“At least eight universities, including four public institutions, have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hillary Rodham Clinton to speak on their campuses over the past year, sparking a backlash from some student groups and teachers at a time of austerity in higher education,” the Washington Post reports.
Obama Predicts GOP Will Move Back to the Center
President Obama told Marketplace that the Republican Party would have to “move back to the center” if it ever wanted to win another presidential election.
Said Obama: “I don’t think this is a permanent state of affairs. I think over time the Republican Party will move back to the center, mainly because if they don’t, they’ll never win the presidency again.”
Polling Isn’t Broken
Lynn Vavreck: “The science of polling is sound, but if you ask the wrong group of people your poll questions, you can get the wrong answers. Think of it this way: An arrow shot by an expert marksman has some chance of hitting the target depending on the wind, the distance and any number of other things, but if the marksman aims at the wrong target, those other things have nothing to do with why the arrow misses. Saying that 1 out of 20 polls is “wrong,” and therefore polls cannot predict elections conflates the chance that comes from drawing a sample of voters with what happened in Mr. Cantor’s poll — drawing the sample from the wrong set of people.”
Quote of the Day
“He’s like the A-Rod of politics.”
— David Plouffe, quoted by the New York Times, on former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Obama Is a Generic Brand
Jonathan Bernstein: “The Quinnipiac poll getting buzz today may be worthless, but the general topic of evaluating Barack Obama is another opportunity to make an important point: almost everything about Obama’s presidency can be explained by saying he’s a Democratic president. He’s an interesting man, but as president he’s become about as generic as possible.”
Obama’s Distaste With Congress Boils Over
Washington Post: “From the Rose Garden to the Cabinet Room to near the Key Bridge in Georgetown, the president has signaled more than mere annoyance at the state of affairs at the halfway point of this year. His disdain for congressional Republicans has steadily increased; his disrespect for their tactics has hardened into contempt.”
“With immigration reform dead for this year, if not for the remainder of Obama’s presidency; with House Speaker John Boehner threatening to sue him for alleged misuse of presidential power; and with other important legislation stalled in the House, the president has given voice to his frustrations with a series of partisan blasts.”
“It culminated Tuesday with a mock dare to the speaker and his followers in the House: ‘So sue me!’
Single Women Emerge as a Political Powerhouse
“The decline of marriage over the last generation has helped create an emerging voting bloc of unmarried women that is profoundly reshaping the American electorate to the advantage, recent elections suggest, of the Democratic Party. What is far from clear is whether Democrats will benefit in the midterm contests this fall,” the New York Times reports.
“With their Senate majority at stake in November, Democrats and allied groups are now stepping up an aggressive push to woo single women — young and old, highly educated and working class, never married, and divorced or widowed.”
U.S. Had Secret Military Presence in Somalia
“U.S. military advisors have secretly operated in Somalia since around 2007 and Washington plans to deepen its security assistance to help the country fend off threats by Islamist militant group al Shabaab,” Reuters reports.
“The comments are the first detailed public acknowledgement of a U.S. military presence in Somalia dating back since the U.S. administration of George W. Bush and add to other signs of a deepening U.S. commitment to Somalia’s government, which the Obama administration recognized last year.”
Too Early to Say Obama Is One of the Worst
Danny Vinik: “The first thing to remember is that presidential approval ratings almost always rise once they leave office. In 2013, Gallup released polling data on John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. All saw their approval ratings increase after their presidencies. Despite the fact that millions of Americans still blame George W. Bush for the weak recovery, even he has seen his approval rating tick up in recent years. As the current president, Obama has not yet had the opportunity to capture this post-presidency favorability boost. Five years from now, Americans will almost certainly look back with fonder memories of his time in office. Note that when Quinnipiac ran an identical poll, in the second term of Bush’s presidency, Americans rated him as the worst modern-day president–by basically the same percentage (34 percent) as they currently rate Obama (33 percent).”
