The late John Chafee makes a prominent cameo in this week’s New Yorker, as Ezra Klein writes about how the individual health-insurance mandate went from Republicans’ preferred policy to conservative heresy.

Klein notes the mandate made its first legislative appearance in the Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993, which Rhode Island’s Republican U.S. Senator proposed in November 1993, during the fight over President Clinton’s health care bill – and it’s been part of the debate ever since:

After the Clinton bill, which called for an employer mandate, failed, Democrats came to recognize the opportunity that the Chafee bill had presented. In “The System,” David Broder and Haynes Johnson’s history of the health-care wars of the nineties, Bill Clinton concedes that it was the best chance he had of reaching a bipartisan compromise. …

Ten years later, Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, began picking his way back through the history — he read “The System” four times — and he, too, came to focus on the Chafee bill. …

What is notable about the conservative response to the individual mandate is not only the speed with which a legal argument that was considered fringe in 2010 had become mainstream by 2012; it’s the implication that the Republicans spent two decades pushing legislation that was in clear violation of the nation’s founding document. …

Senator Orrin Hatch, who had been a co-sponsor of the Chafee bill, emerged as one of the mandate’s most implacable opponents in 2010, writing in The Hill that to come to “any other conclusion” than that the mandate is unconstitutional “requires treating the Constitution as the servant, rather than the master, of Congress.”

Now, 19 years after John Chafee first proposed a federal individual mandate for health insurance, the country is waiting to find out whether the U.S. Supreme Court will declare his idea unconstitutional.

• Related: Today marks the first anniversary of – ‘Chafeecare’ (March 23)

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The Federal Election Commission hit Congressman David Cicilline with a $4,530 fine last month because he failed to properly report $37,600 worth of campaign donations made in conjunction with a fundraiser that President Obama headlined in Providence in 2010.

Read the rest of this story »

The leader of Rhode Island’s Roman Catholics didn’t hold back Thursday in strongly criticizing President Obama and U.S. Sen. Jack Reed for supporting same-sex marriage, but he declined to take a stand on Governor Chafee’s legal fight to avoid accused murderer Jason Pleau facing the death penalty.

“I think the whole group are driven by the Democratic agenda,” Bishop Thomas Tobin told WPRO’s John DePetro. “We’re getting closer to an election cycle.”

“It’s a very, very strange evolution,” Tobin said of Obama’s change of heart. “The man has no real foundation, moral compass. This is clearly politically driven.” He later added: “The fact that he used his daughters as a reason to support same-sex marriage was, to me, disturbing, even a little bit creepy.”

Tobin was less explicit in his criticism of Reed, who is Catholic, saying that he’d been following the senior senator’s public statements and had “a general sense” he’d take that position. “I’m not surprised,” Tobin said. “It’s very predictable but enormously sad.”

Tobin shied away from commenting on the governor’s legal battle over whether Pleau should be surrendered to federal custody, where he could face the death penalty, calling the original crime “very, very disturbing” and expressing sympathy for the family of victim David Main.

(more…)

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed is traveling in Afghanistan this week with his colleague Carl Levin. According to the Obama administration, the senators didn’t know the president himself would be joining them in Kabul on Tuesday until a few hours before he arrived there to sign a strategic partnership agreement with the country.

Here’s a photo the White House posted of Reed, right, listening to the signing ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Kabul on Tuesday; the photo was taken by White House photographer Pete Souza:

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is joining President Obama in getting rid of campaign cash contributed by a California man now accused of running a Ponzi scheme, WPRI.com has confirmed.

Whitehouse will donate to charity the $2,000 his campaign received last year from Shervin Neman, a Los Angeles hedge-fund manager, a spokesman told WPRI.com on Wednesday night.

The Securities and Exchange Commission accuses Neman of taking more than $7.5 million from investors as part of “an ongoing Ponzi scheme that targeted members of the Persian-Jewish community in Los Angeles.”

Neman contributed the $2,000 to Whitehouse on May 9, 2011, the same month he gave $35,800 to the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee. An Obama spokesman told Politico that money will be refunded and held in escrow to compensate victims of Neman’s alleged fraud.

(photo: Whitehouse campaign)

Spelling errors are apparently a bipartisan affair in Rhode Island.

