Politico: “It’s become a cliché to say that the more optimistic candidate usually wins presidential elections, but there isn’t much doubt which party stands for optimism these days. Trump has tried to make November a referendum on the state of the country, describing America as a disaster area that only he can clean up. Obama essentially said: Bring it on.”
The Chaos Candidate
“The big story at the Democratic convention for most of Wednesday was not the Democrats — not Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine or even President Obama, the evening’s star speaker. It was Donald Trump, whose loose and provocative talk about the Russians and Clinton’s emails seemed exponentially beyond even his standards for creating turmoil and controversy,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump thrives on chaos and above all else demands attention. When the spotlight falls elsewhere, such as on the Democrats this week in Philadelphia, he looks to shift it back in his direction. He is a candidate who uses disruption as a strategic force. Wednesday was a textbook example — whether for good or ill.”
Big Donors Return to Clinton
New York Times: “After a wrenching yearlong nominating battle with searing debates over the influence of Wall Street and the ability of ordinary citizens to be heard over the din of dollars changing hands, the party’s moneyed elite returned to the fore this week, undeterred and mostly unabashed.”
Democratic National Convention: Wednesday
The featured speakers tonight are President Obama, Vice President Biden and Sen. Tim Kaine.
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Convention Dispatch: Defining Trump
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Mook Urges Trump to Compete in Blue States
Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager challenged Donald Trump’s claim that he could be competitive in Democratic strongholds, urging the Republican nominee to stump in traditionally blue states, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Robby Mook: “I absolutely encourage Donald Trump to spend time campaigning in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.”
DNC Asked White House to Reward Donors
Open Secrets: “Email exchanges involving top officials at the Democratic National Committee released along with private documents by WikiLeaks show that DNC officials hoped to reward top donors and insiders with appointments to federal boards and commissions in coordination with the White House.”
“The revelations give an inside look into how the Democratic Party attempted to leverage its access and influence with the White House to bring in cash.”
Crazy vs. Not Crazy
Ezra Klein: “This isn’t normal behavior from a major American politician. It’s not even particularly normal behavior from Donald Trump. After he picked Mike Pence, empowered campaign chair Paul Manafort, and gave a structured convention speech, there looked to be a chance that Trump was unveiling a new, more sober persona for the general election. But he can’t do it. He can’t suppress his own mania for even a week.”
“It’s weird to keep saying this, but this is not okay. This is not a man with the temperament, the steadiness, the discipline to be president. The issue here isn’t left versus right, or liberal versus conservative, or Democrat versus Republican. It’s crazy versus not crazy. Donald Trump, of late, has been acting pretty crazy. That’s not acceptable in the job he’s running to fill.”
Rubio Says Trump Will Learn on the Job
Sen. Marco Rubio told WGN that his “sense” is that Donald Trump’s positions on issues will more fully develop as he takes on the role as president.
Said Rubio: “I view the Senate as a place that can always act as a check and balance on whoever the next president is. I also think there’s something to be said for, once you’re actually in that position, once you’re actually working at this thing, and you’re in there, and you start to have access to information that perhaps you didn’t have before, especially for someone that’s never been in politics, I think it starts to impact your views a little bit.”
Trump Asks Russia to Hack Clinton’s Email
Donald Trump said that he “hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, essentially encouraging an adversarial foreign power’s cyberspying on a secretary of state’s correspondence,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Politico: “The discussion of Putin comes amid Democratic accusations that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s emails. Trump said that’s a “sideshow” to distract from the contents of the emails.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“So many times, white — non-college-educated — white males have voted Republican. They voted against their own economic interests because of guns, because of gays, and because of God. The three G’s –– God being the woman’s right to choose.”
— House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in an interview with PBS.
The Obama Generation
Politico: “Obama’s preparing a major run of endorsements and campaign stops for statehouse candidates, trying to foster an Obama generation on his way out the door. He’s throwing himself into fundraising, starting Monday with an event for Clinton in Atlanta and with more events being approved weekly … The White House is beginning to plan an October filled with nearly non-stop political travel on behalf of both Clinton-whose campaign aides have in recent months expanded the list of places where they believe he could be helpful-and Senate candidates. Obama’s team is even considering doing some travel specifically on behalf of House candidates.”
Clinton Ready to Send Out ‘the Ubers’
Los Angeles Times: “Beyond Clinton and her newly minted running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, she is deploying no less than President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker. Just to name a few.”
“Every campaign has what it calls a a surrogate operation: big names that lend star power in the fall. But Clinton aides call these heavy hitters “the uber principals,” or “the ubers” for short. They combine political acumen and deep campaigning experience with popularity — Obama is polling well and the first lady and vice president are reliable crowd-pleasers. This backup squad packs more political celebrity wattage than perhaps any presidential nominee has ever had.”
Donald Trump, Then and Now
“I really like Vladimir Putin. I respect him. He does his job well.”
— Donald Trump, in an interview with Russian language magazine Seagull in 2008.
“I never met Putin. I don’t know who he is.”
— Trump, quoted by Yahoo News today.
Bernie’s Graceful Exit
Politico: “It took Bernie Sanders quite a while to internalize the fact that he hadn’t actually beaten Clinton despite receiving 3.7 million fewer votes – but he’s been a more or less exemplary partner to Clinton as she tried to tame the Never Hillary crowd. The nascent Sanders-Clinton alliance is neither intuitive (she questioned whether or not he was even a real Democrat during the primaries) nor especially warm, but it’s proving durable enough for their mutual purposes.”
“Clinton’s aides were intent to give Sanders something Donald Trump was never willing to offer Ted Cruz – dignity and respect in defeat, a graceful exit, an evening to bask in his accomplishments. It worked. Cruz was defiant and divisive, Sanders was domesticated and uncharacteristically sentimental.”
Quote of the Day
“What I think is scary is a president who doesn’t know their stuff.”
— President Obama, in an interview with the Today Show.
Trump Won’t Release His Taxes
Paul Manafort told CBS News that Donald Trump would not be releasing his tax information.
Said Manafort: “Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them… It has nothing to do with Russia, it has nothing to do with any country other than the United States and his normal tax auditing process.”
Ron Fournier: “Trump must be made to release his tax records because he repeatedly promised to do so; because every major presidential candidate in the modern era has done so; because Richard Nixon released his tax returns while being audited, which is Trump’s latest excuse for reneging; because voters have a right to know how much he pays in taxes and to charities; because there are credible and concerning links between Trump and the Russian government, which is suspected of hacking the Democratic National Committee computers and leaking embarrassing bits.”
How Sanders Scored Big Wins
Todd Purdum: “It’s fashionable to deride party platforms as passé, if not irrelevant. But as black-and-white, albeit non-binding, statements of aspiration and intent, they can still matter, perhaps seldom more than this year, when Sanders really did force Clinton to move the needle on most of the issues he cares about most.”
“That Clinton moved so far, on such core liberal policies, would have seemed inconceivable only a few months ago when Sanders began his ‘political revolution.'”