• Mitt mash-up celebrates Romney's pleasant passions

    Nestled in the New York Times opinion pages is this video, from the mash-up masters The Gregory Brothers, who celebrate the things the GOP star loves in a jokey clip. The things Romney likes, as highlighted by the Gregorys, include lakes, music, lakes, "Twilight" and lakes and trees.

    "He likes all sorts of stuff," writes the three-man (and one-woman) Brooklyn-based group of their project, entitled "Mitt Likes Music, Including This," in the Times. "So we can only suppose that he'll like this Op-Doc video we've made by piecing, tuning, rhythmicizing — in short, songifying — many of his greatest likes into a musical mash-up." 

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  • Amid separation, husband challenges wife for New York Assembly seat

    Dick Yarwood/Newsday, file

    Mark and Michelle Schimel at a polling place March 27, 2007, when she was running for the 16th district in the New York State Assembly.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, msnbc.com

    Politics make strange bedfellows, especially in Long Island, N.Y., where an estranged husband and wife are running for the same seat.

    Michelle Schimel, D-Great Neck, is serving her third term in the New York State Assembly. Her opponent is Mark Schimel, the man she separated from last year after 32 years of marriage, who is planning to run as a Republican.

    "This is a very painful and personal family matter. The Republican Party is . . . using it as an opportunity to drag my personal life into the public," Michelle Schimel, 54, said in a statement, according to Newsday. "I will run this campaign as I have every campaign: on the issues, on my record, and on my values."

    Mark Schimel, 57, was nominated last Thursday by Nassau County and still needs to file nominating petitions, according to Newsday. He is a vice president at Infosys International, an IT company.


    His decision to run shocked his own mother.

    “You’re joking,” Irma Schimel told The New York Daily News when she learned of his political aspirations. “This is a really startling thing. It’s a shock. Why would he do this?”

    His estranged wife has been in office since 2007, according to her website. She served as town clerk in North Hempstead, N.Y., before being elected to the Assembly.

    A local GOP leader told Newsday Mark Schimel is serious about running.

    "We talked about it a couple of times, and he is serious. We've told him that we want a dignified and issue-oriented campaign,"  said Frank Moroney, North Hempstead Town GOP leader.

    The couple has two kids and still hasn't legally divorced, reported The New York Daily News. Irma Schimel told the paper she still considers Michelle her daughter in-law, even receiving a Mother's Day card from her this year.

    “I love her very much,” Irma Schimel said. “I can’t believe he’d do a thing like this. I’m going to talk to him.”

    She predicted her son would lose against Michelle.

    Scott Levenson, general consultant for Michelle Schimel,  told Politico.com that Mark's bid was a political stunt, and vowed her campaign would be about "civility and decency," not candidates' personal lives.

    “We’re going to keep the personal life of the assembly member private,” Levenson said. “The fact is the Republican party is clearly manipulating this situation, sadly, for their own political game. Assembly member Schimel is committed to keeping civility and decency in both the way she runs her government office and the way she runs her political campaign.”

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  • Obama: Gay marriage 'doesn't weaken families, it strengthens families'

    Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

    President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign fundraiser May 14, 2012 at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.

    By NBC's Ali Weinberg

     

    NEW YORK, N.Y. – Speaking at an event for the first time since announcing his support for same-sex marriage, President Obama said his position was part of his campaign philosophy, rooted, he said, in “the basic idea that I want everybody treated fairly in this country.”

    “So much of this has to do with a belief that not only are we all in this together but all of us are equal in terms of dignity, in terms of respect,” the president said to the cheers of 200 people -- including singer Ricky Martin and actress Eva Longoria -- at the Rubin Museum of Art in downtown New York City. 

    Consistent with that belief, Obama continued, “the announcement I made last week about my views on marriage equality.”

    “We have never gone wrong when we expanded rights and responsibilities to everybody,” he said. “That doesn't weaken families, it strengthens families.”

    The event was co-hosted by Martin, the Democratic National Committee’s LGBT Leadership Council and the Futuro Fund, a Latino get-out-the-vote organization affiliated with the Obama campaign.

    Obama also seemed to turn a word commonly associated with conservative social issues – “values” – on its head, saying that he too believes “values” are a key factor in this election.

    “It's been said that this election is going to be about values and I absolutely agree,” he said. “It's about the economic values we have, the values that I believe are what makes America so special.”

    While this appearance was more about framing his own policies than those of his opponents, the president did seek to define Mitt Romney as an empty vessel of Congressional Republicans, contrasting him with his 2008 presidential opponent John McCain whom he suggested was a more independent thinker.

    “We've got a very clear contrast this time. John McCain believed in climate change and believed in immigration reform. On some issues there was a sense of independence. What we've got this time out is a candidate who said he’d basically rubber-stamp a Republican Congress who wants us to go backwards and not forwards on a whole range of issues.”

