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Swing States poll: A shift by women puts Obama in lead — MILWAUKEE - President Obama has opened the first significant lead of the 2012 campaign in the nation's dozen top battleground states, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, boosted by a huge shift of women to his side.
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ThinkProgress, American Prospect, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Politico, The Raw Story, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, FITSNews, americanthinker.com, Ballot Box, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Taylor Marsh, ABCNEWS, MiamiHerald.com, BuzzFeed, Prairie Weather, The Moderate Voice, American Spectator, Newshoggers.com, Little Green Footballs, Conservatives4Palin, The Reaction and The Spectacle Blog
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Ann Romney is the Romney Democrats fear most — Ann Romney's unexpected rock star status has the political arena buzzing about how her husband's campaign will leverage her popularity in an election in which Michelle Obama — one of the most admired first ladies in history — will have an outsized and substantive portfolio.
Discussion:
CNN

Obama 49%, Romney 45% Among Registered Voters Nationwide — Obama, Romney supporters equally enthusiastic about voting — PRINCETON, NJ — If asked to choose between them today, 49% of U.S. registered voters say they would vote for Barack Obama for president, while 45% would choose likely Republican opponent Mitt Romney.
Discussion:
Politico, The Maddow Blog and FiveThirtyEight

‘Mad Men’ character knocks Mitt Romney's father as ‘a clown’ — Sunday's episode of “Mad Men” — the popular drama about an ad agency in the 1960s — gave a nod to the current political scene, with one character taking a not-so-subtle jab at the father of 2012 Republican front-runner Mitt Romney.

Swing state poll makes key omissions
Discussion:
Hot Air and The Raw Story

Former President Clinton on Mitt Romney: Etch-a-Sketch “Is What He's Got to Do” — Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, currently faces a dynamic similar to the one President Bill Clinton faced during his first presidential run 20 years ago: a long, bruising primary, driving up his unfavorable ratings.
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Politico, CNN and Taegan Goddard's …
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Pink Slime Economics — The big bad event of last week was, of course, the Supreme Court hearing on health reform. In the course of that hearing it became clear that several of the justices, and possibly a majority, are political creatures pure and simple, willing to embrace any argument …
Discussion:
The Hill, The Huffington Post, Paul Krugman, Suburban Guerrilla, Daily Kos, Washington Wire and Prairie Weather
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The right's stealthy coup — Right before our eyes, American conservatism is becoming something very different from what it once was. Yet this transformation is happening by stealth because moderates are too afraid to acknowledge what all their senses tell them.
Discussion:
The Mahablog

Obama extends olive branch to Cantor after passage of jobs bill — President Obama has extended an olive branch to Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and invited him to the White House this week to attend a signing ceremony for bipartisan jobs legislation.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
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Facing voter anger at home, lawmakers play gas prices blame game
Discussion:
ThinkProgress and The Heritage Foundation

Obama allies launch ad campaign hitting back over gas prices
Discussion:
American Prospect


Senior citizens continue to bear burden of student loans — New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that Americans 60 and older still owe about $36 billion in student loans, providing a rare window into the dynamics of student debt. More than 10 percent of those loans are delinquent.
Discussion:
US Politics and Via Meadia

Rep. Clyburn: Obama should campaign against Supreme Court if health law falls — Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said President Obama should campaign against the Supreme Court, painting it as a conservative, activist institution if it rules that the administration's healthcare law is unconstitutional.
Discussion:
Politico
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Spike Lee puts the ‘twit’ in Twitter — Just when you thought the controversy over the Trayvon Martin shooting couldn't get any worse, it got worse. Or, more accurately, several parties helped make it worse. — Enter Marcus Davonne Higgins, a Los Angeles man no one's probably ever heard of …
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House Dems eye policy responses to shooting death of Trayvon Martin
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Reuters, Campaign 2012, Right Wing News, Power Line, Weasel Zippers and ABCNEWS


Keith Olbermann's Angry Email Trail Traces Breakup With Current TV — His bitter divorce from Al Gore's network followed months of escalating complaints to Current TV executives. Howard Kurtz unearths the acrimonious correspondence. — It was a terrible marriage from the beginning.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, New York Times, Poynter, The Other McCain, New York Magazine, Betsy's Page and The Sideshow, more at Mediagazer »

Dubious donations (2012 edition) — Barack Obama has proved the greatest campaign fund-raiser of all time by a long shot. In 2008 his campaign raised more than $750 million. The Obama campaign even went the extra mile to raise campaign funds by failing to adopt standard protections against fraudulent and illegal giving.
Discussion:
The PJ Tatler


About William D Cohan — Why Are the Fed and SEC Keeping Wall Street's Secrets? — Getting what should be public information about major Wall Street firms can be maddeningly difficult. — Bloomberg News discovered this in its ultimately successful effort to get information on the $1.2 trillion in …

At Summit, Nations Move to Increase Aid for Syrian Rebels — ISTANBUL — The United States and more than 60 other countries moved closer on Sunday to direct intervention in the fighting in Syria, with Arab nations pledging $100 million to pay opposition fighters and the United States agreeing …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, LewRockwell.com Blog and Michael J. Totten's blog
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