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Thursday was another big money day for Team Obama. He flew to Seattle in the morning for two fundraisers and then down to Los Angeles for one at the home of George Clooney, who is an actor. California is the political ATM for both parties. According to campaign people, the Clooney fundraiser with about 150 people was a huge success because, they said, it raised about $15 million. Makes it look like once again Hollywood is 120% behind the Real Good Talker out of the Chicago machine. As usual, the Obama accounts are misleading. The campaign has run into considerable...

As the counterweight to a presidential nominee blessed with wealth and privilege, Jindal’s stirring life story as the child of Indian immigrants -- who bestowed upon himself at the age of 4 the all-American name of the youngest son in “The Brady Bunch” -- could be especially appealing. A Rhodes scholar who helmed the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals -- the state’s largest agency -- at the almost absurd age of 24, Piyush “Bobby” Jindal’s aptitude and credentials for the nation’s second-highest office would be difficult for anyone to question seriously. Like Jindal, Romney was an academic overachiever who...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The Indiana primary got lot of attention this week for a great, great, great outcome. In fact, Dingy Harry is so sad that Lugar is gone. Yes, I've got a sound bite here. Grab sound bite 15. Audio sound bite 15. Dingy Harry, a montage lamenting defeat of Richard Lugar. REID: (whispering) I'm worried when I see dedicated patriots like Senator Lugar drummed out by Tea Party zealots for being too willing to cooperate. But that's what happened on Tuesday. I worry when I hear a candidate for the US Senate campaigning against bipartisanship and compromise between...

If the Trayvon Martin case reminds us that race remains the great unresolved issue in our national life, it reminds us, too, of how illusory was the hope that Barack Obama might serve as a one-man antidote to America’s long history of racial division. More than three years into Obama’s presidency, ill feeling between the races is more prevalent than at any time in recent memory—a clear result of his style and the substance of his governance. The question is whether the opposition party and its candidate will dare say so. In what promises to be an ugly campaign, already...

President Obama still leads Mitt Romney in a head-to-head matchup in Wisconsin but by a much narrower margin. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Badger State finds Obama with 49% of the vote to Romney’s 45%. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, while two percent (2%) are undecided.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Kimberly Strassel is in the Wall Street Journal today with an amazing piece: "Trolling for Dirt on the President's List." Listen to this: "Here's what happens when the president of the United States publicly targets a private citizen for the crime of supporting his opponent. Frank VanderSloot is the CEO of Melaleuca Inc. The 63-year-old has run that wellness-products company for 26 years out of tiny Idaho Falls, Idaho. Last August, Mr. VanderSloot gave $1 million to Restore Our Future, the Super PAC that supports Mitt Romney. "Three weeks ago, an Obama campaign website, 'Keeping GOP Honest,'...

"Does DOL believe that the new policy is consistent with the First Amendment? What precedents exist for forcing journalists to utilize government-owned systems and networks to report the news," Sen. Roy Blunt, R-MO, asked Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis in a letter today.

A majority of voters say President Obama’s decision to come out in support of gay marriage will not sway their decision in the fall election. According to a Gallup poll released on Friday, 60 percent of adults nationally said Obama’s new position makes no difference, while 26 percent said it would make them less likely to vote for the president and 13 percent said it would make them more likely to. The numbers are similar when broken down by party affiliation — 65 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents said it made no difference, while nearly half of...

Obama Voters Losing Jobless Benefits Due to the Manipulation of Workforce Numbers May 11, 2012 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Michael in Momence, Illinois. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Thanks a lot, Rush, first-time caller. I'm calling because I was at the unemployment office just yesterday, and they have tables there where people fill out the paperwork that they have -- RUSH: Wait, wait, wait whoa, whoa, whoa, just a second. I need you to go slow here. CALLER: Okay. RUSH: Why were you at the unemployment office? It may seem like an obvious question, but...

California will submit an application seeking a waiver from federal No Child Left Behind act, which has labeled thousands of schools as failing. But the application approved Thursday by the state Board of Education is missing key reforms outlined by President Barack Obama when he offered states relief from the much-maligned testing requirements. Instead, California's application is asking the federal government to allow the state only to use its existing Academic Performance Index, described as a more sensible gauge of academic improvement, to measure school success.

