Romney's big day marred by Etch A Sketch remark
March 23, 2012

Mitt Romney picked up a highly prized endorsement Wednesday from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush after a convincing victory the night before in the Illinois primary but then saw a top adviser's televised comment provide new ammunition to his trailing rivals in the Republican presidential race.
Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's senior campaign adviser, was asked in a CNN interview Wednesday morning whether the former Massachusetts governor had been forced to adopt conservative positions in the rugged race that could hurt his standing with moderates in November's general election.
"I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes," Fehrnstrom responded. "It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again."
Rival candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, who are vying for conservative support against the more moderate Romney, seized on the comment as indicative of their longstanding criticism that Romney shifts his positions on issues such as health care reform and abortion to suit his political needs.
Gingrich brought out an Etch A Sketch at a campaign appearance in Louisiana, where the next primary takes place Saturday.
"You have to stand for something that lasts longer than this," Gingrich said at the Lake Charles event, holding the drawing toy invented in 1959.
"You could not have found a more perfect illustration of why people distrust Romney than to have his (adviser) say that the Etch A Sketch allows you to erase everything in the general election," Gingrich added. "You have to read the guy's quote to realize -- if he had set out to highlight for everybody why we distrust Romney, I think he couldn't have done a better job."
Santorum's campaign posted a photo on Twitter of the candidate using an Etch A Sketch, saying it showed him "studying up on (Romney's) policy positions."
Romney "will say what he needs to say to win the election before him, and if he has to say something different because it's a different election and a different group of voters, he will say that, too," Santorum said while campaigning in Harvey, Louisiana. "Well, that should be comforting to all of you who are voting in this primary."
Fehrnstrom later said he was referring to the campaign as a whole, and Romney spoke to reporters after an afternoon event to try to exercise some damage control.
"Organizationally, a general election campaign takes on a different profile," Romney said. "The issues I am running on will be exactly the same. I am running as a conservative Republican. I was a conservative Republican governor. I will be running as a conservative Republican nominee, at that point hopefully, for president. The policies and positions are the same."

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Trayvon Martin Case: Lead Investigator Asked to Step Down
March 22, 2012

As tensions between community leaders and residents in Sanford, Fla., reach a boiling point, the man leading the investigation into the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is being asked to step down.
During a heated special meeting regarding the death of the unarmed teen, who was allegedly shot and killed by self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, Sanford city commissioners conducted a vote of "no confidence" against embattled Police Chief Billy Lee. Three of five commissioners voted against the chief.
One commissioner demanded that Lee resign. It is now up to the city manager to decide whether or not to let Lee go.
"The unknown in a tragedy will make the heart do crazy things, and we haven't done a good job of getting out in front of that," said Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett after the vote. "I have confidence in him in a lot of ways, and don't have confidence in him in some ways."
The vote of "no confidence" came after Triplett was forced to answer some tough questions from neighborhood residents and the media, during an NAACP meeting aimed at addressing allegations of police misconduct in the community.
"If there were mistakes made we are going to act accordingly," Triplett said in response to a question from ABC News about the investigation into Martin's death.

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Paul Ryan's New-and-Improved Plan for Medicare and Medicaid Reform
March 22, 2012

Last year, Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, unveiled the Path to Prosperity, an impressive fiscal plan that, for the first time in memory, put one chamber of Congress squarely on the record as favoring significant entitlement reform. Today, Ryan has put forth the sequel. Let's compare the health-care provisions of Version 2 to those of Version 1.
The headline is that the new plan scraps Ryan's old Medicare proposal, which involved full privatization of Medicare in the form of "premium support," for a partial privatization which incorporates the option for seniors to stay on traditional Medicare, using a framework known as competitive bidding. The new Medicare proposal is lifted from Paul Ryan's collaboration with Democratic senator Ron Wyden (Ore.), which I called a "game changer" when it was released in December.
Other health care-related provisions are basically the same: repeal Obamacare, and block-grant Medicaid. Ryan's proposal seeks to move toward "patient-centered reform," which he describes as including malpractice reform, purchasing insurance across state lines, and expanding consumer-driven insurance plans.

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Oil Prices Spike Exacerbated By Wall Street Speculation
March 21, 2012

Two economists at the St. Louis Federal Reserve have published findings that indicate that Wall Street speculation is responsible for 15 percent of the increase in oil prices over the past decade, a finding with significant implications for the recent sharp rise in gas prices.
While politicians have little ability to alter the price swings of commodities like oil, regulators have both the authority and policy tools to do so. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is responsible for overseeing the financial market for oil. The 2010 Wall Street reform bill gave the CFTC new power to limit excessive speculation, but the rule will not go into effect until later this year.
According to St. Louis Fed economists Luciana Juvenal and Ivan Petrella, speculation in oil markets was the second-biggest factor behind the past decade's price run-up, behind increased global demand for oil, which accounted for 40 percent of the increase.
"Speculation was the second-largest contributor to oil prices and accounted for about 15 percent of the rise," the economists wrote. "The effect that speculation had on oil prices over this period coincides closely with the dramatic rise in commodity index trading -- resulting in concerns voiced by policymakers."

