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1.) Entertainment Tonight, White House edition — Forget taking questions from Jake Tapper, the White House is going with A.C. Slater (or whatever entertainment news host our president is talking to these days). TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports:
“While Obama has avoided answering questions from the White House press corps for more than two months now, he has taken on other media outlets for interviews, including People magazine, ‘Entertainment Tonight’and a New Mexico radio station, where he discussed his taste in music. According to Cutter, making time for those outlets is as important as focusing on traditional media. ‘I don’t think that they’re more important, but I think that they’re equally important,’ [Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie] Cutter said. ‘I think that’s where a lot of Americans get their news. And I think the president’s going to continue doing that.'”
There are rumors that President Obama is considering dropping Joe Biden for Hillary Clinton as his VP candidate. But considering his current interest in talking to entertainment news hosts, maybe it is more likely he would go with, as former President George H.W. Bush refers to him, the Biebs. Obama-Bieber 2012.
2.) Conservatives for Biden — It seems quite unlikely that Joe Biden will be replaced on the presidential ticket at this point, but just in case the question is still up in the air, some conservatives are making it be known that they stand with Joe. TheDC’s Caroline May reports:
“Rehashing some of Vice President Joe Biden’s greatest hits, the conservative American Crossroads PAC released a new Web video urging Biden to ‘Run. Joe. Run,’ in a joke endorsement Friday. ‘In hard times America needs smart, disciplined leadership, a vice president Americans can count on,’ the narrator explains, followed by a clip of Biden infamously calling ‘jobs’ a three-letter word … After a series of gaffes in recent days, rumors swirled that Obama might drop Biden from the ticket. White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Thursday that the ticket was ‘settled,’ and that Biden will be the vice presidential candidate.”
3.) Accused racist rips U.S. — For some reason, Julian Assange thinks America should take his lectures seriously. TheDC’s Josh Peterson reports:
“WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded for President Obama to end what he called a ‘witch hunt’ against WikiLeaks during a press conference on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London Sunday. ‘As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of our societies,’ said Assange. ‘We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America. Will it return to and reaffirm the values it was founded on? Or will it lurch off the precipice dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark?’ … Assange has been fighting against extradition to Sweden where Swedish authorities want to question him for alleged sexual misconduct against two women.'”
We at TheDC Morning stand for justice. We hope that Mr. Assange will face the serious and troubling offenses he is accused of.
4.) Obamacare or Unioncare? — A new book suggests unions had good reason to support President Obama’s health care law, reports TheDC’s David Martosko:
“In a book set for publication Tuesday, a politics and government professor at The Citadel claims President Obama’s 2009 health care reform law was, in part, a union-driven effort to organize 21 million health care workers. In ‘Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind,’ Mallory Factor describes a December 9, 2008 memo from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare president Dennis Rivera to the Obama-Biden transition team. That memo outlined a legislative proposal calling for ‘increasing the capacity of the health care workforce’ as part of a larger health care reform initiative.”
5.) Poll of the Day: Removal of Syrian government should be important policy goal for U.S. — CNN/ORC poll asks adults nationwide, “As far as you are concerned, should the removal of the Syrian government from power be a very important foreign policy goal of the U.S., a somewhat important goal, not too important, or not an important goal at all?”: 19% said very important, 46% said somewhat important, 18% said not too important, 15% said not too important at all, while 3% were unsure.
6.) Tweet of Yesterday — Conan O’Brien: Twitter is a nonstop series of pointless arguments by people I don’t care about. It’s like Thanksgiving.
VIDEO: Missouri Senate candidate on abortions in cases of “legitimate rape”
