New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) “could be beatable — if anyone has the guts to run against him” next year, the New York Daily News reports.
“No serious candidates have even signaled their intentions to run. … De Blasio has some serious achievements — universal pre-K, record-low crime, an ambitious affordable-housing plan — but also vulnerabilities, like sky-high homelessness and numerous investigations into his fund-raising.”
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“Donald Trump is meeting with Mitt Romney again on Tuesday, amid an ongoing brawl within his inner circle about the 2012 GOP nominee’s suitability to be secretary of State,” The Hill reports.
“Along with Romney, whose meeting was revealed in a transition team conference call on Monday morning, the president-elect will be meeting with other contenders for the high profile post.”
Here’s a book that should be useful for many: Win at Losing: How Our Biggest Setbacks Can Lead to Our Greatest Gains by Sam Weinman.
An engaging, inspiring exploration of the surprising value of setbacks—and how we can use them to succeed.
President-elect Donald Trump is considering retired General David Petraeus to be secretary of state and plans to meet with the former CIA director Monday in New York, Bloomberg reports.
“The celebrated four-star general, who left government under a cloud for sharing classified documents during an extramarital affair, is meeting with the president-elect amid infighting among Trump’s advisers about who to pick for the post. The possibility that Trump might instead tap former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has fueled an extraordinary public lobbying campaign against him.”
A new Quinnipiac poll finds that American voters approve of the job President Obama is doing, 50% to 43%, his highest score since right after he won reelection four years ago.
Most interesting: “Obama’s policies have helped the nation’s economy, 44% of voters say, as 38% say his policies have hurt the economy and 16% say his policies haven’t made a difference. But only 21% of voters say Obama’s policies have helped their personal financial situation, as 33% say these policies have hurt them personally and 44% say they’ve made no difference.”
“Shell-shocked Democrats looking to recover from 2016 see the large slate of upcoming governor’s races as their most likely path out of the political wilderness — starting in the Midwest,” Politico reports.
“Twenty-seven of the 38 governorships up in 2017 and 2018 are Republican-held, including many seats that will be open after eight years of GOP control. That means widespread opportunities for Democratic gains, as well as a critical chance for new ideas and new blood to emerge as the party seeks to identify its next generation of leaders and dig out from a low point after President-elect Donald Trump’s shocking White House win.”
“The sweeping gubernatorial map takes in virtually every national battleground state and segment of the electorate.”
Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) slammed Mitt Romney as an “ego-maniac,” Politico reports.
Said Collins: “Well, I mean, what do I know about Mitt Romney? I know that he is a self-serving, ego-maniac who puts himself first, who has a chip on his shoulder, that thinks he should be president of the United States.”
He added: “I mean, there’s no love lost between me and Mitt Romney. I’ve called him a loser for the last six months, even though I supported him.”
Newt Gingrich, who backs Rudy Giuliani for secretary of state, told the Wall Street Journal that the search for the nation’s top diplomat is playing out a bit like Donald Trump’s longtime reality show, The Apprentice, as he publicly mulls the candidates’ skill sets and invites “audience participation.”
Said Gingrich: “It’s the only place so far that we have seen him trying to do an open apprenticeship, if you will.”
“Just wanted you to know that I am thinking of you and wishing the best. For what it’s worth, I thought the move you pulled was kind of badass.”
— Jared Kushner, in a 2013 email to David Wildstein obtained by the Washington Post, amid growing evidence that Wildstein had ordered the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge to payback Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) political enemies.
Two sources at the top of the trump transition team confirm to MSNBC that Donald Trump was furious at Kellyanne Conway’s comments on Sunday suggesting Trump betrayed his supporters by even considering Mitt Romney for a position in his cabinet.
Said one: “Kellyanne went rogue at Donald Trump’s expense at the worst possible time.”
“Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus have reportedly been growing frustrated by Kellyanne Conway’s failure to become a team player in a transition process where the top players are forming a tight knit group around the president-elect.”
Conway pushed back telling The Hill the reporting was “sexist” and said she could have any job she wants.
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First Read: “Think about it: Every time Trump claims, without substantiation, that millions voted illegally, and every time the news media call him out for it, that only delegitimizes the media among Trump’s supporters. And then when the same media write and cover Trump’s conflicts of interests (or policy proposals or anything else), those same supporters won’t believe a word of it. Will the media be alone in this challenge? Or will members of BOTH parties decide that what’s happening to two key institutions — the press and the vote — is worth fighting for?”
Paul Krugman: “Remember all the news reports suggesting, without evidence, that the Clinton Foundation’s fund-raising created conflicts of interest? Well, now the man who benefited from all that innuendo is on his way to the White House. And he’s already giving us an object lesson in what real conflicts of interest look like, as authoritarian governments around the world shower favors on his business empire.”
“Of course, Donald Trump could be rejecting these favors and separating himself and his family from his hotels and so on. But he isn’t. In fact, he’s openly using his position to drum up business. And his early appointments suggest that he won’t be the only player using political power to build personal wealth. Self-dealing will be the norm throughout this administration. America has just entered an era of unprecedented corruption at the top.”
“If we’re given the White House and both houses of Congress and we don’t deliver, I think there will be pitchforks and torches in the streets. And I think quite rightly. I think people are so fed up with Washington. This election was a mandate with change, and the most catastrophic thing Republicans could do is go back to business as usual.”
— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), quoted by the Daily Beast.
New York Review of Books: “The announcement predictably played right into the hands of Trump, who immediately took the occasion to repeat his charge that Clinton should be locked up. None of this should have happened; under long-standing Justice Department practice, Comey should have kept silent about the fact of further investigation, especially so close to an election.”
“Whether Comey’s imprudent intervention changed the outcome of the presidential election, the damage to the integrity of both the political and criminal processes has been done. The criminal process has been politicized, and the political process has been tainted by misuse of official power. The question that remains is what should happen now. At a minimum, the Justice Department policies that Comey violated must be strengthened and formalized to ensure that this never happens again.”
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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