A new Quinnipiac poll in New York finds Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) with a stunning 74% to 13% approval rating, his highest score ever and continuing his six-month string of 70+ percent ratings.
His approval is 68% to 18% among Republicans, 82% to 9% among Democrats and 70% to 12% among independent voters.
“I’m pretty confident that Republicans would not hold middle class taxes
hostage to trying to protect tax cuts for high-income individuals.”
— President Obama, in an interview with ABC News, on the fiscal cliff negotiations.
Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, who wrote the best seller Game Change, about the 2008 presidential campaign, will publish a book about the just-concluded election under the title Double Down: Game Change 2012, the New York Times reports.
The book will be out in fall 2013.
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President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner “spoke by phone after exchanging new proposals to avert the ‘fiscal cliff’ as negotiations intensified ahead of the end-of-year deadline,” Reuters reports.
“The conversation and exchange of counteroffers over the last two days are the latest sign of possible progress in efforts to avert the automatic steep tax hikes and spending cuts set for January 1 unless Congress intervenes.”
Meanwhile, the the Wall Street Journal says the White House has told Republicans “it would include an overhaul of the corporate-tax code as part of any deal to reduce the deficit, people familiar with the talks said, putting a major priority for business groups on the table as part of the intensifying negotiations.”
Without ceremony, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) said he signed two bills tonight making Michigan the nation’s 24th right-to-work state, the Detroit News reports.
National Review reports the Koch brothers “will postpone their semi-annual meeting, which
was originally scheduled to be held next month. It will now be held in
April. In an e-mail to friends, Charles Koch says he wants to reflect on
the results, and on election data, before he huddles with fellow
business leaders.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Kentucky finds Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) with a lowly 37% to 55% approval rating, the worst favorable/unfavorable numbers of any senator the country.
Nonetheless, he leads all of the Democrats tested against him in a 2014 race: Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson (D), Attorney General Jack Conway (D), and actress Ashley Judd all trail McConnell by four points, 47% to 43%.
“The reason McConnell does decently well in the head to head match ups despite his poor approval numbers is that even though a lot of Republicans dislike him, most of them would still vote for him in a general election before they would support a Democrat.”
Nate Silver sees Hillary Clinton’s high favorability numbers falling if she moves to run for president in 2016 because Republicans “would begin to criticize her, delicately at first, and then more expressly as the election drew nearer.”
“None of this is to argue that Mrs. Clinton would not have some unique strengths as a candidate. For all the reasons I mentioned at the top, she seems like Democrats’ best bet, perhaps by some margin, to extend their winning streak to three or more terms in the White House. If she ran even a point or two stronger than a ‘generic’ Democrat, the odds would shift meaningfully in her favor, holding other circumstances equal.”
“Perhaps Mrs. Clinton’s most impressive attribute is her ability to withstand criticism — and often emerge the stronger from it. If she runs for president again, she will surely receive plenty of it.”
The Week: Why Republicans are really scared of Hillary Clinton.
In dramatic fashion, the Michigan House of
Representatives has approved the controversial right-to-work legislation
despite thousands of rowdy protesters outside the Capitol, the Detroit News reports.
The bill is expected to advance to Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) desk soon, however, the Detroit Free Press says he’s not likely to sign the legislation today.
Greg Sargent: “But union operatives think there is another mechanism by which the law
can be challenged. According to one good government group’s analysis
of the state constitution, there exists the option of the ‘statutory
initiative,’ which would be forced by the collecting of signatures equal
to at least eight percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial
election.”
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has whittled down the list of people she is considering for Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-SC) soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat to five people, CNN reports.
Her final choices: Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC), Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), former state Attorney General Henry McMaster (R), former South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford (R) and attorney Catherine Templeton (R).
“One thing they have in common: a warm personal relationship with the governor, who is known to prize loyalty.”
The AP obtained an early copy of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s “unusually personal” memoir to be published early next year in which she says “that her lifelong battle against diabetes and the fear that she might die early played a big part in her decision not to have children.”
The memoir, My Beloved World, earned Sotomayor an advance of $1.2 million and will be published simultaneously in English and Spanish.
“A lot of us are campaign officials — or campaign professionals — and we want to do everything we can to help our side. Sometimes we think that’s voter ID, sometimes we think that’s longer lines — whatever it may be.”
— GOP campaign consultant Scott Tranter, quoted by the Huffington Post.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in South Carolina finds Gov. Nikki Haley (R) running behind her 2010 opponent Vincent Sheheen (D) in a possible rematch, 46% to 44%.
The good news for Haley is that she does not look terribly vulnerable to a primary challenger with Republicans wanting her as their nominee, 53% to 37%.
Matt Taibbi: “Any pundit who tries to claim he knows where all of this is going is lying. This schism could be a disaster for Republicans (because it will further alienate the rank-and-file, middle-and-working-class voters from the party establishment, which will now be bashed from the outside by DeMint and the Tea Party), or it could actually be a good thing for the Republicans’ future prospects (there’s a way to look at this as a long-overdue purge of the party’s moron faction).”
“Or it could all be irrelevant. Remember, the Democrats were facing a similarly bitter split not too long ago, when their party’s mainstream unforgivably backed Bush’s idiotic Iraq invasion and then saddled us with a war-waffling presidential candidate in John Kerry. And just like the Republicans after Romney, the Democrats after the Kerry loss felt hopeless, depressed and self-hating – you heard a lot of ‘Screw it, I’m moving to Iceland’ talk. Four years later, the party sold the identical Kerry policy package in an exciting new Obama wrapper, and suddenly people were partying in the streets. You just never know how these things will turn out.”
“But in the meantime, this split in the Republican Party is a crazy and highly entertaining mess.”
“You guys tried to obstruct me. You fought me. Only I deserve the award.”
— The female undercover CIA agent heading up the hunt for Osama bin Laden, quoted by the Washington Post, hitting reply-all on an email crediting many of her colleagues for the mission.
Just published: Masters of Disaster: The Ten Commandments of Damage Control by Christopher Lehane, Mark Fabiani and Bill Guttentag.
A must read.
Wall Street Journal: “The unruly freshman class of 2010 has thwarted Mr. Boehner numerous times during his two years as speaker. To bolster his position, Mr. Boehner has been slowly bringing Republican freshmen to his side by introducing them to the realities of legislating and congressional leadership. Mr. Boehner’s strategy, and his future as speaker, will get tested between now and year-end as Washington wrestles with negotiations designed to avert tax increases and spending cuts due to begin in early January.”
“Boehner has used both carrot and stick to unify his ranks, lawmakers said. Rep. Steve Southerland, a voluble freshman, got a job managing a transportation bill. Three freshmen who continued to defy the House leadership on key votes got booted from plum committees. Others learned the limits of their power by watching bills the House passed disappear in the Senate.”
“Boehner mended fences with his No. 2, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), after the two repeatedly clashed over various budget negotiations, aides to both men said. He has made an overt effort to cultivate Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House budget committee and Mitt Romney’s running mate. Mr. Ryan didn’t embrace Mr. Boehner’s efforts to negotiate a deficit deal in 2011. This year, he is sitting in on Mr. Boehner’s daily strategy session and has endorsed the speaker’s plan to raise fresh tax revenue.”
New York Daily News: “Bill de Blasio says he’s proud of his marriage — and his wife’s outspoken lesbian past.”
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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