Media's Bachmann Obsession, Tough Reporting or Sexism

As you know, Michele Bachmann has a habit of dodging questions about her past anti-gay remarks.
Well, Anderson Cooper is not buying it, and last night called Bachmann out for her sudden shyness about same-sex equality.


Cooper points out that Bachmann is likely avoiding such questions because she's running for president and such anti-gay notions won't go over well with the American voter. He also notes that Bachmann was invited to join in the conversation, but no one from her camp returned CNN's calls.


As with Sarah Palin, the media keeps the focus as frequently on Bachmann’s verbal gaffes as on her political positions.


“It does seem that female politicians get caricatured more harshly than men. They seem to get caricatured more quickly,” Jessica Wakeman, a writer for women's pop culture blog The Frisky, told TheWrap.


Also read: Newsweek's Michele Bachmann Cover Unlikely to Give Mag What It Needs Most


Bachman’s perky looks and anti-establishment views were on display in last week’s hotly debated Newsweek cover story, which plastered a shot of a loony-eyed Congresswoman alongside the headline “The Queen of Rage.”


Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin took the magazine to task, saying Newsweek “... resorted to recycling bottom-of-the-barrel moonbat photo cliches about conservative female public figures and their enraged ‘crazy eyes.


On Tuesday, pictures emerged with a rival GOP candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, conspicuously munching on a similarly prodigious corndog. Whether those photos will rise to the same level of scrutiny as those of Bachmann remains to be seen.


Not that Bachmann has exactly discouraged the gender double standard. The press may scrutinize her outfits, just as they do the getups worn by Hillary Clinton and Palin. But as a recent New Yorker profile of the politician documents, Bachmann is singularly obsessed with appearances, refusing to be photographed in informal clothes.


“The glamour-puss element to their candidacy is partly imposed, but partly encouraged by them as well,” Bruce Cain, professor of political science at UC Berkeley, told TheWrap. “Once the media senses a person is more a glamour-puss than a substance person, they will press you with the kind of factual questions they might not push on other candidates.”


There’s no denying that Bachmann is a problematic figure for feminists who might be compelled to rise to her defense.


Bachmann’s stances on the debt ceiling or the Iraq War fail to generate the same attention as the time she confused John Wayne’s Iowa hometown with that of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, or when she wished Elvis Presley a happy birthday on the anniversary of his death.


She's certainly not the first female politician to face scrutiny that seems inappropriately harsh -- Hillary Clinton is often indelicately labeled a shrew for the slightest display of assertiveness.


But it's Bachmann's very intelligence that always seems up for debate.


And willingly or not, she seems to invite comparisons with Sarah Palin.


“She does fill the Palin niche,” Cain said. “They’re both media-genic. They have the capacity to say in snappy sentences things that are often controversial, and they can state their policy ideas in snarky one liners. That’s important, because much of modern campaigning is by electronic media and social media, so they come across well on TV, radio, tweets and YouTube.”


Taking a page from the former Alaska governor, Bachmann has also demonstrated a tenuous relationship with facts and a creative interpretation of American history, such as her much derided claims that the Founding Fathers worked “tirelessly to end slavery."


Like Palin, she has also engaged in a love-hate relationship with the press corp. She craves its attention, but refuses to answer questions about her more controversial beliefs on homosexuality and Dominionism, a view among conservative Christians that they should take control of secular institutions.


To Walsh’s way of thinking, the marriage questions and the photo shoots are less offensive than the constant comparisons with Palin.






“They always say she’s the smart Sarah Palin; she’s never the pragmatic Ron Paul or the Christian right Ron Paul,” Walsh said. “She and Rick Perry have a lot in common, so why is she not compared to Rick Perry? Women have to go in the women candidate silo.”


It’s also left Palin in the unusual position of ceding the klieg lights to Bachmann, leaving her own presidential ambitions, if indeed she has any, in jeopardy.


That Palin has been eclipsed by Bachmann can also be chalked up to a series of political miscues ranging from her ill-considered “blood libel” comments following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to a bus tour of historical sites that produced only one highlight reel worthy moment, a rambling re-imagining of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride.


The consensus is Bachmann’s Tea Party views and penchant for putting her foot in her mouth will prevent her from ever winning the Republican nomination, but her technicolor conservatism has helped her stand out in a field of staid men in grey flannel suits.


At least, that was the case, until the cowboy boot-wearing Rick Perry dropped his figurative 10-gallon hat in the ring last week.

Obama: I'll be ready for GOP in 2012

Peosta, Iowa — United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday played down prospects for a spectacular Al-Qaeda attack 10 years after the September 11th strikes, saying he worried more now about solitary extremists.
"The most likely scenario that we have to guard against right now ends up being more of a lone wolf operation than a large, well coordinated terrorist attack," he told CNN television during a campaign-style swing through Iowa.
"We still have to stay on top of it, though. We're never letting our guard now, that's part of our job," said Obama, who vowed "heightened" security measures and "extra vigilance" ahead of the grim anniversary.
He had been asked about the prospects of a terrorist attack either to mark 10 years since the strikes on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center or in retaliation for the May raid in which US commandos killed Osama bin Laden.
Obama said US officials were "constantly monitoring potential risks" but said a punishing US campaign had left Al-Qaeda "a much weaker organization with much less capability than they had just two or three years ago."
"The risk is always there, and obviously on a seminal event like the tenth anniversary of 9/11, that makes us more concerned -- it means we've got heightened awareness," he said.
But "the biggest concern we have right now is not the launching of a major terrorist operation -- although that risk is always there."
"The risk that we're especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort we saw in Norway recently," said Obama.
He was referring to Anders Behring Breivik, who shot dead 69 people, many of them teenagers, in a July 22 rampage on the island of Utoeya after killing eight others in a bombing of government offices in Oslo.


n a wide-ranging interview with Wolf Blitzer, the president said the inability of GOP leaders in Congress to support a recent $4 trillion deficit reduction deal focused more heavily on spending cuts than revenue increases is evidence of a party placing political considerations before national interests.
Americans want to see "Democrats and Republicans putting country before party," he said. "The fact that Speaker (John) Boehner and folks in his caucus couldn't say yes to that (deficit deal) tells me that they're more interested in the politics ... than they are in solving the problem."
Obama's interview on the campus of Northeast Iowa Community College was conducted in the midst of a three-day presidential swing through the politically pivotal Midwest, a region believed to be critical in determining the outcome of the 2012 campaign. The discussion touched on a host of domestic and international topics, though the president noted the importance of the fragile economy heading into next year's election.


