The Guardian: “Joe Biden has embarked upon an eight-day tour across Iowa as the former US vice-president attempts to arrest his flagging poll numbers in the key state, which is the first to vote in the race to be the Democratic presidential nominee.”
“Biden started his election blitz on Saturday, telling supporters in a fundraising email that he was undertaking an ‘eight-day, 18 county, ‘No Malarkey’ barnstorm’ across Iowa.”
The Hill: “Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) is set to retire in approximately a month, creating an opening atop the Senate Ethics Committee, a behind-the-scenes panel responsible for enforcing standards of behavior for senators and their staffs and investigating potential violations of federal law or the Senate’s rules.”
“But GOP senators who spoke with The Hill, including current members of the committee, had a nearly universal response when asked if they wanted to take over the Ethics Committee: Thanks, but no thanks.”
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley predicted on CNN that public support for President Trump will collapse as House Democrats continue their impeachment inquiry against him.
Said Brinkley: “It just tells you what deep trouble Donald Trump is in. I mean, when you have 50% of the country wanting you not just impeached but removed from office, and the game hasn’t even gotten fast yet.”
He added: “I think once the vote is taken by Congress to impeach him and he’s wearing the ‘I’ on his chest, you’re going to see that movement grow even more.”
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A new Economist/YouGov poll finds 53% of Republicans said Donald Trump was a better president than Abraham Lincoln, while 47% chose the Civil War-era leader.
Politico: “He didn’t resign under fire for making sweetheart apartment deals with lobbyists, engaging in dodgy real estate development plans or racking up more than $1 million in taxpayer-funded flights. So by those standards, Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s tenure as a member of President Trump’s Cabinet could count as a relative success.”
“President Trump has until Dec. 6 to decide whether his legal team will participate in the impeachment proceedings, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Friday, marking Democratic lawmakers’ latest effort to solicit White House involvement in an inquiry with which the administration has declined to cooperate,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) sent a letter Friday to Mr. Trump outlining the next step in the impeachment process, with Mr. Nadler’s committee due to receive a report on evidence and testimony collected so far by the House Intelligence Committee.”
“That report is scheduled to be delivered soon after Congress resumes following its Thanksgiving recess. In anticipation of lawmakers’ return to Capitol Hill, Mr. Nadler wants to know if the president will exercise the rights afforded to him under the House rules governing the impeachment process.”
David Wasserman suggests that President Trump’s advantage in the electoral college may actually be deepening, despite his party’s struggles in suburban and more educated parts of the country.
Greg Sargent: “Wasserman looked at the Kentucky and Louisiana outcomes and concluded that they were plainly driven by big Democratic gains among suburban and educated voters.”
“Turnout skyrocketed, but on both sides, because Trump is energizing pro-Republican turnout, as well. The difference-maker was that Democrats engineered big swings in suburbs with a lot of college-educated voters, such as the areas outside New Orleans and in northern Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati.”
“The crucial point here, though, is that Republicans also made gains — that is, they increased their margins, as well as turnout — in more rural parts of the country.”
“In just three weeks, billionaire Michael Bloomberg has captured a level of media attention that’s eluded most 2020 Democrats with months on the trail and in debates,” Axios reports.
“Recent stories about Bloomberg generated more social media interactions than Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang, Julián Castro or Tom Steyer have ever gotten, according to data from NewsWhip.”
Washington Post: “Sure, Trump has been consumed by the impeachment proceedings, popping off daily, if not hourly, about what he dubs a ‘hoax.’ But he and his aides also have staged photo opportunities and public events designed to showcase the president on the job — a strategy one year out from the election to convince the American people that he is hard at work for them at the same time that Democrats are trying to remove him from office.”
Said Trump at a rally earlier this week: “I’m working my ass off. The failed Washington establishment is trying to stop me because I’m fighting for you and because we’re winning. It’s very simple.”
New York Times: “Despite a sense of relief at the prospect of resuming talks to end the 18-year conflict, Western diplomats and Taliban leaders were scrambling to figure out whether Mr. Trump had suddenly moved the goal posts for negotiations.”
“They were particularly confused by his remarks, made during an unannounced Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan, that the United States was once again meeting with the Taliban to discuss a deal, but that ‘we’re saying it has to be a cease-fire.'”
“Demanding a cease-fire would amount to a big shift in the American position and require a significant new concession from the Taliban — one that the Americans have little leverage to extract.”
Washington Post: Trump’s talk of cease fire surprises Taliban.
