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Santorum Announces White House Bid

May 27, 2015 at 6:32 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 13 Comments

Rick Santorum (R), “who fell short in his 2012 presidential bid, launched another run for the White House on Wednesday with a promise to restore the economic power of middle-class American workers,” Reuters reports.

Washington Post: “The step forward by Santorum, 57, is the latest in a wave of entries by hard-right contenders who believe that after losing two straight presidential elections behind more moderate nominees, GOP voters will turn to a candidate unflinching in their ideology who can enthuse the party’s base.”

Politico: “Polls reflect his predicament: It’s not even clear he’ll make the cut for the first debates this year.”

Every Candidate Needs a Book

May 27, 2015 at 5:40 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 1 Comment

“Once, and not so long ago, running for political office was comparatively simple. Politicians assembled their teams, announced their candidacies and took to the campaign trail. Now, a presidential quest involves a PAC, a super PAC, a campaign army — and, of course, a book,” the Washington Post reports.

“Oh, there has to be a book. If a candidate has already published one, perhaps it’s time for another. Books have become the telltale sign that someone in one office is serious about running for another.”

Kasich Mocks Bush’s Super PAC

May 27, 2015 at 3:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 28 Comments

Gov. John Kasich “just took his most pronounced swipe yet at a potential rival for the Republican presidential nomination,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

Said Kasich: “I don’t know anything about Bush’s theme. I really don’t. I’ve never listened to him. What’s ‘Right to Rise’? Getting up in the morning?”

Christie Backs Debate Cut Off

May 27, 2015 at 2:49 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 24 Comments

Gov. Chris Christie (R) said he backed a proposal by Fox News to limit the number of presidential debate participants to 10, based on their national poll standing, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Christie: “I think you have got to have some sense of limit on it, because no one will have a chance to speak if you have too many people up there.”

Kasich Will Announce This Summer

May 27, 2015 at 2:46 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 16 Comments

Gov. John Kasich (R), “who has been actively gauging reactions to a possible campaign for president in 2016, is now moving rapidly to assemble the staff and financial resources for such a bid and is looking to declare his candidacy sometime after June 30,” the Washington Post reports.

Good Times for GOP Staffers

May 27, 2015 at 1:26 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 12 Comments

Time: “With more than a dozen—and perhaps eventually as many as two dozen—contenders at various stages of preparation for a White House bid, the fight for staff is fierce. Promises of access to the candidate, special titles and bloated salaries are the new chits for the small subset of political professionals who have run campaigns before… Operatives who have networks in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina stand to be the campaign’s most obvious profiteers…”

“It is a dynamic that is playing out in the other states, and at national headquarters, where finding bodies to put into jobs is taking up a lot top campaign aides’ time…. Among the sought-after operatives—friends to each other in non-election settings—they speculate some of the top staff hires are earning as much as $35,000 each month…. To be sure, there is money to be made Presidential politics.”

For those interested in political jobs, there are dozens listings over at Political Job Hunt.

How Jesse Ventura Was Elected Governor

May 27, 2015 at 11:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 23 Comments

FiveThirtyEight: “Remember when a former professional wrestler got himself elected as the governor of a major state?”

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

May 27, 2015 at 11:29 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 27 Comments

“ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most these arms were snatched up by ISIS.”

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview on Morning Joe.

Bonus Quote of the Day

May 27, 2015 at 10:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 103 Comments

“I have been doing business in China for decades, and I will tell you that yeah, the Chinese can take a test, but what they can’t do is innovate. They are not terribly imaginative. They’re not entrepreneurial, they don’t innovate, that is why they are stealing our intellectual property.”

— Carly Fiorina, quoted by BuzzFeed.

The Latest on Wonk Wire

May 27, 2015 at 10:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Here’s what’s new on Wonk Wire today:

The Clintons Have a Romney Problem

May 27, 2015 at 9:29 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 44 Comments

First Read: “By itself, making money shouldn’t be an issue for Bill and Hillary Clinton; after all, so many of our past presidents have been wealthy. By itself, Bill Clinton having a shell LLC wouldn’t be an issue either. But when you add the two together, you see that the Clintons have a Mitt Romney problem on their hands — wealth and ‘otherness’ that voters might not be able to relate to, especially when the likes of Bernie Sanders are campaigning against wealth.”

