Morning Must Reads: The Reelect

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President Obama arrives to deliver remarks at a UPS shipping facility in Landover, Maryland on April 1. (REUTERS/Jim Young)

–Obama formally announces his reelection bid with a video and new website. A classic end-of-first-term line from the video: “I don’t agree with Obama on everything, but I respect him him and I trust him.” That line is delivered by an older white male Obama supporter from the south.

–Marc Ambinder on one of Obama’s key demographic challenges:

He will have to peel back into the Democratic fold older voters who deserted the Democrats in 2010, and though the growth of minorities in key states can cushion the blow of defecting working class white voters, he needs to construct a floor underneath that constituency. A blowback over Republican efforts to deinstitutionalize labor might help him here.

Also: A rising tide of economic recovery would lift all boats.

–Michael Grunwald’s smart take: the President’s sales pitch for his tenure so far relies almost entirely on counterfactual arguments. “‘It would have been even worse without me’ ain’t much of a bumper sticker.”

–Jeff Zeleny profiles Jim Messina, the guy running the show from Chicago.

–A 2011 budget deal is still hung up on where cuts will come from, but I don’t think a shutdown is imminent.

The particulars of Paul Ryan’s ambitious 2012 budget: Unwind Medicare for Americans under 55, instituting a “premium support” system that would subsidize private insurance plans; convert Medicaid into block grants to states; set top tax rates at 25% for individuals and corporations; and cap over federal spending south of 20% GDP.

–Dipping one toe in at a time, Tim Kaine will reportedly finalize history’s slowest Senate campaign roll out at some point in the next two weeks. (Maybe.)

Mitt Romney’s answer to the Death Hug:

“He does me the great favor of saying that I was the inspiration for his plan,” Romney said at a speech in Las Vegas. “If that’s the case, why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you ask what was wrong? Why didn’t you ask if this was an experiment, what worked and what didn’t?”

–In Afghanistan, blood and fire over a Florida pastor’s burning of the Koran.

–Shahien Nasiripour gets ahold of an internal CFPB document detailing bank profits from underserving underwater homeowners. It also bolsters Republican charges that Elizabeth Warren had a hand in crafting the mortgage servicers settlement being pushed by state attorneys general.

–And Jon Huntsman had some rock ‘n’ roll years.

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