It remains entirely possible, despite his summer slump, that Tim Pawlenty will win Iowa, and all the attendant money and momentum that comes with that feat. Hiring the daughter-slash-political-advisor of Mike Huckabee, who won Iowa in 2008, probably helps a little bit. If it means that Pawlenty may be lining up an endorsement from Huck himself, that could help substantially. Which, more broadly, is also a reminder that Pawlenty still has a shot at winning Iowa’s all-important evangelical voters. Mitt Romney might snap up most of the state’s moderate and not-very-religious caucus goers. But evangelicals remain up for grabs.
Mark Benjamin notes that it’s not just Jon Huntsman who is fatigued with Afghanistan and wary of Libya:
According to Gallup, about 70% of Republicans know who Rep. Michele Bachmann is. As her presidential bid continues, people will also start to recognize a certain silver-haired man in her retinue: her husband, Marcus Bachmann. Last Tuesday, both the New York Times and the Washington Post ran front page-photos of the congresswoman announcing her candidacy. The Post chose an image of Bachmann embracing her husband, their foreheads pressed together in front of a crowd. But the Times chose a photo featuring Marcus in his more typical state: off camera.
The Obama administration continues its effort to outmaneuver Congress on the ongoing mission in Libya this week. On Tuesday afternoon the Senate will hold a cloture vote on the bill approved last week 14-5 by the Foreign Relations committee. It’s a narrow bill that authorizes Obama’s Libya war for a year.
Administration and Congressional officials predict the cloture vote will easily clear the 60-vote requirement; Sen. John McCain, one of the original co-sponsors has told administration officials he has more than 70 votes in favor.
The political media is having fun with a new Mitt Romney flip-flop, namely that the former Massachusetts governor first said, last week, that Barack Obama’s policies made the great recession worse, then denied having saying said that*, and then repeated the original charge in New Hampshire on Sunday, saying that “the recession is deeper because of our President.”
The New York state legislature’s passage of the Marriage Equality Act was the third landmark victory in six months for the gay-rights movement, following the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in December and the Obama Administration’s decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). And while the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and DOMA breakthroughs were federal successes, the Empire State’s legalization of gay marriage was perhaps the most significant in the trifecta of achievements.
- The White House is looking to trade Medicare and Medicaid cuts, hitting providers not beneficiaries, for some revenue increases.
- Romney flips back to saying Obama made the economy worse.
- Frank Rich lists the left’s economic and financial grievances with Obama at length.
- Obama nominates a more regulation-friendly candidate to oversee national banks.
Correction appended.
In early June, TIME has learned, a group of prominent figures on the Christian Right held a conference call to discuss their dissatisfaction with the current GOP presidential field, and agreed that Rick Perry would be their preferred candidate if he entered the race. Among those on the call were David Barton, the Texas activist and go-to historian for the Christian Right and John Hagee, the controversial San Antonio pastor whose endorsement John McCain rejected in 2008.
Religious conservatives have often played a substantial role in choosing past Republican nominees, but leaders on the Christian Right have been conspicuously quiet so far in this campaign season. Privately, however, they are enthusiastic about Perry and are encouraging the Texas governor to throw his ten-gallon hat into the ring.
Carlotta Gall has a terrific piece in the Times today, interviewing a former Islamist militant, who maintains that the Pakistani military is behind much of the terrorist activity in south Asia. This is not new, but the level of detail is fascinating. Take, for instance, this tidbit about how the Pakistani military–using a retired general, as is often the case–helped reorganize the Taliban after the U.S. defeated them in 2001:
