James Carter IV, the freelance researcher and grandson of former President Jimmy Carter “who became a minor campaign celebrity after unearthing the now-infamous video of Mitt Romney railing against 47 percent of Americans at a private fundraiser has used his political fame to start his own opposition research firm,” BuzzFeed reports.
Quote of the Day
“Time magazine, I think there is some irrelevancy there, to tell you the truth. I mean consider their list of the most influential people in the country and the world, some who have made that list — yours truly! that ought to tell you something right there regarding the credence we should give Time magazine and their list of people.”
— Sarah Palin, in an interview on Fox News, on President Obama being named “Person of the Year.”
Majority Say Republican Policies Too Extreme
A new CNN/ORC poll finds a slight majority of Americans sees the Republican party’s policies and views as too extreme, 53% to 37%, a first for the GOP.
Key finding: “It probably doesn’t help that House Speaker John Boehner, who’s leading GOP fiscal cliff negotiations with the president, is held in fairly low regard, particularly in comparison to Obama. According to the poll, 34% of the public approves of how the top Republican in the House handling his job. By contrast, the president’s approval rating stands at 52%.”
Christie Says He’ll Be Ready Next Time
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) told NJPAC that he will be ready if he decides to run for president in 2016.
Said Christie: “I wasn’t ready to run for President this time. If it comes, I know that I will be more ready for it than I would have been this year.”
Slight Majority Now Favor Major Gun Restrictions
A new CNN/ORC poll taken in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting finds that a narrow majority — 52% — of Americans now support major restrictions on owning guns or an outright ban on gun ownership by ordinary citizens. Further, 43% say the shooting makes them more likely to support more gun restrictions, up 15 points since the January 2011 shooting in Tucson, AZ.
Said pollster Keating Holland: “All of those numbers are much higher than they were in a CNN poll conducted in January, 2011, indicating that the tragedy in Connecticut may be affecting more Americans more intensely than other recent attacks.”
Key finding: There is a significant gender gap, with 62% support for major gun restrictions among women compared with 41% among men, and an even larger partisan gap, with nearly 80% support among Democrats but only 42% among independents and 31% among Republicans.
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“All they have to do is vote for a tax cut below a certain number, and they are not voting for taxes to go up. If you don’t vote for tax increases, you didn’t vote for a tax increase.”
— Newt Gingrich, in an interview with the Huffington Post, explaining how Republicans can stay true to their anti-tax pledge.
Obama Campaign Says Mobile Ads Worked
President Obama’s reelection campaign “spent millions on mobile ads that targeted down to the neighborhood level in battleground states,” Adweek reports.
The campaign claims “targeting on-the-go voters moved the needle, underscoring a 2012 that saw the mobile marketing space seemingly toddle towards significantly impacting the larger advertising world… Democratic operatives said they got click-through rates from 3 percent to 19.5 percent during the race’s crucial stretch run when Mitt Romney appeared to surge in late October and early November.”
Concussiongate
In the wake of a report faulting the State Department for missteps in how it handled Benghazi security, The Week notes that some conservatives are turning their frustrations to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, accusing her of faking a concussion to avoid testifying on the attacks.
Atlantic Wire: “The calls for Clinton to ‘come clean’ about her health aren’t unlike when conservative commentators thought David Petraeus coming clean about the affair that ruined his political and personal life was an attempt to wag the dog, even though he did end up testifying … The ongoing narrative from these critics seems to be a step beyond on Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham’s successful prodding of Ambassador Susan Rice on the attacks — these are pundit-class seeds of ‘cover-up’ that go beyond fact, or even perceived fact…”
The Moderate Voice: “And so they whip up paranoia with Fox News viewers, debut a theme that will be continued by some conservative talk show hosts and will be regurgitated up by some conservative bloggers (but most assuredly not all).”
Why We’re Going Over the Fiscal Cliff
Jonathan Chait: “Everybody knows what happens in January. Both sides ought to be able to anticipate it and make the deal they could make then now. Business types have therefore assumed a December deal would happen. If this was a business deal between two rational people, that’s what would happen.”
“But we are not dealing with rational people here. We are dealing with House Republicans. As Republican Tom Cole gently put it, by way of describing his colleagues’ implacable hatred of taxes, ‘It’s who they are. It’s the air they breathe. It’s what the Republican electorate produces.'”
“If Boehner strikes a deal before January, Republicans will suspect he gave away revenue he could have fought for. But if he refuses, the House Republicans will see for themselves what happens. The revenue will go away on its own, over Boehner’s objections. All Obama has to do is continue to make clear he will not under any circumstances extend any tax cuts on income over $250,000 a year. Then he has nearly all the revenue he needs, and he can offer Republicans a deal they would never walk away from. They might try to get that deal in December, but January remains the best bet.”
Leno on Kerry
Jay Leno: “It looks like President Obama is going to pick John Kerry as our next secretary of state. This is a very strategic move when it comes to our foreign policy. Obama plans to use Kerry; see, he will bore our enemies to death.”
