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Biden Gets Serious About Possible Campaign

August 21, 2015 at 10:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 67 Comments

As Hillary Clinton’s campaign struggles with sliding poll numbers, Vice President Joe Biden’s exploration of a presidential candidacy is taking on a new seriousness, the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Biden has been in contact with donors who could help finance a campaign, eyeing major contributors to President Obama and pillars of his own fund-raising network: trial lawyers, Jewish leaders and Greek-Americans… At the same time, some Democrats supporting Mrs. Clinton have quietly signaled that they would re-evaluate their support if Mr. Biden joined the race.”

Fiorina’s Father Played Key Role in Clinton Scandals

August 21, 2015 at 6:29 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 27 Comments

Washington Post: “A little-known piece of Carly Fiorina’s family history is that her father, Joseph Sneed, was on the three-judge panel asked to pick a new independent counsel to investigate the Whitewater case. And it was Sneed, a conservative federal judge appointed to the bench by Richard Nixon, who recommended Starr for the job.”

“The Clintons, and many Democrats, believed Starr was picked because he was a hard-line Republican who would come down harder on them. That’s been widely dismissed as conjecture. Still, his selection did set in motion an investigation much broader in scope than its original mission, and which eventually led to President Clinton’s impeachment.”

Obama’s Disastrous Legacy in the States

August 21, 2015 at 6:28 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 166 Comments

“As historians begin to assess Barack Obama’s record as president, there’s at least one legacy he’ll leave that will indeed be historic—but not in the way he would have hoped. Even as Democrats look favorably ahead to the presidential landscape of 2016, the strength in the Electoral College belies huge losses across much of the country. In fact, no president in modern times has presided over so disastrous a stretch for his party, at almost every level of politics,” Politico reports.

“The party’s record over the past six years has made clear that when Barack Obama leaves office in January 2017 the Democratic Party will have ceded vast sections of the country to Republicans, and will be left with a weak bench of high-level elected officials. It is, in fact, so bleak a record that even if the Democrats hold the White House and retake the Senate in 2016, the party’s wounds will remain deep and enduring, threatening the enactment of anything like a ‘progressive’ agenda across much of the nation and eliminating nearly a decade’s worth of rising stars who might help strengthen the party in elections ahead.”

Staffers Implicated in Ashley Madison Hack

August 21, 2015 at 6:25 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 8 Comments

“Hundreds of U.S. government employees — including some with sensitive jobs in the White House, Congress and law enforcement agencies — used Internet connections in their federal offices to access and pay membership fees to the cheating website Ashley Madison,” the AP reports.

Kansas Democratic Chief Quits Amid Uproar

August 21, 2015 at 6:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 10 Comments

Kansas Democratic Party chair Larry Meeker has resigned following uproar over comments he made this week about moving the party in a more conservative direction, the Wichita Eagle reports.

“Meeker said Kansas Democrats were fiscal conservatives and emphasized that there was room in the party for people who were pro-choice or pro-life, for same-sex marriage or against it. He said conveying this to voters would serve as “a pickup line” in a more conservative state. But that message did not resonate with many members of the party’s base.”

Bush Opposes Data Encryption

August 21, 2015 at 6:12 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 40 Comments

Jeb Bush said that “encryption makes it harder for law enforcement to track down ‘evildoers’ — and called for a ‘much better, more cooperative relationship’ with Apple, Google, and other tech companies that are building uncrackable private communication apps into their new products,” First Look reports.

Said Bush: “If you create encryption, it makes it harder for the American government to do its job — while protecting civil liberties — to make sure that evildoers aren’t in our midst.”

Trump Plans Massive Southern Rally

August 21, 2015 at 2:31 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 16 Comments

“Mobile, Alabama doesn’t usually host presidential primary rallies. But this weekend it’s expected to host a doozy. Donald Trump will take over Ladd-Peebles Stadium, usually home to high school football games on Friday nights, not presidential pep rallies. Trump’s campaign shifted from a smaller venue to the stadium after seeing big demand for tickets; it expects 35,000 to attend,” the Washington Post reports.

“That’s 35,000 Trump fans in a city of 200,000 — in a county that backed Mitt Romney by 20, 30, 50 points less than its neighbors. What Trump’s doing, clearly, is not just trying to hold a rally in Mobile. He’s trying to show strength across the entire Deep South. If his grandiose expectations come true — which they have a recent habit of doing — his point will be made.”

Bush Defends Using Term ‘Anchor Babies’

August 21, 2015 at 6:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 138 Comments

“A feistier, combative Jeb Bush said Thursday that he doesn’t believe the term ‘anchor babies’ is offensive and blamed Democrats for perpetuating the idea that it’s a loaded term,” the Washington Post reports.

Said Trump: “Do you have a better term? You give me a better term and I’ll use it.”