Former Providence Mayor Joe Paolino is running in tomorrow’s primary to be a Barack Obama delegate at this year’s Democratic National Convention.

Or is it a “Barak” Obama delegate, judging by this ad he’s running on the Projo site?

Patrick Kennedy offered some striking insight to The New York Times last weekend (emphasis mine):

Patrick J. Kennedy, the former representative from Rhode Island, who donated $35,800 to an Obama re-election fund last fall while seeking administration support for a nonprofit venture, said contributions were simply a part of “how this business works.”

“If you want to call it ‘quid pro quo,’ fine,” he said. “At the end of the day, I want to make sure I do my part.”

Mr. Kennedy visited the White House several times to win support for One Mind for Research, his initiative to help develop new treatments for brain disorders. While his family name and connections are clearly influential, he said, he knows White House officials are busy. And as a former chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he said he was keenly aware of the political realities they face.

“I know that they look at the reports,” he said, referring to records of campaign donations. “They’re my friends anyway, but it won’t hurt when I ask them for a favor if they don’t see me as a slouch.”

“Quid pro quo” it is, then! That drew this comment from The Weekly Standard:

Access to the Obama White House is in direct correlation to the amount of money donated to the president’s reelection effort and the Democratic party, the New York Times reports today. …

But the most explosive allegation in the news story comes from former Democratic congressman Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Ted Kenney [sic], who calls what the Obama White House is doing “quid pro quo.” …

And Kennedy admits that folks in the White House are checking out the donor records ….

Translated, “quid pro quo” means “this for that.” As in, if you want this from the Obama White House, then give that (e.g., cash).

The New York Times editorial board weighed in today, crediting Kennedy for his honesty:

The administration, of course, says there is no relationship between donations and access and notes that thousands of nondonors regularly visit the White House. But a more realistic appraisal of events was given by Patrick Kennedy, the former representative from Rhode Island, who also gave the maximum amount while pressing the administration to support his nonprofit medical venture. That’s “how this business works,” Mr. Kennedy, who had several visits to the White House, told The Times. “If you want to call it ‘quid pro quo,’ fine,” he added. …

The candidate who truly wants to impress voters would put an end to special-access retreats for big donors and would promise not to check a donation list when granting White House access. Mr. Obama, in particular, promised in 2008 to fix a “broken” public financing system that allows oversize donations. He opted out of the system, and the country is still waiting for that promise to be fulfilled.

Romney with the Carcieris last July

Could Newport be a Mitt Romney stronghold?

Electorally, probably not: John McCain won just 31% of City by the Sea voters in 2008. But financially, this year’s Republican frontrunner is a favorite there.

Romney, who’ll be in Warwick for a campaign rally tonight, has raised $41,650 in Newport’s tony 02840 zip code this election season. That’s more than double the $16,750 Obama has harvested there so far, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

No doubt a lot of Romney’s success in Newport can be attributed to one event, a fundraiser last July at the $5.4 million home of Les and Carol Ballard on Beacon Hill Road. It was co-hosted by former Gov. Don Carcieri and his wife, Sue, and tickets started at $500 a couple.

Les Ballard is president of Ballard Exploration Co., an oil-and-gas firm, while Carol is the daughter of late oil tycoon Eddie Chiles, who in 1989 sold the Texas Rangers to a group that included George W. Bush. Ballard donated $2,500 to Brendan Doherty last year, but he’s also given to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.

(more…)

You may have heard President Obama made fun of President Rutherford B. Hayes on Thursday for reportedly saying about the telephone: “It’s a great invention but who would ever want to use one?” You may have also heard that Obama got his facts wrong. But did you hear an ancient article from our own local daily corrected him?

Here’s New York magazine:

We thought it was a bit unsporting of Obama to attack President Hayes, who is quite unable to respond. So we called up the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio, where Nan Card, the curator of manuscripts, was plenty willing to correct Obama’s ignorance of White House history. Just as soon as she finished chuckling. …

She then read aloud a newspaper article from June 29, 1877, which describes Hayes’s delight upon first experiencing the magic of the telephone. The Providence Journal story reported that as Hayes listened on the phone, “a gradually increasing smile wreathe[d] his lips and wonder shone in his eyes more and more.” Hayes took the phone from his ear, “looked at it a moment in surprise and remarked, ‘That is wonderful.’”

