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Air Max Outlet
DescriptionReviewsConfidence & Shipping
Nike Free Run 2 Kids Gray Greens Running Shoes
We're used to seeing the Women Nike Free London Olympics Black Rose Running Shoes with that adopted "Split Sole" aesthetic, one that takes the eye away from the original construction of the fan-favorite Free runner and relies more on the colorway than the unique lines of the pre-existing sneaker. Then there's always the option of Nike outfitting the shoe in a soft suede to give it a fall-ready mock up. That all changes today as the reflective trend has finally arrived to the Nike Free 2015 . The shoe features that futuristic Metallic Silver throughout the monochromatic upper while a solid black hits the free outsole. Check out more of this shiny take on the Nike Free Run after the break and grab a pair of this metallic runner today from retailers like Titolo.


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A Forum Dedicated to the Proposed Old Ford Sprint Championship in 2007
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Did anyone notice that I missed the December Green Crafts Showcase? With the holiday madness, I completely forgot! I decided to put all of the entries from December and January together and pick my top 5 favorites! Here they are:
1. Shooting Star Bunting by Glue and Glitter
Glue and Glitter made this adorable shooting star bunting for her space themed nursery! Not only is it adorable, but it's made from recycled felt and organic ribbon! Head on over to her site to see how you can make your own shooting star bunting!
Next>> Jean Coasters by Green Issues
Did you mean to enter this month's showcase and forget? No sweat! We are already taking entries for next month's showcase, and you can enter by clicking here.
[Photo via Glue and Glitter, used with permission]


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Jaeger-LeCoultre affirms commitment to marine conservation at Global Conference on Oceans
During the Fifth Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France from 3-7 May, Mr. Yves Meylan, Director France of the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre gave a keynote address on private sector engagement for marine conservation. Mr. Meylan presented the innovative Tides of Time partnership among Jaeger-LeCoultre, the International Herald Tribune and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and demonstrated how private sector interests can be linked successfully with a strong engagement for marine conservation.
In addition to a 3-year media campaign in the print and online editions of the International Herald Tribune, the partnership also provides core financial resources to the World Heritage Marine Programme. The symposium was closed with a special address by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation supports marine protection and encourages sustainable development.


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The Deer Park Police Department has a total of 65 licensed police officers and 52 full and part-time civilians. The goal of the department is to provide the highest quality of police services so as to improve the quality of life for the community of Deer Park.
The men and women of the Police Department are committed to building strong, effective, and mutually beneficial police / community partnerships. Modern law enforcement should be dedicated to the security of the community and service to the community. The continued development of the department should be centered on response to the changing needs of the community, the effective use of innovative ideas, and advanced technological applications of those ideas. This department subscribes to these ideas and is committed to the provision of the highest quality of service to the community of Deer Park, the Birthplace of Texas.
With the implementation of a new software system at the department, residents can now access even more statistics online. Information regarding current criminal activity, area sex offenders, and jail inmates can be quickly accessed through the following links:


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The following obituaries were received for Monday –
Michael R. Wagner – Bedford
Michael R. Wagner 70, of Bedford, passed away at 3:39 pm on Saturday, January 19, 2013 at the IU Health Hospice House.
Born October 11, 1942 in Indianapolis, he was the son of Ray and Norma (Quackenbush) Wagner. He married Patty Barnett on April 1, 1966 and she survives.
He retired from General Motors in 2000 as a machine repairman. He was a US Navy veteran 2nd Class Petty Officer serving four years on the USS Samuel B. Roberts. One of his most memorable accomplishments was crossing the Arctic Circle becoming a
member of the Royal order of the Blue Nose. Mike enjoyed fishing and cars.
Survivors include his wife Patty, of Bedford; his mother, Norma Wagner; one daughter: Anne Stauffacher and her husband Brent, of Greensburg; three grandchildren: Aubrey,
Caitlyn, and Charlie; one brother: Tim Wagner and his wife Lisa, of Bloomington; one uncle: Gilbert Wagner and his wife Betty, of Ellettsville; and several nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his father and one sister: Lana Bourland.
Graveside funeral services will be held at 11:30 on Thursday, January 24th at the Silverville Baptist Cemetery with John Lee officiating. Military rites will be accorded at the grave by members of the American Legion Gillen Post #33. Visitation will be from 4pm until 7 pm on Wednesday, January 23rd at the Day & Carter Mortuary.
The family asks that friends consider memorial contributions be made to the White River Humane Society.
Family and friends are invited to light a candle and sign the guest book in memory of Mike at www.daycarter.com.
Catherine P. Pridemore – Mitchell
Catherine P. Pridemore, 80, of Mitchell, passed away at 10:39 p.m. Saturday, January 19, 2013, at Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital.
Born November 27, 1932, in Lawrence County, she was the daughter of Opal and Inez (Johnson) Grissom. She married John Pridemore July 1, 1950, and he preceded her in death in 1995.
She retired from RCA and volunteered at the Mitchell Public Library.
Survivors include her children, John Pridemore and wife Janet, of Mitchell, Robert Eugene Pridemore and wife Pam, of Taswell; Paul LaVerne Pridemore, of Mitchell, Cathy and husband Charles Lewis, of Bedford, Rebecca and husband Marty Dotts, of Mitchell, Danny Joe Pridemore, of Mitchell, Brian Pridemore and wife Joni, of Orleans, Anita and husband Andy Miller, of Franklin; 20 grandchildren; 36 great grandchildren; 2 great great grandchildren; sister, Wanda Pridemore, of Mitchell
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; son, Carl Douglas Pridemore and wife Vicky; and siblings, Opal Grissom, Jr., Herbert Grissom, Lloyd Grissom, Jimmy Grissom, Bobby Grissom, Carl Grissom, Pauline Hardin, Ruth Roberts, and Elsie Leatherman.
Funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Wednesday, January 23, 2013, at Haverly Chapel Funeral & Cremation. Burial will be in Mitchell Cemetery. Friends may call from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and from noon until the service on Wednesday at the chapel.


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I heard it again last night.
In those grey gauze moments just before sleep, a distant sound. Or was it just outside my bolted window? A laugh? Or a cackle? I couldn't be sure. Listening, listening, till the beat of my heart hurt my head. I pulled the covers up over my eyes and lay still as sleep, thinking.
Does no one else hear this?
All week long, just around midnight, strange sounds. Echoes of half forgotten conversations, snippets of laughter from those long disappeared into the mist. Rustlings. Murmurings. A whirling susurrus scratching at the garden gate. From deep in the trees, sounds of feather-soled footfalls cracking old leaves, inching closer and closer, ever nearer, to my door.
As each orange afternoon hands over the day to the night, a long finger of ice traces my spine.
I see faces in the candle flame - hear incantations in the trees.
I jump at the tea kettle's whistle.
November will come, I tell myself. It will weave the now threadbare veil tightly and these visitors will vanish to mist. No longer will the will-o-the-wisp follow me, footstep by footstep, down the darkened hallway, its light casting unspeakable shadows upon the wall. This robed coven will fly from my rooftop, its shadow melting back to a flock of black crows.
I will open my window at midnight and all will be quiet.
No more will I catch the bleached discordant notes drifting out from the midst of the trees. No longer will I glimpse the swirl of an embroidered hem waltzing underneath the old oaks.
But for now, I wait.
With twisty hands and tapping foot, I sit.
I strain my ears for the step on the walk, for the knock on the door that I know will come.
I wait.
And I listen.
For Halloween.


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Troops lock down Kashmir as India votes to strip its status
(Washington Post) – Indian lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday that strips statehood from the Indian-administered portion of Muslim-majority Kashmir, which remains under an indefinite security lockdown, actions that archrival Pakistan warned could lead to war.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist-led government submitted the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill for a vote by the lower house of Parliament a day after the surprise measure was introduced alongside a presidential order. That order dissolved a constitutional provision, known as Article 370, which gave Kashmiris exclusive hereditary rights and a separate constitution.
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"After five years, seeing development in J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) under the leadership of PM Modi, people of the valley will understand drawbacks of Article 370," Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said just before the bill was passed.
Kashmir is claimed by both India and Pakistan and divided between them. Two of the three wars the nuclear-armed neighbors have fought since their independence from British rule were over Kashmir.
How the 7 million people in the Kashmir Valley were reacting was unclear, because the Indian government shut off most communication with it, including internet, cellphone and landline networks. Thousands of additional troops were deployed to the already heavily militarized region out of fear the government's steps could spark unrest. Kashmir is India's only Muslim-majority state and most people there oppose Indian rule.
Indian TV news channels in Srinagar, the main city in India's portion of Kashmir, showed security personnel including armed soldiers in camouflage standing near barbed wire barricades in the otherwise empty streets.
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Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said Srinagar was "totally peaceful," the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Hundreds of people around Pakistan and the portion of Kashmir it controls rallied against Modi, burning him in effigy and torching Indian flags to condemn India's moves.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said in an address to Parliament on Tuesday night that he feared the Kashmiri people could attack Indian security forces out of anger and New Delhi could blame Pakistan for it.
"If India attacks us, we will respond," Khan said. "We will fight until the last drop of blood."
In February, a bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed 40 Indian troops. India responded with an airstrike inside Pakistan, blaming a Pakistani group for the attack.
The Pakistani military was on high alert Tuesday following reports that New Delhi was continuing to send additional troops to its portion of Kashmir. Pakistan's top military commanders met in the garrison city of Rawalpindi to discuss the changes in Kashmir.
China, which also lays claim to a portion of Kashmir, is "seriously concerned" about the situation, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
"The relevant sides need to exercise restraint and act prudently. In particular, they should refrain from taking actions that will unilaterally change the status quo and escalate tensions," she said.
The bill passed in India's Parliament changes Jammu and Kashmir from a state to a union territory with a legislature, and carves out Buddhist-majority Ladakh, a pristine, sparsely populated area that stretches from the Siachen Glacier to the Himalayas, as a separate union territory without a legislature.
The lower house approved the bill Tuesday, a day after upper house approved it by a two-thirds majority, with many opposition lawmakers voting with the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
It was unclear when the security measures would be eased in Kashmir, but an outpouring of condemnation by Kashmiris living outside the region or who were able to access the internet despite the government blocks suggest the population will resist the New Delhi government's actions.
Ordinary Kashmiris have feared the measures would be a prelude to intensifying an ongoing crackdown against anti-India dissenters. Rebels have been fighting Indian control for decades, and most Kashmiris support the rebels' demand that all of Kashmir be united under Pakistani rule or become independent.
Security lockdowns, general strikes and civilian street demonstrations against Indian control are routine. About 70,000 people have been killed in the rebel uprising and the ensuing Indian crackdown.
Operation Kashmir: Has Modi checkmated Pakistan?
PM Imran true spokesperson for Kashmiris' rights: Firdous


