Wednesday's Daily Brief: Obama on Osama, Eurozone Unemployment, Gmail Changes

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 Arianna Huffington: Who Is More Macho? Why Obama Made the Right Call on bin Laden and the Wrong Call on His Fearmongering Ad Arianna Huffington: The Obama administration has every reason to celebrate the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's killing, as does the country. The president made the right decision and it was a great example of leadership, courage, and competence at a time when all three are in short supply in our politics. Less laudable is Obama's attack ad questioning whether Mitt Romney would have made the same call to go after the man behind the 9/11 attacks. There are many legitimate and important policy differences between Governor Romney and President Obama -- but the depth of Mitt Romney's patriotism is not one of them. Indeed, this line of attack -- that a combination of an opponent's lack of patriotism and low machismo makes him a national security threat, and therefore unelectable -- is particularly "despicable." The internalization of this cartoonish notion of machismo and the acceptance of it as a value in political leadership has had a deeply detrimental effect on the decisions of our leaders. BUSINESS Eurozone Unemployment Hits Record High WORLD Obama Hails 'New Day' In Afghanistan On Anniversary Of Bin Laden's Death POLITICS Openly Gay Romney Spokesman Resigns After Two Weeks WORLD Rights Group Accuses Syrian Troops Of War Crimes TECHNOLOGY Gmail Adds New Features BLOG POSTS Jared Bernstein: Tax Cuts and Job Growth: They're Just Not That Into Each Other The three policy ideas I hear most often for greater job creation are cut taxes, cut regulation, and more education. While I support the latter, especially for those whose access is blocked by income constraints, none of these ideas will do much to increase the quantity of jobs. Gary Hirshberg: Turn the Lights All the Way Up Our food system has been adept at keeping the lights out or at least dimmed. But that is changing. The FDA should start by following the practices of more than 40 other nations and label genetically engineered foods. Rev. Jesse Jackson: Make Public Colleges Free for All Who Qualify College or advanced training is more important than ever, yet we are making it less and less affordable. College tuition is soaring because the state contribution to budgets is being slashed. We're privatizing public colleges piecemeal by putting more and more of the costs on the students. Malou Innocent: Security Pact Ensures America's Presence in Afghanistan President Obama's arrival in Afghanistan and signing of the strategic partnership agreement with President Karzai supposedly represents yet another corner turned in our nearly eleven year (and counting) war. Michelangelo Signorile: The Richard Grenell Fiasco: How A Cynical Political Move Blew Up in Mitt Romney's Face Why is Richard Grenell's resignation a win? Because Grenell was being used for cover by a candidate with abhorrently anti-gay positions, a man who has promised to "propose and promote" a federal marriage amendment if elected president.

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