The Commentariat -- March 10, 2012

President Obama's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here. Ann Gearan of the AP: "President Barack Obama is hitting back at Republican criticism of his energy policies and his role in controlling gasoline prices. Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to underscore his administration's work to develop alternative energy sources and increase fuel efficiency.... He accused Republicans of a 'bumper sticker' approach to solving the nation's energy problems."

I've brought this forward from yesterday, as I submitted my column late yesterday. By popular request (see yesterday's Comments), I've written a column for the New York Times eXaminer, incorporating the wisdom of Gemli. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...

     ... Update: here's the new trailer for the film "On the Road":

Nicholas Kulish & Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "The International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, who is French, finds herself on a collision course with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, posing a test for the unusually close relationship between the two leaders. They have opposing stances on how much money is need to protect vulnerable economies, and how it should be raised."

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The fragile gains Republicans had been making among female voters have been erased, a shift that has coincided with what has become a national shouting match over reproductive issues, potentially handing President Obama and the Democrats an enormous advantage this fall." ...

... Gail Collins: "Every time a state considers a 'personhood' amendment that would give a fertilized egg the standing of a human being, outlawing some forms of fertility treatment and common contraceptives, it reinforces the argument that the current abortion debate is actually about theology, not generally held national principles. And ... every time we have one of those exciting discussions about the Limbaugh theory on making women who get health care coverage for contraception broadcast their sex lives on the Internet, the more the Republican Party loses votes, money, sympathy — you name it."

President Obama spoke at the Rolls Royce engine manufacturing plant in Petersburg, Virginia, yesterday:

New York Times Editors: "The oceans have always served as a sink for carbon dioxide, but the burning of fossil fuels since the beginning of the industrial revolution, especially over the last 40 years, has given them more than they can safely absorb. The result is acidification — a change in the chemical balance that threatens the oceans’ web of life." CW: sounds like a hoax to me. God would never let this happen OR, alternatively, acidification is part of God's plan. See Jim Inhofe's Quote of the Day below.

Right Wing World

Quote of the Day. Genesis 8:22 [says] ... that 'as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.' My point is, God's still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous. -- Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla), presenting his proof that climate change is a hoax

Hey, y'all, Mitt likes them grits. He also says the federal government should run more like the Mississippi state government. CW: Yep, Mississippi is doing a great job; by per capita income, health & healthcare, & educational measures, it ranks 50th best among 50 states. But, hey, it's the most conservative (which tells you how well conservative principles translate to policy):

... Charles Blow is unimpressed with the new Cornpone Willard. "As a Southerner, I’ve never known us to find caricature endearing."

Nancy Cook of the National Journal: "One of Mitt Romney’s chief selling points as a presidential candidate is his business background and self-proclaimed ability to create jobs and boost a lagging economy.... Yet, Romney’s record from his days as Massachusetts governor paints a ... portrait ... of a politician who swept into office with big promises and a Harvard MBA but who failed to create a meaningful number of jobs for his home state and lacked a clear, concrete economic vision. Economists from Massachusetts also say Romney was never able to solve the structural problems inherent in the state’s economy — issues that now plague the country as a whole and will challenge whoever becomes president in 2013 -- such as the decline in manufacturing and the dearth of employment for less-educated, low-income workers." ...

Gov. Willard M. Aloof. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Even though he worked just a few hundred feet from them for four years, Mr. Romney displayed little interest in getting to know lawmakers and never developed real relationships with most members of the Democratic-dominated body, according to interviews with two dozen current and former lawmakers of both parties and members of the governor’s staff.... Mr. Romney wielded his veto pen as no Massachusetts governor has before or since. He issued 844 vetoes, most of which the legislature overrode, sometimes unanimously, in marathon sessions."

... Steve Benen details Willard's ten most audacious lies of the week. Why do the major media give next to no attention to Willard's unrelenting mendacity? Are they rooting for the guy? ...

... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect asks the same question.

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones anticipates a summer of racism. CW: If he's right, I think it will backfire; except for the GOP base, Americans -- including people who are, well "race-conscious" -- are disgusted by overt racism. I think it will be even worse for racists now that "race-conscious" whites are accustomed to having a black president.

