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1.) ‘Prep school bully’ vs primary school puppy-eater — The battle lines have been set for the 2012 presidential race. So confident is Team Obama that the president’s record will carry them to victory, they are ignoring it and instead referring to shameful shenanigans Mitt Romney allegedly committed in high school. That’s clearly the sign of a campaign that is totally not desperate. TheDC’s Nicholas “Hot Mic” Ballasy reports:
“Senior adviser to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign Robert Gibbs said the Obama campaign is not going to allow GOP nominee Mitt Romney to keep playing his ‘tried-and-true role’ of ‘prep school bully’ … Gibbs responded, ‘We’re not going to let him play his tried-and-true role as prep school bully. We’re going to certainly respond — and, look, the ad that you mentioned on what the president said selectively edited — the sentence previous to what you heard the president say is talking about infrastructure and roads and bridges.'”
See how he just snuck that jab in there? Nice job, Gibbs. Should Team Romney choose to reciprocate, TheDC Morning came up with a couple catch phrases it could slip in from time to time when referring to Obama to similarly elevate the conversation: “Primary school puppy-eater” or possibly “Ivy League cocaine abuser.” Alternatively, Romney could just campaign on Obama’s record — you know, the one Obama’s choosing not to emphasize.
2.) Country criticism — BREAKING: A country music star doesn’t think President Obama is such a good president. TheDC’s Matthew Boyle reports:
“Country music star Charlie Daniels told The Daily Caller on Monday he thinks Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would have been a better president than Barack Obama, even though he’s hardly a fan of either … ‘If you look at what Obama did, he went out and hired a bunch of amateurs – a bunch of greenhorns, people who didn’t have any experience doing anything,’ Daniels said in a phone interview. ‘Being a great president is being a great leader, which means surrounding yourself with good people.'”
3.) Newt refutes — While it was announced Monday that Bill Clinton would get a primetime speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention, Newt Gingrich refuted the notion that this would help President Obama, reports TheDC’s Alex Pappas:
“Having Bubba keynote the Democratic National Convention may not be such a good idea for Democrats, former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich argued during a press conference Monday. Gingrich said that former President Bill Clinton’s presence at the convention in September will just remind voters how liberal Obama’s presidency has been in comparison to the Clinton administration in the 1990s.”
Perhaps during commercials before and after Clinton’s speech, Team Romney will run commercials of Clinton praising Romney’s business career as “sterling.”
4.) Standing on Kemp’s shoulders? — TheDC’s Matt Lewis lays out the similarities between Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and the late New York Rep. Jack Kemp:
“Like Ryan, Kemp was a mere denizen of the lower house, and yet became much more nationally significant than the vast majority of Members to have ever occupied a seat in the people’s house. (Still, the history of House members on a national ticket is not a terribly proud one.) And like Kemp (and despite what his liberal opponent’s might say), Ryan’s emphasis on fiscal policy is only buttressed by compassion and interest in finding creative, if unorthodox, solutions for helping repair the social safety net.”
And as Lewis notes, should Mitt Romney tap Ryan for his VP nominee, he and Kemp would share yet another connection.
5.) Poll of the Day: Cruz up big in GOP run-off — PPP poll of Texas GOP run-off for U.S. Senate nomination: Ted Cruz 52%, David Dewhurst 42%. The run-off is slated for July 31.
6.) Tweet of Yesterday — michaelianblack How do they even find enough people who know how to play water polo to field an Olympic squad?
SLIDESHOW: Politico or porn star? You decide.