When a supporter told him it’s “time to take the gloves off” at a rally in Georgia, Gov. John Kasich didn’t sound like he’s going to be running much longer.
Said Kasich: “I don’t know if my purpose is to be president. My purpose is to be out here, doing what I think I need to be doing and we’ll see where it ends up. And if it’s not this crusade, then it will be another one. Maybe it will be a really small one somewhere in my kid’s school. Who knows?”
First Read: “Today is the Nevada contest on the Republican side, but don’t expect to find out the results at a reasonable hour. Caucus-goers start gathering between 8:00 pm ET and 10:00 pm ET (submitting votes via paper ballot). All meetings end by midnight ET. In addition, the contest doesn’t have a history of being well run.”
“Bottom line: We won’t know who wins until very late – even possibly tomorrow.”
Jon Ralston says the best case scenario is getting results by 2 a.m. ET.
“Nobody reads the Bible more than me.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by USA Today.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 41%, followed by Ted Cruz at 19%, Marco Rubio at 13%, Ben Carson at 10% and John Kasich at 8%.
In a three-way race, Trump leads with 46%, followed by Cruz at 25% and Rubio at 25%.
For members: It’s Wrong to Say Trump Has a Ceiling
A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential field with 36% support, followed by Marco Rubio at 21% and Ted Cruz at 17%.
For Trump, that’s a five-point gain in support from the beginning of this month while Rubio’s support has held steady, while support for Cruz has fallen slightly.
“Emerging from a meeting in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office Tuesday, top Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee said there will be no confirmation hearings on a Supreme Court nominee,” CNN reports.
Said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX): “We believe the American people need to decide who is going to make this appointment rather than a lame-duck president.”
Washington Post: “McConnell and Republicans on the committee additionally said they would not even hold face-to-face meetings with the nominee, the most basic traditional courtesy that every member of the committee and most rank-and-file senators give to the prospective justice.”
“A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that State Department officials and top aides to Hillary Clinton should be questioned under oath about whether they intentionally thwarted federal open records laws by using or allowing the use of a private email server throughout Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013,” the Washington Post reports.
“A State Department official said that the department is aware of the order and that it is reviewing it but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing litigation. Discovery orders are not readily appealable.”
Reuters has released White House Run, a new iPhone app that lets you “build the perfect candidate” to compete with your friends on Facebook. Your candidate will have their electability assessed by comparing their stances on the issues to national polling data.
Donald Trump hasn’t spent a single cent on ads in Super Tuesday states, NBC News reports.
In contrast, Marco Rubio’s Super PAC is advertising in eight states at $1.2 million, while Ted Cruz’s campaign is up with $185,000 in five states.
President Obama urged lawmakers “to help him close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as he made the case for a White House roadmap for shuttering a detention facility he said symbolized the excesses that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks,” the Washington Post reports.
“Obama’s blueprint, which provided some detail to earlier White House plans to move up to 60 prisoners to the United States for trial or continued detention, was met with immediate condemnation from Capitol Hill.”
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn faced a tough crowd in the House of Commons.
Gov. Mark Dayton (D) personally revoked a personalized Minnesota license plates reading ‘FMUSLMS,’ the Pioneer Press reports.
Dayton said he was “appalled” the state had issued the plates: “It is offensive, and the person who requested it should be ashamed. That prejudice has no place in Minnesota.”
First Read: “The Stop Trump movement is now picking up momentum with just a week to go until Super Tuesday (where 595 delegates are up for grabs on the Republican side). Yesterday, for instance, we saw more members of the GOP establishment — Sen. Orrin Hatch, Sen. Dan Coats, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Bob Dole — endorse Marco Rubio. But maybe the biggest impediment to stopping Trump right now is … John Kasich.”
“Think about it: If you assume that a big chunk of the Jeb Bush vote goes to Rubio, that means that Rubio can rack up delegates under the proportional allocation formulas. But Rubio won’t be able to grow his percentages as long as Kasich is in the race and competing in Super Tuesday states like Georgia (where he campaigns today), Tennessee (where he’ll be Friday and Saturday). And with Kasich in the race, it’s possible that Trump could sweep the Super Tuesday states a week from now – he’s in striking distance in Texas, where the University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll has him trailing Ted Cruz there by just eight points (and that poll was taken before Saturday’s South Carolina results).”
“If you’re the GOP establishment, the good news is the Quinnipiac poll showing Kasich losing to Trump in his home state of Ohio. The bad news: We’re just a week out from Super Tuesday, and it doesn’t look like Kasich is going anywhere anytime soon.”
Sen. Marco Rubio refused to predict which states he might win, the Washington Post reports.
Said Rubio: “We look forward to continuing to add delegates to our count, and as we get into the winner-take-all states, I think we’re going to be in a very strong position.”
“You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks… I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell ya.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by The Guardian.
Sen. Ted Cruz said that he “would use federal immigration officers to round up and deport all 12 million people in the country illegally — a markedly tougher stance that he has struck in the past,” the Dallas Morning News reports.
“The toughening stance comes after a disappointing, if narrow, third place finish in South Carolina on Saturday, with immigration hardliner Donald Trump strengthening his grip on the race.”
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.