White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said that President Obama will not publicly endorse a candidate before the 2016 Democratic primary election, Reuters reports.
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Trump Up Big In New Hampshire
A new NBC/WSJ/Marist poll in New Hampshire finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 30%, followed by Marco Rubio at 14%, Chris Christie at 12%, Ted Cruz at 10%, John Kasich at 9% and Jeb Bush at 9%.
“That means that the four Republicans vying in the establishment lane of the GOP contest – Rubio, Christie, Kasich and Bush – are dividing up 44 percent of the total vote.”
In the Democratic race, Sanders is ahead of Clinton by four points among likely primary voters, 50% to 46%.
Cruz Holds Edge in Iowa
A new NBC/WSJ/Marist poll in Iowa finds Ted Cruz leading the GOP presidential race with 28% among likely voters, followed by Donald Trump at 24%, Marco Rubio at 13% and Ben Carson at 11%. No other Republican candidate gets more than 5% of the vote.
Key finding: “Yet among the larger universe of potential Iowa caucus-goers, Trump actually leads Cruz by two points, 26% to 24%, suggesting that a larger turnout could benefit Trump in the state.”
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton holds just a three-point lead among likely voters over Bernie Sanders, 48% to 45%.
Supreme Court Has Full Election Year Agenda
“The Supreme Court starts the new year Monday with a politically charged battle over organized labor, only one of the controversies that are putting the ideologically divided and aging justices at the center of the presidential campaign,” the Washington Post reports.
“Already on the docket are abortion, affirmative action, the rights of religious objectors to opt out of legal obligations, and a clutch of election-law disputes that could benefit one political party over another. The court will probably soon add a review of President Obama’s executive actions aiming to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.”
“The agenda provides a dramatic confluence of a Supreme Court term with a presidential election.”
Trump Quote of the Day
“I’m going all the way. If I don’t win, I don’t win.”
— Donald Trump, in an interview with NBC News, on whether he would drop out of the GOP presidential race before the convention.
Trump Raises Doubts About Cruz’s Citizenship Again
Donald Trump says it would be a risky move to give Sen. Ted Cruz the Republican party’s nomination for president amid questions about his eligibility, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “It’s not a settled matter. He was born in Canada. And I say to Ted, and as a Republican I say it, because I think it’s very important, you gotta get it straightened out.”
Clinton Says Only She Can Stop Republicans
Hillary Clinton has released an aggressive new attack ad, fanning fears about the main Republican presidential candidates to make the point that she, and no other Democrat, “can stop them,” the New York Times reports.
Dan Balz: “The more the Republican candidates have amped up their rhetoric, the more they have triggered a sharp response from the Democrats. Hillary Clinton, who said last fall that she is proud to think of Republicans as enemies, never seems happier on the campaign trail than when she is denouncing the other party as one captured by extremists.”
Trump Praises North Korean Leader
Donald Trump said that North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, deserves “credit” for taking over his country at such a young age, Business Insider reports.
Said Trump: “If you look at North Korea, this guy, I mean, he’s like a maniac, OK? And you’ve got to give him credit. How many young guys — he was like 26 or 25 when his father died — take over these tough generals.”
He added: “He goes in, he takes over, and he’s the boss. It’s incredible. He wiped out the uncle. He wiped out this one, that one. I mean, this guy doesn’t play games. And we can’t play games with him. Because he really does have missiles. And he really does have nukes.”
Trump Is Only Getting Stronger
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Bloomberg Polled Possible Three-Way Race
New York Times: “Some political leaders, eyeing the Republican split, are sensing opportunity. Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire media executive and former New York mayor, was intrigued enough by the prospect of Mr. Trump’s becoming the Republican standard-bearer that he commissioned a poll last month testing how he would fare against Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton, according to two sources close to Mr. Bloomberg.”
“Whatever Mr. Bloomberg decides, the election so far has been upended by voters who live far from his world and, for the first time in years, feel as if their voices are being heard.”