GOP Elites Have No Plan to Take Down Trump

August 21, 2015 at 6:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 114 Comments

Washington Post: “Though flummoxed by Trump’s staying power and aghast at the coarse tone he has brought to the race, party elites said they have no plan to take him down. Donors feel powerless. Republican officials have little leverage. Candidates are skittish. Super PAC operatives say attack ads against him could backfire. And everyone agrees that the Trump factor in this chaotic multi-candidate field is so unpredictable that any move carries dangerous risks.”

“The non-Trump candidates are falling into three categories: Those who are emulating and befriending him in an effort to win over his supporters; those who are assailing his background or calling him out for his views and rhetoric; and those who prefer to stay silent, as if hunkering down in the basement to ride out the tornado.”

Dozens of Clinton Emails Were Classified from Start

August 21, 2015 at 6:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 92 Comments

“In the small fraction of emails made public so far, Reuters has found at least 30 email threads from 2009, representing scores of individual emails, that include what the State Department’s own ‘Classified’ stamps now identify as so-called ‘foreign government information.'”

“This sort of information, which the department says Clinton both sent and received in her emails, is the only kind that must be ‘presumed’ classified, in part to protect national security and the integrity of diplomatic interactions.”

Quote of the Day

August 21, 2015 at 6:46 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 10 Comments

“I welcome you all to the political revolution of 2015.”

— Sen. Bernie Sanders, quoted by the New York Times.

Trump Says He Would Scare Pope

August 21, 2015 at 6:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 56 Comments

Donald Trump was asked by Chris Cuomo on CNN how he would respond if Pope Francis told him that capitalism can be toxic.

Said Trump: “I’d say, ‘ISIS wants to get you. You know that ISIS wants to go in and take over the Vatican? You have heard that. You know, that’s a dream of theirs, to go into Italy.”

Cuomo, taken aback, asked if Trump would actually scare the Pope, who is coming to the U.S. for his first visit next month.

Said Trump: “I’m gonna have to scare the Pope because it’s the only thing.”

Feingold Leads in Wisconsin

August 20, 2015 at 2:53 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 57 Comments

A new Marquette Law School Poll in Wisconsin finds Russ Feingold (D) leading Sen. Ron Johnson (R) in a U.S. Senate match up, 47% to 42%.

Jeb Bush Plans Family Fundraiser

August 20, 2015 at 1:56 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 43 Comments

“Jeb Bush, is hosting another campaign donor retreat in late October — his parents, former president George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush, once again promise to be headliners at the ‘Jeb Celebration’ to be held in Houston, and another notable Bush will be in attendance as well: his older brother, former president George W. Bush,” the Washington Post reports.

“The event is billed as an end-of-quarter meeting of top fundraisers who help bundle at least $50,000 for Bush’s campaign by the end of September. Jeb Bush’s sons, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Jeb Bush Jr., also plan to attend. Both sons are actively campaigning for their father and raising money among younger Republican donors.”

Is Donald Trump Just Riding a Boomlet?

August 20, 2015 at 1:14 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 104 Comments

Lynn Vavrek: “What is happening now in the Republican primary is not that different from what happened in 2012. And despite the excitement and attention that Mr. Trump is generating, others who were in his same position four years ago fell out of the spotlight after several weeks of being the star of the show and never recovered.”

“We call them boomlets because they don’t build and last throughout the nominating process, not because they are quick, fleeting or irrelevant. For at least 132 days in 2011 someone other than Mitt Romney, the eventual nominee, was the front-runner in the Republican field of candidates for president — despite Mr. Romney’s being in the race that whole time.”

Amy Walter: “When it comes to picking candidates for president, summer is for dating and winter is for mating.”

Congress Unlikely to Override Veto on Iran Nuclear Deal

August 20, 2015 at 12:12 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 37 Comments

“Congress is unlikely to override a promised veto by President Obama if both chambers reject a deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear capabilities, according to a Washington Post analysis of where the votes currently stand. When both chambers return from the August recess, all 246 House Republicans are expected to vote against the deal, the analysis found. So far, 12 House Democrats have declared they too are opposed — more than enough to pass a resolution of disapproval through the lower chamber.”

Greek Prime Minister to Resign

August 20, 2015 at 12:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 25 Comments

“Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras plans to hand in his resignation Thursday evening to clear the way for early national elections, according to two government officials, in a gamble aimed at bolstering his power and ability to implement Greece’s bailout deal,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Mr. Tsipras intends to tell Greece’s head of state, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, that he can no longer continue as premier because of the lack of a stable governing majority in parliament, said the officials, who took part in the government’s deliberations about when to take the country to snap elections.”

Clinton ‘Didn’t Really Think It Through’ on Private Email

August 20, 2015 at 10:27 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 162 Comments

Asked about the use of a private email server, Hillary Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri told Bloomberg that the former secretary of state “didn’t really think it through.”

Said Palmieri: “She has said, had she, she would have done it differently.”