Obama renewed his call for an extension of payroll tax cuts as well as some business tax breaks. He also urged Congress to pass stalled trade deals with Panama, South Korea and Colombia.
He noted his intention to unveil new job growth legislation for senators and representatives to consider once they return from their summer recess after Labor Day.
"I'm going to make my best case for where we need to go" as a country and make "one more run at Congress," he said.
The president was largely dismissive of the Republican presidential field, claiming he was not thinking about it too much at the moment.
"I'll let (the Republicans) winnow it down a little bit," he said. But once the GOP chooses a presidential standard-bearer for 2012, "I'll be ready for them," the president promised.
Asked to respond to Texas Gov. Rick Perry's assertion that members of the armed services would prefer a commander in chief who has served in the military, Obama said presidential candidates have "got to be a little more careful" about what they say. But as Perry had just entered the race over the weekend, Obama said, he will "cut (Perry) some slack" for the moment.
Regarding former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's remarks that "corporations are people," Obama conceded that corporations play a critical role in the generation of wealth. He stressed his disagreement with some conservatives, however, over the closure of tax loopholes benefiting certain major corporations.
"If you tell me that corporations are vital to American life, that the free-enterprise system has been the greatest wealth creator we've ever seen ... that I absolutely agree with," Obama said. But "if, on the other hand, you tell me that every corporate tax break that's out there is somehow good for ordinary Americans ... then that I disagree with."
Romney and Perry are considered by most political analysts to be leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination.
The president also dismissed growing Republican calls for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, arguing that such a dramatic change shouldn't be necessary to put America's fiscal house in order.
"We don't need to amend our Constitution in order to do that," Obama said. "Why can't Congress simply make good choices?"
The president stressed that the federal government often needs to run deficits in cases of war or recession, partly in order to help state and local governments that are now required to keep their budgets in balance.
While admitting that politically popular entitlement programs such as Medicare are contributing to Washington's spiraling deficits, Obama refused to offer details about what he is willing to do to help control medical costs. He stressed the need to lower health care costs as a whole, as opposed to going along with GOP attempts to "voucherize" Medicare and leave more responsibility for health expenses in the hands of vulnerable seniors.
Turning his attention to national security, the president said federal officials are remaining vigilant as the country approaches the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"The risk is always there," he said in response to a question about the prospect of an attack launched as revenge for the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.


Shortly before his sit-down interview with CNN, Obama talked about the best and worst parts of being president -- a position he called the "greatest job on Earth."
He said the best part is hearing from regular people about how policies he has put in place have improved their lives. The worst part, Obama said, is when he talks to a family member of a fallen soldier.
"You're reminded of the incredible sacrifices that people are making for our country. And then when you see sometimes our politics not living up to that level of commitment and patriotism that we see from our troops, that gets a little bit frustrating," he said.
The president wrapped up his regular interview by noting that if he is re-elected in 2012, his gift to daughters Sasha and Malia will be "a continuation of Secret Service so that when boys want to start dating them, they are going to be surrounded by men with guns."
When he was elected in 2008, Obama told his daughters he would get them a puppy -- a promise that was eventually fulfilled.

Responding to a heckler rarely worth trouble for politicians

Not knowing who the eventual Republican presidential nominee will be in the 2012 election, President Obama's supporters are taking the opportunity to blast all of the GOP candidates, using aggressive language to argue that the crop of contenders is either uninterested or incapable of helping Americans.
Much of the criticism is focused on describing the candidates as lackeys to the Tea Party, which establishment Democrats have classified as right-wing zealots bent on destroying the U.S.


"While protecting tax breaks for the wealthy and big oil while proposing to end Medicare, slash Social Security and pile additional burdens on the middle class might win plaudits with the Tea Party, it's not remotely what the American people are looking for," Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse said in a statement Sunday after Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the race.
"In a Republican field that has already pledged allegiance to the Tea Party and failed to present any plan that will benefit the middle class or create the jobs America needs to win the future, Governor Perry offers more of the same," Obama campaign spokesman Ban LaBolt said Saturday after Texas Gov. Rick Perry jumped into the race.
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz noted that Obama asked for compromise on a debt reduction plan but all the presidential candidates at the Fox News-Washington Examiner debate on Thursday night agreed that they would not back a deal that would be 10-1 cuts to revenue.
"That's how strangled by the Tea Party that they are, and that's not what Americans are looking for. They're looking for solutions," she said.
"If anyone is in trouble, it's the Republican Party," continued Wasserman Schultz, who was appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation." "Right now, they have a collection of candidates for president who are busy out -- trying to out-right-wing each other. Essentially, they are all so similar that they might as well be Legos; they're that interchangeable."


Often the speaker will try to talk over or ignore the heckler — but sometimes they just can’t resist mixing it up.


That’s almost always a mistake.


The latest incident occurred last Monday night in Iowa, when one Ryan Rhodes stood up and shouted a question during a Town Hall meeting, and afterward confronted the president as Obama was shaking hands and signing autographs, asking the president how he could call for more civility “when your vice president is calling people like me, a Tea Party member, a terrorist.”


Rhodes was referring to reports that Joe Biden used the word “terrorist” in a closed-door meeting. Biden has denied using the word.


Obama responded to Rhodes by noting he’s “been called a socialist who wasn’t born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms,” so he’s all for toning down the rhetoric. A woman in the crowd joined the fun, yammering at Obama, “You do realize that 90 percent of domestic terrorist attacks are done by left-wing, environmental radicals and not people like me!” (Where does she get her figure? Also, does she really believe Biden was saying Tea Party activists are domestic terrorists?)


“You don’t seem to be interested in listening,” Obama said to Rhodes as their little tiff ended.


“Neither do you,” said Rhodes, as casually as if he were debating with his next-door neighbor and not the president of these United States.


Bachmann turns on overdrive


Michele Bachmann has emerged as a rising superstar with the GOP — Sarah Palin without the commitment issues. She’s fresh off a straw poll victory and she was on five — count-’em, five — Sunday morning political talk shows.


But rebel or traditional candidate, there are certain rituals you have to participate in on the campaign trail, including the time-honored practice of eating the local food in diners and at country fairs, and pretending there’s nothing you’d rather wolf down than some barbecue in Kansas City, a cheese steak in Philly — or a corn dog in the Midwest.


So there was Bachmann at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines the other day, downing a corn dog with gusto and inspiring a thousand Google Images and countless easy jokes on Twitter, Facebook and on the comedy shows.


In the meantime, Bachmann continues to deal with the “submissive” question. A few days after the topic was raised at the Iowa debates, Bachmann was asked on “Face the Nation” about saying, “[T]he Lord says, be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.”


When asked if submissive meant subservient, Bachmann said, “You know, I guess it depends on what word people are used to, but respect is really what it means. We respect each other, we listen to each other, we love each other, and that is what it means.”


Of course, that is not what it means. The dictionaries tell us “submissive” means, “inclined or willing to submit to orders or wishes of others,” and that suitable synonyms include “meek, passive, obedient, yielding, docile, dutiful, deferential,” etc.


