursday of each May.
Prior to that, leaders including the Continental Congress and Abraham Lincoln on occasion proclaimed days of prayer for specific reasons.
In this January 26 file photo, Republican presidential candidates, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney participate in the Republican presidential candidates debate in Jacksonville, Florida. Gingrich officially drops out of the presidential race Wednesday, and the Obama campaign is celebrating with a video that trashes Romney – in the words of Mr. Gingrich. (Matt Rourke/AP/File)
Mitt Romney is a Swiss-bank-account-owning liar. So says Newt Gingrich. (+video)
Newt Gingrich officially drops out of the presidential race Wednesday, and the Obama campaign is celebrating with a video that trashes Mitt Romney – in the words of Mr. Gingrich.
Talk about low-hanging fruit. All the Obama camp needed to do was collect the most pungent of Gingrich’s attacks on Mr. Romney during primary debates and interviews, add a heavy dose of sarcasm, and stir.
Gingrich is throwing his support behind Romney?, the video asks.
“As a man who wants to run for president of the United States who can’t be honest with the American people, why should we expect him to level about anything if he’s president?” the former House speaker asks matter-of-factly in one clip.
Next question: Is it Romney’s business record that Newt supports?
“You’d certainly have to say that Bain at times engaged in behavior where they looted a company leaving behind 1,700 unemployed people,” Gingrich says, referring to the private-equity firm that Romney formerly headed.
Then: “There was a pattern, in some companies, a handful of them, of leaving them with enormous debt, and then within a year or two or three, having them go broke. I think that is something he ought to answer.”
Follow that with slams on Romney’s Swiss bank account, a “Romney machine” that’s “not capable of inspiring positive turnout,” positions that are “anti-immigrant,” and another attack on Romney’s honesty, and you’ve got a tidy message against the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Romney finished the competitive part of the primary season with the lowest likability of any major-party nominee in modern history – thanks in part to attacks from Gingrich and the other GOP candidates. Now Gingrich is reportedly set to endorse Romney in the next couple of weeks. The Obama campaign is making sure we don’t forget what Gingrich thought just a few months ago.
Kim Kardashian, recipient of "The Total Pro" style award, poses at the Us Weekly Hot Hollywood Style issue event April 17 in West Hollywood, Calif. (Chris Pizzello/AP)
White House Correspondents' Dinner: Who's coming?
Every year around this time, Washington puts up with jokes about how it is “Hollywood for ugly people,” and this year is no exception. That’s because the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner is Saturday night, and the list of “beautiful people” on the guest list keeps growing.
The latest entry is reality TV goddess Kim Kardashian, coming as a guest of Fox. More important, she’s also thinking of getting into politics. OK, Ms. Kardashian recently floated the idea of running for mayor of Glendale, Calif., which actually isn’t an office one can run for, as Monitor colleague Gloria Goodale points out. But let’s go with it. Here in Washington, ever-mindful that we have a bad rap in the looks department, we’re hopeful that a run for Congress can’t be far behind.
Kardashian’s date is her “momager,” Kris Jenner.
Actress Lindsay Lohan is also on the Fox News guest list. We’re not sure Ms. Lohan qualifies as beautiful, given her personal problems, but we appreciate the gesture by Fox anchor Greta Van Susteren, who invited her.
"I love comebacks, and I'd like her to succeed," Ms. Van Susteren told the celebrity website TMZ.
Time Inc. scored actor George Clooney, who in some ways qualifies as both Hollywood and Washington (or maybe we’re flattering ourselves). After all, Mr. Clooney is deeply political, as is his father, who lives here and teaches journalism at American University. Just last month, both Clooneys got themselves arrested for protesting at the Embassy of Sudan over the actions of the country’s strongman president, Omar al-Bashir.
Before we reveal who else is coming, a quick reminder that the 98-year-old dinner accomplishes more than just star-gazing – and a chance to see the president and a top-flight comedian (this year, Jimmy Kimmel) deliver some one-liners. It also raises funds for scholarships to aspiring young journalists. Since 1991, the White House Correspondents’ Association has awarded nearly $600,000 in scholarships. This year’s recipients are three students from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Now, back to the red carpet. According to the New York Daily News, here’s a list of bold-face names:
• Actress Zooey Deschanel, guest of Bloomberg News.