Josh Israel of Think Progress: "FreedomWorks for America, the super PAC for former Rep. Dick Armey’s (R-TX) FreedomWorks USA, just released new radio and TV ads urging the defeat of longtime Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).... The new commercials note that Hatch 'voted 16 times' to raise the debt limit, allowing for $7.5 trillion of the national debt." But when Armey was in the House, he voted for more-or-less the same debt ceiling bills Hatch did. In other words, "FreedomWorks for America has invested about $500,000 into attacking Hatch for having a record that is not very different from Armey’s own." CW: purging the party of right-wing ideologues to replace them with right-wing nuts.

CW: I don't like to give Sarah Palin much attention, but what with "Game Change" being aired on HBO this weekend, we'll make an exception. Palin went on the Sean Hannity show Thursday night to assert that President Obama wants the U.S. to return to its pre-Civil War slave-holding days. I guess, like Stephen Colbert, Palin does not see skin color. That's great. And I find her charge totally credible.

Local News

** Robbie Brown of the New York Times: "The lieutenant governor of South Carolina, Ken Ard [R], resigned on Friday and pleaded guilty to criminal charges of spending campaign funds on personal expenses and fabricating donations.... Mr. Ard resigned in the morning, was indicted at 1 p.m. and then pleaded guilty at 3."

ABC News, Montgomery Alabama: the sponsor of a state senate bill requiring women seeking abortions to endure a transvaginal ultrasound screening has dropped the bill -- for now, anyway -- after protesters gathered at the State Capitol Thursday. Via the Maddow blog.

Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (RTP) has set up a legal defense fund, which suggests he is being investigated for violation of state elections laws. CW: what a shame if he were charged with or -- better yet -- convicted of -- a felony before he could be recalled.

News Ledes

Kansas holds caucuses today in the GOP presidential race. The Kansas City Star story is here. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Showing his strength among conservative voters in the heartland, Rick Santorum decisively won the Kansas caucuses on Saturday." With 99 percent of the count in, Santorum won with 51.2 percent, Romney in 2nd with 20.9 percent, Gingrich with 14.4 percent & Paul with 12.6 percent.

Ha! Guardian: "The United Nations climate chief has warned that US voters risk ceding progress to China and Europe if they opt for a presidential candidate who denies climate change. Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told an audience in London: 'The one thing [the frontrunners for the Republican candidacy] have in common is saying they do not believe in climate change, so it's very much the decision of the US electorate.'" CW: as far as I can tell, not a single U.S. news outlet has covered her remark.

The Fine Print. Reuters: "A previously announced $25 billion settlement between five major banks accused of abusive mortgage practices and government officials will be filed in federal court on Monday.... Negotiators had hoped to file a settlement on Friday, but the deal was held up at the last minute over a disagreement between Nevada and Bank of America<...."

NEW. Houston Chronicle: "Two weeks after state officials announced plans to effectively ban Planned Parenthood from a health program for low-income women, the secretary of Health and Human Services confirmed in Houston Friday that federal funding for the program in Texas will end."

Guardian: "Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 14 people in an escalation of the worst clashes with Palestinian militants so far this year. The strikes began on Friday, when Israeli air raids killed the senior militant leader Zohair al-Qaisi, the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC). Israel claimed he was targeted because he was planning an attack." Haaretz story here.

Reuters: "U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday to press for a political solution to Syria's year-long uprising, but violence raged on with a major army assault on the northwestern city of Idlib." Al Jazeera story here. And here's Al Jazeera's liveblog on Syria. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "High-level diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting in Syria yielded mixed results on Saturday as President Bashar al-Assad shut the door on any immediate negotiations with the opposition and escalated a new military assault on the city of Idlib. Mr. Assad told the United Nations envoy Kofi Annan that such talks would be fruitless as long as “terrorist groups” were operating in the country."

Reuters: "Several thousand Russians gathered in central Moscow on Saturday for a rally seen as a test of the opposition's ability to mount a sustained challenge to President-elect Vladimir Putin."

The Commentariat -- March 9, 2012

NEW. By popular request (see today's Comments), I've written a column for the New York Times eXaminer, incorporating the wisdom of Gemli. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...

The threats to women’s health care are very real, and they are only growing. We saw it on a panel on birth control in the House -- that didn’t include any women. We saw it in a young woman being called horrible names for telling the story of a friend in need. We see it in Republican efforts to allow a woman’s employer to dictate her access to birth control, and we are seeing it in state laws all across the country aimed at stripping women of their rights and so much more. On this International Women’s Day we celebrate our gains with the clear understanding that they must always be defended. We join with women everywhere to ensure that progress is not reversed. -- Patty Murray (D-Wash.), on the Senate floor yesterday ...

