“In an attempt to head off an ugly conflict at its convention this summer, the Democratic National Committee plans to offer a concession to Sen. Bernie Sanders — seats on a key convention platform committee — but it may not be enough to stop Sanders from picking a fight over the party’s policy positions,” the Washington Post reports.
“Allies of both Clinton and Sanders have urged Democratic leaders to meet some of Sanders’s more mundane demands for greater inclusion at the Philadelphia convention. Their decision to do so is expected to be finalized by the end of the week, according to two people familiar with the discussions. But growing mistrust between Sanders supporters and party leaders have threatened to undermine that effort.”
“As tensions were escalating between Bernie Sanders and Democratic Party leaders over the chaos caused by his supporters at a Nevada convention, Dick Durbin got an unexpected call from the Vermont senator,” Bloomberg reports.
“Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, came away from the conversation on Wednesday convinced that Sanders, who has all but lost the presidential nomination battle to Hillary Clinton, understands the need for party unity and will do his part to defeat presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.”
“Hundreds of millions of dollars that Republican groups had been poised to spend in the 2016 presidential election are now increasingly likely to move into Senate and House races, as many big donors look to distance themselves from the party’s presumptive nominee, Donald J. Trump,” the New York Times reports.
“These groups and their Democratic counterparts have already spent more than $25 million on advertising in Senate general election races alone, according to Kantar Media/CMAG, significantly outpacing both the 2014 and 2012 campaigns in outside spending. And more than $134 million in advertising for Senate races alone has been reserved by groups for the general election.”
“Donald Trump will have another chance to reassure wary conservatives still reluctant to back a candidate who once expressed support for an assault weapons ban and contributed to anti-gun Democrats when he speaks at the National Rifle Association’s national convention Friday,” NBC News reports.
“Since expressing support for the ban and a longer waiting period for gun purchases in 2000, Trump’s done an about-face on the issue. He’s since called gun bans ‘a total failure,’ opposed an expansion of background checks and called for concealed carry permits to be valid across all 50 states.”
“Homosexuality is a chosen behavior that is contrary to the fundamental unchanging truths that has been ordained by God in the Bible, recognized by our nations founders, and shared by the majority of Texans.”
— The Texas Republican Party platform, which Reuters notes includes an errant comma suggesting that the majority of Texans are gay.
Norm Ornstein: “In this highly charged election, it’s no surprise that the news media see every poll like an addict sees a new fix. That is especially true of polls that show large and unexpected changes. Those polls get intense coverage and analysis, adding to their presumed validity.”
“The problem is that the polls that make the news are also the ones most likely to be wrong. And to folks like us, who know the polling game and can sort out real trends from normal perturbations, too many of this year’s polls, and their coverage, have been cringeworthy.
Politico: “While a small group of Republicans has wrung its hands raw over the choice between the GOP’s nominee and Hillary Clinton, the party’s firmament – social and intellectual conservatives, the lobbyist and donor class, powerful operatives and outside groups – is increasingly getting in line behind Donald Trump.”
“Never mind that many of them complain about his bombastic and unpredictable political style. The thawing has slowly but surely begun – and it’s visible everywhere — from mega-donors like Foster Friess rallying Republican governors to Trump, to Mitt Romney’s allies agreeing to raise money for him, to leaders of the Never Trump movement conceding their cause is lost.”
“Hillary Clinton, seeking a governing coalition if she wins the White House, is pumping millions of dollars into key battleground states at the heart of her presidential map and Democrats’ quest to regain control of the Senate,” the AP reports.
“The Democratic National Committee and state parties are spending about $2 million initially to build coordinated campaigns in eight battleground states with competitive Senate races. The money is being raised by Clinton’s campaign through her Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that allows Clinton to raise large checks of more than $350,000 from wealthy donors.”
“Democrats say the coordinated effort, now a staple in presidential campaigns, will try to build up the party’s network of field organizers earlier in the election and work more closely with Senate, House and state and local campaigns than in previous election cycles.”
A new New York Times/CBS News poll finds Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 47% to 41%.
Key findings: “An overwhelming majority of Republican voters say their party’s leaders should get behind Donald Trump, even as he enters the general election saddled with toxic favorability ratings among the broader electorate.”
