Just published: The Ultimate Art of War: A Step-by-Step Illustrated Guide to Sun Tzu’s Teachings by Antony Cummins.
“This is the most accessible edition of Art of War ever produced, with the text broken down into digestible individual lessons, unique teaching illustrations to clarify the text, and step-by-step commentary that draws on the full range of recent translations and ancient commentators.”
New York Times: “Ms. Warren is expected to reveal additional support from Democratic officials this week in conjunction with Tuesday’s CNN/New York Times debate and the release of her smashing third-quarter financial disclosure. Yet her growing crowd sizes, soaring fund-raising and surge to the top of a number of national and early-state polls only shine a brighter light on one of the most revealing elements of this primary: the widening gap between the preferences of many Democratic voters and the lawmakers who represent them.”
“Ms. Warren is now a clear front-runner in the race for her party’s nomination, yet just under four months before the leadoff Iowa caucuses she lacks the support of a single governor, big-city mayor or fellow senator outside Massachusetts.”
Walter Shapiro: “Awash in advice from constitutional scholars, House Democrats desperately need to hear from top theatrical directors. Because the only way that Trump’s impeachment will be more than a Democrats-only quest is if the dramatic arc becomes as compelling as Watergate. And that means that the target audience now should be wavering Republican voters appalled by Trump’s conduct and Republican legislators who are privately ashamed of their timidity.”
Olivia Nuzzi: “The truth is, Trump fatigue is a condition that knows no party, and many Republicans are as tired of this shit as anybody else. That’s not to say they’re outraged, or motivated to Make a Difference. They’re just tired. You can live inside the right-wing bubble in a state of depression, resigned to the fact that, yeah, every five minutes or so, the president is probably going to do something norm-shattering or potentially impeachable, and no, you probably won’t or can’t do anything to change that. Sad!”
“‘I’m totally bored by the story,’ one person who speaks regularly with the president told me. ‘There’s nothing to it. I already know all the details.’ This person is bored more generally, too — with the topic of Donald Trump. When we talk about what it would take for the president’s defenders to turn on him, this crucial piece is missing: You can’t feel outraged if you can no longer feel anything at all.”
As the impeachment probe intensifies and Syria devolves into chaos following the withdrawal of U.S. troops, President Trump is encouraging his supporters to vote to keep “good guy” former press secretary Sean Spicer on Dancing with the Stars.
As we noted last night, a video depicting mass murder by President Trump — in a church! — was shown at a conference of the president’s supporters at the Trump National Doral Miami resort.
Fiona Hill, President Trump’s former top Russia aide, arrived at the Capitol to testify in impeachment probe, Politico reports.
NPR: “Hill, who declined to elaborate on her planned testimony, is expected to discuss concerns she raised over the ouster of longtime diplomat Marie Yovanovitch, whose removal as the ambassador of Ukraine has become a key topic in the impeachment inquiry. She is also likely to speak about how, in her view, Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, were operating a Ukraine policy outside of the National Security Council.”
A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds 95% of Democrats and 61% of independents say they are not confident President Trump will follow through on his promises to propose a new health care plan. In fact, just 37% of those polled were even aware that Trump had promised to release a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.
However, 81% of Republicans are somewhat or very confident Trump will deliver on his health care promises.
“President Trump loomed large over Louisiana’s governor’s race a day after Gov. John Bel Edwards fell short of winning Saturday’s primary outright, forcing him to face businessman Eddie Rispone in next month’s runoff,” the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
“About 200,000 more people voted in the primary compared to the 2015 runoff election that Edwards won, an increase of about 17%. An analysis on Sunday by Jim Kitchens, who was the governor’s pollster four years ago and was an independent consultant for his campaign this year, indicated that most of the 200,000 were white rural voters who voted for Rispone or Abraham.”
“China wants further talks as soon as the end of October to hammer out the details of the ‘phase one’ trade deal touted by Donald Trump before Xi Jinping agrees to sign it,” Bloomberg reports.
“Beijing may send a delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He, China’s top negotiator, to finalize a written deal that could be signed by the presidents at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month in Chile, one of the people said. Another person said China wants Trump to also scrap a planned tariff hike in December in addition to the hike scheduled for this week, something the administration hasn’t yet endorsed.”
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) said she will attend this week’s Democratic debate after earlier suggesting she might boycott the event over perceived unfair treatment, The Hill reports.
Nate Silver: “Warren’s gains have come mostly at the expense of the rest of the field — from Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, in particular — and from other candidates, such as Cory Booker, whose campaigns never really took off in the first place. Relatively little of Warren’s increased support has come from Biden, whose topline numbers have mostly been steady.”
“In fact, Biden’s numbers haven’t declined at all since President Trump’s phone call with Ukraine became the dominant political story.”
Calling out President Trump by name, former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign introduced a plan on Monday to “strengthen our laws to ensure that no future president can ever again abuse the office for personal gain,” Axios reports.
“The ambitious plan, which comes as the Trump campaign continues to promote unsubstantiated corruption allegations against Biden himself, would seek to end the influence of money in politics and curb conflicts of interest.”
Politico: “Bernie Sanders is recovering from his heart attack. Joe Biden is under siege, and laying into Donald Trump. And the entire Democratic presidential field has become consumed with the House’s impeachment inquiry into the Republican president.”
“With so many candidates responding to circumstances beyond their control — and the threat of a destabilizing moment running high on a stage that’s expanding to 12 candidates from 10 — it’s raising the specter of a debate Tuesday that finally breaks the Democratic primary logjam.”
“As President Trump approaches his 1,000th day in office Wednesday, he has significantly stepped up his pace of spouting exaggerated numbers, unwarranted boasts and outright falsehoods,” the Washington Post reports.
“As of Oct. 9, his 993rd day in office, he had made 13,435 false or misleading claims… That’s an average of almost 22 claims a day since our last update 65 days ago.”
Washington Post: “Victimization has long been central to Trump’s political identity, rooting him in the grievance politics of the right and inspiring in his millions of followers a duty to protect the president from any perceived threat. But Trump’s feelings of oppression and persecution have been especially pronounced during the impeachment crisis.”
“As Trump tells it, he is the victim of a corrupt, ‘deep state’ whistleblower who, along with other perceived enemies, has orchestrated a broad conspiracy to claim malfeasance in his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — which, in the president’s estimation, was ‘perfect’ and ‘totally appropriate.'”
David Leonhardt: “Trump deserves to be impeached on the merits, and, if he is, it will probably further sully him in the eyes of swing voters, much as it did to Clinton. The big question now is how well will Democrats handle the process. They should move quickly to hold more public hearings, rather than the private sessions they held last week, so Americans can better understand how Trump has perverted American foreign policy and national security for his own benefit.”
“Ultimately, impeachment may well hurt some Democrats from Trump-friendly districts, much as it hurt several Republicans 20 years ago. But it is also very likely to damage Trump — as his own sullen reaction suggests that he realizes. That’s a trade-off worth making.”
“For 24 hours last week, Trey Gowdy, the former South Carolina congressman best known for leading congressional investigations of Hillary Clinton, was the new face of President Trump’s outside legal defense and a symbol of a streamlined effort to respond to a fast-moving impeachment inquiry,” the New York Times reports.
“A day later, the arrangement fell apart, with lobbying rules prohibiting Mr. Gowdy from starting until January, possibly after the inquiry is over. Now, according to two people familiar with events, Mr. Gowdy is never expected to join the team. And Trump advisers are back to square one, searching for a different lawyer.”
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.