As far as I know, the June 29, 1877, edition of the Projo is not available as an eEdition.

President Obama considered nominating Brown University’s outgoing president Ruth Simmons as the new head of the powerful World Bank, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday evening.

Simmons was part of a diverse list of candidates “considered in initial discussions” by Obama and his advisers that also included Bill Gates and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, according to Bloomberg. The list has been narrowed down since then and apparently no longer includes Simmons.

A spokeswoman for Brown was not immediately available. Simmons served on investment bank Goldman Sachs’ board of directors from 2000 to 2009. She donated $5,000 to Obama’s re-election campaign in September.

“The breakthroughs that arrive on the coattails of his election may prove just the beginning of our understanding of the implications and longer term impact of his remarkable rise and run,” Simmons wrote after Obama won the presidency in November 2008.

Simmons will retire as Brown’s president on June 30. Princeton University economist Christina Paxson was picked as her replacement last week. Simmons has said she plans to take a leave of absence then return to Brown to teach as a professor of comparative literature and Africana Studies.

(photo: Brown University)

By Ted Nesi and Tim White

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Rhode Islanders of every stripe are unhappy with Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s performance as he settles into his second year in office, according to an exclusive WPRI 12 poll released Monday evening.

The new survey of 500 registered voters finds just 21% of voters give a positive grade to Chafee, an independent ex-Republican, while 75% give him negative marks. That includes nearly half of voters – 48% – who rate the job Chafee is doing as “poor.”

The widespread antipathy toward Chafee is a stark contrast with how Rhode Islanders view Treasurer Gina Raimondo. The survey shows 56% of voters give Raimondo a positive review.

The poll also finds U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has a 22-point advantage over his challenger Barry Hinckley, with the Democratic getting 50%, the Republican getting 28% and 20% of voters unsure.

Read the rest of this story »

• Interactive: Complete results from the WPRI 12 poll with cross-tabs

Coming on Tuesday: Should Providence file for bankruptcy? Should Rhode Island allow casinos?

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Governor Chafee says it was an easy call for him to sign on as co-chair of President Obama’s re-election campaign, particularly in light of the president’s foreign policy and his appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We go way back,” Chafee told WPRI.com on Wednesday.

The pair served in the U.S. Senate together in 2005 and 2006 and often saw each other at the private gym for senators on Capitol Hill. ”We had similar workout hours,” Chafee said. “Often it was just us, on the treadmills, stretching.” They were on the Senate Environment and Public Works and Foreign Relations committees, as well.

“He’s been kind to me since,” Chafee continued. The then-governor-elect and his wife, Stephanie, sat at the president’s table in December 2010 when they attended a meeting of incoming governors at the White House.

“And of course, he helped me in the campaign by not endorsing,” Chafee added, referring to Obama’s decision not to back Democrat Frank Caprio in their 2010 gubernatorial contest. “So this is natural.”

(more…)

New: Chafee-Obama bond forged at gym (Feb. 22)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - President Obama on Wednesday named independent Gov. Lincoln Chafee a national co-chair of his re-election campaign.

The two have been political allies since 2008, when the former Republican U.S. senator endorsed his one-time colleague from Illinois for the presidency, even though Obama’s eventual opponent John McCain had campaigned for Chafee in 2006. Chafee has made multiple visits to the White House since Obama took office.

In 2010, Obama quietly gave Chafee’s gubernatorial campaign a boost by staying neutral in the race between him and Democrat Frank Caprio, which famously led Caprio to say the president could take his endorsement and “shove it.” Md. Gov. Martin O’Malley has since suggested Chafee should join the Democratic Party.

Chafee is one of 35 Obama campaign co-chairs, a list that also includes Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick and two of the president’s former chiefs of staff, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Bill Daley. Another co-chair with local ties is Attleboro native Joe Solmonese, president of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign.

(more…)

Governor Chafee is under fire in Rhode Island for blocking three medical-marijuana dispensaries authorized in 2009 and selected in 2011 from starting operations. But he thinks the real problem is the inconsistent policy of the president he endorsed in 2008.

Asked by Rolling Stone magazine what the result has been from the Obama administration moving to prevent states from carrying out laws allowing the distribution of medical pot, Chafee replied: “Utter chaos.” The governor has faced protests and legal threats since suspending Rhode Island’s dispensary program in May.

