The Week: “In the wake of President Obama’s re-election, the Republican Party’s reigning anti-tax ideologue is getting some rare push-back from his associates.”
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Democrats Already Defining 2016 GOP Hopefuls
Mark Halperin notes Democrats are quickly trying to shape the rapidly forming 2016 Republican presidential field.
“There’s one area where Democrats are really far ahead of Republicans right now. Science and technology, no. It’s doing this thing that Democrats failed to do in 2000, to stop George W. Bush, which is really, really early on using the left-wing Freak Show to define anyone who’s thinking of running for President, as quickly as possible, in negative terms on Twitter, on cable, on the Internet. They’re all over this Rubio thing because they want to control his image in a negative way and they did it this cycle too. They went after Romney early, it really hurt him. And they’re doing it now. And, you know, as a matter of just pure politics, it’s very effective because Rubio’s not full-time thinking about running for president. He’s out there dabbling but people on the Left will just be defining anyone who looks like they might be strong in four years.”
Flashback of the Day
“What I’ve said to them is that I believe that God created the universe and that the six days in the Bible may not be six days as we understand it … it may not be 24-hour days, and that’s what I believe. I know there’s always a debate between those who read the Bible literally and those who don’t, and I think it’s a legitimate debate within the Christian community of which I’m a part.”
— Sen. Barack Obama, quoted by Slate in April 2008, when asked if the Earth was created in six days.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was widely criticized for dodging a similar question this week.
Branstad Wants to Kill the Iowa Straw Poll
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) tells the Wall Street Journal he wants to do away with the Ames Straw Poll.
Said Branstad: “I think the straw poll has outlived its usefulness. It has been a great fundraiser for the party but I think its days are over.”
Iowa Republican: “It’s easy to understand why Iowa’s party bosses are quick to disagree with Branstad. The event is a huge moneymaker, creates a ton of media attention for Iowa and the caucuses, and forces candidates to start organizing the state early on in the process. The problem is that the Straw Poll has become a distraction for party staff because they spend more time and money organizing for a fundraiser than they do planning the caucuses.”
Banking Industry Moves to Block Warren
Aides to two senators on the Senate Banking Committee tell Mother Jones the financial services industry has already moved to block Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren from joining the committee, which is charged with drafting legislation regulating much of the financial industry.
Wonk Wire has more on the efforts to keep Warren off the committee.
Christie’s Approval Rating Surges
A new Rutgers-Eagleton poll in New Jersey finds Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) approval rating has leaped 19 percentage points to 67% since Hurricane Sandy slammed the state.
The boost is notable because Christie’s ratings have stayed steady between 44% and 50% for his nearly three years in office.
Al Hunt: Christie didn’t cost Mitt Romney the election.
Republicans Already Gearing Up for 2016
Politico: “Tired of presidential politics? Get over it: Upwards of 15 prominent Republicans are privately contemplating 2016 campaigns for the presidency — and the most serious and ambitious of the bunch are already plunging in, some quite publicly.”
Romney Likely to End Up at 47%
Greg Sargent: “When all the votes are counted, could Mitt Romney really end up
achieving perfect poetic justice by finishing with 47 percent of the
national vote? Yup. Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political
Report says new votes in from Maryland put Romney at 47.56 percent. He predicts with certainty that with all of New York and California counted, Romney will end up below 47.5 percent of the vote.
Rounded, of course, that would put the final tally at 51% to 47%.”
Paul Mulls Presidential Bid
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tells ABC News that he is interested in a potential run for president in 2016.
“While Paul is quick to add that he isn’t ready to make a decision about a presidential bid yet, he is not hesitant to say that the Republican Party needs a new message,” including on immigration, defense spending and marijuana.
Said Paul: “I think we have to go a different direction because we’re just not winning and we have to think about some different ideas.”
Will Democrats Reform the Filibuster?
Jeffrey Toobin: “The most important action the Senate takes in January may not involve any legislation at all. Early next year, when the latest group of senators convene for the first time, the ‘world’s greatest deliberative body’ may finally do something worthy of its nickname: reform the filibuster.”