One can argue about the biblical context, but it’s hard to get away from such quotes as, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands . . . for the husband is the head of the wife.” That seems pretty clear-cut.


Not that it’s going to matter in the end. Bachmann’s chances of actually becoming the next president? I’d say it’s 30-1 against. Iowa straw poll aside, Rick Perry has the best chance of making a serious run at Mitt Romney. (When did the Iowa straw poll become such a national event, anyway, and how do we put an end to that?) A new Rasmussen Poll of likely GOP primary voters has Perry leading with 29 percent, with Bachmann a distant fourth with just 13 percent.


Like Sarah Palin, Bachmann loves needling the mainstream press and playing the part of the rock star who refuses to do things the traditional way. Yet it’s that very attitude — and yes, the fact that both are attractive women — that makes them such intriguing subject matter for the very “lamestream” media for which they have such supposed disdain. It just might be that both Palin and Bachmann are bigger stars and bigger players in the media than they are on the Republican depth chart.

Stage collapse remains a puzzle

Strong winds caused the stage to collapse at the Indiana State Fair that resulted to the death of five people. This is the third accident that involved outdoor stages this summer. Now, the public wants stricter inspections by concert organizers.
The collapsing of the stage in Indiana is the deadliest of its kind in United States history. The Indiana State Fair stage went down right after the crowd was warned to take shelter as the storm nears the location. It was estimated that 10,000 people gathered to watch the performance of country band Sugarland.
After the state official told the crowd to evacuate, a strong gust of wind blew that ripped through the fabric and metal structure. The National Weather Service said that the wind speed was more than 60 miles per hour. Aside from the five dead, 40 were injured during the accident.


Saturday when a 60-mph wind gust blew over the roof and metal scaffolding onto a crowd of fairgoers who had gathered to hear the country group Sugarland perform.
The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) assigned five investigators to its probe of the incident, "which speaks to its magnitude," Indiana Labor Department spokeswoman Chetrice Mosley said. "Investigations can take weeks or months. In this case, it's probably months.


OSHA investigates any incident in which a worker is killed or severely injured, she said. Among those killed were security guard Glenn Goodrich and stagehand Nathan Byrd. The investigators will interview employees, examine the construction of the stage and evaluate each company's safety policies, procedures and training, Mosley said.
A team of structural engineers hired by the Indiana Fair Commission will pore over the "pile of mangled and twisted aluminum" for clues to why the stage failed, says Scott Nacheman, vice president of Thorton Tomasetti, the New York engineering firm.
Buildings are constructed to withstand a certain amount of wind and weight, Nacheman says.
"There's no building that can resist everything," he says. "When you're talking about tornadoes or microbursts (of wind), they can easily exceed the design capability of many structures."
It is unclear whether state building safety inspectors had the authority to inspect the stage or impose tougher standards. The city did not inspect the stage because it was built on state land.
"It's a patchwork of rules and regulations," says Paul Wertheimer, founder of Crowd Management Strategies in Los Angeles, which helps event promoters devise plans for handling large crowds. "We have the answers to run these events safely, but we don't do it. It's really still the Wild West. It's highly unregulated."
Investigators should also determine whether fair organizers had an emergency weather plan, Wertheimer says. "State fair management knew and was tracking the weather conditions, yet took no timely action," he says.
A local symphony that was to perform nearby canceled its outdoor performance because of weather conditions and urged spectators to seek shelter.
The tragedy points to the need for better, more uniform standards nationwide for temporary stages, says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, which monitors the concert tour business.
Bongiovanni has studied the video of the incident and attributes it to freak weather, not human error. The structure appeared to have the proper construction, including guy wires to hold it in place and drapes with slits that would allow the wind to pass through, he says.
A public relations company handling media calls for Mid America Sound, the company that built the stage, said the company would not comment on the incident until the investigations were completed.
The entertainment industry has written model standards for structures at concert venues that are strict, but voluntary, says Karl Ruling, the technical standards manager for PLASA, a trade association for the live-entertainment industry. PLASA encourages local regulators to adopt the standards.
The tragedy is a watershed moment will bring about intense scrutiny for the industry, says Chris McGregor, president of Stage II Design and Production in the San Francisco area.
"It's just a tragic and terrifying reminder for all of us in the business of what happens when we don't do things right," he says. "One minute you're putting on a show, the next people are dead."
The other stage incidents this summer include:
•On Aug. 6, wind toppled a lighting rig at an outdoor music festival in Tulsa, damaging the band Flaming Lips' equipment.
•In July, a storm collapsed a stage at a music festival in Ottawa, Canada, where Cheap Trick was performing. Three people were injured.

Michele Bachmann skipping Florida straw poll

Houston - Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Paul did very well in the recent Iowa Straw Poll.
He came in right behind Michelle Bachman, so why is most of the media ignoring him?
Results of the poll came out this past Saturday.
Candidates were doing 1-on-1 interviews with all of the big news organizations and networks, but not Ron Paul. No interviews for him, no mention of his name. Even one of the nation’s most popular political comedians found it quite obvious.
Leave it to Jon Stewart to turn something very serious into something very funny, and that's the way Ron Paul sees it too. I sat down with him in his small office in Clute where he was all smiles.
“Jon Stewart is not really in our political camp but he likes to pick out those things that deserve to be made fun of and he did a pretty good job,” Paul said.
After getting pretty much zero recognition for a job well done in the Iowa Straw Poll, all Paul can do is laugh about the matter and move on.
“It’s great being ignored. You get a lot of attention, from all the attention, I’m being cynical now, you know we were ignored and people want to know why and I said well, you have to ask the people that ignored me,” Paul said.
Even though he thinks he deserved some media attention, he's not about to complain and pick a fight.
Instead, he thinks the media just doesn't understand his philosophy.
“I give them a pass and say they do not understand it and they don’t want to be bothered with it, it’s a threat to them because they don’t want to deal with it, so maybe if we just pretend like he doesn’t exist…but believe me, it’s not going to work,” he said.

And She was the winner in Iowa's straw poll, but a spokeswoman confirms Michele Bachmann won't be taking part in Florida's Presidency Five straw poll, which falls just after the GOP candidate's debate being held in the state.


Organizing for a straw poll is pricey and logistically rigorous, although the Bachmann campaign did it once already. And the state is shaping up as crucial given the current dynamics of the primary, with Rick Perry and Bachmann playing aggressively for Iowa and Mitt Romney still the heavily-favored prospect in New Hampshire, and it could be an opportunity for her to prove she can play in a more moderate swath of the map.

No apologies from Perry for Texas-style tough talk

But is it all too much? Even before this week, there were questions from political strategists who have watched Perry as to how suited he is for a general-election campaign, in which he would have to appeal to independent voters, to suburban women around Philadelphia and Denver, to older voters in Florida, and to those who will hold the balance in swing states such as Iowa.


