Panic: Obama Campaign Already Coming Off the Rails

 

by Mike Flynn 

It's only Tuesday, but it has already been a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week for the Obama campaign. Saddled with increasingly bad economic data, the campaign has been doggedly trying to change the subject to anything other than jobs and deficits. We've been treated to a mythical GOP "war on women", a "debate" on birth control, a "road to Damascus" moment on gay marriage, an "expose" of Romney "bullying" in high school, and the burning question of who is a better pet owner. Unfortunately for Obama and his allies in the media, none of it is working.

Yesterday's CBS/NYT poll makes it very clear that voters care about only one thing: The Economy. The only other issues that registers in the double-digits? Government spending and deficits--not exactly a winning issue for Obama. Not only do voters not care about the social issues Obama and the media are fixated on, there are signs that focus is backfiring. The biggest shift in voter sentiment in the CBS poll was among women, who, in just one month, shifted their support from Obama to Romney. In April, Obama had led Romney by six points among women. Today, women prefer Romney by two points.
More troubling for the White House is that 67% of registered voters believe his "conversion" on gay marriage, which sent coastal hearts aflutter, was based solely on politics, rather than any personal conviction. This is damning for a politicians whose meteoric rise was based largely on his being "above" politics. It is an Exocet missile to his entire political narrative. Read More

Explore the opportunities of the free trade agreement with Colombia : Reach Out
 

Solar Eclipse this Weekend

May 15, 2012: Something strange is about to happen to the shadows beneath your feet.
On Sunday, May 20th, the Moon will pass in front of the sun, transforming sunbeams across the Pacific side of Earth into fat crescents and thin rings of light.¹ It's an annular solar eclipse, in which the Moon will cover as much as 94% of the sun. Hundreds of millions of people will be able to witness the event. The eclipse zone stretches from southeast Asia across the Pacific Ocean to western parts of North America: animated eclipse map.

Crescent sunbeams dapple the ground beneath a palm tree during an annular eclipse in January 2010. The picture was taken by Stephan Heinsius on the Indian Ocean atoll island of Ellaidhoo, Maldives. [more] [video]

In the United States, the eclipse begins around 5:30 pm PDT. For the next two hours, a Moon-shaped portion of the sun will go into hiding. Greatest coverage occurs around 6:30 pm PDT.
Because some of the sun is always exposed during the eclipse, ambient daylight won't seem much different than usual. Instead, the event will reveal itself in the shadows. Look on the ground beneath leafy trees  for crescent-shaped sunbeams and rings of light.

A "ring of fire" over China in 2010.

Near the center-line of the eclipse, observers will experience something special: the "ring of fire." As the Moon crosses the sun dead-center, a circular strip or annulus of sunlight will completely surround the dark lunar disk. Visually, the sun has a big black hole in the middle.
The "path of annularity" where this occurs is only about 200 miles wide, but it stretches almost halfway around the world passing many population centers en route: Tokyo, Japan; Medford, Oregon; Chico, California; Reno, Nevada; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Lubbock, Texas. In those locations the ring of fire phenomenon will be visible for as much as 4 and a half minutes. Read more

How Two Bitter Adversaries Hatched A Plan To Change The Egg Business

 

John Rose/NPR
Gene Gregory (left), head of the United Egg Producers lobby, and Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society, visit Washington to lobby Congress for a law requiring larger cages for egg-laying chickens.

Gene Gregory and Wayne Pacelle are the odd couple of American agriculture.
"We were adversaries. Some might say bitter adversaries," says Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States.
Pacelle's organization says it wants to end factory farming. So Gene Gregory, president of the United Egg Producers, which represents most of the country's biggest egg farmers, used to think that there was no point even talking to Pacelle. "Why would you want to have a conversation with someone who wants to eliminate your business?" he says.

These days, though, they're not just having a conversation; they're allies, walking shoulder to shoulder into offices on Capitol Hill, asking Congress to approve new rules for egg farmers. They spent much of this past Tuesday in these lobbying meetings. But they arrived there from very different places — starting with breakfast. Read More