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| Obama's campaign troubles concern Democrats - US politics live | Obama's campaign troubles concern Democrats - US politics live |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| 1.00pm: Here's a lunchtime snippet from Katie Rogers, pulled from our recently built list of Top 50 Twitter accounts to follow for 2012: | |
| Pres Obama out to lunch with a couple of military personnel & two barbers to mark upcoming Father's Day weekend. | |
| — Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 13, 2012 | |
| The move is part of a program the White House is calling "Fatherhood Buzz," an offshoot of the administration's Fatherhood and Mentoring initiative; the goal, as you might guess, is to use barber shops as a way to spread the message of responsible parenting. | |
| POTUS isn't the only Obama putting an emphasis on Father's Day ahead of the weekend. Michelle Obama debuted her Pinterest page today, and one of FLOTUS' three "pin boards" features family photos and a digital Father's Day card for the president. | |
| Source: Uploaded by user via Michelle on Pinterest | |
Alas, no gift ideas for the procrastinators out there. (PSA: Father's Day is June 17.) | |
| 12.50pm: It appears that the Senate Appropriations Committee will not reconvene to hear more from Leon Panetta after all. The committee has adjourned. | |
| Panetta's main point was that deep Defense cuts mandated by Congress would be a "disaster" for the Pentagon and for US policy. The cuts would threaten troop supplies for Afghanistan, maintenance of bases around the world and upkeep of aging warcraft and equipment, Panetta said. | |
| Panetta said the US is now spending $100 million a month to ship supplies to troops in Afghanistan, since the closure by Pakistan of cross-border supply routes. That adds up fast. | |
| 12.38pm: The Appropriations Committee is taking a break. | |
| Time to look at how President Obama is playing overseas. Not well, my colleague Katie Rogers notes; unease about Obama's policies is reverberating abroad. Here's Katie: | |
| A new Pew report indicates majority confidence in Obama has waned in Europe and Japan, and confidence has plummeted from already small numbers in Muslim countries and in China. The report also shows that, for key allies of the US, focus has shifted from America to China as the world's leading economic power. | |
| Some additional global leadership trivia: Greece has only 7 percent confidence in German chancellor Angela Merkel, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is viewed negatively in most of the countries surveyed. Chris McGreal fleshes out the report here. | |
| 12.28pm: Panetta has put a number on how much Pakistan's closure of ground routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan is costing the United States. | 12.28pm: Panetta has put a number on how much Pakistan's closure of ground routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan is costing the United States. |
| $100 million a month, Panetta says. As Spencer Ackerman points out: It's month seven. | |
| The Washington Times: | |
| "The result of that is that it's very expensive because we're using the northern transit route in order to be to drawdown our forces and also be able to supply our forces," Mr. Panetta told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense. | |
| Pakistan closed the supply routes after NATO airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghan border in November. Islamabad has demanded an apology, but Washington has refused, offering only an expression of regret. | |
| 12.22pm: We're listening to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the FY2013 budget request for the Defense Department. | 12.22pm: We're listening to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the FY2013 budget request for the Defense Department. |
| It's on CSPAN-3. | It's on CSPAN-3. |
| The 2013 budget is subject to mandatory $500 billion cuts (over ten years) under last year's Budget Control Act.* Panetta has warned the committee of a "disaster" if the cuts happen. The AP has a report: | |
| Panetta said the automatic cuts "was designed as a meat axe, it was designed as a disaster. ... It would be a disaster." | Panetta said the automatic cuts "was designed as a meat axe, it was designed as a disaster. ... It would be a disaster." |
| President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans agreed last summer on a $492 billion reduction in projected defense spending over 10 years. In a deficit-driven step, the budget agreement established a special bipartisan congressional committee to come up with $1.2 trillion in spending cuts. The failure of that committee set in motion the automatic cuts - known as sequestration - that would slash domestic and defense by $1.2 trillion over a decade. | President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans agreed last summer on a $492 billion reduction in projected defense spending over 10 years. In a deficit-driven step, the budget agreement established a special bipartisan congressional committee to come up with $1.2 trillion in spending cuts. The failure of that committee set in motion the automatic cuts - known as sequestration - that would slash domestic and defense by $1.2 trillion over a decade. |
| *Note: This post has been updated to clarify that the approximately $500 billion in Defense cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act would be spread over 10 years, beginning in FY2013. | |
| 12.11pm: With his gleaming Macau casinos, Sheldon Adelson has billions of reasons to maintain good relations with the Chinese government. It's good business to be on good terms. | 12.11pm: With his gleaming Macau casinos, Sheldon Adelson has billions of reasons to maintain good relations with the Chinese government. It's good business to be on good terms. |
