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Poll: Romney Rebounds Among Women, Obama’s Favorability Slips

Joshua Cohan — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:52:05 +0000

Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Alex Wong/Getty ImagesPOLL ANALYSIS
By GARY LANGER, Langer Research Associates for ABC News

(WASHINGTON) -- A sharp advance among women has boosted Mitt Romney to his highest favorability rating of the presidential campaign – albeit still an unusually weak one – while Barack Obama’s personal popularity has slipped in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Obama still beats Romney in favorable ratings overall, by an 11-point margin, 52 vs. 41 percent. But that’s down from 21 points last month, giving Romney the better trajectory. And both get only even divisions among registered voters, marking the closeness of the race between them.

See PDF with full results, charts and tables here.

This survey comes after a period in which Romney’s chief GOP competitors withdrew from the Republican race and lined up behind his candidacy. Romney clinched his party’s nomination in Texas on Tuesday night.

All Romney’s gains have come among women – up by 13 percentage points in personal popularity from last month, while Obama’s lost 7 points among women. (Views among men have been more stable.) Obama’s rating among women, 51 percent favorable, still beats Romney’s 40 percent – but again that margin is far smaller than what it was six weeks ago.

An ABC/Post poll last week found improvement for Romney in vote preferences among married women. This survey finds that his gains in personal favorability, instead, come predominantly among unmarried women, who saw him uncommonly negatively earlier this spring.

This poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that Obama’s ratings among all adults are slightly positive, 52-45 percent favorable-unfavorable, vs. 56-40 percent last month. Romney is numerically underwater (albeit not by a significant margin), 41-45 percent – but up from his 35-47 percent score last month. Forty-one percent favorable is a new high for him, by a scant 2 points from January. It’s his first foray above the 40 percent line.

Romney’s 35 percent favorability in April was the weakest on record for a presumptive presidential nominee in ABC/Post polls in primary seasons since 1984. While he’s since gained 6 points overall, he’s still less popular than most previous eventual nominees at this stage in the presidential campaign. Only one candidate has been this low in comparable data – Bill Clinton in 1992, who went on to win.

Obama’s popularity, meanwhile is the same as George H.W. Bush’s in June 1992, the year Bush lost re-election. On the other hand Obama’s rating is 2 points from Ronald Reagan’s in early 1984 and George W. Bush’s in 2004, both re-election winners.

GROUPS – In addition to women, Romney’s gained 9 points among moderates from a month ago (albeit just to 39 percent favorable, vs. Obama’s 58 percent in this group) and 9 points among Republicans (to 78 percent favorable).

In addition to losing ground among women, Obama’s popularity has dropped by a slight 8 points, to 45 percent, among independents, classically the swing voters in presidential elections. Fifty-two percent of independents see him unfavorably, putting him numerically underwater in this group for the first time since December. Romney is at 40-46 percent favorable-unfavorable among independents, also numerically in negative territory.

Neither candidate manages majority popularity among registered voters. Obama’s slipped to a 49-48 percent favorable-unfavorable rating in this group, after achieving majority favorability among registered voters in three of the past four months. Romney’s at 44-44 percent, up 8 percentage points in favorable ratings among registered voters since March, albeit not quite at a new high; he hit 45 percent, his best to date, in January.

Differences between registered voters and the general public reflect slightly higher voter registration among Republicans.

Finally, while Obama’s clearly had a tougher month than his GOP opponent, he retains bragging rights in one area beyond overall favorability – strength of sentiment. His strong critics and his strong fans are roughly evenly divided, at 31 and 29 percent, respectively. Romney, for his part, is seen more strongly negatively than strongly positively by a 9-point margin, 24 vs. 15 percent. But again, that’s eased from a 17-point gap in March.

METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cell phone from May 23-27, 2012, among a random national sample of 1,021 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points. The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by SSRS/Social Science Research Solutions of Media, Pa.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Republican Super PACs Spending Big In 2012

Joshua Cohan — Wed, 30 May 2012 19:41:30 +0000

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The Republican affiliated Super PACs and other outside conservative groups have big spending plans this election cycle. And Democrat aligned outside groups may have a hard time keeping up.

Outside groups like GOP aligned Crossroads GPS, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Americans For Prosperity, the group founded by the billionaire Koch brothers, are planning to spend roughly $1 billion this election cycle, according to a report from Politico.