Chafee offered his take in a new article published online last week that reports on “a shocking about-face” by the administration, which in 2009 gave the green light on medical marijuana to states but last year launched a widespread crackdown involving the DEA, the DoJ, the ATF, the IRS and U.S. attorneys nationwide:

The sharpest and most surprising rebuke to the administration has come from centrist governors who are fed up with the war on medicinal pot. In November, Gregoire and Chafee issued a bipartisan petition to the DEA, asking the agency to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug, the same as cocaine and meth – one with a recognized medicinal value, despite its high potential for abuse. “It’s time to show compassion, and it’s time to show common sense,” says Gregoire. “We call on the federal government to end the confusion and the unsafe burden on patients.”

A petition by two sitting governors is historic – but it’s unlikely to shift federal policy. Last June, after a nine-year delay, the Obama administration denied a similar petition. An official at the Department of Health and Human Services left little hope for reclassification, reiterating the Bush-era position that there is “no accepted medical use for marijuana in the United States.”

The DEA says it’s reviewing the petition from Chafee and Gregoire, though it’s unclear when and how the agency will respond. For a longer look at the state of play for medical marijuana in Rhode Island, read David Scharfenberg’s January article in The Providence Phoenix.

On a meta note, this is the second time in recent months Chafee has provided a crucial soundbite to Rolling Stone political correspondent Tim Dickinson. The governor offered some choice words on Republican economic policies in the magazine last November.

It’s Valentine’s Day, so The Wall Street Journal’s Charles Passy decided to take a look at interesting spins on the classic box of sweets – and lo and behold, one of the highlights is East Greenwich’s own Frankie’s Fruit and Chocolate:

Chocolate for fruit lovers: Okay, no one is pretending that combining fruit and chocolate is a good way to get one or two of those requisite five daily servings in your diet. But we have to say that Frankie’s Fruit and Chocolate, a Rhode Island chocolatier, makes it a tempting thought. That’s because they add just the right fruits in the right combinations – say, coconut, pineapple and banana – to give their “circles” and “crisps” (essentially, chocolate bars in something other than bar form) a smart sweetness. Chocolate-dipped fruits – apricots, mango slices, etc. – are also on the menu.

The Journal’s Gail Ciampa also took a look at Rhode Island’s best chocolatiers, including Frankie’s, last week.

By the way, male Nesi’s Notes readers, this post will serve as your official reminder that the date is indeed Feb. 14, the significance of which I’ll outsource to President Obama (via Politico):

“Let me start with a quick public service announcement to all the gentlemen out there: today is Valentine’s Day. Do not forget,” Obama said during remarks Tuesday. “I speak from experience here. It is important that you remember this.”

“And go big. That’s my advice,” the president added.

The latest Gallup polling is a mixed bag for those on Rhode Island’s political left.

President Obama’s job approval rating among Rhode Islanders slipped below the crucial halfway mark in 2011, with 49.2% approving and 39% disapproving of the way he’s “handing his job as president.”

Obama’s approval rating in Rhode Island has declined steadily since he took office, starting at 66.6% back in 2009, then dropping to 55.1% in 2010 and now 49.2% in 2011. The president won 63% of the vote here against John McCain in 2008.

Rhode Island and Washington were the only two states where Obama dipped under 50% last year. His approval rating was six points higher – 55% – in neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Gallup’s surveying also found the Democratic Party’s dominance continuing in Rhode Island despite a decline in the number of liberals.

The share of Rhode Islanders who describe themselves as liberals fell to 24.7% in 2011, down from 29.3% in 2010, while the share of moderates rose 3 points to 38.8% and the share of conservatives rose 2 points to 31.8%, according to Gallup. Rhode Island was the most liberal state in the first half of 2010, but was only the 8th most-liberal last year.

When it comes to the two parties, 47.8% of Rhode Islanders leaned Democratic in 2011, basically unchanged from the prior year, and 27.5% leaned Republican, a slight dip from 29.2% in 2010. Hawaii was the only state more Democratic than Rhode Island.

(chart: Gallup)

Republican congressional candidate Brendan Doherty says he hopes President Obama follows his State of the Union speech with a bipartisan approach on issues like an overhaul of the federal tax code.