| Will the $10m Adelson just gave Mitt Romney's Super PAC convince Romney to tone down his tough talk on China? As Reuters points out today, Romney has been threatening to declare Beijing a currency manipulator from day one if he is elected president (despite the candidate's cuddly dealings with China in the past). | Will the $10m Adelson just gave Mitt Romney's Super PAC convince Romney to tone down his tough talk on China? As Reuters points out today, Romney has been threatening to declare Beijing a currency manipulator from day one if he is elected president (despite the candidate's cuddly dealings with China in the past). |
| Wouldn't a currency or trade war be inconvenient for Adelson? | Wouldn't a currency or trade war be inconvenient for Adelson? |
| Or maybe the millions in campaign funds come with no strings attached? | Or maybe the millions in campaign funds come with no strings attached? |
| Just as founders intended MT @samsteinhp: $31 mil from Adelson so far is $2 mil more than Carter/Reagan received in fed funds in 1980 | Just as founders intended MT @samsteinhp: $31 mil from Adelson so far is $2 mil more than Carter/Reagan received in fed funds in 1980 |
| — Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) June 13, 2012 | — Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) June 13, 2012 |
| 11.55am: You know what's fun? Buying a president. Don't think it can be done? You don't have $20 billion. | 11.55am: You know what's fun? Buying a president. Don't think it can be done? You don't have $20 billion. |
| If you did have $20 billion, you could take the slightest fingernail of your net worth – one-half of one-tenth of 1 percent, say – and have a decent shot at making a difference in the presidential race. | If you did have $20 billion, you could take the slightest fingernail of your net worth – one-half of one-tenth of 1 percent, say – and have a decent shot at making a difference in the presidential race. |
| That's what casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who earlier poured $21 million into the campaign of Newt Gingrich, has now done for Mitt Romney. Adelson has given $10 million to Restore Our Future, Romney's Super PAC, according to the Wall Street Journal. | That's what casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who earlier poured $21 million into the campaign of Newt Gingrich, has now done for Mitt Romney. Adelson has given $10 million to Restore Our Future, Romney's Super PAC, according to the Wall Street Journal. |
| The moment has arrived: Just as America puts the finishing touches on a financial system in which a very small number of people get wildly rich while a very large number of people struggle to make ends meet, the Supreme Court has relaxed limits on who can give money to political candidates and how much they can give. | The moment has arrived: Just as America puts the finishing touches on a financial system in which a very small number of people get wildly rich while a very large number of people struggle to make ends meet, the Supreme Court has relaxed limits on who can give money to political candidates and how much they can give. |
| should we just start calling him President Adelson? | should we just start calling him President Adelson? |
| — Sam Youngman (@samyoungman) June 13, 2012 | — Sam Youngman (@samyoungman) June 13, 2012 |
| Not that Sheldon Adelson makes his money in the United States these days. His main moneymakers are his casinos in Macau. Evan Osnos sketched an Adelson profile in an April piece on Macau in the New Yorker: | Not that Sheldon Adelson makes his money in the United States these days. His main moneymakers are his casinos in Macau. Evan Osnos sketched an Adelson profile in an April piece on Macau in the New Yorker: |
| The son of a cabdriver from Lithuania, Adelson grew up in the Boston suburb of Dorchester, and ran a spate of businesses with erratic success—packaging toiletries for hotels, selling a chemical spray to clear ice from windshields—before his break, in 1979, when he launched Comdex, a computer trade show. He later bought the old Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, created America's largest privately owned convention center, and enriched himself with a signature strategy of pairing casinos with exhibition centers. | The son of a cabdriver from Lithuania, Adelson grew up in the Boston suburb of Dorchester, and ran a spate of businesses with erratic success—packaging toiletries for hotels, selling a chemical spray to clear ice from windshields—before his break, in 1979, when he launched Comdex, a computer trade show. He later bought the old Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, created America's largest privately owned convention center, and enriched himself with a signature strategy of pairing casinos with exhibition centers. |
| More than a decade ago, he coveted Macau as a gateway to 1.3 billion Chinese nationals, and he successfully courted Chinese leaders in Beijing by emphasizing his influence in Republican politics. (He is a frequent donor to right-wing causes in the United States and Israel. He and his relatives drew attention in the Republican Presidential contest this year by giving $16.5 million to a Super PAC that supported Newt Gingrich, representing all but five per cent of the money that the group raised.) He told people that Macau would someday help him overtake Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in wealth. | More than a decade ago, he coveted Macau as a gateway to 1.3 billion Chinese nationals, and he successfully courted Chinese leaders in Beijing by emphasizing his influence in Republican politics. (He is a frequent donor to right-wing causes in the United States and Israel. He and his relatives drew attention in the Republican Presidential contest this year by giving $16.5 million to a Super PAC that supported Newt Gingrich, representing all but five per cent of the money that the group raised.) He told people that Macau would someday help him overtake Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in wealth. |