... Michelle Obama honors International Women of Courage:

... George Zornick of The Nation: "With most major media outlets covering International Women’s Day, Republicans on one House Judiciary subcommittee ... are holding a hearing on the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, which would make it a crime for anyone other than a parent to accompany a young woman across state lines for abortion care. Anti-choice groups have already been very successful in limiting abortion clinics to select geographic areas, and this bill would make it harder for young women to access the services that do exist. NARAL Pro-Choice America is strongly opposed to the bill.... This bill, or some version of it, has been introduced in each Congress for the past fifteen years. The American Medical Association and many other major health care groups oppose the measure, because they view it as a roadblock to confidential access to physicians. House Republicans have picked a pretty bad day to make the push again." ...

... Proud to Be Misogynists! Steve Benen: "Rank-and-file House Republicans still want a vote on their own version of the Blunt Amendment, called the 'Respect for Rights of Conscience Act,' championed by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R) of Nebraska. Most of the House GOP is already co-sponsoring the bill, and many still expect a floor vote, Senate opposition, and Republican leaders' squeamishness, notwithstanding."

The Tennessean: "Former U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis said he and his wife Lynda were denied the right to vote Tuesday in his Fentress County hometown." Davis was not offered a provisional ballot, but later "someone" called him at home & told him he [and presumably, his wife] could cast a provisional ballot." Davis said, "I’m a former member of Congress, state senator, House member, mayor and all my life, I’ve been involved in the community, coaching Little League, participating in Boy Scouts and serving on boards here, and I’m denied the right to vote. It just doesn’t make sense.” CW: That's funny; the board of elections can find his phone number but they don't know where he lives??? The article doesn't say so, but Davis is a Democrat. Are we all surprised? Thanks to Dave S. for the link. ...

      ... AP Update: some elections official apologized to Davis. "it was a clerical error." CW: Gosh, I wonder how many "clerical errors" will be made November 6? ...

      ... Keith Olbermann interviews Lincoln Davis:

This is a disguise -- smoke and mirrors for a poll tax for the elderly and the disabled, regardless of the race, and for those who are dependent on public transportation. We're going back to the Jim Crow days. -- Texas State Sen. Mario Gallegos (D) on the new Texas voter ID law ...

... Lisa Olsen of the Houston Chronicle: "The state's contested voter ID law could provoke widespread complications in the upcoming presidential elections, with as many as 18 percent of all registered voters across Texas apparently lacking state government-issued photo IDs to match their voter registration cards.... The findings come from documents submitted by the state to the U.S. Department of Justice as part of an ongoing review of the new voter ID law.... The law appears to most heavily impact voters in 20 of Texas' majority Hispanic counties. In nine of those counties, 40 percent or more of registered voters did not perfectly match 2012 DPS data...." CW: Gov. Rick Perry (RTP) & AG Greg Abbott (R) say the law is necessary to prevent voter fraud. How much voter fraud has been detected? The article doesn't say, but assuming Texas is typical -- the answer is next to none. And for this, 40 percent of registered voters in some counties may be denied the right to vote. ...

... Rachel Maddow has a good wrap-up of the GOP's nationwide effort to suppress the vote:

** Andrew Delbanco of Columbia University writes a terrific op-ed in the New York Times on what "elite" colleges should be doing not just to improve their images but to improve their curricula.

Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "President Obama has begun embracing housing policies that administration officials earlier thought unwise or unworkable as he embarks on his most aggressive push to address the nation’s foreclosure crisis and depressed real estate market since the first months of his tenure.... By addressing housing with such force lately, Obama has been able to draw a contrast with his Republican presidential rivals, who generally have favored a hands-off approach to the foreclosure crisis. He has also been able to salve wounds in his relationship with liberals." CW: Obama is not doing all that well with cynics who see this as an election-year ploy.

Amanda Beadle of Think Progress: Rush Limbaugh has scrubbed the transcripts of his shows in which he disparaged Sandra Fluke. ...

... Mark Judkis of the Washington Post: "The 'Hall of Famous Missourians' may not be the only place that will soon be decorated with a Rush Limbaugh sculpture: ... the sculpture will be available in an edition of six.... Collectors will be able to purchase one of the six Limbaugh sculptures cast in the same mold, for approximately $15,000."

