The Commentariat -- August 16, 2012

My latest column in the New York Times eXaminer is on Ross Douthat's post touting Paul Ryan. The NYTX front page is here.

David Plotz of Slate: in a new book, Michael Grunwald of Time argues that the Obama stimulus "has been an astonishing, and unrecognized, success." Plotz interviews Grunwald.

Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.) has an excellent piece in Salon ripping Tim Geithner.

New York Times Editors: the Pennsylvania voter ID "lawsuit was an opportunity to sweep away barriers to full citizenship. Judge [Robert] Simpson should have placed his court on record supporting the country's first principles." He didn't.

Azam Ahmed & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "A criminal investigation into the collapse of the brokerage firm MF Global and the disappearance of about $1 billion in customer money is now heading into its final stage without charges expected against any top executives."

Presidential Race

Flim-Flam Man Flip-Flop-Flip-Flop-Flips. Benjy Sarlin of TPM: Paul Ryan, in his ongoing evolution from active supporter to newfound critic of the Affordable Care Act's $716 billion in Medicare savings, now claims he actually opposed the cuts before he embraced them (and then turned against them again later).... The confusing new wrinkle is the latest example of Ryan's awkward contortions as he tries to reconcile the Romney campaign's new promise to restore the $716 billion in cuts with Ryan's previous decision to include the same exact cuts in two Republican budgets he wrote.... So the score now stands at: Ryan says he wouldn't have cut Medicare. Then Obama made those cuts. Then Ryan voted to reverse them. Then he decided to bring them back in the Republican budget. Now he opposes them and thinks they hurt seniors." Got that? There will be a test.

Greg Sargent: "In a remarkable bit of political theater, Mitt Romney carefully divulged a bit more information about his tax returns, confirming for the first time that for the past 10 years, he has paid at least 13 percent in taxes.... The problem with this response, of course, is that it only gives Dems another hook to call for the release of his returns, by challenging him to prove his claim.... Jay Rosen has dubbed the Romney effort the 'post truth campaign.' It’s also the post transparency campaign. If it works -- and it very well could work -- think of the precedent it will set." With video. ...

... Dan Amira of New York: "All it means is that his tax rate is not the thing that Romney is terrified of showing to the American public."

Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security. I flat guarantee you. -- Vice President Joe Biden, on Tuesday

Thanks to contributor MAG for calling this to our attention:

Paul Tough has a long piece in the New York Times Magazine titled "Obama & Poverty" that examines how President Obama has dealt with the issue of poverty & looks back at his work as a community organizer. CW: haven't read it yet.

** Dana Milbank: "Forgive me, but I'm not prepared to join this walk down Great Umbrage Street just yet. Yes, it’s ugly out there. But is this worse than four years ago, when Obama was accused by the GOP vice presidential nominee of 'palling around with terrorists'? Or eight years ago, when Democratic nominee John Kerry was accused of falsifying his Vietnam War record? What's different this time is that the Democrats are employing the same harsh tactics that have been used against them for so long, with so much success. They have ceased their traditional response of assuming the fetal position when attacked, and Obama's campaign is giving as good as it gets -- and then some." CW: couldn't agree more. I gagged when I read Dan Balz's stupid piece last night; I purposely didn't link it, but here it is. The gist: it's so wrong to pick on Mitt. (See also Krugman's piece on "demagoguery" below.)

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "... a group of former special operations and C.I.A. officers started a campaign Tuesday night accusing Mr. Obama of recklessly leaking information about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and other security matters to gain political advantage. The new group, called the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, using shorthand for 'operational security,' describes itself as nonpartisan, but some of its leaders have been involved in Republican campaigns and Tea Party groups. A 22-minute video ... featured on its Web site appears to be aimed squarely at the president, echoing charges made previously by Mitt Romney and other Republicans. The Obama campaign immediately compared the effort to the so-called Swift Boat advertisements against Senator John Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign."

Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: Mitt Romney claimed on Wednesday, "'Look, no one is talking about deregulating Wall Street.' Actually, Mr. Romney has made deregulation of Wall Street and 'every street' a central component of his campaign. On the regulation page of his website -- a misnomer; it's really the deregulation page -- Mr. Romney says that 'regulations function as a hidden tax on Americans' and pledges to 'tear down the vast edifice of regulations the Obama administration has imposed on the economy' by: Repealing the Affordable Care Act, repealing Dodd-Frank, amending Sarbanes-Oxley and providing multi-year lead times before companies must come into compliance with new environmental rules.'"

Paul Krugman writes an excellent post summarizing the Ryan budget plan(s). It's what you need to know.

"The Truth Has a Well-Known Demagogic Bias." Also from Krugman: what's wrong with the conventional Beltway "wisdom"? It assumes -- and asserts -- that GOP plans can't possibly be as bad as they are.

Charles Blow: "... by hammering Romney on his strength, the Obama campaign forced him to make a disastrous choice for a running mate. According to a Gallup report issued on Monday, the response to the Ryan pick 'is among the least positive reactions to a vice presidential choice Gallup has recorded in recent elections.' Score one for Team Obama."

Angie Holan of PolitiFact: "While the [Obama] health care law reduces the amount of future spending growth in Medicare, the law doesn't actually cut Medicare. Savings come from reducing money that goes to private insurers who provide Medicare Advantage programs, among other things. The money wasn't 'robbed.' We rated the statement Mostly False." There's more detail here. ...

... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic also has a simple explanation of a somewhat complex Mediscare flim-flam: "Obama takes money away from the health care industry and uses it to help people pay their medical bills. Some of those people include seniors already getting help with their drug bills and free preventative care. Ryan and, by implication, Romney takes the same money from the health care industry. But they also take away those new benefits for seniors, even as they find room in their tight budgets to cut taxes for the wealthy." ...

... Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "... Mitt Romney's new promise to restore the Medicare cuts made by President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law could backfire if he's elected.... By repealing [the cuts] Romney would move the insolvency date of the [Medicare] program closer, toward the end of what would be his first term in office.... Obama's cuts were not directly aimed at Medicare's 48 million beneficiaries; instead they affect hospitals, insurers, nursing homes, drug companies and other service providers. Simply undoing the cuts ... would cause Medicare to spend money faster."

... Here's another guy explaining the differences. He's pretty good at it:

... Gail Collins, as usual, isn't very serious. But she gets at one important point: "Ryan's passion for health care cost-cutting is actually not directed at Medicare so much as Medicaid. The seniors who could really take a hit would be the ones in nursing homes who've already run through their own savings." CW: for some reason (Ayn Rand), that guy really has it in for poor people.

Halimah Abdullah of CNN: Speaking to Brit Hume of Fox "News," Paul Ryan goes all wobbly & fuzzy on budget figures.

Tim Egan: "... the true Romney is a phantom -- lost long ago to reinventions and calculations."

What She Said. We have been very transparent to what's legally required of us. There's going to be no more tax releases given. It will only give them more ammunition. There's nothing we're hiding. -- Ann Romney

What She Meant. The lawyers tell us nobody can make us release our returns, so I told Mitt he's releasing those returns over my dead body. The travesties in those returns would bury Mitt. We're not hiding anything -- we're hiding everything. It's our turn, for Pete's sake. -- Ann Romney

There's nothing we're hiding. We just don't want Obama to see our returns because there's plenty of ammunition in them to bury Mitt. (Or something like that.) -- Ann Romney

Here's our next Treasury Secretary Erskine Bowles praising Paul Ryan:

     ... Eric Pfeiffer of Yahoo! News: "A video of former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles began circulating in conservative news outlets today. In the clip, the Democratic co-chair of President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform gives high praises to Paul Ryan's budget plan.... The video was shot on September 8, 2011, but was just uploaded to YouTube yesterday. What's striking is that not only does Bowles, a former U.S. Senate candidate from North Carolina, praise Ryan's effort, but he is also highly critical of the budget offered by President Obama." ...

