“The new round of national and state surveys this week generally showing President Obama clinging to a tenuous advantage over Republican Mitt Romney reinforce the conclusion that socially liberal, upscale white women may stand as the president's indispensable line of defense in his struggle for reelection,” National Journal’s Brownstein writes. “Both the national ABC/Washington Post survey released earlier this week, and the NBC/Marist Polls released Thursday in the battleground states of Ohio, Virginia and Florida show Obama retaining preponderant support among minority voters who were critical to his 2008 victory. Conversely, in almost all of the surveys, Obama faces a consistent pattern of erosion from his already meager 2008 levels of support among whites without a college education.”
“President Obama has been keeping some long days lately, often due to fund-raising events for his reelection campaign. It raises the question of whether he is tiring himself out for his day job as the nation’s CEO, chief diplomat, and commander in chief,” the Boston Globe’s Johnson writes. “Just [yesterday], the president awoke in San Jose, Calif., after 18 1/2 hours of travel that saw him fly to Colorado to deliver the Air Force Academy commencement address, then on to Denver for a fund-raiser - and then on to California for two more.”
Politico says that Obama and his campaign have stumbled out of the gate. “Obama, not Mitt Romney, is the one with the muddled message — and the one who often comes across as baldly political. Obama, not Romney, is the one facing blowback from his own party on the central issue of the campaign so far – Romney’s history with Bain Capital. And most remarkably, Obama, not Romney, is the one falling behind in fundraising.”
“The Obama administration is sidestepping an election-year confrontation with the hotel industry and other pool owners to give them more time to comply with access rules for the disabled,” the AP writes. “The rules have been in the works since the early 1990s, but the Justice Department created an uproar among hotels, waterparks, health clubs and the like earlier this year when it said it will require many such facilities to install fixed, permanent lifts to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.”
“The candidate of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood won a spot in a run-off election, according to partial results Friday from Egypt's first genuinely competitive presidential election. A former prime minister an a leftist were vying for second place and a chance to run against him to become the country's next leader,” AP writes. “The run-off will be held on June 16-17, pitting the two top contenders from the first round of voting held Wednesday and Thursday. The victor is to be announced June 21.”
Michelle Obama wants to be Beyoncé: “Gosh, if I had some gift, I’d be Beyoncé. I’d be some great singer,” Mrs. Obama told People magazine in an interview set to hit newsstands Friday, per the New York Daily News “The power of music, being able to play an instrument. … It looks like musicians just have the most fun.”
