“The notion of demographics as destiny is overblown. Just like Karl Rove was wrong with that ‘permanent majority’ talk, Democrats have to remember that the pendulum is always swinging.”
— Republican pollster and strategist Wes Anderson, quoted by the Associated Press.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) told the Associated Press that he will decide by March whether to run for president in 2016.
Said Sanders: “I don’t want to do it unless I can do it well. I don’t want to do it unless we can win this thing.”
Sanders also said that he is still unsure if he would run as an independent or a Democrat.
Politico: “Mitt Romney promised to bring unemployment down to 6 percent in his first term; it’s already down to 5.8 percent, half the struggling eurozone’s rate. Newt Gingrich promised $2.50 gas; it’s down to $2.38. Crime, abortion, teen pregnancy and oil imports are also way down, while renewable power is way up and the American auto industry is booming again. You don’t have to give credit to President Barack Obama for ‘America’s resurgence,’ as he has started calling it, but there’s overwhelming evidence the resurgence is real. The Chicken Littles who predicted a double-dip recession, runaway interest rates, Zimbabwe-style inflation, a Greece-style debt crisis, skyrocketing energy prices, health insurance “death spirals” and other horrors have been reliably wrong.”
“Come to think of it, the 62 percent of Americans who described the economy as ‘poor’ in a CNN poll a week before the Republican landslide in the midterm elections were also wrong.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “is planning to take a more active role on the national political stage next month, undeterred by his former mentor Jeb Bush’s moves toward running for president,” The Hill reports.
“Republican strategists predicted months ago that Rubio would not run for the White House if Bush waged a bid. They assumed Rubio’s fundraising base in Florida would migrate entirely to Bush, the state’s former governor.”
The Wall Street Journal notes Rubio “is facing a difficult decision about running for president or continuing to represent Florida in the Senate.”
Politico: “Republicans once idolized Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as a tax cutting superstar — now he’s a lesson in what not to do… It’s a major turnaround from two years ago, when Brownback was considered a Republican trailblazer for conservatives around the nation who dreamed of phasing out their state income tax.”
“Now, Republicans are rethinking how aggressive they can be on taxes in light of the projected $279 million revenue gap that’s plaguing Kansas this year — shortfalls that resulted in the state’s credit rating being downgraded and nearly booted the Republican from office in a state that bleeds red.”
“The Islamic State’s vaunted exercise in state-building appears to be crumbling as living conditions deteriorate across the territories under its control, exposing the shortcomings of a group that devotes most of its energies to fighting battles and enforcing strict rules,” the Washington Post reports.
“Services are collapsing, prices are soaring, and medicines are scarce in towns and cities across the “caliphate” proclaimed in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State, residents say, belying the group’s boasts that it is delivering a model form of governance for Muslims.”
“When Jerry Brown first served as governor of California, he set out to reshape the powerful California Supreme Court by appointing its first female chief justice. But his pick, Rose Bird, had never served as a judge before and came to be perceived as a liberal ideologue,” the New York Times reports.
“Ms. Bird, along with two other judges Mr. Brown named to the court, was recalled by voters in an election in 1986.”
“Nearly 40 years after he made that selection, Mr. Brown is again seeking to remake a court that to this day is viewed by legal scholars as among the most influential in the nation, with one study proclaiming it the state court most followed by other appellate judges. And once more, the ever-unconventional Mr. Brown is roiling the waters with a series of head-snapping, if decidedly more applauded, choices for this tribunal.”
Huffington Post: Brown issues 105 pardons
The Wall Street Journal lists 10 events from the last year which are likely to impact the 2016 presidential race.
The Los Angeles Times says Jeb Bush’s business record, “enmeshed in international finance and some troubled former ventures in South Florida, could end up complicating his return to politics and his hopes to follow his father, George H.W. Bush, and his older brother, George W. Bush, into the Oval Office.”
“Last year, he took a step into the rarefied world of private equity and offshore investments, joining with former banking executives and a Chinese airline company to make bets on natural gas exploration and shipping. One of the funds was set up in the United Kingdom, a structure that allows the company to shield overseas investors from U.S. taxes.”
