(AP photo)
–President Obama will be in the Gulf again today – his second trip in a week. BP, meanwhile, says its latest attempt to contain the spill may be working, but will be a while until we know if this is really the beginning of the end of the disaster. Any oil that is collected with the cap now in place will be more than a public relations win for the company—it also stands to profit.
–The President has canceled his planned trip to Australia and Indonesia. First, it was health care and now the oil spill that’s keeping Obama from making the journey.
–The spill is providing some useful material for Democrats, as Jay explained yesterday.
–But still, Dan Balz says recent events show the White House strategy team is fumbling. Others agree.
–The U.S. economy added 431,000 more jobs in May, but most of them were temporary census worker positions. Private sector hiring, the “backbone of the economy,” is not booming.
–The Mark Kirk over blown military record sags continues with an apology. He blames “Pentagonese.” Hm.
–Michael Leahy tries to get to the bottom of why Michele Bachmann is a “hot property.”
–Newsweek says Democrats are working overtime to keep expectations very, very low for this fall’s elections, but may have a “secret plan.”
–TIME’s Massimo Calabresi’s sobered look at the diplomatic fallout for the U.S. over the Gaza raid. His take is that it’s not too bad. The same cannot be said about relations between Turkey and Israel.
–And that ump who made the bad baseball call, costing a young pitcher the glory of a perfect game, ended up being forgiven by fans. He was so touched by their grace, he cried. Says the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell, “In fairy tales, human decency transforms bad into good. Don’t bet too much on that formula working tomorrow. But it did for one day.”
–What else?