Here are ten things you need to know today.
- Sunday show line-up: Vice President Joe Biden will be on NBC News’s Meet the Press; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will be on Fox News Sunday; Newt Gingrich, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) and former Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) will be on CNN’s State of the Union; Senior Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will be on ABC News’ This Week; Newt Gingrich, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Howard Dean and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will be on CBS News’s Face the Nation.
- Obama takes on Romney at first campaign rally: President Obama, who hasn’t been mentioning his opponent by name, went directly after Mitt Romney Saturday with his official campaign kick-off rally in Ohio. Obama said that Romney has “drawn the wrong lessons” from his success. “Somehow he and his friends in Congress think that the same bad ideas will lead to a different result, or they are just hoping you won’t remember what happened the last time we tried it their way.”
- Still about ‘hope’ and ‘change’: In Ohio Saturday, President Obama hit back at Republicans’ new slogan, “Hype and Blame,” a spin-off of his 2008 campaign’s “hope and change.” “If people ask you what this campaign is about, you tell them it’s still about hope. You tell them it’s still about change,” Obama said. “You tell them it’s still about ordinary people who believe that in the face of great odds, we can make a difference in the life of this country.”
- Gary Johnson accepts Libertarian Party nomination: On Saturday, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination this cycle, accepted the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination. That means Johnson will be on the ballot in all 50 states. He won with over 70 percent of the votes at the party’s convention.
- Johnson slams GOP over Grenell exit: Gary Johnson, fresh off of winning the Libertarian Party’s nomination, criticized Republicans for the resignation of Richard Grenell, the openly gay foreign policy and national security spokesman who resigned from the campaign. Several reports have said Grenell resigned after being kept out of the spotlight due to pressure from social conservatives upset about his role in the campaign. “It speaks volumes to the intolerance that continues to be present in the Republican Party,” Johnson told BuzzFeed. “That intolerance is why the world vilifies Republicans.”
- Schwarzenegger calls out GOP’s ideological rigidity: In an op-ed in the LA Times, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized those in his party who “aren’t even willing to have conversations about protecting the environment, investing in the infrastructure America needs or improving healthcare,” he writes. “It’s time to stop thinking of the Republican Party as an exclusive club where your ideological card is checked at the door.”
- Paul shakes up Maine convention: Ron Paul supporters took over Maine’s GOP convention on Saturday. “Despite pre-emptive efforts by state party Chairman Charlie Webster, Paul’s highly organized volunteers and supporters took over the proceedings at the Augusta Civic Center,” reports the Portland Press Herald. It’s still unclear how many delegates to Tampa will be Paul backers. This is part of a larger national effort of the Paul campaign to influence the national convention.
- Obama holds bi-monthly campaign meetings: President Obama holds campaign meetings with senior White House and campaign officials twice a month on Sundays at the White House, reports CNN. The meetings include a review of TV ads and general developments.
- RNC uses Obama rally footage in new video: The RNC juxtaposes footage from President Obama’s 2008 run with his campaign launch rally in Ohio Saturday in a new web video to push the point that Obama hasn’t performed up to his own standards of success. The video’s theme is that we are not better off than we were four years ago.
- Romney versus Obama rallies: There are key differences between a Romney and Obama rally. The size of the rallies, the diversity of the crowd, and the activity surrounding the rallies look very different between the two opponents as the general election gets underway.