That almost certainly means these outside groups will spend more than the combined total of the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Not all of the money will be spent on the presidential race. American Crossroads, the Super Pac affiliated with Crossroads GPS, has focused the majority of their spending so far on Congressional races.

The Democratic groups will spend big too, but nowhere near as much. Priorities USA — the pro-Obama Super Pac — hopes to raise $100 million, though they appear to be having a difficult time reaching that goal. Labor unions could spend up to $400 million.

Democrat affiliated Super PACs have trailed Republican Super PACs in spending so far this cycle, but some of that imbalance was inevitable since Republicans had an open presidential primary and Democrats did not.

More telling are the fundraising figures for groups affiliated with both parties. Democrat super PACs have had a tough time staying on par with Republican Super PACs, who are outraising Democrats by huge margins.

According to figures from the Sunlight Foundation, the top three Super PAC fundraisers this cycle are all Republican affiliated. The pro-Romney “Restore Our Future” group reports raising $56.5 million. American Crossroads, the Super PAC arm of the Karl Rove group Crossroads GPS, has raised $29.9 million. The pro-Gingrich “Winning Our Future” group has raised $23.9 million.

The fourth largest Super PAC fundraiser is a Democrat group. The pro-Obama Priorities USA reports raising $10.6 million so far this cycle.

Several other Democratically affiliated Super PACs have raised significant mounts. The AFL-CIO Workers’ Voices PAC reports raising $5.9 million, and another group, American Bridge 21st Century, has raised $5.8 million. Still, the figures trail behind their GOP counterparts.

Liberal donors, including George Soros, plan to donate up to $100 million to outside groups heading into November, according to a report from the New York Times. Even so, Democrats have a lot of ground to gain in order to close the fundraising gap with Republican groups in this area.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Obama Congratulates Romney in Rare Personal Call

Joshua Cohan — Wed, 30 May 2012 18:17:34 +0000

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Obama on Wednesday offered personal congratulations to GOP rival Mitt Romney for formally clinching the Republican Party presidential nomination in Tuesday’s primary.

Obama spoke with Romney by phone around 11:30 am ET, aides on both sides said. The president placed the call from the White House, reaching Romney in Las Vegas, where he was preparing to depart to California for a day of fundraisers.

A Romney campaign aide described the exchange as “brief and cordial,” adding that the governor “thanked the president for his congratulations and wished him and his family well.”

The call is the first time the two men have spoken since the start of the GOP primary race and one of the few times they have ever personally connected.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Obama Camp Mounts New Assault on Romney’s Record as Governor

Jeanette Torres — Wed, 30 May 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Kevin Lamarque-Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The Obama campaign is opening a new front in its war against GOP rival Mitt Romney, ABC News has learned, with planned attacks to begin this week on Romney’s record as governor of Massachusetts.

Team Obama will point to Romney’s campaign promises namely his rhetoric on job creation, size of government, education, deficits and taxes during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign and draw parallels with his presidential stump speeches of 2012. The goal is to illustrate that Romney has made the same promises before with unimpressive results, officials say.

The approach is a part of an effort to keep the focus off of President Obama, who has an underwater approval rating and has struggled to bring down unemployment -- currently above 8 percent nationally. He and his campaign are aggressively trying to make Romney an unacceptable alternative on the November ballot.

Obama campaign officials say the latest line of attack will be a major focus from now through the election.

A 14-page research document compiled by the campaign and obtained by ABC News reveals the breadth of material Democrats plan to deploy, listing dozens of examples of Romney rhetoric and corresponding video clips from 2002, 2012, and the comparative “results in Massachusetts.”

On jobs, for example, Romney pitched himself in 2002 as a conservative businessman who could right the economic ship after the tech bubble burst led to layoffs across the Bay State. During a Boston debate, Romney said, “I have experience in the private sector building and creating thousands of good jobs, and I want to bring that skill for you here in Massachusetts” -- a theme he regularly reprises today.

But the Obama campaign notes, citing a report from the independent fact-checker Politifact, Massachusetts was 47th out of 50 states in job creation under Romney. In manufacturing jobs, Democrats point out, Romney presided over a net loss of 40,000 jobs, a drop of 12 percent according to Labor Department data.

The president’s campaign will use a number of former Massachusetts state officials who served with Romney between 2003 and 2007 to make their case, attacking him for, among other things, vetoing a bill against outsourcing. They also plan to release successive web videos to illustrate their points in what will be overall a national and state-level campaign.

