At a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire today, Mitt Romney was asked about his plan to tackle the nation’s exploding student debt crisis.

In response, Gov. Romney said, essentially, that it was not the government’s job to get involved.

“It is very tempting as a politician to say, ‘ You know what, I will just give you some money. The government is just going to give you some money and pay back your loans for you,’” he said. “I am not going to tell you something that is not the truth, because you know, that is just taking money from your other pocket and giving it to the other pocket.

“I am not going to promise all sorts of free stuff that I know you are going to end up paying for,” he continued. Read More

The Democratic National Committee named another slate of officials who have been picked to give prime-time (or close enough) speeches at their convention in Charlotte next month.

Among the names of interest are Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, California attorney general Kamala D. Harris and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.  Read More

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio appeared on Yetta Kurland’s radio show last night and used to occasion to encourage her listeners to volunteer for the congressional campaigns in New York State, particularly the contested Michael Grimm/Mark Murphy one in Staten Island and southern Brooklyn.

“Typically, as New Yorkers, we have to look elsewhere if we want to make a difference–to Ohio, or Pennsylvania or Florida,” he said. “This is a very interesting dynamic this year–so many of the contested House seats are in New York.”

This is undoubtedly true, with as many as 6 to 8 of the seats in the 27-member delegation being contested, as numerous stories have pointed out.  Read More

Yesterday, city officials announced that two boards of the New York City Housing Authority would step down after The Daily News  has launched a withering investigation into NYCHA’s slowness to move on repairs and to properly spend money it has been allocated and the City Council held a withering hearing.

And today, Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer claimed victory.

Last week, I released a comprehensive report documenting problems in New York City’s public housing, and proposed major reforms, including a complete overhaul of the Housing Authority’s management structure,” he wrote an email to supporters. “Yesterday, we got action for NYCHA’s 650,000 residents:  the City of New York said it would adopt my recommendations.” Read More

The Obama campaign is out this morning with a memo from lead pollster Joel Benenson that finds–unsurprisingly, perhaps, considering the source–that the choice of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate has been a dud.

The memo, titled “The Announcement without a Bounce: Romney’s Choice of Ryan Falls Flat” lays out the data.

Among the salient findings are that typically a veep choice gives a candidate a 4.7 percent bounce, but that according to Gallup, the choice of Mr. Ryan gained Mr. Romney only 1 percentage point. Mr. Benenson, who is based in New York, also said that veep choices count little among how voters actually vote, but that they do say something about a candidate’s decision-making ability.  Read More

Archbishop Dolan defended his invitation of pro-choice Barack Obama to the Al Smith dinner. 

New Yorkers will pay an average of over $5,000 in new taxes if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire. 

Nearly 85 percent of New Yorkers say they don’t care if their next mayor is gay.

Marty Golden and Senate Republicans are introducing their own gun control legislation. 

Tom DiNapoli questioned the need for a Thruway toll hike.  Read More

Chuck Schumer will urge his fellow Democratic senators to attack Paul Ryan for not really reducing the deficit.

Governor Cuomo held his epic “Yogurt Summit” and announced the event with over 1,700 words in the press release.

Dave Weigel explored the roots of Rudy Giuliani’s beef with Joe Biden.

John Messer has the support of Marc Anthony.

A writer sharply criticized Pete King for not speaking out against white supremacist terrorism. Read More

The latest poll out from the Quinnipiac Polling Institute out today had some good news for Christine Quinn: it showed that the Council Speaker had nearly three times the support of her rivals in the 2013 mayor’s race.

“Wow, that is getting up there,” said one local political consultant after being told about the poll (he had not seen it yet this morning.) “I am surprised by that number.”

The 29 percent who say they plan to vote for Ms. Quinn was a few ticks higher than the 26 percent she garnered in an earlier poll in May, and rivals Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, City Comptroller John Liu and former City Comptroller Bill Thompson remain bunched up in the race for second place, with each grabbing around ten percent. Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer holds steady at four percent.

The Politicker  reached out to campaign consultants and aides to the four non-Quinn contenders to get a sense of how they were reading the latest poll. We granted them each anonymity, since they were not authorized by their bosses or their clients to speak publicly about the race. Read More

Rudy Giuliani is up to some of his old verbal fireworks.

Appearing on CNBC’s “Kudlow Report” he said that Vice President Joe Biden lacks the brain power to be president of the United States should he have to serve in that capacity.

The vice president of the United States has become a laugh line on late night television. I mean, he–I’ve never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things. I mean, there’s a real fear if, God forbid, he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it. I mean, this guy just isn’t bright. He’s never been bright. He isn’t bright. And people think, ‘Well, he just talks a little too much.’ Actually, he’s just not very smart. Read More

The latest survey from Quinnipiac Polling Institute shows Council Speaker Christine Quinn with a huge lead over her Democratic rivals for mayor.

With the election possibly as soon as ten months away–legislators in Albany have yet to finalize a date–Ms. Quinn garners 29 percent of Democrats. Former comptroller Bill Thompson trails with ten percent of the vote, followed by public advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, who each have nine percent of the vote.

But there is hope for the also-rans: 34 percent of voters say they are undecided.  Read More