New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) “has studiously avoided talk of a 2016 White House run, but he has positioned himself on two fronts, amassing the nation’s largest gubernatorial war chest and organizing a series of August policy summits with Democratic leaders and academics,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Mr. Cuomo has raised nearly $1 million a month since he took office in January 2011 and has about $19.3 million to spend –more than 40 other governors combined… Meanwhile, just two weeks before his party gathers on Sept. 3 for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Mr. Cuomo is hosting a summit of his own, inviting Clinton administration veterans and others to Manhattan for a policy forum.”

The New York Times notes the presidential campaign has become a clash over a delicate and personal question: “Are you an American like me?”

“Their choice of words and imagery is a reminder of how powerful undercurrents of identity, wealth, race and religion are shaping this election. These surface in subtle and not-so-subtle ways as two candidates who can have trouble connecting with voters on a personal level try to define each other as detached from mainstream American life.”

“By Mr. Romney’s telling, the president has a ‘strange’ and ‘foreign’ political philosophy. Mr. Obama has suggested that Mr. Romney’s vision of the American dream involves Indian call centers and Caribbean tax havens.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) says he’s open to running for president in four years if the job is open, the AP reports.

Christie says he hopes Mitt Romney beats President Obama and seeks re-election in 2016, but if the presidency is open, Christie says he’ll “certainly think about it.”

He added: “If there’s an opportunity for me to serve in another capacity and I think I have something to add to the mix, I don’t think I’d back away from it.”

Gallup Poll: “Democrats are significantly less likely now (39%) than they were in the summers of 2004 and 2008 to say they are ‘more enthusiastic about voting than usual’ in the coming presidential election. Republicans are more enthusiastic now than in 2008, and the same as in 2004.”

The latest NBC-WSJ poll finds Mitt Romney’s “overall favorable/unfavorable score remains a net negative — a
trait no other modern presumptive GOP presidential nominee (whether Bob
Dole, George W. Bush or John McCain) has shared.”

According to associates at Bain Capital, Mitt Romney “stayed in regular contact with his partners over the following months, tending to his partnership interests and negotiating his separation from the company,” the AP reports.

“Those familiar with Romney’s discussions with his Bain partners said the contacts included several meetings in Boston, the company’s home base, but were limited to matters that did not affect the firm’s investments or other management decisions. Yet Romney continued to oversee his partnership stakes even as he disengaged from the firm, personally signing or approving a series of corporate and legal documents through the spring of 2001.”

Michael Crowley: “In an election dominated by the economy, it might not be disqualifying. But in a close race, any disadvantage could spell defeat. Thus, Romney’s trip over the next week to the U.K., Israel and Poland is an effort to build his credibility as a statesman. But the first step was a Tuesday speech in Reno, Nev., to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention designed to draw a contrast with Obama. It was not a promising start. Romney’s main shortcoming is that he has no clear alternative vision on foreign policy. His primary complaint with Obama is both amorphous and unfair: Romney presents himself as a tribune for the ideals of American greatness and exceptionalism.”

On Romney’s indictment of the national security leaks from the White House: “It’s not hard to see why Romney might want to gin up a phony crisis. When it comes to foreign policy, his views turn out to be fairly mundane.”

The Commission on Presidential Debates has proposed three presidential and one vice presidential debate this fall. Each will be 90-minutes.

[Read more…]

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Pennsylvania shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by six points, 49% to 43%.

That said, Obama’s approval numbers in Pennsylvania continue to be
a little bit worrisome. Only 46% of voters approve of him to 50% who
disapprove.

“Let me say this as emphatically as I can: Who cares about Mitt Romney’s tax returns? Secondly, I love the fact that the guy is rich. You got people who are trying to make it seem like being rich is bad.”

— Herman Cain, quoted by the Sacramento Bee.

The Week: “Team Obama is burning through cash at an unsustainable pace, some Democrats say, that may leave him struggling financially in the final stretch of the campaign.”

Nate Silver: “We’ve now been running our presidential forecast model for almost two months, but very little has changed in our analysis of the race. Each day, we have shown Barack Obama as a modest favorite to win re-election. At no point has projected margin of victory in the popular vote been smaller than 1.7 percentage points, or larger than 2.7 percentage points; it was 2.3 percentage points as of Tuesday evening’s forecast.”

The AP reports nearly $81 million was spent on the failed effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).

The money spent on Walker’s race was more than double the previous record spending of $37.4 million in Walker’s 2010 campaign.

If you wanted clear evidence the Obama campaign is worried about Mitt Romney’s attacks using the president’s “You didn’t build that” line, it’s a new response ad which shows President Obama speaking directly to the camera saying his words were taken out of context.

First Read: “You wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t showing up in some of their data. By the way, there have to be a few in Boston disappointed – strategically – to realize that their most effective hit so far on Obama was starting to stick and now their principal is going away on an overseas trip.”

The ad will air in in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, and Nevada.

The Atlantic has more on the “spectacular silliness” of the “You Didn’t Build That” debate.

[Read more…]