Former Olympians star in pro-Romney ad
(CBS News) Kristi Yamaguchi and three other past U.S. Olympians are starring in a new television ad backing Mitt Romney. The ad, produced by the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future, touts Romney's success running the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Yamaguchi, who won a gold medal in figure skating in 1992, served as a goodwill ambassador for the 2002 games. The ad also features Derek Parra, the 2002 gold medalist in speed skating; Jimmy Shea, the 2002 gold medalist in the sledding sport of skeleton; and Fraser Bullock, chief operating officer of the 2002 games.
The ad touts Romney's stewardship of the 2002 games, noting that he closed its budget deficit and "delivered the Olympics safe and secure" after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
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Dems, GOP fine tune competing economic plans
Getty Images
(CBS News) All Americans can agree the economy needs repairing, but how to do so is a different story. As Election Day draws closer, Republicans are focusing on working with small businesses while Democrats are talking about building up the middle class rather than the wealthy.
The House this week plans to vote on a pair of tax plans that will illustrate that divide: The GOP-led House is likely to pass a proposal to extend the Bush-era tax rates -- for everyone -- through 2013. It's expected to reject a plan that passed in the Democratic-led Senate last week to extend the tax rates for individuals making less than $200,000 per year and couples making less than $250,000 per year.
After last week's Senate vote, House Speaker John Boehner called the Democratic plan a "small business tax hike." But 99 days out from Election Day, Democrats see this as a prime opportunity to attack the GOP for what they say are misplaced priorities. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is releasing new online ads today targeting 23 GOP House incumbents on the issue, charging them of supporting millionaires over the middle class.
Continue »McGovern's VP choice offers Romney a cautionary tale
Then- U.S. Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton, left, and then-Sen. George S. McGovern, the presidential candidate, stand before the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in the final session in Miami Beach, Fla., in this July 13, 1972 file photo.
/ APEighteen days after Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern picked Missouri Sen. Thomas Eagleton as his vice presidential choice, Eagleton was forced to step down. That infamous day in political history fell 40 years ago Tuesday - July 31, 1972 - and as CBS News' Bill Plante reported then, it was a day of "hurt and disappointment" for Eagleton as his signs were removed from the McGovern headquarters.
Eagleton resigned after news broke that he suffered from mental illness and received multiple treatments of shock therapy. McGovern was unaware of Eagleton's mental health problems when he asked the senator to serve as his running mate.
(CBS News interviewed Eagleton on Aug. 1, 1972.)
When McGovern offered Eagleton the running mate slot over the phone on July 14, Eagleton said, "I'm flabbergasted.... Before you change your mind, I hastily accept."
The day after he resigned, Eagleton said on the CBS Morning News, "George McGovern could not have been finer. He expressed confidence in me. He expressed satisfaction that my health was adequate, but he pointed out... if I remain on the ticket, all the attention and all the debate would be about Eagleton."
The senator added, "It was my personal feeling that this 'Eagleton issue' would fade away through this month of August... but an argument can be made that it would linger on."
(Watch Bill Plante's report in the CBS News archives video on the left.)
As Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney comes close to naming his own running mate, Eagleton's story gives this year's GOP candidate a cautionary tale of the importance of the vetting process.
By all accounts, Romney's vetting process is the polar opposite of McGovern's. Leading the process is one of Romney's closest advisers, Beth Myers, who is described as "well-organized, meticulous, discreet, [and] good at assembling a team."
Continue »Chick-fil-A's political grilling
(CBS News) Controversy over the fast food chain Chick-fil-A's ties to conservative causes has been simmering for years, but it only reached a boiling point in recent days when national gay rights groups and high-profile figures like Mike Huckabee began weighing in.
The controversy is becoming more political in nature as elected officials start to take sides on the matter and discuss how best to address the chicken joint's political activism. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on Thursday night was one of the latest political leaders to suggest Chick-fil-A should stay out of his city. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, meanwhile, said Friday that the politicians actively working to block new Chick-fil-A restaurants are going too far.
Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy has long made his political leanings known, but activists say the issue became a catalyst for action once Cathy publicly embraced them even more in recent interviews. While conservatives are lauding the company for maintaining Christian values, gay rights activists say the company stands in stark contrast to other major corporations that are expressing their support for gay rights. And in the face of all the pressure, Chick-fil-A is going out of its way to clarify it does not discriminate.
"Very disappointed #ChickFilA doesn't share San Francisco's values & strong commitment to equality for everyone," Lee, mayor of the famously gay-friendly California city, tweeted Thursday night, adding, "Closest #ChickFilA to San Francisco is 40 miles away & I strongly recommend that they not try to come any closer."
Continue »British papers blast Mitt Romney
Updated 9:00 a.m. ET
(CBS News) In his first trip abroad as a presidential candidate, Mitt Romney intended to show off his strength as a statesman. Instead, he made a number of bungles - and in their traditional fashion, the British press tore him apart for it.
Romney's remarks Wednesday that "there are a few things that were disconcerting" about the management of the London Olympic Games prompted British leaders to defensively respond to the American politician.
Romney's full quote from the NBC interview Wednesday:
Then, in a meeting with Labour party leader Ed Miliband Thursday, Romney called Milliband "Mr. Leader," seemingly forgetting his name. Romney also confirmed he met with the head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency - something he should've kept under wraps.BRIAN WILLIAMS: And in the short time you've been here in London, do they look ready to your experienced eye?
MITT ROMNEY: You know, it's hard to know just how well it were turn out-- will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the-- private security firm not having enough people-- the sup-- supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging. Because in the games, there-- there are three parts that makes games successful. Number one, of course, are the athletes. That's what overwhelmingly the games are about. Number two are the volunteers. And they'll have great volunteers here. But number three are the people of the-- of the country. Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment? And that's something which we only find out once the games actually begin.
(Romney may have forgotten Labour party leaders' name in video to left.)
By 5 p.m. ET, the British press was having a field day. Center-left newspaper The Guardian led their website with the headline, "Mitt Romney's Olympics blunder stuns No 10 and hands gift to Obama." Referring to Romney's "disconcerting" comment, the Guardian quoted a senior Whitehall source, who said, "What a total shocker. We are speechless."
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More Republicans think Obama is Muslim now than in '08
(CBS News) Americans -- but conservative Republicans in particular -- are more likely to mistakenly think that President Obama is Muslim than they were in 2008, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.
Nearly half, 49 percent, of registered voters surveyed correctly identified Mr. Obama as Christian, while 17 percent thought he was Muslim. In October 2008, as Mr. Obama was in the final stretch of his first presidential campaign, 55 percent of registered voters identified him as Christian and 12 percent identified him as Muslim.
The increase in voters who think the president is Muslim is more pronounced among registered Republicans, especially conservative Republicans. In 2008, among both conservative Republicans and Republicans overall, 16 percent said Mr. Obama was Muslim. Now, 30 percent of Republicans and 34 percent of conservative Republicans think he is Muslim.
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Scalia: Cameras in the court will "miseducate" people
(CBS News) Both Democrats and Republicans have for years urged the Supreme Court to allow cameras into the high court, but Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that video footage would only serve to "miseducate the American people."
In an interview with C-SPAN that will air Sunday, Scalia said that watching remarks from the Supreme Court taken out of context would be more damaging than simply reading the remarks out of context in a newspaper.
"Somehow when you see it live, an excerpt pulled out of an entire, when you see it live, it has a much greater impact," Scalia told C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb. "No, I am sure it will miseducate the American people, not educate."
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Obama responds to "you didn't build that" attack
(CBS News) For days, Mitt Romney has been using President Obama's recent remarks on the economy against him, suggesting the president doesn't support small businesses.
Now Mr. Obama is finally hitting back in a campaign ad slated to air in six swing states.
"Those ads taking my words about small business out of context - they're flat out wrong. Of course Americans build their own businesses," Mr. Obama says in the new ad, speaking directly into the camera while seated in the White House. "Every day, hard-working people sacrifice to meet a payroll, create jobs, and make our economy run. And what I said was that we need to stand behind them, as America always has."
