Colin Powell questions Mitt Romney’s foreign policy, comes out in support of gay marriage
Colin Powell wants Romney to think, a Democratic Senate candidate says Obama failed his one test, Richard Mourdock is doing some spring cleaning and Jesse Kelly’s spokesman did not like a question.
Make sure to sign up to get “Afternoon Fix ” in your e-mail inbox every day by 5 (ish) p.m!
Gay marriage? Bullying? Voters don’t care.
The political world has been consumed in recent weeks by President Obama’s decision to come out in support of same-sex marriage and by a Washington Post story detailing allegations of high school bullying by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney .
And what sort of reaction have these two major stories elicited from the voting public? In a word: “Eh”.
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett satisfied Obama was born in United States
President Obama will be on the ballot in Arizona after all.
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R), who earlier this month requested more information from Hawaii on President Obama’s birth certificate, has gotten the confirmation he needed. 
U.S. President Barack Obama's birth certificate that was released by the White House in Washington April 27, 2011. (REUTERS/The White House/Handout)
“Late yesterday, our office received the 'verification in-lieu of certified copy' from officials within the Hawaii Department of Health that we requested in March,” Bennett said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. “They have officially confirmed that the information in the copy of the Certificate of Live Birth for the President matches the original record in their files.”
Mitt Romney promises six percent unemployment
In an interview with Time magazine, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney pledged six percent unemployment by the end of his first term in office.
“I can tell you that over a period of four years, by virtue of the policies that we’d put in place, we’d get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent, and perhaps a little lower,” he told Mark Halperin.
Unemployment currently stands at 8.1 percent.
Kentucky, Arkansas primaries: Is it racism?
That President Obama lost roughly 40 percent of the vote in Democratic primaries in Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia over the last two weeks has drawn massive national headlines.
Those headlines have drawn a collective eyeroll from Democrats — and many others who closely follow national politics — who ascribe the underperformance by the incumbent to a very simple thing: racism.
Quinnipiac poll: Mitt Romney leads in Florida
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney leads President Obama by six points among registered voters in Florida, according to a new Quinnipiac survey, a marked change from two months ago that, the poll suggests, could be linked in part to Obama’s recent statements in support of gay marriage.
Romney, the presumptive nominee, was ahead of Obama 47 percent to 41 percent, according to the poll. Choosing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as his running mate would give Romney a 49 to 41 percent lead.
A month ago, Romney and Obama were tied in the state; in March Obama led by 7 points. The downward slide, in a critical swing state in what is expected to be an extremely close election, is not good news for the president.
Obama takes break from Bain in two new ads
Two new ads from President Obama focus on benefits for veterans and senior citizens, a marked shift from the campaign’s recent ads attacking former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Obama says he is not dropping its campaign against Romney’s private equity experience, a line of attack that has led to blowback from some Democrats. “This is not a distraction,” Obama said Monday afternoon. “This is what this campaign is going to be about.” In fact, the campaign is buying more air time for “Steel,” a hard-hitting ad about Bain.
But Obama is adding some positive spots to the mix in key swing states.
One of the ads, titled “Sacred Trust,” focuses on benefits for veterans.
What the Kentucky and Arkansas primaries tell us (and what they don’t)
President Obama lost roughly 40 percent of the vote in Democratic presidential primaries in Kentucky and Arkansas on Tuesday night — results sure to be pored over in the hours and days to come.
Republicans quickly seized on the results to suggest there is significant unhappiness with Obama inside his own party — noting that the incumbent lost four in 10 votes to “uncommitted” in Kentucky and an unknown lawyer (from Tennessee!) in Arkansas.
Obama loses 40 percent of the primary vote in Arkansas, Kentucky
Updated at 12:20 a.m.
President Obama lost more than 40 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s Arkansas and Kentucky Democratic primaries, despite little-to-no opposition.
Obama lost 42 percent of the vote to the “uncommitted” option in Kentucky and more than 40 percent to little-known attorney John Wolfe in Arkansas — the latest example of the incumbent president failing to win significant shares of votes in uncompetitive contests.
But it’s not the first time the president has taken less than 60 percent of the vote in a primary this year.
Democratic poll: Massachusetts Senate race tied
Democratic polling has Massachusetts tied up, the S.C. AFL-CIO turned Nikki Haley into a pinata, Colin Powell isn’t ready to endorse, and Joe Biden says private equity is about as relevant to being president as plumbing.
Make sure to sign up to get “Afternoon Fix ” in your e-mail inbox every day by 5 (ish) p.m!
Latest Tweets
RT @nytimes: "Media Decoder: New Orleans Times Picayune About to Undergo Big Cuts http://t.co/PTZWuinU" Ugh.
Colin Powell backs gay marriage, Democrat says Obama failed 'one test' http://t.co/iob2jiLI
Biden's fav: 42 percent. Unfav: 45 percent. http://t.co/U8dFTRPA
Post Most: Politics
Campaign 2012