      ... CW: I am apoplectic over the idea Obama might nominate this guy -- or someone like him -- for Treasury Secretary. I hope this video at least pisses off Obama enough that Bowles is out. Anybody who praises Ryan's arithmetic prowess & calls his budget "sensible, straightforward, honest, serious" is a full-blown idiot who probably can't balance a checkbook, much less a federal budget.

Andy Borowitz found a leaked memo from Romney to Ryan.

Congressional Races

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Jolted by concerns over the wave of Medicare-themed Democratic attacks sparked by Paul Ryan's vice presidential nomination, House Speaker John Boehner held a Tuesday evening conference call aimed at soothing jittery Republican members...." ...

... Ed Kilgore of Washington Monthly: "Unless the jittery Members were among the four House Republicans (one of whom is retiring) who voted against Ryan's budget resolution earlier this year, instead of the 235 who voted for it, then it seems a little cowardly of them to complain about being 'tied' to a bill they voted for so recently. Since the bill represented pretty much the entire GOP agenda for this Congress, I can't imagine they didn't think it would come up on the campaign trail.... Boehner apparently advised them to get right on those talking points about Obama's massive cuts to Medicare, without mentioning they had voted for that, too, in the Ryan budget."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United Nations Security Council decided on Thursday to terminate the United Nations observer mission in Syria, where the increasingly violent rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad's government has left diplomatic peacemaking efforts paralyzed. But the Council agreed to keep a much smaller United Nations office in the country, holding out hope that a political solution was still possible."

Arizona Republic: "As young undocumented immigrants on Wednesday celebrated the start of a new federal program allowing them to apply to stay and work temporarily in the United States, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer issued an executive order ... that state agencies are required to deny [driver's] licenses and other public benefits to all undocumented immigrants, even those who gain approval under President Barack Obama's new 'deferred action' program.... Earlier in the day, Maricopa County Community Colleges announced that students who get work authorization through deferred action would be eligible to apply for in-state tuition, but hours later, district officials said they would reconsider the decision because of Brewer's order." CW: I hope federal marshals come after her.

Reuters: "South African riot police opened fire on striking miners armed with machetes and sticks at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine on Thursday, killing at least a dozen men in the deadliest episode of a week of union violence."

Bloomberg News: "The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits was little changed last week, bringing the average over the past month to the lowest level since late March, a sign the labor market has stabilized after employment picked up in July."

New York Times: "The government of Ecuador is prepared to allow Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to remain in its embassy in London indefinitely under a type of humanitarian protection, a government official said in Quito on Wednesday night. Mr. Assange has been holed up in the embassy for two months seeking asylum." ...

     ... Update: the story has a new lede: "Ecuador forcefully rejected British pressure to announce Thursday that it was granting political asylum to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who has been holed up for two months in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London trying to avoid extradition to Sweden." The Guardian is liveblogging the story.

AP: "The trial for an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly Fort Hood shooting has been put on hold while an appeals court considers his objections to being forcibly shaved. All court proceedings for Maj. Nidal Hasan were put on hold Wednesday. He had been scheduled to enter a plea. According to a defense motion, Hasan indicated he wanted to plead guilty for religious reasons. Hasan is an American-born Muslim."

Reuters: "The mayor of Dallas declared a state of emergency ... on Wednesday to combat the spread of West Nile virus infections.... There have been more cases of West Nile virus reported so far this year than any year since the disease was first detected in the United States in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control said on its website."

AP: "As Gen. William 'Kip' Ward traveled around the world as the head of the military's U.S. Africa Command, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in excessive hotel costs and allowed unauthorized family members to travel on his government plane, according to a Pentagon investigation. Ward ... is facing possible demotion for the alleged lavish spending.... It was not immediately clear whether Ward also could face criminal charges."

The Commentariat -- August 15, 2012

My column in the New York Times eXaminer is a two-fer, debunking both Joe Nocera's column & Roger Cohen's. What a couple of ignoramuses. The NYTX front page is here.