Mary Clare Jalonick of the AP: "E-mails obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act don't contradict Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's assertion that he alone made the decision to oust [Shirley] Sherrod over a speech initially determined to have been racist. But they do show that White House officials were closely involved in the process from the first minutes the scandal began to emerge, offering advice and counsel to Agriculture officials." CW: from what I read, the White House looks better than the USDA; at least somebody in the WH said, "Hey, maybe we should look at the whole tape before we whack this woman."

Charlie Savage & the New York Times keep on keeping on trying to get hold of the memo authorizing the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) -- who surely has national ambitions -- on why it's a big mistake to vote for guys like the one sitting right next to him:

Ilyse Hogue of The Nation on Rep. Chellie Pingree's (D-Maine) decision not to run for the Senate because an "Independent" man decided to make it a three-way race. "... forcing [women's] issues out of the women’s ghetto into the light of priority evidently requires more female leadership, which means that maybe it is someone else’s turn to step aside."

Right Wing World

** Paul Krugman: A "new hostility to education is shared by the social conservative and economic conservative wings of the Republican coalition, now embodied in the persons of Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney. And this comes at a time when American education is already in deep trouble.... Whenever you hear Republicans say that they are the party of traditional values, bear in mind that they have actually made a radical break with America’s tradition of valuing education. And they have made this break because they believe that what you don’t know can’t hurt them."

Unless there’s a valid, legitimate and compelling public purpose, I don’t know why the government owns so much of this land. -- Mitt Romney

Is there any long-held, much-cherished American principle that Republicans and their media outlets will not renounce? -- Tim Egan

... CW: Egan explains the "legitimate & compelling purpose," but I don't think Romney is real enough to get it. One need not be a tree-hugger to see why this man should not be put in charge of the United States. He says it all in one sentence. He does not accept the idea that serve to ordinary people is a legitimate & compelling purpose.

E. J. Dionne: "... Nixon, rival to Romney’s father in 1968..., may best explain how Mitt Romney is managing his way toward a tepid triumph.... Nixon’s political resurrection came after a period of great ideological enthusiasm ... that led to Barry Goldwater’s historically significant but electorally disastrous nomination in 1964. Nixon knew that he needed the right wing but had no illusions about how its loyalists felt about him. 'They don’t like me,' Nixon said, 'but they tolerate me.' That is the best Romney is likely to do with the Tea Partyers and the Christian conservatives and the Southerners.... But as it was for Nixon, this may be enough."

Steve Benen: Republicans' vow to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act "appears to have been rebuffed and rejected.... For one thing, repeal can't pass. For another, a vote for repeal is a vote for higher taxes on small businesses, higher prescription drug prices for seniors, fewer protections for consumers, a larger deficit, and taking health care coverage away from millions of Americans. It's not exactly a smart election-year move." ...

... AND Besides That ...  Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is continuing his long losing streak; he is a "leader" with few followers.

News Ledes

Bloomberg News: "Employers in the U.S. boosted payrolls more than forecast in February, indicating companies are growing more optimistic about the expansion. The jobless rate held at 8.3 percent. The 227,000 increase in payrolls followed a revised 284,000 gain in January.... Job growth over the last six months was the strongest since 2006."

AP: "The U.S. military signed a last-minute agreement Friday to transfer its main detention center in the country to Afghan control in six months — a key step toward a long-term pact on U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.... Friday’s agreement extends a deadline set by Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the transfer of some 3,000 Afghan detainees at the Parwan facility, a U.S.-run prison adjoining its Bagram military base...."

Reuters: "Israel has asked the United States for advanced 'bunker-buster' bombs and refueling planes that could improve its ability to attack Iran's underground nuclear sites, an Israeli official said on Thursday."

New York Times: "Greece said Friday that it had clinched a landmark debt restructuring deal with its private sector lenders. The deal clears the way for the release of bailout funds from Europe and the International Monetary Fund that will save the country from imminent default."

New York Times: "An international diplomatic effort to nudge Syria’s president toward peace talks ran into difficulties on Friday even before it got under way when the leader of the main exile opposition group was quoted as rejecting the initiative." Al Jazeera story here. Al Jazeera's liveblog on Syria is here.

Reuters: Italian "President Giorgio Napolitano led a chorus of condemnation on Friday of Britain's failure to inform the Italian government before launching a botched rescue mission with Nigerian forces that led to the deaths of British and Italian hostages held by a militant Islamist group. Briton Chris McManus and Italian Franco Lamolinara, who were kidnapped in May while working for a construction company in northwest Nigeria, were killed by their captors during the raid, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday." Guardian story here, with links to related stories.

