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“The idea that Donald Trump would win, everything we know about politics has to be wrong, and I don’t think it is.”
— Romney chief strategist Stuart Stevens, quoted by KUAR, also predicting that Trump will drop out of the presidential race before the Iowa caucuses.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says he’ll filibuster a bill to raise the debt ceiling, BuzzFeed News reports.
Said Paul: “I think it’s a horrible — it’s hard for me to not use profanity in describing it.. It’s a bill that shows a careless disregard for debt. It will raise the debt with no limit.”
A new Clemson Palmetto poll in South Carolina finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 23%, followed by Ben Carson at 19%, Marco Rubio at 9%, Ted Cruz at 8%, Jeb Bush at 7%, Carly Fiorina at 6% and Lindsey Graham at 3%.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders, 43% to 6%.
Ben Carson told The Hill that he would not sign any budget deal that raised the debt ceiling if he is elected president.
Said Carson: “They do the same thing every year. They wait until their backs are up against the wall and the gun is to their head, and you either raise the debt ceiling or we default and the world falls apart.”
He added: “Why do we do that? I think the time to address that is at the beginning of the fiscal period, not at the end, because then you have other options. Now, they wait until it’s too late to do anything else, and we keep raising the debt and compromising the future of the next generation. It is craziness.”
“Do you know how crazy this election is? Let me tell you something. I’ve about had it with these people.”
— Gov. John Kasich, quoted by the Daily Beast, showing his frustration with Donald Trump and Ben Carson.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is an independent, “received confirmation that he is a qualified candidate in the March 1, 2016 Democratic presidential primary in his home state of Vermont,” WMUR reports.
“That move, backed up by more than 1,000 signatures as required by Vermont law, should dispel any remaining question about Sanders’ qualifications to run in the Democratic primary in the Granite State… Sanders’ qualifications to file in the New Hampshire Democratic primary has been the subject of speculation for six months.”
Out next week: Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again by Donald J. Trump.
Michael Scherer got an early copy: “If you follow the campaign, or have watched any of Trump’s rallies on cable television, little in the book will be new. He is great. He is rich. People like him. Politicians are terrible. ISIS must be defeated. Illegal immigrants must be deported. Make America Great Again. It goes on.”
A great line from the book: “President Obama is big on playing golf. But he doesn’t play with the right people… Believe me, I know how to use a golf course—and golf clubs—to make deals.”
Carly Fiorina “may be running for president, but she is also available for speaking engagements. On a limited basis, that is, according to an email sent by the speaking firm that represents the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive,” Politico reports.
Wall Street Journal: “It is unusual for competitive political candidates to give paid speeches while on the campaign trail, though some do mix commercial business with stumping for office.”
“The budget agreement struck late Monday between the White House and Congress hands President Obama a major victory, vindicating his hard line this year against spending limits that he argued were a drag on the economy and also buying himself freedom for the final 14 months of his term from the fiscal dysfunction that has plagued his presidency,” the New York Times reports.
“The deal is the policy equivalent of keeping the lights on — hardly the stuff of a bold fiscal legacy for the president — but it achieves the main objective of his 2016 budget: to break free of the spending shackles he agreed to when he signed the Budget Control Act of 2011.”
“So right now its not very scientific. I think it’s very hard when you have this many.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by TPM, suggesting polls showing him behind Ben Carson may not be accurate.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
“Brown’s endorsement could matter among Ohio primary voters next March as Clinton vies with Bernie Sanders for the party’s nomination. Brown has long embraced the progressive label, taking positions more often affiliated with colleagues such as Sanders, of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts than with moderates such as Clinton.”
Coming next year: The Long Game by Sen. Mitch McConnell.
A new Monmouth University Poll in Iowa finds Hillary Clinton with a huge lead over Bernie Sanders, 65% to 24%, with Martin O’Malley at 5% and Lawrence Lessig at 4%.
Key findings: “Clinton enjoys a large lead over Sanders among both male (55% to 33%) and female (73% to 16%) voters. She also has an edge across the ideological spectrum, leading among voters who are very liberal (57% to 34%), somewhat liberal (68% to 22%), and moderate (69% to 19%).”
A new Loras College poll finds Clinton leading Sanders, 65% to 24%, with O’Malley at 3%.
Michael Towle: “When President Barack Obama wakes up tomorrow, the U.S. will have gone 18,968 days without a president dying in office, surpassing the previous record that began when George Washington was inaugurated in 1789 and ended when William Henry Harrison died in 1841.”
“This should give us pause. The American political parties are beginning the slow process of determining who their presidential candidates should be. But the choice of vice-presidential candidates will be rushed through next summer in a flurry of political calculations. Our nation’s history suggests that we should be more cautious.”
“Seething at the Export-Import Bank’s expiration, 62 Republicans voted with 184 Democrats Monday on a rarely used procedure to force a vote to reopen the bank with some modest reforms. Final passage will be Tuesday, sending the legislation to the Senate, where its outcome is unclear but where it counts the support of almost 70 of 100 senators,” the Washington Post reports.
“It was a remarkable turnabout for the several dozen establishment Republicans, who have seen their agenda largely stymied by the House’s right flank. Yet the renewal of Ex-Im’s charter largely became possible because the right wing had so much success in helping oust Boehner and blocking the ascension of his top deputy, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).”
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — who is expected to be elected Speaker of the House later this week — criticized the process by which congressional leaders put together a two-year budget deal with the White House, TPM reports.
Said Ryan: “About the process, I can say this. I think this process stinks. This is not the way to do the people’s business and under new management we are not going to do the people’s business this way.”
Al Hunt: “On paper, they look like first cousins: They are both 44, freshman senators who beat the establishment Republican candidate, and sons of Cuban immigrants who fled the right-wing Batista regime. They also are self-styled Ronald Reagan conservatives with rich political sugar daddies to give them staying power in a protracted fight.”
“Yet their differences are stark. Cruz is much more confrontational; Rubio has been able to work better, on occasion, with Democrats. Cruz, a champion college and law school debater and clerk to the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, seems smarter. Rubio, once the speaker of the Florida House, seems smoother.”
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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