Political Wire

Become a member to get many great benefits -- exclusive analysis, trending news, a private podcast, no ads and more!


Trump Likens His Education to Military Training

By 42 Comments

Donald Trump, “who received draft deferments through much of the Vietnam War, told the author of a forthcoming biography that he nevertheless ‘always felt that I was in the military’ because of his education at a military-themed boarding school,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Trump said that his experience at the New York Military Academy, an expensive prep school where his parents had sent him to correct poor behavior, gave him ‘more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.'”

Clinton to Show More Humor and Heart

By 31 Comments

New York Times: “In extensive interviews by telephone and at their Brooklyn headquarters last week, Mrs. Clinton’s strategists acknowledged missteps — such as their slow response to questions about her email practices — and promised that this fall the public would see the sides of Mrs. Clinton that are often obscured by the noise and distractions of modern campaigning.”

“They want to show her humor. The self-effacing kind… They want to show her heart, like the time she comforted former drug addicts in a school meeting room in New Hampshire. And, to soothe Democrats uneasy about her shaky poll numbers, they want her to relentlessly contrast herself with Republicans, saying she is at her best when showing willingness to do battle.”

Washington Post: “After this summer of Hillary Clinton’s discontent, when her public support dropped while the stock of real and potential challengers rose, her checklist for a campaign revamp this fall is long.”

Trump Forces GOP Campaign in New Direction

By 7 Comments

Politico: “It’s hard to overstate his effect, or even to find a historical analogue – with his outsized personality and outsider message, Trump has sent his GOP rivals careening in directions they couldn’t have imagined, forced them to rethink their strategies and tactics, and altered expectations about the duration of the primary season. He’s even managed to unsettle the politically active billionaires who are currently sizing up the contest.”

“Trump’s anti-establishment candidacy isn’t the sole reason why the GOP field has been reordered since he joined the race, but he’s the proximate cause.”


You're reading the free version of Political Wire

Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.




Clinton Unveils New Campaign Finance Plan

By 2 Comments

Hillary Clinton “is rolling out a policy plan Tuesday aimed at lifting the veil on some of the wealthy donors who have bankrolled political campaigns while taking advantage of laws that allow them to remain anonymous. Mrs. Clinton, who along with her husband has been among the most prodigious fundraisers in U.S. history, is also proposing ways to give candidates more incentives to collect money from small donors,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Biden Thinks He Can Win South Carolina

By 7 Comments

“Joe Biden thinks he can win South Carolina. And that victory, he believes, would hurtle his campaign into a rally toward the Democratic nomination no matter who has already taken Iowa and New Hampshire,” Politico reports.

“Like so much of the musing inside the Biden 2016 exploration, it’s an assumption based on a wish based on a feeling. They’ve done no polls. They’ve raised no money. They’ve got no organization. And yet, top Democrats in the state are so unnerved by Hillary Clinton’s inability to get beyond her email controversy that they say Biden’s on-a-wing-and-a-prayer strategy isn’t hopeless.”

First Read: “But as we’ve said before, if Biden wants to win, he needs to announce ASAP, because he has to start raising the $50 million to $100 million needed to be competitive in the Democratic primary — as well as to prepare to fight back against the $1 billion that will be spent by GOP groups to topple the eventual Democratic nominee. So if Biden is truly serious about winning, he’s got to get into the race in the next couple of weeks. The longer he waits, though, the more this becomes about not wanting to close the door on his political career and his lifelong dream: the presidency.”

Gilmore Is Running But Not Campaigning

By 9 Comments

“Jim Gilmore is running for president. He’s just not campaigning for president. That’s what sets him apart,” the Washington Post reports.

“In fact, since Gilmore — a former governor of Virginia — officially got into the presidential race on July 30, he has not held a single formal campaign event with actual voters present. No handshakes in Iowa. No rallies in New Hampshire. Nothing.”

Battle for Senate Hinges on Presidential Race

By 4 Comments

“The battle for control of the Senate rests on the outcome of the presidential race,” strategists in both parties tell The Hill.

“Since 1860, no party has been able to climb out of the minority to capture the Senate during a presidential election year without also winning the White House. Strategists say 2016 won’t be any different.”

Quote of the Day

By 164 Comments

“I think we can send a message and say, you want to be in America, A, you’d better be here legally or you’re out of here; B, when you’re here, let’s speak American. I mean that’s what’s — let’s speak English and that’s a kind of a unifying aspect of the nation is the language that is understood by all.”

— Sarah Palin, quoted by the Huffington Post.

