Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney takes his campaign to a charter school in Philadelphia
And finally, via BuzzFeed Politics (and everyone else in the universe):
Worst. Fundraising. Ever.
So Mitt Romney rocked up to a charter school in Philadelphia for a photo op – excuse me, campaigning stop. The welcome wasn't very friendly but that doesn't matter:
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, a Democrat, held a press conference on the corner, bashing Romney's record on education while he was governor of Massachusetts.
"I don't know why this guy's here," said Nutter. "[He] has suddenly somehow found West Philadelphia, somehow now wants to talk about education."
Nutter, speaking in front of a 2012 Obama sign, pushed the message the Romney is out of touch with regular voters.
"It's nice that he decided this late in his time to see what a city like Philadelphia is about. It's May. The election's in November," Nutter said. "I'm not sure what he's going to learn here today. I don't know that a one-day experience in the heart of West Philadelphia is enough to get you ready to run the United States of America.
On the subject of polls, clever person Alan Abramowitz over at Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball warns us once again to get hung up about presidential opinion polling in May:
[I]t appears likely that we are headed for a very close election in November.... However, the final outcome will depend on the actual performance of the economy and the public's evaluation of the president's job performance in the months ahead. Those interested in assessing where the presidential race stands should focus on these two indicators rather than the day-to-day events of the campaign, which tend to dominate media coverage of the election.
An NBC News Marist poll of three key states – Ohio, Florida and Virginia – show Barack Obama ahead of Mitt Romney by shrinking margins: 48%-44% in Florida and Virginia, 48%-42% in Ohio. While it's way too early in the campaign to give much weight to those numbers at all, there is some interesting detail below the headline figures:
Obama's approval rating among registered voters is 49% in Ohio and Virginia and 48% in Florida – essentially matching his head-to-head percentages against Romney.
But what's hurting the president – and helping Romney – is a sense that the country is on wrong track.
Nearly six in 10 respondents in all three states (55% in Ohio, 57% in Florida, and 58% in Virginia) agree with that pessimistic sentiment.
Barack Obama spoke at a fundraising event in Redwood City, California, last night, and laid into Romney's main policy plank – his own business experience:
Governor Romney, well, he is saying, well, my 25 years in private sector gives me a special understanding of how our economy works. Well, if that's true, why is he peddling the same bad ideas that brought our economy to the brink of collapse? Most good business people I know, if something doesn't work, they do something different. So he must either think that there's going to be a different result, or he's hoping you don't remember what happened the last time we tried it his way.
Kasie Hunt of the Associated Press looks at the Romney campaign's vice presidential search party:
The process is so secret because it's so sensitive. A vice presidential vetting is possibly the most intense background check in politics. Everything is fair game: voting records and the political past, to be sure, but also personal issues.
"You're sitting down with someone and asked if they've ever had a marital problem, if their spouse has ever cheated on them, if they've ever sought mental health counseling – that's just the beginning," said Sara Fagen, who worked for former President George W Bush and for Romney's 2008 campaign.
Here's a hard-hitting ad aimed at Hispanic voters – this is the English language version – and bashing Mitt Romney:
The ad is funded by a new liberal super pac named Pac+ and attempts to tie Romney to his fellow Republicans in Arizona, governor Jan Brewer and notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio:
The Pac+ ad, which features Latino characters literally falling under a shadow cast by Romney, Arpaio and Brewer, is set to run for several weeks in both English and Spanish in Arizona's three major TV markets, Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma.
If you – like so many other people, including Margaret Thatcher (we baselessly speculate) – were bidding on a precious, precious vial of Ronald Reagan's blood, you will have been crushed to learn that the auction has been cancelled:
The PFC Auction house said in a statement that the seller had withdrawn the item, which was linked to the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan, and plans instead to donate it to the former president's foundation.
The statement said the seller, who has remained anonymous, had obtained the vial at a US auction earlier this year.
The decision not to sell the controversial item was praised by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in California, which had earlier announced plans to try to stop the sale through legal means.
The foundation should cast the vial into the fires of Mount Doom, in order to avoid it – such as Dick Cheney, Lord of the Nazgûl.
