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President Obama failed to appear on cue last night at the Fox Theater in Redwood, California, a weird lapse for a president who may have been exhausted at the end of a marathon day of speechifying and campaigning.Pool reporter Peter Baker of the New York Times offers a descriptive take on the scene at the late night fundraiser: Your pool was brought into the Fox Theater, where the audience was being shown the campaignÂ’s 17-minute promotional film. The movie ended with stirring tones, the lights came up and then Â… nothing. The stage stood empty for long minutes and no...

Obama raised most from private equity, hedge funds in 2008 By Jonathan Easley - 05/22/12 09:52 AM ET President 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. The data bring into focus the thin line Obama must walk in attacking presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s background in the industry, which has sparked...

Obama Voters Losing Jobless Benefits Due to the Manipulation of Workforce Numbers May 11, 2012 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Michael in Momence, Illinois. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Thanks a lot, Rush, first-time caller. I'm calling because I was at the unemployment office just yesterday, and they have tables there where people fill out the paperwork that they have -- RUSH: Wait, wait, wait whoa, whoa, whoa, just a second. I need you to go slow here. CALLER: Okay. RUSH: Why were you at the unemployment office? It may seem like an obvious question, but...

President Obama’s reelection campaign launched a national drive Friday to counter new restrictive voter-access laws, which advisers said threaten his electoral chances in November. Organizers will fan out in key swing states this weekend to teach volunteers and voters how to navigate a series of laws passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures imposing stricter identification requirements, limiting early voting and making it harder to organize voter-registration drives. It is the beginning of a months-long effort, campaign officials said, to combat what they described as a Republican effort to stifle voting among young people and minorities, two groups that traditionally tend to...

Matt Negrin of ABC reports that "A new ad by Obama tells the story of Brian Slagle, an autoworker in Ohio who says he was laid off and 'scared to death' until the president swooped in to save the industry." In the spot, Slagle says, "Obama stuck his neck out for us, the auto industry. ... He wasn’t going to let it just die, and I’m driving in this morning because of that, because of him." The ad is meant to praise Obama's auto bailout for saving jobs. Watch here: VideoIndeed, it appears, via Facebook, that Slagle is an employee...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: You know what this is? There is gonna be a big bash, a $40,000 a plate fundraiser at Clooney's house tonight in Hollywood. You know what's gonna happen? Obama's gonna get there, and all these people are gonna see him speak, and they're gonna applaud him, "Mr. President, guts, courage." Nothing's changed. In fact, Obama hasn't even signed the nondiscrimination executive order. He hasn't even signed it. And this is something that gay rights groups have been pushing, and he's refused to sign it. He continues to refuse to sign it. When it comes time to put...

"Whatever people think about this issue, we know it's controversial, there's no denying when a president speaks out for the first time like that, it is history," co-host of ABC's "Good Morning America" George Stephanopoulos said to Robin Roberts. And let me tell you, George, I'm getting chills again," "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts said about her interview with Obama.

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — President Obama is coming to L.A. Thursday for a fundraiser at George Clooney’s house. The President is scheduled to arrive at LAX around 6 p.m. A who’s who of Hollywood royalty is expected at Clooney’s residence located near Fryman Canyon in Studio City. President Obama is expected to take a helicopter to a secret landing zone near Clooney’s house. Expect road closures up and down Laurel Canyon and on some residential streets through Studio City and environs between 5-8 p.m. The Clooney fundraiser is expected to add at least $15 million to the Obama re-election war...

Make the Truth Team better Help shape the future of the Truth Team by taking a few minutes to share your thoughts. Are you any of the following? (Check all that apply) Education professional, Health care professional, Obama campaign staff, Obama campaign volunteer, Small-business owner, Student Are you a member of a labor union? Yes, No, If so, which union are you a member of? AFL-CIO, AFT, CWA, NEA, SEIU, UAW, UFCW, USW, Other Do you identify yourself with any of the following groups (Check all that apply): African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Environmentalists, Jewish Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, LGBT,...

