REUTERS/Lee Celano
–The Wall Street Journal reports Blanche Lincoln still has good leverage for her derivatives plan, but it will be tough for the spin-off measure opposed by the White House, the Fed, the FDIC, Volcker, Geithner, et al. to remain unchanged in conference.
–In his upcoming Times Sunday mag piece, Matt Bai finds some tension between Obama and Congressional Democrats over tone and strategy heading into the midterms. Part of Bai’s explanation:
It’s not clear that Obama can translate his appeal among disaffected voters into support for a party and its aging Washington establishment. Nor is it clear, as he looks ahead to 2012, how hard he’s going to try.
–The DNC cuts an ad plugging health care. The tag line “we can’t afford to go back” references a Republican-controlled Congress as much as it does the medical overhaul, but Democrats seem to be heeding a lesson from the stimulus: some initiatives need as much promotion after passage as before.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2TdqERnRl0]
–A Quinnipiac poll in Florida finds two outsiders surging: anti-health care crusader Rick Scott in the Republican governors race and self-funder Jeff Greene in the Democratic Senate contest. Still many undecideds in the latter though.
–Harry Reid is coming fast out of the gate for the general. He’s going up with this new ad and Bill Clinton is headed west for some campaigning.
–Mitt Romney, smelling blood (oil) in the water, goes to town on Obama over the Gulf spill in an op-ed for USA Today.
–BP’s stock continues to tank.
–And their next crisis brewing: coffee spills. (h/t David Kurtz)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM]
—Lots of good stuff in today’s dead tree TIME. You could always subscribe.
What did I miss?