While many Republicans blasted the president’s address as a campaign speech, Doherty took a softer approach, saying he was “encouraged” by what the president had to say and hopes to see more cooperation and bipartisanship in Washington.

Doherty has endorsed Mitt Romney for president. Here’s the full statement he gave in response to a question from WPRI.com:

I was encouraged that President Obama chose to address the challenges facing middle class Americans in his State of the Union speech. I have always believed that actions speak louder than words and I hope that this administration now will shift its focus away from handouts to Wall Street and big corporations and instead promote a strong economy and secure jobs for the people of Rhode Island and our entire nation. We need comprehensive tax reform that closes loopholes for big business and levels the playing field for small business and the middle class. This will not be easy and will require leadership and bipartisan cooperation that goes far beyond seating arrangements and the rhetoric of class warfare. Like many Rhode Islanders, I am frustrated by constant partisan bickering and I am committed to bringing true leadership and a spirit of cooperation to Washington, DC and to restoring integrity and accountability to Congress.

Cicilline’s statement, which isn’t on his website, blamed the House Republican leadership for blocking the president’s proposals, but other than that didn’t sound markedly different from Doherty’s. Both called for changes to the tax code that would likely increase how much large businesses owe the federal government.

“Rhode Islanders want Congress to move beyond ideological differences to get things done for our country,” Cicilline said Tuesday night. ”Let’s put aside partisanship and send the president bills like these that will advance not just the interests of Democrats or Republicans, but of every American family.”

Here’s a photo of Congressman Cicilline shaking Obama’s hand post-speech.

(I posted a CBS News poll with instant reaction earlier after misreading a tweet – it was from 2011. Mea culpa.)

“It’s always fun to observe how the President interacts with little kids,” says the caption to this July 2010 photo from the White House Flickr feed, “in this case the very shy daughter of Sen. Jack Reed, who had brought his family by for an Oval Office visit.”

By coincidence, little Emily Reed turns 5 years old today. Happy birthday!

Update: My producer Nancy sent along this photo gallery of presidents and babies. Awww.

(photo: Pete Souza/White House, via Flickr)

Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s flirtation with the Democratic Party continues.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley recently told Chafee he should formally join the party of President Obama, whom Chafee endorsed in 2008. O’Malley floated the idea during a phone conversation they had about the plight of the menhaden, spokeswoman Elisabeth Smith told WPRI.com.

O’Malley is chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, an umbrella group for the party’s 20 state executives.

Chafee, who won office in 2010 as an independent, doesn’t have a governors association. Asked if he is seriously considering the idea, the governor told WPRI.com through a spokeswoman: ”I’m happy where I am for now.”

(more…)

Lincoln Chafee says he hasn’t made up his mind about whether to join the Democratic Party before the 2014 election. But The Wall Street Journal has:

Actually, that would bring the governor full circle. In 2001, then-Republican U.S. Senator Chafee voted for the original version of the No Child Left Behind bill and voted for the final version hammered out by the conference committee.

Today’s visit also again raises the question of whether Chafee will wind up endorsing Obama next year. In April, the governor told me he was undecided because of his concerns about the president’s foreign policy.

President Obama unveiled a mammoth deficit-cutting plan this morning that would raise $1.5 trillion in new taxes over the next 10 years as part of more than $3 trillion in reductions. “He vowed to veto any deficit reduction package that cuts benefits to Medicare recipients but does not raise taxes on the wealthy and big corporations,” says the AP.

This afternoon, Congressman Jim Langevin became the first of Rhode Island’s four members of Congress to react.

In a statement to WPRI.com, Langevin said he was “encouraged” by the proposal. “However, the devil is always in the details, and I will be evaluating those details to ensure it accurately affects the priorities of the Rhode Islanders I represent,” he said.

Langevin says he wants “a balanced approach that cuts wasteful spending and asks the wealthiest few to pay their fair share,” and said Obama is correct when he “recognizes that we cannot get our fiscal house in order unless we grow our economy, and that means putting Americans back to work.”

After the jump, Senator Reed, Senator Whitehouse and Congressman Cicilline weigh in.

(more…)

Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse liked what they heard from President Obama in his big jobs speech Thursday night. But they say that was just the start of what he needs to do if he wants to overcome Republican resistance.

