President Obama at his afternoon press conference. (Photo: Getty)

The ongoing scandal over former CIA Director David Petraeus' affair and the September attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya were two of the main topics when President Barack Obama had his first post-election White House press conference this afternoon. President Obama promised thorough investigations would be done to uncover details about the FBI investigation that unearthed the Petraeus scandal and the  circumstances surrounding the Benghazi attack. He also had high praise for Mr. Petraeus and harsh words for anyone who might attempt to block him from nominating diplomat Susan Rice as secretary of state because her role in the widely-criticized shifting explanations for the Libyan embassy attack.

President Obama first discussed the Petraeus scandal when a reporter asked whether there were any potential national security issues raised by the affair and associated email breaches.

"I have no evidence at this point, from what I've seen that class information was disclosed that in any way would have had a negative impact on our national security," the president said.

In the same question, the president was asked whether he was concerned the White House was not notified about the FBI investigation involving Mr. Petraeus as soon as it began. He declined to comment on the "specifics of the investigation" and said he was confident the FBI would conduct an appropriate internal examination if necessary.

"Obviously, there's an ongoing investigation. I don't want to comment on the specifics of the investigation," said President Obama. "The FBI has their own protocol in terms of how they proceed. ... I will let them examine those protocols themselves"

Later on the president argued that, if the White House was notified of the investigation sooner, it may have raised questions about whether the administration was "interfering in a criminal investigation."

After discussing the case, the president offered some relatively kind words for Mr. Petraeus.

"General Petraeus had an extraordinary career. He served the country with great distinction. ... By his own assessment, he did not meet the standards that he felt were necessary for the director of the CIA with respect to this personal mattter,"  President Obama said. "From my perspective at least, he has provided this country an extraordinary service. We are safer because of the work David Petraeus has done. And my main hope right now is that he and his family are able to move on and that this ends up being a single sidenote on what has otherwise been an extraordinary career."

Along with the Petraeus investigation, the president faced questions about the administration's handling of the Libyan consulate attack. Shortly before his press conference, Republican senators John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Lindsey Graham had a presser of their own where they called for Watergate-style hearings about the incident. Mr. McCain has also suggested he would block the nomination of Susan Rice, the ambassador to the U.N., if, as rumored, the president nominates her to be secretary of state, because of her initial characterization of the attack as "spontaneous" rather than an act of terrorism. President Obama called any attempt to attack Ms. Rice because of the incident "outrageous."

"I'm not going to comment at this point on various nominations I'll put forward to fill out my cabinet for the second term," he said. "But let me say specifically about Susan Rice, she has done exemplary work....For them to go after the U.N. ambassador who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence she received and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous."

The president said he would be "happy to cooperate" with any hearings or investigation about the attack and encouraged critics of the administration's response to focus on him.

"If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. And I'm happy to have that discussion with them," President Obama said.

He also expressed confidence his national security team did the best they could to protect the staff at the consulate before and during the attack, which left four people dead including the ambassador to Libya.

"When they go after the UN ambassador, apparently because they think she’s an easy target, then they’ve got a problem with me," said the president.

Mitt Romney and John McCain back in 2008 (Photo: Getty)

Arizona senator and former presidential candidate John McCain blasted President Barack Obama in an appearance on "Michigan's Morning Show" on WJIM radio today in which he criticized the president's performance on the economy, described the process that led to "Obamacare" as "the sleaziest" and complained about the lobbyists' proximity to the White House.

"It’s the worst thing I’ve ever observed and the American people obviously deserved a lot better than what we got today," Mr. McCain said.

Mr. McCain invoked the oft-repeated quote where President Obama said of his plan for the economy "if I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition."

"This is a President that said: if he couldn’t get it done in four years—i.e., restore the economy—then he didn’t deserve a second term," said Mr. McCain.

The line was specifically referring to whether the TARP bailout program would merit his high cost, but the line has become a favored talking point for Republicans.

Mr. McCain had particularly harsh words for the president's healthcare law.

"This is a President that’s now saying he should have ‘told a better story’ in his first two years as President? What he really shouldn’t have done is foist off Obamacare on the American people in the sleaziest process that I have ever seen in the United States Senate," he said.

He also accused the president of hosting lobbyists in the official White House guest house after vowing to remove them from the White House.

