President Obama congratulates his nominee for the World Bank Jim Yong Kim for winning approval to take over the development organization:
"On behalf of the United States, I would like to offer my congratulations to Dr. Jim Yong Kim on his selection as the next President of the World Bank. I am confident that Dr. Kim will be an inclusive leader who will bring to the Bank a passion for and deep knowledge of development, a commitment to sustained economic growth, and the ability to respond to complex challenges and seize new opportunities. I appreciate the strong support offered to Dr. Kim from leaders around the world," Obama said in a statement.
"I am also pleased that this has been an open and transparent process, and would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the outstanding qualifications and commitment of the other two candidates. I look forward to working with Dr. Kim and our partners throughout the world in support of a strong and effective World Bank," the president said.
The former president of the Dominican Republic, currently running to reclaim his job, seems to believe the false theory that President Obama was born in Africa — prompting the Dominican Republic’s Senate to issue a formal apology late last week.
"If Obama, who came from Africa, and grew up over there can become president, why can't any of you reach as high?" said Hipólito Mejía, loosely translated, to a group of New York City clergy on April 4th.
Thirty-one of the Dominican Republic’s 32-member senate Senate approved a resolution Thursday condemning the remarks, calling them "unfortunate" and a "disrespectful insult." One senator, a political ally of Mejía, refused to sign the apology.
Mejía, who was president of the DR from 2000 to 2004, is currently running against Danilo Medina of the incumbent Dominican Liberation Party.
Mejía's New York talk was organized by New York State Sen. Ruben Diaz (D), in his role as President of the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization. A request for comment from Diaz's office was not immediately returned.
Obama, who was born in Hawaii to a Kenyan father and a white American mother, has faced continual speculation and conspiracy theorizing about his birthplace despite releasing documentation about his birth in Honolulu in 1961 — documents that have been verified by the state of Hawaii and independent investigations.
In an expected move, the World Bank picked medical expert Dr. Jim Yong Kim as its new president on Monday.
As the head of Dartmouth College and a founder of the global nonprofit Partners in Health, Kim was an unconventional nominee by President Barack Obama to lead the 187-nation institution focused on economic development. He quickly became known after his nomination last month for a video of him rapping, while some economists questioned the credentials of a medical doctor with plenty of fieldwork but little training in finance.
Past World Bank leaders have been drawn from the ranks of Washington power-brokers, such as the outgoing president Robert Zoellick, a former deputy Secretary of State for President George W. Bush whose five-year term at the bank is ending.
Several developing countries tried to challenge the lock the United States has at the helm of the World Bank, with Reuters reporting that the vote was not unanimous among the World Bank’s 25-person board.
Kim said in a statement: “Together, with partners old and new, we will foster an institution that responds effectively to the needs of its diverse clients and donors; delivers more powerful results to support sustained growth; prioritizes evidence-based solutions over ideology; amplifies the voices of developing countries; and draws on the expertise and experience of the people we serve.”
President Obama has a significant lead on likely GOP rival Mitt Romney among women, beating the former Massachusetts governor by 16 points among registered female voters.
In the first CNN/ORC poll conducted after Rick Santorum ended his bid for the Republican nomination, women back Obama 55 percent to 39 percent, down slightly by the 18 point advantage that Obama held over Romney in March.
Among the general public, Obama leads Romney 52 percent to 43 percent. Among independent voters, Obama leads by a 48%-43% margin over Romney. Among registered voters with earnings less than $50,000, Obama beats Romney by 20 points. Obama leads among all age groups, except among voters 65 and older.
Obama's supporters also seem to like him better than Romney's supporters like their candidate. Three-fourths of Obama supporters say they are proactively casting a vote for the president, while more than 60 percent of Romney voters say they are supporting the former Massachusetts governor only as a protest vote against Obama.
Obama and Romney have engaged in a war of words to try to win over female voters, with accusations flying between the camps over whose policies are more detrimental to women. Democrats point to general Republican rhetoric on birth control and abortion, while Romney accused Obama of pursuing economic policies that have affected primarily women.