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The expanded RTD FasTracks rail system through Aurora is transforming the city's landscape and future, providing economic development corridors and connecting major activity and employment centers.
RTD's R Line brings light rail service through the heart of Aurora. The 10.5 miles of new light rail connects the existing track at Nine Mile Station up Interstate 225 to the Peoria Station on the University of Colorado A Line. The new R Line provides easy connections to the A Line and the H Line, making it easier than ever to get to the airport, the Denver Tech Center or downtown Denver. The line opened Feb. 24, 2017.
The line, which includes 10 stations in Aurora, provides connectivity to major activity centers like the Aurora City Center, Anschutz Medical Campus and Denver International Airport through a transfer at Peoria to the A Line. Find out more about the transit-oriented development happening in Aurora.
The A Line is a 22.8-mile commuter rail transit corridor that operates between Denver Union Station and Denver International Airport.
Featuring two stops in Aurora, the rail line connects these two important areas while serving adjacent employment centers, neighborhoods and development areas in Aurora and Denver.
Through public and stakeholder meetings, the city has developed plans to identify development sites and pedestrian and automobile connections, and create a vision for the overall character of Aurora's rail station areas.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
If the recycling container simply tips over, chances are that the recycling pickup workers will pick up your materials and put them in the truck. However, similar to standard sanitation services, it is the resident's responsibility to ensure that materials are placed in their designated pickup location in an orderly fashion. Large quantities of recyclable materials that are spread over a defined area could result in citations from the Canton City Health Department.
To prevent animals from getting into your recyclable materials, be sure to thoroughly rinse your food items before placing them in the container. Animals are attracted to food smells - if your items have been rinsed properly, animals will not have any reason to investigate your container.
Show All Answers
The City of Canton is currently distributing one recycling container free of charge to city residents. When all residents have received their free container, we will be accepting requests for additional containers. Currently, we do not plan to charge for the additional container. If supplies begin to run extremely low or completely run out we may impose a per-container charge for additional containers. To request another container, fill out the Container Request Form.
Because plastic bags are not recyclable in our current program, we request that residents only use the approved containers supplied by the City when recycling their materials. City recycling employees are unable to accept materials that are not in an approved container. Residents should request another bin by filling out the Container Request Form.
Unfortunately, the program is only open to those residents who receive City sanitation services. If you live outside the City, it is highly unlikely that you receive City sanitation services. However, if you do live outside of City limits and receive City of Canton Sanitation services, you can participate in this program. There are currently no plans to expand service outside of our current service area.
Though we strongly encourage all residents to participate in our recycling program, residents are not required to participate in the recycling program at this time. If you choose to opt-out of recycling, your sanitation bill will not raise or lower, as this is a free service. Should you opt-out of the recycling program, we ask that you call Canton Curbside Recycling at 330-489-3000 to have a City employee retrieve your free recycling container for another household to use.