“There are real things where we can work together, but I think that we have to be persistent and we have to have the president with us, using the bully pulpit of the presidency, to drive this and to continue to drive it,” Whitehouse said Thursday morning during a special taping of WPRI 12′s “Newsmakers” in Washington, D.C.

Reed and Whitehouse have had a frustrating time since last November’s election. The pair have found themselves holding their noses and voting for two Obama-backed compromises – to extend all the Bush tax cuts and then to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts – that they viewed as far from ideal.

The debt limit fight in particular was “an unfortunate, frustrating, just infuriating episode,” Whitehouse said. “But thankfully it is done and now we can get onto a jobs agenda, and I think if we’re persistent about it, we can do it.”

(more…)

The Democratic Party’s edge among Rhode Island voters has plunged over the past two years, a WPRI.com analysis of Gallup polling data shows.

The Democratic advantage over the Republican Party in Rhode Island slid from 37 percentage points in 2008 to 16 points this year, according to Gallup. The Ocean State has gone from being the most Democratic state in the country in 2008 to the 7th-most Democratic now.

Gallup calculates a state’s partisan preference based on the difference between the percentage of state residents who identify as or lean Democratic and the percentage who identify as or lean Republican. The 12.2-point drop for Democrats in Rhode Island from 2008 to 2010 was the most in the nation, the polling firm said.

“There is a very distinct – and surprising – trend line in these numbers,” said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor at The Cook Political Report in Washington and a native Rhode Islander. “While Rhode Island certainly remains one of the most Democratic states in the country, there is a clear erosion in support for Democrats.”

A decline in the Democratic Party’s fortunes locally hasn’t necessarily translated into a surge of support for the GOP, however. A whopping 60% of Rhode Islanders identified as independents in Gallup’s polling during the first half of this year, the most in any state. That’s up from 53% in 2008.

“Many states with high proportions of independents are dominated by one party electorally,” Gallup said – meaning many of Rhode Island’s self-identified independents are still likely to vote for a Democrat when they go to the polls.

It’s unclear why there’s been such a marked decline in how many Rhode Islanders side with the Democrats. For one thing, 2008 was a banner year for Democrats, which may have inflated the party’s numbers locally. The unemployment rate has been above 10% in Rhode Island every month since March 2009, as well.

“It could be because voters are simply frustrated with a lack of jobs and the struggling economy, but President Obama may be part of the problem here as well,” Duffy said. Obama’s approval rating was down to 44% in a March poll by Brown University.

“No scandal-free Democratic president should have an approval rating under 50% in the 7th-most Democratic state in the nation,” Duffy said.

Rhode Island isn’t the only blue state where Democrats lost ground. The party’s advantage in Massachusetts fell from 34 points in 2008 to 20 points this year, and its advantage in Hawaii declined from 34 points to 24.

• Related: Is Rhode Island really a blue state? Weighing the evidence (July 14)

Rhode Island is one of 16 states where President Obama’s approval rating is at or above 50% – but just barely.

Exactly half of Rhode Islanders approved of the president’s job performance during the first half of the year, while 39% disapproved, according to a Gallup tracking poll. That was the 13th-highest approval rating Obama received in any state or Washington, D.C.

Gallup surveyed 327 Rhode Islanders ages 18 and older from Jan. 2 to June 30. The margin of error for most states is plus or minus 4 percentage points, Gallup said.

Obama’s approval rating across the border in Massachusetts was 57%, fifth-highest in the nation. The president’s highest approval rating was 83% in D.C., and the lowest was 27% in Idaho. His national half-year average approval rating of 47% was unchanged from 2010.

“Obama’s support is greatest in the East, with eight of his 10 highest approval ratings occurring in states located in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic region of the country,” Gallup said. “States giving Obama his lowest approval ratings are more varied regionally, with several in the West but also including Southern and Midwestern states.”

(h/t: Political Intelligence)

During my January trip to Washington to cover the State of the Union, Senator Reed and I sat down for a half-hour interview inside the Capitol. I didn’t get around to writing up most of his comments at the time, but our discussion of polarization seemed timely this week amid the deadlock over the debt ceiling. Enjoy.

WASHINGTON – There’s no doubt in U.S. Sen. Jack Reed’s mind that Capitol Hill is a more toxic place than it was when he arrived here two decades ago as a freshman congressman.

