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President Obama had some opinions on the 2012 field of Republican candidates. I think my favorite was his message for Michele Bachmann.

Michele Bachmann is here, though, I understand. And she is thinking about running for President, which is weird, because I heard she was born in Canada. [laughter] Yes Michele, this is how it starts.

Tim Pawlenty:

He seems all-American, but have you ever heard his real middle name? Tim Hosni Pawlenty? What a shame.

Jon Huntsman:

Now, there's something you might not know about Jon. He didn't learn to speak Chinese to go there. Oh, no. He learned English to come here.

On Mitt Romney:

There's a vicious rumor floating around that I think could really hurt Mitt Romney. I heard he passed universal healthcare when he was Governor of Massachusetts. Someone should get to the bottom of that. And I know just the guy to do it. Donald Trump.

The Donald Trump comments are about as funny and as withering as anyone could get without descending into the nasty zone. Watch those to see what I mean.

As annoyingly insular as these events are -- and they are -- they're also an opportunity for the President to use humor as a way of disarming ongoing and aggravating personal attacks with some humor and some class, which he really did quite nicely.

The headlines screamed: Barack Obama Discovers Cure for Cancer.

While throngs in capitals across the globe spontaneously massed to cheer the president’s astounding stamp on the history of humankind, the GOP stampeded to Twitter to spit their disgust at ObamaCure:

WTHuckabee: If you examine the anti-colonial views of the Mau Mau shamans in Kenya, you will discover that they too sought out cures for cancer. #witchdoctor

DonaldChump: I know his mother left him with this animus toward cancer, which is admirable and all. But what she didn’t leave him with was an actual birth certificate. #WatchMyShow!

SpeakerOfTheLobbyists: The American people sent us here to repeal this job-killing ObamaCure. Did I mention we’re broke? And the American people want us to cut Planned Parenthood more than cancer. #SoBeIt

Palinoscopy: ObamaCure is an outrageous blood libel, a Death Panel on the inalienable rights of our Real American PharmaCorps. to sell common sense conservative drugs. #MuslimBrotherhoodHatesCancerToo

RandAppall: The Constitution does not permit the president to Declare War on cancer without the debate & consent of Congress. #OrAquaBuddha

TheRyanBludgeonIt: We do not have a cancer problem. We have a spending on cancer problem. Cut taxes on small businesses like Koch & the free market will generate millions of new cancer cures. #AndMillionsOfNewCancerCustomers #FromPollution

aBeckalypseNow: Of course Barack Obama doesn’t want people to die from cancer. That will enable the higher birth rates in the Muslim world to sweep across this Earth like a Sendai tsunami. #BuyGold.

LieOfNewt: I loved my country so much that I had to take a new wife when my other wife got cancer. This ObamaCure is yet another secular socialist assault on my dating life.

GWB43: Hey! Reagan’s astrologer once told me that I’m a Cancer! That rascal 44 found a cure for me? #BringEmOn

The sun has baked Arizona legislators' brains. It's the only explanation for yesterday's vote requiring a birth certificate of candidates running for office.

The Arizona House on Monday voted for a provision that would require President Barack Obama to show his birth certificate if he hopes to be on the state's ballot when he runs for reelection.

The House voted 31-22 to add the provision to a separate bill. The measure still faces a formal vote.

It would require U.S. presidential candidates who want to appear on the ballot in Arizona to submit documents proving they meet the constitutional requirements to be president.

I'm not sure what the issues are around a state trying to trump the United States Constitution by further defining the requirements to run for office, but it could possibly be the most blatant, ridiculous, racist, xenophobic act of any state legislature I've seen in my lifetime.

Every time I remember that we could have elected John McCain President, I shudder. Keep it up, Arizona and you might actually overtake Texas in my mind as the most bizarre state in the Union.

Most political observers know to stop reading when they see the phrase, “According to a poll from Zogby Interactive…” and yet, yesterday, I couldn’t believe the commotion caused by a poll that obviously didn’t make any sense.

About 24 hours ago, two polls came out -- a Zogby Interactive poll (with questionable methodology) showing Hillary Clinton struggling against the top GOP candidates, and a Gallup poll (with more reliable methodology) showing the opposite. Guess which one got too much attention?

While the Zogby poll was mentioned by multiple reporters and pundits, the only mentions the Gallup poll got on TV were from Hillary advisers who had to bring it up themselves on the air in order to inject it into the conversation.