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Step away from the blowdryer. Unplug that flat iron. Go Natural and experience the freedom of wash and go hair. Natural hair is beautiful hair and with the right products and styling techniques can flourish and grow to great lengths! Kinky-Curly TM brand hair products are formulated to add moisture, give hold without drying hair out and also offer protection from the elements. |
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Work is underway to tighten up spending policies at the B.C. legislature, as Auditor General Carol Bellringer completes the first of a series of reports on financial controls in the operation of the provincial government.
Travel, clothing and gift purchases need clearer policies, Bellringer says in a report released Thursday. It detailed that former legislature clerk Craig James charged $108,656 in travel costs for 14 out-of-province trips between April 2016 and December 2018.
"None of the clerk's out-of-province travel had prior approval documented in the expense claims," the report states.
Sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz, who continues on paid leave as police and special prosecutors investigate, had prior approval for two of 15 out-of-province trips, with $59,269 in expenses.
RELATED: B.C. legislature clerk retires after misconduct found
RELATED: Thousands spent on booze, magazines, wood splitter
Bellringer's probe did not look at misconduct, which was addressed in a report by former Supreme Court of Canada chief justice Beverley McLachlin in May. She cleared Lenz of misconduct, but found James to have improperly claimed benefits and used legislature property for personal reasons.
James reached a "non-financial" settlement and retired with his public service pension and additional retirement allowance that was questioned by Plecas.
Clothing expenses for #bcleg Speaker, Clerk and Sergeant at Arms examined by @BCAuditorGen pic.twitter.com/eDocpWMUTd
— Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc) September 19, 2019
The committee of MLAs responsible for the $70 million budget of the B.C. legislature and constituency offices has already made changes, including travel, clothing and gift approval procedures.
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MR. DAVID GREGORY: And, good Sunday morning. Time is nearly up before we go over the so-called fiscal cliff. Senate leaders spent the weekend working on a last-ditch deal and the House comes back today for a rare Sunday night session. Yesterday afternoon, in an exclusive interview, President Obama sat down with me in the blue room of the White House to discuss the way forward and his priorities for his second term.
DAVID GREGORY: Mister President, welcome back to MEET THE PRESS.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It's great to be here. Thank you.
GREGORY: So the obvious question: Are we going over the fiscal cliff?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I think we're going to find out in the next 48 hours what Congress decides to do, but I think it's important for the American people to understand exactly what this fiscal cliff is, because it-- it's actually not that complicated. The tax cuts that were introduced in 2001, 2003, 2010, those were extended and they're all about to expire at the end of the year. So on midnight December 31st, if Congress doesn't act then everybody's taxes go up. And for the average family that could mean a loss of 2,000 dollars in income.
For the entire economy that means consumers have a lot less money to make purchases, which means businesses are going to have a lot less customers, which means that they're less likely to hire and the whole economy could slow down at a time when the economy is actually starting to pick up and we're seeing signs of recovery in housing and in employment numbers improving.
And, so what Congress needs to do, first and fore-- foremost, is to prevent taxes from going up for the vast majority of Americans. And this was a major topic of discussion throughout the campaign. What I said was is that we should keep taxes where they are for 98 percent of Americans, 97 percent of small businesses. But if we're serious about deficit reduction we should make sure that the wealthier are paying a little bit more and combine that with spending cuts to reduce our deficit and put our economy on a long-term trajectory of growth.
You know, we have been talking to the Republicans ever since the election was over. They have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers. Yesterday, I had another meeting with the leadership and I suggested to them if they can't do a comprehensive package of-- of smart deficit reductions, let's at minimum make sure that people's taxes don't go up and that two million people don't lose their unemployment insurance.
And, you know, I was modestly optimistic yesterday, but we don't yet see an agreement. And now the pressure's on Congress to produce. If they don't, what I've said is that in the Senate we should go ahead and introduce legislation that would make sure middle class taxes stay where they are and there should be an up or down vote. Everybody should have a right to vote on that. You know, if-- if Republicans don't like it, they can vote no. But I actually think that there's a majority support for making sure that middle class families are held harmless.
GREGORY: If you go over the cliff…
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Mm-Hm.
GREGORY: …what's the impact in the markets, which have been pretty confident up until now that a deal would get done?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you know, it's-- it's hard to speculate on the markets, but obviously I think business and investors are going to feel more negative about the economy next year. If you look at projections of 2013, people generally felt that the economy would continue to grow, unemployment would continue to tick down, housing would continue to improve.
But what's been holding us back is the dysfunction here in Washington. And if, you know, people start seeing that on January 1st this problem still hasn't been solved, that we haven't seen the kind of deficit reduction that we could have had had the Republicans been willing to take the deal that I gave them, if they say that people's taxes have gone up, which means consumer spending is going to be depressed, then obviously that's going to have an adverse reaction in the markets.
GREGORY: What about automatic spending cuts? Those take effect January 1st as well. Do they have to be part of this deal? You've got half of those cuts in defense alone.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the-- the other part of the fiscal cliff is Congress agreed that they would cut an additional 1.2 trillion dollars in spending. They put a committee together to try to come up with those numbers. They didn't figure out how to do it. And so what we now have is a situation where these automatic spending cuts go into place.
Now if-- if we have raised some revenue by the wealthy paying a little bit more, that would be sufficient to turn off what's called the sequester--these automatic spending cuts, and that also would have a better outcome for our economy in long-term.
But, you know, so far, at least, Congress has not been able to get this stuff done. Not because Democrats in Congress don't want to go ahead and cooperate, but because I think it's been very hard for Speaker Boehner and Republican Leader McConnell to accept the fact that taxes on the wealthiest Americans should go up a little bit-- as part of an overall deficit reduction package.
GREGORY: Well, you talk about dysfunction in Washington. You signed this legislation setting up the fiscal cliff 17 months ago. How accountable are you for the fact that Washington can't get anything done and that we are at this deadline again?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I-- I have to tell you, David, if-- if you look at my track record over the last two years, I cut spending by over a trillion dollars in 2011. I campaigned on the promise of being willing to reduce the deficit in a serious way, in a balanced approach of spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy while keeping middle class taxes low.
I put forward a very specific proposal to do that. I negotiated with Speaker Boehner in good faith and moved more than halfway in order to achieve a grand bargain. I offered over a trillion dollars in additional spending cuts so that we would have two dollars of spending cuts for every one dollar of increased revenue. I think anybody objectively who's looked at this would say that, you know, we have put forward not only a sensible deal but one that has the support of the majority of the American people, including close to half of Republicans.
GREGORY: But when they say...
PRESIDENT OBAMA: And it's...
GREGORY: ...leadership falls on you, Mister President, you don't have a role here in...
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well...
GREGORY: ...breaking this impasse? You've had a tough go with Congress.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: David, you know, at a certain point if folks can't say yes to good offers, then I also have an obligation to the American people to make sure that the entire burden of deficit reduction doesn't fall on, you know, seniors who are relying on Medicare. I also have an obligation to make sure that families who rely on Medicaid to take care of a disabled child aren't carrying this burden entirely. I also have an obligation to middle class families to make sure that they're not paying higher taxes when millionaires and billionaires are not having to pay higher taxes.
There is a basic fairness that is at stake in this whole thing that the American people understand and they listened to an entire year's debate about it. They made a clear decision about the-- the approach they prefer, which is a balanced, responsible package.
They rejected the notion that the economy grows best from the top down. They believe that the economy grows best from the middle class out. And at a certain point, you know, it is very important for Republicans in Congress to be willing to say, "We understand we're not going to get 100 percent. We are willing to compromise in a serious way in order to solve problems," as opposed to be worrying about the next election.
GREGORY: You said that Republicans have a hard time saying yes. Particularly to you.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yeah.
GREGORY: What is it about you, Mister President, that you think is so hard to say yes to?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, that's something you're probably going to have to ask them, because, you know, David, you-- you follow this stuff pretty carefully. The offers that I've made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me. I mean I offered to make some significant changes to our entitlement programs in order to reduce the deficit.
I offered not only a trillion dollars in-- over a trillion dollars in spending cuts over the next 10 years, but these changes would result in even more savings in the next 10 years. And would solve our deficit problem for a decade. They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme.
And-- and at some point I think what's going to be important is that they listen to the American people. Now, you know, the-- I think that over the next 48 hours, my hope is that people recognize that, regardless of partisan differences, our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle class families do not go up that would hurt our economy badly.
We can get that done. Democrats and Republicans both say they don't want taxes to go up on middle class families. That's something we all agree on. If we can get that done that takes a big bite out of the fiscal cliff. It avoids the worst outcomes. And we're then going to have some tough negotiations in terms of how we continue to reduce the deficit, grow the economy and create jobs.
GREGORY: If this fight comes back-- and I want to ask you specifically about entitlements: Medicare and Social Security.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right.
GREGORY: Are you prepared in the first year of your second term to significantly reform those two programs? To go beyond the cuts you've suggested to benefits in Medicare, which your own debt commission suggested you'd have to do if you were really going to shore up Medicare at least. Are you prepared to do that in your first year of the second term?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: What I've said is I am prepared to do everything I can to make sure that Medicare and Social Security are there, not just for this generation but for future generations.
GREGORY: You've got to talk tough to seniors...
PRESIDENT OBAMA: But...
GREGORY: ...don't you about this? And say, something's got to give?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: ...but I already have, David, as you know, one of the proposals we made was something called Chain CPI, which sounds real technical but basically makes an adjustment in terms of how inflation is calculated on Social Security. Highly unpopular among Democrats. Not something supported by AARP. But in pursuit of strengthening Social Security for the long-term I'm willing to make those decisions. What I'm not willing to do is to have the entire burden of deficit reduction rest on the shoulders of seniors, making students pay higher student loan rates, ruining our capacity to invest in things like basic research that help our economy grow. Those are the things that I'm not willing to do. And so...
GREGORY: Would you commit to that first year of your second term getting significant reform done? Telling Congress, "We've got to do it in…"
PRESIDENT OBAMA: No, no, no...
GREGORY: ..."the first year?"
PRESIDENT OBAMA: ...but, David, I want to be very clear. You are not only going to cut your way to prosperity. One of the fallacies I think that has been promoted is this notion that deficit reduction is only a matter of cutting programs that are really important to seniors, students and so forth.
That has to be part of the mix, but what I ran on and what the American people elected me to do was to put forward a balanced approach. To make sure that there's shared sacrifice. That everybody is doing a little bit more. And it is very difficult for me to say to a senior citizen or a student or a mom with a disabled kid, "You are going to have to do with less but we're not going to ask millionaires and billionaires to do more." That's not something that we're...
GREGORY: Can I ask you about...
PRESIDENT OBAMA: That's not an approach that the American people think is right. And, by the way, historically that's not how we grow an economy. We grow an economy when folks in the middle, folks who are striving to get in the middle class, when they do well.
GREGORY: But I'm asking you about timeframe because, as you well know, as a second term president now, about to begin to your second term, your political capital, even having just won reelection, is limited. So what is your single priority of the second term? What is the equivalent to healthcare?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, there are a couple of things that we need to get done. I've said that fixing our broken immigration system is a top priority. I will introduce legislation in the first year to get that done. I think we have talked about it long enough. We know how we can fix it. We can do it in a comprehensive way that the American people support. That's something we should get done.
The second thing that we've got to do is to stabilize the economy and make sure it's growing. Part of that is deficit reduction. Part of it is also making sure that we're investing, for example, in rebuilding our infrastructure, which is broken. And, you know, if we are putting people back to work rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our schools, in part paying for it by some of these broader long-term deficit reduction measures that need to take place that will grow the economy at the same time as we're also setting our path for long-term fiscal stability.
Number three. You know, we've got a huge opportunity around energy. We are producing more energy and America can become an energy exporter. How do we do that in a way that also deals with some of the environmental challenges that we have at the same time? So that's going to be a third thing.
But the most immediate thing I've got to do starting on January 1st, if Congress doesn't act before the end of the year, is make sure that taxes are not going up on middle class families. And because it is going to be very hard for the economy to sustain its current growth trends if suddenly we have a huge bite taken out of the average...
GREGORY: Those are...
PRESIDENT OBAMA: ...American's paycheck.
GREGORY: Those are four huge things and you didn't mention after Newtown, although I know you're thinking about it, new gun regulations.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes.
GREGORY: Mayor Bloomberg of New-- New York told me a couple weeks ago on this program that ought to be your number one agenda item. You know how hard this is. Do you have the stomach for the political fight for new gun control laws?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, David, I think anybody who was up in Newtown, who talked to the parents, who talked to the families, understands that, you know, something fundamental in America has to change. And all of us have to do some soul searching, including me as president that we allow a situation in which 20 precious small children are getting gunned down in a classroom. And I've been very clear that, you know, an assault rifle ban, you know, banning these high capacity clips, background checks, that there are a set of issues that I have historically supported and one will continue to support.
GREGORY: But can you get it done? I mean the politics...
PRESIDENT OBAMA: And...
GREGORY: ...is the question.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: ...so the question is are we going to be able to have a national conversation and move something through Congress. I'd like to get it done in the first year. I will put forward a very specific proposal based on the recommendations that Joe Biden's task force is putting together as we speak. And so this is not something that I will be putting off. But...
GREGORY: The NRA says it's just not going to work.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well...
GREGORY: It didn't work before. It's not going to work now.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, my response is something has to work. And it is not enough for us to say, "This is too hard so we're not going to try." So what I intend to do is I will call all the stakeholders together. I will meet with Republicans. I will meet with Democrats. I will talk to anybody. I think there are a vast majority of responsible gun owners out there who recognize that we can't have a situation in which somebody with, you know, severe psychological problems is able to get the kind of high capacity weapons that-- that this individual in Newtown obtained and-- and gunned down our kids. And, yes, it's going to be hard.
GREGORY: Do we have an armed guard...
PRESIDENT OBAMA: But...
GREGORY: ...at every school in the country? That's what the NRA believes. They told me last week that could work.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, I am not going to prejudge the recommendations that are given to me. I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools. And I think the vast majority of the American people are skeptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem. And, look, here's-- here's the bottom line. We're not going to get this done unless the American people decide it's important.
And so this is not going to be simply a matter of me spending political capital. One of the things that you learn, having now been in this office for four years, is the old adage of Abraham Lincoln's. That with public opinion there's nothing you can't do and without public opinion there's very little you can get done in this town. So I'm going to be putting forward a package and I'm going to be putting my full weight behind it. And I'm going to be making an argument to the American people about why this is important and why we have to do everything we can to make sure that something like what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary does not happen again.
But ultimately the way this is going to happen is because the American people say, "That's right. We are willing to make different choices for the country and we support those in Congress who are willing to take those actions." And will there be resistance? Absolutely there will be resistance.
And the question then becomes, you know, whether we are actually shook up enough by what happened here that it does not just become another one of these routine episodes where it gets a lot of attention for a couple of weeks and then it drifts away. It certainly won't feel like that to me. This is something that, you know, that was the worst day of my presidency. And it's not something that I want to see repeated.
GREGORY: It hit close to home.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Absolutely.
GREGORY: Let me ask you about a couple of foreign policy notes. After the attack in Benghazi, is there a need for more accountability so that this doesn't happen again? And do you know who was behind the attack at this point?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Two points. Number one, I think that Tom Pickering and Mike Mullen who headed up the-- the review board did a very thorough job in identifying what were some severe problems in diplomatic security. And they provided us with a series of recommendations. Many of them were already starting to be implemented. Secretary Clinton has indicated that she is going to implement all of them.
What I've-- my message to the State Department has been very simple. And that is we're going to solve this. We're not going to be defensive about it. We're not going to pretend that this was not a problem. This was a huge problem. And we're going to implement every single recommendation that's been put forward.
Some individuals have been held accountable inside of the State Department and what I've said is that we are going to fix this to make sure that this does not happen again, because these are folks that I send into the field. We understand that there are dangers involved but, you know, when you read the report and it confirms what we had already seen, you know, based on some of our internal reviews; there was just some sloppiness, not intentional, in terms of how we secure embassies in areas where you essentially don't have governments that have a lot of capacity to protect those embassies. So we're doing a thorough-going review. Not only will we implement all the recommendations that were made, but we'll try to do more than that. You know, with respect to who carried it out, that's an ongoing investigation. The FBI has sent individuals to Libya repeatedly. We have some very good leads, but this is not something that, you know, I'm going to be at liberty to talk about right now.
GREGORY: In the politics, in the back and forth in this, do you feel like you let your friend Susan Rice hang out there to dry a little bit?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: No. First of all, I think I was very clear throughout that Susan has been an outstanding U.N. ambassador for the United States. She appeared on a number of television shows reporting what she and we understood to be the best information at the time. This was a politically motivated attack on her. I mean of all the people in my national security team she probably had the least to do with anything that happened in Benghazi. Why she was targeted individually for the kind of attacks that she was subjected to is-- is-- was puzzling to me. And I was very clear in the days after those attacks that they weren't acceptable. So, you know, the good thing is-- is that I think she will continue to serve at the U.N. and do an outstanding job. And I think that most Americans recognize that these were largely politically motivated attacked-- attacks as opposed to being justified.
GREGORY: You have another series of cabinet choices to make. Former Senator Chuck Hagel has come under criticism for some comments he's made including about a former ambassador nominee during the Clinton years that being gay was an inhibiting factor to being gay to do an effective job. Is there anything about Chuck Hagel's record or statements that's disqualifying to you should you nominate him to run the Defense Department?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, I haven't made a decision about who to nominate. And my number one criteria will be who's going to do the best job in helping to secure America.
GREGORY: Anything disqualify…
PRESIDENT OBAMA: And...
GREGORY: ...him?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Not that I see. I've served with Chuck Hagel. I know him. He is a patriot. He is somebody who has done extraordinary work both in the United States Senate. Somebody who served this country with valor in Vietnam. And is somebody who's currently serving on my Intelligence Advisory Board and doing an outstanding job. So I haven't made a decision on this. With respect to the particular comment that you quoted, he apologized for it. And I think it's-- it's a testimony to what has been a positive change over the last decade in terms of people's attitudes about, you know, gays and lesbians serving our country. And that's something that I'm very proud to have led. And I think that anybody who serves in my administration understands my attitude and position on those issues.
GREGORY: Mister President, as you look forward to a second term, you think about your legacy, you think about your goals, how frustrated are you at how hard it appears to be to get some of these things done? Very difficult relationship with Congress. People come up to me all the time and say, "Don't they realize, all of them, the president, Republicans and Democrats, how frustrated we all are?"
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I think we're all frustrated. You know, the only thing I would-- I would caution against, David, is I think this notion of, "Well, both sides are just kind of unwilling to cooperate." And that's just not true. I mean if you look at the facts, what you have is a situation here where the Democratic Party, warts and all, and certainly me, warts and all, have consistently done our best to try to put country first. And to try to work with everybody involved to make sure that we've got an economy that grows, make sure that it works for everybody, make sure that we're keeping the country safe. And, you know, the-- the-- does the Democratic Party still have some knee jerk ideological positions and are there some folks in the Democratic Party who sometimes aren't reasonable? Of course. That-- that's true of every political party.
But generally if you look at how I've tried to govern over the last four years and how I'll continue to try to govern, I'm not driven by some ideological agenda. I'm a pretty practical guy and I just want to make sure that things work. And-- and one of the nice things about never having another election again, I will never campaign again, is, you know, I think you can rest assure that all I care about is making sure that I leave behind an America that is stronger, more prosperous, you know, more stable, more secure than it was when I-- I came into office and-- and that's going to continue to drive me. And I-- I think that the issue that we're dealing with right now in the fiscal cliff is a prime example of it. What I'm arguing for are maintaining tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans. I don't think anybody would consider that some liberal left wing agenda. That's some-- that-- that used to be considered a pretty mainstream Republican agenda.
And it's something that we can accomplish today if we simply allow for a vote in the Senate and in the House to get it done. The fact that it's not happening is an indication of, you know, how far certain factions inside the Republican Party have gone where they-- they can't even accept what used to be considered centrist, mainstream positions on these issues.
Now I re-- I remain optimistic, I'm just a congenital optimist, that eventually people kind of see the light. You know, Winston Churchill used to say that we Americans, you know, we-- we try every other option before we finally do the right thing. After everything else is exhausted we eventually do the right thing and I-- I think that that's true for Congress as well. And-- and I think it's also important for Americans to remember that politics has always been messy. People have been asking me a lot about the-- the film Lincoln and, you know...
GREGORY: Is this your Lincoln moment?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, no. Look, A, I never compare myself to Lincoln and, B, obviously the magnitude of the issues are quite different from the Civil War and slavery. The point, though is, is democracy's always been messy. And, you know, we're a big, diverse country that is-- is constantly sort of arguing about all kinds of stuff but eventually we do the right thing.
And in this situation I'm confident that one or two things are going to happen when it comes to the fiscal cliff. Number one, we're going to see an agreement in the next 48 hours, in which case middle class taxes will not go up. If that doesn't happen, then Democrats in the Senate will put a bill on the floor of the Senate and Republicans will have to decide if they're going to block it, which will mean that middle class taxes do go up. I don't think they would want to do that politically but they may end up doing it.
And if all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle class families do in fact go up on January 1st, then we'll come back with a new Congress on January 4th and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families. And, you know, I-- I don't think the average person's going to say, "Gosh, you know, that's a-- that's a really partisan agenda on the part of either the president or Democrats in Congress." I think people will say, "That makes sense, because that's what the economy needs right now."
So if-- one way or another, we'll get through this. Do I wish that things were more orderly in Washington and rational and people listened to the best arguments and compromised and operated in a-- in-- in a more thoughtful and organized fashion? Absolutely. But when you look at history that's-- that's been the exception rather than the norm.
(End videotape)
GREGORY: My interview with President Obama. Coming up, reaction to the interview and what it tells us about what his second term will look like. Joining me, NBC's Tom Brokaw, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, executive editor at Random House Jon Meacham, David Brooks of the New York Times and our political director and chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd. All coming up, next.
GREGORY: Coming up, reaction from our roundtable this morning. You've just heard the president lay out his big agenda items for the second term--immigration, the economy, energy and middle class tax cuts, not to mention gun control. But can he realistically get any of them done given Washington's track record of dysfunction? (Unintelligible) roundtable is here to break it all down after this brief commercial break.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I'm confident that one or two things are going to happen when it comes to the fiscal cliff. Number one, we're going to see an agreement in the next 48 hours, in which case middle class taxes will not go up. If that doesn't happen, then Democrats in the Senate will put a bill on the floor of the Senate and Republicans will have to decide if they're going to block it, which will mean that middle class taxes do go up. I don't think they would want to do that politically but they may end up doing it.
(End videotape)
GREGORY: That, of course, from our interview just moments ago with the president. I sat down with him yesterday at the White House, putting the onus squarely on Congressional leaders to either do a comprehensive package now or a short-term solution to prevent middle class taxes from going up. Joining me now, NBC News political director and our chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd; NBC News special correspondent Tom Brokaw; author of the bestselling-- New York Times' bestselling book Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Jon Meacham; columnist for the New York Times, David Brooks; and presidential historian, author of the Lincoln biography Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin. Welcome to all of you. David Brooks, let me start with you. My big take away, the president is setting a tone here with Republicans, putting them on notice that yes, taxes are going to go up, and that he's going to drive a pretty hard bargain on a lot of different issues rather than try to bring them into the fold. He doesn't feel like compromise is going to work at this point.
MR. DAVID BROOKS (Columnist, New York Times): Yeah. Well, first, let's say what's happening in Washington right now is pathetic. When you think about what the revolutionary generation did, what the Civil War generation did, what the World War II generation did, we're asking not to bankrupt our children and we've got a shambolic, dysfunctional process. Now I think most of the blame still has to go to the Republicans. They've had a brain freeze since the election. They have no strategy. They don't know what they want. And they haven't decided what they want. But if I had to fault President Obama, I would say that sometimes he's-- governs like a-- a visitor from a morally superior civilization. He comes in here and he will not-- he-- he'll talk with Boehner, he won't talk with the other Republicans. He hasn't built the trust. Boehner actually made a pretty serious concession, 800 billion dollars in tax revenues, probably willing to go up on rates. But the trust wasn't there to get that done. And if the president wants to get stuff done over the next four years, it's got to be a lot more than making the intellectual concessions. It's got-- got to get to the place where Republicans say, okay, we'll take a risk. This guy won't screw us.
GREGORY: Mm-Hm.
MR. BROOKS: They don't feel that right now.
GREGORY: Chuck, just your reading of the…
MR. CHUCK TODD (Political Director, NBC News): Yeah.
GREGORY: … immediate news that's going to be made over the course of today and tomorrow. Again, what I think is significant, the president saying we either get this deal now, or we'll go over the cliff. We'll come back right after the…
MR. TODD: Right.
GREGORY: …first of the year and we'll try to get the tax cuts through again. But the Republicans are going to be forced to be in a position, they're going to have to say no because we'll put it on the floor.
MR. TODD: Yeah. There didn't seem to be a sense of urgency of, oh, my God, we can't go over the cliff, right? The president was laying it out, you know, what, we might go over. This is how we're going to deal with it once we go over. We're not going to end up, you know, in the long-term raising taxes on everybody. But he seemed to be not making today do or die, not making the next 48 hours the big thing here, which will-- it will be interesting to see if that's how Senate-- the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, who is the key here, right? Does he sign off on a deal? If he signs off on a deal, something will happen. Does he read that and say, boy, we need to take this tax issue off the table. He's been a big believer of this. Take the tax issue out that give the president his tax hikes on the rich now, fight him on everything else when taxes aren't part of the conversation. Fight him on everything else in-- in six weeks when the debt ceiling is hit or perhaps it ends up eight weeks, 12 weeks, whenever that fight happens, and do that. I do think that McConnell-- that's where he wants to be. Can he get there in the next 24 hours, that's what we don't know.
GREGORY: Tom Brokaw.
MR. TOM BROKAW (NBC News): Well, it-- it-- it-- it seems to me that the middle class is going to have a date for the prom. I mean, everybody is talking about protecting the middle class here. So I think this deal will probably get done around the middle class tax cut. It's at what level. Is it 400,000 dollars or 250,000 dollars or some other number, which is going to be critically important? A lot of people don't realize in the large urban and suburban areas of America, 250,000 dollars doesn't make you rich. You've got two kids in college at 60,000 dollars. If you're a boomer, you may have a dependent parent of some kind. You're spending another 20-25,000 dollars on. So we have to have the definition of what is the middle class. To David's point, I do really believe that the president doesn't work hard enough at bringing everybody into the White House and rolling up his sleeves, having them in the living quarters, getting them around the table and saying how do we get this deal done. He didn't talk downstream about tax reform, for example. And I think it would have been helpful to him this morning to have said, look, we get this tax deal done, I'm here to help on Medicare and Social Security Reforms. We've got to address those, instead of just saying I'm going to protect the seniors who are there and the Medicare and Medicaid recipients. Give a little something. Show good faith about what needs to be done on deficit reduction and the entitlement programs.
GREGORY: Doris, Republicans I have talked to in the last couple of days on Capitol Hill had said, look, you know, the-- the president meeting with all the congressional leaders, it's a first time that's happened since November 16th. This is not somebody who has been actively engaged in negotiating. He's basically saying yet again; I won, we're going to get this through. But the president says, no, it's-- it's Republicans who just won't say yes to reasonable proposals.
MS. DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN (Presidential Historian; Author, Team of Rivals): Well, that may be the conclusion that he's drawn. I mean, we don't really know what's going on. Invitations put out, not necessarily accepted. What interested me about the tone of his talk with you was that, I think, he's learned from that first term where he was arguing with-- to explaining things. He talked simply in this thing. He talked conversationally. He repeated over and over again his own points, fairness, balance. He talked about middle class out rather than from the bottom up. That seems to be a new phrase. And I think he's learned what Theodore Roosevelt had learned that when you're speaking to the American people and you want to make an argument, it has to be simple. Maybe as Theodore Roosevelt said, "My Harvard buddies might think it's commonplace," but I thought he spoke in a different tone today, more conversational, and that's something you learn from your first term, where he thought he had spoken too much over people's heads or too explanatory.
GREGORY: Jon Meacham, there's something I also wanted to pick up on. The president's obvious irritation, Chuck was just mentioning it before we started, at the notion that it's a pox on both Houses.
MR. JON MEACHAM (Author, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power): Right.
GREGORY: And one of the president's top advisers is rather defensive on Twitter saying that it-- you know, it should bug every American because it's lazy journalism and punditry and has a real effect on our political system. Well, here's the reality that even his advisers have to understand. The American people, Republicans and Democrats, do look at results or the lack thereof. So, it's not lazy punditry when people are out there very frustrated with both ends of this.
MR. MEACHAM: Right. And I see the system as broken because as you say, it doesn't produce a result, a desirable result.
GREGORY: Right. Being right is not enough, even if you're the president.
MR. MEACHAM: Exactly. Exactly.
GREGORY: Even if you believe you're right, it doesn't necessarily get a result.
MR. MEACHAM: You know, presidential politics is about wholesale and retail as we say, you know, in-- in the trade. And so today, this morning, he was doing a wholesale sell. He was using the bully pulpit. He was talking to you. He was making an intellectual case and trying to say, I won. This is what you voted for. This is what we adjudicated in the election. But on the retail side, as-- as Tom says, all evidence suggests he has not been the warmest and fuzziest of cajolers. And you have to do both. And you can't just be right on the idea. You do have to sell this. And even the greatest presidents, let's be clear, Ronald Reagan-- the modern era-- Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, they sold their initial deals in the first year. (Unintelligible) for Reagan and the tax rates for Clinton and it was close. It was one, two, three votes. It was very tight. But they did it. And they pushed and they pushed on both the wholesale and the retail.
MS. GOODWIN: But I don't think you can have the congressmen over too often. I think they should be there sleeping with you if you want them to be, but on the other hand…
MR. MEACHAM: Well, that could have some people in trouble.
MS. GOODWIN: I didn't quite mean that.
GREGORY: You know, the Civil War era, people, Doris, you know.
MS. GOODWIN: But I think he finally has made a decision, perhaps, that the inside game didn't work. He said that which…
MR. MEACHAM: But he has never tried these…
MS. GOODWIN: …means immobilize the outside game.
MR. TODD: But he has-- inability to try the inside game, but let's make sure we are about to come up on the most-- the least productive Congress in history, we have in mathematical terms, 218 bills this Congress has passed. It's the lowest number since this has been tracked. The lowest number before that was 333. Let's go through the highlights of this Congress. No farm bill. By the way, milk prices have been going up. We both talked about the milk cliff. That-- that debacle we saw on the Senate on the U.N. Disability Treaty right in front of Bob Dole. And that was just a-- a bizarre moment, if you will. This fiscal cliff, three budget standoffs. I mean, this-- this Congress has been uniquely atrocious.
GREGORY: Tom.
MR. BROKAW: You know, the fact is the system is red, 75 percent of the congressmen come from gerrymandered districts in which they are bulletproof. They only play to one constituency. There are no swing states. They don't go home and have to prove their case because they have got a choir back home. And that's a huge part of a problem here. There's another reality in this town today. We need a lighter moment here. A lot of folks as I was coming into the office today said they have to get this done by kickoff time tonight.
GREGORY: Yeah, exactly.
MR. TODD: It's a good thing. That was a good thing…
GREGORY: That's right.
MR. TODD: …NBC moved its kickoff to prime-time. It's very important that…
(Cross talk)
GREGORY: …clinch today. That's not important. David, I think we're going to make a point but I-- I also think it's important to-- to go back to the president's argument, that, you know, you have to be able to say yes to something that's reasonable. Charles Krauthammer and other conservatives have argued that he's effectively exposed big internal divisions in the Republican Party that they have yet to work out, which prevents them from getting to a reasonable place of compromise to then move on to fight other battles.
MR. BROOKS: Right. Well, Boehner was close to a deal, but he couldn't sell-- not the rank and file wild men of the caucus, he couldn't sell it to the senior leadership on the deal because they thought they were giving away what they needed to do tax reform later on. But you have got to sort of anticipate that. You have got to know beyond Boehner what the party wants. But in some sense, the Republicans are being shambolic and they're making fools out of themselves. But in another sense, they are reacting favorably or rationally to the incentive structure they are with in. The big lie in this whole thing is that we have got the sensible country with the dysfunctional Washington. The reality is we have a country of people who want to bankrupt their children to spend money on themselves, and they will punish any politician who prevents them from doing that. And therefore they will punish Republicans if they-- if they cut entitlements. They will punish Democrats if they cut entitlements. So what you saw today was the president shifting the attention from debt reduction to tax cuts, which is the easy thing.
GREGORY: Right.
MR. BROOKS: So, I think the problem is centrally in the country, and the politicians look like idiots because they are responding to horrible incentives.
GREGORY: And it interesting…
MS. GOODWIN: And it's shambolic. That's a great word.
GREGORY: Yeah. What does shambolic mean exactly?
MR. BROOKS: It some British…
GREGORY: Okay. But you-- Tom-- Tom when you-- I'm not afraid of it-- well, you know, I thought I'd let it go the first time. On second thought I had to say I don't really know what you meant. Tom, you know, you interviewed-- you interviewed then candidate Obama in 2008. You said-- you asked him then, would you get Medicare and Social Security reform done in your first two years? He said, well Tom, I don't know if I can do that but-- certainly in the first term. I asked him to make a commitment for the first year of his second term. He's not prepared to do that. This is the driver, David you-- you recently linked to a Weekly Standard piece about you're going to run out of discretionary money to do the things the president wants to do if he doesn't take on entitlements.
MR. BROKAW: They've got to address it. And the president I think, could help himself a lot if he were tougher on the AARP for example, and said look, it's not about the people at the bottom for whom Medicare really is the lifeline. It's about all of the people, including those of us around the table who get the same benefits, members of our family who are very working class. My brother, you know, has a really great working class career working for the telephone company. But there's a big disparity between what I'm worth and he's worth but we get the same benefits at the end of the day. There's something wrong with that. And, you know, the fact of the matter is that we're all living longer as well. Social Security can go up if you give it some lead time to retire at 67 and probably 20 years from now to retire maybe at 70 because people are staying in the workplace longer. He ought to be able to raise those issues in a way that he can begin to sell them to the idea of-- sell to the American people the idea that we've got fundamental reforms that we have to do, as David says, downstream because we are going to be bankrupt not just our children but your grandchildren.
MR. TODD: But this so goes on the Republicans a little bit. If they want this, right, and McConnell I think does, I'm not sure all-- to go into your Senate structure here. They demagogue Medicare to their own success, a lot of them got into Congress demagoguing Medicare. But if they want this, and this all good-- you know, they are going to, A, need a Democratic president to sign the legislation. It can never-- the Republican Party can't have it where it's all one party that does this with Social Security and Medicare. And they have got to be well in to say all right, if they want to do this, they're going to have give on something that they don't like, maybe even higher tax-- and, you know, that's where the moment was there. They almost-- they almost got this president to move on Social Security. They almost got him to move on-- on Medicare reform and they didn't take the deal.
GREGORY: Let me bring up…
MR. BROOKS: The reality is…
GREGORY: Go ahead.
MR. BROOKS: …that at the end of the day, they are going to walk away from this without any spending (Unintelligible). We're going to get a deal which will do nothing on deficit.
GREGORY: And nothing even with the sequester issues.
MR. TODD: And it's their own fault.
MR. BROOKS: I totally agree with that.
GREGORY: Jon, Let-- let me bring up the gun issue. The president said he'll put up his-- his full weight behind--his first year--gun control legislation. But I-- the-- the question still stands, does he have the stomach for how difficult this is going to be politically? I'm not sure.
MR. MEACHAM: I'm not either. I--I-- you know, there's a great line in Tom Sawyer where Tom Sawyer says that the-- an evangelist came through town who was so good that even Huck Finn stayed saved till Tuesday. I worry that our attention span on these things is so-- so limited, you had to bring up the question of guns as the president was laying out his second term agenda. It is one of these cultural political issues where you have a ferociously well-organized opposition, and a more diffuse common sense broader population. And I think that that's-- that's where the tension is. That also by the way is not-- the well organized interest plus the common sense diffusion is not just limited to guns. It's…
GREGORY: But, Tom, talk a little bit more about guns. As-- as you remember, the Assault Weapons Ban in '94; passes the House by four votes. And that was a Democratic House.
MR. BROKAW: And-- and-- and by the way, it had a lot of loopholes in it. I brought a copy of a magazine I'm sure the rest of you don't get at your home, but I do. It's called Shotgun News. And…
MR. TODD: Smarty, over here.
MR. BROKAW: Almost the entire-- this is for people who own guns and are gun collectors and some are gun nuts. Not all of them, obviously. But the fact is, it's all about what we call assault weapons. And there are lots of variations on them. This entire publication is dedicated to the idea that there are lots of new-- what they call platforms for AR 15s. And there are ways that you can change the barrel, as you can change the stock, you can change the trigger mechanism.
GREGORY: This is the gun used in Newtown?
MR. BROKAW: Yeah. And the fact of the matter is that everybody talks about it as if it's one weapon. It's not. It's a lot of variations on those same weapons. So they always find a way to do around it. And there is no more in my judgment unified constituency in America than the passionate gun owners. They are out there. And they believe-- so many of them believe the government is going to knock down their door and take their guns away. And what I say if we get to that, we get a lot of bigger problem than guns. We're in anarchy.
GREGORY: Let me-- let me-- let me get…
MR. TODD: There is an 89-page, what do we up here, a 92-page newsletter against assault weapons.
GREGORY: All right, let me-- let me-- we'll-- we'll come back to this. I want to get a break in here. I was in Kentucky over Christmas and saw a bumper sticker that said a lot, I am the NRA and I vote. And they will on this issue. We'll get a quick break in here. Talk about the president's priorities for a second term and what's really possible, more with our roundtable after this.
GREGORY: We're back with more from our roundtable. We'll get to some of the headlines that the president made on the wires here before we're through. But Doris Kearns Goodwin, how does the president set priorities in a second term? He's got a pretty long list there and a pretty difficult environment in which to operate.
MS. GOODWIN: Well, the most important thing a president has to do knowing he has limited capital is to decide where do I put my-- my ambitions, where do I hold back? FDR once said, "I'm like a cat. I know when to pounce and when to pull back." So I think the fact that he did not mention gun control makes him understand that unless he can argue public sentiment to overcome the enormous special interests, that's going to be a much harder one. Immigration right at the top and that's the one where he can mobilize that base. It's the base that elected him. It's going to make it harder for Republicans. If he were to get immigration through; he starts on a successful platform, and then maybe moves to these other ones on entitlement.
GREGORY: There is an incentive for Republicans to cooperate on immigration.
MR. BROOKS: Yeah, the sad thing from the fiscal cliff is we're going to be stuck in trench warfare for another-- maybe for another couple of years.
MS. GOODWIN: That's why you got to go for immigration.
MR. BROOKS: I think-- but I would-- make sure you do it so you can get the George W. Bush Republicans on your side. Do with a Bush type comprehensive package. Then you break the trench warfare. You get some from column A and column B, and then maybe you'll begin to do the things that you want to do. The second big issue, that does the same thing up for a coalition is tax reform.
GREGORY: But-- but the question Tom raises when we're talking about guns, there's a larger approach. Does he have more of an opportunity on gun control if there's a big mental health aspect to it, if there's more to it, Tom?
MR. BROKAW: Well, that's what I think. I think it has to be holistic. The fact of the matter is I'm not an assault weapon fan of any kind, but I know people who go out to the target ranges and feel strongly that they have a Second Amendment Right to fire them off as many times as they want to with .30 caliber, I mean, with 30-round magazines in them. So sportsmen, people who have weapons for hunting deer or big game or birds as I do and other people, have to become part of this debate as well, and say, look, there have got to be limits of some kind. I mean, I have even talked to people who are gun owners saying, why couldn't you have a club where they actually own the assault weapons, and if you want to shoot it for target practice, you have to go to the licensed club, get the gun, shoot it and then check it back in.
MS. GOODWIN: That's all the more reason why he has to use the bully pulpit to educate the country on the holistic approach you're talking about. He's got to get out of the White House more. I think he should take a train and go around the country for his vacation this summer, talk to people about all of these issues so that you can mobilize public sentiment. As Lincoln said, without it nothing can happen and that's still the-- that's the goal of the second term.
MR. MEACHAM: I-- I think the gun question, though, is-- is almost less a matter of presidential leadership and more a matter of cultural leadership from people like Tom and like me, I suspect we're the only two gun owners here. David, I know is…
MR. BROOKS: The pen, the pen is mightier.
MR. MEACHAM: … the pen, yeah the pen-- the pen-- the pen is mightier. But it-- it-- if you're a moderate, if you're a quail hunter, if you're a dove hunter, you-- you have to get into this and say, look, assault weapons are not what this is about. As President Clinton said, you'd never known anyone that needed an assault weapon to kill a deer. And this is a case where if people-- if this is not an organic movement from the country, it's not going to work. It can't come from top down.
GREGORY: But let's-- Chuck, you want to just-- I want to inject the larger political point. We have mid term elections coming up in two years. He's talking about immigration, there's the trench warfare on the budget and entitlements which could take a long time, and gun control if he wants to do that this year as well.
MR. TODD: Well, and that's something you got to pick, Doris is right, you got to pick and choose. You got to be careful if you pick-- on-- on one hand it could be tempting to go guns, because you-- it needs the most political capital. It's going to be the hardest slog. It's the most work. But if you do it and fail, you know, you're not going to get anything else done. Ask George Bush when he did social security first…
GREGORY: Right, of course.
MR. TODD: …and he did immigrate. Immigration is going to be relatively easy. Now, it's going to feel-- there will be some painful moments, but you have a Republican Party of which there is incentive to get it done. You got a big victory early and may be that is what it does (Unintelligible) but I tell you, the fact that we're going to be stuck in these budget-- these budget impasses in-- in-- and it's going to keep the economy dragging down, I mean, I think that's the biggest, I mean, we've already gone over the-- the political cliff here, if you will. With-- with what? Because the deal that happens-- if it happens is temporary. We're going to have this debt ceiling thing in three-- in six weeks which is just a-- a abominable.
GREGORY: Let me just underscore some of the headlines being made here. The president saying that the U.S. has good leads now on who carried out the Benghazi attacks. He also touts Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary saying there's nothing disqualifying but says he hasn't made a defense choice yet. The president also says failure to reach a fiscal deal would hurt the markets. And as we've been talking about, the president wants gun violence measures passed in 2013, something he said in the course of our interview. We'll take another break here. Be back in just a moment.
GREGORY: Thank you all for the discussion today and for all your contributions to the program this year. I really appreciate it. Before we go, I wanted to point out that if you missed the interview with the president, there are several opportunities to watch a rebroadcast on MSNBC. That's later today at 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM and 9:00 PM Eastern and again tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM. And for highlights from the interview, make sure to follow me on Twitter @davidgregory is my handle. That's all for today. We'll be back next week. Until then, have a Happy New Year. If it's Sunday, it's MEET THE PRESS.