| Last year the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department began investigating Adelson's Macau operation for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The casinos are suspected of being centers for money laundering, drug and gang activity. Osnos writes: | Last year the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department began investigating Adelson's Macau operation for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The casinos are suspected of being centers for money laundering, drug and gang activity. Osnos writes: |
| In recent years, U.S. federal agencies, including the F.B.I., the Secret Service, and the Internal Revenue Service, have become increasingly familiar with Macau. In an elaborate smuggling investigation that ended in 2005, undercover F.B.I. agents infiltrated a ring that included a Macau citizen named Jyimin Horng, who was accused of importing into the U.S. millions of dollars' worth of counterfeit cigarettes, methamphetamines, and high-quality fake currency known as "supernotes," believed to originate in North Korea. Undercover agents wired Horng payments in Macau in exchange for fake bills at a rate of thirty cents for each phony dollar, smuggled in large bolts of fabric and boxes of toys. | In recent years, U.S. federal agencies, including the F.B.I., the Secret Service, and the Internal Revenue Service, have become increasingly familiar with Macau. In an elaborate smuggling investigation that ended in 2005, undercover F.B.I. agents infiltrated a ring that included a Macau citizen named Jyimin Horng, who was accused of importing into the U.S. millions of dollars' worth of counterfeit cigarettes, methamphetamines, and high-quality fake currency known as "supernotes," believed to originate in North Korea. Undercover agents wired Horng payments in Macau in exchange for fake bills at a rate of thirty cents for each phony dollar, smuggled in large bolts of fabric and boxes of toys. |
| Adelson has denied any wrongdoing in Macau or elsewhere, and neither he nor his surrogates have been charged in the federal investigation. | Adelson has denied any wrongdoing in Macau or elsewhere, and neither he nor his surrogates have been charged in the federal investigation. |
| He has just given Mitt Romney $10 million, which doesn't seem like so much, when you look at those Macau casinoes. Then again, it's only June. | He has just given Mitt Romney $10 million, which doesn't seem like so much, when you look at those Macau casinoes. Then again, it's only June. |
| 11am ET: Good morning and welcome to today's live blog politics coverage. Tom McCarthy here in New York, and the political winds this morning are carrying unease among Democrats about the Obama campaign: unease that the president's campaign is not recovering after two tough weeks, unease that the campaign message is muddled. Driving the conversation are a Washington Post piece, "Obama campaign rough patch concerns some Democrats," and an LA Times piece, "Obama's complex campaign message poses a challenge." | 11am ET: Good morning and welcome to today's live blog politics coverage. Tom McCarthy here in New York, and the political winds this morning are carrying unease among Democrats about the Obama campaign: unease that the president's campaign is not recovering after two tough weeks, unease that the campaign message is muddled. Driving the conversation are a Washington Post piece, "Obama campaign rough patch concerns some Democrats," and an LA Times piece, "Obama's complex campaign message poses a challenge." |
| We wonder how much anxious energy need be expended about the fitness of a campaign machine that roared past the Clintons. It's true that the president has stumbled on the trail recently, from David Axelrod getting shouted down by Mitt Romney supporters at an event outside the Massachusetts state house to the president telling reporters "the private sector is doing fine." | We wonder how much anxious energy need be expended about the fitness of a campaign machine that roared past the Clintons. It's true that the president has stumbled on the trail recently, from David Axelrod getting shouted down by Mitt Romney supporters at an event outside the Massachusetts state house to the president telling reporters "the private sector is doing fine." |
| But by far the most damaging news of the past two weeks for the Obama camp was the release of figures showing paltry job creation in May and unemployment notching back up to 8.2%. The numbers directly contradict the message Obama is seeking to convey, that he is leading an economic recovery. | But by far the most damaging news of the past two weeks for the Obama camp was the release of figures showing paltry job creation in May and unemployment notching back up to 8.2%. The numbers directly contradict the message Obama is seeking to convey, that he is leading an economic recovery. |
| The numbers are also beyond the president's control. And this, perhaps, should be of the greatest concern to Democrats: the campaign can be as efficient and on-topic as it pleases, but in the end (all together now), it's the economy, stupid. | The numbers are also beyond the president's control. And this, perhaps, should be of the greatest concern to Democrats: the campaign can be as efficient and on-topic as it pleases, but in the end (all together now), it's the economy, stupid. |
| Why are many small things sticking to Obama? Bad economy makes any POTUS=Velcro. Good economy turns Velcro to Teflon. | Why are many small things sticking to Obama? Bad economy makes any POTUS=Velcro. Good economy turns Velcro to Teflon. |
| — Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) June 13, 2012 | — Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) June 13, 2012 |