Daily Archives
26 posts · Monday
Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN he has no interest in running for president again.
Said Kerry: “None. Zero. Absolutely none whatsoever. I have a great job, we have a lot of work to do in the next year and a half and I’m looking forward to it.”
“A number of my competitors for the Republican nomination have no business running for president. I do not need to be lectured by any of them.”
— Donald Trump, in a USA Today op-ed.
“John Kasich has a resume seemingly tailor-made for a serious run for the Republican nomination: blue-collar upbringing, congressional budget hawk, Fox News commentator, investment banker, successful two-term governor of Ohio,” Politico reports.
“But there’s just one problem, according to interviews with dozens of those who’ve worked in politics alongside him at various points over the last several decades: his short fuse.”
Politico: “In his first days as a presidential candidate in the state where he’s leading in the polls, Walker showed the consistency and attention to detail that propelled him to 12 victories back home — including three statewide wins. He sported the same campaign trail uniform (a blue-and-white checked, collared shirt, jeans and belt), and used the same prop (a rumpled dollar bill pulled from his pocket). He told the same anecdote about his thriftiness that’s become his signature (his shopping habits at retailer Kohl’s) and quoted whole paragraphs of his announcement speech from last Monday, almost word for word.”
Wall Street Journal: “Some Republican presidential candidates could be in for sticker shock… The expanding roles of super PACs and a condensed nominating calendar are fundamentally transforming the way the 2016 primary campaign will be conducted. Gone are the days when campaigns could just scrape together enough money to advertise in Iowa and New Hampshire, counting on an early victory to spur an infusion of fresh contributions.”
New York Times: “When Pope Francis comes to Capitol Hill in September, he will be the first pontiff to address a joint meeting of Congress, where more than 30 percent of the members are Catholic. The visit will fulfill a long-held dream of Mr. Boehner, who says only his working-class roots as a bar owner’s son are more essential to his core than his Catholic upbringing. He has extended offers to popes for the last 20 years, and Francis, after taking nearly a year to consider, was the first to accept.”
“The pope’s visit comes with inherent tension for many Republicans, including those who are Catholic. While he has made no changes in church doctrine, Francis has forcefully staked out ideological ground opposite that of Mr. Boehner and his party. He has excoriated the excesses of capitalism as the “dung of the devil,” pleaded for action to stop global warming and enthusiastically supported the new nuclear accord with Iran.”
The New York Times looks at possible fallout from Donald Trump’s comments over the weekend about why Sen. John McCain is considered a war hero.
“It was an improvised fit of pique, roundly and vigorously denounced by his rivals all weekend, that exposed the biggest vulnerability of Mr. Trump’s campaign for president: It is built entirely around the instincts and grievances of its unpredictable candidate — and does not rely on a conventional political operation that protects presidential hopefuls from themselves.”
“It remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump’s standing in public opinion surveys will suffer from the episode with Mr. McCain. But recent national and early-primary state polls put Mr. Trump in the top tier of candidates. If nothing else, the weekend reaffirmed that Mr. Trump is running a presidential campaign on his own unique terms.”
Dan Balz: “Trump has benefited from being cast as a not-quite-serious presidential candidate, which has allowed him to carry on as he has.”
The Southern Illinoisan eviscerates Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) in an editorial:
“Mark Kirk suddenly has more in common with your unhinged uncle than a deliberative member of the U.S. Senate… Illinoisans thought they elected a center-right fiscal conservative. They instead got the love child of Michele Bachmann and Ted Cruz, a man more concerned with making a name within his party’s fringe than representing his constituents.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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