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I Represent Sean Rosen (Paperback)
Sean Rosen makes funny videos you can watch online. He also has ideas for movies, TV shows, and games that he knows are good enough to be produced by the biggest studios in Hollywood. The only problem is, he's a kid. And he's busy with school. And he lives far from Los Angeles or New York City. But Sean does have a laptop and a phone, and he's smart. He's about to have the ride of a lifetime as he discovers the ins and outs—and dos and don'ts—of becoming one of the youngest movie moguls the world's ever known.
An inventive, original, and hilarious novel that will leave fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Carl Hiaasen, and Louis Sachar eager for Sean's next adventure.
Jeff Baron wrote episodes of prime-time series for all the major networks. He worked on multiple movie and TV projects with Disney and Nickelodeon. He's an internationally acclaimed playwright, and earlier in his career he was a marketing director, speechwriter, cook, and camp counselor. He lives in New York City.
Sean Rosen lives somewhere in the middle, between New York City and Los Angeles. To watch Sean's podcasts—the very thing that made him famous in the first place—go to www.seanrosen.com.
"In this hilarious debut novel, Baron gives readers interesting insight into the creative process. Fans of Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid and Carl Hiaasen's books will not be disappointed." — School Library Journal (starred review)
"Burning with a big idea that he is convinced will revolutionize the entertainment industry, Sean recounts his improbable success story in such a glib mix of moves and countermoves that readers will be swept along in the giddy rush." — Booklist
"Sean Rosen is my hero!" — Lincoln Peirce, New York Times-bestselling creator of Big Nate
"Smart, funny, and fresh. I want Sean Rosen to represent me." — Robert Lipsyte, author of The Twinning Project and One Fat Summer
"I Represent Sean Rosen is the best book I've read in a while. Equal parts Hollywood satire, Louis Sachar–style deadpan fable, and old-fashioned tale of American gumption, it introduces us to a character who is surprising . . . and quietly heroic. . . . I happily represent Sean Rosen." — -- Ned Vizzini, author of IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY and THE OTHER NORMALS Ned Vizzini, author of IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY and THE OTHER NORMALS
"Baron examines such issues as navigating the complex world of movie screenwriting and maintaining artistic integrity. He deftly juxtaposes these scenarios with Sean's reflections and witty observations regarding middle school life." — Kirkus Reviews
"Wonderful, fast, vivid, funny. I read it with my son, and we [fought] over who would read and who would listen. I recommend it to any kid who plans to grow up and face the world of sharks and minnows, and any parent who wants a little reprieve from same." — Rich Cohen, author of Sweet and Low and Alex and the Amazing Time Machine
"Baron's fast-paced writing manages to capture not only a brilliant voice but also to convey the humor, affection, and frustration a smart and funny thirteen-year-old has for the life around him in a book that will delight any teen who dares to dream big." — Everyday E-books
"Sean Rosen is a fascinating character, and readers will enjoy his farcical adventures. Told through letters, emails, texts, and prose, it appeals to today's tech-savvy teens and tweens." — Library Media Connection