While Republicans Attack Each Other, Democrats Won’t

By 70 Comments

Washington Post: “The Republican presidential campaign is being dictated by how the 17 candidates, led by Donald Trump, attack one another — from policy disagreements to nasty personal barbs.”

“The Democratic race stands in stark contrast. Despite tightening polls, the two leading candidates refuse to draw sharp contrasts, let alone criticize each other, leaving voters to discern the differences in their agendas and priorities largely on their own.”

Trump Still Holds Wide Lead Nationally

By 84 Comments

A new Economist/YouGov poll finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 36%, followed by Ben Carson at 11%, Jeb Bush at 8%, Marco Rubio at 7%, Ted Cruz at 6%, Rand Paul at 4%, Mike Huckabee at 4% and John Kasich at 4%.

“Republicans are warming to Trump.  Two out of three have a favorable view of him.  Carson and Rubio match Trump’s favorable levels, though nearly twice as many have unfavorable views of Trump as hold that view about the other two.”

Jindal Faces Yet Another Budget Crisis

By 72 Comments

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and state legislators “were all smiles when they passed the state budget in June, saying they had ended Louisiana’s worst budget crisis in 25 years and averted deep spending cuts,” the Baton Rouge Advocate reports.

“But less than three months later, the budget already is beginning to bleed red ink, and programs for those institutions are again at risk. Legislators and Jindal are facing calls that they act without delay to make the cuts needed to bring the budget back into balance as required under the state constitution — rather than take the politically easy way out by passing the buck to the next governor and Legislature.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

By 73 Comments

“I think I’d rather have a President who is tough and puts America first than can win a game of Trivial Pursuit. I don’t think the public gives a flying flip who, today, is a specific leader of a specific region because that leader will change of course.”

— Sarah Palin, quoted by TPM, defending Donald Trump’s inability to name certain foreign leaders.

Colin Powell Backs Iran Deal

By 61 Comments

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell told NBC News he supported the nuclear agreement with Iran, calling the various planks Iranian leaders accepted “remarkable” and dismissing critics’ concerns over its implementation.

Said Powell: “It’s a pretty good deal.”

Powell added that critics are “forgetting the reality that [Iranian leaders] have been on a superhighway, for the last 10 years, to create a nuclear weapon or a nuclear weapons program, with no speed limit.”

Quote of the Day

By 57 Comments

“If I were head of that, I’d get rid of it.”

— Sarah Palin, in an interview on ABC News, saying she would like to be Secretary of Energy in a Trump administration.

Trump, Carson Way Ahead in Iowa

By 48 Comments

A new NBC News/Marist poll in Iowa finds Donald Trump leading the GOP field with 29% of potential GOP caucus-goers, while Ben Carson receives 22%. There’s a steep drop off after that: Jeb Bush gets 6%; Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul and Scott Walker get 5%; and Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal are at 4%.

In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton maintains her previous advantage over Sanders – but her lead has declined from 24 points in July (49% to 25%) to 11 points (38% to 27%); Biden is at 20 percent.

Sanders Takes Big Lead in New Hampshire

By 56 Comments

A new NBC News/Marist poll in New Hampshire finds Bernie Sanders has jumped out to a nine point lead over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential race, 41% to 32%, with Joe Biden at 16%.

Without Biden in the race, Sanders’ lead over Clinton in the current survey increases to 11 points, 49% to 38%.

In the Republican race, Donald Trump holds a 16-point lead over his rivals with 28 percent – followed by John Kasich at 12%, Ben Carson at 11%, Jeb Bush at 8% and Carly Fiorina at 6%.

Clinton Uses Proxies to Attack Sanders

By 21 Comments

Politico: “Clinton’s campaign, it appears, is unleashing the hounds. While the wounded front-runner is ignoring her competition in the primary race altogether — she still does not utter Sanders’ name on the campaign trail – Brooklyn is paying the travel costs for proxies who are using their appearances in the early-voting states to criticize the surging senator.”

Congress Faces Series of Hurdles to Avoid Shutdown

By 8 Comments

“Congress will return to the Capitol this week with just a handful of legislative days to piece together a short-term government funding extension before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. It is only their first deadline in a fall chock-full of them,” Morning Consult reports.

“Both chambers are dedicating their first week back to consideration of the Iran nuclear deal. Everyone will take a pause for Pope Francis’s Sept. 24 address to Congress. But otherwise, all eyes will be on the expected stopgap spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, which will buy more time for negotiating a resolution to the budget standoff that lasted through most of the spring and through the summer.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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.

Praise for Political Wire

“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”

— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”

“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”

— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report

“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”

— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report

“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”

— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia

“Political Wire is a great, great site.”

— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”

“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”

— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post

“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”

— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit

“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”

— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.