Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Obama's Headline Train Wreck

By Susan Duclos

It is only Tuesday, but this week is promising to be another media headline train wreck for the Barack Obama campaign.

Starting with Obama's attacks on Mitt Romney for his previous work at Bain Capital and the fallout via headlines and major media articles.

Headlines right now  at Memeorandum show:

ABC News: "Swinging at Bain, Obama Ignores What Private Equity Is."

Bain Capital has been used as a political weapon against Mitt Romney since 1994, but now his opponents might be rethinking ads about attacking him for his time at the private-equity firm as the ads are being criticized by some Democrats as well as Republicans.

The Hill headline "Obama raised most from private equity, hedge funds in 2008."

Obama raised far more cash from hedge fund and private equity donors than any other candidate in the 2008 election cycle.

According to an analysis by the nonprofit group Open Secrets, Obama took in nearly $3.5 million from large private-equity donors that year — nearly twice what his general-election rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), pocketed.

Back to ABC News, headlining with "Obama Campaign Does Damage Control After Dems Question Anti-Bain Strategy."

The Obama campaign is in full damage-control mode one day after Newark Mayor Cory Booker publicly derided Democrats’ assault on presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney over his record at Bain Capital.

PJ Tatler with "Latest Dem to Back Cory Booker Over Obama is…Van Jones?."

Market Watch headline "Big Obama donor reportedly tied to Bain layoffs."

As the Obama campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital past continue to get chided by top officials within the Democratic Party — former Pennsylvania governor and Democratic National Committee chairman Ed Rendell is the latest to express disapproval — a published report says that a top donor to the president’s campaign actually was a key player in the layoffs that are being criticized in a television campaign.

ABC News reported that Jonathan Lavine, a Bain Capital executive and co-owner of the Boston Celtics, served on the board of directors of American Pad & Paper, or Ampad. The Obama campaign is running a nearly six-minute web video about Bain’s 1992 purchase of office paper-product company Ampad. The video features comments from workers laid off from an office-products plant in Marion, Ind., after Ampad bought it in 1994.

Lavine has raised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaign, ABC reported, citing Federal Election Commission records.


Leaving Obama's Bain trainwreck behind for a second to touch on the other headlines today, still at Memeorandum by the way

Politico headline "Dems wait by phone for Obama."

CNN Headline "Arkansas primary may pose challenge for Obama."

A poll taken in Arkansas's fourth Congressional district - which includes the towns of Hope, Hot Springs and Camden – shows less than half of Democratic primary voters (45%) support Obama. Thirty-eight percent said they back Wolfe and 17% are undecided. 

Quick reminder:

In West Virginia's May 8 primary, Keith Judd received a sizable chuck of the Democratic vote – 41% by the latest count. Judd is currently serving a 210-month sentence in a federal prison in Texas for extortion.

Back to The Hill, who headlines with "Dem-backed law may be downfall of Obama birth control mandate."

The biggest legal threat to the White House's birth control mandate could come from a decades-old law that was championed by liberal Democrats, according to legal experts.  —  The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)

Reminder of yesterday's news about 43 Catholic organizations across the country file suit against contraception mandate. 


The Hill hits a trifecta with another headline "HHS signs $20M PR contract to promote healthcare law."

The Health and Human Services Department has signed a $20 million contract with a public-relations firm to highlight part of the Affordable Care Act

Politico's again with "Obama's mortgage fraud task force under fire."

New York Times headline "Fund-Raising for Romney Eats Into Obama’s Edge."