Michael Barone has a great look back at when national political conventions actually meant something.
“The national conventions are diminishing in importance, but I would be sorry to see them go extinct. I always feel a twinge of sadness when they adjourn and the maintenance people start popping the balloons and folding up the chairs. There’s something awesome about being part of an American political tradition that goes back to the 19th century.”
Mike Huckabee harshly criticized establishment Republicans who have tried to force Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) from the Missouri U.S. Senate race, CNN reports, and at one point compared the National Republican Senatorial Committee to “union goons” who “kneecap” their enemies.
Said Huckabee: “This is unprecedented, to see to this orchestrated attempt to humiliate and devastate a fellow Republican.”
“At one point, Huckabee mused about whether Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney affected his poll numbers in Missouri by not coming to Akin’s defense.”
The RNC is “making big changes to the lineup of speakers at the convention next week in Tampa to ensure that broadcast networks cover Ann Romney’s speech,” the Weekly Standard reports.
“Among the changes most seriously under consideration: moving Marco Rubio to Tuesday night and having Mrs. Romney speak Thursday night in the spot originally reserved for Rubio. Mrs. Romney’s speech was initially scheduled for Monday night, but the big three television networks won’t be covering the convention that night, so the Romney campaign and Republican officials have scrambled over the last several days to ensure her speech gets the widest coverage possible.”
A new CNN/Opinion Research poll shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by just two points among likely voters, 49% to 47%.
Josh Marshall: “If you look at the number for registered voters it’s a 9 point Obama margin. What that means is that President Obama has actually gained a bit of ground (obviously within the margin of error) on last week’s eye-popping poll showing him with a 7 point lead over Mitt Romney. But it also shows that turnout and propensity to vote are going to be the whole game going into November.”
“I’m very proud of my pro-life record, and I’ve always adopted the idea that, the position that the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life.”
— Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), in an interview with WJHL-TV, when asked if a woman should be able to get an abortion if she’s raped.
John Avlon: “The one-time Party of Lincoln boasted the first African-American, Asian-American, Native-American, Hispanic, and popularly-elected woman senators. Now polls show Romney-Ryan will get virtually no black votes.”
“But ’twas not always thus for the GOP. Dust off your history books and you will see Republicans once had a virtual lock on the minority vote — and minority elected officials. The legacy of Lincoln was alive and well until not so long ago. Which makes the retreat of recent decades both unfortunate and ill-timed.”
President Obama responds to Mitt Romney’s joke about his birth certificate with a simple tweet:
Song of the day: Born in the U.S.A. OFA.BO/irL3ZV
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 24, 2012
New York Times: “Politicians sometimes think they can get away with saying something profoundly offensive or just plain stupid by acting like it was a joke. It never works, just like it didn’t work today when Mr. Romney shamelessly played the birther card in what seems like an increasingly desperate campaign against President Obama.”
A new OnSight Public Affairs poll in Colorado finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney by four points, 48% to 44%.
“No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate — they know that this was the place we were born and raised.”
— Mitt Romney, campaigning in Michigan.
The ex-wife of Rep. Joe Heck (R-NV) accused the freshman lawmaker of assaulting her during their marriage in the 1980s in a sworn statement, BuzzFeed reports.
Heck denied the charges and said that “anyone perpetuating a story like this… demeans the pain that so many victims of domestic violence experience and the courage it takes to confront it.”
Wonk Wire: Why 2013 will be a terrible year even if we don’t go over the fiscal cliff.
Parade: How has tithing [the Mormon practice of giving 10 percent of one’s income to the church] shaped your view of how we treat each other?
Ann Romney: I love tithing. When Mitt and I give that check, I actually cry.
Mitt Romney: So do I, but for a different reason.
Tom Holbrook forecasts polling bumps coming out of the conventions of 3.6 percentage points for Mitt Romney and 1.1 percentage points for President Obama.
“Right now, the two candidates are in a tight race, with Obama holding a slight advantage in the polls. Based on my bump predictions, I expect that the race will continue to be tight after the conventions but that Romney will hold a slight lead.”
In the mail: The Victory Lab by Sasha Issenberg.
This is a book I’ve been looking forward to reading.
Out next month: No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen.
The book was written by a former Navy SEAL who helped plan and execute the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Fox News says the book is penned under the pseudonym “Mark Owen,” but multiple sources identify him as Matt Bissonnette, 36, of Wrangell, Alaska.
Ted Cruz (R) defeated Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) in the Republican U.S. Senate runoff, the AP reports.
“The Texas contest has become a national emblem of the GOP’s internal
tug-of-war between the establishment and the tea party and already is
the most expensive non-presidential race in the country, according to
the Center for Responsive Politics. Outside groups spent $14.4 million
in the race on top of the $32 million that the candidates spent,
including the $19 million that Dewhurst lent to his campaign.”
Dallas Morning News: “Wow, this is going to send some shockwaves through the GOP — in Texas and across the country.”
A new Obama ad makes clear that Mitt Romney would return the policies of George W. Bush: “You watched… and worried. Two wars. Tax cuts for millionaires. Debt piled up. And now we face a choice.”
The ad will run in Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, and Florida.
Tennessee state Rep. Kelly Keisling (R) emailed constituents “with a rumor circulating in conservative circles that President Barack Obama is planning to stage a fake assassination attempt in an effort to stop the 2012 election from happening,” the Huffington Post reports.
Keisling “sent an email from his state email account to constituents containing a rumor that Obama and the Department of Homeland Security are planning a series of events that could lead to the imposition of ‘martial law’ and delay the election. Among the events hypothesized in the email is a staged assassination attempt on the president that would lead to civil unrest in urban areas and martial law.”
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.
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