The approach is a shifting of gears for Team Obama, which had spent the past few weeks hammering Romney for his business record at Bain Capital. The attacks had come under fire from some Democrats as being possibly too negative, too soon, while Republicans decried what they called a double standard for Obama’s treatment of private equity executives.

Obama strategists say they are not abandoning the assault on Romney’s record at Bain, but broadening their case by turning to an array of issues the Republican dealt with during his time in political office.

Mitt Romney Releases Birth Certificate

Joshua Cohan — Wed, 30 May 2012 17:19:34 +0000

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Mitt Romney has added another element to the “birther” storyline by releasing a copy of his own birth certificate -- or, as the document states, a “Certificate of Live Birth” from Michigan.

Romney released the document Wednesday, just a day after Donald Trump repeated his own claim that President Obama was born in Kenya and is therefore not allowed to occupy the White House.

Before releasing his long-form birth certificate last year in response to Trump’s demands, Obama had made public his own “Certificate of Live Birth,” which some claimed wasn’t a real birth certificate.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Orly Taitz, an early leader of the movement to delegitimize Obama’s candidacy for the presidency, maintained that Obama’s long-form document is fraudulent — but she also said Romney should “absolutely” make his long-form certificate available, too.

When he was running for president, Obama signed on to a bill in the Senate that would make it clear that John McCain is eligible to be commander-in-chief — he was born outside the United States, in the Panama Canal Zone, when his father was in the Navy there.

Romney and Trump raised money together Tuesday night in Las Vegas, and the Obama campaign has hounded Romney for tying himself to the billionaire real estate mogul.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Romney Campaign Misspells 'America'

Joshua Cohan — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:24:53 +0000

Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- A glaring error from the Romney campaign has led to some online ribbing.

A new photo-sharing iPhone app unveiled by the campaign misspells the most important word for any American presidential campaign: America

The homepage on the app invites users to envision “A Better Amercia.” The campaign has already commissioned a correction.

But “Amercia” has taken off on the Internet, where mistakes seem to live forever.

User reviews on Apple’s site were not kind. “It’s a DIY political satire kit! Download version 1.0 fast before they correct the misspellings!,” according to the top listed review by Paul Schleuse.

And it should be no surprise that there is a TUMBLR site – “Amercia is With Mitt!” – that makes fun of the Romney campaign iPhone app.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

VP Beat: Two Contenders Boosting Foreign Policy Cred

Joshua Cohan — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:00:47 +0000

ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- PORTMAN TO MEET WITH ISRAELI LEADERS: Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who sits atop VP contender lists, will meet Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barack, ABC News’ Gregory Simmons and Alex Marquardt report.

RUBIO TOUCHED BY FIRST CUBA TRIP: Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Cuba in 1956, made his first trip to the island Tuesday when he toured Guantanamo Bay. “Certainly, it was touching to be able to fly over the island from a distance and see it and know that’s the land that saw your parents and your grandparents born,” Rubio said at a news conference in Miami after his return, the Miami Herald reported. “It’s a place I hope to visit one day soon; a free Cuba, one where the people of Cuba can chose their own leaders and chose their own future.” Rubio dismissed suggestions that the trip was an attempt to boost his VP credentials, saying it was a routine stop as “a member of the Intelligence Committee.”

THUNE, A DARK HORSE VP? Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said last week he had not been asked to submit vetting documents, but as National Review’s Bob Costa reported, Thune might be a “dark horse” candidate for VP. “As Mitt Romney’s senior advisers consider their vice-presidential prospects, they’re keeping an eye on a dark horse: Senator John Thune, a lanky and telegenic South Dakota Republican. ‘Even though he’s not from a battleground state, he’s seen as serious and credible,’ says John Sununu, a Romney confidant. ‘There’s no question, in my mind, that he’s on the list for consideration.’… According to sources close to the Romney campaign, the former Massachusetts governor may be inclined to tap a mild-mannered, business-friendly Midwestern senator.”

McDONNELL NOT ASKED FOR VP DOCUMENTS: Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd Tuesday that he has yet to be asked to submit documents to the Romney team for vetting. “Nope,” McDonnell said as he laughed. “But I’m going to do everything I can to help him win Virginia.” Video here.

