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Obama launches reelection campaign with e-mail, web video — The president pledges to focus on his job, but will pick up the tempo of campaigning this month with several fundraisers. The campaign is hoping to raise a record $1 billion. — President Obama speaking in March (Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images))
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OpenSecrets.org, The Reaction, Mediaite, Politics and NewsBusters.org blogs
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Jon Huntsman, the rock ‘n’ roll years — Jonny Huntsman didn't quite make it through his senior year of high school, and the cause was pretty plain to his classmates. One recalled the long-haired, diffident Salt Lake City high schooler sitting next to him in history class “hitting his desk as if it were a piano.”
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog and The Moderate Voice

Obama launches reelection campaign with video
Discussion:
CNN, Another Black Conservative, American Power, The Lonely Conservative and FrumForum


Obama Announces Reelection Bid
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The Atlantic Online, Pajamas Media, Wizbang, Riehl World View and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

L.A. Times Announces Obama's New Campaign Website - http://www.latimes.com
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

Barack Obama 2012 Campaign Officially Launches (VIDEO)
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The Moderate Voice, Obama for America, The Atlantic Online, Pat Dollard, The Hill, Fox News, Weasel Zippers, FrumForum and TechCrunch

Obama re-election launches with email, website
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Outside the Beltway


Will Paul Ryan Propose a Giant Tax Hike To Make Tax Cuts For the Rich Affordable? — Based on Carl Hulse's reporting from yesterday it's clear that Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI) intends to go through with his plan to replace Medicare with vouchers to buy private health insurance, and then cut spending on the vouchers.
Discussion:
New York Times, The New Republic, Guardian, Daily Kos and Marginal Revolution
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GOP Aim: Cut $4 Trillion — Budget Plan Would Transform Medicare, Reset Budget Debate; Democrats Balk — Republicans will present this week a 2012 budget proposal that would cut more than $4 trillion from federal spending projected over the next decade and transform the Medicare health program …

First Thoughts: He's in — In email and video to supporters, Obama announces his re-election bid... NBC's 2012 battleground map... Why Obama is in right now: It's all about raising the money. So why isn't Romney in yet?... Is Paul Ryan's budget plan — which revamps Medicaid and Medicare …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Taegan Goddard's …, The New Republic, Washington Post, Fox News and Maggie's Notebook

(CROSSTALK) — WALLACE: Are we talking 20 percent? — RYAN: Our numbers are moving around right now, so we're basically trying to get government back toward its historic size. — WALLACE: Which is what? — RYAN: Right now we're at about 25 percent of GDP.
Discussion:
msnbc.com and The New Republic

Clinton: Shutdown would hurt GOP but might not be ‘traumatic’ for economy — A government shutdown might not have a “traumatic” effect on the economy, former President Bill Clinton said Monday. — Clinton, who faced a shutdown during his 1995 budget negotiations with congressional Republicans …
Discussion:
The Politico, Pat Dollard, The Moderate Voice, Connecting.the.Dots and FrumForum
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The Hill Poll: GOP seen as more reasonable in spending-cut debate — A plurality of likely voters believes Republicans have been more reasonable than Democrats in the negotiations over spending cuts. — A new poll conducted for The Hill showed 41 percent polled said the GOP had been …
Discussion:
Hot Air and National Review

Group: GOP hopefuls support defunding Planned Parenthood
Discussion:
CNN


A Tea Party Star Stirs Iowans, and She Isn't Palin — WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Sarah Palin, the reigning heroine of many social conservatives, has given few signals that she will make a presidential bid. Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008 on the strength of his appeal …
Discussion:
Ballot Box, CNN, No More Mister Nice Blog, msnbc.com, The Last Tradition, American Power, The Note and The Politico
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GOP freshmen face big shutdown decision: Fight or fall in line
Discussion:
ABCNEWS and Associated Press

KSM to be tried by military commission at Gitmo; Holder set to make announcement today — Attorney General Eric Holder today will announce that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad will be tried in a military commission, CBS News has learned.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air and Emptywheel


It Doesn't Get Any Clearer Than That: “Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war” — Here's what Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said today about Florida pastor Terry Jones' burning of a Koran, which has been used an excuse by Afghanis to murder 22 people, including seven United Nations workers:
Discussion:
National Review, Pajamas Media, Wonkette, NY Daily News, Vox Popoli, Breitbart.tv and Cold Fury

Bachmann PAC snags top '08 Huckabee aide — Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) political action committee has hired away a former top aide to Mike Huckabee's 2008 campaign in Iowa. — Wes Enos, the political director for the former Arkansas governor's winning Iowa caucus campaign …
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FrumForum
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Bachmann hires former top Huckabee staffer
Discussion:
Hotline On Call and Ben Smith's Blog

Obama's ‘Bloodbath’: Can We Believe the Hype? — Remember when a crusading president, acting on dubious intelligence, insufficient information and exaggerated fears, took the nation into a Middle Eastern war of choice? That was George W. Bush in 2003, invading Iraq. But it's also Barack Obama in 2011, attacking Libya.
Discussion:
Eunomia, AmSpecBlog and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

EXCLUSIVE: Bill Clinton Calls ‘Birther’ Doubts About Obama's Citizenship ‘Ludicrous’ — Former President Believes U.S. Should Arm Libya's Rebels — Continuing outcry by “birthers” — a small but vocal movement which questions whether President Barack Obama was actually born on U.S. soil …
Discussion:
Ballot Box
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Bill Clinton to White House: Consider arming rebels
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers


Now Libya steps on President Obama's message — President Barack Obama's decision to intervene in Libya has presented him with a whole new set of political problems with members of both parties. But its most worrisome effect for the White House is the way it's undermining his efforts …
Discussion:
Questions and Observations, The Other McCain and Right Wing News

Diminished Individualism Watch — A few weeks back I commented on a George Will column in which he said that … So I think that it is my civic duty to report that yesterday, as I got off Amtrak 161 from Trenton to Washington — having spent 2 1/2 hours being made more amenable to collectivism …
Discussion:
Grist

GOP shouldn't panic if whites become a minority — Senior Political Analyst Follow Him @MichaelBarone — Are whites on the verge of becoming a minority of the American population? That's what some analysts of the 2010 census results say. Many go on, sometimes with relish …
Discussion:
National Review

The Truth, Still Inconvenient — So the joke begins like this: An economist, a lawyer and a professor of marketing walk into a room. What's the punch line? They were three of the five “expert witnesses” Republicans called for last week's Congressional hearing on climate science.