Obama Owns the bin Laden Story

Since at least 1968, Democrats have traditionally been more circumspect than their Republican foes in presidential politics. The lesson of the Clinton years and of Obama’s win both of the nomination and the general election in 2008 is that Democrats need to be as tough as JFK was (‘tough’ was a favorite Kennedy term). Is the bin Laden ad fair to Romney? No, not really. But politics is not for the faint of heart …The way to put oneself in a position to take the harder, more honorable political path is to argue for one’s virtues in a vigorous way. That’s what Obama has done, and is doing. There’ll be more punches coming.

— Jon Meacham, writing in TIME magazine’s Ideas section.

Romneybot Malfunctions, Goes into Powerpoint Mode at College Rally, Puts Student to Sleep

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The GOP’s Romneybot 2000 made headlines on Friday when, at a rally at Otterbein University in Ohio, it encouraged students to hit their parents up for loans. “We’ve always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business,” said the robot.

What has not been as widely reported, however, is that the robot appears to have malfunctioned during the speech. Instead of giving a rousing speech laced with references to current pop culture that the students could relate to, the bot apparently experienced an AI synapse misfire and delivered what appeared to be a Powerpoint presentation about office supplies instead.

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Moments After House GOP Kills Women’s Health Care Funding, Boehner Angrily Denies Republicans Are Engaging in War on Women

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Cognitive dissonance held the floor in the U.S. House again yesterday. First, the Republican leadership under Speaker John Boehner voted to fund the extenstion of lower rates on student loans by killing programs that provided cancer screening and similar women’s health-care service.

Minutes later, Boehner took to the well of the House to rage against the poisonous partisanship in Congress and deny that his party was engaging in a war on women:

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The Linguistic Perils of ‘Teabagging’

John Dingell is the longest currently-serving member of Congress (and the third longest-serving ever). The acerbic 85-year-old Michigan Democrat had long been contemptuous of Tea Partiers. He found them unruly and difficult to get along with. Dingell tended to refer to them as ‘teabaggers,’ a phrase that has an alternate sexual meaning. This normally wouldn’t have been a problem in the hall of Congress, but when Dingell was booked to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, his staff felt the need to finally warn and educate him. When his chief of staff shared the other meaning of ‘teabagger’ with Dingell, the Congressman went through three different stages of reaction. At first, he said ‘hah,’ then said ‘that’s disgusting,’ and finally the octogenarian congressman reached the plain of acceptance and said, ‘It’s funny and I’m going to keep using it.’

— From “Do Not Ask What Good We Do” by Robert Draper, courtesy of the Daily Beast.