“During the 2012 race, Romney drew ceaseless attacks from Democrats for his lucrative work at Bain Capital, a pioneering venture capital company that bought scores of troubled companies, took over their management and sometimes laid off employees while garnering huge fees and payouts. But Bush and his aides argue that his investments and entrepreneurial ventures are different because he isn’t taking control of companies and restructuring them.”
“After years of muddling along, the U.S. economy appears to be breaking into a sprint that could alter the political landscape heading into 2015 and beyond,” Politico reports.
“The latest evidence of strength came in a report on Tuesday showing growth expanded at a robust 5 percent pace in the third quarter of 2014, the fastest speed in over a decade. The news helped drive the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 18,000 for the first time ever in a bull market charge that began six years ago and shows no signs of slowing.”
Hillary Clinton “is working hard to shore up support among liberals in hopes of tamping down a serious challenge from the left in the battle for the 2016 nomination,” the Washington Post reports.
“Clinton has aligned herself firmly with President Obama since the November midterms on a range of liberal-friendly issues, including immigration, climate change and opening diplomatic relations with Cuba. In an impassioned human rights speech this month, she also condemned the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation tactics and decried cases of apparent police brutality against minorities.”
“The recent statements suggest a concerted effort by Clinton to appeal to the Democratic Party’s most activist, liberal voters, who have often eyed her with suspicion and who would be crucial to her securing the party’s nomination.”
I wish everyone the best this holiday season.
Thank you so much for reading!
“And I have been very surprised, to answer your question, to see the president of the United States, at every turn, cut the legs off of our ally, Israel, and in fact embrace and lift up the agenda of Islamic jihad.”
— Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), quoted by BuzzFeed.
A quick look at the book publishing calendar gives some hints at who might be running for higher office:
January 13: American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone by Sen. Marco Rubio
January 20: God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy by Mike Huckabee
February 3: You Have a Brain: A Teen’s Guide to T.H.I.N.K. B.I.G. by Ben Carson M.D.
May 5: Times of Challenge, Moments of Grace by Carly Fiorina
May 12: Untitled by Sen. Ted Cruz
June 2: Taking a Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America by Rand Paul
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Can anyone help Ted Cruz come up with a title for his book? Suggestions are welcome in the comments. [/speech_bubble]
The Washington Post combs through the thousands of emails released from Jeb Bush’s tenure as Florida governor.
“The e-mails depict him both as terse chief executive and a sometimes-flip writer who sprinkled his messages with ‘awesome,’ ‘my bad’ and ‘chill out’ … The trove of Bush correspondence available to the public is voluminous, both because of Florida’s expansive public-records laws and because of Bush’s proclivity for e-mail. An early adopter of the technology, the former governor was known for constantly pecking out messages on his BlackBerry and reportedly spent as much as 30 hours a week reading and sending e-mail.”
CNN has the top five takeaways from Bush’s email archive.
Andrew Sullivan: “There has long been a pattern to Barack Obama’s political career on the national stage. There are moments of soaring moral clarity and inspiration; there are long periods of drift or laziness or passivity; and there are often very good fourth quarters. The 2008 campaign was an almost perfect coda: the sudden initial breakout, then a strange listlessness as he allowed the Clintons to come back in New Hampshire, turning the race into a long and grueling battle for delegates, then a final denouement when he made up with the Clintons and stormed into the White House. Or think of healthcare reform: a clear early gamble, followed by a truly languorous and protracted period of negotiation and posturing, and then a breakthrough. Or marriage equality: an excruciating period of ambivalence followed by a revolution. On climate: a failed cap and trade bill … followed by real tough fuel emissions standards, new carbon rules from the EPA and an agreement with China.”
“If you were to track this pattern – strong start, weak middle, winning final streak – throughout his entire presidency, you might have expected his worst year to be the one when he was just re-elected and had the wind at his back. And you would be right. 2013 was truly awful. But you’d also expect his final years to be strong.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Wonk Wire, Political Job Hunt and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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