Mitt Romney Will Give You Bedsores. Really. Julie Creswell & Reed Abelson of the New York Times: "... profits at the health care industry giant HCA, which controls 163 hospitals from New Hampshire to California, have soared, far outpacing those of most of its competitors. The big winners have been three private equity firms -- including Bain Capital, co-founded by Mitt Romney..., that bought HCA in late 2006.... Among the secrets to HCA's success: It figured out how to get more revenue from private insurance companies, patients and Medicare by billing much more aggressively for its services than ever before; it found ways to reduce emergency room overcrowding and expenses; and it experimented with ways to reduce the cost of medical staff, a move that sometimes led to conflicts with doctors and nurses over concerns about patient care." Thanks to contributor Calyban for the link.

Presidential Race

** Nicholas Cafardi, former dean of Duquesne University's School of Law, in a Catholic Reporter commentary, argues that President Obama is far more pro-life than is Mitt Romney. Cafardi makes some shocking charges against Romney that make this opinion piece a must-read. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Maureen Dowd: Paul Ryan is "the cutest package that cruelty ever came in.... Who better to rain misery upon the heads of millions of Americans? ... Like Mitt Romney, Ryan truly believes he made it on his own, so everyone else can, too. He shrugs off the advantage of starting as the white guy from an affluent family, able to breeze into a summer internship for a Wisconsin Republican senator as a college student.... [CW: his uncle got him the job.] People who intend to hurt other people should wipe the smile off their faces."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Representative Paul D. Ryan's budget blueprint assumes the same amount of Medicare savings as President Obama's health care law, even though Mitt Romney and Mr. Ryan have said those cuts would be devastating to millions of older Americans on Medicare." ...

... Pear doesn't explain this very well. Ezra Klein does a little better, but it's still confusing. Right now, both Obama & RR take about $700BB from Medicare. The difference -- until Romney & Ryan change their minds -- is that Obama re-invests the $$ in other healthcare spending, while RR claim they will use it to pay down the deficit -- which is the same thing as saying it's gone. (Actually, they'll probably spend it on defense contractors.) Oh. And RR are flim-flamming the public. Which goes without saying. ...

... The Secret Plan. Juliet Lapidos of the New York Times has no idea where Romney stands on Medicare. That would be because Romney refuses to say. ...

... CW: news reports suggest Romney decided on Ryan weeks ago, yet he still hasn't come up with a phony, slick way to "explain" how gutting Medicare is really saving it, he & Ryan are in complete agreement, and blah blah. Since Medicare is a major issue, especially for the GOP old fogey base, this is stunning evidence of Romney's inability to govern even himself. As we keep saying, there is something wrong with that guy. ...

... The Secret Plan, Ctd. Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post: "The Romney campaign is willing to discuss its proposals on taxes 'in the light of day,' vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said Tuesday evening -- just not until after the election."

The Obama campaign responds to the RR's false claims about Medicare with this Web video:

Alexander Burns of Politico: "Mitt Romney leveled his harshest criticism of President Obama's reelection campaign to date in Ohio Tuesday, declaring that Obama should 'take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago.'" CW: I'm not sure how vilifying a major American city is good campaign strategy, by Willard works in mysterious ways. ...

... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "The Obama campaign's response -- an emailed statement from Press Secretary Ben LaBolt -- was simple and to the point: 'Governor Romney's comments tonight seemed unhinged, and particularly strange coming at a time when he's pouring tens of millions of dollars into negative ads that are demonstrably false.' ...

... Maggie Haberman of Politico: "Vice President Joe Biden dug in when it came to apologizing for his earlier remark, made at a Virgina campaign event where the AP described the crowd as having a couple hundred African-American attendees, about Republicans and Wall Street wanting to put 'y'all back in chains.'" Biden's clarification:

... Here's what Congressman Ryan said. He said, 'We believe a renewed commitment to limited government will unshackle our economy.' The Speaker of the House said, used the word 'unshackled' as well, referring to their proposals. The last time these guys unshackled the economy, to use their term, they put the middle class in shackles.... I'm using their own words. I got a message for them. If you want to know what's outrageous, it's their policies and the effects of their policies on middle class America.

