“Well, I’ll say this: Romney looks like a president.”
— Former Sen. Bob Dole, in an interview with GQ, on his previously tepid endorsement of Mitt Romney.
Rangel Faces Primary Challenge
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), “a once-towering figure in New York politics whose reputation was diminished when he was censured in Washington, is again fighting to keep his seat as a group of Democrats prepare to challenge him in a primary on Tuesday,” Reuters reports.
Nonetheless, “most political watchers still see him being re-elected.”
National Journal: “Rangel has strengths of his own, though. Interestingly, despite the redistricted seat’s new majority-Hispanic status, it also has over 24,500 more African-American residents than the old version of the district. And Rangel’s four-decade career in Congress has engendered abiding loyalty among many blacks and a large swath of Democratic voters in the area. Even though Rangel only won 51 percent in the 2010 primary, he actually won more primary votes (over 26,000) than all but one House candidate in the entire state. That suggests a robust turnout operation at the heart of Rangel’s experienced campaign, and indeed, Rangel significantly overperformed in the 15 precincts with the heaviest turnout in 2010, according to a Hotline analysis.”
Large Majority Want New Health Care Effort
A new AP/GfK poll finds that just a third of Americans back President Obama’s health care law on which the Supreme Court is about to pass judgment, but more than three quarters want Congress and the president to begin work on a new bill if the court strikes down the 2-year-old law.
Romney’s Game Changers
The Wall Street Journal says four states — Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania — could transform the presidential race if Mitt Romney can win them.
“These are four reliably blue states where Mitt Romney’s campaign thinks it has a chance to pull off an upset. A Republican win in any one of these four would significantly change the calculus of what it takes to win in the electoral college, which is where a presidential race actually is decided.”
“President Barack Obama carried each comfortably four years ago, and they have been colored Democratic blue in every presidential race in the last generation. Minnesota last went Republican in 1972, Wisconsin in 1984 and Michigan and Pennsylvania in 1988, so they represent varying degrees of a long shot for the GOP.”
Democrats May Cancel Convention Kick-off
Democrats are “considering canceling their political convention’s kick-off event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, as party planners grapple with a roughly $27 million fundraising deficit,” Bloomberg reports.
Earlier this year, Democrats announced they were shortening their convention from four days to three, “to make room for a day to organize and celebrate the Carolinas, Virginia and the South and kick off the convention at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Labor Day,” Sept. 3.
Obama Booed for Making Joke About Red Sox Trade
President Obama “tried to tweak Bostonians tonight as he thanked the Red Sox for trading Kevin Youkilis to his hometown Chicago White Sox, but instead he triggered a chorus of boos from fans still a bit raw over the deal,” the Boston Globe reports.
Said Obama: “Finally, Boston I just want to say — thank-you for Youkilis.”
As boos swelled up, Obama chuckled adding, “I’m just saying, he had to change the color of his socks… I didn’t anticipate boos out of here.”
Jackson on Medical Leave
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s (D-IL) office announced in a news release that the congressman has been on a medical leave of absence since June 10 and is being treated for exhaustion, the AP reports.
Asked why Jackson’s office waited two weeks to tell his constituents about his absence, a spokesman told the Chicago Tribune that the lack of disclosure was a “family request.”
An Insider’s Guide to a Less than Holy World of Politics
In the mail: The Gospel According to the Fix: An Insider’s Guide to a Less than Holy World of Politics by Chris Cillizza.
This should be a fun read.
Holder Contempt Vote Scheduled
The House is scheduled to vote on recommendations that Attorney General Eric Holder be held in contempt of Congress on Thursday, the Washington Post reports.
“Republican leaders plan to bring the issue to the floor on Thursday, meaning lawmakers likely will vote on contempt charges on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to announce its ruling on the constitutionality of the 2010 health-care reform law. The timing likely deprives advocates for contempt charges of the big headlines they might have received if the vote were held another day this week.”
Quote of the Day
“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life
legislation — abortion facility regulations — in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
— Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R), quoted by Politics PA, citing a voter ID law as an accomplishment which critics claim was never about preventing fraud.
Romney Campaign Dodges Immigration Decision
Although Mitt Romney released a statement earlier stressing the right of states to enact immigration policies, he never commented directly on the Supreme Court decision gutting large parts of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.
Politico has a remarkable exchange with traveling spokesman Rick Gorka, in which he did everything he could to avoid answering despite being asked 20 times.
Bill Clinton Warns About Court Ruling Against Obamacare
Daily Beast: “Clinton predicted that if the law is declared unconstitutional,
Republicans will suffer a backlash when millions of Americans calculate
what they have lost. Before the Affordable Care Act passed, two thirds
of all the applications for bankruptcy were because of health-care
emergencies, a consequence likely to return if health care inflation
again rises precipitously.”
Sheriff Denies Being KKK Member Despite Photos
Cherokee County, GA Sheriff Roger Garrison (R) insisted to WSB-TV that he “has no affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, despite old photos that surfaced showing him wearing a robe and hood.”
He says he wore the costume to a Halloween party “long before he took office.”
Said Garrison: “I don’t deny it wasn’t stupid, looking back now, but there again I say what 21- or 22-year-old in this world hasn’t made some stupid mistakes?”
GOP Brand Suffers in California
Former Secretary of State Bruce McPherson is the latest prominent Republican to switch parties in California. He changed his voter registration last week from Republican to “no party preference.”
George Skelton: “It’s impossible to assess any grand, overarching meaning in all this — except that in each case the politician felt that the Republican label was an albatross. The candidates’ actions may have been self-serving, but it’s an ugly mark on the GOP that they felt better served not being burdened by the party.”
Obama Leads in New Hampshire
A new American Research Group poll in New Hampshire shows President Obama with a solid lead over Mitt Romney, 51% to 43%.
What the Obama Campaign Spends Money On
Jim Geraghty looks at the Obama campaign spending reports and finds online advertising and other web-related efforts are the largest expenditures to date.
“Ironically, in an era of e-mail, postage was one of the campaign’s largest expenditures, totaling more than $14.7 million.”
Also interesting: “The Obama campaign appears to run on pizza: $2,084.37 went to Domino’s Pizza, $1,774.78 went to Pizzanno’s Pizza, $1,167.45 went to Papa John’s, $834.03 went to Pizza Hut, and $362 went to Little Caesars. (One hopes Michelle Obama won’t find out that some Obama campaign staffer in Winston-Salem, N.C., spent $239.39 at Krispy Kreme.)”
The $500 Private Breakfast for Powerful DC Dems
Bloomberg TV looks at Sen. Harry Reid’s efforts to win Nevada’s U.S. Senate race for Democrats.
Supreme Court Rejects Corporate Spending Limits
The Supreme Court reaffirmed its 2-year-old decision allowing corporations to spend freely to influence elections, the New York Times reports.
“By a 5-4 vote, the court’s conservative justices said the decision in the Citizens United case in 2010 applies to state campaign finance laws and guarantees corporate and labor union interests the right to spend freely to advocate for or against candidates for state and local offices.”
Rick Pildes: “That outcome comes as no surprise to those of us who believe Citizens United
reflected powerfully held philosophical and constitutional convictions,
whether we agree with those convictions or not. But it should put the
final nail in the coffin of theories that assert the Court could have
decided Citizens United only ‘by mistake’… The American public might not believe in unlimited corporate speech rights in elections, but the Court’s majority does – and no amount of public backlash is going to cause this Court to back down.”
☑️ Life in the Middle: Marginalized Moderate Senators In the Era of Polarization is available on Amazon. It takes a deep dive into the power of moderates and why we see them behave so precariously.