The ad comes after a week of attacks from the Romney campaign over remarks Mr. Obama made last Friday in Virginia, where he argued that successful businesses rely on public resources funded by the government.
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Democrats: "We can't let the NRA stop us"
Just some of the more than 5,500 firearms turned in to the Chicago Police Saturday, June 23, 2012, as part of a drive to get guns off the streets.
/ WBBMUpdated at 3:45 p.m. ET
(CBS News) A handful of Democratic members of Congress this week are saying that it's time for Congress to stand up to the National Rifle Association and pass even the most marginal gun control policies.
Following the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., the silence on the issue of gun control is "deafening," Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said Tuesday.
"We can't let the NRA stop us from common sense reforms anymore," he added. "We cannot let them co-opt the conscience of our country."
The shooting in Aurora, where 12 people were killed and 58 injured when a gunman opened fire in a crowded theater early Friday morning, is just the latest example of mass gun violence, Lautenberg said. He cited the infamous shootings at Columbine, Virginia Tech and Tucson.
In response to these tragedies, Lautenberg and a handful of other members of Congress are specifically calling for legislation to limit the availability of high-capacity ammunition clips.
One of the biggest proponents of the measure is Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York. McCarthy ran for Congress following the 1993 shooting of her husband and son on the Long Island Railroad. Her husband was killed in the attack.
"What happened on that train," McCarthy said today in reference to the Long Island Railroad shooting, "what has happened in all these mass killings -- there was one thing in common: there were the large magazine clips."
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Little hope for more civil campaign after shooting
AP
(CBS News) Following the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., on Friday, both President Obama and his GOP competitor Mitt Romney called for a reprieve from politics. But now that the weekend is over, the campaigns are back to the dirty business of undercutting one another.
Friday's tragedy, which left 12 people dead, 58 injured and the nation stunned, spurred some temporary shows of civility from the presidential campaigns, but there's little to suggest the tenor of the 2012 election will change permanently.
In contrast to last year's mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, where Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot, Washington has so far reacted to the Colorado shooting with more calls for gun control than for civility. And with billions on the table this election season to spend against each other, it's unlikely the candidates or their supporters will be willing to hold their punches.
Mr. Obama's campaign was the first to publicly break the peace Monday with a tweet attacking Romney on a series of issues: "Tax returns. Bundlers. Bain. MA records & now key docs from Olympics. When it comes to secrecy, Mitt takes the gold!" Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod tweeted, linking to a story from ABC News. Later in the afternoon, the president's campaign held a conference call with reporters, calling Romney's upcoming trip overseas "one long photo-op and fundraising tour."
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Obama leads moment of silence for Aurora victims
President Barack Obama takes a moment of silence for the events in Colorado during a campaign stop in Fort Myers, Fla., Friday, July 19, 2012. Obama said the tragic movie theater shooting in Colorado that left 12 people dead is a reminder that life is fragile. He says the event "reminds us of all the ways that we are united as one American family."
/ AP Photo/Alan Diaz(CBS News) In response to the Colorado mass shooting in which at least 12 people were killed and dozens injured, President Obama on Friday morning cut short his planned campaign stops in Florida and chose instead to lead a moment of silence for the victims.
"There are going to be other days for politics," Mr. Obama said in Ft. Myers, Florida. "This, I think, is a day for prayer and reflection."
The president thanked the gathered crowd and told them he was grateful for their support.
"I was looking forward to having a fun conversation with you about some really important matters we face as a country... the differences between myself and my opponent in this election," he said. "But this morning we woke up to news of a tragedy that reminds us of all the ways we are united as one American family."
At around 12:30 a.m. Friday morning, a gas mask-wearing gunman opened fire at the Century 16 theaters in Aurora, Colorado, where the latest Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" was playing. The suspected gunman, identified as 24-year-old James Holmes, is in custody.
