With the midterms fast approaching and President Obama‘s poll numbers plummeting speculation has inevitably mounted as to what Obama will have to do to turn things around before the 2012 election. Here’s a new angle: what if Obama doesn’t want to run for reelection in 2012?

Plenty of space has been devoted in the last year to figuring out who the Tea Party movement is, why they exist, and who is in charge. Today The New Yorker reveals it has an answer to the most burning question of all: who is paying for it? Probably not who you think.

If it weren’t for the fact they have an excess of material to choose from these days one might wonder whether Basil Marceaux, candidate for Tennessee governor, wasn’t merely a plant by the comedy shows to give them something to talk about during the dog days of summer. Alas, it seems he’s for real. Last night Stephen Colbert jumped on the Basil wagon.

For a political candidate (reminder: officially, this is what he is) that has begun to shun the media “enigmatic jobless man” Alvin Greene has demonstrated a genius for continually stretching out his 15 minutes of fame. Here is the latest.

Is this is the political version of ‘fool me once’? After a bruising August last year, which saw a slew of politicians being loudly berated by angry voters, the birth of the Tea Party movement, and drove cable coverage during the normally slow summer dog days, Democrats are apparently choosing to stay home. Or at least stay within the confines of invite only parties that serve “chilled wine” and “plates of crackers.” Good luck with that.

Is this an example of the sort of craziness we can expect this summer? A bartender in Wisconsin is apparently under investigation by the Secret Service for burning a statue of Obama in effigy…in front of a cheering crowd. If you look closely you can sort of see that there may be duck tape around the statues neck.

The New York Times may have officially cornered the market on political bombshells. Last night the paper went live with a report that Connecticut Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal had lied about fighting in the Vietnam War. He had not. Ever.

Buckle your seat belts, folks: if the recent slew of over-the-top campaign commercials is any indication, we are in for a long hot summer of campaign spots that may make you wonder whether The Onion has taken over the FCC.

Is President Obama going to manage to get Elena Kagan confirmed to the Supreme Court without addressing her sexuality? Well, not if Andrew Sullivan has anything to do with it. Sullivan attacked Kagan’s sexuality, or the lack of public mention of it, in a series of posts yesterday, with a ferocity that was reminiscent of his determination to find out the true parentage of Trig Palin. It seems to be working.

Despite a strong, year-long push from the Right, lead primarily by Glenn Beck, the word ‘progressive’ has failed to instill terror in the hearts of the American public. A new Pew survey reveals that that 68% of the public think that “progressive” is a positive word and only 23% find negative connotations in it.

Maybe this is John McCain’s new way of being a ‘maverick.’ McCain just released a new campaign ad which features him strolling the Mexican border with a border sheriff who tells him “we’re outmanned…with all the illegals in America more than half come through Arizona.” McCain’s response: “Complete the dang fence.” Says the sheriff: “Senator, you’re one of us.”

Over the weekend the National Enquirer published an “exclusive” story claiming President Obama had had an affair in 2004. Drudge ran it as its lede, giving the story a level of attentionit probably shouldn’t have received. When reached for clarification, the National Enquirer is standing by their story.

The new Arizona Immigration Law has managed to supplant both the Tea Partiers, the Birthers, and maybe even the ‘shitty deal-ers‘ as the cable news story of the week. Descriptions thus far have basically fallen into three categories: Nazis, Fascists, and the Apartheid. With that in mind, here is a short history of Arizona Immigration Law rhetoric.

New York is the latest publication to jump on the Sarah Palin as media mogul train. If you are a regular reader of this site, or a fan of Palin, most of it is stuff you already know. However it includes a rather interesting and detailed play-by-play of why Palin decided to quit being governor of Alaska.

Former President Bill Clinton (calmly) responded to Rush Limbaugh’s statement yesterday that the responsibility for a “future incident such as Oklahoma City” would fall “squarely on the shoulders of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama” telling This Week host Jake Tapper that Limbaugh “doesn’t make any sense.” He goes on.

Last night Jon Stewart applied the same Fox News investigatory techniques that Fox used in their Nuclear Summit/Muslim logo controversy and concluded the Fox News logo was modeled after an old Nazi propaganda poster…does this mean they are secretly support a German re-annexation of Poland? Or is it modeled after the rising sun standard of Imperial Japan? You decide! Video after the jump.

The NYT and CBS have just released the results — in a splashy A-1 article in the Times, no less — of a huge, comprehensive poll they’ve jointly conducted. While the results mostly jibe with much of what we’ve recently been hearing about the movement, namely that it’s more mainstream than the media has previously portrayed it (18% of the country identifies with the party), some aspects may surprise.

“Every single moment that we are stroking our beards and gazing at our navel and thinking about the world we’d like to be and singing ‘Kumbaya’ is another day we’re not punching Bill O’Reilly in the nose.” That’s New York Congressman Anthony Weiner. He goes on.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Timothy McVeigh’s name has been in the news a lot of late. This April 19 marks the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings, meaning that regardless of what was going on in the world we’d likely be talking about him. That said, MSNBC is making a bit of leap in their promo for an upcoming special on McVeigh, hosted by Rachel Maddow.

When I first saw Lloyd Grove‘s version of the now-annual effort to autopsy the White House press corps, I rolled my eyes in agreement with Glynnis MacNicol.

Then, I noticed that not one of the 3 C-Spans, nor any other news outlet, carried yesterday’s briefing. Heh, neat coincidence. No biggie. The timing’s a little weird, but these things happen.

Still, before this gains any more traction, allow me to make the case for the press corps to the writer of next year’s “Press Corpse” piece, and anyone else who’s interested.

Interesting new poll numbers out today that I imagine will result in a lot more politicians addressing the Tea Party movement with increasing sincerity between now and November. Turns out no matter how in the habit the media is of using ‘Tea Partiers’ as a byword for crazy, fringe, offensive sign-bearing Americans, they are actually the opposite. Namely, everyday Americans.

Why is everyone so determined to kill the White House Press Corps? Last year Ana Marie Cox wrote a much-passed-around op-ed calling for the dismissal of the group altogether. Now Lloyd Grove at the Daily Beast is taking aim wondering whether “the White House press corps teetering (possibly tweeting) on the brink of obsolescence?” But is it really?

Frank Rich remarks on the country’s amazing, about-face, perception of President Obama in the aftermath of the health care bill. From Clark Kent to Superman in one leap over a tall bill! But are we seeing what we want to see…or what the media hopes we will click on?

Glenn Beck is writing a novel for grown-ups. in a move that is both genius and likely infuriating (to “intellectuals,” anyway) Beck appropriated the title ‘Overton Window’ from a popular political concept, which he explained via the infamous chalkboard late last month.

Last night ‘Waterloo-er’ David Frum popped up on Larry King Live, along with Scott McClellan and John Avalon. King, not lately known for his, um, hardcore interview style, nevertheless managed to get a few interesting gems out of Frum. First question: Are you a heretic? Answer: No, I don’t think so. Then it got interesting.