• The stars of TV’s “Modern Family,” including Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Eric Stonestreet, guests of ABC News.
• Elizabeth Banks, who played Effie Trinket in “The Hunger Games,” and Paul Rudd, also guests of ABC News.
• Josh Hutcherson, also in “The Hunger Games,” as Peeta Mellark, at People magazine’s table.
• Uggie, the Jack Russell Terrier who won everyone’s hearts in “The Artist,” joining The Washington Times.
• Anna Paquin, husband Stephen Moyer, and Dakota Fanning, guests of Huffington Post.
• Rashida Jones, guest of Fortune magazine.
• Aziz Ansari, at the New Yorker’s table.
• John Legend and his supermodel fiancée, Chriss Teigen, guests of NPR.
• Reese Witherspoon and Viola Davis, guests of Newsweek/The Daily Beast.
• Stevie Wonder, guest of American Urban Radio Networks.
• Pierce Brosnan, guest of the Washington Post.
Also coming: Claire Danes, William Levy, Charlize Theron, Rosario Dawson, Mary J. Blige, Eva Longoria, Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas, Goldie Hawn, Steven Spielberg, Christine Baranski, Darren Criss, Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, Daniel Day-Lewis, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, Diane Keaton, Kelli Garner and Johnny Galecki, Colin Hanks, Jason Schwartzman.
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Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley speaks to reporters on the last day of the state's legislative session on April 9, in Annapolis, Md. (Steve Ruark/AP)
Martin O'Malley for president in 2016? He drops a few hints.
Martin O’Malley is often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in 2016, and when asked Friday if he might run, he offered the usual “I’m too busy being governor of Maryland” response.
But Governor O’Malley didn’t rule it out. And when asked whether he’s had any discussion with his family, he allowed that the subject has come up with his two college-age daughters.
“My daughters will e-mail me when they see the honorable mentions with such tremendous leaders as Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo, who’s done an outstanding job in New York, and Vice President Biden, who my daughters just adore,” said O’Malley, speaking at the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way in Washington. “They’ll e-mail me and say, ‘Boy, Dad, it’s nice to be included.’ So there’s that sort of talk.”
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O’Malley dropped other hints that suggested the idea of running for president might have crossed his mind.
“Anything that you hope to do later in public service always depends on your doing a good job at what you’re doing right now,” says O’Malley, who’s in his second term. “And so ... in some ways it’s a simpler time for me, because I know I cannot run again for governor. “
That means no need to carve out time to raise money for a reelection campaign, or pressure from the party to run again and hold the statehouse, he says.
These thoughts about a possible campaign came after he maintained he wasn’t thinking much about running.
“I also am the head of the Democratic Governors Association for the second year, and I suppose for that reason as well as the good job we’ve done in Maryland together over these last few years, people kindly mention me when they talk about what the future of our party holds,” O’Malley said.
“And that’s nice and it’s kind, but I don’t really spend a whole lot of time thinking about it, working on it, or worrying about it,” he continued. “The future – you know, the future will be, and what I’m focused on right now is what I have to do in the present. And that’s plenty for me.”
In the immediate term, O’Malley faces an impasse in his state legislature over a package of tax increases and spending cuts that, if not resolved by July, could result in deep cuts to education spending. Given the large Democratic majorities in the Maryland legislature, the unexpected meltdown was an embarrassment to O’Malley.
But in his conversation Friday with national reporters, O’Malley preferred to focus on the good news coming out of his state. O’Malley is all about metrics, and he came with an armful: Maryland public schools have been named No. 1 in the nation by Education Week magazine four years in a row. Maryland has also gone four straight years without raising tuition in its public universities. Violent crime is down to its lowest levels in 30 years. Over the past year, Maryland has had the ninth-best job-creation rate in the United States. Maryland has the highest median income in the country.
And, as O’Malley announced the day before, Maryland’s blue crab population is at its highest level since 1993 – not the basis for a national campaign, but certainly good news for a state that prides itself on its tasty crustaceans.
