“I think that’s what scares the Democrats the most, is that in a general election, were I to run, there’s going to be a lot of independents and even some Democrats who say, ‘You know what? We are tired of war. We’re worried that Hillary Clinton will get us involved in another Middle Eastern war, because she’s so gung-ho.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by the Associated Press, labeling Hillary Clinton a “war hawk.”
Just published: Obama’s America: Unmaking the American Dream by Dinesh D’Souza.
The Daily Beast notes that D’Souza — recently convicted on campaign finance violations — compared protesters in Ferguson, MO to ISIS in Iraq in a recent interview promoting the book.
Said D’Souza: “The common thread between ISIS and what’s going on in Ferguson is you have these people who basically believe that to correct perceived injustice, it’s perfectly okay to inflict all types of new injustices. Behead guys who had nothing to do with it. Go and loot shops from business owners who were not part of the original problem whatsoever. And all of this is then licensed by the left and licensed, to some degree, by the media.”
Molly Ball says Democrats are building an extensive ground operation in Arkansas in an attempt to re-elect Sen. Mark Pryor (D) in a tough midterm election environment.
“Democrats aren’t advertising this office and 39 others like it that are scattered around Arkansas–in fact, their locations are a closely guarded secret. When I visited last week, having tracked it down through creative public-records sleuthing, I took Chita Collins, the field organizer on duty there, by surprise. But I wanted to see the evidence of what Democrats have been claiming they’re building in states like this one, and what could be crucial to their uphill quest to keep the Senate: an Obama-style community-organizing effort of unprecedented scale for a non-presidential election.”
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“The conservative political data firm i360 is polling more than 200,000 registered voters every month in an effort to offer Republicans unparalleled voter turnout capabilities in the midterm elections and beyond,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“The Democrats have been at the forefront of collecting data on prospective voters and using the information to drive turnout, far outpacing the Republican Party’s data-mining efforts. But i360 believes it has turned a corner, with company officials asserting that the firm’s access to proprietary survey data on millions of Americans offers Republicans an advantage in the competition to sway public opinion and influence the vote.”
“Iowa was never supposed to be a Senate battleground for Democrats,” The Hill reports.
“Following two cycles where it was GOP missteps and subpar candidates who cost them winnable races, the tables have turned and it’s now Democrats who are scrambling to right Rep. Bruce Braley’s flagging campaign before it’s too late.”
The New York Times says “the man who flirted with a presidential run has one last aspiration: mayor of the world.”
“Michael Bloomberg, 72, has vowed to give away his $32.8 billion fortune before he dies. In doing so, he hopes to sharply reduce high smoking rates in Turkey, Indonesia and other countries; bring down obesity levels in Mexico; reduce traffic in Rio de Janeiro (and Istanbul); improve road safety in India and Kenya; prevent deaths at childbirth to mothers in Tanzania; and organize cities worldwide to become more environmentally friendly and efficient in delivering services.”
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair “gave Kazakhstan’s autocratic president advice on how to manage his image after the slaughter of unarmed civilians protesting against his regime,” the Telegraph reports.
“In a letter to Nursultan Nazarbayev… Mr Blair told the Kazakh president that the deaths of 14 protesters ‘tragic though they were, should not obscure the enormous progress’ his country had made. Mr Blair, who is paid millions of pounds a year to give advice to Mr Nazarbayev, goes on to suggest key passages to insert into a speech the president was giving at the University of Cambridge, to defend the action.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said that he played “no role in soliciting cash from a mining company for the Wisconsin Club for Growth during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections, adding that no one should be surprised that the pro-business governor backed legislation helpful to the firm,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
The Washington Post notes Walker’s “aggressive efforts” to raise money for the Wisconsin Club for Growth, “which allegedly served as a de facto arm of his campaign, are the latest details to emerge about a controversial two-year investigation of whether Walker’s campaign illegally coordinated with outside groups.”
A new OnMessage poll in Maryland shows a very close race for governor with Anthony Brown (D) just ahead of Larry Hogan (R), 45% to 42%.
A new Landmark Communications poll in Georgia finds Michelle Nunn (D) leading David Perdue (R) in the U.S. Senate race by seven points, 47% to 40%. Libertarian candidate Amanda Swafford received 3% while 10% are undecided.
Most other recent polls have found Perdue with a growing lead.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) new political action committee unveiled a T-shirt featuring Perry’s mug shot, Business Insider reports.
The caption under Perry’s mug shot says he’s “wanted” for “securing the border and defeating Democrats.”
FiveThirtyEight: “According to Gallup, Americans think that political corruption has become more widespread over the past several years. And yet the best data we have on political corruption doesn’t bear that out. The Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department reports statistics on corruption cases to Congress every year, and although it might be a stretch to say that the country has gotten less corrupt over time, the problem certainly hasn’t grown.”
David Axelrod told the New York Daily News that he wishes Democrats didn’t criticize former President Bush when he went on vacation because presidents are “never off-duty.”
Said Axelrod: “We used to pillory George Bush for going to his ranch and we were wrong.”
He added: “The demands and pressures of the presidency are relentless, and we ought to want our presidents to get small breaks to relax, even in-and maybe especially in — the midst of crisis.”
“Well, I am flattered because she is a strong leader. I am a strong independent leader. I am a strong female independent leader. And I do believe they use that as a distraction. Rather than focus on me, they’re focusing on someone else. She is the kind of politician I admire because she speaks what’s on her mind.”
— Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst (R), quoted by the New York Times, on being compared to Sarah Palin.
“The presidency of Barack Obama has catapulted a network of former advisers into lucrative positions,” The Hill reports.
“Members of the president’s brain trust have steadily moved outside the administration in recent years, capitalizing on their association with the Obama brand to launch careers as advisers, consultants and hired guns.”
“The Obama administration signaled Thursday that the United States has begun a new war against the so-called Islamic State, and that group’s operatives will not be safe from America’s wrath in Iraq, in Syria, or wherever they can be tracked down,” Eli Lake reports.
“The most notable rhetorical tell came from Obama himself. In the aftermath of the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Obama vowed to bring the attackers to justice. This week Obama struck a different tone, saying: ‘When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done.'”
“The difference between bringing suspects to justice and seeing that justice is done is roughly the same as the difference between treating terrorism as a crime and as an act of war.”
Daily Beast: “With fewer than 75 days left until Election Day, Democrats across the country are feverishly moving from planning to implementing a vast, multilayered turnout operation that they hope will make the 2014 mid-term elections look more like a victorious Obama presidential year and less like the sort of mid-term wipeout that cost them the House majority in 2010.”
South Dakota U.S. Senate candidate Rick Weiland (D) says it was a “light moment” when he called opponent and former Gov. Mike Rounds (R) “senator” during a public forum, the AP reports.
Weiland quickly corrected his remark to “soon-to-want-to-be senator.”
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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