    Obama urged his LGBT supporters to stay active, warning them against what he called the outsized influence of outside spending groups who have a simple but powerful message.

    “Their message is simple: You're frustrated, you're angry and it's Obama’s fault,” he said.

  • Paul says he'll cease campaigning in coming primaries

    NBC's Mark Murray joins NewsNation to explain how Ron Paul's decision affects the 2012 campaign.

    By Michael O'Brien

     

    Texas Rep. Ron Paul said Monday that he'll cease campaigning in upcoming caucuses and primaries, an announcement of symbolic, if not substantive, significance.

    Paul, the libertarian-minded congressman who'd sought to convert his grassroots support and fundraising prowess into electoral success, sent a letter to supporters announcing he'd stop spending money on forthcoming nominating contests.

    "Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have," he said in a statement.

    The announcement changes little, though, for the Paul campaign. While the candidate had continued to hold rallies in Texas and California -- at which, his campaign boasted, thousands of attendees would appear -- those events were sporadic at best. Moreover, Paul had hardly been a regular presence on the campaign trail since the earliest contents, and he had largely eschewed primaries in favor of caucuses, where his enthusiastic supporters threatened to influence the outcomes.

    But Paul never won any of those caucuses, and his campaign turned its attention in recent weeks to the obscure process of delegate allocation on the state level. The Texas congressman said Monday that his team would continue in its bid to accrue delegates.

    "Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process.  We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that liberty is the way of the future," he said.

    Paul's endgame in pursuing delegates (affecting the platform, maybe, or even winning a spot for him or his son on the Republican ticket) is far from clear. Paul announced last year that he would not seek re-election, spurring speculation that his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who was elected in 2010, might inherit the Paul political organization.

  • Obama shoots hoops with Batman and Spider-Man (their alter egos, anyhow)

    Getty Images file

    By Jillian Eugenios

    According to the White House, on Friday President Obama played basketball with Batman and Spider-Man  – also known as actors George Clooney (who played the Dark Knight in "Batman & Robin," 1997) and Tobey Maguire (star of "Spider-Man," "Spider-Man 2" and "Spider-Man 3").

    The game came after last night’s fundraiser at Clooney’s house in Studio City, Calif., which reportedly raised $15 million for Obama’s re-election campaign. The event drew 150 attendees, including Salma Hayek, Barbra Streisand, Jack Black and other red-carpet regulars. Dinner was prepared by popular chef Wolfgang Puck at $40,000 per plate, with the event staged in a large tent over Clooney’s basketball court. 

    The president gave his host a hard time about his basketball skills. "I want to thank Clooney for letting us use his basketball court," Obama said. "This guy has been talking smack about his basketball game ever since I've known him ... and we've actually known each other a while." 

    While walking through Clooney’s house, Obama spotted the famous “Hope” poster from his 2008 campaign. He told the crowd the image of him was a photo taken when he was in D.C. with Clooney, who had come to town to advocate for Darfur. “And this is the first time that George Clooney has ever been Photoshopped out of a picture," the president quipped. "Never happened before, will never happen again."

    The pick-up game, according to the White House pool, was played Friday morning at Cheviot Hills Recreation Center in Los Angeles, a city park. A few of Obama’s staff member joined the game along with Clooney and Maguire. No word yet on who won the game, and whether Maguire’s Spidey skills transferred to the court. 

    After the game, Obama jetted off to an event in Reno, Nev., to discuss how Americans can negotiate the challenges of the housing market. 

    The president, a known basketball fan, has admitted to his own “Lin-sanity” and takes part in March Madness every year. He also makes sure to never miss a match when his daughters play. 

    TODAY.com contributor Jillian Eugenios wishes she'd been invited to play, just so she could say she's played a game with superheroes.

    More:
    Video: Obama rakes in $15M at Clooney fundraiser
    Video: Romney apologizes for 'dumb things' at school
    Obama, Ricky Martin hosting LGBT campaign event in NYC

  • VIDEO: Romney gets emotional

    By NBC's Morgan Parmet
    Gov. Mitt Romney     becomes teary eyed when he tells an audience in Charlotte, N.C., talking about how a community came together to help his niece when her husband was called up to the National Guard.

    Transcript:

    “There are scenes that come to my mind when I think of America and there are scenes of people coming together. Sometimes when there's a crisis; sometimes when there’s just someone in trouble.

    “My niece-- my niece and her husband, he's a lawyer, they bought a starter home. Young married couple. Their first daughter is completely deaf, stone deaf. And at about age one or one in a half they installed one of these cochlear implants invented in this country to help her hear a little bit. And then she goes to get special classes to help her learn how to speak. It's a wonderful thing that that's able to be done, but just as this was happening in their lives, just after they bought their home, just a couple months into it, I think. Shortly after they bought it, her husband was called up by the national guard to go off to Iraq and serve he did.

