White House release: “In the morning, the President will hold a meeting with his Cabinet and senior officials to lay out his vision for smarter government during his second term. Following this meeting, the President will make a statement on his Management Agenda in the State Dining Room.”
The New York Times: “Though many of its rules will not take effect for months, President Obama’s health care law is already the subject of an aggressive advertising campaign by Republicans to sow doubts about how it will work. In one of the largest campaigns of its kind, Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group financed in part by Charles and David Koch, will begin running television commercials this week asserting that the law will limit Americans’ health care choices. The group is spending more than $1 million on the campaign, which will initially include television advertising in Ohio and Virginia, along with online ads asking people to test their ‘Obamacare risk factors.’” Here’s the AFP ad.
Sam Stein: “Organizing for Action, the nonprofit advocacy group closely tied to the Obama White House, released a new television ad on Monday morning touting the benefits of the Affordable Care Act. … An OFA official told The Huffington Post that the ad, which is part of a ‘seven-figure commitment,’ will be airing on CNN, MSNBC, Bravo and Lifetime.” Here’s the OFA ad.
First Read confirms the ad buy and placement. An OFA spokesperson said, however, it is unsure how many parts of the series of ads there will be.
On ABC’s This Week, President George W. Bush had nice things to say about President Obama on national security and immigration. On national security, Bush said: “I think the President got into the Oval Office and realized the dangers to the United States, and he's acted in a way that he thinks is necessary to protect the country.”
On immigration, Bush said: “It looks like immigration, you know, has a chance to pass. The reason to pass immigration reform is not to bolster a Republican Party — it's to fix a system that's broken. … It's very important to fix a broken system, to treat people with respect and have confidence in our capacity to assimilate people. It's a very difficult bill to pass because there's a lot of moving parts. The legislative process can be ugly. But it looks like they're making some progress.”
“Secretary of State John F. Kerry is in the headlines over the Fourth of July holiday for a decidedly unwelcome reason: questions over whether he went sailing off Nantucket as Egypt descended into chaos,” the Boston Globe reports. “Turns out he did, at least for a little while -- despite his spokeswoman’s initial insistence to the contrary.”
Flashback: Bush 2004 ad showing Kerry windsurfing: “John Kerry, whichever way the wind blows.”
Fox Boston: “Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and heir to a ketchup company fortune, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition Monday, a day after showing symptoms consistent with a seizure, a person in close contact with the family said.”