Romney says in interview that individual mandate ‘is a tax’
In an interview with CBS News, aired on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney reversed himself and got in line with the GOP’s new talking point: That the individual mandate of the 2010 landmark health-care law is “a tax.”
Romney’s statements in this interview contradict remarks made on Monday by one of his senior campaign advisers, Eric Ferhnstrom, that Romney believed the mandate was a “penalty,” not a tax.
Romney bundler resigns banking post
Robert Diamond, a top bundler for Mitt Romney, who resigned his post Tuesday at Barclays amid a $450 million banking scandal, has pulled out of a high dollar fundraiser for the Republican candidate.
Robert Diamond
(Bloomberg)
Diamond stepped down as CEO of Barclays after the bank was fined for manipulating a key interest rate.
On July 28, Diamond was set to co-host an event in London, where Romney will travel for the Olympics.
“Mr Diamond decided to step aside as a co-host for the upcoming London reception to focus all his attention on Barclays. We respect his decision,” said Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Mr Romney’s campaign in a statement to the Financial Times.
The ticket price range for the dinner is $25,000 to $75,000 according to the Financial Times.
Rupert Murdoch vs. Mitt Romney
Even as he rakes in millions of dollars for his campaign war chest from Wall Street types, Mitt Romney seems to have left two titans of industry with a skeptical impression of how he is running his campaign for the White House.
First it was Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corp., who tweeted Sunday that Romney’s GOP presidential campaign team was insular and outmatched by President Obama’s.
Mitt Romney plans summer trip to Israel, meeting with Netanyahu and other leaders
Mitt Romney is planning a trip to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders this summer before he formally accepts the Republican presidential nomination, a senior campaign official confirmed Monday.
Romney’s visit with a crucial U.S. ally in the Middle East, first reported by The New York Times, is expected to coincide with his trip to London at the end of July to attend the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games, although the campaign official, who was not authorized to discuss the trip publicly, said an exact date had not been set. 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(Baz Ratner - AP)
This will be Romney’s second foreign trip since launching his presidential campaign in June 2011; he held a fundraiser in London last year. But he has visited Israel several times before, most recently in January 2011, when he also went to Afghanistan and Jordan.
Romney has made Israel a centerpiece of his assault on President Obama’s record on foreign affairs. The former Massachusetts governor has tried to cast the president as weak on his support of that country, once pledging to “do the opposite” of the Obama administration on Israel.
#RomneyOlympics vs. #ObamaOlympics: Tweeters riff on both candidates
A Romney family tradition reported by our colleague Philip Rucker on Sunday has inspired a hashtag war between Obama and Romney supporters.
#RomneyOlympics and #ObamaOlympics are both trending on Twitter, mostly due to opponents of each side tweeting snark about the other: Dog-on-the-car jokes are a common theme among #RomneyOlympics tweets and golf jokes are common #ObamaOlympics swipes.
From Rucker’s story:
The Romneys, 30 in all these days, spend their time away from the stresses of everyday life — like, say, wrapping up the Republican nomination for president — by following a highly orchestrated, highly competitive regimen of sports and games known as the “Romney Olympics.”
The Romney Olympics have long included a mini-triathlon of biking, swimming and running that pits Mitt and his five sons and their wives against one another. But after Mitt once nearly finished last, behind a daughter-in-law who had given birth to her second child a couple of months earlier, the ultra-competitive and self-described unathletic patriarch expanded the games to give himself a better shot.
#ObamaOlympics has more traction, according to data from social analytics site Topsy. Here’s a sample of some of the the PG-rated snark being exchanged.
President Obama to visit Colorado wild fire area | June 29 schedule
President Obama will travel to Colorado on Friday to tour the wildfire-ravaged Colorado Springs area, which he last night declared a federal disaster area.
Mitt Romney has no public events scheduled.
Here’s your look at the campaigns’ schedules for Friday, June 29, from the candidates’ press offices and the PBS News Hour Political Calendar.
Obama fooled by inaccurate cable TV reports on Supreme Court’s health care ruling
Count President Obama among the viewers who were fooled by the erroneous early reports on cable television Thursday about the Supreme Court’s health care ruling.
According to aides, Obama was watching the live feeds on CNN and FOX on a split-screen television just outside the Oval Office that was broadcasting four different stations. At 10 a.m., those two stations reported that the court had ruled the individual mandate unconstitutional, overturning the centerpiece of the president’s signature legislative achievement.
Obama remained calm, senior White House officials said. He had reportedly already prepared remarks in case of a victory or defeat, so he was ready either way. Now, he thought he had lost.
Obama, Congress put political differences aside at White House picnic
President Obama has been beating up on Congress for months, but he called a brief truce Wednesday evening to host lawmakers for a picnic at the White House.
The event likely made for some awkward small talk, considering the mix of personalities. For example, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. showed up to mingle a day before the House is expected to hold a contempt vote against him for failure to deliver documents requested in the investigation into Operation “Fast & Furious.”
But Obama, whose criticism of Republicans as obstructionists has become a centerpiece of his campaign, struck a conciliatory tone in his brief remarks.
“We’re thrilled that you have at least one day where you got a chance to be together in Washington and nobody is arguing,” the president said. “So that also just reminds me that for all the political differences that are sometimes expressed in this town, we are first and foremost Americans -- not Democrats or Republicans.”
Romney makes a campaign stop in Northern Virginia | June 27 schedules
Mitt Romney remains in Virginia on Wednesday for an event in Loudon County. President Obama is back in Washington and will host a congressional picnic Wednesday evening, while Vice President Joe Biden continues his bus tour through Iowa. 
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigns at Carter Machinery Company, Inc., in Salem, Va., Tuesday, June 26, 2012.
(Charles Dharapak - AP)
Here’s your look at the campaigns’ schedules for Wednesday, June 27, from the candidates’ press offices and the PBS News Hour Political Calendar.
Mitt Romney previews health-care response
With the Supreme Court set to render a decision Thursday on the health-care law, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney previewed how he will respond and frame the issue.
Speaking to a crowd of about 1,500 people at the Carter Machinery Co. in Salem, Va., Romney said that instead of focussing on jobs and the economy, President Obama focused on pushing for the health-care law.
“As you know, the Supreme Court is gonna be dealing with whether or not Obamacare’s constitutional. If it’s not, if Obamacare is not deemed constitutional, then the first three and a half years of this president’s term will have been wasted on something that has not helped the American people,” Romney said as the crowd applauded. “If it is deemed to stand, then I’ll tell you one thing. Then, we’ll have to have a president, and I’m that one, that’s gonna get rid of Obamacare. We’re gonna stop it on day one.”
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