“Over the last 20 years, everything has been much more bitterly debated – not just how to do things, but what is the proper role of government,” Reed said.

The senior senator cited a number of reasons for the Beltway’s increased polarization, including a 24/7 media environment, a shift to nonstop campaigning and a breakdown of the ideological consensus that prevailed in the postwar era.

Reed – a West Point graduate – also thinks it matters that far fewer current members of Congress served in the military than was the case with previous generations.

Those former soldiers “had a certain camaraderie, in that you had a common experience in the government that was successful,” he said. “So the notion that government doesn’t work, that there’s nothing government can do, was not as prevalent.”

Reed was unapologetic about the legislation passed during President Obama’s first two years in office, including health care reform, the Dodd-Frank finance reform law, Race to the Top and changes to the federal student loan program. Many of those laws would have been a big deal in normal times, he said, but they were “totally overshadowed” by the financial crisis.

With so many issues on Washington’s plate, though, there is a risk that a problem brewing under the radar doesn’t get the attention it deserves. ”There’s an issue of capacity with every government,” Reed said.

“One of the reasons, frankly, President Bush spoke about being blindsided by the economic collapse, is because he was obsessed with getting it right on foreign policy and the War on Terror,” he said. “That was his focus.”

“That’s what makes it so challenging for the president,” Reed continued. “It’s hard for us, but more so for the president. You not only have to deal with the crisis at the moment, but you’ve also got to have a sensitivity to what’s happening out there.”

Reed described President Obama as possessing “a remarkable personality, because he has the ability to maintain a focus and a demeanor in the worst circumstances that is truly incredible.” But the president has faced the same challenges as his predecessors.

“He’s learned a lot,” Reed said. “It’s the toughest job in the world, and it’s a job that – as well prepared as you may be – you’ve got a learning curve. You’ve got to learn a lot quickly.”

For a Rhode Island leader, no issue is more pressing than the weak economy and the state’s ongoing jobs crisis. Reed said he’s focused on maintaining the state’s defense sector and directing federal resources here, citing Quonset Point as a success story. “Infrastructure is so important,” he said.

Reed and Gov. Lincoln Chafee, another infrastructure proponent, have discussed ways they can work together on projects like the expansion of passenger rail service. ”He understands,” said Reed, who served with Chafee in the Senate. “He has a very collaborative personality. He wants to get some things done. We do, too.”

Reed also said it’s important that the state’s remaining manufacturing firms receive support. “The manufacturers in Rhode Island that have been able to hold on are terrific,” he said. “We have to expand that.”

Such a comment may not sound controversial today, but prior to the financial crisis the idea that industrial firms would continue to play an important role in the American economy wasn’t as common. Many people thought the nation could get by with financial products and leave manufacturing to other nations.

“I think one of the things that we recognized over the last decade or more is that, frankly, a country is what it produces – tangibly produces – and sells to the world,” Reed said.

“We have to recognize that there are still an extraordinary amount of talented Americans whose talents are mechanical,” he added. “If they don’t have a job, it’s not because they’re not talented; it’s because their skills aren’t in abstract thinking and computer programming. … That’s reality.”

Epilogue: Reed issued a statement last night warning of the consequences of default if the U.S. debt ceiling isn’t raised. “A federal default would be a self-inflicted wound that could exacerbate Rhode Island’s fiscal and unemployment woes at a time when the state is still coping with the recession,” he said.

“It could have a profound impact on people’s retirement savings and result in higher interest rates for families, businesses, and local governments,” he continued. “It would also increase the deficit itself because it is estimated that every 1% increase in interest rates will raise the deficit by $1.3 trillion over ten years. So simply put, we cannot afford to default – it’s bad for jobs and it’s bad for taxpayers.”

By all accounts, President Obama would be A-OK with making deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare as part of any deficit deal with the Republicans. According to The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, one reason for that is because administration officials think doing so would be good politics:

The White House believes striking a major deficit deal would be good for Obama’s reelection chances. They also believe that getting Obama reelected would be good for the priorities that Democrats care about. President Mitt Romney’s spending cuts would be worse than theirs, his hostility to taxes would be more implacable than theirs, and he’d repeal or hollow out both the health-care law and financial regulation.