The Commentariat -- March 8, 2012

J. D. Crowe, Mobile Register.My column in today's New York Times eXaminer looks at several New York Times op-eds that demonstrate what conservatives are doing to infringe on the rights of women, minorities, the poor & gays. They just don't quit. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.

Steve Kornacki of Salon: "It’s not just that [Limbaugh] said something awful about a 30-year-old woman who hadn’t said anything about him. It’s that he did so by way of amplifying the GOP’s message on contraception. Republicans had been taking pains to claim their objections to the Obama administration’s mandate ... were all about protecting religious liberty — that they weren’t on some puritanical crusade. With his unparalleled platform, Limbaugh has made a mockery of that idea, and he’s put a particularly nasty face on the GOP’s posturing."

Charles Pierce: No, Rush Limbaugh is not just like Bill Maher. ...

... BUT then again, maybe he is. Maher says liberals should quit picking on Rush. After all, he apologized. CW: Really?

... M. J. Lee of Politico: "At least 42 companies have pulled their ads from the 'The Rush Limbaugh Show' since the conservative talk show host called a law student a “slut” on the air last week, as the social media blitz against the popular radio program showed no signs of slowing down Wednesday."

** The War on Planned Parenthood, Lone Star Edition: Pam Belluck & Emily Ramshaw of the New York Times: More than a dozen Texas Planned Parenthood clinics have closed "after financing for women’s health was slashed by two-thirds by the Republican-controlled Legislature. The cuts, which left many low-income women with inconvenient or costly options, grew out of the effort to eliminate state support for Planned Parenthood. Although the cuts also forced clinics that were not affiliated with the agency to close — and none of them, even the ones run by Planned Parenthood, performed abortions — supporters of the cutbacks said they were motivated by the fight against abortion. Now, the same sentiment is likely to lead to a shutdown next week of another significant source of reproductive health care: the Medicaid Women’s Health Program, which serves 130,000 women with grants to many clinics.... Gov. Rick Perry and Republican lawmakers have said they would forgo the $35 million in federal money that finances the women’s health program in order to keep Planned Parenthood from getting any of it." Several other states are trying similar stunts. "Nationally, the newest target is Title X, the main federal family planning program. All four Republican presidential candidates support eliminating Title X, which was created in 1970 with Republican support from President Nixon and the elder George Bush, then a congressman."

President Obama spoke about American energy in Mount Holly, North Carolina, yesterday:

... Barack Obama, at Harvard, ca. 1990 or 1991, at a protest in support of Prof. Derek Bell:

... Tim McCown of the Philadelphia Progressive Examiner: "Today I saw the first of Andrew Breitbart's tapes of a supposedly radical Obama that (yawn) proves that yes Barack Obama did attend Harvard Law School. This is part of the supposed expose that some on the Right believe that Andrew Breitbart was killed to prevent the release of. If today's film is any indication of what is yet to come, the Coroner is going to find Andrew Breitbart likely died of boredom not some assassination plot." ...

... Here's the trailer for a 17-minute Obama campaign documentary film to be released next week. Somehow, I don't think you'll have to wait till NetFlix stocks it to see the full film:

T. W. Farnam of the Washington Post: "More than half of Obama’s 47 biggest fundraisers, those who collected at least $500,000 for his campaign, have been given administration jobs. Nine more have been appointed to presidential boards and committees." CW: I'm sure I've covered this before; I think maybe the Post has, too.

David Dayen of Firedoglake: "Chellie Pingree, the progressive member of Congress who considered running for Senate after Olympia Snowe retired, backed out of the race today. The presence of independent former Governor Angus King in the race was enough to get her to drop her plans." Dayen runs the numbers & says she made a mistake. ...

... Digby: "I tend to think it would be a good thing to have more than 16% of the elected US legislators be women. Call me wacky. Why is it always the woman who has to step aside?" Do read a least a bit of the interview transcript Digby provides. The difference between King & Sarah Palin is he wears pants & can speak in complete sentences. Their ideas are equally thoughtful. For philosophical inspiration, King Googled a speech by George Washington. It was great! Washington was worried about deficits!

Neal Broverman of the Advocate: "Three Iowa Supreme Court justices who voted to legalize same-sex marriage and were later removed from the bench by voters will be honored with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Justices Marsha Ternus, Michael Streit, and David Baker voted in 2009 to legalize same-sex marriage in Iowa, making the state the first outside of New England to offer marriage equality. A year later, a right-wing effort brought by Family Leader CEO Bob Vander Plaats helped oust the judges when they were up for a retention vote."

