“We intend to make it one of the central elements of the campaign next year,” Obama senior adviser David Plouffe said of Bank of America’s recent imposition of a $5 fee for using a debit card. “One of the main elements of the contrast will be that the president passed Wall Street reform and our opponent and the other party want to repeal it,” Plouffe finished telling The Washington Post.
Has Plouffe checked to see where the Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be next year? It is in Charlotte, North Carolina, which also happens to be the corporate headquarters of the White House-demonized Bank of America. Does Obama 2012 really want to make “Eat the Rich” their unofficial campaign slogan?
This weekend hundreds of Occupy protesters were arrested across the country in sometimes-violent protests. In Chicago, Occupy protesters chanted, “The whole world is watching,” as they were arrested by Chicago police. This just happens to be the chant used during protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Maybe the Occupy movement will fizzle out by next September. Maybe they will be successfully co-opted by the Democratic Party. But maybe they won’t. Maybe Obama’s class warfare rhetoric will only raise the movement’s expectations, expectations that are unlikely to be met with any meaningful change before next September. Then what. Is this a crowd that Obama really wants to become the face of his re-election campaign? Or maybe, because of his dismal economic track record, he doesn’t have any other choice
Around the Bigs
The Hill, Obama wants $35 billion for teachers, first-responders first: Obama will travel on a bus tour through Virginia and North Carolina this week to push for $35 billion in state aid that he says will be spent on teachers and first-responders. Obama will not introduce new legislation, just call on Congress to pass his failed American Jobs Act, again.
Associated Press, Occupy Wall Street shows muscle, raises $300K: The Occupy Wall Street protesters have $300,000 in their bank account and mountains of supplies stored in office space donated by the United Federation of Teachers. “We are unstoppable! Another world is possible,” protester Kara Segal told the AP.
The Chicago Tribune, 175 Chicago protesters arrested after being told to leave Grant Park: Police arrested about 175 Occupy Chicago protesters just after 1 AM Sunday, after they refused to leave Congress Plaza.
The Wall Street Journal, 74 Arrested as Protesters ‘Occupy’ Times Square: New York Police arrested 74 protesters Saturday, as Occupy Wall Street protesters marched from New York City’s Financial District to Times Square.
The Washington Post, Obama allies’ interests collide over Keystone pipeline: The State Department’s impending decision over whether to allow the Keystone XL Pipeline to connect Alberta’s oil sands with U.S. markets is pitting job hungry private sector unions against Obama’ environmentalist base.
The Washington Post, Veterans return to jobless welcome: Veterans who left military service in the past decade have an unemployment rate almost 3 points higher, 11.7 percent, than the genereal population, 9.1 percent.
The Los Angeles Times, New California law bars E-Verify requirement for employers: California’s state legislature has passed a law banning cities and counties from passing their own laws requiring businesses to use E-Verify, an online program that lets employers verify that job applicants are citizens.
The Los Angeles Times, $9 billion is looking for a job: California has $9.1 billion in infrastructure bond money, on which they are paying $630 million a year in interest, sitting unused in state accounts. The state just can’t find enough shovel-ready projects to spend it on.
The Hill, Voters say Washington is worse than Wall Street: Voters blame Washington more than Wall Street, for the financial crisis and recession, according to The Hill’s latest poll.
Campaign 2012
Obama: Obama has already spent more money in 2011, $87 million, than all of his Republican opponents have raised, combined.
Righty Playbook
The Wall Street Journal calls for the same truth-in-accounting measure that brought down the CLASS Act, to be applied to the rest of Obamacare.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., says that what the Occupy protesters really need are occupations.
Reporting from Detroit, National Review‘s Henry Payne says the Occupy protesters are just “the usual suspects: anti-war protesters, racial-grievance activists, left-wing students, unionists.”
Lefty Playbook
At The Huffington Post, HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius calms liberal fears about the failure of the CLASS Act: “This doesn’t affect the rest of the health care law, which will continue to provide affordable quality health insurance choices to millions of Americans and reduce the deficit.”
Talking Points Memo looks at why Obama ordered the U.S. military into Uganda.
Daily Kos‘ Armando Llorens interviews his daughter, who is about to join the Occupy Wall Street protests.
