Susan G. Komen reverses decision amid firestorm

Susan G. Komen reverses stance on Planned Parenthood, will continue to fund organization (NYDN) The Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity reversed its three-day-old decision to cut off grants to Planned Parenthood on Friday. “We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” Brinker said. “The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen.” Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday that it would no longer be receiving about $680,000 from the Susan G. Komen foundation for breast health programs because of changes to the breast cancer charity’s grant-giving criteria….

Gingrich’s campaign may be near the end

Newt Gingrich races across Florida in bid to keep floundering campaign alive (NYDN) TAMPA, Fla. - Newt Gingrich appears headed toward a crushing defeat in Florida Tuesday, with devastating consequences for his flailing campaign. Gingrich raced across the Sunshine State Monday in a last-minute bid to reclaim the momentum he enjoyed just days ago after his stunning South Carolina upset victory. “Let me be clear: we really need your help,” Gingrich pleaded with a small crowd at a Tampa rally. A Quinnipiac poll released Monday showed the ex-speaker trailing Mitt Romney by 14 points, while a Suffolk University survey had him behind by 20 points. And given the upcoming primary schedule, a blowout loss could send Gingrich’s White House hopes…

Gingrich, Romney and the politics of anti-Obamaism

(theGRIO) Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich refers to President Obama as “the food stamp president,” and a “Saul Alinsky radical” and says the president takes advice from people who “don’t like the classical America.” He constantly promises to take on Obama in Lincoln-Douglas style debates if he wins the nomination and jokes he will let the president use a teleprompter, a regular GOP attack line that implies Obama can’t give a speech without help. On the other hand, his chief opponent, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, barely can stomach calling Obama a socialist as other Republicans do and rarely invokes the sharp, anti-Obama rhetoric of the Tea Party. Is Romney too meek in his Obama-bashing to win the GOP primary? Since Obama’s…

Obama gets in fight on tarmac with Gov. Jan Brewer

Obama, Arizona governor Jan Brewer have tarmac dispute (theGRIO) President Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer had a tense exchange on an airport tarmac on Wednesday afternoon after Air Force Once landed near Phoenix. Obama, who was in the area for a speech, is often warmly greeted by elected officials when he lands. Brewer, who in 2010 signed a controversial immigration law the president has opposed, gave Obama a handwritten letter inviting him to have lunch with her and visit the Arizona-Mexico border. The president in turn, according to a White House official, “said he’d be glad to meet with her again, but did note that after their last meeting, a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the…

State of the Union: What Obama proposed

(theGRIO) President Obama outlined a number of new proposals, specifically on the economy. Here’s a look at a few key ones: 1. Stay in School: Twenty states already require students to stay in school until they graduate or turn 18. The president called on the rest of the states to do the same, arguing it would increase high school graduation rates and therefore help the economy. 2. More Work-Study Jobs: Obama called for doubling the amount of “work-study” jobs that universities can offer students to help them pay for college. Millions of low and middle-income college students use work-study. 3. The Buffett rule: Obama called for requiring all millionaires to pay at least 30 percent in taxes….

Sunshine state will be stormy for Romney

Florida primary preview: Storm clouds, not sunshine, await Mitt Romney (theGRIO) After suffering a big loss in South Carolina, former Republican front-runner Mitt Romney faces a tough road in Florida, where the January 31 primary gives him perhaps his last, best chance to slow Newt Gingrich down. Democrats are gleefully awaiting the Romney-Gingrich slugfest, with Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz hosting a Sunday conference call “welcoming” the battered Romney campaign to Florida, and state Democratic Party Executive Director Scott Arceneaux issuing a weekend statement pouring salt in Romney’s wounds, saying that after Saturday’s “embarrassing loss in South Carolina and on the heels of losing the Iowa Caucuses, Mitt Romney enters the Sunshine State with…

Lupica: Newt’s the phoniest candidate ever

Newt Gingrich is the phoniest presidential candidate ever After having affairs and dropping two wives, he had gall to attack Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky (NYDN) It is not so much that Newt Gingrich, one of the great phonies in the history of presidential politics, acts as if he is smarter than everybody else. You get a lot of that from guys like Gingrich, who want to speak for the common man from behind a line of credit at Tiffany and Co., and speak about God and faith after an adult life that calls to mind a horny frat boy. No, it gets even better with Gingrich. It’s not enough for him to sell himself as the…

WATCH: Obama breaks into song at The Apollo

President Barack Obama sings ‘Let’s Stay Together’ at the Apollo (theGRIO) It was “showtime” at the Apollo Thursday as President Barack Obama showed off his singing chops during a fundraiser at the legendary Harlem theater, breaking into a few bars of the Al Green classic, “Let’s Stay Together.” The Apollo was the third stop in a trio of New York fundraisers for the president’s re-election campaign, starting with a pair of events at Daniel Restaurant on Manhattan’s upper east side, followed by a $35,000 per ticket soiree at Spike Lee’s house, and finally, the Apollo Theater concert and fundraiser, which included performances by neo-soul artist India.Arie, and Green. Following the performances, Obama took the stage, saying” “it’s good…

Obama campaign names black outreach director

Obama campaign taps Stefanie Brown to lead black voter outreach (theGRIO) The Barack Obama re-election campaign on Wednesday named a 31-year-old former field director for the NAACP to be African-American Vote Director for the campaign’s Operation Vote outreach effort. Stefanie Brown, formerly the national field director for the NAACP in Baltimore, Maryland, will direct the campaign’s black voter outreach efforts. Operation Vote is the campaign’s national drive to get black, female, Latino, LGBT, veteran and young voters to the polls. Obama won an overwhelming majority of black votes in 2008, and most experts believe he’ll need a similar groundswell among African-Americans to win in November. Brown, a graduate of Howard University, served as both national field director and head of theNAACP’s Youth…

Rick Perry quits presidential race, will back Gingrich

Front-runner Mitt Romney could see poll side as a result (NYDN) Texas Gov. Rick Perry is quitting the Republican race for the White House Thursday, according to reports. Perry, whose mistake-filled campaign never hit its stride, is now poised to ask his backers to support another candidate – which could be trouble for frontrunner Mitt Romney. He is expected to endorse Newt Gingrich at 11 a.m. – which could give the ex-Speaker, who is surging in the polls, a chance to defeat Romney in Saturday’s South Carolina primary. The news capped off a brutal morning for Romney, who is battling controversies about his tax returns and offshore financial holdings – and who just found out that he actually lost the…