"He said he wouldn’t have any lobbyists in the White House? He didn’t. He had them in the Blair House," Mr. McCain said. "It’s the worst thing I’ve ever observed and the American people obviously deserved a lot better than what we got today."

The Obama campaign has previously tried to push the idea that Mr. McCain, who ran a bitter primary race against Mitt Romney in 2008, would not approve of the way Mr. Romney is running his current campaign. Mr. McCain endorsed Mr. Romney in January, but remained quiet when the Obama campaign first attempted to invoke him as part of an attack on Mr. Romney. If Mr. McCain continues aggressively going on attack for the Romney campaign, it could help Mr. Romney capitalize on the Arizona Senator’s appeal among swing voters.

Listen to an excerpt of Mr. McCain's radio interview that was distributed by the Romney campaign below.

President Obama (Photo: Getty)

President Barack Obama explained told an audience at a fundraiser in Philadelphia last night that he has much less in common with Mitt Romney than he did with his opponent in 2008, John McCain.

"The choices in this election could not be starker," President Obama said. "Back in 2008, I had some strong disagreements with John McCain, but there were certain baselines that we both agreed on. We both agreed on things like immigration reform. We agreed on the existence of climate change. We agreed on the need to control campaign finance spending. This time out, across the board, there is just a fundamental disagreement, a difference of vision in terms of where we want to go."

The president explained that the key "question in this election is going to be whose vision is most likely to lead us back to a point where economic growth is strong and is steady and is broad-based so that people who are willing to take initiative and work hard can succeed." He went on to say Mr. Romney's vision for the country boils down to two main ideas.

"Governor Romney’s vision is pretty much in sync with the vision of the House Republican Party right now, and it can be described basically with two ideas," said President Obama. "One is that we need to slash taxes even more, particularly for the wealthiest, most successful among us. And two, we need to eliminate any kind of regulations, whether consumer or worker regulations or environmental regulations, that in any way impede the free market from operating however it will."

President Obama explained that his plan for the nation involves working on eliminating the national debt while also leaving room to invest in education, research and infrastructure.

"The vision that I’m presenting in this campaign is consistent with what we talked about in 2008," he said. "And that says, government can’t solve every one of our problems and it shouldn’t try, that there are some government programs that don’t work and should be ended, and there are some things that have to be done at a local level, but there are also some things that we have to do together."

Based on his schedule for the coming week, it's clear President Obama plans to continue pushing the idea that this election is a contest between two visions. By characterizing Mr. Romney's platform as in opposition to his own and also to Mr. McCain's, President Obama is clearly trying to capitalize on the Arizona Senator's appeal among swing voters. It's a good strategy, but it may be dependent on Mr. McCain, who endorsed Mr. Romney in January, keeping quiet and playing along. Based on the bittery rivalry Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney fought in 2008, he might just be willing to do that.

According to Buzzfeed's Andrew Kaczynski, Newt Gingrich is very impressed with Al Sharpton's figure.

Newt Gingrich tells Al Shaprton he is awe struck about how much weight he has lost.

—
Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) June 12, 2012

TV appearances by Mr. Gingrich and Rick Santorum gave Politico's Jennifer Epstein a bad case of déja vu.

looks like three months ago: Gingrich on one channel, Santorum on another

—
Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) June 12, 2012

Reuters reporter Sam Youngman took note of a connection between the location of a Mitt Romney fundraiser in Florida and an infamous sports scandal.

Romney's fundraiser is in the same hood where Tiger was trapped in his SUV after hitting hydrant. Saintly (ex)wife freed him with an iron

—
Sam Youngman (@samyoungman) June 12, 2012

Senator John McCain hoped his Tweets about the Farm Bill would elicit a wide variety of emotions from readers.

Coming tomorrow: I'll tweet Top 10 pork projects in the #FarmBill - you won't know whether to laugh or cry!

—
John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) June 12, 2012

Lastly, this one is from yesterday, but it is just too good not to include. California Congressman Darrell Issa is apparently a Sex Pistols fan.

@BillTrack50 I'm only pro anarchy of it's "Anarchy in the UK"

—
Darrell Issa (@DarrellIssa) June 11, 2012

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney marked the Memorial Day holiday today with the release of a new web video entitled "Thank You" in which he praises veterans and pledges to "keep America strong, and worthy of the great sacrifice of America’s veterans."