If there was any question that the general election has begun, Gallup announces the results of its first head-to-head daily tracking poll between Mitt Romney and President Obama:
These results are the first from Gallup Daily tracking of registered voters' general election preferences, which began on April 11 and will be reported daily on Gallup.com on the basis of continuous five-day rolling averages. This initial report is based on interviews with 2,265 registered voters, and highlights the potential closeness of this year's race, with Romney and Obama essentially in a statistical tie. Gallup's previous general election trial heat, from a national poll conducted March 25-26, showed Obama with a slight 49% to 45% lead over Romney.
Gallup began tracking the general election on Wednesday, April 11, after Rick Santorum suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination, making Romney the all-but-assured GOP nominee.
Monday's poll gives Romney a two-point edge over Obama, with the former Massachusetts governor leading 47 to 45.
National tracking polls aren't nearly as valuable as the state-by-state polls where the real presidential battle will be found — but it's a barometer of the national mood and another indication that the general election is underway.
President Obama weighed in Monday on New York Rep. Ed Towns' decision not to run for reelection.
"As a veteran, teacher, minister and congressman, Edolphus Towns has dedicated his life to public service," Obama said in a statement. "In his 30 years representing the people of New York, Ed has fought tirelessly to improve the public healthcare system, strengthen consumer protections and improve the public education system.
"He has served as chairman for the Congressional Black Caucus, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and currently chairs the Congressional Social Work Caucus which he created to provide a platform for over 600,000 social workers who positively impact the lives of the elderly, the disadvantaged, children and veterans," the president said. "Michelle and I join the people of New York in wishing Ed and his family all the best in the future."
The pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action is going up with an anti-Mitt Romney spot in four states, the group announced Monday.
The ad targets Romney's background in private equity (specifically the layoffs and restructuring that his company Bain Capital undertook under his leadership), his low tax rate, and his proposal to cut taxes for the wealthy, concluding, "Mitt Romney: if he wins, we lose."
The ad will air in Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia, according to the group. The group did not disclose the size of the buy.
“On Tax Day, Americans should know that Governor Romney already pays a lower tax rate than middle class families but still believes the wealthiest one percent are entitled to massive new tax breaks paid for by cutting Medicare for seniors and education for the middle class,” said Bill Burton, Priorities USA strategist. “Romney's record is a study in putting the concerns of the middle class far behind his agenda to benefit the wealthy.”
UPDATE: "It's not surprising that the liberal allies of the President with the worst job creation record in modern history would try to distract Americans from serious economic issues with a series of political stunts and sideshows. President Obama realizes that he can't campaign on his failed policies and abysmal economic agenda, so he is willing to do and say anything to change the subject. Middle class families are smart enough to see through the President's dishonesty, and they are ready to replace him with a leader like Mitt Romney who can turn around our struggling economy," Amanda Henneberg, Romney spokeswoman emails.
On a conference call Monday, Mitt Romney campaign surrogate Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) pushed back against the idea that the economy is in recovery — saying that it feels "an awful lot like a recession."
"We have 23 million people who are unemployed or underemployed," Talent told reporters. "The reduction of the unemployment rate is entirely due to people who just stopped looking for work."
As Americans gear up to pay their taxes, the Romney campaign doubled down on the feeling of economic insecurity that still lingers among many Americans shell-shocked from the 2008-2009 recession — blaming President Obama's policies for making it worse.
"We're in what is technically a recovery, but it looks an awful lot like a recession," Talent said.
"The president's answer is to regulate the economy even more — to spend even more money with no plan whatsoever to reduce the deficit ... and to raise taxes," Talent said.
Pro-Obama outside groups are up with a new web site, petition and video slamming Mitt Romney for not releasing his tax returns.
Super PAC Priorities USA Action and American Bridge PAC are behind the push. By law, they are not allowed to coordinate with a candidate's campaign, but they seem to be headed in the same direction as the Obama campaign anyway.
Senior campaign adviser David Axelrod told POLITICO Playbook today that the campaign plans to focus on Romney's secrecy:
David Axelrod tells us the Obama campaign will make a major umbrella issue of what he calls “Romney's penchant for secrecy”: “George Bush felt it was appropriate to release the names of his bundlers. John McCain did. But not Mitt Romney. Why did George Bush and John McCain release multiple years of tax returns, but not Mitt Romney?