“The filibuster long ago shed its association with the principled stand of dedicated outsiders; Mr. Smith left Washington decades ago. Rather, the opposition parties of the past couple of decades–and especially the Republicans in the Obama era–have transformed the filibuster from a weapon deployed in extraordinary circumstances into a routine part of Senate business. In recent years, it’s become the rule, rather than the exception, that the majority has to muster sixty votes to get anything done. With fifty-three Democrats in the Senate (fifty-five starting next year), this means that Republicans have been able to slow the upper body to a virtual standstill.”
Wonk Wire: The last filibuster?
Unskewing Election Results
Warner Will Stay in Senate
After months of speculation, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) announced he ”
won’t seek another term as governor, meaning whatever his political
future holds is likely be oriented around Washington rather than the
State Capitol,” the Virginian Pilot reports.
Said Warner: “I loved being Governor, but I have a different job now — and it’s here, in the United States Senate.”
Warner’s decision effectively makes
Terry McAuliffe the likely Democratic frontrunner for the 2013
gubernatorial nomination.
Liberals Urge Obama to Go Over the Fiscal Cliff
Greg Sargent: “Some leading liberals and Dems are hoping the White House — if the fiscal talks break down — will prove willing to let us all go over the fiscal cliff and let all the Bush tax cuts expire. That way Dems could return in 2013 and pass the tax cuts for those under $250,000 again — the Obama tax cuts for the middle class! — while leaving taxes on the rich at Clinton-era levels.”
However, the AP reports that the White House regards this idea “frostily.”
Inside Obama’s Voter Database
The Washington Post has an interesting report on the Obama campaign’s voter database which pairs voting records with political donation histories and vast amounts of personal but publicly available consumer data.
“Campaign workers added far more detail through a broad range of voter contacts — in person, on the phone, over e-mail or through visits to the campaign’s Web site. Those who used its Facebook app, for example, had their files updated with lists of their Facebook friends along with scores measuring the intensity of those relationships and whether they lived in swing states. If their last names seemed Hispanic, a key target group for the campaign, the database recorded that, too.”
“To maintain their advantage, Democrats say they must guard against the propensity of political data to deteriorate in off years, when funding and attention dwindles, while navigating the inevitable intra-party squabbles over who gets access now that the unifying forces of a billion-dollar presidential campaign are gone.”
Bernanke Sees Stronger Economy
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that 2013 could be a “very good year” for the U.S. economy if politicians can strike a quick deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, Reuters reports.
“The powerful central bank chief called for a credible long-term framework to put the federal budget on a sound path, but warned against action that would needlessly add to the headwinds facing the economy.”
Wonk Wire: A fiscal cliff solution will avoid another recession.
Quote of the Day
“We’ve got to be a kind of pro-science and pro-technology party. And I think Marco Rubio is just that. On the Earth question, I guess I have to read more closely in terms of getting a better understanding, but, yeah, kind of a strange response, I guess.”
— Jeb Bush Jr., quoted by the Washington Post, saying Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) response to a question about the age of the Earth was a “head scratching type of answer.”
Obama Plots Outside Game
President Obama “is preparing to expand the fiscal cliff fight beyond the confines of Washington, travelling the country and leaning on Democratic activist groups to help apply political pressure,” the Huffington Post reports.
“The goal, organizers said, is to keep engaged the activists and followers who have stood with Obama through two campaigns, and to begin applying external pressure to the president’s negotiations with congressional Republicans.”
“And so, top Obama operatives are gaming out ways to squeeze political capital out of the 2012 elections, aiming to affect the lame-duck session in Congress. Obama previewed the strategy in a conference call with activists after the election, saying that a second term that will include some barnstorming across the country.”
BuzzFeed reports Obama “will not repeat what is widely seen as a mistake
of his first term: switching off his grassroots operation at the behest
of Congressional Democrats, who bridled at its organizing in their
districts.”
How Rubio Should Have Answered That Question
After watching Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) fell into the trap laid nicely by a reporter asking him about the age of the Earth, Marc Ambinder notes the answer is not a “mystery” as Rubio claimed. The Earth is “about 4.5 billion years old, give or take a few million.”
Nonetheless, “there’s a way for Christian conservatives who believe in the literal (or proximately literal) truth of the Bible to answer the question without denying science. Denying science is not just a position; it is fundamentally a denial of modernity, which is why it is so, well, stupid, to the ears of elites, and even to the ears of folks who just know that geology isn’t a just-so story.”
Matt Lewis: This was a problem Rubio could have easily avoided.
