A new Bloomberg National Poll finds 52% of Americans view Hillary Clinton favorably, down from 56% in March and 70% in December 2012.
“The decline means Clinton wouldn’t enter a possible 2016 race as a prohibitive favorite over key Republican rivals. While she still bests them in head-to-head matchups, she doesn’t have majority support against any of them.”
“Hillary Clinton had a tense exchange with an NPR host in an interview airing Thursday over whether she made ‘a calculus’ against publicly supporting gay marriage before endorsing it last year,” Politico reports.
“It’s the first time Clinton, a potential candidate for president in 2016, has been extensively questioned about her support for gay marriage. She did not back it in her 2008 presidential campaign but she issued support for it by video in 2013, weeks after leaving the State Department.”
A new Magellan Strategies (R) poll in Colorado finds Cory Gardner (R) edging Sen. Mark Udall (D) in the race for U.S. Senate, 47% to 45%.
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Dave Weigel follows up on the Arizona race featuring a candidate who changed his name to Cesar Chavez. It gets much crazier.
“Eric Cantor’s campaign: You are no longer the most mockable and bumbling team in American politics this week.”
A new Mitchell Research poll in Michigan finds Gary Peters (D) edging Terri Lynn Land (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 45% to 42%.
Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) leads challenger Mark Schauer (D) in the race for governor, 46% to 41%.
Guardian: “Iraqi officials told the Guardian that two divisions of Iraqi soldiers – roughly 30,000 men – simply turned and ran in the face of the assault by an insurgent force of just 800 fighters.”
A new Bloomberg National Poll finds 53% of Americans oppose the Affordable Care Act.
Nonetheless, 56% favor keeping the law with perhaps “small modifications,” while 10% would leave it as is. That’s the highest level of acceptance yet.
A new Texas Tribune/University of Texas poll finds Greg Abbott (R) leads Wendy Davis (D) by 12 points in the race for Texas governor, 44% to 32%.
The Week: “Two nuclear bombs plummeted from a splintering B-52 bomber in January 1961 and plopped down outside Goldsboro, North Carolina, according to newly-declassified government documents. And though the plane’s disintegration triggered the “fuzing sequence” in both weapons, neither went off because of miraculous technical issues.”
A new SurveyUSA poll in Oregon finds Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) leading challenger Monica Wehby (D) by 18 points, 50% to 32%.
Wehby released an internal poll yesterday suggesting the race was a dead heat.
A new Magellan Strategies (R) poll in Kentucky finds Allison Lundergran Grimes (D) leading Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) by three points in the U.S. Senate race, 49% to 46%.
A new Pew Research study finds Republicans and Democrats in Congress “aren’t the only partisans who deeply distrust people from the other side of the aisle,” the New York Times reports.
“Liberals and conservatives prefer to associate with and live near their fellow partisans. They would be unhappy if their children married someone with a different political viewpoint. The result isn’t just polarized politics, but a divided society where liberals and conservatives increasingly keep apart.”
Really amazing charts over at Wonk Wire.
“Once fearing he would be viewed as ‘a loser for life’ if he failed to win the presidency, Mitt Romney is trying to re-emerge as a force in Republican politics,” the AP reports.
“Romney has quietly sought kingmaker status in the GOP’s fight for the Senate majority this fall and its quest to retake the White House in 2016. The effort at revival is fueling whispers about a third presidential run. But those closest to Romney suggest he’s more interested in shaping party politics by lending his name and record-breaking fundraising machine to what he considers the next generation of electable conservatives.”
“If I were a drinking man, I’d have been drunk last night. I’d have been celebrating like crazy.”
— Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), quoted by KDVR, on Rep. Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) defeat in a GOP primary.
A new We Ask America poll in Illinois shows Bruce Rauner (R) with a 10-point lead over Gov. Pat Quinn (D) in the race for governor, 47% to 37%, with 16% undecided.
“If you’re a conservative, you think Barack Obama is literally destroying the country you love. And you watch your leadership and they seem unwilling to take him head on, and also unable to outmaneuver him.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by the New York Times.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) “will not run for House majority leader in next week’s special election,” National Journal reports.
Hensarling’s decision is a blow to House conservatives, as he was the last of their preferred candidates to be seriously considering a run against Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
The competitive leadership race is now to replace McCarthy as House Majority Whip.
“Very, very capable public servant, great secretary of State, first lady. Very capable.”
— Gov. Rick Perry (R), quoted by the Los Angeles Times, on Hillary Clinton.
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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