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Bloomberg calls on Obama, Romney to talk gun control
CBS
(CBS News) In the wake of a mass shooting in a suburban Denver movie theater, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is calling on President Obama and Mitt Romney to offer up more than "soothing words" and talk about how they will address gun-related violence.
"Maybe it's time that the two people who want to be president of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country." Bloomberg said in an interview on WOR News Talk Radio 710 in New York City.
"I mean, there are so many murders with guns every day, it's just got to stop," he continued. "And instead of the two people - President Obama and Governor Romney - talking in broad things about they want to make the world a better place, okay, tell us how. And this is a real problem. No matter where you stand on the Second Amendment, no matter where you stand on guns, we have a right to hear from both of them concretely, not just in generalities - specifically what are they going to do about guns?"
(Bloomberg called on Obama, Romney to get specific on gun control in interview with Bob Schieffer. More on Sunday's "Face the Nation.")
Bloomberg's remarks came after the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado that has left at least 12 people dead and dozens more injured. A gas mask-wearing gunman opened fire at about 12:30 a.m. Friday morning at the Century 16 theaters at the Aurora Mall, where the latest Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" was playing.
Continue »Rep. links shooting to attacks on religion
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol March 21, 2012 in Washington, DC.
/ Win McNamee/Getty Images(CBS News) In a radio interview Friday morning, Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas associated the Colorado mass shooting that's left at least 12 people dead to "attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs."
As the Huffington Post first reported, the conservative congressman was asked about the shooting during a radio interview on "Istook Live!", a show produced by the conservative group the Heritage Foundation.
Host Ernest Istook asked Gohmert, "What is your experience with the way that we have too many twisted minds in our society?"
Gohmert responded, "Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedom, that that was important. Whether it's John Adams saying our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people... Ben Franklin, only a virtuous people are capable of freedom, as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters... We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country."
(In an interview with Bob Schieffer for "Face the Nation," NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Gohmert's comments "nonsensical.")
The congressman continued, "And what really gets me as a Christian is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place."
Gohmert lamented that civic organizations like schools have discouraged religious discussions. "What are we doing with God? We told him we don't want him around," he said. "I kind of like his protective hand being present."
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Obama to counter "you didn't build that" attack
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Updated at 10:20 a.m. ET
(CBS News) On the campaign trail in Florida today, President Obama will respond for the first time to Mitt Romney's aggressive attacks suggesting the president doesn't support small businesses.
Romney this week has hammered Mr. Obama for remarks he made last Friday in Virginia, where he argued that successful businesses rely on public resources funded by the government.
"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help," Mr. Obama said. "There was a great teacher somewhere in your life... Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen... The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together."
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Obama, Romney primed for tough N.H. fight
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) addresses the crowd on stage along with U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and her family during the Wolfeboro Independence Day parade on July 4, 2012 in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.
/ Kayana Szymczak/Getty Images(CBS News) The tiny state of New Hampshire has just four electoral votes to boast of, but when Mitt Romney campaigns there Friday, he'll be making good use of his time.
If recent history has proven anything, it's that New Hampshire is the quintessential swing state. In a year when polling suggests the state could be as competitive as ever, the Granite State's four electoral votes can't be ignored.
Given the state's tendency to favor fiscal conservatism and small government, as well as Romney's natural advantages in the state, the Romney campaign says it's poised to win in the competitive battleground.
"We think we stand an excellent chance in New Hampshire," Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams told CBSNews.com.
President Obama, meanwhile, won New Hampshire in 2008 by a solid 9 points (54 percent to John McCain's 45 percent), and he intends to win it again. Back in December, the Obama campaign said that New Hampshire was included in four out of the five possible paths to the necessary 270 electoral votes. When asked about it this week, the Obama campaign said New Hampshire is still an important part of its path to victory.
This year's race, however, may turn out more like earlier elections: New Hampshire is the only state that President George W. Bush won in 2000 but lost in 2004 - in both instances by a slim, one point margin. In 2000, New Hampshire's four electoral votes made all the difference -- if then-Vice President Al Gore had those votes in his column, Florida would've been a moot point.
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