Of course, every political reporter, editor, and producer in the country knew that Zogby Interactive results were unreliable, but they trumpeted the results anyway.

Wouldn’t responsible journalism require news outlets to a) note why professional pollsters discount Zogby Interactive data; and b) also highlight the Gallup numbers with equal enthusiasm?

AttyTood:

Look, what really happened at JFK was a hijacking. A chance for the potential next leaders of the United States to talk about a) real threats from bona fide terrorists, such as the unstable situation we've fostered in Pakistan and b) other issues that actually affect the day-to-day life of most Americans, like education, was hijacked by questions based around a local law-enforcement matter.

And, as Josh Marshall and others pointed out over the weekend, this is yet another time that implausible, half-baked and unfeasible plots have been trumpeted as high victories in the war in terror, including one plan to take down the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch, the plot to "blow up the Sears Tower" by losers in Miami who probably couldn't find Chicago on a big roadmap, and our own inept Fort Dix crew.

Not that it will happen, but I wish the media, from CNN to Fox to the AP to everyone in between, would go to the nearest window and yell: "All 'terrorism' is not created equal."

In assigning the blame for the cartoon fatwa, it appears BUSHCO has conveniently overlooked some of the worst offenders. But we don't have a monopoly on idiotic politicians. Let's examine the controversy more closely...and here's a roundup of opinions on the subject from across the political spectrum. Apparently,one alt-weekly lost it's entire editorial staff over the issue.

The Existentialist Cowboy: For Bush, the "State" is Absolute

Nathan Callahan: If Seymour Hersh is worried, we're worried

YAY! The U.S. is more popular than Iran

Pharyngula one alt-weekly lost its entire editorial staff over the issue.

The Existentialist Cowboy: For Bush, the "State" is Absolute

Nathan Callahan: If Seymour Hersh is worried, we're worried

YAY! The U.S. is more popular than Iran

Pharyngula: The physical world does seem to trump religious delusions most effectively, doesn't it? Unless you're dealing with someone like this.

The Reality-Based Community: St. McCain has a history of slime and defend. Too bad he couldn't have expended some of his faux outrage on this, this, or this
: The physical world does seem to trump religious delusions most effectively, doesn't it? Unless you're dealing with someone like this.

The Reality-Based Community: St. McCain has a history of slime and defend. Too bad he couldn't have expended some of his faux outrage on this, this, or this

When certain wingnuts are down, they have to leave out what's most important to the argument.

S. Kaus:

"We may be hearing more about a Rasmussen poll showing that "[s]ixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States." Prominent warblogger Instapundit as well as the first of what undoubtedly will be several minor wing-nut sites are already trumpeting this as showing that the public supports what Bush has done and the Democrats are barking up the wrong tree. Notice anything missing from the question? How about the part that the wiretapping is done without a warrant, although there is a court set up to consider the evidence and issue just such warrants....read on" (via Atrios)

St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly's backing of the president fuels a backlash, giving challenger Chris Coleman a 61-26 percent lead in a new poll.... The numbers reveal what many have suspected -- that partisan anger over Kelly's endorsement of President Bush seems to be trumping all else: his housing and economic development programs, his race relations efforts and how he has handled crime....read on

Reader KYLE: By endorsing Bush, Kelly endorsed Bush's policies (I should say failed policies). Furthermore, if an endorsement of a political candidate is meaningless, what's the point of an endorsement? For a city that voted over 70% for Kerry, Kelly made a huge error. He claimed he made his decision "on principle". The people of St. Paul, as a result, are going to vote him out on principle. It seems, finally, that a politician is going to be held accountable for his actions.

Heres the footage of Cindy being (Updated) escorted by NYPD.

Download | play -WMP

Download | play -QT (courtesy of Third Planet Video)

Village Voice:...As the activists hustled away Sheehan and the other family members on the Bring Them Home Now tour, an enraged crowd of about 50 people stormed after the police, chanting, "Shame! Shame!" Meanwhile Iraq war veteran and now peace activist Jeff Key played "God Bless America" on his trumpet."

Wherever you fall on the Cindy Sheehan meter, it's odd to see her being escorted out for a fairly tame demonstration. I know they didn't have the permits, but couldn't they just have pulled the power? Living in New York for many years, I saw a lot worse offenses and demonstrations left alone.

Booman Tribune has more.