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Archives for 2020

Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine

December 28, 2020 at 12:40 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Adrienne LaFrance: “People tend to complain about Facebook as if something recently curdled. There’s a notion that the social web was once useful, or at least that it could have been good, if only we had pulled a few levers: some moderation and fact-checking here, a bit of regulation there, perhaps a federal antitrust lawsuit.”

“But that’s far too sunny and shortsighted a view. Today’s social networks, Facebook chief among them, were built to encourage the things that make them so harmful. It is in their very architecture.”

Filed Under: Technology

Trump Has Unfinished Business

December 28, 2020 at 12:36 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Fintan O’Toole: “This is his legacy: he has successfully led a vast number of voters along the path from hatred of government to contempt for rational deliberation to the inevitable endpoint: disdain for the electoral process itself.”

“In this end is his new beginning. Stripped of direct power, he will face enormous legal and financial jeopardy. He will have every reason to keep drawing on his greatest asset: his ability to unleash the demons that have always haunted the American experiment – racism, nativism, fear of ‘the government.'”

“Trump has unfinished business. A republic he wants to destroy still stands. It is, for him, not goodbye but hasta la vista. Instead of waving him off, those who want to rebuild American democracy will have to put a stake through his heart.”

Filed Under: Trump Legacy

Air Travel Soars Despite Pandemic

December 28, 2020 at 12:08 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Nearly 1.3 million people went through U.S. airports on Sunday, the highest level of air travel in more than nine months, despite fear that travel will lead to more cases of COVID-19,” the AP reports.

Filed Under: Health Care, Transportation

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House Will Vote to Boost Relief Payments

December 28, 2020 at 11:45 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The House will vote on Monday on a standalone measure to increase direct payments from its coronavirus relief package to $2,000 per person, up from the $600 checks that Congress had previously approved,” Axios reports.

“If it does pass, the measure will head to the Republican-controlled Senate for a vote on Tuesday. Senate GOP leadership has signaled opposition to increasing the size of the checks.”

Aaron Blake: “The biggest takeaway here is that Trump effectively cast a spotlight on Republicans’ refusal to provide more direct coronavirus aid.”

Filed Under: Economy

The Importance of Presidential Approval Ratings

December 28, 2020 at 11:43 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Cook Political Report: “A president’s job approval rating is one of the most consistent (and accurate) predictors of electoral performance. Voters who think the president is doing a good job usually vote to re-elect this president. Voters who think that the president is doing a lousy job are almost certain to vote against that person.”

Filed Under: Political History

The Real Reason Trump Likely Vetoed the Defense Bill

December 28, 2020 at 10:42 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

President Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act never made much sense. The bill has passed with huge bipartisan majorities for decades and presidents have always signed it. But Trump vetoed it on the grounds that it allows the renaming of U.S. military bases named for Confederate generals and did not strip social media companies of liability protections.

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Filed Under: Members, National Security

Biden Will Use Defense Production Act to Boost Vaccine

December 28, 2020 at 10:42 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President-elect Joe Biden plans to invoke the Defense Production Act after he takes office next month to boost production of coronavirus vaccines,” CNBC reports.

“The wartime production law, which allows the president to compel companies to prioritize manufacturing for national security, could help the U.S. secure components and specialized products that manufacturers need to produce the Covid vaccines. Biden’s team has been weighing whether to invoke the law for vaccine production.”

Filed Under: Health Care

Trump’s Approval Rating Collapses

December 28, 2020 at 9:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Gallup poll finds Congress’ job approval rating is at just 15%, the lowest of the 116th Congress, and President Trump’s job approval rating has fallen to 39% — down seven percentage points from before the election.

In contrast, nearly two-thirds of Americans approve of the way Joe Biden is handling his presidential transition.

Filed Under: White House

Ossoff and Warnock Warn About Running Low on Funds

December 28, 2020 at 9:48 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Eight days out from Election Day in Georgia’s crucial senate runoff races, Jon Ossoff (D) and Raphael Warnock (D) are “sounding the alarm” about their ability to keep pace with GOP spending, calling for a “significant increase” in grassroots donations to prevent running out of money, NBC News reports.

Filed Under: 2020 Campaign Tagged With: GA-Sen

The Plague Year

December 28, 2020 at 9:46 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The New Yorker has published an incredible piece by Lawrence Wright that people will be reading years from now to make sense of how the pandemic response went wrong.