And Perry suffers from the inevitable comparisons with the Texan who was most recently in the Oval Office. Bush and Perry are strikingly different politicians, and in Texas the rivalry between their two camps is well known. But to the untrained ears of the national electorate, Perry may sound too much like another brash Texan for voters not eager to revisit the Bush years.


Another obstacle may be learning to broaden his appeal. Texas-based strategists say Perry has focused his campaigns almost completely on the Republican base and conservative independents. That may not be enough to win a national race, unless the dissatisfaction with the economy and Obama’s leadership make 2012 a race that is the Republicans’ to lose.


What is considered the conservative mainstream in Texas may be too conservative in other parts of America. What worked in Texas won’t necessarily work elsewhere. Being too Texan, never much of a problem at home, could hurt him nationally. Aspects of his record that Perry may assume have been fully litigated could become problems when the national spotlight begins to shine.


The Republicans who worry about Perry as a general-election candidate fear that he is too conservative on social issues, too grounded in the idiom of Texas, too enamored of his 10th Amendment, states’ rights message.


They also worry about more rhetoric like his comment about Bernanke, or his response to a reporter who asked whether he thought Obama loves America: “You need to ask him.” Or his suggestion that a president who has never worn the uniform, like Obama, may be less respected than one, like him, who has.


CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked the president Tuesday whether he found Perry’s comments disrespectful. “You know, Mr. Perry just got into the presidential race,” Obama said. “I think that everybody who runs for president, it probably takes them a little bit of time before they start realizing that this isn’t like running for governor or running for senator or running for Congress, and you’ve got to be a little more careful about what you say. But I’ll cut him some slack.”


Perry would present the sharpest possible contrast with Obama in an election that is likely to be fought on big issues and along ideological lines. His advisers believe that the unhappiness with Obama and worries about debt, deficits and the growth of government mean that voters will find the Texas governor’s message appealing.


The governor, in the midst of a swing through the first state to pick presidential delegates in 2012, also drew fire for asserting that members of the armed services would prefer a commander-in-chief who served in the military.
"I think that's a true statement, and I wouldn't back off it an inch," Perry said. "Go ask your veterans if they'd rather see somebody who has never served in uniform as their commander in chief."
Perry, 61, was a C-130 pilot and served in the Air Force from 1972 to 1977. Obama, 50, was four years old when the Vietnam War started and has never served in uniform.
Obama's campaign team jumped on the Republican for what they called questioning the president's patriotism.
"I'm glad he declared his love (for the U.S.)," Obama strategist David Axelrod retorted. "Last I checked he was suggesting Texas might secede, so this is real progress."
Obama, however, declined to criticize the man who has accused him of presiding over an "economic disaster."
"Mr. Perry just got into the presidential race," Obama told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. "I think that everyone who runs for president - it probably takes them a little bit of time before they start realizing that this isn't like running for governor or running for senator or running for Congress. And you've got to be a little more careful about what you say. But I'll cut him some slack - he's only been at it for a few days now."
In Texas, Perry is known for his take-no-prisoners politics and raw language. In 2005, he apologized and said he didn't realize the station was broadcasting when he ended a TV interview, signing off with "Adios, mofo."
Tone down the act?
But he isn't as well-known by voters outside Texas, and Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University, says Perry risks becoming known as a shoot-from-the-lip Texan if he doesn't "tone his act down by about 25 percent."
"Most Americans know very little about Perry, and first impressions sometimes persist," Black said. "He needs self-discipline so that his judgment and temperament do not become the story. There is a tremendous amount of anger in the nation, but Americans expect a president to do more than simply reflect their irritations."
Presidential scholars noted that Perry's dust-up is a common occurrence when prominent state politicians ace the glare of the national media.
"Welcome to the big leagues," University of Iowa political scientist Tim Hagle said. "Now, Texas isn't exactly the minor leagues by any stretch of the imagination, and there's a reputation for Texas politics being rough and tumble at times, but it still jumps to a different level when someone hits the national stage. That's particularly true when you jump into the presidential race with the amount of attention that Perry generated."
Amid the controversy, Perry got good news from a Rasmussen Reports telephone survey taken Monday that found him with the support of 29 percent of likely GOP primary voters. Mitt Romney, the early leader, polled 18 percent, and Michele Bachmann, who won the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa on Saturday, picked up 13 percent.
"Gov. Perry is enjoying a bounce from entering the race at precisely the right time," pollster Scott Rasmussen said. "Now the difficult part begins for the new frontrunner. It's much easier winning support when people are hoping you will get in the race than retaining support when you are the frontrunner.

Democrats hold seats in Wisconsin recall elections

Democrats targeted in Tuesday's election were among the 14 senators who fled the state in February in opposition to Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposed legislation curbing public employees' collective bargaining rights.
Both won in recalls against Republican challengers.
Democratic Sen. Bob Wirch of Pleasant Prairie defeated Kenosha attorney Jonathan Steitz. Sen. Jim Holperin of Conover beat Republican Kim Simac of Eagle River, who was backed by the grassroots conservative tea party movement.


Back on the trail in Iowa on Tuesday, Perry appeared less eager to answer questions from reporters, but he refused to back down from the controversy that had erupted. “I’m just passionate about the issue, and we stand by what we said,” he told two reporters as he left a luncheon in Dubuque.


Asked about the Fed in Cedar Rapids on Monday night, Perry said of Bernanke: “If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what you all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.”


The attack was unusual; major presidential candidates normally criticize the independent Fed delicately, if at all. And while President Obama appointed him to a second term as Fed chief in 2009, Bernanke had served in the White House under President George W. Bush, who first appointed him to the Fed chairmanship.


Perry’s comments drew a rebuke from many Democrats. More telling was the fact that a number of Republicans, some associated with Bush, also criticized him for being unpresidential. “Governor Perry is going to have to fight the impression that he’s a cowboy from Texas,” said Karl Rove, a critic of Perry in the past, on Fox News. “This simply added to it.”


Perry did not respond when asked by reporters for a reaction to the criticism.


Perry has served more than a decade as governor of the Lone Star State and knows what it takes to win there. But he is on less familiar terrain as he moves to the national stage. In both style and substance, he will be measured differently from ever before, as the opening days of his presidential campaign have shown.


His candidacy has begun with great promise and anticipation. Overnight, Perry has been identified as the Republican who may be best positioned to challenge the current front-runner, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, for the nomination.


Perry is a robust conservative in a GOP in which the tea party movement and social conservatives hold great sway. He is also a leader with the potential to appeal more to the party establishment, but perhaps only if he can convince Republicans that he is the most electable of their candidates.


They also worry about more rhetoric like his comment about Bernanke, or his response to a reporter who asked whether he thought Obama loves America: “You need to ask him.” Or his suggestion that a president who has never worn the uniform, like Obama, may be less respected than one, like him, who has.


CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked the president Tuesday whether he found Perry’s comments disrespectful. “You know, Mr. Perry just got into the presidential race,” Obama said. “I think that everybody who runs for president, it probably takes them a little bit of time before they start realizing that this isn’t like running for governor or running for senator or running for Congress, and you’ve got to be a little more careful about what you say. But I’ll cut him some slack.”


Perry would present the sharpest possible contrast with Obama in an election that is likely to be fought on big issues and along ideological lines. His advisers believe that the unhappiness with Obama and worries about debt, deficits and the growth of government mean that voters will find the Texas governor’s message appealing.


But not all Republicans agree. As one GOP strategist put it, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment, Perry has “a strong, deep, red-state vibe” that will be “great for primaries, but not in blue states we need to win” the general election.


Perry’s stump speech includes a line that, as president, he will try to make Washington “as inconsequential in your lives as possible.” He so strongly believes that states can run almost everything better than Washington that he told a group of business leaders in Dubuque on Tuesday that one possible solution to the Social Security solvency problem would be to allow states to set up retirement programs.


“Are there ways the states could take over those programs and run them more efficiently than the federal government?” he asked. He was quick to add, “I’m not necessarily advocating” such a change, but he argued that as part of the consideration of how to fix federal entitlement programs, such ideas ought to be on the table.


That may be less government than even some independents unhappy with Obama are prepared to consider. That will be Perry’s challenge: to calibrate his message and conduct his campaign in a way that resonates with his base without turning off the other voters he would need in November 2012.

Euro Drops After Sarkozy, Merkel Reject Joint Bonds

PARIS — The leaders of France and Germany on Tuesday promised to take concrete steps toward a closer political and economic union of the 17 countries that use the euro, but it was unclear whether their proposals would be sufficient, or come quickly enough, to satisfy markets anxious over Europe’s debts and listless economies.


They also pledged to push for a new tax on financial transactions, and for regular summit meetings of the zone’s members under the leadership of Herman Van Rompuy, who heads the council of all 27 European nations.


“We are certainly heading for greater economic integration of the euro zone,” Mr. Sarkozy said.


The much-anticipated meeting at the Élysée Palace here produced little that would seem to quell the nerves of bond traders, who are becoming increasingly worried that the economic slowdown in both Germany and France will make it harder to overcome Europe’s debt crisis.


Both leaders ruled out issuing collective bonds, known as eurobonds, to share responsibility for government debt across member states, and they opposed a further increase in a bailout fund that will not be put into place until late September at the earliest.


Mrs. Merkel repeated that there was “no magic wand” to solve all the problems of the euro, arguing that they must be met over time with improved fiscal discipline, competitiveness and economic growth among weaker states.


Even the stronger members of the euro zone have stalled. Official figures released on Tuesday showed that growth in the zone fell to its lowest rate in two years during the second quarter, and that Germany — considered the Continent’s locomotive — came almost to a standstill, growing 0.1 percent.


The German figures followed data showing that the French economy was flat in the second quarter, leaving Europe’s two largest economies stagnant. That means the two pillars of the European economy may be less willing and able to prop up their weaker counterparts, analysts warned.


Across the euro zone, gross domestic product rose only 0.2 percent in the second quarter from the first, when growth had advanced by 0.8 percent, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency.


The joint French-German proposals were as modest as German officials had forecast. And the most ambitious idea — that all euro zone states legally bind themselves to working toward balanced budgets and reduced sovereign debt — is unlikely to be accepted by all member states. It may not even get through the French constitutional process, since Mr. Sarkozy does not have a constitutional majority in Parliament.


The proposal calling for twice-yearly meetings and increased integration could formalize the “two-speed Europe” — of those in the euro zone and those outside it — that many warned of when the European Union expanded so rapidly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.


Both leaders said that France and Germany must set an example, citing their agreement to propose jointly a financial-transaction tax by 2013 as “an example of convergence” needed in the entire euro zone. But such a tax is unlikely in the larger European Union, especially if Britain, which is outside the euro zone and contains Europe’s biggest financial center, continues to resist the idea.


They also said they would work to harmonize French and German economic assessments and, in the future, corporate tax rates.


“France and Germany are committed to strengthen the euro,” Mrs. Merkel said. “To that end we need to better integrate our economies” and “to see that the stability pact will be acted on.”


The stability pact, a central element of the treaty that established the euro zone, commits members to keep fiscal deficits to 3 percent of gross domestic product a year and total sovereign debt under 60 percent of G.D.P. Both benchmarks are regularly missed.


The Sarkozy-Merkel meeting came after a dizzying week in the markets and a general gloom about the lack of European leadership on the euro. Economists said the weak data could simply reflect a pause after two years of brisk expansion. But the numbers could also signal that the sovereign debt crisis is undercutting growth outside the countries like Spain that are most directly affected.


“The longer the sovereign debt market remains stressed, the greater will be the damage to the wider economy,” Lloyd Barton, an economist, said in a note Tuesday.


If there was any silver lining, it was the hope that slower growth would lead to less inflation, giving the European Central Bank more leeway to keep interest rates low and intervene in bond markets. Since last week, the bank has been buying Italian and Spanish debt on the open market to hold down yields so the two countries do not face ruinous borrowing costs.


The euro dropped to $1.4362 at 10:19 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.4407 in New York yesterday. The shared currency weakened to 110.19 yen after slipping 0.3 percent to 110.65 yesterday. The dollar bought 76.72 yen, compared with 76.80 yen yesterday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy also rejected an expansion of the 440 billion- euro ($632 billion) rescue fund .
Transaction Tax, Inflation
The leaders of Europe’s two biggest economies agreed to press for closer euro-area cooperation, tougher deficit rules and a harmonization of their corporate tax rates. A plan to resubmit a proposal for a financial-transaction tax, which the European Union rejected in 2010, sent stocks lower in the U.S. and Asia.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of regional shares lost 0.3 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sank 1 percent yesterday.
The rejection of euro bonds coupled with the announcement of a financial transaction tax “could weigh on European equity and bond markets on Wednesday,” BNP Paribas SA strategists including Ray Attrill in New York wrote in a note to clients today. The tax plan “could fall flat, but the uncertainty factor will likely linger and weigh on the euro.”
European consumer prices fell 0.6 percent in July after flat readings for May and June, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg is forecast to say, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Annual inflation in the euro region slowed to 2.5 percent from June’s 2.7 percent reading and in line with a July 29 initial estimate, the survey predicted. That still exceeds the European Central Bank’s 2 percent ceiling for an eight month.
Kiwi Declines
The New Zealand dollar weakened against all of its 16 major counterparts after Fonterra said milk powder fell at auction to its lowest level since Aug. 3 last year. Milk powder for October delivery declined to $3,359 a metric ton from $3,477 two weeks earlier.
The so-called kiwi also declined along with the Australian dollar as concern that the global economic recovery is losing momentum curbed demand for higher-yielding assets.
“There are all sorts of hurdles around in global markets,” said Sean Callow, a senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp. in Sydney. “That will hurt risk appetite and that would hurt Aussie and kiwi in particular.”
New Zealand’s dollar fell to 83.20 U.S. cents from 83.61 cents and slipped to 63.84 yen from 64.21 yen. The so-called Aussie decreased to $1.0448 from $1.0486.

Professionals look to Walmart for jobs

If you’re one of those people with an irrational but nonetheless bone-deep hatred of Wal-Mart, then don’t read this Top 10 list.


Because it’ll only hyperstimulate that reflexive foaming at the mouth and dyspeptic rage that bubbles up inside of you whenever the company’s name is mentioned—and particularly when what’s being said about the employer of 2.1 million people is positive.
For the rest of us, this list of Wal-Mart’s Top 10 Sustainability Initiatives provides some valuable and inspiring insights into how one of the world’s most influential corporations is marshalling its resources to combat hunger around the world, reduce waste, lower fuel consumption, train many thousands of students for careers in retail, and generally improve the quality of life in the communities in which Wal-Mart operates.


Under the leadership of CEO Mike Duke, Wal-Mart has combined its sustainability, social, and environmental initiatives under the broader heading of “global responsibility,” and the company recently reviewed those efforts in a richly detailed Global Responsibility Report. (To see the full PDF, go to that link, scroll to the bottom of the page, and under the heading of “Sustainability” you’ll see a PDF icon for “2011 Global Responsibility Report”.)


That report begins with a letter from Duke offering an overview of the company’s philosophies and goals as well as some of its achievements, and it is from Duke’s letter that I’ve extracted this Top 10 list.


Walmart is opening a new store in Durham in October, and is looking to hire 200 people. The world's largest retailer last week opened a temporary hiring center nearby to process applicants and conduct interviews over six weeks.


The competition is intense. Some openings have attracted 300 to 400 applicants, said Randy Peery, the manager of the planned store. Thousands are expected to apply for jobs ranging from hourly overnight shifts to day slot supervisors in such departments as produce, electronics and clothing.


"We're getting a lot more at the site than we have in times past," Peery said, noting the uptick in white-collar candidates. "They may be thinking they can find something to get them through (hard times). They may be our future managers."


For long stretches, more than a dozen people crowded the small waiting area at Walmart's rented office suite. Hundreds more applied online.


Applicants sat at computer banks, typing their life summaries into an electronic database. Job seekers disappeared quietly into side rooms for their interviews. Energetic Walmart staffers buzzed about, directing people here and there.


The spectrum of applicants spanned baggy shorts and T-shirts to crisp khakis and trim polo shirts. All have similar stories about countless resumes sent into a black hole, few job leads and diminishing hopes.


Travis Cheek arrived before lunch, his presentation oft-rehearsed to prove his worthiness. With a master's degree in divinity, and two years doing missionary work in Central Asia, he says he has optimal people skills that translate into customer service and good management.


"For me, it's a good way to expand and develop my leadership skills," he said.


Cheek, 29, is keen on Walmart's management track, even as he continues looking for jobs as a youth pastor or other mission-type work locally.


He hopes to get married and established in the area before one day resuming foreign mission work.


"I'm looking for a job that pays," he said. "There are just limited options."


Darius Robinson, 43, would take a midnight shift and work his way up. He's a teacher's assistant in Durham Public Schools with a degree in criminal justice from N.C. Central University. He's been substitute teaching since getting laid off two years ago from a job in pharmaceutical sales.


"The ultimate goal is to have a stable career, to provide for the family and prepare for retirement," Robinson said.


"Retail is not the route that I thought that my career would go into," he added. "But in today's society ... "


He trailed off, his gist self-evident.


Walmart typically requires three job interviews before a candidate gets an offer. An associate's job pays $11.24 an hour on average, Peery said, and basic requirements are not complicated.


"We're looking for availability - can they work when we need them?" Peery said. "We're looking at their charisma - are they friendly?

Wal-Mart Will Never Be Great Again?

Welcome to the Walmart Earnings Call for the Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2012. The date of this call is August 16, 2011. This call is the property of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and intended solely for the use of Walmart shareholders. It should not be reproduced in any way. [Operator Instructions] This call will contain statements that Walmart believes are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, and intended to enjoy the protection of the Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements provided by that Act. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the use of the words or phrases anticipate, assume, based on, expect, goal, may be impacted, may see, plan, plans, should be, will see, will also be, will be, will begin, will better equip, will continue, will cover, will create, will drive, will enable, will go, will keep, will lend, will provide, will, will see, and will use or a variation of one of those words or phrases in those statements or by the use of words and phrases of similar import.


Similarly, descriptions of Walmart's objectives, plans, goals, targets or expectations are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made in this call discuss, among other matters, management's forecasts of Walmart's diluted earnings per share from continuing operations attributable to Walmart for the 3 months ending October 31, 2011 and the year ending January 31, 2012 and the assumptions underlying the forecast for such earnings per share including the assumption that currency exchange rates will remain at current levels, as well as management's forecast for the comparable store sales of Walmart to Walmart U.S. operating segment and the comparable club sales without fuel of Walmart Sam's Club operating segment for the 13-week period from July 30, 2011 through October 28, 2011.


The forward-looking statements also include statements that discuss management's expectations regarding Walmart's effective tax rate for fiscal 2012, quarterly fluctuations in that tax rate and the factors that may impact that tax rate. The forward-looking statements also discuss management's plans and expectations with respect to Walmart leveraging operating expenses for the full year, creating 15,000 jobs in Africa over the next 5 years, continuing to advocate policies that make sense for Walmart's customers and business and being relentless in widening the price gap to pass savings along to customers, as well as that EDLP will lead to top line growth as customer traffic improves, that the effects of conversion to SAP will continue into fiscal year 2013 for the time of implementation of SAP in Argentina and Central America and for the use of the productivity loop to deliver on Walmart's EDLC-EDLP model as to the growth and net interest expense in the last 6 months of fiscal year 2012.


Our net sales rose approximately 40 basis points to $64.9 billion for the second quarter. Comp sales for the 13-week period ending July 29 was inside our guidance at negative 0.9% and the best quarterly comp performance in almost 2 years. Ticket was positive every month of the quarter. Traffic, which drove more than half of the comp, improved sequentially each month. Better traffic was driven in part by the 90-day rollback program at the gas pump. This program, which is available in 18 states saves customers $0.10 a gallon on gas and diesel when using a reloadable Walmart gift card or credit card.


