A new Harvard study concludes that “racial animus in the United States appears to have cost Obama
roughly four percentage points of the national popular vote in both 2008
and 2012.”
Daily Archives
April 12, 2013
28 posts · Friday
Sununu Won’t Run for Senate Again
Former Sen. John E. Sununu (R-NH) told the New Hampshire Union Leader that he will not run for the Senate, or for any political office, next year.
He did not rule out a run for office in the future, however.
RNC Bows to Social Conservatives
The RNC “passed resolutions reaffirming its commitment to defining marriage as between a man and a woman, and calling on the Supreme Court to ‘uphold the sanctity of marriage’ as it weighs rulings on two landmark cases involving gay marriage,” the Washington Post reports.
“The moves come days after social conservatives sent a letter to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, threatening to decamp if the party did not reaffirm its commitment to their issues. It’s important to note that resolutions have to be submitted ten days in advance, meaning they have been on tap at the committee even before the letter was sent.”
Obama Explains Politics
After two Navy football players presented President Obama with a helmet, USA Today reports someone in the crowd at the ceremony shouted “put it on.” But he refused.
Said Obama “Here’s a general rule. You don’t put stuff
on your head if you’re president. That’s politics 101. You never look
good wearing something on your head.”
Why Obama Can’t Close a Deal
Newt Gingrich tells Businessweek why President Obama can’t get a budget deal with Republicans.
Said Gingrich: “My sense is that Obama is a very bad negotiator. Obama doesn’t listen. Clinton listened. Clinton understood the art of getting to a deal because he’d been Arkansas governor. He’d dealt with legislatures. He was used to talking it out, paying attention. Obama is a college professor. He gives a lecture and then he grades you on your ability to understand his lecture. There’s no practical way that a Republican-Obama negotiation is going to work, because they want radically different things.”
Axelrod Gets a Book Deal
David Axelrod, the political strategist behind the rise of President Obama, will write a memoir to be released in the fall of 2014, the New York Times reports.
Obama and Biden Put Out Tax Returns
President Obama and Vice President Biden have released their tax returns for 2012.
Roll Call: 15 fun facts about the Obamas’ and Bidens’ taxes.
Is the GOP Really Willing to Take on Entitlement Reform?
NRCC Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) touched a nerve when he savaged the entitlement changes in President Obama’s budget as a “shocking attack on seniors,” Roll Call reports.
But “it’s the lack of fallout” that may be more revealing.
The debate Walden’s remarks “has set off inside the GOP shows many Republicans harbor deep-seated fears about publicly supporting the entitlement cuts they supposedly back and have demanded Obama and other Democrats embrace since taking control of the House in 2011.”
The Week: Why Obama just can’t win on Social Security.
A New Budget for a New Party
Ron Brownstein: “The keening on the left about President Obama’s budget proposal this week suggests that large portions of the Democratic base still don’t understand the political and economic dynamics of the party’s changing electoral coalition.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“This guy is a clown. He’s a fool, so was his father and so was his grandfather.”
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), interviewed on Fox News, dismissing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Rubio Goes All In on Immigration Reform
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “is preparing to go all in to support sweeping immigration legislation, offering himself up as the public face of a bill that will split the Republican Party — but that his allies hope will propel him to the front of the GOP presidential sweepstakes,” Politico reports.
“Rubio is planning a media blitz to promote the bill — which is expected to be released early next week — making the rounds on all of the Sunday political talk shows starting this weekend, wooing skeptical conservative radio hosts and pitching the plan to Spanish-language news outlets.”
The Week: “What prompted this change of heart? Just a few days ago Rubio’s office issued a statement calling reports of an immigration deal ‘premature,’ prompting pundits to wonder whether he was trying to deliberately stall the process. It’s not like the political dilemma that Rubio faces has changed from what it was just days ago.”
Tweet of the Day
Our campaign bumper sticker: If babies had guns, they wouldn’t be aborted. stockman2014.com #gosnell #tcot twitter.com/ReElectStockma…
— Rep. Steve Stockman (@ReElectStockman) April 12, 2013
The Old Cuccinelli Haunts the New One
Beth Reinhard:
“It’s not easy to be the new Ken Cuccinelli. The new Cuccinelli, the
Republican frontrunner in the Virginia governor’s race, is more likely
these days to be calling for job growth and education reform than he is
to be railing against abortion and gay marriage. But the old Cuccinelli,
the state attorney general who crusaded for conservative values, keeps
cropping up, offering a steady stream of fodder for opponents determined
to frame him as a right-wing ideologue.”
McAuliffe Rakes In Over $5 Million Last Quarter
Terry McAuliffe (D) raised roughly $5.1 million for his Virginia gubernatorial bid in the first three months of the year, including a $100,000 check from a longtime friend — President Bill Clinton, the Washington Post reports.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“In our part of the country, this isn’t an issue. This is a way of life. This is how people feel, and it is extraordinarily difficult to explain that, especially to grieving parents.”
— Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), quoted by the New York Times, rejecting appeals to support limits on the capacity of gun magazines and universal background checks, adding, “I’m going to represent my state.”
Cohen Gets Into Twitter Trouble Again
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) tweeted that he thinks singer Cyndi Lauper is “hot” and then quickly deleted it 12 minutes later, the Washington Post reports.
Of course, the Sunlight Foundation tracks politicians’ deleted tweets and saved a copy.
Earlier this year Cohen unintentionally disclosed on Twitter that he had a 24 year old daughter that he only found out about three years ago.
How to Get Your Perk Into a Bill
Jack Abramoff: “Whether you’re a company, a union, or an individual, to get your bennie–your perk–into a bill, the first thing you need to do is find a bill that’s going to get signed by the president. Ninety-nine percent of what’s proposed in Congress doesn’t make it to the White House, so you’re looking for one of the few bills that’s going to make it all the way through the House, the Senate, the conference committees, and wind up on the president’s desk. We call that a moving train. If you’re a lobbyist pushing something like this, you want your moving train to be a 2,000-plus-page bill. You want to find a way to sneak your bennie into a teeny boxcar in the back that nobody’s going to notice.”
Washington Republicans to Auction AR-15 Rifle
“When the Washington State Republican Party holds its annual fundraising dinner this weekend, one of the items up for auction will be an AR-15 style rifle — the type of semi-automatic weapon targeted by many gun-control advocates since Adam Lanza used one to rapidly kill 20 children and six adults at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school,” the Seattle Times reports.
