Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) crossed party lines and gave a $250 contribution to Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) re-election campaign “because he believes Manchin is not beholden to short-sighted political interests,” The Hill reports.
Said Coburn: “I think he votes thinking about the long-term interests of the country. We don’t agree on everything but he’s a good guy.”
The Week has the list.
Nate Silver: “There are certainly some good reasons to think that the polls could break toward Mitt Romney. For instance, many polls out now were conducted among registered voters; when pollsters switch over to likely voter polls instead — which assess each voter’s probability of actually casting a ballot on Nov. 6 — it is likely that Mr. Romney will gain a point or two. And Barack Obama obviously has a lot of weight to bear from the lukewarm economic recovery.”
“But one hypothesis you should find less persuasive is the notion that the polls will break toward Mr. Romney just because he is the challenger. It is often asserted that this is the case — that the polls move toward the ‘out-party’ candidate rather than the incumbent. But in my view the empirical evidence — although it is somewhat ambiguous — mostly argues against this idea.”
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The Atlantic finds the Obama campaign’s Bain Capital attacks are resonating in the swing states.
In the mail: Sneaky Pie for President: A Novel by Rita Mae Brown.
“Human candidates have had their chance in Washington, with dubious
results of late: nowhere does it say in the Constitution that the
president cannot be a cat.”
A new Survey USA poll in Florida finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney by five points in the important battleground state, 48% to 43%.
However, in the U.S. Senate race, Rep. Connie Mack (R) leads Sen. Bill Nelson (D) by six points, 48% to 42%.
Unemployment rose last month in six of 10 battleground states in the presidential election, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The jobless rate climbed a 10th of a percentage point last month in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia… The rate held steady in three other battleground states — Nevada, Florida, and North Carolina.”
“Ohio was the only battleground state where unemployment fell last month.”
Max Read: “There is no such thing as ‘politicizing’ tragedy. James Holmes did not
materialize in a movie theater in Aurora this morning, free of any
relationship to law and authority and the structures of power in this
country; nor did he exit those relationships and structures by murdering
12 people and injuring several dozen more. Before he entered the
theater, he purchased guns, whether legally or illegally, under a
framework of laws and regulations governed and negotiated by politics;
in the parking lot outside, he was arrested by a police force whose
salaries, equipment, tactics and rights were shaped and determined by
politics. Holmes’ ability to seek, or to not seek, mental health care;
the government’s ability, or inability, to lock up persons deemed
unstable — these are things decided and directed by politics. You cannot ‘politicize’ a tragedy because the tragedy is already political. When you talk about the tragedy you’re already talking about politics.”
Former President George W. Bush will not attend the Republican convention next month in Tampa, Politico reports.
Said a spokesman: “President Bush was grateful for the invitation to the Republican National Convention. He supports Governor Romney and wants him to succeed. President Bush is confident that Mitt Romney will be a great President. But he’s still enjoying his time off the political stage and respectfully declined the invitation to go to Tampa.”
This seems like a classic Friday news dump.
A new Civitas Institute poll in North Carolina finds Mitt Romney with a one point lead over President Obama, 49% to 48%.
National Journal has an excellent page that tracks ad spending by the presidential campaigns, the parties and the Super PACs across the battleground states.
Rick Hasen: “How does the brave new world of campaign financing created by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision stack up against Watergate? The short answer is: Things are even worse now than they were then.”
“The 1974 scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon was all about illegal money secretly flowing to politicians. That’s still a danger, but these days, the biggest weakness of our campaign finance system is not what’s illegal, but what’s legal. As Dan Eggen of the Washington Post put it, ‘there’s little need for furtive fundraising or secret handoffs of cash.’ The rules increasingly allow people and corporations with great wealth to skew public policy toward their interests–without risking a jail time, or a fine, or any penalty at all. It’s an influence free-for-all.”
President Obama and Mitt Romney might be taking a somber break from politics today after the shootings in Colorado last night, but not New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the New York Observer reports.
Said Bloomberg: “You know, soothing words are nice, but maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be President of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country. And everybody always says, ‘Isn’t it tragic,’ and you know, we look for was the guy, as you said, maybe trying to recreate Batman. I mean, there are so many murders with guns every day, it’s just got to stop. And instead of the two people – President Obama and Governor Romney – talking in broad things about they want to make the world a better place, okay, tell us how. And this is a real problem. No matter where you stand on the Second Amendment, no matter where you stand on guns, we have a right to hear from both of them concretely, not just in generalities – specifically what are they going to do about guns?”
“There are going to be other days for politics. This, I think, is a day for prayer and reflection.”
— President Obama, speaking about the tragic shootings early this morning in Colorado.
A Businessweek infographic looks at the 54 “mostly-trivial” bills sent to President Obama for his signature this congressional session.
CNN reports that the law designed to ban insider trading on Capitol Hill — which passed with a rare show of bipartisanship — “isn’t exactly as advertised. A loophole could still allow family members of some lawmakers to profit from inside information.”
Herman Cain is using a political action committee created in his name in unusual ways, the Washington Times reports.
Though the PAC raises money by sending multiple solicitations weekly to supporters making pleas to help fund ads, new disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission show no payments to advertising firms or advocacy groups running ads for any candidate or cause.
Mark Block, who runs the PAC, said the primary way it supports the candidates is “by endorsing them,” adding, “We put out a press release.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) defended his admininstration’s use of the Blackberry’s personal identification number instead of emails in order to avoid a paper trail, YNN reports.
Said Cuomo: “Hacking is a problem and if you have a secure communication or a confidential communication or information that you don’t want disseminated, than you have a find a secure means to communicate it.”
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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