... David Edwards of Raw Story: John Sununu, "the chairman of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's national steering committee, on Tuesday angrily shouted for [Soledad O'Brien] a CNN anchor to 'put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead' after she tried to fact check Republican claims about Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) plan to overhaul Medicare." CW: Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. Sununu's problem? He can't handle the truth. Watch the exchange. O'Brien demonstrates what journalists are supposed to do -- Bob Schieffer, David Gregory, et al., are you watching?:

Later, O'Brien fact-checked Romney, Sununu, et al.:

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "On the stump, Mr. Romney has spent most of the last year condemning Washington, describing himself as an outsider who would shake up the Capitol and bring a consultant's eye and private-sector experience to the operations of government.... '[Romney] really prides the fact that he never spent a day in Washington and now he’s picked a guy as his V.P. who has never spent a day out of it, in his adult life,' [Obama campaign strategist David] Axelrod said. ...

** ... "Paul Ryan Didn't Build That." Sally Kohn of Salon: "Paul Ryan is a living, breathing GOP example of how public infrastructure and private entrepreneurship work hand-in-hand. Paul Ryan's great-grandfather started a construction company to build railroads and, eventually, highways." The projects the Ryan companies worked on were government-funded. "A current search of Defense Department contracts suggests that 'Ryan Incorporated Central' has had at least 22 defense contracts with the federal government since 1996, including one from 1996 worth $5.6 million.... Paul Ryan very directly and very significantly benefited from the federal spending he now rails against." ...

... Charles Pierce: Ryan's "entire life, and the history of his entire family, makes a lie out of everything the man has said in his political career, and a sham out of every policy position he purports to hold."

Paul Campos in Salon on Erskine Bowles -- admirer of Paul Ryan -- v. Paul Krugman for Treasury Secretary. CW: I wrote to both the campaign & the White House on the Bowles rumor. I got back an inappropriate form letter from the campaign & nada from the WH.

Ha Ha. Michael Linden of the Center for American Progress poses 5 budget questions for the Mittster. What the questions point to is the absolute, positive, total, complete failure of R-money/R-ayn's figures to come within a trillion dollars of adding up.

Fox "News": "Fact Check: Ryan budget plan doesn't actually slash the budget. Here are a few little-known facts about Paul Ryan's supposedly slash-and-burn budget plan.

• Government spending increases almost every year over the next decade. 
• Tax and other revenue rises year after year.   
• The 10-year deficit is still $3 trillion. 

     ... CW: took me a little while to get this up. I fainted when I read the source.

Sam Baker of The Hill: "Rep. Paul Ryan’s record on abortion and contraception could help widen a gender gap that is already hurting Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in several key states.... Romney and Ryan have both staked out staunchly conservative positions on abortion. Ryan, who is Catholic, opposes abortion except when the life of the mother is at risk. Romney believes in additional exceptions for rape and incest.

Bryan Bender & Brian MacQuarrie of the Boston Globe: "In 2009, as Rep. Paul D. Ryan was railing against President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package as a 'wasteful spending spree,' he wrote at least four letters to Obama's secretary of energy asking that millions of dollars from the program be granted to a pair of Wisconsin conservation groups...."

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: Paul Ryan has "... close ties to the donors and activists who have channeled Tea Party anger into a $400 million political machine, financed by a network of conservative and libertarian donors that now rivals, and occasionally challenges, the Republican establishment behind Mr. Romney. Mr. Ryan is one of a very few elected officials who have attended the Kochs' biannual conferences, where wealthy donors sit in on seminars on runaway government spending and the myths of climate change.... He ... spent his formative years immersed in the Republican Party's supply-side wing, working for lawmakers and conservative policy advocates like Jack Kemp. He has appeared for years at rallies, town hall meetings, and donor briefings for groups like the Club for Growth ... and Americans for Prosperity."

Atlas Shuddered. Prof. Jennifer Burns in a New York Times op-ed: Paul "Ryan is ... what [Ayn Rand] called 'a conservative in the worst sense of the word.' As a woman in a man's world, a Jewish atheist in a country dominated by Christianity and a refugee from a totalitarian state, Rand knew it was not enough to promote individual freedom in the economic realm alone. If Mr. Ryan becomes the next vice president, it wouldn't be her dream come true, but her nightmare."