...Harkening back to my youth, which extends far beyond yours, there was a show called, ‘I've Got A Secret.’ Increasingly, I think that would be the appropriate title for the Romney campaign. There are central issues, but this is a disturbing one and it goes to that question of, like, ‘Who is this guy? What does he stand for? What does he believe? What do we know about him?’”
The new web site is headlined, "What's Mitt hiding" and includes a video stringing together various statements about his tax returns made by Romney and his surrogates.
POLITICO's Anna Palmer and Abby Phillip pull back the curtain on White House "dialogues" with policy stakeholders.
For a fraction of what a traditional lobbyist can cost, companies like AT&T, Hilton Worldwide, Microsoft, Visa and Walmart, get regular meetings with White House officials as part of their $50,000 annual membership dues in Business Forward, a group founded by veteran Democratic operative Jim Doyle.
Another group, Common Purpose Project, sets up meetngs with White House officials for its members, mainly progressive organizations.
From Palmer and Phlliip's story:
Business Forward and a similar group, the Common Purpose Project, say the meetings don’t violate any rules and aren’t even lobbying in the traditional sense. But the companies funding Business Forward and the wealthy donors that subsidize CPP ’s operation are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year in large part because of what they offer: special access.
Business Forward organizes one briefing a week for D.C. member companies. It also coordinates two to three meetings for business leaders to come into Washington for White House meetings and another two events where administration officials meet with business leaders outside Washington.
...CPP, a nonprofit whose members are prominent liberal groups, holds invitation-only meetings weekly at the Capital Hilton Hotel.
The New York Times' Adam Nagourney reports that the Obama campaign will put resources into Arizona, a nominally red state:
President Obama’s re-election campaign is dispatching workers across Arizona’s college campuses and Latino neighborhoods this spring, registering as many new voters as they can in an organized, three-month effort to determine whether they can put this unlikely state into play for Democrats this November.
By any measure the obstacles are considerable: Arizona has voted for precisely one Democratic president since Truman was in the White House. Yet Mr. Obama’s aides said in interviews that they thought it was possible they could move the needle of history by winning in 2012 a state that analysts believe is heading Democratic in national elections, but may not be there yet.
Obama strategists are simply following the same techniques they used in 2008 when putting states like North Carolina and Indiana into play. Then, too, there was much initial skepticism, though both states ended up going for Mr. Obama.
There are two possibilities here. First: the demographic trends in the West have reached a tipping point where Arizona is genuinely in play. States like Colorado were once GOP territory before transitioning into swing states over the last few cycles.
The second is that their money and strength in certain 'safe' Democratic states gives the Obama team a lot of wiggle room in expanding the map as widely as possible — and forcing the GOP to put resources into states they were not expecting to defend. Campaign manager Jim Messina and White House senior advisor David Plouffe also insisted Texas was on the table in closed-door interviews last year — unlikely but remotely possible given the state's booming Latino population.
POLITICO's newest blogger Charlie Mahtesian (whose new blog is well worth bookmarking) reports that President Obama's appearance on Univision this week marked the 15th time that he has appeared on the network:
Consider this stat: when Enrique Acevedo interviewed President Obama for the “Al Punto” program that ran Sunday, it marked the 15th time the president had been interviewed by Univision – which boasts it reaches 97% of U.S. Hispanic households -- since taking office.
According to Univision, that figure includes 4 Univision Radio interviews, 2 local Univision TV interviews (Miami and Puerto Rico) and 9 network interviews, including a Univision-hosted education town hall in March 2011.
That’s far more interviews than the cable news networks have grabbed, and not that far off from the number of interviews with ABC (24), CBS (23, including David Letterman) and NBC (21, including Jay Leno), according to a tally provided by Mark Knoller of CBS News.
It's no secret that the president's team has made outreach into the Hispanic community a top priority — convinced that many Latinos won't cast a vote for a Republican party that has doubled down on harsher immigration laws and opposed a pathway to citizenship or comprehensive immigration reform bill.
