Colin Powell criticizes Romney on foreign policy
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday criticized Mitt Romney’s foreign policy stance, particularly when it comes to the presumptive GOP nominee’s statement earlier this year that Russia is the “number one geopolitical foe” of the United States.
In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Powell -- who backed President Obama in 2008 but has yet to endorse him this time around – was asked about Romney’s foreign policy advisers.
Romney address to Latinos comes as campaign works to make up ground with key constituency
Mitt Romney’s address Wednesday to the Latino Coalition’s Small Business Summit Luncheon in Washington comes as polls show the presumptive GOP nominee lagging behind President Obama among Hispanic voters – and as Obama’s Spanish-language outreach effort continues to outpace his rival’s.
File photo: Republican candidate for U.S. president and former Gov. Mitt Romney (R) greets guests at a campaign appearance at Conchita Foods Inc. in Miami, Florida November 29, 2011.
(JOE SKIPPER - REUTERS)
Recent Washington Post-ABC News polling shows Obama leading Romney 71 percent to 27 percent among Hispanic voters. And a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Wednesday shows Obama with a 35-percentage-point lead over Romney among Hispanics.
While Romney aired Spanish-language ads during the GOP primary campaign, he has released only one Spanish-language general-election TV ad so far – “Día Uno,” a direct translation of his English-language “Day One” ad. According to NBC News, the ad was part of an initial $3,000 buy in the Raleigh, N.C., media market.
The Obama campaign, by contrast, has spent an estimated $1 million on Spanish-language TV ads to date, Reuters reports. The campaign doesn’t confirm the amount, but says the latest buy is “substantial.” Its second round of Spanish-language ads, which are health-care themed, went up earlier this month in the battleground states of Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Its Spanish-language ads started on April 17.
Romney accuses Obama of waging a ‘war on job creators’
Mitt Romney strongly defended his work at the private equity firm Bain Capital on Wednesday, accusing President Obama of waging a “war on job creators.”
Facing a wave of withering attacks from Obama and his allies over massive job losses at companies controlled by Bain Capital under his watch, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate lashed back for the first time this week in a speech in Washington and an interview with Time magazine.
Romney aide: Bain debate welcome because it turns focus on Obama economic record
A top adviser to Mitt Romney told reporters Wednesday that he welcomes a continued debate over the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s career at private equity firm Bain Capital.
President Obama this week defended his campaign’s attacks on Romney’s role in overseeing layoffs at some companies during his tenure at the buyout firm he founded as “fair game.” On Wednesday, Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said he thinks Obama’s focus on Romney’s successful business career brings more focus to the president’s stewardship of the economy.
“We like the fact that the discussion is centered on jobs and the economy and we intend to continue to talk about the plight of 23 million Americans today who are faced with either no employment or they’re stuck in part-time jobs when what they really want is full-time work,” Fehrnstrom said on a conference call with reporters.
Obama campaign seeks to mobilize LGBT supporters
Two weeks after the president publicly embraced same-sex marriage, the Obama campaign on Wednesday announced an effort to mobilize gay and lesbian supporters in key states including Colorado, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
President Obama told the public in an ABC News interview May 9 that he supports the right of same-sex partners to legally marry.
(Paul Sancya - AP)
The move, described in a campaign conference call to reporters, includes a Web site, as well as planned volunteer training, phone banks and house parties.
The roll-out comes as a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows support of same-sex marriage at an all-time high of 53 percent.
White House visitors’ logs: How many visits did the GOP hopefuls make?
This story has been updated.
The Washington Post’s newly-launched White House visitors’ database makes it clear that lobbyists remain a regular presence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
But what about the GOP contenders who earlier this year competed in hopes of one day occupying the White House?
Obama opens two-day trip with commencement address at Air Force Academy
COLORADO SPRINGS — President Obama kicks off a two-day road trip Wednesday by delivering the commencement address at the Air Force Academy here, the fourth year in a row that he will mark graduation at a military service institution.
As it happens, the speech will be in the election swing state of Colorado this year.
Obama’s whirlwind, out-of-town jaunt takes him to three states — California and Iowa are the others — where he will hold four campaign fundraisers, a grass roots campaign event in Iowa and an official White House event where he will push Congress to support a tax credit for clean energy.
At each stop, the president will have an eye on Nov. 6, as he presses his re-election message in battleground territory and raises money in the Bay Area, where Silicon Valley has emerged as a reliable source of campaign cash.
Obama won Colorado in 2008 after accepting the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, and he has stopped in the state several times over the past year.
Is the Obama-Romney gender gap narrowing? (Wednesday’s Trail Mix)
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows President Obama’s advantage over Mitt Romney among women has narrowed to 7 percent — down from a 19-percentage-point advantage last month.
Does that mean the gender gap has narrowed for good? We look at three main takeaways from recent polling:
Romney addresses Latino coalition in D.C. and Obama goes to Co., Calif. | Campaign schedules
Mitt Romney will be in Washington on Wednesday, while President Obama will head west. Meanwhile, the political classes parse the meaning of the Arkansas and Kentucky Democratic primary results.
We’ll give you your look at the candidates schedules after the jump, but first, this morning’s top political news and the campaign coverage you shouldn’t miss, in tweets.
Obama loses more than 40 percent of Kentucky primary voters to 'uncommitted' option - The Fix wapo.st/KaVead
— Aaron Blake (@FixAaron) May 23, 2012
New Q poll indicates Romney takes lead in Florida: on.cnn.com/JcH4TJ
— Paul Steinhauser (@psteinhauserCNN) May 23, 2012
Biden: Romney’s Bain experience ‘no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber’
Vice President Biden on Tuesday weighed in on the ongoing debate over Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, arguing at a New Hampshire campaign event that the presumptive GOP nominee’s investment-firm background no more qualifies him to serve as president than would experience working as a plumber.
Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Keene State College in Keene, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
Reports NBC’s Carrie Dann from Keene, N.H.:
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