Congressional Races

See also today's Ledes.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "The fight over Medicare ... is rapidly intensifying in House and Senate races around the nation after the selection of Representative Paul D. Ryan as the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Congressional Democrats and some analysts say that development could transform the fight for control of Congress, given his role as the author of a House-approved budget plan that would reshape Medicare."

Frank Newport of Gallup: "Ten percent of Americans in August approve of the job Congress is doing, tying last February's reading as the lowest in Gallup's 38-year history of this measure. Eighty-three percent disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job."

News Ledes

ABC News: "Ecuadorean officials said today that they would announce their final decision on whether to grant asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange tomorrow, but also claimed that the British government had threatened to raid the country's London embassy to get Assange back."

Welcome, Kids. The Future Thanks You. New York Times: "Long lines of illegal immigrants hoping for the opportunity to stay in the United States without fear of being deported stretched for blocks in cities around the country on Wednesday as they sought to apply for a new federal initiative that allows young immigrants to defer deportation."

Washington Post: "A security guard at the Family Research Council was shot and wounded Wednesday morning after a scuffle with a man who expressed disagreement with the group's conservative views in the lobby of the group's headquarters in downtown Washington, authorities said."

New York Times: "A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday refused to grant an injunction on a new voter identification law that Democrats say could harm President Obama's re-election chances by unfairly targeting minorities, college students and others in a key swing state.... The American Civil Liberties Union is expected to appeal the decision to the State Supreme Court, which is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. A tie would affirm the law."

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Tommy Thompson won a fierce Republican primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday on the theme of electability, as voters agreed with the former governor's claim that he represented the best chance to win the seat in November and help the GOP regain control of the Senate."

Hartford Courant: "Linda McMahon, the former CEO of wrestling juggernaut WWE<, once again won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, crushing former Congressman Christopher Shays by a 3-to-1 ratio."

Miami Herald: "Democrat incumbent Bill Nelson easily won his primary challenge Tuesday, advancing his bid for a third term in the U.S. Senate to the Nov. 6 general election when he'll face conservative Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV...." ...

... AP: "Veteran Republican Rep. John Mica turned back a challenge from tea party freshman Rep. Sandy Adams in their Florida GOP primary Tuesday, but in a surprise, another longtime GOP congressman, Cliff Stearns, was trailing his tea party challenger in the state. Political newcomer and veterinarian Ted Yoho was ahead of Stearns, a 12-term lawmaker, by less than 900 votes.... Yoho's anti-incumbent campaign was helped by a television ad that had actors dressed as politicians in suits eating from a trough alongside pigs and throwing mud at each other." ...

... Palm Beach Post: "Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West and Democrat Patrick Murphy will square off in the Nov. 6 general election for a Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional seat after winning Tuesday primaries...."

Washington Post: "The Obama administration will kick off one of the most sweeping changes in immigration policy in decades Wednesday, allowing an estimated 1.7 million young undocumented immigrants to apply for the temporary right to live and work openly in the United States without fear of deportation..... On Tuesday, officials surprised advocacy groups by posting the application forms online one day early. Advocates across the country are planning workshops Wednesday...."

New York Times: "Standard Chartered, the British bank, has agreed to pay New York's top banking regulator $340 million to settle claims that it laundered hundreds of billions of dollars in tainted money for Iran and lied to regulators."

The Commentariat -- August 14, 2012

** Kim Barker of ProPublica: "Two conservative nonprofits, Crossroads GPS and Americans for Prosperity, have poured almost $60 million into TV ads to influence the presidential race so far, outgunning all super PACs put together, new spending estimates show. These nonprofits, also known as 501(c)(4)s or c4s for their section of the tax code, don't have to disclose their donors to the public.... Crossroads GPS ... is the brainchild of GOP strategist Karl Rove, and spent an estimated $41.7 million. Americans for Prosperity ... is backed in part by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, and spent an estimated $18.2 million."

