Friday News Roundup - Domestic
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-17/friday-news-roundup-domestic
A Pennsylvania judge upheld a controversial voter ID law that will go into effect starting this Election Day. Tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants lined up in cities across the country to apply for deportation deferrals allowed by a new federal program. And retail sales in the U.S. rose more than forecast in July, the first gain in four months. Susan Page of USA Today, Major Garrett of National Journal and Lisa Lerer of Bloomberg News join guest host Tom Gjelten of NPR for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
Susan Page
Washington bureau chief for USA Today.
Major Garrett
White House correspondent for National Journal.
Lisa Lerer
politics reporter for Bloomberg News.
Friday News Roundup Video
The panel discussed the implications of Mitt Romney announcing Thursday that he paid at least 13 percent of his income in taxes. Major Garrett, congressional correspondent for National Journal, said Romney talked about his tax rate because a voter -- not the news media -- asked the question. Garrett said the Romney campaign has called requests to see Romney's tax returns a diversion. "One thing I've learned in presidential politics is candidates don't get to decide what a distraction is. If voters care about it, it's not a distraction and you have to deal with it," Garrett said.
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
I have not read all the blog posts but
1. I tried to register to vote in Indiana after all the new laws and it was HARD. I wasnt rich but had to drive to upper Michigan while in medical residency at IU to get my birth certificate. Don't get much time off in residency and dont get paid much so driving 750 miles ... Probably more, was hard. These voter laws do matter.
2. Romneys taxes would be 20 percent if he included charitable donations???? Charitable donations given to a tax exempt church who then uses these tax exept donations for a political agenda ie. to defeat the right of gay marriage in California doesnt seem right to me. Seems like the tax deductable donation went to a super-pact. So I give my charitable tax deductible donations to a tax exempt political organization ie my morman church.... So they can use that money tax exempt to fund a political agenda in another state. Wow. Loopholes everywhere.
Those retail sales figures, most likely, don't mean a thing. Most of those purchases were probably made on credit, which just puts the general public more deeply in debt.
Interesting that there was no mention of Wednesday's shooting at the Family Research Council. I think if this had been a self identified Christian man firing on a pro-GLBT organization we'd hear plenty. However when the tables are turned, as they clearly were in this hate crime, we hear little. The double standard is very disturbing.
Tim924,
Very true. 17 seconds on CBS news. About 30 seconds on ABC with a single followup. Most MSM sources did not cover it.
Unbelievable bias. How can anyone, even the hard-core lefties, defend that. I know there are some on this mb. Let's here it, guys and gals!
Compare to the CO shooting which ABC tried unsucessfully to tie to the Tea Party. Hard-core coverage for DAYS.
Kathy's call shows you Obama's dirty tactics are working. She accuses Romney of illegally falsifying his taxes, a criminal offense, with no evidence whatsoever.
Update from 4 weeks later:
From Reuter's: Even before his running mate was booed by a lobbying group for older Americans on Friday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was losing support among such voters, whose backing is crucial to his hopes of winning the November 6 election.
New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points.
Romney's selection of Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate put the federal budget and Medicare at center stage in the campaign. But the debate over spending and entitlement programs that Romney seemed to be seeking has not unfolded the way Republicans wanted.
"If Romney loses seniors, he loses this election, period," said Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy specialist at the University of North Carolina. "A bad showing nationally (among older voters) does not bode well for Florida and other states with big senior populations."
But the data from Reuters/Ipsos polling - along with similar results from survey data of older voters by the Pew Research Center - indicate that the crowd's response in New Orleans could symbolize more than just one large group's discomfort with the Romney-Ryan ticket.
A Pew poll, conducted September 12-16 and released last week, showed Romney with only a 47 to 46 percent lead among registered voters aged 65-plus. He also trailed Obama by 7 points among people aged 45 to 64 - a huge potential voting bloc that analysts say is increasingly concerned about retirement security.
Told ya so.