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Sec. 504. [42 U.S.C. 704] (a) Except as otherwise provided under this section, a State may use amounts paid to it under section 503 for the provision of health services and related activities (including planning, administration, education, and evaluation and including payment of salaries and other related expenses of National Health Service Corps personnel) consistent with its application transmitted under section 505(a).
(b) Amounts described in subsection (a) may not be used for—
(1) inpatient services, other than inpatient services provided to children with special health care needs or to high-risk pregnant women and infants and such other inpatient services as the Secretary may approve;
(2) cash payments to intended recipients of health services;
(3) the purchase or improvement of land, the purchase, construction, or permanent improvement (other than minor remodeling) of any building or other facility, or the purchase of major medical equipment;
(4) satisfying any requirement for the expenditure of non-Federal funds as a condition for the receipt of Federal funds;
(5) providing funds for research or training to any entity other than a public or nonprofit private entity; or
(6) payment for any item or service (other than an emergency item or service) furnished—
(A) by an individual or entity during the period when such individual or entity is excluded under this title or title XVIII, XIX, or XX pursuant to section 1128, 1128A, 1156, or 1842(j)(2), or
(B) at the medical direction or on the prescription of a physician during the period when the physician is excluded under this title or title XVIII, XIX, or XX pursuant to section 1128, 1128A, 1156, or 1842(j)(2) and when the person furnishing such item or service knew or had reason to know of the exclusion (after a reasonable time period after reasonable notice has been furnished to the person).
The Secretary may waive the limitation contained in paragraph (3) upon the request of a State if the Secretary finds that there are extraordinary circumstances to justify the waiver and that granting the waiver will assist in carrying out this title.
(c) A State may use a portion of the amounts described in subsection (a) for the purpose of purchasing technical assistance from public or private entities if the State determines that such assistance is required in developing, implementing, and administering programs funded under this title.
(d) Of the amounts paid to a State under section 503 from an allotment for a fiscal year under section 502(c), not more than 10 percent may be used for administering the funds paid under such section.