More polls out of Wisconsin, where Republican governor Scott Walker looks likely to survive his recall election next month:
A new Reason-Rupe poll in Wisconsin finds Gov. Scott Walker (R) eight points ahead of challenger Tom Barrett (D) in the recall race, 50% to 42%.
A new St. Norbert College poll finds Walker leading by five points, 50% to 45%.
A new We Ask America poll shows Walker leading by 12 points, 54% to 42%
CNN was also present for Mitt Romney's attempt to explain that large class sizes are just fine:
Romney was pressed on his stance by a music teacher at the charter school who questioned the research Romney cited.
"I can't think of any teacher in the whole time I've been teaching, for 10 years, 13 years, who would say that more students would benefit them," the man said. "And I can't think of a parent who would say 'I would like my student to be in a classroom with a lot of kids with only one teacher.' So I'm kind of wondering where this research comes from."
Another teacher participating in the roundtable said unequivocally that he had too many students in his classroom.
"It's too large," the second teacher said. "It varies between classes, anywhere between 20 and 28. You can give more personalized attention to each student if you have a smaller class size."
Romney responded by naming a study from the McKinsey Global Institute, which is associated with the management consultancy McKinsey and Co.
So Mitt Romney's first presidential campaign venture into Democratic turf – inner city Philadelphia – hasn't gone so well, with some push-back against his exciting (meaning: vouchers) education policy.
Romney visited a West Philadelphia charter school this morning, to discuss a subject that he yesterday described as the "civil rights issue of our era – a line taken from the George W Bush Big Book of Campaigning.
But before a school largely made up of African Americans – who might have some thoughts on civil rights issues – Romney repeated his declaration but couldn't explain his view that class sizes aren't a major factor in educational success.
According to AP at the scene:
Local African-American leaders also said his push for more two-parent families isn't realistic in their community.
The charter school's founder also said he's not sure whether Romney understands the needs of the African-American community.
One final twist to the nuttiness of Arizona's secretary of state demanding proof of President Obama's birth in Hawaii, via the Boston Herald:
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett has apologized for any embarrassment he caused his state when he revived a widely discredited conspiracy theory about President Barack Obama's birthplace by requesting verification that the president was born in Hawaii.
The apology came on the same day that Hawaii officials finally responded to Bennett's request for "verification in lieu of" the birth certificate, which he said last week could be a precondition for placing Obama's name on the Arizona ballot.
"If I embarrassed the state, I apologize, but that certainly wasn't my intent," Bennett said Tuesday in an interview with a local radio station.
Who says the era of shame is over?
In an interview with Time, Mitt Romney rolls out the guts of his presidential argument:
The fact is that I spent twenty five years in the private sector. And that obviously teaches you something that you don't learn if you haven't spent any time in the private sector. If you were to say to me, tell me what you learned from your schooling that would help you be a President, it's like, how do I begin going through a list like that? You learn through life's experience. The President's experience has been exclusively in politics and as a community organizer. Both of those are fine areas of endeavor, but right now we have an economy in trouble, and someone who spent their career in the economy is more suited to help fix the economy than someone who spent his life in politics and as a community organizer.
By those lights, Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower must have been rubbish presidents?
Mitt Romney's presidential campaign went into new territory today: urban Pennsylvania, to outline his plans on education reform, but ran into unexpected criticism.
Both presidential candidates are spending most of their time at fundraising events, as the Memorial Day long weekend looms, but both Obama and Romney make campaign appearances today – with Obama making a return to Iowa to talk about clean energy production.
In other news:
• The Romney campaign issued another new ad describing "Day One" of a Romney presidency, promising that in his first day in the Oval Office, Romney will announce deficit reductions, stand up to China on trade and repeal what it calls "job-killing regulations that are costing the economy billions".
• An auction purporting to sell a vial of Ronald Reagan's blood has been cancelled and the vial will be donated to Reagan's presidential foundation, according to the organisers.
• The "birther" presidential election controversy in Arizona is at an end, after Arizona's secretary of state said that Hawaii's verification of President Barack Obama's birth records meets "necessary requirements" to appear on Arizona's presidential ballot.