O’Malley, who appears often on national TV as a leading Democrat, also differed with President Obama’s emphasis on “fairness” as a campaign message.
“As I talk to people, yeah, they’re bothered by the income disparity as one symptom, but they’re more bothered by the fact that their husband or their wife might lose their job, or that they might no longer have health care, or if they have it, they’re going to have to part with a lot more money,” he said.
Addressing the issues of job loss, home loss, decline in the quality of life, and erosion of incomes is a more persuasive argument, O'Malley says, than the theme of fairness.
But, he added, there is a “positive platform” for Mr. Obama to run on, centered on themes of education, innovation, and rebuilding.
Over and over, O’Malley came back to education as an area where government can build for the future. So here’s an early guess: If he does run in 2016, he’ll pitch himself as the “education president.”
“I think one of the most persuasive points for our own reelection in Maryland among seniors was affordable college,” he said. “Why is that? Because they remember the GI Bill, because they have grandkids, because they know that education is the best indicator of economic security.”
“So,” he concluded, speaking about the Democrats’ overall message this fall, “I think opportunity is what this is going to be about.”
RECOMMENDED: Eight Democrats who might run in 2016
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Newark Mayor Cory Booker speaks to the media outside a burned house in Newark, N.J., Friday without his cape. (Eduardo Munoz/REUTERS)
Cory Booker Stories: Top 10 tweets about fearless Newark mayor
Newark Mayor Cory Booker gained sudden national fame well beyond New Jersey Friday as word spread of his heroic rush into a burning building to rescue a neighbor.
While the news media cranked out stories, and Mayor Booker sought to downplay his exploits, the users of Twitter celebrated in their own characteristic way: milking the deed for all the tongue-in-cheek idolization possible. As unlikely as it sounds, the politician-as-superhero is now an Internet meme, thanks to Booker. Even during an election year.
For the record, Booker was returning to his home after a TV interview Thursday night when he and his security detail saw the neighbor's home ablaze. After they had helped some fleeing occupants, Booker rushed back in when he heard a woman still inside, screaming for help. He dragged her out of bed and helped to get her out of the building.
Here are some of the funnier, or wilder, things that people said on Twitter under the tag "#CoryBookerStories." OK, we can admit that some of these look suspiciously like recycled Chuck Norris jokes, and others reference Norris directly. But lots of Twitter readers and retweeters didn't seem to mind.
1. The secret military mastermind edition
@JimmyJoeHardy wrote: "Seal Team 6" was actually just the code word for Cory Booker.
2. The fix Facebook edition
@impactSP2walden wrote: If anyone can convince Mark Zuckerberg to get rid of timeline, it's @CoryBooker.
3. The better-than-Chuck-Norris edition
@MilesGrant wrote: When Chuck Norris has nightmares, Cory Booker turns on the light & sits with him until he falls back asleep.
4. The better-than-Chuck-Norris edition, runner up
@curtjazz wrote: Ghosts sit around the campfire and tell Cory Booker Stories
@jesseltaylor Cory Booker goes into Freddy Kreuger's dreams and fixes Elm Street's potholes.
5. The behind-this-week's-news edition
@_Thierry wrote: Who do you think made that North Korean rocket crash into the ocean? Exactly...
6. The disrespect-Fox-News edition
@dcGisenyi, borrowing from @ReignOfApril, wrote: "Black mayor physically forces woman to leave her home." #FoxNewHeadline
7. The "what'll he do next?" edition
@AntennaFarm wrote: Ok the fire rescue has been sorted. Think Cory could lend a hand to the music industry?
8. The reference-another-online-meme edition
@DearMitt wrote: Corey Booker ignores texts from Hillary Clinton.
9. The tax time edition
@calizephyr wrote: Cory Booker's Form 1040 lists humanity as a dependent.
10. The Hollywood edition
@MikeLutjen wrote: Kurt Russell prepared for his role in Backdraft by watching game film of Cory Booker.
Amid all this, the mayor himself chimed in with a word of appreciation and caution. From @CoryBooker: Grateful to #CoryBookerStories 4 bringing smiles. Fire safety, however, is a serious matter.
IN PICTURES: Top Twitter moments
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