“Scarlett Johansson and Reese Witherspoon are among actresses being considered to portray the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” The Independent reports.
“Rodham — about the younger years of the former First Lady and senator — is due out some time around the 2016 presidential election, in which Clinton might be a candidate. It will focus on 1974, when she was a Washington lawyer.”
Los Angeles Times: “Wendy Greuel entered the race for mayor of Los Angeles with the formidable advantages of a front-runner… But six months after emerging as the leading candidate to succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Greuel’s campaign was handed a decisive defeat by her former City Council friend, Eric Garcetti.”
“The portrait that emerges from interviews with campaign aides and analysts begins with a candidate who underestimated the strength of her opponents in the primary election and the importance of maintaining her brand as a trusted public servant. The slippage accelerated when Greuel’s efforts to promote past accomplishments and future goals drew new rounds of scrutiny and criticism. And attempts to take down her opponents fell short, according to the interviews with campaign operatives and outside experts.”
New York Times: “Almost no law as sprawling and consequential as the Affordable Care Act has passed without changes — significant structural changes or routine tweaks known as ‘technical corrections’ — in subsequent months and years… But as they prowl Capitol Hill, business lobbyists… health care providers and others seeking changes are finding, to their dismay, that in a polarized Congress, accomplishing them has become all but impossible.”
“Republicans simply want to see the entire law go away and will not take part in adjusting it. Democrats are petrified of reopening a politically charged law that threatens to derail careers as the Republicans once again seize on it before an election year.”
“As a result, a landmark law that almost everyone agrees has flaws is likely to take effect unchanged.”
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A must-read coming this fall: The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
A new CNN/ORC Poll finds 54% of Americans oppose President Obama’s new health care law, three years after he signed what was his signature domestic policy achievement.
But the poll also indicates that more than a quarter of those who oppose Obamacare, say they don’t support the measure because it doesn’t go far enough.
New York Times: “Representatives of these organizations have cried foul in recent weeks about their treatment by the I.R.S., saying they were among dozens of conservative groups unfairly targeted by the agency, harassed with inappropriate questionnaires and put off for months or years as the agency delayed decisions on their applications.”
“But a close examination of these groups and others reveals an array of election activities that tax experts and former I.R.S. officials said would provide a legitimate basis for flagging them for closer review.”
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford “unequivocally says there is no video that shows him using crack cocaine,” the Toronto Star reports.
He later called journalists a “bunch of maggots,” adding after a brief pause, “Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”
NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd is writing an as-yet-untitled book about President Obama’s first term and what “Obamaism” truly is.
The Los Angeles Times profiles George P. Bush, who grew up “a prince amid Republican royalty.”
“He is the fourth generation to enter the family business: Great-grandpa was a U.S. senator, grandpa and an uncle were presidents, dad was a governor. And even if his aim is conspicuously low, a run for the office of Texas land commissioner, expectations could not be higher — the governorship sometime in the next decade, followed, in the manner of dynastic destiny, with another White House reign.”
Double Down: Game Change 2012, the forthcoming book by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, is now available for pre-order.
Former Rep. Allen West (R-FL) told a radio show that he would be back in national politics soon.
Said West: “Well, we’ll get back into the political scene, but there are so many things I can do right now that can really help us going forward to the midterm elections. It’s not about me; it’s about the team, it’s about our country and that’s what I’m focused on primarily. So after the midterm election cycle we’ll look into getting back into the political framework in 2016. There’s no doubt about it.”
“I think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors that says ‘closed for repairs’ until New Year’s Day next year and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas.”
— Former Sen. Bob Dole, quoted by CBS News, on the Republican party’s problems.
“The biggest overhaul of U.S. immigration laws in a generation won bipartisan approval from a powerful U.S. Senate committee last week, but there is a strong chance that Republicans in the House of Representatives will end up killing it,” Reuters reports.
“The problem: House Republicans are far from convinced by arguments from party leaders that passage of the bill would help Republicans draw support from Hispanic voters. Many also believe any kind of amnesty for the estimated 11 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally is just plain wrong.”
Chris Cillizza: “In a party where good news has been hard to find over the past two years, the current state of play in 2014 Senate races gives Republicans some reason to smile.”
“A combination of raw numbers, a shift in the political environment and some notable recruiting failures has handed Senate Republicans a realistic — but by no means certain– chance of picking up the six seats they need to win back control of the chamber.”
“I’m not commenting on the mayor’s race or on Anthony Weiner’s race
at this point, no.”
— Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), quoted by the Weekly Standard, declining to say whether he’ll support one-time protege Anthony
Weiner (D) for New York City mayor.
Former Sen. John Warner (R-VA) told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he would not endorse the ultra-conservative Republican ticket in Virginia.
Said Warner: “Each person in our state’s got to make their own judgment on that issue, I maintain a golden silence — because the facts are clear for all to interpret.”
“I doubt it. Reagan couldn’t have made it. Certainly, Nixon couldn’t have made it, cause he had ideas. We might’ve made it, but I doubt it.”
— Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), quoted by Politico, noting he doesn’t believe he could make it in today’s Republican Party.
Washington Post: “The state’s hard turn to the right comes less than five years after people took to the streets here to celebrate the 2008 victory of Barack Obama, the first Democratic presidential candidate to capture the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976. The win prompted Obama’s supporters to crow about the growing influence of progressive and minority voters not only in North Carolina but across the South.”
“But that euphoria is now a distant memory. Since the recession hit, North Carolina has been saddled with one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates. The bad times helped prepare the way for a carefully executed strategy, with big financial support from a major conservative activist, that helped the GOP win control of both chambers of the state General Assembly in 2010.”
“Those victories were capped last year when Republican Pat McCrory was elected governor, giving the party control of all levers of state government for the first time since 1870.”
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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