Jane Haman: “Young Americans today have never witnessed Congress authorize a war, they’ve never seen a U.S. administration balance its books, they’ve never watched a well-funded and empowered state department operate, and they see only mistrust between allies. They assume the situation is normal. It is not.”
“The real cost of forgetting the pre-9/11 world is not a country that has changed, but one that no longer knows it could be different.”
Just out: All the Presidents’ Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America’s War on Terror by Peter Bergen.
“The resulting war on terror cost trillions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives, a series of misguided wars, and the damaged perception of American power. And yet despite its blunders, this campaign has kept America safe from large-scale foreign attack.”
“President Donald Trump is embracing his inner cowboy, seeking to gallop into this week’s Republican convention in Dallas and save the midterm elections for his party just in the nick of time,” the Associated Press reports.
“As first-of-their-kind festivities open Wednesday, Trump wants to stoke his core supporters’ enthusiasm by making Election Day on Nov. 3 all about himself — a referendum on his record at an event he conceived to help his party, even if he’s not actually on the ballot.”
“The question is whether he’ll do more to fire up Republicans or Democrats at a moment when his popularity has reached historic lows.”
“The Trump administration is planning to significantly reorganize the National Park Service and other bureaus of the Interior Department, the second major shake-up of the nation’s public lands infrastructure in less than two years,” NOTUS reports.
“Britain announced a ban on goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and sanctions on companies involved in an accelerating building boom in the settlements, which are considered illegal by much of the international community,” the Washington Post reports.
NewsNation: “The fight for control of the Senate hangs in the balance with just eight weeks to go until the midterm elections, according to Decision Desk HQ.”
“The nonpartisan election analyst on Monday shifted its November forecast to ‘a pure toss-up’ for the upper chamber of Congress for the first time since the beginning of June.”
“Days before California voters receive their mail-in ballots, gubernatorial candidates Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, and Steve Hilton, a Republican, will debate in a nationally televised face-off,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“After weeks of Hilton accusing Becerra of ducking debates, the nationally televised, hour-long CNN event — without a studio audience — will give millions of Californians a side-by-side comparison.”
Deadline: CNN to host debate between California gubernatorial candidates.
“Romania detained a Russian citizen suspected of spying on military sites for an alleged sabotage operation, as European allies of Ukraine accuse Moscow of intensifying a hybrid campaign across the continent,” Bloomberg reports.
“If Democrats win control of the House in November, party leaders plan to turn the final two years of the Trump era into a barrage of investigations over alleged corruption and contempt for the law,” Time reports.
“Much of the scrutiny would be expected to come from the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, the traditional engines of congressional investigations. But another, less prominent committee could emerge as an unlikely center of the fight: the House Natural Resources Committee.”
“The 45-member panel has oversight over virtually all federal lands, giving it jurisdiction over a striking collection of controversies that have defined President Trump’s second term. That includes his efforts to remake Washington, D.C. by building a White House ballroom and a triumphal arch, and the troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. It also covers the Administration’s efforts to open up national parks to an unprecedented amount of hunting, fishing and drilling.”
“European nations are planning to buy U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles to help Ukraine repel an expected increase in Russian attacks over the winter months,” Bloomberg reports.
“The new interceptors will bolster Ukraine’s defenses during what will likely be a difficult winter, a period when Moscow tends to increase its strikes on the country’s critical infrastructure.”
“Iceland has summoned the U.S. ambassador over a social media post by Donald Trump showing a U.S. flag covering the country along with Greenland, Canada, Mexico and other nations, calling it an ‘insult’ and a ‘bad joke,'” the Financial Times reports.
“In a Virginia law school classroom, students are grappling with an event once considered unimaginable: a U.S. government debt default,” Axios reports.
“This semester’s class is indicative of a nervousness that has become more widespread about America’s standing in the global financial system.”
“When terrorists attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001, they provoked a response that, seen from today’s perspective, seems remarkable: The country immediately united across every political and ideological divide,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Within three days, the House and the Senate approved by a combined vote of 518 to 1 a sweeping measure endorsing the use of force against anyone deemed responsible for the attacks. In a Wall Street Journal poll taken at the time, 82% said they approved of the job being done by President George W. Bush, who hadn’t even won the popular vote in the election that brought him to office just months earlier. Almost three-quarters of Americans said that despite the attacks—or maybe because of the united response to them—the country was on the right track. In many ways, America was at its best.”
“Alas, that 9/11 unity didn’t last.”
“As it turned out, the events of that day also sowed the seeds for much of the discord and disillusionment that have plagued the American political system in the quarter-century since.”
“Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office last month after pledging to mend the strained relationship with the U.S. is getting a prime opportunity with Secretary of State Marco Rubio visiting Tuesday,” Bloomberg reports.
“No matter how many good things I told them, they were just pissed about the price of groceries. That has not changed, and now Republicans are in charge.”
— Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, quoted by NBC News.
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.