Coakley Up By Double-Digits in Massachusetts
A new WBUR/MassInc poll in Massachusetts finds Martha Coakley (D) leading Charlie Baker (R) in the race for governor by a wide margin, 41% to 28%.
Who Is To Blame for the Worst Congress Ever?
Barry Ritholtz: “I am troubled by the unrelenting incompetence of the U.S. Congress. Its inability to pass even the most basic legislation is beyond baffling.”
“There are three groups to blame for the gross dereliction of duty we have seen from this do-nothing Congress. The first, paradoxically, is the Federal Reserve. Its monetary policies have allowed some small measure of recovery, giving cover to Congress’s failure to manage our fiscal policies…. The second group is the Supreme Court. Its campaign of replacing our Jeffersonian democracy with a corporatocracy — sponsored by and sold to the highest bidder — continues unabated… But the group most to blame for the sad state of Congress is you, the American voter. Or, more accurately, the American non-voter.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“The Republican Party is too fixated on this fiction of electability.”
— GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway, quoted by the Daily Beast.
McDaniel Says Cochran Stole Election
In a fundraising email to supporters, Chris McDaniel (R) says Sen. Thad Cochran (R) “stole last week’s runoff election” and is asking for money to wage a legal battle, the Jackson Clarion Ledger reports.
Writes McDaniel: “Thanks to illegal voting from liberal Democrats, my opponent stole last week’s runoff election, but I’m not going down without a fight. I have not given up on sending my conservative values to Washington.”
Meanwhile, a source on the Cochran campaign told Business Insider that McDaniel is a “clinically diagnosable narcissist” and a scam artist.
Dave Weigel:
“There’s no recent precedent for a challenge like this. For the moment,
there are just the poll books, and the rumors, and the trading of
insults.”
Did Amash Bypass Campaign Finance Rules?
Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) “received a handsome bonus from his father’s company in 2010, the same year he first ran for Congress and loaned a similarly large sum of money to his campaign,” the Huffington Post reports.
“The timing of the bonus and loans raise the question of whether Amash received an illegal campaign contribution from his family’s business to finance his first campaign for Congress.”
Perry Criticized for Not Wearing Cowboy Boots
Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson (R) told the Austin American Stateman that Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) decision, based on back pain, to stop wearing cowboy boots was just a “feeble excuse.”
Said Patterson: “Tell Rick that boots can be purchased with normal heels. I lament the fact that our governor could now pass for a West Coast metrosexual and has embarrassed us all with his sartorial change of direction.”
Congressional Black Caucus Wants Payback from Cochran
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) “won a primary runoff by turning out the black vote. Now they are asking — what are you going to do for us?,” Politico reports.
“Already the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are talking about what they want Cochran to do. The wish list is filling up with ideas like maintaining funding for food stamps, beefing up programs that help poor blacks in Mississippi and even supporting the Voting Rights Act.”
Ex-Governor Takes Helm at Marijuana Products Company
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson “has been named the CEO of a new company that makes marijuana lozenges and creams for sale in states such as Colorado, where recreational use of marijuana is allowed,” Albuquerque Business First reports.
Said Johnson: “I have used the product and it’s very pleasant. A couple things strike you: Why would anybody smoke it, given that this is an alternative; and second, it’s pleasant.”
Clinton Allies Win Changes in Iowa
Hillary Clinton “has yet to announce her intentions regarding 2016, much less whether she would compete in Iowa, which traditionally votes first in the presidential campaign. But she can already claim a victory of sorts, as Iowa Democrats weigh changes in their balloting to address concerns Clinton raised in losing the state in 2008,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Spurred in part by pressure from the party’s national leadership — which includes a number of Clinton allies — the Iowa party is considering ways to expand participation in its caucuses, which have been structured in ways that prevent many voters from taking part. Possible changes include the use of absentee ballots and online voting, allowing those physically absent to participate in the caucuses, which typically occur on a cold winter night and last for hours.”
