Hello, and welcome to today's politics live blog. It's Tom McCarthy here in New York, but here's my colleague Ryan Devereaux with a round-up:
• Mitt Romney and the Republican party raised $76m last month, marking the first time the GOP candidate has collected more money than president Obama. Yesterday Obama and the democrats reported raising $60m in May. Romney's latest fund raising total also tops the $40m he and the Republicans collected in April.
• Romney has released a new ad directly challenging the president's persistent attacks on his record as governor of Massachusetts. The ad claims Romney oversaw "the best jobs record in a decade" and "balanced every budget without raising taxes." In recent weeks the president's team has repeatedly targeted Romney's record in the state, painting him as an abysmal failure.
• Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum has started new organization intended to raise money for fellow Republicans and push them to be more conservative. Santorum unveiled Patriot Voices on Fox and Friends this morning. "A lot of people have some basic anxiety about where America is going, and I tried to talk about those [issues] in the campaign," Santorum said. "The adherence to the constitution, and the importance of understanding where our rights come from and who we are as a people, and the culture and how that is being changed by this administration, whether it's liberty or life or marriage," are all issues Santorum says Patriot Voices will respond to.
Santorum enthusiastically describes the group in this video while wearing sweater vest with his own name stitched on the front.
• Kentucky senator Rand Paul, son of Texas congressman and presidential hopeful Ron Paul, has endorsed Romney. The junior Paul articulated his support for the former governor less than 24 hours after his father issued a statement to supporters saying that he would not collect enough delegates to win the nomination.
President Obama is about to speak on the economy at the White House. He's expected to take questions. The press corps has just received a two-minute warning. We're going to listen in.
The president speaks. He jumps right into the state of the economy. He says the United States is working back from the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. He mentions 4.3 million new jobs created under his administration. He says Europe is a mess.
Obama is talking about Europe. He calls on European leaders to inject capital into their economies and to collaborate on the budgeting process and banking policy. On Greece, "It is in everybody's interest that Greece remain in the Euro-zone while respecting its need for reform."
The president is talking mostly about Europe. He mentions Merkel and Hollande and calls for a "growth agenda" to go with austerity plans. "The sooner they act, the sooner people and markets will regain confidence and the easier cleanup will be down the road."
Now Obama goes after Congress. He says Congress failed to pass the American Jobs Act when he presented it last September.
"Congress refused to pass this jobs plan in full. They did act on a few parts, most importantly the payroll tax cut... [but] they left most of the jobs plan just sitting there. And in light of the headwinds we face right now I'm asking them to reconsider."
Obama says Congress could put unemployed firefighters and nurses back to work. He calls on Congress to pass legislation giving homeowners a break on their mortgages. He calls for tax breaks on business that hire new workers.
"There's no excuse for not passing these ideas. We know they can work. If Congress decides in spite of all this that they're not going to do this because it's an election year, they should explain to the American people why."
First question is about European debt crisis.
"The situation in Europe is not simply a debt crisis." The president says Greece faces debt. But there's also a housing crisis and a financial crisis. "The markets are getting nervous, and that makes it much more difficult to borrow."
The president says he's been talking with European leaders regularly about solutions to the economic crisis. "The challenges they face are solvable. RIght now their focus has to be on strengthening their banking system, much as we did in 2009 and 2010."
Obama is comfortable on the European crisis. Now he's moving on to the challenge of achieving growth as "countries like Spain and Italy" carry out structural reforms – "everything from tax collection to labor markets, a whole host of different issues."
A second question: Discuss accusations that you are blaming your administration's poor economic performance on Europe.
Also, what do you make of President Clinton's remarks suggesting that it might be a good idea to extend the Bush tax cuts?
Obama says the economy is global and the US isn't insulated from European economic turmoil. "What we try to do is to be constructive, to not frame this as us scolding them, but to give them advice based on our experiences here" in shoring up the financial sector.
