Donald Trump (R) told Morning Joe that his favorite president of the last four is Bill Clinton, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “There was a little spirit. Frankly, had he not met Monica, had he not met Paula, had he not met various and sundry semi-beautiful women, he would have had a much better deal going.”
He added: “He was destroyed by that. He was really hurt very badly by it.”
As an “intense standoff” over Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) program-slashing budget drags on, Walker is taking another taxpayer funded foreign trip, the Washington Post reports.
“It was not an ideal time for Walker, a likely GOP presidential candidate, to leave town, and it provided yet another opportunity for Democrats to criticize him for spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on foreign trips while preaching budget frugality.”
“Walker has been governor for 4 1 / 2 years, but up until this year, he had taken only two foreign trade trips — traveling to China and Japan in 2013. Now a potential GOP contender with a lack of foreign policy expertise, Walker in recent months booked three taxpayer-funded trips in quick succession: Four days in the United Kingdom in early February, followed by a week in April in Germany, France and Spain, and now this journey to Canada.”
Washington Post: “Donald Trump is a fact checker’s dream … and nightmare. He spouts off so many ‘facts,’ often twisted or wrong, that it takes a lot of time to hack through the weeds. So here are some of the highlights — and lowlights — of Trump’s announcement on June 16 that he will seek the Republican nomination for president.”
“As is our practice, we do not award Pinocchios when we do a roundup of facts in a major speech. But astute readers should be able to figure out the Four-Pinocchio whoppers.”
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First Read: “The biggest development in the presidential campaign so far this month? It’s not Jeb’s or Trump’s announcements, or Hillary Clinton’s re-announcement. Rather, it’s the faster-than-expected rise of Bernie Sanders. Hillary Clinton still has maybe the clearest path that any non-incumbent has had to win a party’s presidential nomination in modern times. But you also can’t ignore the momentum — Bernie-mentum! — that Bernie Sanders seems to have in the Democratic race right now. Sure, it’s just two polls (one phone survey, another that’s partially online) that show him within 10-12 points of Clinton. And sure, they’re both in New Hampshire, which is right next door to Sanders’ Vermont.”
“But they could also be a canary in the progressive coal mine. And they tell us three things: One, the Elizabeth Warren supporters have seamlessly moved over into Sanders’ corner. Two, Sanders’ momentum suggests that there might not be breathing room for other Democratic challengers like Martin O’Malley, Lincoln Chafee, and Jim Webb. And three, as political scientist Jonathan Bernstein points out, it’s also a reminder on the GOP side ‘that any candidate can benefit from a public opinion surge.'”
Working Capital Review features an interesting debate between investor Ray Dalio and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me . . . on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by the Washington Post.
“On Wednesday, a bipartisan panel released recommendations aimed at overhauling the general election presidential debates, with the goal of halting declining viewership, especially among younger voters and Hispanics, and allowing voters to emerge with a better understanding of the candidates and their positions,” the New York Times reports.
“If adopted, the group’s proposals could have serious ramifications for the 2016 presidential debates. Already, the decision by network executives to limit the first two major Republican debates to the 10 candidates who are ranked highest in national polls has caused major consternation within the Republican Party.”
Rick Klein: “No, he won’t win the Republican nomination for president, and no, his rambling announcement-day speeches (Mexico? Free trade? China?) won’t help him get taken much more seriously. But there’s a slice of voters, not insignificant in the Republican primary race, who despise Washington and politicians more broadly. Every candidate likes to try to channel that, but none bring the bluster that Trump does. (Tuesday night in Des Moines, he blasted Jeb Bush as a poor dresser, and said he had better hair than Marco Rubio.) Trump is a sideshow, but one whose act will spill on to the main stage, particularly if he earns a debate invitation or three. His candidacy may be a giant joke. But don’t forget there are voters who want to laugh, and hard, at the entire political process.”
Politico: 7 reasons the GOP should fear Donald Trump
Wonk Wire has a graph which plots the presidential candidates on an ideological scale.
Paul Waldman: “It’s tempting to feel a little sorry for the Republican Party. Here they were, trying to have a perfectly civil and sober primary campaign to determine their candidate for the presidency, when along comes Donald Trump.”
“Here’s the problem, though: Donald Trump is the essence of contemporary Republicanism. It’s a distilled essence, boiled down to a viscous and sour consistency. But if you want to know what Republicans believe and who they are, you don’t need to look much further. He’s a walking caricature, but it’s a caricature created from everything Republicans believe.”
Politico: “Jeb Bush became the latest politician to ‘slow jam the news’ with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday’s episode of The Tonight Show, joining a list that includes President Obama, Mitt Romney and Chris Christie. And it was just a little … awkward.”
New York Times: “Like many Republicans, Mr. Bush and Mr. Rubio have questioned or denied the established science of human-caused climate change, and have harshly criticized policies designed to tax or regulate the burning of fossil fuels. Both of their campaigns have courted influential and deep-pocketed donors, such as the billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch, who vehemently oppose such climate policies.”
“But the papal encyclical could put Catholics who question that established climate science in a tough position, particularly in a year in which at least five Catholics may run for the Republican presidential nomination. Besides Mr. Bush, Mr. Rubio and Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania who has also declared his candidacy, the field could include Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.”
Wonk Wire: Catholics divided over global warming
New York Times: “Republicans who have been hoping that the Supreme Court will upend President Obama’s health care law are now confronting an urgent and uncomfortable question: What if they win?”
“Republicans in Congress would face an enormously complicated challenge to fashion an alternative, and they fear the fallout could lead to election losses if millions of Americans abruptly found themselves without health insurance.”
Wonk Wire: With insurance subsidies in limbo, advocates look at options
A new Quinnipiac poll finds that Sen. Marco Rubio runs best against Hillary Clinton in 2016 presidential matchups with eight top Republican contenders in three critical swing states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Key finding: Voters in each state say by margins of 8 to 14 percentage points that Clinton is not honest and trustworthy.
“There is no doubt the heir to one of America’s most successful political dynasties charted his own path in Florida, but he also leaned on family ties in business and politics, according to a Wall Street Journal review of public records and correspondence from the White House.”
“The dichotomy speaks to a core challenge of Mr. Bush’s campaign: explaining to voters that ‘I am my own man’ and resisting policy comparisons with previous Bush administrations—while banking on his family’s fundraising network.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds Scott Walker leads the GOP presidential field with 17%, followed by Jeb Bus at 15%, Marco Rubio at 13%, Ben Carson at 12%, Mike Huckabee at 11%, Ted Cruz at 8%, Rand Paul at 8%, Carly Fiorina at 5%, and Chris Christie at 4%.
“Small though the lead may be, this is the fourth consecutive national survey we’ve done where we found Walker out in front.”
“I’m really rich…that’s the kind of thinking you need for this country. It sounds crass, it’s not crass… We have the opposite thinking. We have losers. We have people that don’t have it. We have people that are morally corrupt.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by Politico.
A new Suffolk University poll in New Hampshire shows Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential race by just 10 points, 41% to 31%.
Said pollster David Paleologos: “Most political observers felt that Hillary Clinton’s large early lead among Democratic voters would eventually shrunk a bit over time. But in New Hampshire right now, the lead has shrunk a lot, and this is a much different Democratic primary race than we are seeing in other states so far.”
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.
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