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Subscribe to RSS“President Obama will officially kick off his campaign for re-election with rallies in two key swing states – Ohio and Virginia – on May 5, his campaign announced Wednesday,” the Boston Globe writes before adding, “Not that Obama hasn’t been campaigning for months.”
Reuters: “It's official. Obama rallies mark shift to general election.”
Biden today in a speech at NYU will warn that Romney could wage “unnecessary war,” if elected. “Vice President Joe Biden says Republican Mitt Romney's views on foreign affairs would return the United States to the policies of former President George W. Bush,” the AP says. Biden was set to deliver a campaign foreign policy speech Thursday in New York. The Associated Press received a draft of his remarks. The vice president is warning against returning to a foreign policy that he says ‘would have America go it alone.’”
Obama to Rolling Stone: “I don’t think that their nominee is going to be able to suddenly say, ‘Everything I’ve said for the last six months, I didn’t mean. I’m assuming that he meant it. When you’re running for president, people are paying attention to what you’re saying.”
The AP looks at the costs involved in presidential trips (that often mix in politics).
Good faith negotiators? From Robert Draper’s latest book (via HuffPo’s Sam Stein, Political Wire): "As President Barack Obama was celebrating his inauguration at various balls, top Republican lawmakers and strategists were conjuring up ways to submarine his presidency at a private dinner in Washington, D.C... For several hours in the Caucus Room (a high-end D.C. establishment), the book says they plotted out ways to not just win back political power, but to also put the brakes on Obama's legislative platform. The dinner lasted nearly four hours. They parted company almost giddily."
“Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said at least three U.S. Marines were disciplined last year for a dalliance with a hooker,” the New York Daily News writes. “Panetta told reporters that three Marines and a U.S. Embassy staffer were punished in December after a brouhahas with a prostitute in Brasilia. … The prostitute was allegedly dumped out of a car after she got into a fight with the Marines. She tried to crawl back into the vehicle, fell and was injured. The American embassy reimbursed her for her medical expenses.”
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Has Obama ever really stopped campaigning?
NO
The last year as Governor, Romney spent most of 2006, preparing for his run in 2008. Besides his record in MA, that is the other reason why people of Mass don't like him.
GWBII spent over 1000 out of 8 years on vacation. That's roughly 35% on vaca. And what do you think Bush was doing before 2004? You think Bush didn't campaign? Do you think no other Republican/Democrat presidents campaigned before??? This is something Obama invented????
Don't have selective standards because that makes you a hypocrite.
Not since running for the Senate in Illinois......it has been one big photo op complete with closed captioning.
He will FINALLY pay his own way and stop using TAX DOLLARS to continue his class warfare campaign.
Ya right.
He is spending stimulus money now by donors who received the gift. And no I do not have concrete proof of it but who in there right mind would give this guy a dollar if they were not receiving 50 from him to replace it.
We need to make America a power again. Please do not allow yourselves to be persuaded by this man. He is not good for America.
rukidding47
then your claim is as valuable as a piece of used toilet paper....
Not quite. Where do you think Stimulus and son of stimulus went? It sure did nothing but buy votes for the one who is like what toilet paper wipes off.
again, got proof? other than that your statement is useless.
Also, your timing is off. Bush is responsible for the 1st stimulus and the 2nd stimulus was already in the works when the two administration exchanged keys to the White House. So your claim that Obama is paying people off is a little off....
I don't know how you figure that he is using his own money to try to brainwash the American people again.....as it has all been campaign rhetoric since day one anyway.
If you believe that our President has not been campaigning full time for the past year and half, you're too dumb to vote. He's probably no different from past residents of the Oval Office that want to stay there for four more years, but give me a break with this stupid "kicking off the campaign" stuff.
And just like past and future Presidents, he has been using taxpayer in money in gigantic chunks to take day junkets to make campaign appearances on Air Force One. I'm guessing this "kick off" fantasy means he will open his campaign wallet just a little. We give our incumbents a huge advantage in elections -- I don't like it, but we do.
Really, how stupid do they think we are?
I believe the campaign is paid for with campaign dollars, not tax payer dollars as you alledge. If that were true every politician who campaigns would be using "tax-payer dollars".
Diane, Yeah taxpayer dollars -- A trip to Iowa for a campaign speech lets any President pay a nominal amount out of the campaign for the operation of two gigantic jets and crews of hundreds -- Even a President couldn't afford a lot of campaign trips if the real costs of a megabuck per trip were paid. And yes every politician of any level uses some taxpayer dollars for their campaign -- Of course there are rules against it -- but no rules against making a speech someplace at the opening of a park or an art show or a university commencement that just happens to allow a campaign speech or charging $1,000 per plate.
They all do it and my point is that we ought to stack the official deck against the incumbent because they have such a powerful advantage -- I want them to run on their record of what they have done for me after I elected them. Instead every park in the country lists the name of the current politician and everybody on the staff -- and you paid for the sign that is really a campaign poster.
But of course your taxpayer money is used. And if you don't think our President and all before him have been in full-on, 8 hours a day, campaign mode for a year and a half, you have not been paying attention. Why? Because you don't care that the guy is AWOL from the job you hired him to do -- what a great gig.
With tax payer money, is the only way he can buy the white house.
Sooooooo very much money is wasted all around in this campaigning nonsense. In the age of the internet, instant messaging, texting and tweeting, e-mail, web sites....Is it actually necessary for any of them to be jetting around the country making umpteen appearances, followed by an entourage of media and press (who also have travel expenses by the way) I fail to understand why each recognized candidate (one who has gone through the appropriate process to circulate petitions and be officially recognized on the ballot) cannot have an equal amount of TV or radio time allotted to them to make their case, explain their experience, and outline their proposals for moving forward.....If they want to put together a glitzy website and interact with their voting base--Great! The expense of that is a mere drop in the proverbial ocean compared to what they are spending......And forget all the glossy fliers that stuff our mailboxes and get stuffed in between our doors....It is killing trees needlessly and cluttering up the landfills...(Mine get recycled at the bottom of the rabbit hutch) Millions and Millions of dollars being collected and wasted. If this is the process to get elected to office, then what does that say about the attitude toward money once they are actually in office. Seems to me that we are teaching our politicians that there is an unlimited supply of generous donors to make every one of their heart's desires a reality (substitute taxpayers for donors and you get the picture)
Unnecessary war? With who Mr. Vice President? Iran? They already consider us to be at war with them.
What a pair of bungling dolts.