A super PAC supporting Sen. Cory Booker will reportedly air a new advertisement in Iowa comparing him to South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), The Hill reports.
The ad begins by showing images of Buttigieg with the narration “He’s a Rhodes Scholar, a successful mayor, a uniter.”
The ad continues: “No, not that guy. It’s Cory Booker.”
The Atlantic: “Two of the nation’s last three presidents won the presidency in the Electoral College, even though they lost the popular vote nationwide. In 2000, Al Gore outpolled George W. Bush by more than 540,000 votes but lost in the Electoral College, 271–266. Sixteen years later, Hillary Clinton tallied almost 3 million more votes than Donald Trump but lost decisively in the Electoral College, 306–232. And, as a recent New York Times poll suggested, the 2020 election could very well again deliver the presidency to the loser of the popular vote.”
“Despite this, defenders of the Electoral College argue that it was created to combat majority tyranny and support federalism, and that it continues to serve those purposes. For example, Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas, responding to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent criticism of the Electoral College, tweeted that “we live in a republic, which means 51% of the population doesn’t get to boss around the other 49%,” and that the Electoral College ‘promotes more equal regional representation and protects the interests of sparsely populated states.'”
“But arguments like these are flawed, misunderstanding the pertinent history.”
Related: See the consensus Electoral Vote Map based on the most recent forecasts and polling for the 2020 presidential election.
“The early boom for 2020 Democrats’ left turn is yielding to moderate muscle as Elizabeth Warren falls, Joe Biden persists and Pete Buttigieg rises,” Axios reports.
“Poll after poll shows voters like the idea of Medicare for All. But the second you tell them about costs and tradeoffs, they turn on it… Warren collapsed in the latest national Quinnipiac University poll just as she’s been diving into the details of how she’d pass Medicare for All — and fending off a barrage of attacks from her more moderate rivals.”
“She’s not the only Democrat who’s run into trouble. Kamala Harris realized she could be checkmating herself by dismissing private health insurance — which is why she changed her Medicare for All plan to allow private insurers to offer Medicare plans.”
New York Times: “As Mr. Buttigieg, 37, looks to solidify his support in the remaining weeks before the Democratic primary season begins, he has found a wellspring of enthusiasm among a critical bloc of voters more frequently associated with Joseph Biden: older white Americans.”
“During a burst of campaign stops in Iowa this week, his first trip to the state since a Des Moines Register/CNN poll showed him with a commanding, nine-point lead here, Mr. Buttigieg repeatedly made appeals to older Iowans that were hardly subtle. ‘We’ve got to act not just to shore up Social Security but to make sure everybody can retire and live in dignity,’ he said at a rally on Monday evening in Council Bluffs, Iowa. ‘Call it my ‘Gray New Deal.’’
The Atlantic: “Kim Jong Un only wanted to engage with the president. Now he’s turning on him.”
Los Angeles Times: “For decades, there was an unvaried rhythm to life in America’s suburbs: Carpool in the morning, watch sports on weekends, barbecue in the summer, vote Republican in November.”
“Then came President Trump. The orderly subdivisions and kid-friendly communities that ring the nation’s cities have become a deathtrap for Republicans, as college-educated and upper-income women flee the party in droves, costing the GOP its House majority and sapping the party’s strength in state capitals and local governments nationwide.”
“The dramatic shift is also reshaping the 2020 presidential race, elevating Democratic hopes in traditional GOP strongholds like Arizona and Georgia, and forcing Trump to redouble efforts to boost rural turnout to offset defectors who, some fear, may never vote Republican so long as the president is on the ballot.”
“With 11 electoral votes, Arizona is a bigger prize than Wisconsin — a Midwestern battleground both parties view as a key to the election — and the Grand Canyon State is expected to draw lavish attention and a fortune’s worth of advertising over the next year. Visiting last month, Vice President Mike Pence said he and Trump ‘are going to be in and out of Arizona a lot.'”
“Where the presidential candidates spend most of their time says a lot,” KTVZ reports.
“We looked at data showing the number of campaign visits from each of the four early-voting states: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Who’s spent the most time campaigning in each state might surprise you.”
“A Republican candidate running to challenge Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota had her Twitter account permanently suspended for repeated violations of Twitter rules,” CNN reports.
“Danielle Stella says she was banned for a tweet in which she spread a baseless claim about Omar and said if the claim is true, Omar should be tried for treason and hanged.”
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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