The president moves on to a discussion of the US economy and Clinton's remarks. He begins with a discussion of economic dynamics. He says there are short-term and long-term problems.
The short-term problem is putting people back to work and stoking growth. The long-term problem is sustainable growth. The point Clinton made, Obama explains, is that the government must avoid cutting short a nascent growth cycle.
Obama turns to the question of blaming Europe.
"We've created 4.3 million jobs over the past 27 months. THe private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing problems is with state and local government. Often with cuts initiated by governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help they're accustomed to from the federal government.
"IF Republicans want to be helpful... what they should be thinking about is how do we help state and local governments."
The next question refers to consecutive NY Times front-page reports on the presidential "kill list" of terrorists and the White House cyberwarfare program.
How did the story leak? How do you answer accusations that the information was leaked to make you look tough on national security?
The president answers:
"First of all I'm not going to comment on the details of what are supposed to be classified items. Secondly, as Commander in Chief, the issues that you've mentioned touch on national security, touch on critical issues of war and peace, and they're classified for a reason. Because they're sensitive. Because the people involved may be in danger ... and when this information surfaces on the front page of newspapers, that makes the job of folks on the front line tougher, and it makes my job tougher. Which is why since I've been in office the policy has been zero tolerance."
The president says some leaks are "criminal acts."
He is coming down quite hard on the question. He threatens leakers with retribution. THen he attacks the idea that the information about the terrorist "Kill list" and about the cyberwarfare program was deliberately leaked by the White House to burnish the president's toughness on national security in an election year.
"THe notion that my White House would purposely release classified security information is offensive. It's wrong. And People I think need to have a better sense of how I approach this office and how people around me approach this office. We're dealing with the safety and security of the American people ... and so we don't play with that."
"The writers of these articles have stated unequivocally that this information has not come from the White House."
Join us for a chat in just over an hour: What do you think of what the president said? What do you think about the race so far?
After covering the Wisconsin elections and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's statements to Congress this week, Richard Adams is taking a slight breather to chat with readers about the week's news – including President Obama's earlier comments on the US economy, and what Clinton's support may mean for Obama ahead of November.
If you're a regular commenter, we invite you to chat with us in real-time by using the module above. You'll be able to use it from 1230 ET until 130 ET and access the chat transcript afterwards. You can also ask questions on Twitter using the #USPoliticsLive hashtag or log into our Guardian US Facebook page to follow along.
Retail politics. Nice tablecloths.
PIC: Gov chatting with local Iowans in Council Bluffs. #Mitt2012 twitter.com/dgjackson/stat…
— Mitt's Body Man(@dgjackson) June 8, 2012
One line from the president's news conference that is raising online eyebrows: "The private sector is doing fine."
The line was in a response to a question about criticism that the president is blaming troubles in Europe for a lagging American economy. The president basically replied that he's not blaming Europe but he will blame Congress, thank you very much. He attacked Congress for not extending a hand to state and local governments. Here's what he said:
"We've created 4.3 million jobs over the past 27 months. The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing problems is with state and local government. Often with cuts initiated by governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help they're accustomed to from the federal government.
"IF Republicans want to be helpful... what they should be thinking about is how do we help state and local governments."
The "private sector" line was a one-beat step toward the point the president was making about how Congress has hung local governments out to dry.
Still it doesn't sound very good on its own. IN contrast to the public sector the private sector may be doing "fine." But by most other measures it's still touch-and-go.
Is private sector doing "fine"? If you mean "between bad and good," yes. But no, not if you mean "satisfactory." bit.ly/LdhcIR
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) June 8, 2012
Mitt Romney is in Council Bluffs, Iowa talking about the US economy. "It's time to have a president who remembers this is one nation," Romney says.
"These are tough times for a lot of people. People are having a hard time making ends meet."
It's a regular campaign stop but the crowd is responding with enthusiasm. There's a sense that Romney has traction with this economic stewardship argument.