    “But she now had to live on a much lower income. National Guard salaries aren't as high as they were in his law firm. Now she's in this home and the outside of her is a whole dirt yard. No grass or anything yet, just stones and dirt. And under the neighborhood association where they have this home, you got a year from the time you buy your home till the landscaping’s supposed to be in.

    “Well, she's a little bit concerned cause that time period is coming up. She doesn't have the money to do the landscaping, to pay for it. She's got a little girl that is getting various tutoring classes and speaking therapy. She wonders what's going to happen. She's concerned.

    “One morning, she comes outside and there are her neighbors all picking up the rocks out of her yard, raking the dirt. They put in a sprinkler system. They laid down sod. They even build a swing set for her daughter. This is the America that I love.

    “This is a great people. We can do anything. We can achieve anything.”

  • Presidential hopeful, 9, starts 2040 campaign fund

    By Jillian Eugenios

    Reylynn Caster of Seattle, WA has declared herself a future candidate for the president of the United States, but since she’s only 9, supporters will have to wait a while to see her on the ticket. 

    The third-grader plans to run for president in the year 2040, giving her 28 years (or seven presidential terms) to garner support. She has already hit the ground running with a Facebook page and a growing campaign fund that she collects in a Mason jar. 

     

    The spare change is adding up. On her Facebook page, Caster said “My mom and dad just told me that they will put a nickel in my savings account for every person that ‘likes’ my page! Please send this on to anyone who thinks I'll make a good president.”

    According to NBC affiliate KING 5 News in Seattle, her platform is simple: Trying to make the world a better place. One of the first issues she has spoken out about is schoolyard bullying, even making a YouTube video to encourage people to make a stand.   

    Reylynn relates her personal experience with bullying.

    Caster, who is in the gifted program at her school, has personal experience being bullied. She says in her video, “The law clearly states zero tolerance. To me, that means no bullying no matter what.” 

    The presidential hopeful is also a big supporter of the military, as she has friends and family in the service. In another video on YouTube, she said,  “No one who serves our country and risks their life should have to worry about feeding their family.” 

    Reylynn explains why she's starting her run for president now.

    Her campaigning has even taken her to the Emerald City Comic Con, Seattle’s largest comic book and pop culture convention. 

    Still, she admits she has a lot to learn. When Facebook user Caitlyn Casey asked Caster, “What's your plan for the economy? Education? Infrastructure?” the future candidate responded, “I definitely think more should be spent on education and infrastructure. I have NO idea of how to fix the economy yet, but hopefully I can figure it out in the next 28 years."

    More: Adorable baby grooving in car to Gotye goes viral 
    Internet responds to Mensa tot's potty 911 on TODAY 
    Hank, cat for Senate, responds to attack ad

    TODAY.com contributor Jillian Eugenios wonders if the comic book crowd could potentially be the real swing vote. 

     

  • Romney apologizes for 'dumb things' during school years

    By Garrett Haake, NBC News

    OMAHA-- Mitt Romney took to the airwaves Thursday morning to apologize for "dumb things" he did as a prep school student, after a Washington Post report revealed troubling alleged anecdotes of the Republican presidential candidate pulling pranks and bullying other students in his youth.

    Sue Ogrocki / AP

    Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks to supporters at Oklahoma state Republican Party Headquarters May 9 in Oklahoma City.

    The Post report included an account of Romney pinning a fellow student at the prestigious all-boys Cranbrook School in Michigan to the floor and cutting his hair against his will.

    The newspaper reported that Romney was reportedly offended by the student’s flashy hairstyle. “He can’t look like that,” one former classmate recalled Romney telling him. “That’s wrong. Just look at him!”

    One witness to the incident referred to it as "vicious," a description that has gone viral on social media.

    (It’s worth noting that five former Cranbrook students spoke with the Washington Post about the incident; the paper says that they all have different political affiliations, but largely lean Democratic.)

    Slideshow: Mitt Romney's life in politics

    Jonathan Ernst / Getty Images

    From governor's son to presidential contender, a look at the life of Republican Mitt Romney.

    Launch slideshow

    In a radio interview added to the candidate's public schedule at the last minute, Romney said he did not recall many specific incidents involving pranks or bullying during his school years -- including the hair-cutting episode.

    But he admitted that "did some dumb things," and "if anyone was hurt by that I apologize for that."

    On the day after President Barack Obama announced his personal support for same-sex marriage, Romney called accusations that these alleged pranks -- including reportedly mocking a fellow student with shouts of "atta girl" in class -- were motivated by perceptions of these students' sexuality "absurd."

    Without mentioning specific incidents, Romney apologized several times to anyone his "hijinks" may have hurt if or when they went "too far."

    "If I did stupid things, I'm afraid I've got to say sorry for it," Romney said, pointing out that his high school days were many decades behind him. "I'm quite a different guy now."

    Read the full Washington Post story here.

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