Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Obama Kicks Off Economic Tour Today - President Barack Obama is slated to travel Wednesday to Galesburg, Ill where he will give what the administration is billing as a major economic speech. The President is scheduled to deliver the address at 11:55 a.m. ET on the campus of Knox College.
 
From Illinois, Obama will travel to Warrensburg, Mo. to deliver remarks at the University of Central Missouri. The speeches are part of a campaign-style tour launched by the White House to shift the focus of the press and Capitol Hill back to the economy. TPM.com has more here.

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NY Times Says Weiner Should Withdraw From Race - At some point, the full story of Anthony Weiner and his sexual relationships and texting habits will finally be told. In the meantime, the serially evasive Mr. Weiner should take his marital troubles and personal compulsions out of the public eye, away from cameras, off the Web and out of the race for mayor of New York City.

Mr. Weiner, who resigned from Congress two years ago after sending lewd messages and photos of his crotch to women he had not met, was forced to revisit the issue on Tuesday, and so were we all. A Web site called The Dirty had another woman’s story, another round of sex texts, and another picture of Mr. Weiner’s penis.   The NY Times has more here.

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Congress Approval Hits New Low at 12%, Obama Approval Drops to 45% - 45 percent of those surveyed in the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll said they approved of the job the president was doing, a drop of 3 points from June. Fifty percent said they disapproved.

That’s close to the lowest numbers registered for Obama in the poll, a 44 percent approval and 51 percent disapproval rating registered in November 2011.

Mr. Obama’s 45 percent approval rating matches that of George W. Bush at this stage in his second term, while Bill Clinton’s approval at this stage in his term stood at 56 percent, The Journal said.

Congress fared poorly in the poll as well, registering a new low approval number. Only 12 percent of those polled said they approved of the job Congress was doing; 83 percent disapproved. That’s tied for Congress’s lowest approval ever in the poll and the highest disapproval registered. Politico.com has more here.

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U.S. Moves to Arm Syrian Rebels - Reluctant approval from Congress for providing military support to Syrian rebels allows the Obama administration to move forward with plans first announced almost six weeks ago.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Tuesday that the goal of the military aid expected to include small arms, ammunition and perhaps anti-tank weapons is to keep the Syrian opposition going against forces aligned with President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

 

Noting al-Assad's forces have been helped by Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as Iran, Carney said Syrian rebels need the help of the United States and allied nations to withstand an increased assault.

 

"The aid is intended to help the opposition resist Assad and eventually prevail," Carney said, adding that any resolution of Syria's civil war will require a political transition.  CNN.com has more here.

 

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