A new WMUR poll in New Hampshire finds Donald Trump leads Ben Carson in the Republican presidential primary, 22% to 18%.
Carly Fiorina trails the frontrunners with 11%, followed by Jeb Bush and John Kasich both at 9%.
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CNN Binges on Donald Trump Coverage
“From June 16, the day he announced he was running, through Sept. 14, Mr. Trump has been the subject of at least 2,159 CNN reports,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“That is almost double the amount of time CNN has spent on former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who was leading the field prior to Mr. Trump’s rise. Mr. Bush has been mentioned in 1,087 stories during the same time. Next up is Ted Cruz with 416 mentions. No other candidates managed to crack 400 mentions on the Time Warner Inc. -owned news channel.”
Trump Quote of the Day
“We’re gonna make our military so big and so strong and so great and it will be so powerful that I don’t think we’re ever going to have to use it. Nobody’s gonna mess with us.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by the Washington Post.
Bush Super PAC Prepares Ad Blitz
“Right to Rise, the super PAC supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign, is laying down $24 million for an ad buy that begins Tuesday in Iowa and New Hampshire, according to a source familiar with buy,” CNN reports.
“The major purchase comes as the political arm of the outside group Club for Growth announced ads taking on Donald Trump’s record on fiscal issues. The ads could shift the dynamics in a race where Bush has been sliding as Trump has grown in strength. Of the $24 million, $6 million will be spent in Iowa, $12 million in New Hampshire and $4.7 million will be spent in South Carolina.”
Kristol Would Back Third Party Over Trump
Bill Kristol, the conservative pundit and editor of The Weekly Standard, said that he would vote for a third-party candidate if Donald Trump is the Republican presidential nominee, The Hill reports.
Said Kristol: “I doubt I’d support Donald. I doubt I’d support the Democrat. I think I’d support getting someone good on the ballot as a third party candidate.”
Biden Slams Trump on Immigration
Vice President Biden took aim at Donald Trump’s hard line on undocumented immigrants, CBS News reports.
Said Biden: “I don’t want anybody to be down right now about what’s going on in the Republican Party. I’m being deadly earnest about this. I want you to remember, notwithstanding the fact that there’s one guy absolutely denigrating an entire group of people. Appealing to the baser side of human nature. Working on this notion of xenophobia in a way that hasn’t occurred in a long time. Since the Know-Nothing party back at the end of the nineteenth century.”
Politico: “The vice president offered no updates on his own 2016 deliberations. But he criticized the real estate mogul in unusually stark terms, while urging the crowd not to take ‘Trump and the stuff you’re hearing on the other team’ to heart.”
Obama Joins Budget Fight
“Congress hurtled toward a government shutdown on Tuesday, with Republicans threatening to block a budget deal if it includes financing for Planned Parenthood, as President Obama prepared to join the fight by pushing Republicans to scrap a multibillion-dollar tax advantage for private equity managers,” the New York Times reports.
“Obama is expected to call on Republicans to end the tax break and use the funds to pay for spending increases on domestic and national security programs, and he will enlist business leaders to help him make his case.”
Wonk Wire: A government shutdown could threaten the economy
Trump Becomes a Better Candidate
Donald Trump, “once a great improviser, has started relying on prepared notes when he gives speeches,” the New York Times reports.
“While he once rushed to leave the stage after finishing his remarks, he now lingers and works the rope line, shaking hands for several minutes. For months, he could not resist answering any question lobbed at him by reporters. Now, there is more self-restraint, at least by Mr. Trump’s standards.”
“Something unmistakable has happened to Mr. Trump since he announced his campaign for president in June: He has become a better candidate.”
McConnell Threatens More Iran Votes in the Senate
Senate Democrats “blocked a second Republican attempt to pass a resolution disapproving of the Iran nuclear deal. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is hardly giving up the fight, moving to schedule a Thursday vote on rolling back sanctions on Iran until the Islamic Republic recognizes Israel’s right to exist and releases American prisoners being held in the country,” the Washington Post reports.
“It’s a tactic aimed at forcing an up-or-down vote on the nuclear pact and getting Democrats directly on the record supporting what Republicans hope will be politically unpopular.”
Exchange of the Day
“Look, I don’t have anything against Florida State. I think there has to be a school where people who can’t get into University of Florida can go to college.”
— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), in an interview with KXNO-AM.
“He’s a nice kid. I’m sure he’s frustrated by his low standing in the polls, which I believe could be a reflection of where he got his education.”
— John Thrasher, the president of Florida State University, quoted by the Tallahassee Democrat.
Obama Won’t Be Watching GOP Debate
President Obama will follow news of the second Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday night, but he won’t be tuning in, The Hill reports.
Said press secretary Josh Earnest: “He has better things to do.”
CNN Will Encourage Interaction at GOP Debate
CNN is aiming to capture the “combative spirit” of the GOP presidential race “by getting the candidates to engage with one another in person and on camera” during tomorrow’s debate, the New York Times reports.
“The effort to encourage candidate interaction differs from the approach taken in the first debate by Fox News, which relied heavily on its three accomplished moderators to ask tough questions, forcing the participants to outline their positions and explain their records, yielding only a handful of memorable exchanges between the men on stage.”
The Latest from Wonk Wire
Sanders Still Leads in New Hampshire
A new Monmouth University poll in New Hampshire finds Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a 7 point lead over Hillary Clinton among likely primary voters, 43% to 36%.
Unannounced candidate Joe Biden holds 13%, with 2% supporting Martin O’Malley and 1% each for Lincoln Chafee, Larry Lessig, and Jim Webb. When the second choices of current Biden supporters are reallocated, Sanders still leads Clinton by 7 points, 48% to 41%.
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“For Donald Trump to win, everything we know about politics has to be wrong. And I don’t think it is. The timing of when it falls apart is always more difficult to know than inevitably that it will.”
— GOP strategist Stuart Stevens, in an interview with New York magazine.
Hillary Clinton’s Ratings Have Plunged
Nate Cohn: “Hillary Clinton was inevitably going to lose some of her aura once she started campaigning. The high favorability ratings she earned as secretary of state simply weren’t sustainable. But over the last two months, the steady and expected erosion of her ratings has surprisingly accelerated. Her ratings are now lower than they were in 2007 or 2008, or at any point in her political career.”
Voting Machines in Bad Shape
CNN: “When Americans head to the polls for the 2016 election, much of the equipment they’ll be casting their votes on is woefully out of date… And that could mean a big risk, New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice is warning in the report out Tuesday, both in terms of crashes causing long lines and lost votes and in terms of security risks to the system.”
Wonk Wire: Do non-voters matter?
Sanders Hasn’t Won a Single Endorsement
Mark Murray: “Strikingly, Sanders has to yet win an endorsement from a sitting Democratic senator, House member or governor, according to FiveThirtyEight.com’s endorsement tracker.”
“By contrast, Clinton has racked up endorsements from 30 senators, seven governors and more than 100 House members – including the top politicians from Sanders’ home state of Vermont: Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Gov. Peter Shumlin. (Vermont’s other major statewide politician, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., has yet to endorse.)”