** Joe Stiglitz & Mark Zandi, in a New York Times op-ed: "Housing remains the biggest impediment to economic recovery, yet Washington seems paralyzed.... A mass refinancing program would work like a potent tax cut.... Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, has proposed a remedy.... Mr. Merkley's plan would speed the healing."

Ernesto Londoño of the Washington Post: in a few short weeks, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has defied predictions by standing up to the military & restoring the power of the presidency.

First Lady Michelle Obama on healthcare reform. You can see other segments of her Leno interview here:

Presidential Race

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "President Obama came out swinging at Mitt Romney's running mate on Monday, accusing Representative Paul D. Ryan of standing in the way of aid to farmers and ranchers who have been hurt by the severe drought."

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Representative Paul D. Ryan received a raucous baptism into public speaking as a vice-presidential candidate, State Fair-style, when he encountered determined hecklers on his first day of solo campaigning." ...

... Dana Milbank went to the fair, & -- watching Ryan attempting to speak -- realized why Romney had chosen him: "Ryan is almost as awkward as Romney."

Jonathan Chait of New York: "The non-extremist defense of Ryan is that his extremist plan is a 'negotiating' position designed to lead to a bipartisan fiscal adjustment with tax and entitlement reform. But literally nothing in his actual record (as opposed to his rhetoric) supports this interpretation." ...

... Garance Franke-Ruta of The Atlantic looks at Paul Ryan's so-called "legislative career" -- during his Congressional career, he has sponsored a total of two bills that passed into law, one naming the Janesville post office & the other changing tax policy on arrows (he's a bow hunter). It is a "... symptom of the corruption and divisiveness of contemporary Washington that a man who has not passed a single piece of substantive legislation, ever, can be hailed as a substantive and deep thinker and the voice of budgetary sanity while racking up an actual record consisting overwhelmingly of renaming post offices, honoring Ronald Reagan and Wisconsin, providing for the issuance of commemorative coins, and increasing the deficit through massive tax cuts.... [He has been] a force for gridlock and the sort of legislative failure that has come to characterize the 112th Congress.... Since he took over the chair of the House Budget Committee, the budgeting process has been even more of a mess than usual."

A Really Scary Thing about Paul Ryan I Didn't Know. Matthew O'Brien of The Atlantic: "Ryan is scared of the inflation monster under his bed.... He thinks that trying to bring down unemployment will unleash the inflation monster -- and that's why he wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal back in May of 2008 calling on Congress to revoke the Fed's dual mandate to target both low inflation and low unemployment.... He has sharply criticized Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke for printing money, and issued melodramatic (and incorrect) predictions about 'currency debasement.' ... Where did Paul Ryan get such a truly nutty idea?" Literally, literally, from Ayn Fucking Rand.

Gene Robinson: "Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate underscores the central question posed by this campaign: Should cold selfishness become the template for our society, or do we still believe in community? ... At least three times in recent days..., Romney has told campaign audiences...: 'When a young person makes the honor roll, I know he took a school bus to get to the school, but I don't give the bus driver credit for the honor roll.' ... What I hear Romney saying, and I suspect many others will also hear, is that the little people don't contribute and don't count."

Holly Bailey of Yahoo! News: "Speaking to reporters on the tarmac outside his campaign plane at [Miami International A]irport, Romney repeatedly declined to get into the specifics of where he and Ryan differ on federal budget proposals. Asked specifically to say where he disagrees with Ryan, Romney twice dodged the question."

Jeff Spross of Think Progress: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) is pushing back against Mitt Romney's claim that he and Paul Ryan "co-led a piece of legislation to make sure we can save Medicare." Wyden issued a statement, which reads in part, "I did not 'co-lead a piece of legislation.' I wrote a policy paper on options for Medicare. Several months after the paper came out I spoke and voted against the Medicare provisions in the Ryan budget. Governor Romney needs to learn you don;t protect seniors by makings things up, and his comments today sure won't help promote real bipartisanship."

Catalina Camia of USA Today: "Americans don't believe GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney hit a home run with his choice of Paul Ryan as a running mate, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, with more of the public giving him lower marks than high ones. Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, is seen as only a 'fair' or 'poor' choice by 42% of Americans vs. 39% who think he is an 'excellent' or 'pretty good' vice presidential choice."

