A new Fox News poll finds Donald Trump leads the Republican presidential race nationally with 18%, followed by Scott Walker at 15%, Jeb Bush at 14%, Rand Paul at 8%, Marco Rubio at 7% and Ben Carson at 6%.
No one else gets more than 5% of the vote.
Daily Archives
July 16, 2015
22 posts · Thursday
Bonus Trump Quote of the Day
Trump Quote of the Day
“Rick Perry failed on the border. He should be forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to enter the GOP debate.”
— Donald Trump, on Twitter.
Inside the Fall of Mark Sanford
Here’s a must-read: The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics by Barton Swaim, a former aide to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R).
“Everyone knows this kind of politician: a charismatic maverick who goes up against the system and its ways, but thinks he doesn’t have to live by the rules. Through his own experience as the speechwriter for a controversial governor, Barton Swaim tells the story of a band of believers who attach themselves to this sort of ambitious narcissist—and what happens when it all comes crashing down.”
The Latest from Wonk Wire
Here’s what’s trending on Wonk Wire today:
- The Downside to Congressional Budgetary Gimmicks
- Most Americans Say Obamacare Fight Must End
- The Reality Behind Projected Obamacare Rate Increases
- Republicans Sour On the Supreme Court
- Are There Really Two Americas?
- A Conversation with Austan Goolsbee
- McConnell Insists Republicans Will Roll Back Obamacare
The Trump Summer
Amy Walter: “I promised myself that I would not write about Donald Trump. There is approximately zero percent chance that he will be the GOP nominee. Moreover, the odds are incredibly small that his candidacy survives much into 2016. He’s a blowhard who is desperate for attention and will do anything to get it. But, like the oppressive humidity of a DC summer, he has become unavoidable.”
“Trump is a performer and politics is theater. The guy has universal name ID and knows how to use it. But, keeping up the act will be tough. And, there are plenty of opportunities to flop, starting with the GOP debates. As my friends at NBC remind us, there are plenty of skeletons in Trump’s, ahem, tower, that will not sit well with the GOP base on everything from abortion, to health care, to his relationship with the Clintons.”
Trump Has Apparently Lost the Hispanic Vote
A new Univision poll finds that 79% of Hispanic voters polled find Donald Trump’s comments on immigration offensive, and 71% hold an unfavorable view of Trump himself.
“While a majority of those polled say they don’t think Trump’s comments represent his party, Trump and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush trail Hillary Clinton badly among Hispanic voters.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“Fox News is not real news, and you’re not a reporter.”
— San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Scott Wiener, quoted by Gawker.
Karl Rove Writing Book on the 1896 Election
Coming the fall: The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters by Karl Rove.
The AP notes that since at least 2000, Rove “has spoken of the 1896 election as a turning point that ended years of deadlock in Washington and led to a generation of Republican prevalence, an outcome to which he aspired while working with Bush and obviously desires for 2016.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I saw a very, very naive man who does not know how the world works.”
— Rick Perry, quoted by the Huffington Post, on President Obama’s announcement of a nuclear deal with Iran.
How Donald Trump Shrank the Field
First Read: “Yes, 17 Republicans are running for president. But the field seems much, much smaller than that — especially after the last three weeks of attention on Donald Trump. To put it simply, Trump has shrunk the Republican field. Now that won’t last; as we’ve written before, Trump’s past comments on abortion and health care will come back to bite him among GOP voters. He’ll come back down to earth, just as Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain eventually did in the 2012 race. But RIGHT NOW, it seems as if there are just three 2016 candidates out there: Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, and Donald Trump.”
“And if you’re Jeb, you have to love this, because it’s sucking oxygen from the rest of the field challenging you for the nomination. Realize that Scott Walker — perhaps the Republican other than Bush who’s most likely to win the GOP nomination, according to the media and pundits — announced his presidential bid this week. He, too, has been (temporarily?) Trumped.”
We Could Be Headed for Another Government Shutdown
Time: “You might have thought the threat of another shutdown was shelved last year when congressional Budget Committee Chairs Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray came to a two-year bipartisan deal to fund the government. But the new Republican Congress blew up that deal, and a shutdown could be part of the fallout.”
“Republicans are now attempting to undo controversial cuts to military spending in the 2013 sequester. Democrats are having none of that: if the Pentagon gets its money, they argue, so too should entitlements, as was part of the original deal. Unless Republicans relent on this point, Democrats have vowed to block all 13 appropriations bills from coming to the Senate floor. But even if those bills were to get voted on, odds are they won’t pass since they have dozens of provisions that Democrats object to — and which President Obama has threatened to veto.”
Wisconsin Court Ends Probe That Threatened Walker Bid
“Clearing a potentially serious obstacle from Gov. Scott Walker’s intended path to the White House, the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a secret investigation into millions of dollars spent on financing of recall election victories by Walker and other Republicans,” the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
“The secret John Doe investigation targeted suspected illegal coordination between Republicans and purportedly independent conservative groups leading up to the recalls.”
Rebuilding Clinton Email List Was Top Priority
Hillary Clinton “wound down her political operation in 2008 with 2.5 million email addresses in her campaign database. Seven years later, when campaign officials turned on the lights in April, they were stunned to find fewer than 100,000 still worked,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The huge attrition of valuable data is not unique to Clinton — a typical email list will lose 1 in 5 subscribers each year… But it created one of the first big challenges for the campaign’s growing digital team and sparked a response that illustrates the high priority campaigns now place on acquiring digital data.”
Quote of the Day
“What he did was he fired up the crazies.”
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in an interview with the New Yorker, on Donald Trump’s surging presidential campaign.
Jeb Bush Braces for Donald Trump in Debate
Politico: “As the Aug. 6 debate grows closer, some Republicans are relishing the prospect of Trump tearing the bark off the former governor — or, at the very least, trying to trip him up.”
“In recent months, Bush has immersed himself in planning for the debate, holding mock sessions with advisers. Last week, after huddling with top donors at the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, the former governor spent his time in debate study, according to two people who’d been in touch with him. By the end of the process, said another source, Bush could end up spending as much as 50 hours in preparation, an amount that far surpasses what Mitt Romney had done at this point during the last Republican primary.”
Ron Brownstein: “The paradox of Donald Trump’s bombastic presidential campaign is that his rise may ultimately benefit the rival he has attacked most vociferously.”
Obama to Push Criminal Justice Reform
“When President Obama arrives at the El Reno federal prison about 30 miles west of here on Thursday, he will go where no president has gone before, literally and maybe figuratively, too. In becoming the first sitting president to visit a federal prison, Mr. Obama will showcase an emerging bipartisan drive to overhaul America’s criminal justice system in a way none of his predecessors have tried, at least not in modern times,” the New York Times reports.
“Where other presidents worked to toughen life for criminals, Mr. Obama wants to make their conditions better. With 18 months left in office, he has embarked on a new effort to reduce sentences for nonviolent offenders; to make it easier for former convicts to re-enter society; and to revamp prison life by easing overcrowding, cracking down on inmate rape and limiting solitary confinement.”
Few Small Donors Backing Bush
National Journal: “Jeb Bush is a fundraising powerhouse among the Republican Party’s biggest donors, but he is struggling among smaller donors. Of the $11.4 million his campaign raised during its first two weeks, only 3 percent came from donors who gave less than $200.”
“Small contributors gave Bush only $368,023, the campaign’s federal filings show. Donors who gave the legal maximum of $2,700 accounted for more than 80 percent of Bush’s total haul.”