The Congressional Republican leadership has announced a news conference to reply to the president's remarks this morning. House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor will address reporters early this afternoon.
Ten minutes to live chat: What should we talk about? Let us know in the comments, and then grab a sandwich and join Richard Adams here for lunch break politics talk.
It's going down at 12:30pm ET.
Hey I'm live chatting in 20 minutes time for all three of you not watching Euro2012 guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun… #uspoliticslive
— Richard Adams (@RichardA) June 8, 2012
Our Week in Review live chat with Richard Adams is now live. The chat will run for one (1) hour. Join us!
And that was our Week in Review live chat. Thanks for joining in! It's nice to have such a thoughtful and informed and civil readership.
The most forceful point the president made at his news conference today had to do with accusations that members of his team had leaked details of two top-secret defense missions: the "kill list" drone program and a cyberwarfare program designed to take out Iran's nuclear facilities, among other possible targets.
The president pushed back as hard as he could against the notion of a leak. He warned that such a leak could be "criminal." He said the White House is investigating how information about the programs made it into the papers. He said leakers would be punished.
Glenn Greenwald, one of the most outspoken critics of Obama's secret drone and surveillance programs, compares the moment to the Judith Miller fiasco in the run-up to the Iraq war.
In 2002 and 2003, the New York Times published multiple front-page stories by Miller based on anonymous Bush administration sources exposing the supposed details of Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons programs, including weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons.
The reports were built on bogus information, leaked by the White House to Miller to gin up support for the Iraq war.
Greenwald warns that the current reporting could fall into a similar trap:
But despite those real differences with the Judy Miller travesty, the basic template is the same. These reporters rely overwhelmingly on government sources. Their reporting is shaped almost exclusively by the claims of underlings who are loyal to the president. The journalists have no means of verifying the assertions they are passing on as fact. And worst of all, they grant anonymity to Obama's aides who are doing little more than doing the president's bidding and promoting his political interests.
Our social media team is maintaining a discussion forum on Obama's "kill list," updated daily with the most recent news and analysis. You can join the discussion here.
Can people who disagree on politics stay friends?
According to a recent Pew survey, American values and basic beliefs are more polarized along partisan lines than at any point in the past 25 years.
As part of our People's Panel series, our social media team is soliciting commentary on how politics comes into play in personal relationships.
Which reminds us of a study that came out a couple years ago. Most people who disagree with their friends about politics, the study showed, were unaware of the disagreement. So: no fighting. Sharad Goel writes:
How well do you know your friends' political views? According to recent work by Winter Mason, Duncan Watts, and myself, you probably don't know them as well as you think. In particular, we found that when friends disagree on a political issue, they are unaware of that disagreement about 60% of the time. Even close friends who discuss politics are typically unaware of their differences in opinions.
The White House is out with a statement pertaining to the president's statement this morning that "the private sector is fine."
cleanup at the WH: ""It's absolutely clear the economy is not doing fine," POTUS clarifies.
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) June 8, 2012
Emails between the Obama administration and lobbyists for big pharmaceutical companies in advance of the president's defining health care legislation of 2009 show just how much pressure the industry brought to bear on the White House in crafting a bill that would not destroy profits – and just how much the White House was willing to play ball.
Early on in his quest to overhaul health care, Obama favored the reimportation of prescription medicines as a way to keep drug prices down. The industry fought tooth and nail against such a provision, and as the health care bill prepared to go to Congress, the Obama administration gave in, according to an analysis of the emails published in the New York Times:
On June 3, 2009, one of the lobbyists e-mailed Nancy-Ann DeParle, the president's top health care adviser. Ms. DeParle sent a message back reassuring the lobbyist. Although Mr. Obama was overseas, she wrote, she and other top officials had "made decision, based on how constructive you guys have been, to oppose importation on the bill."