Grocery and health and wellness, which represent 2/3 of our sales revenue, continue to deliver positive comps. We also saw trend improvements in all other businesses except entertainment. This improvement is attributable to our focus on expanding merchandise assortment, price leadership and increased in-stock levels. Weather trends across the country later in the quarter also helped.


The economy remains challenging for our core customers. Customers are still consolidating trips due to higher year-over-year gas prices. The swings in sales due to paycheck cycles remain pronounced, and our stores must staff and stock for the volatility both up-and-down. We also have seen an increase in the number of customers relying on government assistance for food and necessities for their family. Our grocery business continued its positive trend and again delivered low-single digit positive comps for the period. Food remains a key traffic driver to our stores. The strong performance during the July 4 weekend offset softness in the Memorial Day weekend.


Sales across dry grocery continue to accelerate from additional assortment. Sales of consumables also improved over the first quarter. We continue to see strength in our new modular programs that are bringing back assortment and had strong seasonal performance in pets and beauty, both of which delivered basis points comp improvement in the triple digits versus the first quarter. While we saw an increase in grocery inflation of approximately 3.5% during the quarter, customers remain under continued pressure and are trading down to lower price points and smaller pack sizes, as well as opting out of discretionary purchases. As a result, we're seeing minimal pass-through of inflation to sales.


Food inflation has replaced gasoline price as the most important household expense concern. In addition, more than 15% of Walmart moms in our monthly survey have experienced the loss of a household wage earner's job in the last year. Almost 40% of these Walmart moms indicate they're holding off or eliminating items they would normally buy, reinforcing the need for us to drive Every Day Low Price. Moms of all income levels showed a drop in confidence over the last year, with middle-income moms showing the greatest drop. And our health and wellness business again delivered a low-single digit positive comp driven by the strength of our prescription business. We continue to benefit from the additional traffic in our pharmacies as a result of the Humana program and our optical business benefited from the kick-off of our $29 back-to-school eyewear offering. We expect the momentum to continue in the third quarter as more parents get their children ready for school.


Neighborhood markets posted positive comps for 15 consecutive months now, delivering a comp of over 3% for the second quarter. This format reflects the ongoing strength of our food and health and wellness business. Overall, apparel comps declined in the mid-single digits during the second quarter, which includes approximately 300 basis points improvement from the first quarter. This performance was driven by ongoing business initiatives, especially in our basic apparel offering, an improvement in sales of summer merchandise tied to the warm weather. Men's, ladies and our baby apparel delivered the best comps for the period. Our children's apparel, shoes and intimate departments remain soft.


We are well positioned to gain sales and share for the important back-to-school season. We are expanding our offerings in important categories to regain customers, and we're adding back items in key brands. We're confident that the back half of the year will see ongoing improvement in apparel sales.


Comp sales for home declined in the mid-single digits for the quarter. We remain committed to strengthening this important category. Better weather versus the first quarter drove customers to our Outdoor Living department. We were ready, given our expanded assortments and innovation across the categories. However, there appears to have been a trade-off in indoor living categories. Customers are opting out of decor items for their homes or they're trading down.


Entertainment had high-single digit negative comp sales for the quarter. As others have reported, media and gaming continue to experience significant headwinds. New movie releases from last year were also a headwind. However, customers do shop for value and our $5 movie bin continues to do very well. Double-digit deflation in TV prices still exist, but our unit sales were up again. Customers want innovation and tablets continue to sell very well. We continued to see strength in our prepaid wireless business, although as you know, we record this as a net commission in our comp sales as opposed to its full transactional value.


Straight Talk remains a billion dollar plus brand for Walmart U.S. Within toys, we gained momentum as the quarter progressed. Sales of licensed toys associated with new movie releases and seasonal items including pools, water toys and bikes improved significantly.


Hardlines had low-single digit negative comp sales but improved over the first quarter. Favorable weather drove sales across sporting goods, especially hunting, fishing and camping and air movement-related products. New modulars in stationery and crafts helped push items in these categories. Tires sales continue to do well for automotive.


We’ve spoken often about multi-channel retailing, allowing customers to shop on their own terms. We're now moving towards a strategy called continuous channel shopping, recognizing the continued integration of customers using web-based devices to shop our stores and to research and shop online as well. Today, roughly 60% of walmart.com sales involve the stores through services such as Site to Store and Pick Up Today. In fact, some of our highest volume Site to Store sales come out of large metropolitan areas such as New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area.


During second quarter, we also launched a delivery and installation service program for electronics. We're providing delivery, setup and installation for TVs. We also offer basic setup for home theater and wireless networks. The in-home service network has up to 50,000 technicians available who'll service our customers. Our prices are very competitive and this now puts us on par with other electronics retailers.


Now I'll cover the remaining financial results. Our gross profit dollars were up 1.2% over last year second quarter, growing faster than the rate of sales. We lapped last year's deep rollback program in the second quarter, which we expected to impact our rate comparison this quarter. Additionally, our logistics team continues to drive routing and load efficiencies, allowing us to minimize the majority of the headwinds associated with rising diesel prices impacting the cost of goods. In fact, rising diesel costs were a headwind, 2/3 of which were mitigated by these transportation initiatives.


Based on the start of August sales, we're confident that our plans are working, and we'll see ongoing sales improvement. We expect comp sales for the 13-week period from July 30 through October 28 to be between minus 1% and plus 1%. Last year's third quarter 13-week comp was negative 1.3%. Timing of our calendar ending on Friday means a large portion of the Halloween sales could fall into the fourth quarter period. We still remain concerned about the increased economic pressure on our customers and the uncertain impact it will have on their shopping behavior. With the ongoing economic volatility, it's important as ever to deliver on our one-stop shopping promise, a broad assortment of merchandise backed with Every Day Low Price.


We remain committed to the productivity loop and our goal of leveraging operating expense. We will continue to invest in price to help our customers weather the economy, so gross profit should be flat to slightly down for the third quarter.


Now I'll turn it over to Doug for the international update.


Doug McMillon


Thanks, Bill. During our briefing following our Shareholders Meeting on June 3, I laid out our key initiatives for leveraging our scale and expertise in the Walmart International markets. They included making progress on EDLP as a global pricing philosophy, enhancing the productivity loop to get costs down, further developing global talent and sharing ideas back-and-forth with the U.S. businesses, both Walmart and Sam's Club. It's only been a couple of months since then, and I'm happy to report that we have already made progress on each of these areas. I'm also proud to share some important milestones that Walmart International achieved in the second quarter. As you know, ASDA completed its acquisition of 147 Netto stores in the U.K. ASDA has already converted more than 60 of these stores, which now have more than 4x the number of products than previously offered. This means customers can find what they need for the entire week just as they do in ASDA superstores.