VEEP TWEETS

@robportman: Honored to lead effort to award Congressional Gold Medal to Golden Bear & OH native @jacknicklaus for his work both on & off the golf course
@govchristie: Making a quick stop to chat with patrons at the Irish Pub is how I ‪#DoAC‬.
@kellyayotte: Visiting @EASTERNMNTN Sports HQ in Peterborough
@GovMaryFallin: Looking forward to welcoming Charles Barkley to the great city of OKC on Thursday!

House to Vote on Banning Sex-Selection Abortions

Jeanette Torres — Wed, 30 May 2012 08:42:48 +0000

iStockPhoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The House will vote late Wednesday on a bill that would ban doctors from performing abortions based on the sex of the unborn child.

Opponents say so-called "sex-selection” abortions are sought mainly to terminate a pregnancy because the fetus is female.

“You know, if that doesn't insult our conscience collectively as Americans, I don't know what will,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), the bill’s lead sponsor.

The practice is said to occur frequently in China, where families are permitted to have just one child, and boys have greater value in the culture.

“A lot of the Asian immigrant communities here is where it's most prevalent in America,” Franks charged.

Abortion rights supporters say the law is unnecessary and they worry it could lead to racial profiling by doctors. Under the new law, physicians could face up to five years in prison if they knowingly perform an abortion based on the unborn baby’s sex.

Franks noted other developed nations, including Australia and the United Kingdom, ban sex-selection.

“At least we have got to be able to agree that it's wrong to kill a little unborn baby girl, simply because she's a little girl instead of a little boy,” he said.

Because of the procedure chosen by House leadership, Franks’ bill will require a two-thirds majority.

“That may make it very difficult to pass,” he said. “But at least we will know, clearly, who is with us and who is against us.”

Texas GOP Senate Primary Going to Runoff

Jeanette Torres — Wed, 30 May 2012 08:36:51 +0000

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(AUSTIN, Texas) -- The Texas Republican Senate primary will go to a runoff, with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and former Solicitor General and Tea Party up-and-comer Ted Cruz facing off in the contest, which is scheduled for July 31.

In order to win their party’s nomination outright, a candidate in Texas must receive at least 50 percent of the vote. With almost all of the precincts reporting, neither candidate was able to do that Tuesday night. Dewhurst came in first and Cruz followed in second, while former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and former ESPN analyst Craig James finished in a distant third and fourth place, respectively.

Cruz has argued that he will be the beneficiary in a runoff.

“If we get to a runoff, we win decisively,” Cruz told ABC News in an interview.

Dewhurst said his strategy in a runoff will be the same as his strategy in the primary -- to be the top vote-getter.

“As long as I do that then we’ll either win the primary on Tuesday night or we’ll win the primary on the runoff date on July 31,″ he said.

Many GOP strategists in the state believe that Cruz will do well in a runoff, as turnout is likely to drop off to a more conservative bloc of voters, who would presumably be inclined to back Cruz. However, Dewhurst could get a bump from Leppert supporters. If they turnout in the primary, conventional wisdom is they would likely favor the lieutenant governor over the former solicitor general.

Meanwhile, the Democratic primary in Texas will also go to a runoff between former State Representative Paul Sadler and Grady Yarbrough, a San Antonio resident. That primary has received significantly less attention however, as the Senate seat, currently held by retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, is widely considered to be safe for Republicans. Democrats have not won a statewide election in Texas since 1994.

With Texas Win, Romney Clinches the GOP Nomination

Carmen Cox — Wed, 30 May 2012 03:31:00 +0000

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Mitt Romney has clinched the Republican presidential nomination.

It has been projected that Romney has won the Texas GOP primary, and ABC News estimates he will win at least 88 of Texas’s 155 delegates, giving him the 1,144 needed to win the nomination.

“I am honored that Americans across the country have given their support to my candidacy and I am humbled to have won enough delegates to become the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nominee. Our party has come together with the goal of putting the failures of the last three and a half years behind us. I have no illusions about the difficulties of the task before us,” Romney said in a paper statement issued to reporters.

“But whatever challenges lie ahead, we will settle for nothing less than getting America back on the path to full employment and prosperity. On November 6, I am confident that we will unite as a country and begin the hard work of fulfilling the American promise and restoring our country to greatness,” Romney said.

Romney now moves on to the general election against President Obama in November. Polls have shown a tight race between the two candidates.

