Jim Gilmore is ending his long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination, USA Today reports.
“Gilmore suspended his campaign following a poor performance in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, which followed an even worse showing Feb. 1 in Iowa, where he barely campaigned and was the choice of only 12 caucusgoers. Fewer than a dozen people showed up at his New Hampshire election night party.”
“If Ted Cruz doesn’t clean up his act, stop cheating and doing negative ads, I have standing to sue him for not being a natural born citizen.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by Politico.
Washington Post: “Long guarded by aides vigilantly limiting his exposure, Rubio has abruptly morphed into a freewheeling raconteur in front of a press pack that he has kept at a distance since launching his presidential run last April.”
“The Florida senator says he always planned to open up this way as the nomination battle moved beyond the more intimate early states, where his time was dominated by meeting voters one-on-one. But the shift feels more like a prescription for healing the deep wounds left by his devastating showing at the last GOP debate, where he was mocked for being too scripted and robotic after repeating the same phrase four times.”
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that if Bernie Sanders has a chance of drawing African-American voters away from Hillary Clinton in the South Carolina primary on Feb. 27, his best opportunity will be among the young.
Key findings: “African Americans support Clinton by more than a 3-to-1 margin nationwide, but among young blacks 18 to 29 years old, that margin shrinks to 46 percent for Clinton versus 33 percent for Sanders… African Americans overwhelmingly back Democrats, but opinion polls show younger blacks more apt to reject an establishment candidate. They seem less inclined than their parents to reward Clinton for the outreach of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and more drawn to Sanders’ outspoken views on reducing income inequality, cracking down on Wall Street, and cutting the cost of college.”
“Donald Trump has a new line of attack against Ted Cruz — he’s a liar,” Politico reports.
“In just a little more than 24 hours, Trump has tweeted six times with some variation of the notion that the Texas senator is not truthful.”
Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau drafted a Donald Trump victory speech for the Daily Beast.
“It’s not something I necessarily enjoyed doing, anymore than I would enjoy channeling the voice of Kim Jong Un or a Kardashian. But Trump’s victory in New Hampshire has vaulted him to the top of the delegate race. He’s leading in dozens of other states. And since the possibility of a Trump nomination is as real as it’s ever been, I want people to be prepared for what he might sound like in a general election.”
“After a debate performance in which she painted Bernie Sanders as a fringe candidate whose policies bordered on fantasy, Hillary Clinton and her allies intensified the pressure on the Vermont senator on Friday, burnishing her embrace of President Obama and seeking to solidify her support among blacks,” the New York Times reports.
“I have a primary, you know.”
— Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), quoted by Bloomberg, on why he is stopping work on the Senate Banking Committee, which he chairs.
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) praised Donald Trump for speaking his mind, The Hill reports.
Said Reid: “You may not agree with his authenticity, but he’s authentic. People like that. He speaks his mind, which reminds me of me once in a while. I think that’s something that’s refreshing.”
He added: “He just says whatever he thinks is appropriate. I think some of the stuff is not so good but he does that. People identify with that.”
A new Opinion Savvy Poll in South Carolina finds Donald Trump leading the GOP field with 36%, followed by Ted Cruz at 19%, Marco Rubio at 15%, Jeb Bush at 11%, John Kasich at 9% and Ben Carson at 5%.
A Washington Free Beacon/Targetpoint poll in Nevada shows Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tied at 45% each among likely caucusgoers.
Sen. Ted Cruz is out with a creative ad that features children playing with a Donald Trump action figure.
First Read: “The Cruz ads stand out because so many of the other campaigns are running cookie-cutter formulaic spots.”
NBC News: “A focus group sponsored by The Riley Institute at Furman University and moderated by pollster Peter Hart revealed significant anxiety among some GOP primary voters about Trump as a candidate, but all of the ten participants said they would still support Trump over Hillary Clinton in a general election matchup, and all but two said they expect him to win the state’s primary next Saturday.”
“Asked to name the candidate most capable of beating the Democratic nominee in November, only one participant named the current GOP frontrunner. But while a majority called Trump divisive, all but three in the group said his candidacy has had a net positive effect on the party by mobilizing disaffected voters.”
Ben Carson told Morning Joe that Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign tactics in Iowa were “despicable” and “devastating.”
Said Carson: “Our internal polling and some external polling showed us doing significantly better than we did. But you know, it’s water under the bridge. It’s not that many delegates. It’s a long race. You know, it’s a nine-inning game. We don’t call it after the second inning. We’re going to do just fine.”
“In the two years between resigning as secretary of state and launching her presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton personally received $4.1 million in fees from financial institutions for closed-door talks that attendees described as friendly and light,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Most of Mrs. Clinton’s comments steered clear of anything that could become controversial in her fight for the Democratic nomination, say people who attended some of these events or were briefed on them. She didn’t often talk about the financial crisis, but when she did, she almost always struck an amicable tone, according to these people. In some cases, she thanked the audience for what they had done for the country, the people said. One attendee said the warmth with which Mrs. Clinton greeted guests bordered on ‘gushy.'”
Politico: “Almost 85 percent of Republican insiders said Trump isn’t on a glide path to become the party’s nominee, despite a 22-point win in the New Hampshire primary this week.”
“Their rationale is partly about math – Trump has a solid plurality of the vote in many states, but polls suggest he is too polarizing to win over a majority of Republicans – and partly grounded in the belief that the brash, sometimes-profane real-estate mogul will wilt once the other candidates turn their fire on him.”
For members: The deadline to stop Trump is approaching.
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.