In addition, we completed our 51% acquisition of Massmart. Massmart is a leading general merchandise retailer and basics foods wholesaler in sub-Saharan Africa and the second largest in consumer goods. As you heard, we will include the results from our countries in Africa in our third fiscal quarter. In terms of sharing ideas back and forth, South African suppliers offer an important opportunity for us to bring new and exciting merchandise to our other markets. Recently, we contracted with Ocean Fresh, a South African seafood supplier to export sustainably sourced wild hake, a fish, to our stores in the United States. This is helping to create 100 jobs in South Africa, and we believe this is the first indicator of even more opportunities on the continent. To recognize our new partnership with our customers in sub-Saharan Africa, we have launched our Working Together to Save You Money campaign, offering price reductions in Massmart’s stores for an extended period of time.


Now let's get to the numbers. Walmart International reported second quarter net sales of $30.1 billion, an increase of 16.2% over last year. Changes in currency rates increased our net sales by $2.3 billion. As a reminder, our markets benefited this fiscal quarter from Easter sales and in the United Kingdom, the royal wedding. Last year, second quarter results benefited from sales related to the World Cup. So in some cases, there were difficult comp sales comparisons.


On a constant-currency basis, net sales were $27.8 billion, an increase of 7.1% over last year’s second quarter. All of our markets had constant currency sales growth, except in Japan, where sales were affected by the March 2011 natural disasters. Mexico, the U.K., Canada, Brazil and China provided the strongest net sales growth in the second quarter. As a percentage of sales, Walmart International second quarter constant currency gross profit margin and other income was flat to last year. Second quarter reported operating expenses were $6 billion, which includes an increase of $500 million due to changes in currency exchange rates. Although Japan, Brazil, the U.K. and Chile had expense leverage in the second quarter, Walmart International's constant currency operating expenses grew faster than sales at 9.4%.


Our second quarter reported operating income grew 8.9% from last year to $1.4 billion, and this includes a benefit of $110 million from changes in currency exchange rates. On a constant currency basis, operating income grew 50 basis points. Excluding the $53 million in charges that Jeff mentioned and the $14 million impact on costs associated with the integration of Netto, Walmart International grew constant currency operating income 5.6%. Inventory management continues to be a challenge as days on hand increased over last year in most of our markets. Our constant currency inventory, excluding Massmart, grew 11.1% as we added a significant number of stores in most of our markets.


Now let's get into the results for several of our larger markets. Country management teams are held accountable for their results on a constant currency basis. The following discussion of country results excludes the impact of currency and unless otherwise stated, sales and comp sales are presented on a nominal basis. Comp sales are reported on a calendar basis. We'll kick off this quarter with the U.K. ASDA had a solid second quarter, growing sales excluding fuel ahead of last year. However, operating income declined due to $31 million of costs related to Netto. Adjusting for fuel sales and Netto, ASDA grew operating income faster than sales.


In the second quarter of this year, comparable sales, excluding fuel, increased 50 basis points. Traffic decreased by 120 basis points and average ticket increased 170 basis points. Customers are consolidating their trips in the face of high fuel prices. ASDA grew expenses slower than sales in the second quarter, leveraging on tight expense management. After excluding the Netto costs, ASDA's expenses declined from last year. ASDA continues to gain recognition for saving people money everyday, supported by the 10% online price guarantee and now more than 250,000 baskets are being checked online by customers each week. As a clear statement to the quality our customers can find, ASDA's private brands and other products have won more than 300 awards so far this year, including Retail Champion at the International Cheese Awards, Meat and Fish Retailer of the Year and numerous other wine awards.


In June, ASDA was recognized as the price leader by the Grocer magazine as the lowest priced supermarket for the 14th year running. So it was no surprise that there were long lines of customers on grand opening day at our converted Netto stores. In these stores, customers will receive the same ASDA low prices, the 10% price guarantee and in-store pickup from online shopping.


Including the stores from the Netto acquisition, ASDA's total store count was 536 at the end of the second quarter. Economic indicators suggest that 2011 will remain a challenging year for our U.K. consumers, and we're confident that ASDA and its Netto store conversions are entering the second half of the year with good momentum, delivering availability and Every Day Low Prices.


Finally, Judith McKenna, who spent several years as ASDA's Chief Financial Officer has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Judith has a long track record of success, and we look forward to her experience in ASDA's operations. Congratulations, Judith.


Let's move to the Americas. In previous earnings discussions, I discussed only the results of Mexico and Central America separately in this section. Now that one year's passed since our Central American operations have been combined into Walmex, we will discuss the results of the consolidated company going forward. While the following results are on a U.S. GAAP basis, Walmex separately reports its earnings under Mexican GAAP. So some numbers are different from the Walmex reported results.


Overall, Walmex sales grew at a fast rate, but operating income declined from last year second quarter due to the noncash accounting charge mentioned earlier by Jeff. As we mentioned last quarter, our operations in Mexico went live with the SAP implementation during Q2. This effort increased the level of precision for inventory valuation and the result was a noncash accounting charge of $17 million. Walmex's consolidated net sales for the second quarter were up 9.1%. Comparable sales from Mexico were up 1.1%. Average ticket in Mexico increased 2.2%, and customer traffic declined 1.1%. Comp stores in Central America were up 6.2% on a constant-currency basis.


As Walmex noted in its earnings call on July 19, our teams continued to strengthen its EDLP position in Mexico, and we've converted to EDLP in each of our 5 Central American countries, making permanent price reductions on more than 12,000 items. We've also converted all of our Central American supercenters to the Walmart brand.


Mexico's second quarter consolidated comp store sales for the self-service formats grew by 1.9%, while ANTAD's comp store sales report for the rest of the industry, exuding Walmex, grew faster at 2.2%. In the second quarter, Walmex advanced its investment schedule for new stores and logistics modernization and opened 129 stores in this quarter as compared to 57 in the second quarter of last year. An aggressive, but steady, rate of new store openings is part of the new store growth plan. And Walmex has achieved 45% of planned floor expansion to date. We will begin to see the sales from these new stores in our third fiscal quarter as the majority were opened at the end of June.


Second quarter gross margin as a percentage of sales was flat to last year. Walmex's consolidated second quarter operating income declined 5.3% from last year and decreased 2.2% from last year after excluding the noncash inventory charge. Walmex's expenses grew faster than sales at 14.1% from last year, primarily due to the new stores. With 394 more stores than at the end of the second quarter of last year, Walmex is well positioned for the rest of the year.


Moving on to Brazil. Net sales grew in the second quarter; however, operating income declined from last year. As part of our progress in implementing EDLP as a global pricing philosophy, Brazil began its EDLP conversion earlier this year. The number of items converted to date represents a large portion of Brazil's overall sales. Brazil's second quarter net sales grew and comparable sales grew from last year. Average ticket increased 7.4% and customer traffic declined 4.6%. We believe that the investment in EDLP is right for our ultimate success in the marketplace and more important, best for our customers.