Family photo via Bloomberg

A young Barack Obama in this undated photo made available to the media on Feb. 12, 2008.

In high school, a young Barack Obama was promiscuous with the Kellis.
At least with his phone number.

With Time magazine’s publication of Obama’s prom pictures and a flirty note he wrote to his best friend’s date, we now have the second instance of Obama jotting down his digits in a girl’s year book.

As Time reported, Obama left his number in his year-end goodbye to Kelli Allman.

He did the same in sugary note to Kelli Furushima, as I reported in 2007. He suggested a walk on the beach, or maybe just a talk.

“You can see how he was much more sensitive than the other guys, even back then,” she told me.

As leader of the free world, President Obama’s Blackberry address is almost treated as a state secret.

Getting Barry Obama’s home phone number in high school was apparently much, much easier.

Original post is Young Obama Gave Ladies His Digits by Political Capital.

Kirk said he and Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, will introduce Pritzker at her confirmation hearing in the Senate tomorrow.

“I met with Ms. Pritzker and found her to be someone who is willing to take on special interests, and I am confident her successful private-sector record and close ties to the business community will be beneficial to all of Illinois,” Kirk said in a statement.

Kirk told the Chicago Tribune on Monday that he hadn’t decided whether to back Pritzker. He made his Tuesday announcement after receiving a phone call from Mark Koulogeorge, a Republican and venture capitalist in Northbrook, Ill., who advocated for Pritzker, the Tribune reported today.

Koulogeorge has donated $18,700 to Kirk since 2000, according to Federal Election Commission records. He also donated $2,000 to Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign and $2,300 to his 2008 presidential campaign.

Pritzker, who led record fundraising for Obama’s first presidential campaign, is likely to face  tough questions about her business history and personal finances at tomorrow’s hearing. Expected topics include a suburban Chicago bank that failed after Pritzker and her family expanded subprime lending there and did pioneering work with mortgage-backed securitization, as detailed by the Treasury Department in 2002, Bloomberg’s John McCormick reports.

Senators also could ask how Pritzker inadvertently understated a portion of her income by at least $80 million in a disclosure form for her nomination. She amended the document last night, Bloomberg’s Brian Wingfield reports

Original post is Kirk Backs Pritzker After Call From Donor by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andoni Lubaki/AP Photo

Free Syrian Army fighters take a break from the front line in Aleppo, Syria.

As frustration mounts over the war in Syria, senators will prod President Barack Obama to do what he has resisted: arm the rebels.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee takes up a bill today that would authorize the president to provide military weapons to groups seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.

“To change the tipping point in Syria against the Assad regime, we must support the opposition by providing lethal arms and help build a free Syria,” Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the panel’s Democratic chairman, said in a statement last week. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the panel’s top Republican, is a cosponsor.

While the Obama administration hasn’t ruled out such a move, officials have expressed reluctance to flood Syria with more weaponry, partly because elements within the opposition have ties to al-Qaeda.

“Understandably, there’s a desire for easy answers,” Obama said on May 7. “We want to make sure that we are acting deliberately.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gave a noncommittal answer at a news conference last week when asked about the option of providing arms.

“We continue to keep every option open, as the president has said,” Hagel said. “We are already doing a lot in Syria on the humanitarian side, on the non-lethal side. We are continuing to try to bring some consensus with all the different countries involved.”

A vote on the bill comes amid reports that Russia is providing the Assad regime with advanced anti-ship missiles and air-defense systems.

Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on May 17 that Russia’s continued arming of the Syrian regime is “at the very least an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering.” Russian officials have said they are fulfilling their commitments under existing arms contracts.

Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Congress last month that Russia was supplying Syria with a supersonic anti-ship cruise missile called the Yakhont that he said poses “a major threat to naval operations, particularly in the eastern Mediterranean.”

Russia also is supplying S-300 air-defense missile batteries to Syria, according to a Kremlin official who asked not to be named discussing the arms sales. The S-300S would bolster Syria’s air defense network, complicating any effort by other countries to create a no-fly zone within Syria to assist rebel groups.

Some Republicans, led by Arizona Senator John McCain, have been urging the administration for months to arm the rebels and create a no-fly zone.

The Menendez-Corker bill would authorize weapons to groups that go through “a vetting process which meet certain criteria on human rights, terrorism and non-proliferation,” the statement said.

The bill also would create an annual $250 million “transition fund” through 2015 to assist the opposition in creating a post-Assad government.

Original post is Senators Take Up Bill to Arm Syrian Rebels by Political Capital.