Jack Shafer: “If this makes the media complicit in Trump’s rise, so be it. But the media didn’t create the Trump political phenomenon. The real origin is far more interesting: Trump artfully created the media that in turn created Trump the presidential candidate.”
“There’s something truly original in all of this. Trump may yet turn out to be a fairly conventional American populist when it comes to his policy views, but he’s already proved revolutionary in his ability to create—and then manipulate—the media platforms that enable his politics. His breakthrough idea was to cash in on his four decades of media exposure with a political message that uniquely combined victimhood, bragging and patriotic obfuscation. To invert Marshall McLuhan’s most famous dictum, when it comes to politics, it’s the message—not the medium—that matters most in pushing a candidate to the top. But you can’t deliver the message unless you have the medium at your disposal.”
Just published: The Electors by Roy Neel and Tucker Neel.
“A riveting story of massive political corruption, The Electors follows a conspiracy hatched by the White House Chief of Staff, in the wake of a devastating terrorist incident in the nation’s Capitol.”
While discussing a bill that would raise the minimum age of exotic dancers from 18 to 21, Louisiana Rep. Kenny Havard (R) briefly proposed an amendment to cap dancers at 28 years old and 160 pounds, the Huffington Post reports.
Not all of Havard’s statehouse colleagues were amused. Rep. Julie Stokes (R) said she had “never been more repulsed to be part of the House of Representatives.”
BuzzFeed: “A decade before he launched his presidential bid, Donald Trump was a reality TV sensation in search of a new gimmick for the upcoming season of The Apprentice. In the summer of 2005, he thought he had found it: pit black contestants against white ones in the televised battle for boardroom supremacy.”
Hillary Clinton declared Donald Trump unqualified to be president, citing as her proof a list of the presumptive GOP nominee’s “irresponsible, reckless, dangerous comments,” MSNBC reports.
Said Clinton: “I have concluded he is not qualified to be president of the United States… The threat that Donald Trump poses is so dramatic — to our country, to our democracy, and to our economy.”
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The latest Economist/YouGov poll finds that 61% of Bernie Sanders voters have an unfavorable view of Hillary Clinton, while just 38% with a favorable one.
As Nate Silver notes, this has only gotten worse as the primary season continued:
The good news for Clinton is that 55% of these Sanders supporters will vote for her in the general election. But 15% say they will vote for Donald Trump and 30% are either undecided, will vote for a third party candidate or will stay home.
These voters are critical to Clinton’s prospects especially because many of them aren’t Democrats. Many are independents and have little use for the Democratic party.
Silver explains their importance as we head to the general election:
If Clinton wins over those voters, she’ll gain a few percentage points on Trump in national and swing state polls, and the race will potentially look more like it did in March and April, with Clinton having a fairly comfortable lead over Trump. If not, the general election could come down to the wire.
At this point, the best way for Clinton to appeal to these voters may be in her choice of a running mate.
Karl Rove games out the possibility of Hillary Clinton being indicted for problems stemming from her private email server.
“The party establishment might balk at having the ticket led by someone mired in a national-security scandal or by Mr. Sanders, a socialist and independent who has never before sought election as a Democrat or attended a state or national convention.”
“Instead, the party establishment might move to replace Mrs. Clinton with Vice President Joe Biden, a sentimental favorite, or Secretary of State John Kerry, whom many in the party’s leadership think more substantive, less prone to gaffes and, because of his 2004 loss against President George W. Bush, more deserving.”
Matt Bai: “In case you were wondering what Bill Clinton’s pet cause might be in his wife’s administration…Bill, she said, would be in charge of rebuilding the national economy… Economic policy isn’t something for which you name a czar… It’s kind of a central plank of the presidency. It’s the reason we elect you, more or less.”
“If Hillary wants to keep inspiring the little girls of this country, she probably shouldn’t go around saying she’ll turn over the big stuff to her husband… Because the larger problem with Clinton’s statement is that it exposes what’s really missing from her campaign — the vulnerability she’s left herself, even against a candidate as flawed as Trump…However admired a politician Bill may be, Americans don’t elect presidents with the expectation that their spouses will do the governing. She of all people should understand that.”
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.