“I cannot remember a time when one faction of one party promises economic chaos when it doesn’t get everything it wants.”
— President Obama, quoted by NBC News, on threats by some Republicans to force a government shutdown over Obamacare.
The Reselling of the President
Out tomorrow: The Message: The Reselling of President Obama by Richard Wolffe.
The Fix: “While President Obama and his top aides were pretty adept at containing leaks from their 2012 campaign, some of the details have begun to emerge now that political reporters are publishing books about the election.”
On Wonk Wire
Obama Loses Sway with Congressional Democrats
Mark Murray: “One of President Barack Obama’s more under-reported achievements has been his ability to corral Democratic votes in Congress…. That is until now.”
“Twice in the past two weeks, congressional Democrats have broken with Obama on key issues — the first time this has happened during Obama’s four-plus years in the White House.”
Gates Will Write About ‘Political Wars’
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has a book coming out in January “and it may discomfort some members of Congress, as well as former colleagues from the Obama and Bush administrations,” USA Today reports.
In addition to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gates says he plans to write about “my political war with Congress each day I was in office,” and what he calls “the dramatic contrast between my public respect, bipartisanship and calm,and my private frustration, disgust and anger.”
Tennant Will Run for U.S. Senate in West Virginia
West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D) is expected to announce her
candidacy Tuesday for the Democratic nomination to become West
Virginia’s next U.S. Senator, the Charleston Daily Mail reports.
“Long rumored to have interest in running,
Tennant began calling Democrats across the state Friday to let them know
her plans, said an unnamed Democrat.”
McConnell’s Tough Choices
Louisville Courier-Journal:
“As Congress faces a potential meltdown over the budget and spending,
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is staring at tough political
choices. Should the Kentucky Republican get involved in trying to cut
another budget deal and open himself to charges from the right that he
is giving in to President Barack Obama? Or should he let others
negotiate and be subjected to criticism that he gets nothing done?”
Vander Platts Mulls U.S. Senate Bid
Bob Vander Plaats (R), a key socially conservative power broker in Iowa’s presidential caucuses, will consider a U.S. Senate run next month, BuzzFeed reports.
Said a spokesman: “He would consider looking at it in the middle of October, and decide by the end of the year.”
Fiscal Showdown Looms
Wonk Wire has a timeline for the coming fights over the budget and debt ceiling.
A Republican leadership aide tells National Journal:
“I’m very confident in my belief that a shutdown will not happen. I’m
not going to rule out the chance that it ever does. But the leadership
team and overwhelming number of our members do not want to shut down the
government.”
Cuomo Will Seek End to New York City Primary
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will hold an event with Bill de Blasio (D) and Bill Thompson (D) later this morning “to help bring an end to the Democratic mayoral primary,” Capital New York reports.
“For Cuomo, who avoided public appearances in the city during the primary, it’s a bold entry that forestalls a potentially divisive run-off process, and projects his status as the central figure in the state’s Democratic politics.”
Politicker reports Thompson will drop out of the race today.
No Clear Leader in Boston Mayoral Race
With just over a week until election day, a new Boston Globe poll finds Boston voters “remain flummoxed by the crowded mayoral race.”
John Connolly holds “a slight edge in a field so tightly bunched and volatile that as many as nine candidates have a plausible shot at the final.”
Media Turns on Obama
Politico: “In recent months, and especially since the start of the Syria mess, Obama has been enduring some of the toughest and most widespread press criticism of his four-and-a-half years as president. It isn’t just coming from the usual suspects on the right. Increasingly, the skepticism is coming from the center and even from the left — from White House reporters, progressive editorial boards, foreign policy experts and MSNBC hosts.”
How Summers Got Rolled by Senate Democrats
Larry Summers’ withdrawal as a candidate for Federal Reserve chairman “came after an unprecedented campaign to stop a Fed nominee even before he was announced, spearheaded by Democratic senators who took on a president of their own party,” Bloomberg reports.
Peter Beinart: “Still not convinced that the Democratic Party’s becoming more anti-Wall Street?”
Quote of the Day
“It’s almost as though it was the end of traditional power. I’ve been here for 20 years, and I’ve never seen so much of a repudiation of the conventional sources of power in the legislative or executive branch. It portends for a much more chaotic fall.”
— Rep. James Moran (D-VA), quoted by the Washington Post, on the rank-and-file resistance to both President Obama and Speaker John Boehner on Capitol Hill.
Obamacare Opponents Divided Over What to Do
With health insurance exchanges set to open on October 1, a new USA Today/Pew Research survey finds that 53% of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s health care law while 42% approve.
Key findings: “The 53% of the public who disapprove of the law are divided over what they would like elected officials who oppose the law to do now that the law has begun to take effect. About half of disapprovers (27% of the public overall) say these lawmakers ‘should do what they can to make the law work as well as possible,’ but nearly as many (23% of the public) say these officials ‘should do what they can to make the law fail.'”
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has the reason why: “Overall, nearly 70% of poll respondents said they didn’t understand the health-care overhaul passed by Democrats in March 2010 or only understood a part of it.”
Biden Stokes 2016 Speculation
“Iowa Democrats have often looked to Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual steak fry for a peek into the future of the party. On Sunday, Vice President Biden made clear he believes its future should be an extension of its present,” the Washington Post reports.
“Biden, flirting with a third try at the presidency in 2016, delivered a muscular and impassioned defense of the policies and priorities of President Obama’s administration and offered a marker by which he said they should be judged.”
Des Moines Register: “He made only joking references to the 2016 race as he spoke in the leadoff presidential-nominating state. But he shook hands for more than 45 minutes afterward, engaging in the friendly, back-slapping retail politics he’s famous for.”
No Plan B on Syria
“The Russian-American deal to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal gives President Obama some breathing space after a politically damaging few weeks. But the list of things that could still go wrong is extensive and daunting,” the New York Times reports.
“The two sides could deadlock over the text of a United Nations Security Council resolution codifying the agreement. Syria could insist on deal-breaking conditions or fail to turn over a complete accounting of its weapons within a week, as mandated. International inspectors could be obstructed on the ground or chemical stocks could be hidden from them.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that a deal to rid Syria of chemical weapons will be enforced by the United Nations.
Summers Withdraws Name for Fed Chairmanship
Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called President Obama to say he is pulling out of the contest to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Summers: “I have reluctantly concluded that any possible confirmation process for me would be acrimonious and would not serve the interest of the Federal Reserve, the Administration or, ultimately, the interests of the nation’s ongoing economic recovery.”
The Week: Will Janet Yellen be the next Fed chair?
