Fox News host calls President Obama the “Race-Baiter in Chief” following the President’s comments about Trayvon Martin.
President Obama made a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing this afternoon to talk about the Trayvon Martin case. He said he wanted to put it in a larger context, and talked a lot about race in America. We’ll have more on it soon. But the key quote right off the bat went beyond even what he said last year when he described the unarmed Florida teenager, who was shot and killed in a nighttime confrontation with a volunteer neighborhood watchman, as someone who could have been his son.
“Another way of saying that is, Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” Obama said.
Update: Here’s video of Obama’s comments.
Pennsylvania GOP chairman crows that GOP voter ID law help reduce Democratic voting last year in his state. Watch.
In an era of declining white majorities in America, Southern Republicans in charge of state legislators are moving hard while they feel they still have the chance to clamp down on the right to vote and if at all possible restrict minority voting. Here’s the latest example.
Pope offers indulgences for following him on Twitter.
Pete King says his Rand Paul is fueling his presidential ambitions.
Here’s a fascinating look at the roots of the Egyptian coup. It points to jihadi violence in the Sinai – and conflicts over how to deal with it – as the tipping point for the military’s relationship with Morsi and puts the roots of the coup well before the beginning of mass demonstrations late last month.
I wrote Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential obituary this morning and we’ve had a good back and forth with readers and on Twitter about whether my judgment is premature. Some have noted that McCain got the full force of the Bush-era immigration reform meltdown and still managed to get the nomination in 2008. Mitt Romney, even more improbably, managed to get the nomination even though he’d been the author of the policy around which the 2012 party had united in opposition. It’s worth thinking back – now with a little distance – just how amazing a fact that is.
With McCain I would say that there was a lot to John McCain before immigration reform; something you can’t say for Rubio. With Romney, well, Romney continues to defy my comprehension on both a political and ontological level, though I guess I would note that he’s not president.
But I want to expand on my original point about Rubio. It’s not simply that Rubio appears to have bet big and bet wrong on immigration reform – analogues of which McCain and Romney did too. It’s more than that. It’s that by betting wrong he’s set off a trajectory of events that cut pretty quickly toward his underlying weaknesses as a candidate. Read More
TPM Reader JL thinks I’m writing off Rubio too soon …
Josh, I think your Rubio obit is premature for a variety of reasons:
First, I think it is becoming increasingly critical to differentiate between mid-term politics and presidential year politics. Looked at it through the lens of the former, Rubio appears to be ready for last rites but through the lens of the latter I don’t think so