Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) was reelected Speaker of the House on Thursday after a week of rumors of a possible GOP revolt.
Boehner won a bare majority in a vote that saw nine Republicans vote for other GOP members, and several others who abstained from voting or voted "present." Two years ago, Boehner won all 241 available GOP votes.
• Energizer -
The St. Louis-based company said Thursday that it expects to shed about 1,500 employees. When finished, the restructuring should lead to $200 million in pretax yearly savings, Energizer said. It aims to have most of its restructuring steps finished by the end of September 2014.
• Exide Technologies -
Exide Technologies announced Thursday that it will be idling its lead-recycling operations in Laureldale and laying off 150 workers, effective no later than March 31.
• Westinghouse -
Westinghouse Anniston, the contractor responsible for shutting down Anniston’s chemical weapons incinerator, has reduced its workforce by another 50 employees.
• Research in Motion Limited -
Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, laid off about 200 people at its U.S. headquarters in Irving on Wednesday, according to a source close to the company who did not want to be named.
• Lightyear Network Solutions -
More than one dozen employees at a Pikeville company lost their jobs this week. Officials with Lightyear Network Solutions said they are consolidating offices in Louisville and Pikeville to save money.
• Providence Journal -
The Providence Journal Co. laid off 23 full-time workers Wednesday as part of a cost-cutting effort, including 16 members of the Providence Newspaper Guild and 7 non-union employees.
• Hawker Beechcraft -
The company says 240 employees will lose their jobs with the closing of Hawker Beechcraft Services facilities in Little Rock, Ark.; Mesa, Ariz.; and San Antonio, Texas.
• Boeing (30% of their management staff) -
Boeing Co. said Wednesday it plans to employ 30% fewer executives at its Boeing Defense, Space & Security unit by the end of 2012 compared to 2010 levels.
• CVPH Medical Center -
CVPH Medical Center has handed pink slips to 17 employees. The layoffs — nine in management and eight hourly staffers — are part of an effort to “help bolster the hospital’s financial position in 2013 and beyond,” a press release said.
There’s more here…
President Barack Obama's re-election campaign warned supporters in an email plea for cash on Monday that Mitt Romney's vast fundraising edge means "we're in trouble" with scarcely three months to go before Election Day.
"We got beat three months in a row," the campaign said in the unsigned message. "If we don't step it up, we're in trouble."
The appeal came hours after the two sides released their July fundraising totals, revealing that Romney and the Republican Party scooped up $101 million against the $75 million hauled in by Obama and the Democrats.
President Bill Clinton veered sharply off message Thursday, telling CNN that Mitt Romney’s business record at Bain Capital was “sterling.”
“I don’t think that we ought to get into the position where we say ‘This is bad work. This is good work,’” Clinton said. “The man who has been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold.”
Clinton also went on to say that Romney’s time at Bain Capital represented a “good business career.”
The Obama campaign is in the third week of an all-out assault on Romney’s time as a corporate buyout specialist — accusing the GOP nominee of bankrupting companies and laying off workers all while pocketing a profit for himself and investors.
But the negative tenor of their attacks on an influential segment of Wall Street have made some Democrats uncomfortable. Clinton is the highest profile Obama surrogate so far to show discomfort with the attacks on Bain, with the former president even praising the company and Romney’s record. Newark mayor Cory Booker and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick also both declined to press the attack against Bain. Keep on reading...
President Obama declared “I’m not worried” about reelection before an audience of well-heeled campaign donors in New York City today, according to White House pool reports.
“Their message will be, ‘You’re upset, you’re unsatisfied. It’s Obama’s fault.’ But I’m not worried. The reason I’m not worried is because of you,” Obama said.
Obama contrasted his vision of government’s role in the economy and society in wide-ranging remarks to the audience, and continued his partisan attacks against Republicans.
Keep on reading…
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Just how unpopular is President Barack Obama in some parts of the country? Enough that a man in prison in Texas is getting 4 out of 10 votes in West Virginia’s Democratic presidential primary.
The inmate, Keith Judd, is serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999. With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Obama was receiving just under 60 percent of the vote to Judd’s 40 percent.
For some West Virginia Democrats, simply running against Obama is enough to get Judd votes.
(New York Times) — After months on the sidelines, major liberal donors including the financier George Soros are preparing to inject up to $100 million into independent groups to aid Democrats’ chances this fall. But instead of going head to head with the conservative “super PACs” and outside groups that have flooded the presidential and Congressional campaigns with negative advertising, the donors are focusing on grass-roots organizing, voter registration and Democratic turnout.
The departure from the conservatives’ approach, which helped Republicans wrest control of the House in 2010, partly reflects liberal donors’ objections to the Supreme Court’sCitizens United decision, which paved the way for super PACs and unbridled campaign spending.
But in interviews, donors and strategists involved in the effort said they also did not believe they could match advertising spending by leading conservative groups likeAmerican Crossroads and Americans for Prosperity, and instead wanted to exploit what they see as the Democrats’ advantage in grass-roots organizing.
President Obama’s spokesman wouldn’t say if the president plans to support Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., despite Obama’s praise for the Harlem lawmaker at a recent fundraiser.
“I’ll have to get back to you on that,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters today when asked if Obama would support Rangel.
Rangel, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, was censured in a borad bipartisan vote by the House of Representatives in 2010 for ethical violations. [...]
Rangel is distributing campaign fliers featuring a picture of himself with the president, but doesn’t know if Obama will actually support him. “That’s a good question,” he said last week.
Keep on reading…
WECT TV in North Carolina reports that Democrat Rep. Mike McIntyre will not say if supports Pres. Obama for reelection (May 3, 2012).
