A new Gallup poll finds 66% of Americans have a favorable opinion of former President Bill Clinton, tying his record-high favorability rating recorded at the time of his inauguration in January 1993.
Clinton nearly returned to this level of popularity at two points in his second term, but has generally seen lower ratings, averaging 56% since 1993.
The White House “was subtlety gleeful today as Mitt Romney’s campaign dealt with the latest group to be offended during the Republican presidential candidate’s overseas tour that was intended to showcase his foreign policy credentials,” ABC News reports.
“Romney’s newest diplomatic fumble has insulted the Palestinians by suggesting that the discrepancy between the wealth of Israel and Palestinians was due in part to their different cultures. A top Palestinian labeled the analysis racist.”
National Journal: “For any man who would be president there are unwritten rules of
foreign diplomacy. Mitt Romney seems to have internalized some, while
others apparently slipped out of the briefing book on his flight across
the Atlantic to debut as a potential leader of the free world.”
A new Pew Research survey finds there has been no significant change in public views on the issue of gun control following the July 20th shooting at a Colorado movie theater. Currently, 47% say it is more important to control gun ownership, while 46% say it is more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns.
That is virtually unchanged from a survey earlier this year in April, when 45% prioritized gun control 49% gun rights.
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Fred Hiatt: “In this Romney-Obama matchup, the only motivation that surfaces clearly for voters is the desire to stop the other side — the conviction that the opponent’s agenda would be dangerous. If the pattern holds after the conventions, this may be what propels voters to the polls in November…”
“It is a blocking election. The candidates give us little sense of what they would actually do in office. Neither tries to rally Americans behind a positive vision and agenda for the next four years. The rationale instead is the frightening specter of an enemy win.”
The Democratic Party platform drafting committee unanimously approved language endorsing same-sex marriage as part of the party platform, according to the Washington Blade.
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign released a new video featuring a small businessman criticizing President Obama’s now infamous “you didn’t build that” line.
Says Dennis Sollmann: “I mean, I’m thinking, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ He was trying to say: ‘Hey, you didn’t build that business on your own. The government helped you build it.’ And that’s what ticked me off more than anything.”
However, the Huffington Post reports Sollmann’s electric company has relied heavily on government contracts.
This is the second time this has happened: A previous Romney ad starred a New Hampshire businessman who also received significant government assistance.
A new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll finds just 40% of Americans know that there are nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Among college graduates, 52% answered correctly while 40% got it wrong and 8% say they don’t know. Of those without a college degree, 35% got it right, while 52% answered incorrectly and 13% said they don’t know.
Paul Begala reviews former President George W. Bush’s new book, The 4% Solution.
“You gotta hand it to Bush. Either he was born without the moral compass that engenders humility or he has one sick sense of humor. To start with, let the record show that George W. Bush was in fact president of the United States for eight years. And for those eight years economic growth averaged not four percent, but 2.04 percent. For Bush to attach his name to a book claiming to be a recipe for economic growth is what we Texans call chutzpah. What’s next? Charlie Sheen as spokesperson for Just Say No? Chris Christie’s fitness video? Kim Kardashian’s tips for a long and happy marriage? The mind boggles.”
He also notes that James Glassman, who heads the Bush Institute and wrote the introduction to the book, “is no stranger to failed economic prophecy. In 1999 he co-authored (with current Romney adviser Kevin Hassett) a book with the unintentionally hilarious title Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting From the Coming Rise in the Stock Market. They almost got it right. Instead of a rise in the stock market there was a crash. The Dow went to 6,500, and 13 years after their book was published it is around 13,000. So they were only off by 23,000 points.”
A new book, Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him by Richard Miniter, claims that President Obama canceled missions to kill Osama bin Laden three time and says it was adviser Valerie Jarrett who persuaded him to hold off each time.
The charge would be much more explosive, of course, if President Obama hadn’t issued the orders that ultimately did kill the al Qaeda leader.
A new Democracy Corps (D) survey shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney nationally by four points, 50% to 46%.
Even more interesting: The poll finds President Obama’s approval rating at 50%.
Nevada Democrats are registering voters at a much faster clip than Republicans, the Las Vegas Sun reports.
“New numbers released this week show Democrats have increased their advantage over Republicans to 47,500 voters. Since April, Democratic voter registration has increased by 20,500. Republican registration in that time has increased by 9,700.”
“I obviously am not a big fan of President Obama. I think he’s been one of our weakest presidents… I’d be hard put to find any Democratic president that I’ve disagreed with more.”
— Dick Cheney, in an interview with ABC News.
Dave Weigel notes The Amateur by Ed Klein — a controversial, anonymously-sourced attack on President Obama — has sold 137,000 copies, while Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss — which “cracked sources who’d never before talked about the president — ex-girlfriends, pot-smoking buddies, roommates” — has sold only 19,000.
Businessweek says it’s not about Bain Capital or offshore tax havens. It’s an ad about bullying being run in Michigan by attorney Geoffrey Fieger.
Howard Kurtz reports on Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) failed efforts to advise Mitt Romney and his frustration at a behind-the-scenes role in the campaign.
“When Mitt Romney declared, during a Republican primary debate in Tampa, that he would pressure illegal immigrants to ‘self-deport’ back to their home countries, John McCain was downright disturbed. Worried that his former rival was grievously wounding himself with Hispanic voters, the Arizona senator staged an intervention. He and fellow senator Lindsey Graham placed a joint call to Romney in January, urging him to tone down his rhetoric. Romney listened politely, sources say, and did not use the phrase again.”
“It was a rare instance of Romney taking counsel from the man who beat him in the last campaign — and who has been relegated to a behind-the-scenes role in this one. Four years after his own presidential bid, McCain’s luster as a Republican Party spokesman appears to have dimmed: a number of proposed campaign trips on Romney’s behalf have quietly evaporated, and there has been no offer of a speaking slot at the GOP convention.”
Politico: “At least 5 million voters, predominantly young and from minority groups sympathetic to President Barack Obama, could be affected by an unprecedented flurry of new legislation by Republican governors and GOP-led legislatures to change or restrict voting rights by Election Day 2012.”
“Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin, all viewed as important states this fall, each have enacted stricter ID laws. Florida and Ohio have cut back on early voting. And a whole host of other states have passed new ID laws as well.”
First Read has the backstory behind giving Bill Clinton a prime speaking slot at the Democratic convention:
“But what shouldn’t be ignored about this decision is that Wednesday Sept. 5 is the NFL’s first game of the regular season, which will air on NBC. (It’s Giants-Cowboys; not exactly a matchup of teams that have small fan bases.) The Obama camp realized that it needed a big draw to compete with the NFL game and to convince the other networks to cover (NBC will NOT be airing any of the convention on the NFL night). In addition, moving Biden to Thursday isn’t a snub at all; in fact, it means that more male eyeballs will be on him than would have been the case if he went on Wednesday. Per NBC’s Dann, sources say the decision to bump Biden to the final night of the convention was made jointly by the VP and the president. Both Biden and Obama will speak at the football stadium.”
Former Vice President Dick Cheney told ABC News that he will not attend the Republican convention next month because he’d rather go fishing.
Former President George W. Bush will also not attend the convention.
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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