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1.) Is Mitt Romney clock-blocking Obama? — In other words, is the GOP candidate trying to block Obama’s chance at re-election by merely running out the clock and allowing the poor economic climate to do the president in rather than offering a bold contrast? Conservative columnist George Will thinks so. He also thinks it’s a bad strategy. TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports:
Will added that Romney can’t win by just running out the clock. “On the other hand, Gov. Romney seems to be risk-averse. He seems to be in something of a four-quarter stall, that almost killed basketball,” he continued. “So, they put in a 30-second shot clock. But you can’t get the NCAA Championship — you can’t get to the presidency — running out the clock.”
Maybe, maybe not. With the economy continuing to falter and little hope of significant change appearing, Romney’s strategy of allowing the president to self-destruct might not be entirely insane.
2.) Isn’t that another definition of insanity? — Month after month, terrible jobs numbers are reported and month after month the Obama administration spins them the same way. TheDC’s Alex Pappas reports:
It has happened 30 different times over the Obama presidency in response to the monthly jobs report. An Obama administration official, responding to the monthly jobs report numbers, has written a blog post on the White House website arguing that it is “important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”
Some people say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. It may also be accepting the same excuse over and over again, thinking this time it will be true because it comes from a guy wearing a dark suit and a nice tie.
3.) Reverend Wright’s back!— Speaking of the definition of insanity, President Obama’s former pastor and spiritual mentor Jeremiah Wright was in D.C. Sunday to preach. He didn’t disappoint. TheDC’s Michelle Fields and Jamie Weinstein (ME!) report:
Wright later went on to suggest that America’s elite universities infect African-Americans with “white racist DNA.” “Take a baby born an African, as an African in the oven,” he said, using Malcolm X’s saying “just because a cat has kittens in the oven, that doesn’t make them biscuits” as a reference point for his riff. “Take that baby him or her away from the African mother, away from the African community, away from the African experience … and put them Africans at the breasts of Yale, Harvard, University of Chicago, those trinity schools, UCLA or U.C. Berkley. Turn them into biscuits then they’ll get that alien DNA all up inside their brain and they will turn on their own people in defense of the ones who are keeping their own people under oppression.” “There is white racist DNA running through the synapses of their under-brain tissue,” he continued. ‘They will kill their own kind, defend the enemies of their kind or anyone who is perceived to be the enemy of the milky white way of life.”
Isn’t that lovely?
4.) Barack Obama, outsourcer — The campaign claws are coming out, reports TheDC’s Neil Munro:
President Barack Obama is outsourcing his latest effort to focus the media’s attention on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s wealth and complex financial holdings. His campaign’s spokesman and several senior Democrats appeared on the Sunday talk shows to suggest and claim that Romney’s complex financial arrangements are unethical and perhaps illegal. His surrogates didn’t offer any actual evidence of illegality or improper behavior, but may successfully use media’s coverage of the issue to damage Romney’s appeal to middle-class voters.
5.) Poll of the Day: Jindal for VP? — Gallup asks about Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s favorability: 34% favorable, 16% unfavorable, 31% never heard of, 18% unsure.
6.) Tweet of Yesterday – jonronson: Federer has won Wimbledon exactly as many times as Joey Jaws Chestnut has won the Nathan’s July 4th World Hot Dog Eating contest.
VIDEO: Charles Krauthammer says Israelis will attack Iran if they think Obama will win re-election