The emails originally were procured and published by Republican operatives seeking to besmirch the president's record. But Obama's supporters say they only show that the president had to make tough compromises to get a bill passed – and that the drug companies were aggressive in exercising their power.
"For the president of the United States to stand up and say the private sector is doing fine is going to go down in history as an extraordinary miscalculation." – Mitt Romney, today
President Obama's support among white working-class voters is weak – but how weak? Our pollster, Harry Enten, sees an "extremely unusual phenomenon":
In 2008, Obama won a higher percentage of the whites making less than $50,000 (47%) than he did among whites making more than $50,000 (43%).
The difference in Obama's support between these economic groups has disappeared in 2012. Obama's support among whites making less than $50k has plummeted to 41% in the recent Pew poll, while his support has stayed relatively steady, at 40%, among those making more than $50k. A recent ABC/Washington Post poll puts Obama's support among whites making less than $50k at 40%, while he's at 39% with all whites
[...]This lack of a divide between lower-income and upper-income whites is an extremely unusual phenomenon. Lower-income whites have actually been moving towards the Democratic party since 1952, while middle and upper have been moving away.
Alex Koppelman in the New Yorker on the firestorm of indignation and alarm, real or contrived, over Obama's "the private sector is fine" comment.
(You see? We knew this would happen. Politics truly does resemble a backseat fight among 8-year-olds sometimes.)
Koppelman argues that Obama had a valid point that he expressed poorly: "Private-sector employment has been trending upward, though not as fast as anyone would like."
But Koppelman concludes: "it's hard not to say that Obama didn't, in some small way, deserve a bit of this."
The White House decided to hold this press conference for a fairly obvious reason: Presidential press conferences get national coverage. The major networks won't break into their regular programming for a stump speech by Obama, but if he gets up behind the podium in the White House briefing room, they'll come running—even if he's not saying anything that he wouldn't have said in that stump speech. Obama's team was after free media, and they used the prestige of his office for it. They got what they wanted.
Paul Harris' take:
Obama's "fine" point about private sector is valid as policy but tone deaf as politics. Further evidence of a lost political touch.
— Paul Harris (@paulxharris) June 8, 2012
The owner of an Iowa restaurant where Mitt Romney held a voter roundtable today is miffed that she was prevented from meeting the candidate.
"The Secret Service said they would ask to make sure we got to be introduced and get a picture," Diane Bauer, owner of the Main Street Cafe in Council Bluffs, Iowa, told the Des Moines Register. "I don't care as much about the picture but at least let me meet the guy who I tore my place up for."
The Register report sets the scene:
Romney held a roundtable discussion at the restaurant prior to his talk in the park. His staff and security ushered Bauer and her husband Earl to a back portion of the restaurant and they were unable to meet the former Massachusetts governor, Dianne Bauer said.
(h/t: McKay Coppins/BF)
With that we're going to wrap up our live blog politics coverage for the day. We want to say thanks again to those commenters who participated in our live chat. We'll have more of them and we hope you join in.
Here's a summary of where things stand:
• President Obama set off a day's worth of indignant howling when he said "the private sector is doing fine" during a press conference on the economy. Were the president's words taken out of context? Yes. Were they politically clumsy and will they surface in future Romney attack ads? Yes.
• Mitt Romney went after the president for the remark. "For the president of the United States to stand up and say the private sector is doing fine is going to go down in history as an extraordinary miscalculation," Romney said.
• Vowing to punish anyone found to have leaked classified information, the president said that the White House is investigating how the New York Times found out details of two classified defense programs – the drones "kill list" program and the cyberwarfare program. The president called suggestions that the details were leaked for political gain "offensive" and "wrong."
• Obama called on Congress to pass his jobs bill. He said he was in talks with European leaders about that continent's banking, debt and housing crises. He said his administration has created millions of jobs against strong economic "headwinds" and that he is continuing to push ahead on putting Americans to work.
Have a great weekend everyone!