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Obama’s Healthcare Summit Paves Way for Democratic-Only Bill
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2010 Comment (6)Pollster John Zogby updates our weekly Obama Report Card with a grade on President Obama's performance. Zogby uses his polling, expert analysis, and interaction with major players to come up with a grade and some comments that capture how he sees the president's week ending.
John Zogby on Week 58:
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Scott Brown Trucks to D.C. From Boston
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2010 Comment (3)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Nothing's changed for Scott Brown when he drives to work, even though it's now in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol. The newly elected Massachusetts Republican senator still drives his 2005 green GMC Canyon pickup truck to the job.
Aides say that Brown has no plans to trade the truck in for a more senatorial ride. What's more, when he travels around town to events, he shoves his aides into the cluttered back seat of the mid-size truck.
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Palin as a Third-Party Candidate for President?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2010 Comment (9)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
The growth of the right-leaning tea party movement has prompted talk of a third-party challenge to President Obama and the eventual GOP nominee. The reason: If tea party activists don't like the GOP nominee, they'll bolt. Many pollsters see Sarah Palin leading that wing, though polls show voters have fallen out of love with her. "I want Sarah Palin," grins Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg. But he doesn't accept talk of a primary challenge to Obama from a moderate Democrat like Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, who shocked Washington this week by announcing his retirement.
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Obama Urged to Hold Camp David Healthcare Summit
Tweet Share on Facebook February 24, 2010 Comment (4)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Key GOP officials and Senate leadership aides, in advance of this week's health summit on the White House grounds, have suggested a possible avenue for President Obama to work toward a bipartisan deal.
Just as when former President Jimmy Carter brought warring Middle East parties to Camp David to cut a peace deal, the moderate Republican insiders are suggesting a closed-door Camp David weekend huddle where both sides can discuss and possibly agree on elements of his bill. They are hoping that Obama will raise the idea at or right after tomorrow's televised healthcare summit.
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Whispers Poll: Like Ray LaHood, Americans Hate Texting While Driving
Tweet Share on Facebook February 24, 2010 Comment (7)Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood isn't the only one who hates those who text or make calls while driving. A new Washington Whispers poll finds that texting and talking make 84 percent of you nuts.
Our Synovate-eNation poll should be a big boost to LaHood and state governments moving to place a ban on texting while driving and those also trying to bar drivers from using hand-held phones to talk on. LaHood is working with Congress on a federal texting-while-driving ban and has already barred commercial truck and bus drivers from texting at the wheel.
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Mitt Romney Does the Dirty Work
Tweet Share on Facebook February 24, 2010 Comment (11)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
"I hate to weed," is how onetime and likely future GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney opens his latest political manifesto. "I've hated it ever since my father put me to work weeding the garden at our home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan," he pens in his upcoming No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, which includes a wonky 64-point to-do list (like "Adopt dynamic regulations") for America.
Romney's dad made his kids do grunt work around the house after the family struck it rich, just to make sure they knew what it was like to get their hands dirty. "I know he worried that because my brother, sisters, and I had grown up in a prosperous family, we wouldn't understand the lessons of hard work," Romney says in what amounts to his 2012 presidential campaign theme book. "That's why he put us to work shoveling snow, raking leaves, mowing the lawn, planting the garden, and, of course, weeding—always reminding us that work would make us strong."
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Indiana’s Governor Raps Bayh for Bailing Out
Tweet Share on Facebook February 23, 2010 Comment (3)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who preaches that political foes have to drop their guard and have "adult talks" about serious issues facing the nation, today hit moderate Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh for deciding not to run for re-election because of the partisanship in Washington.
"I think it's too bad that our senator decided not to stay," said Daniels, who has worked in the Reagan and Bush administrations. "I mean I thought he provided and had the prospect of providing a lot more balance. But I think he finally decided it wasn't gonna happen."
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Gibbs Struggles to Learn Twitter
Tweet Share on Facebook February 23, 2010 Comment (3)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
So it's come to this: White House policy is being doled out in 140 characters or less, about 22 words. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who's following his staff into the world of Twitter, says it's a lot harder than it looks to stop at the mandated 140. "I do not know yet if I have tried to type one of those out where the number right next to the box didn't say 'negative' something, and then I'm trying to figure out how to shorten. There's a whole language, obviously, and typing with numbers and symbols, that has evaded me. I'm sure my son could teach me that far better than I could pick it up."
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Tom Davis: GOP on the Verge of Taking House
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2010 Comment (84)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Former Rep. Tom Davis—the Republican reporters go to for election straight talk—today joined many others predicting that the Democrats are going to get crushed in the fall midterm elections. Calling the GOP surge a "tsunami," Davis said the Republicans could "run the table" and even take control of the Senate.
While today he puts the odds of a House takeover at 50-50, he said that with unemployment expected to be stuck where it is, Democrats uninterested in coming out to vote, and Republicans "aroused and angry," a 50-to-55-seat pickup isn't crazy talk. The GOP needs 41 more to take control away from the Democrats and replace Nancy Pelosi with John Boehner as speaker.
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LaHood Seeks Federal Texting While Driving Ban
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2010 Comment (33)Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is fast becoming one of President Obama's most influential cabinet bosses, and not just because he's in charge of doling out billions of stimulus dollars. Yes, he tells Whispers, it's fun playing Santa Claus to states and cities around the nation. But his passion now is switching off that glow in the hands of so many drivers: those cellphones and BlackBerrys lit up as people text and drive—and sometimes crash and die.
"We are hooked on these machines," says LaHood, a former Illinois Republican congressman. "It's somewhat like an addiction to tobacco or alcohol," he vents.
