Wisconsin Exit Poll Surprise, Romney Email Hack and More

Obama Says No to Bush Tax Cut Extension:

To anyone wondering whether President Obama will support extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy because of increased Democratic support for them, here’s your crystal clear answer: no. White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday that Obama will not extend the tax cuts. Said Carney: “He will not. Could I be more clear? He will not support an extension of the upper-income Bush tax cuts. He could not be more clear.” Got it? (Read more)

What Wisconsin Exit Polls Showed: Perhaps the most interesting data from the exit polls coming out of Tuesday’s election in the Badger State is that President Obama leads his Republican challenger Mitt Romney there by seven points. This despite the fact that Republican Gov. Scott Walker handily defeated Democratic challenger Tom Barrett. One caution about the findings: The exit polls do not reflect voters who cast their ballots by mail, and it is estimated that 10 to 12 percent of the votes were absentee. (Read more)

How California’s Open Primary Could Shake Up the House: While all eyes were on Wisconsin, Tuesday’s primary in California could actually end up having more repercussions on the national stage. Because of the open primary system, many of the runoffs in November will be between two candidates of the same party. As a result, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi believes California could deliver five of the 25 seats Democrats need to take back control of the House of Representatives next year. (Read more)

Lawmakers Concerned About Reported LinkedIn Hack: On the heels of LinkedIn’s announcement Wednesday that it was investigating a significant data breach to its site, a pair of lawmakers used the incident to highlight the need to take action on data security legislation. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Mary Bono-Mack, R-Calif., who have separately sponsored legislation on the issue, urged Congress to act. Hackers reportedly obtained 6.5 million passwords from the professional networking site. (Read more)

Romney Email Hacked?: It appears someone hacked into Mitt Romney’s personal Hotmail account, or at least that’s what the alleged hacker claimed to the website Gawker. The tipster offered no evidence or screenshots to support his claim, but the incident is under investigation by the Secret Service nonetheless. (Read more)

Video of the Day: As if losing the Wisconsin recall election to Scott Walker was not bad enough, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was slapped in the face by an angry woman. The video below proves this actually happened (at the 0:02 second mark).

— Posted by Tracy Bloom