A bill that cleared the Alabama legislature yesterday stands as the latest illustration of the direction taken by parts of the country on the issue.

At the national level, the bottom-line has been status quo. An aggressive agenda of new gun control measures pushed by President Barack Obama in the wake of the school shooting quickly got pared down in Congress. It then lost all steam five weeks ago when the Senate sidetracked what seemed the least controversial step — an expansion of background checks for firearm purchases.

State lawmakers, though, have been busy making changes to their statutes.

Several states — mostly those that are part of the Democratic base in presidential elections — have significantly strengthened their gun control laws. These include New York, Maryland and Connecticut, the state directly affected by Adam Lanza’s murderous rampage with a Bushmaster AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

Other states — more in number and generally solidly Republican in presidential races — have expanded gun rights. In joining that list, Alabama legislators have sent to Gov. Robert Bentley for his expected signature a measure that will let workers keep firearms in their vehicles while on the job while shielding businesses from being sued for amy harm stemming from use of the weapons.

Under the bill, according to the Associated Press, loaded guns could be carried in cars by anyone with the proper permit, while any driver could tote around an unloaded weapon, as long as it is out of reach.

The bill “keeps the prohibition on carrying weapons in many government buildings and in any public buildings where government bodies like city councils or county commissions are meeting,” according to the AP.

One of the bill’s main backers, state Sen. Scott Beason, told the wire service he remained disappointed with that exemption. But, he said, “I couldn’t get that through the Legislature.”

That would be one of those entities covered by the limited ban on “open carry” of a firearm.

Original post is Alabama Joins States Pursuing Differing Paths on Gun Control by Political Capital.

The surveys show limited interest in what some Republicans are calling an administration cover-up, and what President Barack Obama today called a “political circus.”

Eight months after the Sept. 11 violence that claimed four American lives, the polls by Public Policy Polling and the Pew Research Center offer different pictures of who Americans trust on the issue. In the survey by PPP, a Democratic-oriented firm, respondents said they trust former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton more than Republican lawmakers, 49-39 percent. Among Pew respondents, 37 percent said the Obama administration has been honest in what it’s said about the attacks, while 40 percent said it’s been dishonest.

Pew also found that most Americans — 56 percent — say they aren’t following the investigation. A majority of PPP respondents said Congress should focus on issues besides Benghazi. Immigration and gun background checks were both rated more important.

Clinton’s 52-44 percent  favorable/unfavorable rating was unchanged from March despite congressional testimony last week that reignited the debate, according to PPP.

Congressional Republicans “remain very unpopular” with a 36-57 percent approval/disapproval rating, PPP said. Still, that’s up from a 15-75 percent rating in January following Congress’ fiscal cliff debate. In the Pew poll, 36 percent of voters said Republicans have “gone too far” in the Benghazi investigation, while 34 percent approved of their approach.

Among Republican respondents to PPP, 41 percent said they consider Benghazi “the biggest political scandal in American history.” Of those voters, 39 percent couldn’t identify the country where Benghazi is located.

Original post is Reignited Benghazi Debate Doesn’t Sway Public Opinion by Political Capital.

Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Technicians stand in front of a large television screen as it displays footage of cookies bearing the image of President Barack Obama prior to an election night rally in Chicago, Illinois, on Nov. 6, 2012.

Six months after the 2012 presidential election, you’d think we’d know for sure how many votes President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney received.

It turns out, though, that exact numbers are still elusive because of late revisions to some statewide vote totals.

Colorado election officials updated their statewide total on May 3 to give Obama one more vote, for 1,323,102 total. During a review of election returns, state election officials discovered that the Saguache County elections office didn’t upload its amended vote totals to a vote-reporting website.

North Dakota’s elections office revised its totals on April 23, according to its website. The revision subtracted 139 votes from Obama and 157 votes from Romney in Walsh County, according to a before-and-after comparison by Political Capital, which sent e-mails to state and county election officials that haven’t yet been returned.

In California, Romney received 4,839,956 votes instead of 4,839,958 as originally reported.  The two-vote change was owed to Calaveras County amending its total, according to a document state election officials released April 10.

New York election officials released an amended vote count on April 9, according to their website. Obama won the state overwhelmingly, and none of the changes in any state affected the outcome.

For those of you keeping score at home, Political Capital’s current tally is 65,910,299 for Obama and 60,932,636 for Romney.

Subject to change, of course.

Original post is Obama, Romney Vote Totals Still Changing by Political Capital.