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In the latest sign that e-bikes are becoming more mainstream, a new retail bike shop is set to open soon in the Pearl District.
According to sources, a company named Greenlight LLC will open the shop. They are the U.S. distributors of Kalkhoff Bikes, a German brand that has been in existence since 1919 and has a full line of electric bikes.
After we learned about Greenlight a few days ago, an unemployed reader tipped us off to a job listing for their new retail store (they're looking for a manager).
We haven't heard from the company yet, but according to their website, Kalkhoff has a full range of electric bikes that are sold in 37 countries and are the #1 selling electric bike in Europe.
Here are a few more photos:
We'll have more on Greenlight and their plans as details become available.
This would be Portland's second independent retail shop that sells electric bikes. The e-Bike Store, which stocks a wide range of e-bike brands and will likely sell the Kalkhoffs, opened on N. Vancouver back in April.
2010 just might be the year e-bikes finally break into the American market in a major way.
In Portland, we've definitely noticed a trend to more e-assist bikes. Bike Gallery now sells the A2B brand electric bikes from Ultra Motor, Bike n' Hike on SE Grand carries a full line of e-bikes from Giant Bicycle, and Joe-Bike on SE Hawthorne has added the Portland-made Ecospeed electric assist unit onto their "Box Bike" model.
On the national front, Trek/Gary Fisher has several e-bikes their lineup for next year (as evidenced in all the photos coming out of TrekWorld this week) and national electronics juggernaut Best Buy is now carrying e-bikes from A2B and iZip.
It will be interesting to see if the riding public adopts these battery-powered bikes on a large scale.


