“I’ve promised that during this next campaign season, I will not talk.”
— Barbara Bush, quoted by Politico.
Graham Welcomes Caitlyn Jenner as a Republican
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CNN that he welcomes Caitlyn Jenner into the Republican party.
Said Graham: “I haven’t walked in her shoes. I don’t have all the answers to the mysteries of life. I can only imagine the torment that Bruce Jenner went through. I hope he’s — I hope she has found peace.”
He added: “I’m a pro-life, traditional marriage kind of guy, but I’m running to be president of the United States. If Caitlyn Jenner wants to be a Republican, she is welcome in my party.”
Is Today’s Politics Incompatible with Governing?
First Read: “In today’s highly polarized political world, this is how you win elections — by motivating your base and by recognizing there are few swing voters left. But it also makes governing harder, especially when the parties are trading electoral victories every two years (with Democrats benefitting from presidential turnouts, and with Republicans benefitting from midterm turnouts). When you have data-driven candidates appealing to win 51% of voters, it means that a president’s job-approval rating is never going to get much higher than that, and it means that bipartisan policy goals (like the TPP free-trade agreement) are the exception rather than the rule.”
“Bottom line: Campaigns don’t engage in persuasion anymore. They simply look for unmotivated like-minded potential voters and find an issue to motivate them. And if someone wins office by not having to persuade a voter who actually swings between the two parties, there isn’t any motivation for said elected official to compromise. This cycle of polarization will continue until someone wins a massive election based on a different premise.”
Sanders Gets 41% in Straw Poll
Rick Klein: “Straw polls don’t count for anything, and second place is, well, second place. But how many of these before it will become something? Hillary Clinton captured 49 percent of the vote at the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s convention over the weekend, in a straw poll conducted by WisPolitics.com. The story, though, was second place: Bernie Sanders got 41 percent, just eight points behind Clinton and far ahead of his low-single-digits rivals.”
“It’s the latest sign that Sanders is poised to inherit at least a solid portion of the Ready-for-Warren energy. And it speaks to a longstanding contention that if Clinton is vulnerable, it’s on her left. The labor-friendly progressives who dominate Wisconsin Democratic politics aren’t necessarily representative of the primary electorate, though Wisconsin was among the states that broke Clinton’s heart in the 2008 primaries. With recent events putting Clinton’s vulnerabilities on greater display, the possibility of at least one of her challengers getting a serious look is growing.”
A Three Wing Circus
My column in The Week: Can any GOP candidate unite the party?
Cheney Doesn’t Get Obama
Former Vice President Dick Cheney (R) said that he can not figure out what motivates President Obama, The Hill reports.
Said Cheney: “I’ve tried for a long time to understand what makes him tick, and frankly, I don’t know.”
Quote of the Day
“Let me tell you a secret: We’re going to win New Hampshire.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), quoted by the Keene Sentinel.
Rubio Channels JFK
While campaigning in Iowa, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “presented the 2016 campaign as a generational pivot point, likening his vision for a ‘New American Century’… to Kennedy’s 1960 challenge to the nation to embrace a ‘New Frontier,'” National Journal reports.
Said Rubio: “Asked six decades ago, this nation and that generation chose to embrace a New Frontier. In fact, they took up the challenge of a then young president who said, ‘Ask not what your country can do, ask what you can do for your country.'”
Bush Rakes In Speaking Fees Too
“As critics over the years have chided Bill Clinton and also his wife for the industriousness with which they have pursued opportunities to get paid a lot of money in this manner, Bush, too, has been doing exactly what he said he would be doing. Since 2009, Politico has found, Bush has given at least 200 paid speeches and probably many more, typically pocketing $100,000 to $175,000 per appearance. The part-time work, which rarely requires more than an hour on stage, has earned him tens of millions of dollars.”
“Relative to the Clintons, though, he’s attracted considerably less attention, almost always doing his paid public speaking in private, in convention centers and hotel ballrooms, resorts and casinos, from Canada to Asia, from New York to Miami, from all over Texas to Las Vegas a bunch, playing his part in what has become a lucrative staple of the modern post-presidency.”