A Vermont police chief said President Obama’s re-election campaign has failed to reimburse local taxpayers after his officers had to work overtime to provide security at two fundraising events.
Trevor Whipple, the police chief in South Burlington, told Fox News that his department incurred $4,200 in overtime expenses as a result of separate fundraising events featuring President Obama and the First Lady.
“At the end of the day, I’ve submitted an invoice and they haven’t paid,” Whipple told Fox News. “It was an additional burden on our taxpayers, on our budget and we simply wanted to ask that they reimburse us.”
Whipple said the overtime was even more significant because of First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit. He said his department was not given advance notice.
And for a town of 17,000 people, he said it’s a good bit of money.
“It’s not going to break the bank, but clearly those are tax dollars that were not approved with the expectation they would be used provide security for a fund-raising event,” he said.
While the media cluck their tongues at social conservatives and obsess over the rather boring and predictable Republican primary, can we pause for a moment to observe just how panicked President Obama seems to be about his reelection?
Obama may be leading his Republican contenders in head-to-head matchups. But the campaign will not truly begin until after the party conventions in September, which gives the GOP nominee time to recover. Obama’s approval rating is stuck below 50 percent, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average. His approval rating has been underwater in Gallup tracking since May of 2011. This is dangerous for an incumbent during the spring of a reelection year. And Obama’s approval rating in swing states is even worse. Last week’s USA Today / Gallup poll had him losing to both Romney and Santorum in the most competitive states.
Nor are the headlines likely to improve. Gas prices keep ticking up. The Iranian nuclear program continues to go forward. The Greek economy continues to go backward.
Since he lacks a significant and popular domestic achievement, the president seems to have concluded that the way to a second term is through the mobilization of key constituencies rather than a broad-based appeal to middle America. He combines these appeals with cheap gimmicks to generate publicity and deflect attention from the Republican primary. Now that his job is in trouble, the man who enthralled millions during the campaign of 2008 has been reduced to just another transactional political panderer. Keep on reading...
HONOLULU (AP) — With an eye on the 2012 campaign, President Barack Obama wrapped up a low-key Hawaiian vacation Monday and planned to quickly get back in front of voters as he ratchets up his bid for re-election.
The president and his family left the island of Oahu late Monday, ending their 10-day vacation. Air Force One will touch down in Washington on Tuesday morning, just hours before Republican presidential candidates square off in the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest of the 2012 campaign.
After more than a week out of the spotlight, Obama plans to make his presence in the campaign quickly known.
The president will host a live web chat with supporters in Iowa Tuesday night as the caucuses are unfolding. The following day, Obama will travel to Cleveland for an event focused on the economy.
Read more here…
(ABC News) — The president will continue to claim the mantle for “warrior of the working class” in 2012 in stark contrast to the public perception that Republicans in Congress are backing millionaires, not the middle class, a senior White House official tells ABC News.
And that message will be carried through President Obama’s reelection campaign next year. “We’re going to be doubling down on our commitment and our message in terms of fighting for the middle class,” Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters covering the president in Hawaii.
After a heated battle between the White House and House Republicans, the payroll tax cut was extended until the end of February — a battle the president ultimately won albeit for just two months. It also delayed the president’s vacation here, but the White House official noted that it gave the president and his senior advisers time to work through policy proposals that they plan to roll out in the new year — one being to extend the payroll tax cut through the end of 2012.
The White House is currently honing its main message which was previewed in a speech the president gave on December 6 in Osawatomie, Kansas, where he mentioned the words middle class 28 times. That message — give Americans a fair shake, a fair shot, and that everybody pays their fair share — is one shared by protesters of Occupy Wall Street and one the White House hopes resonates with voters.
Read more here…
(CBS News)- Less than one year out from Election Day 2012, voters remain overwhelmingly pessimistic about the economy, and their concerns are taking a toll on President Obama's re-election chances. Just 41 percent of Americans think Mr. Obama has performed his job well enough to be elected to a second term, whereas 54 percent don't think so.
The president's overall approval rating remains in the mid-40's, according to a CBS News poll - lower than the approval ratings of Mr. Obama's four presidential predecessors at this point in their first terms. Mr. Obama's approval rating is dragged down by his poor marks for his handling of the economy - which, at 33 percent, is the lowest rating of his presidency in CBS News polls.
NEW YORK (AP) — Blending governing with re-election politics, President Barack Obama roused a cheering northeast Pennsylvania crowd Wednesday as he warned of a “massive blow to the economy” if Republicans block a payroll tax extension.
But hours later, addressing donors in New York, he toned his rhetoric down and declared progress was possible. [...]
Obama took to the road with a dual pitch for money, campaigning for more cash in the pockets of U.S. workers – and for his campaign treasury as well.
Obama told one group of donors that he still needs to make sure that key aspects of the health care law get implemented in 2014, that banking regulations are enacted and that energy policies are updated.
“I’m going to need another term to finish the job,” he said.
Read more here…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A year from Election Day, Democrats are crafting a campaign strategy for Vice President Joe Biden that targets the big three political battlegrounds: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, states where Biden might be more of an asset toPresident Barack Obama’s re-election campaign than the president himself.
The Biden plan underscores an uncomfortable reality for the Obama team. A shaky economy and sagging enthusiasm among Democrats could shrink the electoral map for Obama in 2012, forcing his campaign to depend on carrying the 67 electoral votes up for grabs in the three swing states.
Obama won all three states in 2008. But this time he faces challenges in each, particularly in Ohio and Florida, where voters elected Republican governors in the 2010 midterm elections.