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"I brake my back working on hoes all day. In fact, i'm well known for the effort I put into my hoes."
"Hoe! Hoe! Hoe!"
"Since you put yourself on my dick, I put my nuts on your chin..."
"Ya know, it's like they say: Pimpin' ain't easy, but somebody gotta do it homie"
I think u've got a phobia
This term for a long handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker.
What's a Hoe?
Sorry, it's actually a rake, but this article is about Hoe's.
""In Soviet Russia, Hoe owns YOU!""
Pimpin' Hoe's[edit]
A hoe is a very useful tool to use. Hoes are distributed around the town by Pimps (People Increasing the Management of Plants Society). Hoes are usually found in New York City or Amsterdam, also known as the "Fun Town". If your corn stalks are not firmly inserted into your garden hole a hoe might be a good thing to get especially if you are bored of your garden hole.
The History of Pimping[edit]
Hoes originated in Canada in the year 1832 when a man named Snoop Esterdogaty decided he wanted to let others enjoy his hoes and enjoy the feeling of freshly-made holes. So Snoop started crusing around town selling his hoes. Every one enjoyed the hoes so much, Snoop's tools were spread all across the country. Snoop's great grandson later founded the company PIMP.inc. locky snoop easterdogatys father was the biggest motha fucking P>I>M>P
How to use a hoe[edit]
To use a hoe you must grasp it gently rub it back and forth on your garden....or jungle. If a hoe gives you a problem, give it a pimp slap. This will make sure the hoe's head is on straight. If all else fails, simply "Superman dat hoe."
What are hoes?[edit]
Most hoes are girls, however there are also man hoes. Also there are mystery hoes and surprise hoes. These are widely avoided and branded as fags since they are 90% just gay guys that want male attention. The other 10% you know are perfectly straight.
Bros Before Hoes Rule[edit]
It is a rule that bros always come before hoes, as illustrated by the Sardini-Crews principal:
This is supplemented by the Smith Corollary:
Male Hoe[edit]
Hoe stands for HOmo-Erotic when it involes a male. Sometimes a male hoe wishes to be a female hoe.


text: The study of the nature and impact of recent and emerging digital technologies and our interactions with them in everyday life, and in cultural, economic and political terms. Key themes might include interaction, interfaces, simulation, virtuality, control and exchange of information, the nature of new forms of artistic and cultural practice. In his book The Language of New Media, the writer Lev Monovich proposes five defining principles: numerical representation, Modularity, Automation, Variability, and Transcoding.