** Alec MacGillis: if Romney and "Sad Paul" get away with their lies while pretending to take the high ground, blame the press, which is unable to distinguish between a bald-faced lie and innuendo. ...

     ... CW: much has been made of the fact that members of focus groups, conducted by Democrats, just couldn't believe Ryan's budget was as draconian as it really is. Maybe, just maybe that is because the public reads/listens to the MSM, and the MSM simply won't tell the truth about Republican policies. ...

... Paul Krugman: The Ryan pick "is ... about exploiting the gullibility and vanity of the news media.... Ryan has a completely undeserved reputation in the media as a bluff, honest guy, in Ryan's case supplemented by a reputation as a serious policy wonk. None of this has any basis in reality.... So, a memo to the news media: you have now become players in this campaign, not just reporters. Mitt Romney isn't seeking a debate on the issues; on the contrary, he's betting that your gullibility and vanity will let him avoid a debate on the issues, including the issue of his own fitness for the presidency. I guess we'll see if it works." ...

** ... Matt Miller of the Washington Post: "The striking thing about Paul Ryan's ascent is the gulf between his proposals and the way the media have characterized them. Since Mitt Romney named Ryan to the ticket on Saturday, the news has been filled with talk of the 'fiscal conservative' (NPR) 'intent on erasing deficits' (New York Times) who has become 'the intellectual heart of the Republican Party’s movement to slash deficits' ( The Post). All of this is demonstrably false."

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic on the Romney-Ryan "cynical Medicare Strategy." It's complicated, but among other things, "... the Romney campaign is attacking a proposal that Romney and his allies endorse." The difference: where ObamaCare moves $$ from Medicare to other healthcare cost savings, Ryan takes the money & runs.

Dylan Byers of Politico: "The Commission on Presidential Debates has decided on the moderators for this year's debates." As Jeanne B. writes, why not Rachel Maddow?

It Don't Begin Til the Fat Boy Sings. AP: "Chris Christie, the sometimes abrasive but always entertaining governor of New Jersey, is set to be announced Tuesday as the keynote speaker for the Republicans' national convention later this month." ...

... CW: Democrats, in a move of monumental idiocy, decided to hold their convention at a little place called Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina (a "right-to-work" state, the better to infuriate unions). The DNC thinks it can get around acknowledgment of some of its monumental idiocy by not calling it BoA Stadium. Oh, and by finally getting around to moving its money out of BoA & into Amalgamated Bank, "which is the only union-owned bank in the United States."

Congressional Races

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "It only took two hours after the Paul Ryan vice presidential announcement for Republican congressional candidates to get their talking points on how to spin the Ryan budget and Medicare attacks. 'Do not say: "entitlement reform," "privatization," "every option is on the table," the National Republican Congressional Committee said in an email memo. 'Do say: "strengthen," "secure," "save," "preserve," "protect." ... The internal email ... was a clear and immediate sign that Republicans knew Ryan could create trouble down ballot for GOP candidates in tight congressional races." ...

... Cameron Joseph & Alexandra Jaffe of The Hill: "Republicans strategists are worried that Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) addition to the presidential ticket will cost their party House and Senate seats this fall. Their concern: Democrats will successfully demonize Ryan's budget plan, which contains controversial spending cuts and changes to Medicare."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, denied on Tuesday a report on the Web site of The Guardian that he had decided to grant asylum to the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, who is holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. 'Rumor of asylum for Assange is false,' Mr. Correa said in a post on his Twitter account. 'There is still no decision.'"

New York Times: "Syria's former prime minister, [Riyad Farid Hijab,] who defected to Jordan last week, appeared in public on Tuesday for the first time since his escape, telling a news conference that the government of President Bashar al-Assad was collapsing and controlled no more than 30 percent of its territory."

New York Times: "A new release of stolen corporate e-mails by WikiLeaks has set off a flurry of concern and speculation around the world about a counterterrorist software program called TrapWire, which analyzes images from surveillance cameras and other data to try to identify terrorists planning attacks.