“Of course, there’s one BIG difference between Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney: Romney wanted to cut taxes for the wealthy, while Hillary likely wants to raise them and eliminate tax loopholes benefitting the well-off. As the Clintons have said before, people like them should be paying more in taxes. And you probably won’t hear that rhetoric from the eventual GOP nominee. Still, Hillary Clinton could arguably be the wealthiest (or close to it) candidate in the 2016 field. And this shell LLC story is going to sound the drumbeats for her to release her taxes.”

Too Dumb to Fail

May 27, 2015 at 9:23 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 1 Comment

An interesting new book: Too Dumb to Fail: How the GOP Won Elections by Sacrificing Its Ideas (And How It Can Reclaim Its Conservative Roots) by Matt K. Lewis.

Santorum II

May 27, 2015 at 9:13 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 39 Comments

Rick Klein: “He comes to the race as last time’s runner-up, the guy who outlasted the Cain-Bachmann-Gingrich-and-company primary to be the last man standing against Mitt Romney. That might be Rick Santorum’s advantage, but it will also be his burden. Yes, the party’s moved on so much – and the field is so much better – that Santorum is in danger of not even getting one of the 10 invites to the first GOP debate, in August. He won Iowa (belatedly) last time, but still lost the nomination; next year’s caucus field will include another former winner, Mike Huckabee, plus Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, and Rand Paul, just to name a few who’ll be competitive.”

“His path back needs to include his same small handful of wealthy friends – Foster Friess is on board again – and a revitalized message. As he makes his big announcement Wednesday at a manufacturing plant in the working-class Pennsylvania town he grew up in, we’ll begin to see how and if a second Santorum run can expand his social-conservative message to include economic empowerment. Pizza Ranches, the “Chuck Truck,” and maybe even sweater vests await.”

Quote of the Day

May 27, 2015 at 8:51 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 24 Comments

“If you want to march down the street and you’re a part of the Ku Klux Klan, I’m horrified by that and I object to it, but the First Amendment is about the right to be despicable.”

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by The Wrap.

Are Democrats Now More Extreme Than Republicans?

May 27, 2015 at 8:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 94 Comments

Peter Wehner: “Among liberals, it’s almost universally assumed that of the two major parties, it’s the Republicans who have become more extreme over the years. That’s a self-flattering but false narrative.”

“This is not to say the Republican Party hasn’t become a more conservative party. It has. But in the last two decades the Democratic Party has moved substantially further to the left than the Republican Party has shifted to the right. On most major issues the Republican Party hasn’t moved very much from where it was during the Gingrich era in the mid-1990s.”

Rubio Says Christianity Is Under Threat

May 27, 2015 at 8:23 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 52 Comments

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told the Christian Broadcasting Network that Christianity faces a “real and present danger” from same-sex marriage supporters who cast opponents as intolerant.

Said Rubio: “We are at the water’s edge of the argument that mainstream Christian teaching is hate speech, because today we’ve reached the point in our society where if you do not support same-sex marriage, you are labeled a homophobe and a hater.”

He added: “So what’s the next step after that? After they’re done going after individuals, the next step is to argue that the teachings of mainstream Christianity, the catechism of the Catholic Church, is hate speech. And that’s a real and present danger.”

Digital Video Will Play Big Role in 2016 Campaign

May 27, 2015 at 7:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 1 Comment

Boston Globe: “Digital in 2016 will be faster, more intense, and more mobile than it was in 2008, and that has repercussions for how this season’s crop of presidential candidates will behave and how their campaigns will unfold in New Hampshire and beyond. Candidates will still shake hands, give speeches, and pose for photos, but successful campaigns will also need to amass a suite of high-tech tools.”

“What’s changed in recent years… is the ease of producing, sharing, and watching online video. Instead of just reading about a candidate’s speech, voters can see it for themselves anywhere they can connect to a Wi-Fi or 3G signal. And, thanks to live streaming apps like Meerkat and Periscope, video is likely to be even an even bigger part of 2016.”

“The availability of video has shifted the tenor of campaign events in early states like New Hampshire… Candidates used to be able to slip into a remote town hall to quietly test a few sections of a stump speech. Now, anything they say has the potential to go viral online.”

Biden Wins the Internet

May 27, 2015 at 7:24 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 5 Comments

“President Obama may be the first digital president, but on the Web, his number-two plays second fiddle to no one,” the Washington Post reports.

“Vice President Biden is simultaneously the most intentionally, and unintentionally, funny politician on social media. While it may be a chicken-and-the-egg question to ask which came first, the vice president’s office have leveraged his folksy mannerisms and personal quirks to advance specific policy proposals and establish him as an online personality in his own right.”