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Mitt Romney lashed President Obama’s economic stewardship in an interview with TIME’s Mark Halperin on Wednesday, deflecting attacks on his years as a private equity executive and laying out how he hopes to take control of the economy as soon as he’s sworn in, should he defeat Obama in November.
This week’s TIME cover story, “The Mother of the Mitt Campaign,” tells the tale of how Lenore Romney’s 1970 run for U.S. Senate may have made a bigger impression on the Republican presidential candidate than his years spent as the son of a governor. Mitt’s father lost his own presidential bid, but it was the lessons from his mother’s loss that are more instructive as Romney enters the campaign stretch.
In another demonstration of diplomatic silliness, the Pakistanis have convicted the doctor who helped us find Osama bin Laden of treason and sentenced him to 33 years in prison. This helps to clarify which side the Pakistanis are actually on. Hint: it’s not ours. I’ll have more about this in my print column tomorrow.
Anyone banking on a big-win breakthrough in Wednesday’s nuclear talks with Iran will likely find themselves in the same boat as investors who bet on an instant surge in the Facebook stock price last week. If there’s value to be found in nuclear negotiations with Iran, then — like an investment in Facebook — it’s likely to emerge over time. And in both cases, even the long-term outcome remains uncertain.
Barack Obama’s reelection may well depend on stimulus. Not the stimulus bill that passed Congress in 2009. Or the monetary injections administered by the Federal Reserve. This stimulus won’t even be debated in Washington. Obama’s reelection hinges on whether 17 Eurozone nations can band together to deal with a financial crisis threatening to tear apart Europe’s common currency and drag the world into another recession.
Breaking up partisan budgetary knife-fights can be perilous business, so in its new report on a cluster of expiring tax breaks and scheduled spending cuts, the Congressional Budget Office, home to Capitol Hill’s weary fiscal referees, exercises restraint. While most Washingtonians call it “Taxmageddon,” the CBO bean-counters refer to the event, set to take place January 1 if Congress doesn’t act, as “the Fiscal Restraint That Is Scheduled to Occur in 2013.” Catchy. But the stakes are high and the CBO’s warning is dire, so just for a second, they really let their inhibitions go:
The New York Times is reporting that Iran may be about to open its Parchin military facility to international inspections. This is a biggish deal, but not a complete breakthrough. Parchin is where Iran may have been conducting experiments on weaponizing its nuclear fuel; there has been speculation that the facility housed a chamber to test nuclear triggering devices. No doubt, if the inspections are allowed at Parchin, there’s not going to be anything there to inspect. (Although if uranium was present in the past, it will be detectable.) This is part of a flurry of Iranian activity on the eve of the next round of nuclear talks in Baghdad tomorrow.
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell weighed in Monday on the Obama campaign’s Bain Capital attacks and, alas, another would-be Obama surrogate bit the dust. “I think they’re very disappointing,” Rendell told Buzzfeed about the negative ads by Chicago. “I think Bain is fair game, because Romney has made it fair game. But I think how you examine it, the tone, what you say, is important as well.”
Oof. But that’s not the half of it. Rendell, who has returned to the private sector after an illustrious public career, including years as an Obama booster on cable news, carries some additional Romney baggage,. It can be found in a long forgotten quote Rendell gave to The Atlantic in 2005 concerning Mitt’s presidential qualifications.