Norquist Says Vote for “Plan B” Won’t Violate Pledge
The Washington Post reports that Grover Norquist says his group would not consider a vote for Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” a violation of the anti-tax pledge many Republican members of Congress have signed — even though it effectively raises taxes on households with an income of more than $1 million.
Majority Don’t Think Administration Misled on Benghazi
A new CNN/ORC poll finds that a majority of Americans don’t believe that the Obama administration intentionally misled the public on what it knew in the wake of the Sept. 11 Benghazi attacks, with only 40% saying the administration misled and 56% saying they reject that idea.
Said pollster Keating Holland: “But that does not let the White House off the hook. Only 43% are satisfied with the way the Obama administration has handled the matter in the past few months; half are dissatisfied.”
Obama Taps Biden for Gun Control Effort
President Obama tapped Vice President Joe Biden “to spearhead White House efforts to mold new gun and mental-health policies following last week’s Connecticut shootings, a choice that could prove crucial to getting changes through Congress,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Biden has decades of experience as a senator and is often Mr. Obama’s go-to person when the president seeks to build support on Capitol Hill.”
Washington Post: “White House officials say the eventual package of proposals will likely include some new restrictions on guns, particularly assault rifles, and high-capacity magazines. But they say it will also likely involve measures that touch on mental health initiatives and, perhaps, a discussion on the depiction of violence presented in popular culture.”
Media Tip: How to Handle a Media Ambush
A guest post from Brad Phillips, author of The Media Training Bible.
When people think of an “ambush interview,” they typically conjure up an image of a television interviewer–a Mike Wallace type–chasing after a scandal-tarred politician with camera and microphone in tow.
Those types of ambushes still occur on occasion. But today’s political candidates are just as likely to face ambush-style interviews from campaign trackers, who are paid by candidates’ opponents to record their every move in an effort to capture–or create–a harmful media moment.
Regardless of whether your ambusher is a reporter or a tracker, they’re both after the same thing: a great visual that makes you look bad. If you respond with defensiveness, anger, or shock, news outlets will run the video of your lousy reaction repeatedly, perhaps for days–and you’ll have handed your opponent perfect fodder for a negative ad.
Robert Bork Dies at 85
Robert Bork, “a former solicitor general, federal judge and conservative legal theorist whose 1987 nomination to the United States Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate in a historic political battle whose impact is still being felt, died on Wednesday in Arlington, Va,” the New York Times reports. He was 85.
Jeffrey Toobin says Bork “was an unrepentant reactionary who
was on the wrong side of every major legal controversy of the twentieth
century. The fifty-eight senators who voted against Bork for
confirmation to the Supreme Court in 1987 honored themselves, and the
Constitution. In the subsequent quarter-century, Bork devoted himself to
proving that his critics were right about him all along.”
The Vogue Profile
Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) gets a flattering profile in Vogue magazine.
“It took Booker the better part of a decade to bring down the corrupt political machine of Mayor Sharpe James. This ugly, bruising struggle is documented in Street Fight, an Oscar-nominated documentary about Booker’s 2002 mayoral campaign, which he lost by a narrow margin. He ran again and won in 2006. Since then, Booker’s constant cheerleading has brought a measure of hope to a city badly in need of it.”
Huntsman Sounds Like He Wants to Run Again
Jon Huntsman suggests to the Ripon Forum that he’s open to another presidential bid.
Said Huntsman: “My gut is telling me you’ve got to clear out all the cobwebs in your head before you even think about anything of that kind. But I will tell you this — I’m committed to serving my country. That’s been my life from the very beginning,”
What is Boehner Doing with Plan B?
House Speaker John Boehner unveiled his “Plan B” to avoid the fiscal cliff — legislation that would raise tax rates on those earning more than $1 million but keep rates the same for everyone else — and scheduled a vote for tomorrow.
First Read: “There are three reasons why Plan B — if it’s a serious effort — seems so puzzling. One… the two sides are thisclose in getting a deal done… Two, if we go over the fiscal cliff (and time is running out, folks), Republicans might not realize the extent to which President Obama will own the bully pulpit in January. After all, there’s a certain inaugural address on Jan. 21, as well as the State of the Union. And three, are enough House Republicans really going to cast a tough vote — raising taxes — without getting any spending cuts or resolution on the sequester in return? And are they going to cast a vote for legislation that breaks a longstanding pledge on taxes that has zero chance of becoming law simply to give Boehner leverage? If Boehner and leadership do pull this off and convince their rank-and-file to vote on legislation that is designed just to give Boehner leverage, it would be quite the political feat.”
Rick Klein: “Boehner’s gambit is either a brilliant technique aimed at strengthening
his negotiating position, or a foolhardy scheme that will demonstrate
divisions in his own caucus. He’s putting his members on record (or, at
least, trying to) in favor of tax rates going up for high-income earners
— precisely the kind of vote almost every Republican came to Congress
to try to avoid. If he gets it, he shows his caucus’ resolve in the face
of pressure from the White House. If he doesn’t, Plan A options will be
scrambled, perhaps too late to leave time for Plan C.”
Wonk Wire: Nearing the fiscal cliff end game.
