Z. Byron Wolf and Amy Walter, THE NOTE
June 29, 2011
The race for the White House is as much about perceptions of strength as it is about actual punches.
Landing in Iowa a day after Michele Bachmann's triumphant return to Waterloo, Sarah Palin let us all know that she can still draw a crowd. Not only did she not tamp down speculation of a 2012 run, she actually encouraged it. At a presser outside the Pella theater where the pro-Palin biopic was being screened, Palin played coy and, as ABC's Sheila Marikar reports, "elaborated little on Bristol Palin's statement today that her mother had made up her mind.. 'What I told Bristol too, I said what is talked about on the fishing boat stays on the fishing boat."
It's clear that Michele's the one with the mo'. A new poll out in New Hampshire today from Suffolk University shows Bachmann shooting up to second place in New Hampshire (albeit a distant 25 points behind Mitt Romney).
As Jake Tapper Reported on GMA, pointing to a Gallup survey, when people like her, they really like her.
Tom Petty is not, apparently, among the people who really like her.
Tapper will be in Chicago later to interview former President Bill Clinton, who is kicking off a Clinton Global Initiative event in Chicago, focusing on domestic jobs. That’s a very political topic in the city that houses the campaign headquarters of another important Democrat. Watch World News to see what advice Clinton has for Obama.
President Obama takes to the bully pulpit at 11:30 a.m. Eastern with a press conference at the White House. Fresh from his trip own trip to Iowa, he’ll have a lot of answering to do on jobs and the economy. But season that with some likely questions on his evolving stance on gay marriage, for instance, and Congressional angst over Libya.
Meanwhile, two new outside groups are also trying to flex their muscles, or at least their perception of strength.
In the wake of the news that GOP American Crossroads has begun a $20M ad attack on Obama's economic record, Democratic Priorities USA says they're fighting back with a $750K buy in key battleground states. While one GOP mocked Priorities buy to us as responding to a "roundhouse with an off-balance swat in the air," Priorities USA's Bill Burton tells the Note that in "battleground states where they’re [American Crossroads] up, we’re keeping pace with them at about 80% of their buy."
Here at the Note, we're waiting for our friends at CMAG to give us the real tale of the tape. They track all ad spending and, as a non-partisan group, won't pull any punches.