Romney isn’t the nominee yet. The 2,286 Republican delegates will officially confer that mantle in August when they select the nominee in a floor vote at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

His campaign planned no victory party for this long-predicted mathematical triumph. Romney held two public campaign events Tuesday, one in Colorado and one in Nevada, and did not mention his imminent clinching of the nomination in either.

The win in Texas brings Romney one step closer to the official conclusion of a long campaign in which he held front-runner or co-frontrunner status from the outset. Romney staved off a revolving cast of Tea Party darlings who included Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and for a brief moment, Romney’s now-surrogate Donald Trump.

The last major candidate standing against Romney was Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who announced on May 14 that he would no longer campaign in new primary states, but will still organize at state conventions to accrue delegates who will bolster his presence in Tampa, even if many of them will be allocated to Mitt Romney in the presidential-nomination vote.

After Santorum dropped from the race on April 10, Romney became the presumptive winner.

Thanks to a delayed primary calendar and pressure from the Republican National Committee for states to allocate delegates proportionally, this year’s Republican primary has dragged on relatively late into the election year. John McCain also clinched the nomination with a win in Texas in 2008, but he did it on March 4.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Romney Mentions US Birth Requirement Amid Fresh Birther Controversy

Carmen Cox — Wed, 30 May 2012 02:37:57 +0000

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(LAS VEGAS) -- On the very day that Donald Trump’s birther comments have dominated coverage of the presidential race, Mitt Romney managed to slip in a reference during a speech to the U.S. birth requirement for anyone who wants to be president.

“I was speaking with one of these business owners who owns a couple of restaurants in town,” said Romney at a campaign event in Las Vegas, mentioning a private roundtable he held ahead of the event with local residents. “And he said you know I’d like to change the Constitution.”

“I’d like to have a provision in the Constitution that in addition to the age of the president and the citizenship of the president and the birthplace of the president being set by the Constitution, I’d like it also to say that the president has to spend at least three years working in business before he could become president of the United States,” said Romney, recalling the business owner’s suggestion.

Then Romney seemed to agree with the suggestion.

“You see, then he or she would understand that the policies they’re putting in place have to encourage small business, make it easier for business to grow,” said Romney.

Romney is holding a fundraiser Tuesday night at Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas. Trump has spent the day standing by his assertion that there is no actual proof that President Obama was born in the United States.

Earlier this week, Romney did not outright condone Trump’s suggestion, telling reporters that he does not agree with everything his supporters say and vice versa.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Gingrich Contradicts Trump, Says Obama Was Born in Hawaii

Carmen Cox — Wed, 30 May 2012 02:29:39 +0000

Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images(LAS VEGAS) -- Former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Tuesday that he believes President Obama was born in Hawaii, despite the birther controversy perpetuated by Donald Trump ahead of a high-dollar fundraiser Tuesday night in honor of Mitt Romney.

“Governor Romney is not distracted, the Republican party is not distracted,” Gingrich said when asked about how Trump’s claims that Obama was not born in the United States might not serve Romney’s candidacy well. “We believe this is an American-born, job-killing president.”

Trump has spent the past several days calling into question the president’s place of birth. Romney has not explicitly distanced himself from the comments, saying only that he does not agree with everything his supporters say just as they do not always agree with him. A campaign aide later said that Romney has always maintained that he believes Obama was born in the U.S.

“Other people may believe that he was born somewhere else and still kills jobs, but that’s an argument over background,” said Gingrich, speaking in the lobby of the Trump International Hotel where he will attend a fundraiser expected to raise more than $2 million for Romney’s campaign.

“I’m happy to say I believe he was born in Hawaii,” Gingrich said.

Asked if he thought he should suggest to Trump to back down from his birther claims, Gingrich said, “Far be it from me to suggest to the Donald what he should do.”

“I’m not afraid of him, I just know it’s hopeless to suggest anything to him about what he should do,” said Gingrich.

Gingrich abandoned his bid for the presidency earlier this month and threw his support behind Romney.

Gingrich rebuffed a question about when he’d release the delegates he was awarded during the primary, answering bluntly, “When it’s appropriate.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Romney Campaign Names Press Secretary for Ann Romney

Carmen Cox — Wed, 30 May 2012 01:57:34 +0000

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(LAS VEGAS) -- The Romney campaign has hired a new press secretary to handle the schedule of Ann Romney, an indication that the 63-year-old grandmother of 18 will soon be ramping up her public schedule, ABC News has learned exclusively.