The socially conservative Eagle Forum has endorsed against Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the latest worrisome sign for the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman in his race against former Michigan state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk (R). "Now more than any other time in our history, we need solid conservatives, not just 'go along to get along' politicians in Congress," Eagle Forum head Phyllis Schlafly said in a statement. "We know Jack Hoogendyk is a conservative leader whom we can trust to stand strong on the life and marriage issues and to fight to reduce spending by the federal government." Hoogendyk held...

But with just five days until the GOP primary, neither Stenberg nor Kerrey is looking like Bruning’s biggest obstacle. Instead, the until-now-dark-horse candidate in the race, state Sen. Deb Fischer, has asserted herself and — according to politicos in Nebraska — has a fighting chance to usurp Bruning on Tuesday. Fischer, 61, is an eight-year state senator and product of a ranching family whose father served in Gov. Kay Orr’s (R) Cabinet (more on her bio here). Through late April, she had raised less than $400,000 for her campaign, while Bruning and Stenberg have either spent millions (Bruning) or had...

Election 2012: Wisconsin Senate Tommy Thompson (R) 50% Tammy Baldwin (D) 38% Some Other Candidate 5% Not sure 7% Election 2012: Wisconsin Senate Mark Neumann (R) 44% Tammy Baldwin (D) 42% Some Other Candidate 4% Not sure 9% Election 2012: Wisconsin Senate Jeff Fitzgerald (R) 41% Tammy Baldwin (D) 45% Some Other Candidate 4% Not sure 9%

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One of the best things about the internet is the ability of readers to quickly and easily post their reactions to articles. In the strictly hard copy era before the web, authors who wrote completely absurd articles could be easily shielded from reader reaction. This is no longer the case as evidenced by this Daily Beast article by Lyndon B. Johnson biographer Robert Dallek: Obama’s LBJ Moment with His Gay Marriage Endorsement. Yes, a few days ago Richard Cohen of the Washington Post was yearning for President Obama to become more like LBJ. And now we have Dallek declaring that...

Shares of JPMorgan are off over 6% after hours. The reason? The company has shocked the world by announcing a surprise $2 billion+ trading loss in its synthetic derivatives portfolio. In particular, this paragraph from the company's 10-Q filing is what's causing people to get nervous: Since March 31, 2012, CIO has had significant mark-to-market losses in its synthetic credit portfolio, and this portfolio has proven to be riskier, more volatile and less effective as an economic hedge than the Firm previously believed. The losses in CIO's synthetic credit portfolio have been partially offset by realized gains from sales, predominantly...

Here's the first poll, from Gallup/USA Today, measuring the effect of Barack Obama's gay marriage endorsement on voters.  Gallup It has to be a little troubling that a quarter of Independents say they are less likely to vote for him now. It's also rather strange, considering this Gallup poll from this week that found that 57 percent of Independents think gay marriage should be legal. Also, the endorsement does not appear, at least yet, to have had an overly energizing effect on Obama's Democratic base, with only 24 percent more likely to vote for him. Republicans showed a more passionate...

The Washington Post has a very readable look at the prep school Mitt Romney attended when his father was governor of Michigan, and the name of it may have sounded familiar to astute rap nerds. In the climactic, final freestyle in Eminem's 2002 "8 Mile," his character, B-Rabbit, battles the leader of a rival rap crew called Leader of the Free World, Papa Doc, played by Anthony Mackie. B-Rabbit has a black eye from the whole crew jumping him. He's lost his girl. And Papa Doc is the most feared freestyler in the land. But B-Rabbit has done his opposition...

Gallup is out with a new poll suggesting a whopping 40 percent of Americans say President Obama's newly public support of gay marriage will affect their votes. Of those, 26 percent say it will make them less likely to vote for Obama, while 13 percent say it will make them more likely to vote for him. The critical number in the poll, though is for independents - 23 percent of whom said the gay marriage support makes it less likely they will vote for Obama. The survey is the first since the president publicly endorsed gay marriage on Wednesday with...