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Lawyer on Bales: 'There may be explanations'
March 21, 2012

A lawyer for Sgt. Robert Bales said Tuesday "there may be explanations" for the alleged shooting this month by his client of 16 Afghan civilians, but -- even if that is what happened -- the government will have a difficult time making its case.
"I don't know if the government is going to prove much," lead attorney John Henry Browne told CNN about the shootings of nine children, three women and four men in a village in southern Afghanistan. "There's no forensic evidence, there's no confessions."
He added, "Nothing really justifies killing women and children in a noncombat situation. But there may be explanations if that's true. And right now I want to say once again, I'm not sure that's true."
Bales, who had served three tours of duty in Iraq before being sent to Afghanistan, may have been suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, Brown said. Bales suffered a traumatic brain injury during a roadside bomb explosion and lost part of his foot in separate tours in Iraq, his attorney has said. "Anybody that has seen what he's seen and done what he's done at the request of the military -- and I'm not talking about these allegations -- I think would have PTSD ... Dragging parts of bodies around is not something you forget very often."

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Mitt Romney seeks to make Illinois victory into 2012 campaign turning point
March 21, 2012

Shortly after he wrapped up his victory remarks, Mitt Romney emailed out a fundraising appeal to his supporters with a telling subject line: "Time to close"
It reflects both the frontrunner's wishful thinking that Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul would pack up and go home and the Romney campaign decision to become more assertive about declaring the former Massachusetts governor the presumptive GOP nominee.
"I think it is another sign that the Republican Party is uniting behind Mitt Romney's candidacy," senior Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told CNN of his candidate's victory in Illinois. "At some point the reality is going to set in that Mitt is the all but certain nominee," he added.
Irrespective of how Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul plan to move through the primaries and caucuses on the calendar from now until June, the Romney campaign is shifting into victory mode. Romney no longer wants to be perceived as the weak frontrunner who cannot win the hearts and souls of the voters at the core of his own party--his campaign is pushing Romney as the experienced and prepared contender ready to defeat President Obama, particularly when it comes to righting the American economy.
If you watched Ann Romney and her frontrunning husband Mitt deliver their victory remarks in Schaumburg, Illinois on Tuesday night in front of a ballroom of supporters, you might be wondering where the extraordinarily wealthy and out-of-touch elite CEO had gone.

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Top commander says US must stick to its strategy in Afghanistan
March 20, 2012

The United States must stick to its strategy in Afghanistan, including the planned withdrawal calendar, over the next several months despite recent setbacks that have tested America's relations with the Afghans, the top U.S. commander for the war is telling Congress.
Gen. John Allen is heading to the Capitol on Tuesday for the first time since anti-American sentiment was inflamed in Afghanistan after U.S. troops burned some Korans and then an Army soldier allegedly killed 16 Afghans last week in a shooting spree. The incidents spawned attacks against U.S. forces and prompted Afghan leaders to demand that American troops pull out of local villages and rural areas.
The upheaval has fueled Congressional opposition to the war, insuring that Allen will face lawmakers who are bitterly divided and increasingly skeptical of the administration's strategy.

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Romney and Santorum face showdown in Illinois
March 20, 2012

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum launched a final campaign blitz across Illinois on Monday, the eve of their showdown in the Land of Lincoln primary that could cement Romney's front-running status or boost Santorum's conservative-backed surge in the Republican presidential race.
Tuesday's Illinois primary offers 54 delegates and follows a strong Romney victory in Puerto Rico, where the former Massachusetts governor picked up all 20 delegates at stake on Sunday by winning more than 80% of the vote.
CNN's latest delegate estimates show Romney with 519 delegates to Santorum's 239. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has 138 delegates and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian champion, has 69. To secure the nomination, 1,144 delegates are needed. In the Illinois contest, delegates will be awarded proportionately.
Despite his growing lead in the delegate count, Romney still faces questions about his ability to win support from the Republican conservative base and needs a victory in Illinois to answer doubters.

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Higher gas prices threaten economy if they persist
March 20, 2012

Inflation remains tame throughout the U.S. economy, with one big exception: gas prices.
Those higher prices haven't derailed a steadily improving economy. But if they surpass $4 or $5 a gallon, experts fear Americans could pull back on spending, and job growth could stall, posing a potentially serious threat to the recovery.
And the longer prices remain high, the more they could imperil President Barack Obama's re-election hopes.
A few weeks ago, economists generally agreed that the economy was in little danger from higher gas prices as long as job growth remained strong. But fears are now mounting that gas prices could begin to weaken consumer confidence.
The average pump price nationwide is $3.83 a gallon. Energy analysts say it's bound to climb higher in the weeks ahead.
"It's a thorn in the side of the consumer and businesses," said Chris Christopher, an economist at IHS Global Insight. The economy this year "would have been better and stronger if we didn't have to deal with this."

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Rick Santorum: If I win the Illinois primary, I win the nomination
March 19, 2012

Rick Santorum on Saturday guaranteed that a win in the Illinois primary will result in his nomination as the Republican presidential nominee.
"This is a primary, and turnout is everything. You do your job, you do your job, then this is the pledge," Santorum said. "If we're able to come out of Illinois with a huge or surprise win, I guarantee you, I guarantee you that we will win this nomination."
Illinois has largely been predicted to favor Mitt Romney for Tuesday's primary. The vote is expected to be driven by Chicago and its surrounding suburbs, pegged as unfavorable territory for the former Pennsylvania senator's brand of conservatism. But in areas like Effingham, hours south of the Windy City, Santorum hopes to fire up a Republican base that is often overshadowed by its Democratic counterparts to the north.
"You know you don't get a chance to out-vote your friends up in the Chicago-land area very often, but this is a primary and turnout is everything," he said, standing in a warehouse of a local business specializing in kitchen equipment.
While stumping in the Land of Lincoln, Santorum said he feels like he's already running in the general election.
"People ask me why I'm the best candidate to run against Barack Obama," said Santorum. "It's because I feel like, in many respects, I am running against Barack Obama here in this primary because Mitt Romney has the same positions as Barack Obama in this primary."

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