“I’m not planning for it, I just think it’s inevitable.”
— New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by Politico, saying that the message from his all-but-assured reelection will extend across the country.
Christie’s Skeletons
Peter Hamby reviews Double Down: Game Change 2012 by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann and focuses on Mitt Romney’s wariness of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during the presidential campaign.
“Halperin and Heilemann make abundant use of a vice-presidential vetting file dropped into their hands by someone in Romney’s orbit to illuminate secrets about the governor. Delivering the documents to the authors was a stunning breach of political decorum that can only be read as a giant middle finger at Christie and his aides.”
“His ‘disturbing’ research file is littered with ‘garish controversies,’ the authors write: a Justice Department investigation into his free-spending ways as U.S. attorney, his habit of steering government contracts to friends and political allies, a defamation lawsuit that emerged during a 1994 run for local office, a politically problematic lobbying career that included work on behalf of a financial firm that employed Bernie Madoff. And that’s not to mention the Romney team’s anxiety about the governor’s girth.”
Virginia Blame Game Begins
Politico: “Well before the last votes are cast in the state’s off-year governor’s race, GOP leaders are already engaged in a spirited debate over why, exactly, a fight against a Democrat as flawed as Terry McAuliffe has turned into such a painful slog of a campaign. Even Republicans who haven’t yet counted out their nominee, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, view the governor’s race as a profile in frustration for the GOP – an election that should have leaned toward the Republicans, but where Democrats have held a persistent lead in polling, money and tactical prowess.”
“The GOP’s internal discussion about the race mirrors much of the broader national tug of war within the conservative coalition, between officials and strategists who want the party to trim back some of its most confrontational tactics and hard-edged rhetoric, and activists bent on drawing the starkest possible lines of contrast with the Democratic party of President Barack Obama.”
Schumer Calls on Clinton to Run
In a visit to Iowa, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) became the most senior Democratic lawmaker yet to call on Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016, “calling her the best-prepared to ‘vanquish’ tea party Republicans in the next election,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Schumer: “I am urging Hillary Clinton to run for president, and when she does, she will have my full and unwavering support.”
Paul’s Book Copied Sections of Think Tank Report
An entire section of Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) 2013 book Government Bullies “was copied wholesale from a 2003 case study by the Heritage Foundation,” BuzzFeed has learned.
“The copied section, 1,318 words, is by far the most significant instance reported so far of Paul borrowing language from other published material. The new cut-and-paste job follows reports by BuzzFeed, Politico, and MSNBC that Paul had plagiarized speeches either from Wikipedia or news reports.”
How the White House Botched HealthCare.gov
Washington Post: “The White House’s leadership of the immense project — building new health insurance marketplaces for an estimated 24 million Americans without coverage — is one of several key reasons that the president’s signature domestic policy achievement has become a self-inflicted injury for the administration.”
“Based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former administration officials and outsiders who worked alongside them, the project was hampered by the White House’s political sensitivity to Republican hatred of the law — sensitivity so intense that the president’s aides ordered that some work be slowed down or remain secret for fear of feeding the opposition.”
Texas Voter ID Law Snags Former Speaker
Former House Speaker Jim Wright (D) was denied a voter ID card at a Texas Department of Public Safety office, the Fort Worth Star Telegram reports.
Said Wright: “Nobody was ugly to us, but they insisted that they wouldn’t give me an ID.”
“After the difficulty he had this weekend getting a proper ID card, Wright, 90, expressed concern that such problems could deter others from voting and stifle turnout. After spending much of his life fighting to make it easier to vote, the Democratic Party icon said he is troubled by what he’s seeing happen under the state’s new voter ID law.”
McAuliffe Cashes in Favors
New York Times: “After many years as Mr. Clinton’s chief fund-raiser and then as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Mr. McAuliffe has amassed one of the largest favor banks in American politics. And now as he reaches for elected office himself, Democrats are returning the favors with endorsements, strategic advice and, of course, an avalanche of money.”
“But Mr. McAuliffe also seems to have learned from his first run for governor of Virginia in 2009, when he was tagged as a carpetbagger and lost in the Democratic primary. In the years since, he has applied his famously effective scratch-my-back skills to the state’s Democratic hierarchy, which rewarded him by preventing a primary challenge this year.”
Quote of the Day
“He’s luckier than a dog with two dicks.”
— Bill Clinton, quoted in Double Down: Game Change 2012, about Barack Obama.
Cuccinelli at Least Kept it Close
Washington Post: “Some of the biggest names in his party sat out the race or even switched sides. The governor he depended on to rally the troops disappeared into a fog of scandal. Many of the money men who had provided oomph in past elections vanished.”
“Given the obstacles Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has faced this year — some beyond his control, some of his own making — the surprise in Tuesday’s vote for governor may be that the Republican candidate has kept the race as close as he has.”
A new Zogby/Newsmax poll finds Terry McAuliffe leading Cuccinelli by seven points, 43% to 36%, with Libertarian Robert Sarvis at 9%.
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Why Attractive Candidates Often Win
Psychological Science: “Some researchers have posited that it occurs because people ascribe generally positive characteristics to physically attractive candidates. We propose an alternative explanation–that leadership preferences are related to functional disease-avoidance mechanisms. Because physical attractiveness is a cue to health, people concerned with disease should especially prefer physically attractive leaders.”
“Using real-world voting data and laboratory-based experiments, we found support for this relationship. In congressional districts with elevated disease threats, physically attractive candidates are more likely to be elected (Study 1). Experimentally activating disease concerns leads people to especially value physical attractiveness in leaders (Study 2) and prefer more physically attractive political candidates (Study 3). In a final study, we demonstrated that these findings are related to leadership preferences, specifically, rather than preferences for physically attractive group members more generally (Study 4).”
Sebelius Gets a Book
Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey (R) presented HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius a copy of Building a Website for Dummies during a visit, the Memphis Daily News reports.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) called for her resignation prior to her visit and
released a statement saying, “The secretary is always welcome in
Tennessee, but her time would be better spent in Washington fixing the
Obamacare website.”
Ford Approval Ticks Up After Crack Video Confirmed
A new Forum Research poll finds Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s approval rating rose slightly after police confirmed the existence of a video in which Ford appears to smoke crack cocaine and make homophobic and racist remarks.
The poll found that 44% of voters approve of the job Ford is doing as mayor, while an Oct. 28 poll found that just 39% approved.
Said pollster Lorne Bozinoff: “That may sound counterintuitive. It could be a sampling, margin-of-error thing, or it could be just some sympathy. If you saw him during that media scrum yesterday, it might have generated some sympathy.”
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7 Nuggets from Double Down
Double Down: Game Change 2012 is not out until next week but it’s popping up in some bookstores early and Marc Ambinder found 7 telling passages.
White House Officials Worried About Insurance Pledge
As President Obama “pushed for a new federal health law in 2009, he made a simple pledge: If you like your insurance plan, you can keep your plan. But behind the scenes, White House officials discussed whether that was a promise they could keep,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“When the question arose, Mr. Obama’s advisers decided that the assertion was fair… But at times, there was second-guessing. At one point, aides discussed whether Mr. Obama might use more in-depth discussions, such as media interviews, to explain the nuances of the succinct line in his stump speeches, a former aide said. Officials worried, though, that delving into details such as “the small number of people who might lose insurance could be confusing and would clutter the president’s message.”
All About the Internet in Seattle
“Broadband internet has emerged as the most divisive issue in the campaign for mayor of Seattle, the largest city in the Pacific northwest of the United States,” Quartz reports.