Sarah Haley, formerly of Sen. Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign, where she served as the national coalitions director as well as the director of communications for Karen Santorum, has been picked for the job.

“We are thrilled to add such a tremendous talent to the Romney communications team. Mrs. Romney will be well-served by a press and political pro like Sarah,” Romney campaign director of communications Gail Gitcho told ABC News.

Before working for the Santorum campaign, Haley was the spokeswoman for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. She previously worked in the media as well, spending time at Fox News Channel’s national headquarters where she worked on the O’Reilly Factor and The Live Desk with Martha MacCallum, as well as to help produce special coverage of the 2007 Republican primaries.

Up until now, Ann Romney’s media appearances have been handled by her husband’s press shop.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

President Obama Causes Outrage with Reference to ‘Polish Death Camp’

Carmen Cox — Wed, 30 May 2012 01:43:48 +0000

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(WASHINGTON) -- Poles and Polish-Americans expressed outrage Tuesday at President Obama’s reference earlier to “a Polish death camp,” as opposed to a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”

The president had been trying to honor a famous Pole, awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a resistance fighter who sneaked behind enemy lines to bear witness to the atrocities being committed against Jews. President Obama referred to him being smuggled “into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself.”

Sikorski also Tuesday night tweeted a link to an Economist story noting that “few things annoy Poles more than being blamed for the crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers of their homeland. For many years, Polish media, diplomats and politicians have tried to persuade outsiders to stop using the phrase ‘Polish death camps’ as a shorthand description of Auschwitz and other exemplars of Nazi brutality and mass murder. Unfortunately this seems to have escaped Barack Obama’s staff seem not to have noticed this.”

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement, “The President was referring to Nazi death camps operated in Poland. The President has demonstrated in word and deed his rock-solid commitment to our close alliance with Poland.”

The White House also noted that the president had noted the bravery of Poles during World War II -- in January 2010 in a video he sent to the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, when he referred to “those who tried to save” Jews, “Polish and Hungarian, French and Dutch, Roma and Russian, straight and gay, and so many others. .. Auschwitz also tells another story -- of man’s capacity for good. The small acts of compassion -- the sharing of some bread that kept a child alive. The great acts of resistance that blew up the crematorium and tried to stop the slaughter. The Polish Rescuers and those who earned their place forever in the Righteous Among the Nations.”

It seems likely that a more formal apology will need to be issued.

Alex Storozynski, the president of the Kosciuszko Foundation, lauded the president earlier in the day for recognizing Karski, but now says “Karski would have cringed if he heard this. … So far, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press and others have changed their stylebooks to ban the use of this phrase. Now, the Obama White House must do the same. President Obama’s remarks are already being called ‘scandalous’ by media outlets in Poland. Obama was seen reading this phrase off a teleprompter. The president must acknowledge his mistake and apologize for it. He must do it for Karski and the other Poles that risked their lives trying to stop the Holocaust.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Obama: Nobel Peace Prize Winner Becomes Drone Warrior-in-Chief

Carmen Cox — Tue, 29 May 2012 23:33:22 +0000

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(NEW YORK) -- President Obama is running for a second term as a commander-in-chief who has ended one war and is bringing another swiftly to a close. Left unmentioned, however, is the war he's quietly escalating with an army of aerial drones.

The largely clandestine effort, profiled in a New York Times report and a forthcoming book by Newsweek's Daniel Klaidman, highlights a remarkable transformation for a man who campaigned four years ago as an anti-war senator, former law professor and defender of Constitutional due process. He pushed for an end to the use of torture on terror suspects, the closure of the Guantanamo Bay military prison, and for trying detainees in federal courts. For those efforts he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yet over the past three and a half years, Obama has sat quietly "at the helm of a top secret 'nominations' process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical," according to the Times. He personally vetted names on a "kill list" of targets, authorizing dozens of drone strikes even in cases with only vague and inconclusive evidence about who's really on the ground, according to the report. Neither the evidence against the suspects nor the suspects' identities is available for public scrutiny.

The mission, described as highly nuanced and complex, reportedly weighs heavily on Obama, who has grappled with the moral and legal implications of making a decision to kill. "He would squirm. He didn't like the idea of 'kill 'em and sort it out later,'" one source close to Obama told Klaidman.