Photograph by by John Moore/Getty Images

A bilingual sign stands outside a polling center in Texas.

That’s the share of eligible Hispanics who voted in the 2012 presidential election.

The voter turnout rate among Hispanics — a burgeoning bloc that leans Democratic — fell from 49.9 percent in 2008, when President Barack Obama won his first term.

The 2012 voter turnout rate for Hispanics compared to 66.2 percent for black voters, 64.1 percent for non-Hispanic whites and 47.3 percent for Asians, according to a report the Census Bureau released last week.

While Hispanic voters in Colorado, Florida, Nevada and other states helped re-elect Obama, the Census report underscored how that bloc hasn’t realized its full potential in elections. Hispanics have lower rates of citizenship and voter registration and participation than non-Hispanic whites.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 48% by Political Capital.

Photograph by Julie Denesha/Getty Images

Eileen Woofford, 84, waited in line to cast her vote at Cleveland Avenue Baptist Church on November 6, 2012 in Kansas City, Missouri.

That’s the share of black voters eligible to vote in the 2012 presidential election who cast a ballot.

Blacks outvoted non-Hispanic whites, who had a 64.1 percent turnout rate, according to a Census Bureau report released yesterday. It’s the first time blacks voted at a higher rate than whites since before 1996, when the bureau began publishing statistics on the eligible voters.

Blacks outvoted whites amid the re-election of President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black chief executive.

The share of all eligible citizens who voted fell to 61.8 percent in 2012 from 63.6 percent in 2008, Census data show.

Bloomberg’s John McCormick has more here.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 66.2% by Political Capital.

Photograph by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Pedestrians carry shopping bags on Market Street in San Francisco.

Looking at consumer confidence, political independents are in a Christmas holiday mood — if we look back to 2007.

Sentiment among those without a party affiliation climbed last week to the highest level since the week ended December 23, 2007, according to details of the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index issued today. That means they just now made up all the ground lost during the recession that began that month and ended in June 2009.

For all Americans, the index last week reached its highest level since January 2008.

Record stock prices and rising home values may be boosting sentiment, which has especially improved among high-income earners and homeowners. Given independent voters’ demographics, the move up could be grounded in income and equity gains.

A comparatively high proportion of independents say they are employed, based on an August 2012 Pew Research study, with 37 percent reporting having jobs compared to 33 percent of Democrats and 27 percent of Republicans. Confidence among the full-time employed has improved, climbing last week to its highest reading this year, according to the Bloomberg index.

Additionally, 34 percent of independents in the Pew study reported making more than $75,000 annually, compared to 32 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans.

Confidence of upper-income households with investments may be benefiting from the stock-market rebound, after the S&P 500 Index closed at a record 1,597.57 April 30.

The gap in comfort between Republicans and Democrats in today’s report shrank as members of both parties became less pessimistic. Republicans added 3.1 points for the group’s best reading in more than a year, and Democrats’ confidence gained 0.6 points. The differential fell to 7.5 points, the smallest since February.

Republicans had been much more pessimistic than Democrats heading into and just after the November election as President Barack Obama’s odds of being re-elected improved.

“As the economy gains, political allegiance may be losing some of its influence on consumer sentiment,” Langer Research Associates, which collects the data, wrote in its analysis of this week’s numbers.

Original post is Political Independents Finally Lose Recession Blues by Political Capital.

Photograph by Charlotte Observer/MCT/Landov

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx greets President Barack Obama as he arrives at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, N.C. on March 7, 2012.

President Barack Obama will nominate Charlotte, North Carolina, Mayor Anthony Foxx, a Democrat, to lead Transportation Department, Bloomberg News reported.

The Consumer Federation of America today releases a report on the status of progress toward an auto fuel-economy standard of 54.5 miles per gallon, which the U.S. will require by 2025.

Two former lawmakers will also have a report on travel of the interplanetary kind. Former Reps. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and Roscoe Bartlett host Citizen Hearing Foundation meeting attempting to prove extraterrestrial contact.

Also today, Govs. Tom Corbett, a Pennsylvania Republican, Paul LePage, a Maine Republican, and Scott Walker, a Wisconsin Republican, participate in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Summit.

Obama delivers remarks to celebrate the founding of the National Academy of Sciences.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his Japanese counterpart Itsunori Onodera hold a press briefing at the Pentagon following their bilateral meeting.

And Treasury Secretary Jack Lew hosts a dinner for a group of economists and “thought leaders” to discuss the economy and job creation.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Traveling by Political Capital.