Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) “came up just short of the support needed to claim his party’s nomination for the seventh time, forcing him into a primary election with state Sen. Dan Liljenquist in June,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“After two rounds of balloting, Hatch had the support of 59.1 percent, a handful of votes short of the 60 percent threshold to claim the nomination outright. He’ll face his first primary election since his 1976 victory.”
A new Rasmussen poll in Ohio shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by four points in the all important swing state, 46% to 42%.
Former Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) was picked as the Constitution Party’s nominee for president, according to Ballot Access News.
He is the first Constitution Party presidential nominee to have held important elected office.
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
At a party meeting in Arizona, RNC members and state GOP chairmen were welcomed into a private reception with Mitt Romney “only after signing a form pledging to support Romney as a delegate to the national convention in Tampa,” CNN reports.
“All three members of Iowa’s conservative RNC delegation… attempted to enter the reception but were rebuffed after refusing to sign the delegate pledge. The dispute became heated in the hallway outside, with the Iowans demanding to know why they had to sign a form to get their picture taken with the former Massachusetts governor.”
Said one: “The don’t trust us. I have said I will support the nominee when we have a nominee, no ifs, ands or buts.”
Jeb Bush told NewsMax that he would consider being Mitt Romney’s running mate.
Said Bush: “Well I’d consider it, but I doubt I’ll get a call, and I don’t know if it’s the right thing for me to do. I didn’t run for president for a similar kind of reason, so I’m all in to try to help him get elected.”
A new CNN/Opinion Research survey finds 43% of Americans
say things are going well in the country, up a whopping 19 points from August. That said, 57% say things are still
going badly.
Matthew Jaffe has a tip for prospective GOP vice presidential nominees: Start by saying you don’t want the job.
Four years ago, when speculation swirled over who Barack Obama would pick as his running mate, Joe Biden told them, “I’m not the guy.” Of course, just days later Biden was unveiled as Obama’s pick.
In 2000, Dick Cheney said, “I have no absolutely no desire to go back to government.” But at the same time, Cheney was leading George W. Bush’s search for a running mate, a search that settled on Cheney himself.
A new Rasmussen poll in Ohio shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by four points in the all important swing state, 46% to 42%.
Politico reports that “under the table, there is pervasive pessimism among Republicans about Romney’s prospects this fall. It’s apparent in rampant discussions about which Republicans will run in 2016 — talk that obviously presupposes a loss in November — and it’s downright glaring in private conversations with GOP officials on Capitol Hill and in consulting shops across Washington.”
“And the skepticism about Romney isn’t just a Beltway phenomenon. Rank-and-file Republican voters are also uncertain he can win, though it’s the chattering class that is most bearish.”
However, a National Journal Political Insiders poll finds 65% of insiders “very excited” about Romney as the GOP nominee while 30% are “somewhat excited.”
The RNC “is preparing to launch a new Facebook tool that lets users share news, talking points and the latest updates about the presidential campaign with their friends,” CNN reports.
“Republicans using the application will be able do the work usually reserved for campaign offices simply by logging into Facebook from their personal computers… They can fill out and submit absentee ballot applications, see early voting deadlines, donate to the party or inform their friends about upcoming campaign event… all while never leaving Facebook. And simply by clicking a button, a user’s phone will ring and automatically re-connect them, via RNC headquarters, to targeted voters in key states.”
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) endorsed Mitt Romney for president this week, but in an interview with the Indianapolis Star he wasn’t so kind to the likely GOP nominee.
Said Daniels: “You have to campaign to govern, not just to win… Spend the precious time and dollars explaining what’s at stake and a constructive program to make life better. And as I say, look at everything through the lens of folks who have yet to achieve.”
He paused and added: “Romney doesn’t talk that way.”
“Good pic of my son Jimmy’s bulldog, Apollo – I’m sorry Mr. President,
he’s not on the menu!”
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), on Twitter, in reference to President Obama eating dog while a child
when he lived abroad in Indonesia.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told National Journal he does not know if he will vote for President Obama or Mitt Romney for president in November.
Said Manchin: “I’ll look at the options.”
“That stance is at odds with almost every other Democrat who is up for reelection this year or is from a state that Romney is likely to win. And it’s an indication of the unique effort Manchin has made to establish his independence from Obama and other Democrats.”
David Chaney, one of the Secret Service supervisors ousted from the agency this week for their involvement in the Colombia prostitution scandal, “made light of his official protective work on his Facebook page, joking about a picture of himself standing watch behind Sarah Palin,” the Washington Post reports.
Wrote Chaney: “I was really checking her out, if you know what i mean?”
Palin responded on Fox News: “Well check this out, bodyguard — you’re fired. And I hope his wife sends him to the doghouse. As long as he’s not eating the dog, along with his former boss.”
Mitt Romney has hired Richard Grenell as his national security and foreign policy spokesman, the Washington Post reports.
Interestingly, the story doesn’t mention that Grenell is openly gay.
Andrew Sullivan: “For Romney to have an openly gay spokesman is a real outreach to gay Republicans, a subtle signal to moderates, and the Santorum faction’s reaction will be worth noting.”
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) told the Daily Beast that Mittt Romney would have a “tall order to position Hispanics to vote for him” even though his father was born in Mexico.
Schweitzer admitted that it is “kinda ironic given that his family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico, but then he’d have to talk about his family coming from a polygamy commune in Mexico, given the gender discrepancy.”
Schweitzer noted that women are “not great fans of polygamy, 86 percent were not great fans of polygamy. I am not alleging by any stretch that Romney is a polygamist and approves of [the] polygamy lifestyle, but his father was born into [a] polygamy commune in Mexico.”
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds President Obama leads Mitt Romney by six points nationally, 49% to 43%.
The survey also finds that Obama’s “efforts to project himself as a protector of the middle class have strengthened him for the general election, while Mitt Romney has gained traction with his argument that he can improve the economy.”
The president’s approval rating is 49% while 46% disapprove.
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.