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T-Mobile Service Coming to NYC Subways
It took a year, but T-mobile service in NYC subways will finally begin on Tuesday. So now, just like everywhere else, you can listen to the person next to you yell at their boss chat with a friend. I guess the good thing is that service will not be offered on moving trains and will be limited to just some … [read full article]


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Very young infants spend a lot of time asleep and they will not be wearing their hearing instruments during these periods. However, as your baby grows, so does the amount of awake time where the use of hearing instruments is crucial. The initial natural reaction is quite understandably one of surprise, accompanied by a desire to remove them but as long as the hearing aids are set up appropriately with the right amount of volume and loudness then a majority of babies do not want to remove their hearing aids.
As the baby begins to associate sound with meaning, then the impulse to remove the hearing aids should decrease.In fact, the baby may sometimes cry when they are removed as they want to hear what is going on all around them!
You can start off by establishing the hearing aids as a part of the daily routine, inserting them in the morning until bedtime from day one so the child has access to speech and language at all times. All parents talk to their children during the day – saying hello, talking about all the things that are being done (freshening up, getting dressed etc.). Putting the hearing instruments in at the beginning of this and not at the end, allows parent and child to establish a routine that is key in enabling the child to pick up the parent's voice. Wearing the instruments during such tender moments also can bring a positive connotation to the instruments for both parties.
If your child starts to pull the hearing aids out a lot, one answer to the problem is to check the hearing aids settings (e.g. Is the hearing aid working or turned on?, Is there wax or moisture blocking the tubing?). If your child still continues to pull them out, then discuss with the audiologist about checking the hearing aids. As long as the hearing aids are appropriately set, the child should enjoy wearing their hearing aids as it connects then to the world.
Older toddlers and preschoolers may want to have colored earmolds and hearing aids. Many different earmold color choices and patterns are available. Letting your child choose his or her own colors can help him or her be part of the process. A feeling of ownership and responsibility for their hearing aids is a goal for older children. Children often try many different earmold colors and patterns over time; neon colors, stripes and even glitter are available. Many hearing aid manufacturers have a range of case colors to choose from. Some have colored or patterned stickers that can be used to decorate the hearing aid case.
Several manufacturers have special books for children. Information about hearing loss is given at a child's level. Special hearing aid care kits for children give parents all the tools they need to take care of their child's hearing aids. Books, stickers and toys are often included with these special kits.
If your child repeatedly rejects the amplification, you can ask your audiologist to check the following:
- Hearing status
- Earmold fit and condition
- Seating of the tone hook and hearing instrument on the ear (e.g. does the instrument have a pediatric-sized earhook and/or sit snugly behind the ear)
- Hearing instrument function and settings
- Presence of wax in the ear canal
In a few cases, babies may develop an ear infection. If you suspect this, call your baby's physician or audiologist for advice. If your baby is unwell or over-tired, simply remove the instruments temporarily. It can be extremely motivating to keep a record of the hours of hearing instrument use on a calendar. This encourages you towards the goal of full-time use. Some parents also add notes on new sounds their baby reacts to, or sounds their baby makes, to give a fuller picture and to track progress. Battery use can be recorded on the calendar as well.
During periods when the instruments are not in use, they should be stored well away from curious brothers and sisters and family pets.
When removed for brief time periods, the hearing instruments should be switched off to reduce battery drain. Also check when you obtain the hearing instruments that they have tamperproof battery compartments so that curious fingers cannot remove the batteries


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Ruling On Pension Suit Could Take Five Months Or More
It could be December before a judge decides on the legality of Illinois' pension overhaul law for at least another five months. Attorneys met Thursday in Sangamon County Court and agreed on a timeline for the case.
Current and retired state employees, teachers and university workers are suing Governor Pat Quinn over the pension overhaul passed by the General Assembly late last year.
Though it was to have already begun taking effect, a judge has put it on hold until its legality is sorted out in court.
According to the schedule attorneys have agreed to, that could take five months - or longer.
While the state has argued the law is necessary given Illinois' fiscal 'crisis,' Aaron Maduff, an attorney for the state's retired university employees, says that won't hold up.
"The pension protection clause is not subject to a police powers defense at all and the state can come in and complain that the state is totally bankrupt, and they still can't do what they're doing under the constitution," he said.
The law reduces retirees' benefits, requires current state employees to work longer until they can retire, and has them put less of their paychecks into their pension.


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Birdman tells Music Mix that after chilling and partying with his family, Lil Wayne will go straight to the studio when he is released from Rikers Island in four days. Baby also says that Weezy will be working on his Tha Carter IV album (hopefully Dedication 4 too), and we should be looking for Like Father, Like Son Part 2 to drop on Father's Day weekend.
"Me knowing Wayne, he's going into the studio," Cash Money label head Baby (a.k.a. Birdman) tells the Music Mix. "He hasn't been able to rap for months. I think after seeing the family, popping a few bottles, it's back to basics. Family first, that's what we believe in, that's what we're loyal to. After that, I think the same day he comes home, he's going to go straight to the studio."
Wayne's first priority when he enters the booth for the first time since March will be working on his long-promised project Tha Carter IV. Baby expects that album to arrive in the first quarter of 2011, though no release plans have been finalized.
Baby is also looking forward to working with Wayne on a sequel to Like Father, Like Son, the collaborative album that the mentor and protégé released in 2006. "We're planning on putting that out Father's Day weekend," he says. So what should fans expect to hear next June? "Just me and Wayne being us, the father-son thing. We're bringing that Cash Money/Young Money sound, that traditional hard-body rap, the music that we do together — that gangsta shit, straight up."


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On Joe Biden's big day, President Donald Trump is planning to show up in his rival's old backyard.
Trump, in what can only be described as a piece of campaign trolling, on Thursday afternoon was staging an event just outside the former vice-president's birthplace in Scranton, Pennsylvania, mere hours before Biden formally accepts the Democratic nomination for president.
The political tradition of a presidential candidate lying low during the other party's convention has eroded over the decades but — to the private delight of Trump's advisers — the president's trip looked to be a particularly in-your-face piece of counter-programming designed to rattle an opponent.
The campaign said Trump's speech would cover "a half-century of Joe Biden failing America." The event points to the importance of Pennsylvania as a battleground state — and to the urgency of the president's effort to close the gap in the polls.
"Joe Biden is hiding and taking voters for granted but the Trump campaign won't make the same mistake," said Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Zager. "Biden's socialist agenda would kill jobs and hurt families in the Keystone State, which is exactly why he won't confront voters in his hometown."
Biden's speech will come hours later from his Delaware hometown and, as the culmination of the four-day convention, will surely dominate headlines and cable news chyrons. But Trump has offered a robust slate of competing activity, holding multiple in-person events this week meant to draw a contrast with the largely virtual campaign that Biden has conducted during the coronavirus pandemic.
He visited two other battlegrounds — Wisconsin and Arizona — as well as Minnesota, one of the few blue states from 2016 that Trump's team feels like he may have a chance to flip this fall. But Trump's campaign has been warily watching his standing falter in the trio of Rust Belt states that carried him to the presidency in 2016. Trump is planning more convention counterprogramming Thursday evening with an appearance on Fox News' Sean Hannity's show just before Biden is to deliver his acceptance speech.
The so-called Blue Wall of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, meant to provide electoral college insurance for Hillary Clinton, instead all broke for Trump by slim margins. He captured Pennsylvania by a mere 44,000 votes four years ago and has since then clashed with the state's Democratic governor over efforts to reopen its economy.
Many in the Trump campaign have all but written off Michigan, a state battered by the virus, and whose governor has repeatedly fought with the president. But advisers believe Pennsylvania, like Wisconsin, remains in play and could be captured again if the economy continues to rebound.
The number of GOP registrations in Pennsylvania has outpaced Democrats this cycle and many political observers believe that the state, which has many white, older voters, could become stronger for Republicans. But Trump has stubbornly trailed Biden, whose team aims to return Pennsylvania to the blue column, where it had been from 1992 until 2016.
The former vice-president is particularly suited in the Democratic field to carry Pennsylvania, with his deep ties to Scranton and messages catering to white working-class voters and Black voters in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Scranton is in Lackawanna County, which went for Clinton in 2016, and Biden's team hopes to increase turnout there.
The Biden campaign dismissed Trump's visit as a lame campaign gambit.
Trump "put the health of countless families across the Keystone State in danger and plunged the strong economy he inherited from the Obama-Biden Administration into a tailspin," said Biden spokesman Andrew Bates. "This sideshow is a pathetic attempt to distract from the fact that Trump's presidency stands for nothing but crises, lies, and division."
The Trump campaign has been concerned about an exodus of suburban voters, particularly women, in the areas around Philadelphia.
In an attempt to offset that, the Trump campaign has prioritized turnout among rural and exurban voters. It has also prepared to blanket the airwaves with attack ads that link Biden to China, hoping to tarnish the Democrat with an association to the country where the pandemic originated and by playing up his ties to globalization and trade deals blamed by some for closing factories and shedding manufacturing jobs in the state.
Top campaign advisers have briefed the president that his support had slipped in battleground states, particularly among seniors in states with aging populations like Pennsylvania. But advisers believe that Trump has begun to reverse that momentum in part due to his efforts to link Biden to radical left elements of the Democratic Party.
Trump has also been campaigning as an avid supporter of fracking in Pennsylvania, where the technique unleashed an oil and gas boom.
Trump and TV ads by a pro-Trump super PAC, America First Action, accuse Biden of wanting to ban fracking. Biden calls that entirely false and has said a ban would likely be politically and legally impossible. He says he wants to bar permits for new oil and gas drilling on public lands, which account for less than a tenth of production.
Before departing for Pennsylvania, Trump sought to distance himself from former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who was arrested Thursday on charges of defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a fundraising effort to support building Trump's border wall.
Bannon, who played a big role in shaping the president's 2016 campaign, was fired by Trump in August 2017.
"I know nothing about the project, other than I didn't like what I read about it," Trump said of Bannon's fundraising efforts.
Jonathan Lemire, The Associated Press
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