This veteran, who lives in Tennessee, brings up a very good point: he is being required to pay to get a copy of his birth certificate as proof of identification. Without it, he is not allowed to vote, except by provisional ballot, which may not be counted. I don't know how all the new state voter restriction laws work, but it seems apparent that some of them are operating as de facto poll taxes, which are unconstitutional:

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: Sen. Scott "Brown [R-Mass.], who will face a difficult reelection fight, probably against Harvard professor and former Obama administration official Elizabeth Warren, is working hard to define himself as a 'Massachusetts moderate.' ... Romney, meanwhile, has been working equally hard to escape that label, which his rivals for the GOP presidential nomination have used as a slur against him.... The likely result is that Brown will be forced into a delicate dance ... to distance himself from a political mentor and his state’s other most prominent Republican politician."

Right Wing World

Mitt Romney, Dangerous War Monger, Again. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a Washington Post op-ed: "While wise Republicans stress the perils of loose war talk and the value of engagement to isolate Iran, Romney seeks to create political division with an attack on the Obama administration’s Iran policy that is as inaccurate as it is aggressive. I join this debate because the nuclear issue with Iran is deadly serious business. It should invite sobriety and thoughtfulness, not sloganeering and sound bites."

Ewen MacAskill of the Guardian: "Mitt Romney's campaign team has appealed for his rivals to quit the Republican presidential race, claiming that it is near impossible for them to catch him after the Super Tuesday results and that by staying in they are boosting President Barack Obama's re-election chances. But Rick Santorum, boosted by his three wins on Tuesday and running Romney close in Ohio, was out on the campaign trail again on Wednesday and stubbornly refusing to concede, intent on pushing Romney to the end. The former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, too was out campaigning and refusing to pull out."

Azi Paybarah of Capital New York. "Pataki Makes a Romney Endorsement that the D.N.C. Would Like You to Watch." Via Greg Sargent:

Mitt is not a perfect candidate. He has a number of problems. It’s hard for blue-collar families like mine to identify with him. It’s hard for economic conservatives to identify with him. He needs to do more to reach out to Latinos. -- George Pataki, former New York governor

What we will go to in a very short period of time, the next two years, a little less than 50 percent of the people in this country depend on some form of federal payment, some form of government benefit to help provide for them. After Obamacare, it will not be less than 50 percent; it will be 100 percent. -- Rick Santorum, GOP presidential candidate

As the GOP race for the presidential nomination has dragged on, Santorum has shown an increasing tendency to shoot from hip, with little attention to the facts. His latest claim about entitlement spending falls into this category. There is not a shred of evidence to back up this claim. -- Glenn Kessler, Washington Post fact-checker

Dana Milbank: "The Republicans are synthesizing a higher-octane blend in their bid to fuel Americans’ anxiety about rising gas prices.... The recent spike in gas prices — in part a byproduct of higher economic growth — [is] a potentially crucial issue for the opposition. The facts aren’t on their side (policymakers have little sway over oil prices; and one policy area that is spurring prices, the prospect of attacking Iran, has been pushed by Republican presidential candidates), but political reality is: The incumbent will be credited or blamed for whatever happens on his watch.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "In the wake of lobbying by President Obama and Senate Democratic leaders, the Senate Thursday defeated legislation to speed up construction of a U-S.-Canadian oil pipeline. The White House victory came after the president started personally calling Democratic senators Wednesday night. The vote underscored the extent to which rising gas prices and energy supply have become a central political issue."

New York Times: "The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation to ease small businesses’ access to investments and capital markets, a sign that the shadow of the November election is pressing Congress into action. The 390-to-23 vote on the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act is likely to propel the legislation forward. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said a Senate version was likely to be unveiled early next week, and aides said it would likely reflect the House bill."

Space: "The biggest solar storm in five years is battering our planet right now, and may cause disruptions to satellites, power grids and communications networks over the next 24 hours, space weather experts say."

Guardian: "Syria's deputy oil minister, Abdo Hussameldin, has announced his defection on YouTube, becoming the first high ranking civilian official to abandon President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising against his rule erupted a year ago." The Guardian includes the video with the story; it has English subtitles. ...

     ... Reuters Update: "Four more high-ranking officers have defected from the Syrian armed forces and joined the year-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, two rebel groups said on Thursday."