But the president ultimately appears to have reconciled his principles with a form of pragmatism in fighting what is an unconventional war. He often "approves lethal action without hand-wringing," the Times writes.

Since January 2009, the U.S. has launched at least 281 drone strikes in Pakistan alone, according to the New America Foundation, which has tracked them based on news reports and other sources. During the last five years of George W. Bush's presidency -- 2004-2008 -- the group counted just 49. The government has not put out its own totals, which are also said to include strikes in Yemen and Somalia, other known havens for suspected terrorists.

As a result of the calls Obama has made, hundreds of militants are now dead. But there have also been civilian casualties, cases which have enflamed relations between the U.S. and the targeted countries.

While exact numbers are difficult to confirm, NAF estimates at least 1,299 militants have been killed in drone strikes since 2009. At least 153 civilians were also reported victims, with some estimates ranging far higher.

White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan said last month -- for the first time publicly confirming the existence of the drone operations -- that the strikes have "surgical precision" and that civilian casualties are "exceedingly rare."

"In full accordance with the law -- and in order to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States and to save American lives -- the United States government conducts targeted strikes against specific al-Qaeda terrorists, sometimes using remotely piloted aircraft, often referred to publicly as drones," he said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in D.C.

But the Times reports some of those strikes are made without positive, concrete confirmation of the identities of those in the strike zone. These so-called "signature strikes" hit targets based on evidence of suspicious behavior. Who is on the ground at the time is often unknown.

According to the Times, the method "in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent."

Human rights advocates called the approach alarming, making it difficult to determine whether and how many noncombatants might have been killed. The policy, they say, highlights the lack of transparency and accountability for the administration's secret drone program.

"Americans were disturbed when information came to light about a secret policy of torture. And we should be even more disturbed about a secret policy of killing," Hina Shamsi, director of the national security project at the ACLU, told ABC News.

"There's something very wrong with a program that assumes guilt by association as permissible basis for killing," said Shamsi.

Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, tells ABC News: "The most troubling part of the report for me is the idea that the only way an innocent person is counted as an innocent victim is if -- posthumously -- they manage to make their case. It's a little hard to do that.

"We have official government statements that hardly anyone was the erroneous victim of a drone strike, with private calculations in the hundreds if not thousands. The number probably falls somewhere in the middle," she said. "But we will never know for sure."

Both groups have protested the CIA's secret drone program, calling it unlawful and dangerous, and saying it unduly imperils innocent lives and the security of the U.S. Some say it sets a precedent that other countries like China or Russia might cite in targeting their own alleged enemies of the state.

"As the drone campaign wears on, hatred of America is increasing in Pakistan. American officials may praise the precision of the drone attacks, but in Pakistan, news media accounts of heavy civilian casualties are widely believed," wrote Dennis Blair, former director of National Intelligence, in a New York Times op-ed late last year. "Our reliance on high-tech strikes that pose no risk for our soldiers is bitterly resented in a country that cannot duplicate such feats of warfare without cost to its own troops."

But top Obama administration officials believe the strikes are an effective way to keep Americans safe at home, a top priority no matter the cost.

"I think this is one of the most precise weapons that we have in our arsenal. Number two, what is our responsibility here? Our responsibility is to defend and protect the United States of America," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told ABC News' This Week.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama takes his responsibility to protect U.S. citizens "enormously seriously and that is why he has pursued the fight against al Qaeda in the very direct way that he has."

"He also believes very strongly in the need to avoid civilian casualties in the pursuit of that objective, in the pursuit of al Qaeda," said Carney, "and goes to extraordinary measures in order to achieve that and, again, has at his disposal -- this administration does -- tools that allow for the kind of precision that in the past was not available," he said.

Americans have been largely supportive of the drone effort. In the most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll on the subject, 83 percent of Americans approved of the use of unmanned drones against terrorist suspects. Sixty-five percent approved of their use against U.S. citizens suspected of terrorist activities.

The drone effort is also part of one of the most popular aspects of Obama's first-term record. "Handling the threat of terrorism" has been President Obama's strongest issue consistently for most of his presidency. Fifty-six percent approved when we last asked in January, the only one of seven items on which he had majority approval.

The president also holds an edge over GOP rival Mitt Romney in who is more trusted to handle terrorism, 47-40 percent in the April ABC News/Washington Post poll.

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