Clinton Plans Series of Policy Speeches
“Hillary Clinton is planning about a dozen speeches and announcements in the coming months on social and economic policy, aides say, with topics that include college affordability, women’s pay equity and Wall Street regulation,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“So far, Mrs. Clinton has been silent on several economic issues that animate many core Democratic voters and that her Democratic opponents are pressing from the left, but which don’t win universal support inside the party.”
Fate of ‘Fast Track’ Still Unclear in House
“Supporters of a controversial trade bill are increasingly confident they can secure the votes needed to pass so-called fast-track legislation when it hits the House floor, which could come as early as this week,” Politico reports.
“Still, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and other GOP leaders have not yet committed to bringing up Trade Promotion Authority by week’s end, a sign that while pro-trade leaders in the House are closing in on the 217 ayes they need to pass the bill, the contentious vote remains very close.”
Wall Street Journal: “The decades-old argument that trade agreements boost both exports and jobs at home is losing its political punch, even in some of the U.S.’s most export-heavy regions.”
Majority Wants Court to Keep Obamacare Intact
“The Affordable Care Act hangs in the balance in the Supreme Court for the second time in three years, but the public has rendered a judgment ahead of the court’s ruling. By a margin of 55 percent to 38 percent, more people say the court should not take action to block federal subsidies in states that didn’t set up their own exchanges,” according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Turkey’s Election Is a Blow to Erdogan
“Turkish voters delivered a dramatic blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice Development Party on Sunday, with results showing it losing its majority in parliament,” the Washington Post reports.
“And, in a historic first, a party dominated by ethnic Kurds surged into the Grand National Assembly in Ankara, marking a new moment in the evolution of Turkey’s democracy as well as a direct challenge to Erdogan’s own ambitions to consolidate power as president.”
Quote of the Day
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Folks in New Jersey have plenty of an opportunity to vote. Maybe, you know, if she took some questions some places and learned some things, maybe she wouldn’t make such ridiculous statements.”
— Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by Politico, on Hillary Clinton’s critique of state voting restrictions.
Number of Abortions Dropping
“Abortions have declined in states where new laws make it harder to have them — but they’ve also waned in states where abortion rights are protected, an Associated Press survey finds. Nearly everywhere, in red states and blue, abortions are down since 2010.”
“Explanations vary. Abortion-rights advocates attribute it to expanded access to effective contraceptives and a drop in unintended pregnancies. Some foes of abortion say there has been a shift in societal attitudes, with more women choosing to carry their pregnancies to term.”
Jindal at New Low as He Launches Presidential Bid
“Just weeks before he is expected to announce his presidential campaign, Bobby Jindal is at the nadir of his political career,” the Washington Post reports.
“The Republican governor is at open war with many of his erstwhile allies in the business community and the legislature. He spent weeks pushing a ‘religious freedom’ bill that failed to pass, while having little contact with legislators trying to solve Louisiana’s worst budget crisis in 25 years.”
“Jindal is now so unpopular in deep-red Louisiana that his approval rating plunged to 32% in a recent poll — compared with 42% for President Obama, who lost the state by 17 percentage points in 2012.”
Clinton Opts for Narrow Path to White House
Hillary Clinton “appears to be dispensing with the nationwide electoral strategy that won her husband two terms in the White House and brought white working-class voters and great stretches of what is now red-state America back to Democrats,” the New York Times reports.
“Instead, she is poised to retrace Barack Obama’s far narrower path to the presidency: a campaign focused more on mobilizing supporters in the Great Lakes states and in parts of the West and South than on persuading undecided voters.”
“Mrs. Clinton’s aides say it is the only way to win in an era of heightened polarization, when a declining pool of voters is truly up for grabs… This early in the campaign, however, forgoing a determined outreach effort to all 50 states, or even most of them, could mean missing out on the kind of spirited conversation that can be a unifying feature of a presidential election.”
How Hastert Rushed to Make Money
“After a relatively slow start to his career as a consultant and lobbyist, J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, became very busy in 2010…. He also made an unusual request to one of his business associates: to find a financial adviser who could come up with a plan for an annuity that would generate a substantial cash payout each year,” the New York Times reports.
“The request came just a few weeks before Mr. Hastert, according to charges in a federal indictment, made his first payment to a man known as ‘Individual A’ in what was to be a total of $3.5 million.”
