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1.) Obama’s Audacity — Like a comedian testing out new material at the clubs, President Obama is testing his campaign attacks against Mitt Romney, reports TheDC’s Neil Munro:
“After slamming the GOP’s long-term-budget plan, Obama declared that ‘one of my potential opponents, Gov. Romney … even called it ‘marvelous.’ Obama paused for effect: ‘Which is a word you don’t often hear when describing a budget. That’s a word you don’t often hear generally.’ Obama’s audience responded with laughter.”
Hopefully they were laughing in contempt. You’ve heard of the Audacity of Hope, what about the audacity of Obama? This is a president who has not put forward in writing a serious plan to deal with America’s long term entitlement liabilities during his entire presidency despite the fact that they are far and away the greatest domestic threat to America. In fact, the president’s budgets are routinely voted down in Congress without even a single Democratic vote, perhaps because they produce charts where the debt simply continues to skyrocket into the stratosphere. But despite this pathetic and astounding dereliction of duty, the president apparently has the nerve to attack serious budget proposals put forward by the far more bold and courageous. Well done, Mr. President. Well. Done.
2.) Romney scores a hat trick — As bad as President Obama is at producing budgets, he is good at reading tea leaves. Which is why he likely decided to begin his presidential campaign against Mitt Romney, a man he seemingly has determined will be the Republican nominee. After going 3-for-3 in Republican contests and expanding his delegate lead Tuesday night, Romney does indeed look like he is once again — and perhaps finally — the inevitable nominee. The AP reports:
“Mitt Romney tightened his grip on the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night, sweeping primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C. … The victories enabled Romney to pad his already-wide delegate lead over Republican rival Rick Santorum, who flashed defiance in the face of pressure to abandon his own candidacy in the name of party unity.”
Rick Santorum gave it a valiant effort, but the time is soon coming when he will call it a day. Romney can presumably make that day come sooner if he stops Santorum in his home state of Pennsylvania later this month.
3.) Palestinians honor Helen Thomas — Helen Thomas, who famously demanded in 2010 that Israeli Jews leave their own country, was feted Sunday by the Palestinian envoy to the U.S., who incidentally told The Daily Caller last year that no Jews should be permitted in a Palestinian state. No wonder they get along fabulously! The AP reports that Thomas was even given a special award at the dinner:
“Palestinians appreciated her position, and Maen Erekat, the Palestinian envoy to Washington, recently hosted Thomas at a dinner at his residence, the official said. ‘She meant to stand against (Israel’s) occupation and he wanted to honor her,’ said the Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the issue’s sensitivity … The official said Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi presented Thomas with an award, though he did not specify what kind of award it was.”
Maybe the Palestinian Authority can make this an annual thing. Perhaps next year they can honor Media Matters’ MJ Rosenberg? Or maybe Louis Farrakhan? The options are endless. And instead of a cash prize, they can just give the winner a collector’s edition of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
4.) Newt Gingrich, Democratic TV star — Though some are concerned that Newt Gingrich will tarnish his legacy by staying in the GOP race even though his prospects for success are virtually non-existent, the real threat to his legacy are the left-wing attacks he made against Republicans during the race, opines TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein (ME!):
“If Gingrich’s White House run is to harm his legacy, it won’t be because he stayed in the race too long. It will be from starring in Democratic attack ads this fall that hurt the Republican presidential nominee as well as House members running for re-election. I bet he will star in two such ads. The first will attack House members for supporting Paul Ryan’s budget plan that courageously attempts to put our fiscal house in order. The second ad will likely focus on Mitt Romney’s business experience, using Gingrich and the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning the Future’s outrageous Michael Moore-style attacks against Romney’s business career earlier in the race to highlight that even Republicans said Romney’s business practices were rapacious and unseemly.”
5.) Poll of the Day: Obama leads Romney, Santorum — RealClearPolitics polling average of Obama vs. GOP candidates in general election: President Obama 47.6% — Mitt Romney 43.3% … President Obama 49.4% — Rick Santorum 41.6%.
6.) Tweet of Yesterday — FixAaron: CNN reports Obama has clinched the Democratic presidential nomination. So you can stop holding your breath.
VIDEO: Joe Biden makes another verbal boo boo. Also known as Tuesday.