They may be right when it comes to Obama. But what about Democrats further down the 2012 ballot, like Congressman Cicilline and Senator Whitehouse here in Rhode Island?

It’s no secret that a key part of Cicilline’s re-election strategy will be presenting himself to senior voters as a staunch defender of Social Security and Medicare. Whitehouse – who is less vulnerable than the 1st District rep – is planning to do the same thing. That case will be harder to make if their own president succeeds in cutting the two programs, and they’ll be in a tough spot if they’re forced to vote on such a proposal.

Paradoxically, then, it may be in the best interests of both Cicilline and Whitehouse for Eric Cantor and other House Republicans to block a deficit deal between Obama and the GOP.

Congressman David Cicilline’s job approval numbers in the 1st Congressional District are much worse than those of his fellow Democrats, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and President Obama.

But there may be a silver lining for Cicilline in our new WPRI 12 poll – he’ll be sharing the ballot with Obama and Whitehouse in November 2012, so their presence on the ticket could give him a needed boost.

The survey of 300 registered voters by Fleming & Associates was conducted May 13-15 and has a 5.7% margin of error. Here’s how they rated the job performance of the three Democrats:

• Obama: 53% positive / 46% negative / 1% don’t know
• Whitehouse: 46% positive / 47% negative / 7% don’t know
• Cicilline: 23% positive / 63% negative / 14% don’t know

In our survey, “positive” means a voter described the politician’s job performance as “excellent” or “good,” while negative means he or she described it as “fair” or “poor.”

Tim White and I have more – including extended analysis from our political analyst Joe Fleming – in our new story on WPRI.com. Joe will also be taking about the poll this weekend on WPRI 12′s “Newsmakers” along with Tim, WRNI’s Ian Donnis and Scott MacKay, and yours truly.

You can also see the poll results for Cicilline when he goes head-to-head against his two potential Republican opponents here, and check out complete poll results here.

the Obamas at the reception

While you’re downing margaritas at Tortilla Flats tonight, Angel Taveras will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo with the Leader of the Free World.

The mayor of Providence is at the White House this evening celebrating Mexican-Americans’ heritage with President Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, spokesman David Ortiz confirmed.

“What an honor to be with them tonight,” Taveras wrote in a tweet accompanying the photo at right. “Fantastic.”

The mayor received an invitation from Obama to attend the reception in the East Room, and traveled to Washington “at his own expense,” Ortiz said.

The president offered brief remarks before this evening’s reception, praising Latinos’ contributions to American life and calling for immigration reform. Obama also joked: “You do not want to be between Michelle and a tamale.”

Taveras is getting to be a regular in Washington. In January, the mayor attended Obama’s State of the Union address as the guest of Congressman Jim Langevin – and nearly got stranded in Baltimore in a snowstorm on his way home.

(photo: Angel Taveras)

Rhode Island native and La Salle Academy grad Tom Donilon became President Obama’s national security adviser last December – just in time to play a key role in formulating the administration’s response to the crises in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere in the Arab world.

But even before he was elevated to Condi Rice’s old job, Donilon had already emerged as one of the president’s most trusted advisers on foreign affairs, The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reports:

After the Inauguration, the realists began to win that debate [between them and the idealists] within the Administration. The two most influential foreign-policy advisers in the White House are Thomas Donilon, the national-security adviser, and Denis McDonough, a deputy national-security adviser. Donilon, who is 55, is a longtime Washington lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party strategist. …

The National Security Council is a bureaucracy that helps the President streamline decision-making, and Donilon seems to have thought extensively about how that system works. Like the President, he values staff discretion. His rule for hiring at the N.S.C. is to find people who are, in his words, “high value, low maintenance.” Obama’s N.S.C. adopted the model of the first Bush Administration. …

One of Donilon’s overriding beliefs, which Obama adopted as his own, was that America needed to rebuild its reputation, extricate itself from the Middle East and Afghanistan, and turn its attention toward Asia and China’s unchecked influence in the region. America was “overweighted” in the former and “underweighted” in the latter, Donilon told me.

Lizza’s lengthy piece is well worth a read for its up-close view of the sometimes chaotic way Obama’s foreign policy has evolved, particularly for its insights into the role Hillary Clinton played, the process that led to Mubarak’s ouster, and the way we backed into military action in Libya.

(photo: Pete Souza/The White House)