SUPPORTING
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What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: I am sick of Halperin’s pandhandling.
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NEXT STEPPING
ITEM: The Wall Street Journal news section:
For the nearly half-century that Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, the most prominent opponents of abortion often urged an incremental approach to narrowing access to the procedure.
Now, having achieved a Supreme Court victory that overruled Roe and ended the constitutional right to an abortion, antiabortion advocates are considering what to do next.
Some powerful voices in the movement urge a measured approach guided by political realities post-Roe, seeking to ban the procedure after the first trimester in more moderate states and maintaining meaningful exceptions for rape and incest. Others view this as a once-in-a-generation moment and moral imperative to push for a complete end to abortion, especially in states where conservatives hold political power. The staunchest opponents want states to treat it as murder.
What that loudmouth will ask on your morning Zoom: Why can’t the other side on the abortion debate understand how fundamentally wrong they are about basic human life and dignity?
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Until the anti-abortion side is willing to support the death penalty or maximum murder penalties for women who have abortions, their position does not make full consistent sense.
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PREDICTING
ITEMS:
Democratic strategists argued that such a massive change in the legal landscape will trigger a drumbeat of news coverage as states adapt, keeping the issue front of mind for a sustained period. Some argued it could help the party improve its standing among women, including those in the suburbs who grew frustrated with Democrats over pandemic school closures. “If you are in a close race this will be a game changer,” said John Anzalone, a Democratic [and Biden] pollster working in several midterm campaigns.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a former party campaign chief, said the decision could help Democrats flip one or two seats at most. But he argued it wouldn’t hurt Republicans in other key areas — such as the predominantly Hispanic districts already moving in their direction.
“It may well hurt us in old Republican suburban strongholds, but those have been slipping away from us for a variety of reasons, gun control among them,” he said.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: Anzo is definitely smarter than Tom Cole; or maybe it’s the other way around?
What you should say on your morning Zoom: You need to read this new AP story, which contains actual facts, rather than speculation (to be sure, facts which could not change):
A political shift is beginning to take hold across the U.S. as tens of thousands of suburban swing voters who helped fuel the Democratic Party’s gains in recent years are becoming Republicans.
More than 1 million voters across 43 states have switched to the Republican Party over the last year, according to voter registration data analyzed by The Associated Press. The previously unreported number reflects a phenomenon that is playing out in virtually every region of the country — Democratic and Republican states along with cities and small towns — in the period since President Joe Biden replaced former President Donald Trump.
But nowhere is the shift more pronounced — and dangerous for Democrats — than in the suburbs, where well-educated swing voters who turned against Trump’s Republican Party in recent years appear to be swinging back. Over the last year, far more people are switching to the GOP across suburban counties from Denver to Atlanta and Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Republicans also gained ground in counties around medium-size cities such as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Raleigh, North Carolina; Augusta, Georgia; and Des Moines, Iowa….
Roughly four months before Election Day, Democrats have no clear strategy to address Biden’s weak popularity and voters’ overwhelming fear that the country is headed in the wrong direction with their party in charge….
The Democratic National Committee declined to comment when asked about the recent surge in voters switching to the GOP.
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FIGHTING
ITEM: The last paragraph of the Wall Street Journal’s lead editorial:
The fury of the left’s reaction isn’t merely about guns and abortion. It reflects their grief at having lost the Court as the vehicle for achieving policy goals they can’t get through legislatures. The cultural victories they achieved by judicial fiat will now have to be won by persuading voters. We understand their frustration, but they ought to try democracy for a change. They might even win the debate over abortion.
What that loudmouth will ask on your morning Zoom: What kind of party can’t win a fight where it claims 70% of the public is on its side?
What you should say on your morning Zoom: It is time for pro-life and pro-choice leaders of all stripes to appear in public together with a plan to get us through the chaos, pain, and indecision of the next few months.
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STOPPING/STARTING
ITEM:
ELMAU, Germany (AP) — The Group of Seven economic powers are set to commit themselves to supporting Ukraine for the long haul, with the U.S. preparing to announce the purchase of an advanced surface-to-air missile system for Kyiv. Leaders are also set to announce an agreement to pursue a price cap on Russian oil, raise tariffs on Russian goods and impose new sanctions on hundreds of officials and entities supporting the four month long war.
Leaders were finalizing the deal to seek a price cap during their three-day summit in the German Alps, where they conferred by video link with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The details of how a price cap would work, as well as its impact on the Russian economy, were to be resolved by the G-7 finance ministers in the coming weeks and months, according to a senior administration official spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcements from the G-7 leaders’ summit.
The largest democratic economies will also commit to raising tariffs on Russian imports to their countries, with the U.S. announcing new tariffs on 570 categories of goods, as well as use of sanctions to target Russia’s defense supply chains that support its effort to rearm during the war.
What that loudmouth will ask on your morning Zoom: Why haven’t they done this already?
What you should say on your morning Zoom: This Biden-led coalition of the willing is now emphatically more impressive than that built to oppose Saddam Hussein.
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REPEATING REPEATING
ITEM: From CNN’s Groundhog Day piece: “Inside a White House consumed by problems Biden can't fix”:
For Biden's economic team, the process is a continuation of more than a year of all-hands-on-deck approaches to confront pop-up crises -- "basically whack-a-mole" was how one senior White House official referred to it -- only to immediately confront another challenge.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: CNN should have said it was “a perfect storm.”
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Election Day is about four months away – do you know where Joe Biden’s solutions are?
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EXPECTATIONS SETTING
ITEM: David Ignatius on the White House’s need to unstick the seemingly stalled competitiveness legislation:
Come on, Mr. President: Get it done. Crack some heads. You can’t fix everything in our messed-up country. But you can deliver on your promise to create good high-tech jobs in the semiconductor industry and compete with China for the strategic high ground.
What that loudmouth will ask on your morning Zoom: With all due respect to David Ignatius, has he paid any attention to the efficacy of previous Biden Hill head cracking efforts?
What you should say on your morning Zoom: With all due respect to David Ignatius, it is clear he has paid no attention to the efficacy of previous Biden Hill head cracking efforts.
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WISHING, HOPING
ITEM:
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: See – I told you it was just a matter of time.
What you should say on your morning Zoom: This entire article seems based on a donor who loves to be quoted hitting Trump and two anti-Trump focus groups – as well as the Dominant Media’s (fatal) attraction to this storyline.
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ZAPRUDERING
ITEM:
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: The nerve of that woman!
What you should say on your morning Zoom: If that had been Newt….
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TRIUMPHING
ITEM:
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: For the win!
What you should say on your morning Zoom: