It hasn’t appeared on the Federal Election Commission filings yet, but it can’t be long before President Obama and his aides send campaign contributions to Mitt Romney. It would only be the latest bit of love the current White House occupant is tossing the wannabe’s way.
At every turn these days, Obama has taken to praising Romney’s role in shepherding the Bay State’s health care reform law. It’s a fairly thinly veiled attempt to cut Romney at the knees among conservatives. Now, their political seconds – David Axelrod for Obama and Romney advisor Eric Fehrnstrom – are Twitter bombing each other.
It started yesterday, on the one-year anniversary of the federal health care law, when Fehrnstrom tweeted a dig at Obama’s hosannas for Romney, asking if the president would endorse Romney’s vow to issue waivers within 30 days of his inauguration to all 50 states from the law’s mandates. Axelrod shot right back on his Twitter account: “@EricFehrn I’m not going comment either way until he lands on his final position,” Axelrod tweeted. Ouch. Then, staying on message, Axelrod added another: “I still admire what he did in MA on health care, though. In many ways, a model for the nation!”
The method of killing with kindness has shown enough traction that Obama is now showering praise on another potential Republican opponent, Jon Huntsman, who is leaving his post as US ambassador to China to contemplate a run for president. While Romney and Huntsman have their own problems with the party’s far right, Obama’s team is banking on this softening them up even more. What self-respecting conservative could pull the lever for someone who is being praised by the demon they see in the White House?
But it also may be too transparent. A new Pew Center poll shows Romney is the choice of Tea Party members, whose base was galvanized by the health reform bill. The poll shows Romney getting 24 percent to Mike Huckabee’s 19 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and, at the back, Sarah Palin. That’s on the heels of a Washington Post/ABC poll that shows Romney getting a favorable opinion from seven out of 10 Republicans who describe themselves as “very” conservative.
The GOP field will no doubt start chipping away at the apparent Republican frontrunner. The president and his team, meanwhile, will continue to do their best to hoist the former Massachusetts governor on his own petard.
–JACK SULLIVAN
CENSUS
One big trend in the new Census data: continued white flight from the state’s cities, reports the Globe. Jack E. Robinson, the Harold Stassen of Massachusetts politics, calls for a majority-minority congressional district in Boston, noting the Census shows Suffolk County is more than 60 percent non-white. Robinson admits to NECN’s Jim Braude he could be a candidate for the seat if it’s drawn the way he envisions it.
“New Orleans without Katrina:” Mayor Dave Bing vows to fight the Census Bureau over figures that show Motown has lost 25 percent of its population over the last decade.
VETERANS
There are several bills making their way through the Legislature that would require public and private cemeteries to post and pay for American flags on veterans’ graves as well as prohibit the removal by workers of a flag, many of which are put up by families around Memorial Day.
Meanwhile, veterans and legislators want to extend the state’s blue laws to ban retail commerce on Memorial Day.
A 4-acre memorial to Vietnam veterans in Worcester’s Green Hill Park is falling into disrepair with the state having eliminated funding for its upkeep two years ago and city coffers stretched to the limit.
BEACON HILL
Gov. Deval Patrick, after being out of state for nearly three weeks, is trying to reintroduce himself. On Greater Boston, he discusses his travels and travails and makes some observation on the loss of Fidelity jobs and the brouhaha over nonprofit director stipends.
WASHINGTON
Sen. Scott Brown flashes a thumbs-up at Guantanamo. Here’s what he tells the Salem News.
Joan Vennochi thinks Scott Brown‘s favorite breakfast food might be the waffle.
For Ed Markey, perhaps it’s some sort of biscuit: The Globe editorial page thinks the dean of the delegation has gone a little flaky.
Congressman John Tierney criticized President Obama yesterday for failing to consult Congress on military action in Libya.
Where did the Fed get those $82 billion in profits, and where do they go?
Former US Rep. Bart Stupak, who helped secure the passage of health care reform legislation last year, tells the Atlantic he often gets “bitched out” in airports by angry constituents.
Republican Constitutional authority statements tell us what we already suspected – the Constitution was written to let Congress do lots of stuff.
EDUCATION
Harwich and Chatham students pick the name for new regional school district: “Monomoy.”
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Federal officials give top priority to seismic concerns surrounding the Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo calls “a catastrophe waiting to happen.”
Experts warn that those contaminated plastic discs that escaped from a Hooksett, New Hampshire, sewage treatment plant may traverse the Atlantic and show up in England in the next three to six months, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
MUNICIPAL
Quincy will be getting 80 percent state reimbursement for construction of a new middle school, a coup for city officials after contentious dealings wth the School Building Assistance program over construction of the recently completed high school
The field of candidates for Taunton mayor is growing by the day, and that’s even before Sen. Marc Pacheco makes the expected announcement that he’s in.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo told a gathering of the state’s mayors behind closed doors in Revere he’s confident he’ll get a casino bill passed, the Lynn Daily Item reports.
Phillip Laverriere was fired from his position as executive director of the Lawrence Community Action Council after he was found to be spending many of his afternoons a local Elks Lodge.
Give the Springfield police a shout if you know who is stealing manhole covers in the Sixteen Acres neighborhood.
The Berkshire Eagle warns residents not to believe every blog post they read after Pittsfield police move to squash Internet-spread rumors of a crime wave in the city.
The North Adams Transcript says now is the time for Lanesborough to dip into its stabilization fund rather than resort to layoffs.
Bourne officials find money to forestall cuts to the fire department and council on aging, but still face other tough choices.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Despite the ruckus over Fidelity Investments’ shuttering of its Marlborough office and the shipping of most of its 1,100 jobs to New Hampshire and Rhode Island, Massachusetts may not be necessarily losing all those jobs – or the taxes they bring, the Globe reports.
A poll of nonprofits around the country found that despite most raising more funds in 2010 than the previous year, 87 percent say the recession is not over for them.
BIG DIG
The mess that state Transportation Secretary Jeff Mullan made of a fallen light fixture in the O’Neill Tunnel got messier yesterday with Mullan’s admission that it wasn’t only the public and Gov. Deval Patrick that were left for weeks in the dark about the problem. Mullan himself wasn’t told for a month about the mishap.
BOSTON POLITICS
Recently-elected City Councilor Tito Jackson talks about his goals for District 7.
TECHNOLOGY
WBUR reports on a frustrated Harvard research fellow in search of his first Nobel Prize who has started a social network for ner… er, scientists called Researchgate. More than 800,000 ner… er, scientists have signed up to share their research and interests.
The Springfield Republican salutes the state’s broadband initiative which will bring faster or new Internet service to underserved and rural areas in western Massachusetts.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
High-profile defense attorney Robert George has retained high-profile defense attorneys Rosemary Scapicchio and Kevin Reddington following his arrest yesterday on federal money laundering charges.
Attorney General Eric Holder vows to investigate the nationwide increase in shootings of police officers.
ELECTION 2012
Mitt Romney launches a barnstorming tour, seeking commitments from influential fundraising bundlers.
Meet the gay Republican who would be president.
STATE OF THE STATES
States are dealing with their budget troubles by shifting pain onto municipalities.
UNIONS
Maine‘s governor targets a workers’ mural at the state’s Department of Labor headquarters. He believes the artwork, which depicts lumberjacks and striking workers, is anti-business.