Filed Under: Health Care

Did Trump’s Hotel Concede His Defeat?

December 28, 2020 at 7:52 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

1100 Pennsylvania: “After having been blocked off on the reservation calendar for six months, over this past weekend rooms at the Trump Hotel D.C. became available to book the week of the presidential inauguration.”

Filed Under: Biden Transition

Trump Donors Funnel $10.5 Million Into His Businesses

December 28, 2020 at 7:48 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s donors — the vast majority of whom are working-class supporters and retirees contributing just a few dollars a month — put $10.5 million into the erstwhile billionaire’s own personal businesses over the course of his presidency,” a HuffPost analysis found.

“Some $8.5 million came from the Trump campaign and related entities that Trump controls directly. Another $2 million came from other Republican candidates and committees.”

Filed Under: White House

Trump Got Nothing

December 28, 2020 at 7:01 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “That’s it? President Trump made all this noise about the Covid relief and government funding bill only to sign it and get nothing in return?”

“Trump got taken to the cleaners.”

“What a bizarre, embarrassing episode for the president. He opposed a bill his administration negotiated. He had no discernible strategy and no hand to play — and it showed. He folded, and got nothing besides a few days of attention and chaos. People waiting for aid got a few days of frightening uncertainty.”

“Zip. Zero. Zilch. If he was going to give up this easy, he should’ve just kept quiet and signed the bill. It would’ve been less embarrassing.”

Filed Under: Economy, White House

America Is As Divided As Ever

December 28, 2020 at 7:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Dan Balz: “The year 2020 brought extraordinary and unexpected challenges that tested the strength of basic institutions, demanded courage and sacrifice in the face of a raging pandemic, underscored racial and economic inequities, and produced the biggest turnout of voters in the history of U.S. elections.”

“In the end, America was as divided as ever. The election itself resulted in significant change — or no change. President Trump is on his way out of office after a single, tumultuous term, to be replaced on Jan. 20 by President-elect Joe Biden. Turnover in the most important of all elected offices — an office that was the major focus of the election — will bring a new tone, new faces and new initiatives to Washington and the country.”

Filed Under: Trends

Meet the GOP Freshmen Taking on The Squad

December 28, 2020 at 6:56 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “On the first day of Congress’ freshman orientation, four incoming GOP members realized they shared a special connection: All had first- or second-hand experience living in communist or socialist countries. The crew quipped that their family histories with brutal dictatorships and their aversion to Big Government basically made them the opposite of the liberal ‘Squad’ that has surged to political stardom in the House.”

“Taking a page from their social media-savvy rivals, they took to Twitter to share the name of their own counterrevolution. And the Republican ‘Force’ was born.”

Filed Under: House of Representatives

Putin Rumors Run Wild

December 28, 2020 at 6:45 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Vladimir Putin has surrounded himself with such a thick fog of secrecy that it’s now unclear where he is living, how many children or lovers he has, if his health is failing, or whether he’s planning to stay in power,” the Daily Beast reports.

“The old KGB man’s love of secrecy has long boosted rumors and conspiracy theories that would race quietly around Moscow. But 2020 was the year the rumors span out of control. Encouraged by the omnipotence of the online rumor mill, the Russian media is now daring to commit them to publication.”

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs

How Trump Caved on the Relief Bill

December 28, 2020 at 6:37 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Getting a cranky, stubborn President Trump to belatedly sign the COVID relief bill, after unemployment benefits had already lapsed, was like being a hostage negotiator, or defusing a bomb,” Axios reports.

“The deal was closed on a Sunday afternoon phone call with Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.”

“Over many days, Mnuchin and McCarthy — aided by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who golfed with Trump in West Palm Beach on Friday — indulged the president’s rants, told him there was great stuff in the bill, and gave him ‘wins’ he could announce, even though they didn’t change the bill.”

However, said GOP pollster Frank Luntz: “It may be too late. Too late for him, too late for the economy, too late for Covid, and too late for the Georgia senators.”

Filed Under: Economy

New York Post Tells Trump to Concede

December 27, 2020 at 11:24 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A New York Post editorial tells President Trump to end his challenge of the election: “Mr. President, it’s time to end this dark charade…”

“If you insist on spending your final days in office threatening to burn it all down, that will be how you are remembered. Not as a revolutionary, but as the anarchist holding the match.”

Filed Under: 2020 Campaign

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About Political Wire

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map 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.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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