"We rightly call our fathers and mothers the greatest generation, but every woman and every man who has or now defends amer liberty share in their heritage of greatness every veteran is the greatest of his generation," Mr. Romney says in the video. "It’s time for us to come together and to carry our message across this country, we’re restoring those principles that made America the great nation that it is."

Mr. Romney is campaigning with Senator John McCain today and he issued a statement along with his video saying Mr. McCain's experience in the Vietnam War is emblematic of the type of heroism that should be on our minds this holiday.

"I am honored to be celebrating Memorial Day this year with John McCain. I don’t have to tell John’s story; the world already knows it. But it is what today’s holiday is all about: sacrifice, valor, honor, courage, and love of country," said Mr. Romney. "A lot of young Americans are risking their lives in distant battlefields today. Memorial Day is a day to give thanks to them, and to remember all of America’s soldiers who have laid down their lives to defend our country. As we enjoy our barbecues with friends and families and loved ones, let’s keep them in our thoughts and in our prayers."

President Barack Obama will be spending Memorial Day giving speeches at Arlington National Cemetery and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. A new Gallup poll of the presidential race shows Mr. Romney has a strong 58 percent to 34 percent lead against President Obama with veterans, who are about 13 percent of the electorate.

Watch Mr. Romney's Memorial Day web video below.

(Photo: Getty)

A few days ago, the New York Post reported John McCain visited City Hall in an attempt to woo Mayor Michael Bloomberg into supporting Mitt Romney for president, but asked about it this morning on Gambling's radio show, Mr. Bloomberg played down the politics of the visit.

"John McCain did not talk to me about supporting Mitt Romney," he said, quietly laughing before transitioning to explain what he felt was the true purpose of the visit.

"John McCain ... is a friend of mine for a long time and somebody that has one of the hundred votes in the Senate," he said. "We need him [to] hopefully come support the bill we're asking to have the federal government subsidize the World Trade Center memorial just like it does most other national memorials around the country."

However, Mr. Bloomberg did say they briefly discussed Mr. Romney's candidacy.

"John did say to me that he thought Romney is a great guy and would make a good president," he continued. "You know, they're both Republicans, you'd expect him to say that!"

From Mr. Cain's explanation of the visit, at least, it seemed that he tried to press the case a little bit.

“I told him that I just spent last weekend with Romney and I thought that Romney was on message . . . and tried to convince the mayor that we’ve got a winning campaign,” he told the Post while leaving City Hall.

Julianne Moore in costume as Sarah Palin. (Photo: HBO Films)

HBO has released a trailer for their upcoming cable movie "Game Change," based on John Heileman and Mark Halperin's 2008 campaign tome of the same name. "Game Change" features Ed Harris as John McCain, Woody Harrelson as Senator McCain's advisor Steve Schmidt and Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin. The clip is quite brief, but it's clear Ms. Moore does a mean Palin impression.

She may have nailed Ms. Palin's mannerisms and Midwestern twang, but Ms. Moore doesn't share the former Alaska governor's politics. Ms. Moore has donated money to the Democrats as did both of "Game Change's" co-executive producers; Jay Roach and Danny Strong. Mr. Roach and Mr. Strong previously teamed up for HBO's dramatization of the 2000 election, "Recount."

"Game Change" premieres in March. Watch the trailer below.

Someone is making mysterious robocalls in support of an effort to draft Hillary Clinton to enter the presidential race.

Councilwoman Tish James knew the woman who was burned alive in Brooklyn this weekend and has set up a fund to help her family afford a funeral. 

Democratic fundraiser Bill Samuels wants Governor Andrew Cuomo to stop accepting corporate donations make good on a campaign promise to focus on establishing stricter rules for fundraising.

Heather Briccetti was named president and CEO of the state business council.

Senator John McCain says deceased North Korean despot Kim Jong Il is "in a warm corner of hell."

Congressman Barney Frank wore a rather eye-popping ensemble on the House floor today.

Andrew Sullivan thinks Ron Paul has a chance to win the Republican nomination. Jonathan Chait disagrees.

Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal purchased a $300 million stake in Twitter.

President Obama's election was a profound moment of history being made in front of our eyes.  Some people got excited about it - many took time away from work to volunteer for a campaign and a cause that inspired them for the first time.  But then others saw that and decided to try and use this piece of history as an opportunity to make money from some really dumb ideas.  Any guesses about which category the people who made this movie fall into?

The only exception perhaps is that this film is coming out about two years too late. Seriously, what was the hold up on fast tracking this thing?