What's on Obama's Mind in the Morning?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Front and Center
The president said today his main focus is the oil spill: "My job right now is just to make sure that everybody in the Gulf understands, this is what I wake to in the morning and this is what I go to bed at night thinking about."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Well, that is a pretty familiar line. Earlier this year the White House press secretary said President Obama: "Wakes up in the morning and he goes to bed at night thinking about how to make people's lives better — how to create that environment for creating jobs..."
About national security, marking 9/11 last year, the president said: "My greatest responsibility is the security of the American people. It's the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning. It's the last thing I think about when I go to sleep at night."
The president used a similar line about protecting Americans multiple times last year.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Apology Accepted
Connecticut voters appear satisfied with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal's apology for misrepresenting his military record.
A new Quinnipiac University poll conducted about a week after the controversy began shows Blumenthal leads his Republican opponent 56 percent to Linda McMahon's 31 percent.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Blumenthal has been under fire for incorrectly stating that he served in the Vietnam War. During an event for Wounded Warriors on Tuesday, Vice President Biden joked about pulling a Blumenthal:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Our generation, the Vietnam generation came home arguing over whether or not we really were. I was not in Vietnam, I don’t want to make a Blumenthal mistake here. Umm, but uh -- God love him, as my mom would say.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}(END VIDEO CLIP)
There Goes the Neighborhood
Sarah Palin is using her Facebook page to welcome new neighbor and author Joe McGinnis. McGinniss rented the house next door to Palin's family home in Wasilla, Alaska while he works on a book about the former governor.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Palin muses: "Wonder what kind of material he'll gather while overlooking Piper's bedroom, my little garden and the family's swimming hole?"
The Palins already put up a rather tall fence to keep wandering eyes at bay.
— Fox News Channel's Lanna Britt contributed to this report.