Whether or not your mom’s on Twitter, here’s something guaranteed to make her smile on Sunday: getting a personal shout-out from President Obama. From now until Thursday at midnight, you have a chance to win that for your mom or a special mother in your life — just get five or more donations to your grassroots fundraising page to automatically put yourself in the running. (If you don’t have a page, you can set one up here.)

Eileen Toplansky reports that the Muslim Brotherhood is working to reelect President Obama. But first, let's go to the videotape. Mentioned in the YouTube presentation, The ISNA or Islamic Society of North America has been described by Islamic scholar Stephen Schwartz as "one of the chief conduits through which the radical Saudi form of Islam passes into the United States." Furthermore, "according to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, ISNA 'is a radical group hiding under a false veneer of moderation'; 'convenes annual conferences where Islamist militants have been given a platform to incite violence and promote hatred' (for instance, al Qaeda...

Ever since he burst on the national scene, up from obscurity as an Illinois State Senator addicted to voting present, his purported "likeability" has been cited as one of Barack Obama's principal political assets. Polling has historically shown that even as the public may disapprove his policies, they tell pollsters that they like him personally. To be honest, he has always left me cold, because I recognize in him the sort of figure I encountered many times in my academic career: someone who masks his lack of substance with a big smile, jokes (sometimes mean jokes at the expense of...

The Obama campaign is floundering before our eyes, even if the Obama media won't characterize it that way. From the thousands of empty seats at the Ohio campaign kickoff on Saturday and the mystery burka woman ejected from the follow-on Richmond event to today's embarrassingly incompetent press release, the Axelrod PR machine is a shadow of its 2008 mastery. Reminding the American people of the Obamas' penchant for his & her luxury vacation travel via government jets is an unforced error on Team Axelrod's part.According to report by ABC News and MSNBC, the Obama campaign took umbrage to statements made...

It has been reported that the Obama campaign this year, as in 2008, has disabled or chosen not to use AVS in screening contributions made by credit card. That doesn't sound very important. But it's evidence of a modus operandi that strikes me as thuggish. AVS stands for Address Verification System. It's the software that checks whether the name of the cardholder matches his or her address. If a campaign doesn't use AVS, it can wind up accepting contributions from phony names or accepting contributions from foreigners, both of which are illegal. The 2008 Obama campaign pocketed money from "John...

We’re trying to make this easy for any serious journalist who wants to dig into this story. Yesterday we posted the story of Bill G., a victim of the kind of credit card fraud that the Obama campaign facilitated in 2008, and is inviting again this year, by rejecting basic verification devices. Today reader Ashley Tate writes from Alpharetta, Georgia to explain:

WASHINGTON — President Obama walks into the Roosevelt Room of the White House and takes his seat around a table. The West Wing, as on most Sunday evenings, is quiet except for the tight circle of advisers who gather for a confidential briefing on his re-election. The gathering often takes place after Mr. Obama’s regular Sunday round of golf, and while the atmosphere is casual, the agenda is anything but: keeping the president immersed in what it will take to win a second term. He receives an update on how his operation is expanding in battleground states, he watches previews...

Barack Obama launched his campaign in unspectacular fashion today at Ohio State University, the largest college in the crucial swing state. A photo posted to twitter by Mitt Romney's campaign spokesman Ryan Williams reveals that the event was poorly attended. The above image, according to Williams, was taken during the President's first official campaign speech.

He’s so cool. Oops! President Barack Obama forgot about the First Lady when leaving Air Force One today at the Ohio airport. It was his first “official” campaign event of the season. Via LifeNews:....

The political world was transfixed yesterday by the Obama campaign’s release of a Web slide show called “The Life of Julia.” It takes about two minutes to get through, and its purpose is to wow American women with all the glorious government goodies they can and should claim throughout their lives — just so long as Mitt Romney doesn’t get elected and take them all away.