Trump Would Let Children Run His Businesses
Associated Press: “On the most basic level, federal ethics rules would not bar Trump from personally running his business interests from the White House. But he has said he expects to hand over the reins at the Trump Organization to his children if he wins.”
Town and Country: Ivanka Trump talks of being a mogul, mother and more.
Rivals Dig at Rubio’s Masculinity
Politico: “Only during an election cycle in which a billionaire who lives in a gold-plated Fifth Avenue apartment serves as the blue-collar candidate could it make any sense that a first-generation American who’s been in debt much of his adult life can be so easily depicted as an effete elitist for wearing a pair of $130 boots — shiny and fashion-forward as those boots may be.”
“Yet here we are. Roughly 48 hours after a photo of the high-heeled boots Marco Rubio wore in New Hampshire went viral, several Republican competitors are exploiting the opportunity to tease the young senator.”
Republicans Grow More Positive About Cruz
Sen. Ted Cruz “has emerged as the Republican Party’s strongest challenger to frontrunner Donald Trump, inching up in Economist/YouGov Polls. He is the second choice of 40% of Trump supporters among Republican primary voters, and his favorable ratings have climbed 20 points in the last six months.”
“Among all Republican primary voters, Cruz is the clear second choice. More than four in ten primary voters name Cruz as either their first or second choice. But Trump is still ahead of both the senators: nearly half say the New York businessman is their first or second choice.”
For members: Why Cruz may be able to unite Republicans.
Cruz Is Hated by the Right People
Byron York: “I sent Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler an email asking how Cruz has made unpopularity work for him. Tyler sent back a response with no words at all but rather a graphic of a Gallup daily tracking poll on Republican candidate favorability… Cruz was at the top of the chart, with 61% of Republicans saying they have a favorable opinion of him, versus 16% with an unfavorable opinion — a 45-point net favorable rating that put Cruz ahead of Ben Carson (40 point net favorable), Marco Rubio (35), Donald Trump (24), and the rest of the GOP field.”
“No explanation required. The Republican establishment is held in such contempt that, when it comes to the party’s base, a candidate’s best way to get ahead is to be hated by all the right people.”
A Century of Political Spin
David Greenberg: “We gripe about the suffocating presence of ‘spin’: the policies tested by pollsters and focus groups, the slogans and laugh lines penned by speechwriters, the staged photo ops and town-hall meetings… But the spin that we find so pervasive today is nothing new. It actually goes back more than a century. In fact, all those revered past presidents were pioneers in honing the modern methods of image-making and message-craft that we now so often denounce.”
“Since Theodore Roosevelt’s day, when candidates began campaigning for votes and presidents started regularly courting the public, politicians have been refining the tools and techniques of what we now call spin. Spin turns out to be woven into the fabric of American politics, and though it is hardly an unmixed good, it is inseparable from many of the signature achievements of our greatest leaders.”
Kasich Snags Portman’s Endorsement
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) soon will endorse Gov. John Kasich for president, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
“Top Ohio Republican backs another top Ohio Republican. That’s how it always works, no? In most cases you would be correct. But Portman’s case is somewhat special. Consider that he served in the White House under President George H.W. Bush and later returned for two high-profile posts under President George W. Bush. Family loyalties might have compelled Portman to get behind Jeb Bush’s candidacy.”
Trump Way Ahead in New Hampshire
A new NH News 1 poll in New Hampshire finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 32%, followed by Jeb Bush at 12%, John Kasich at 12%, Chris Christie at 11%, Ted Cruz at 11%, Marco Rubio at 10% and Carly Fiorina at 5%.
Paul Calls for End of Undercard Debate
Sen. Rand Paul “thinks it’s time to do away with the undercard Republican presidential debate,” Politico reports.
Said Paul: “I’m not sure where the purpose is anymore, if there ever was one. I think if you have a national campaign, you’ve raised a significant amount of money, you’re on the ballot, you’ve employed staff and you’re actively campaigning, you’ve got to be in the debate.”
