A new Quinnipiac poll in Ohio finds Gov. John Kasich (R) begins his re-election year with a seven point lead over a largely
unknown possible Democratic challenger, Ed FitzGerald (D), 44% to 37%.
Gore Goes Vegan Too
Washington Post: “Maybe it was something about what they served in the White House mess in the 1990s. Or perhaps it’s what happens to baby boomer Democrats more than a decade after leaving office. For whatever the reason former vice president Al Gore has gone vegan, just like the president with whom he once served.”
PAC Carries Unpayable Debt to a Dead Man
A federal PAC in Minnesota has carried a $56,025.62 debt to a company that no longer exists because the owner died, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
Said PAC treasurer Steve Simon: “The company is no more. The owner is no more. Yet the FEC won’t let us take it off the books.”
“The solution, derived from legal advice and the FEC? The DFL just has to report the debt cycle after cycle forever and ever.”
Dinkins Zings De Blasio After Praise
“To punctuate an impassioned pitch for his signature plan to raise taxes on the wealthy, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio went out of his way during a speech to praise a cherished political mentor and former boss watching from the audience,” the New York Times reports.
“The recipient of his warm words, former Mayor David Dinkins, did not exactly return the favor.”
“In an unscripted and cringe-inducing moment of political candor, Mr. Dinkins opined before a crowd of journalists and academics at Columbia University that Mr. de Blasio should consider a different approach to funding an expansion of prekindergarten programs, throwing a wrench into what was meant to be a carefully choreographed day of municipal theater.”
Obamacare Website Won’t Be Fixed by Month’s End
Administration officials said that “some visitors to Obamacare’s federal enrollment site would experience outages, slow response times or messages to try again later during the month of December,” The Hill reports.
“The administration has staked its healthcare rollout on expanding the system’s user capacity and addressing site errors by the end of the month. Both supporters and opponents of the Affordable Care Act are closely watching the deadline… Both groups know that if the site cannot recover by next month, its dysfunction will plunge the administration into another political crisis.”
White House Sells Iran Nuclear Deal
The Obama administration “is mounting an aggressive campaign to head off new congressional sanctions against Iran, arguing they would jeopardize the high-stakes deal sealed this past weekend to curb Tehran’s nuclear program,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“After arguing for weeks that sanctions would hurt the prospects of reaching a deal, senior administration officials are now asking lawmakers to hold off for another six months while negotiators try to achieve a long-term accord… In an indication of the importance of the agreement to his agenda, President Obama will devote significant focus to the diplomatic effort in his State of the Union address shortly after the new year.”
Afghan Accord Near Collapse
Washington Post: “Efforts by the United States and Afghanistan to finalize a long-term security arrangement appeared on the brink of collapse Monday as Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a new set of demands, and the Obama administration said it would be forced to begin planning for a complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces at the end of 2014.”
The New York Times reports Karzai was said to have assured National Security Adviser Susan Rice “he would sign the deal at some
point, he gave no time frame for it. And over dinner at the presidential
palace in Kabul, he later insisted on difficult new conditions as well,
including the release of all inmates at the American prison camp at
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, adding to the perception of crisis between the two
nations.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“A lot of conservatives say, ‘Nah, let’s just step back and let this
thing fall to pieces on its own.’ But I don’t think that’s always the
responsible thing to do.”
— Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), quoted by The Hill, breaking with many Republicans who say they want to just let Obamacare fail.
Charlie Crist Faces Tough Historical Odds
A Smart Politics review “of gubernatorial elections since the end of World War II finds that ex-governors have won back their old seats 57% of the time out of nearly seven-dozen such contests conducted during this 68-year period… However, a deeper dig into the data finds the odds of success fall off a bit when these ex-governors square up against an incumbent — like Crist would face in Rick Scott.”
“During these governor-on-governor battles, ex-governors have knocked incumbents out of office just 12 times out of 29 contests since 1945, or 41% of the time.”
Daughters Make Parents More Likely to be Republican
In the study published by Sociological Forum, Dalton Conley of New York University and Emily Rauscher of the University of Kansas find that having more daughters than sons and having a daughter first “significantly reduces the likelihood of Democratic identification and significantly increases the strength of Republican Party identification.”
They found that overall, “compared to those with no daughters, parents with all daughters are 14% less likely to identify as a Democrat… and 11% more likely to identify as a Republican than parents with no daughters.”
Pew Research: “The daughters effect is considerably stronger among better educated and
wealthier parents, they find. But among those farther down the
socioeconomic ladder, it weakens to statistical insignificance.”
Cheney Touts Ties to Wyoming in New Ad
Liz Cheney (R) touts her family and Wyoming connections in a new ad for her U.S. Senate campaign.
The Hill: “The ad comes as the rest of her family is in the spotlight for their very public feud over Cheney’s opposition to gay marriage, and as the candidate continues to be dogged by questions about her authenticity and ties to the state.”
Grassley Likes Christie in 2016
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) told WHO-TV that he’s a fan of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) as his important state looks ahead to the 2016 presidential campaign.
Said Grassley: “Just look at his physique: You know, when Washington’s ready to blow up, wouldn’t it be kind of nice to have a guy like him sitting on the pot?”
Christie vs. Cuomo?
The New York Post reports that a battle between Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Gov. Chris Christie (R) “may start sooner than expected — in the race for New York governor next year and not, as has been widely speculated, in the 2016 presidential contest.”
Christie reportedly told Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino (R) last week that “he’s ready to back him to the hilt” if Astorino challenges Cuomo in next year’s gubernatorial election.
However, Politicker quotes Cuomo: “I can tell you this: I spoke to Gov. Christie this morning who told me the exact opposite. And I’ll leave it at that.”
Michael Beschloss on Presidential Second Terms
What is it about presidential second terms? Each of the last four two-term Presidents – Bush, Clinton, Reagan and Nixon – had extremely tough second terms.
We asked presidential historian Michael Beschloss on the latest episode of the Political Wire podcast.
Listen here:
Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS to get episodes automatically downloaded.
Herring Declared Winner in Virginia
Mark Herring (D) was certified the winner of a razor-thin Virginia attorney general’s race this morning after the Board of Elections concluded its own canvass of the Nov. 5 statewide election, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports.
“Because of the extremely narrow margin, Obenshain is expected to petition for a recount in the hope that another statewide canvass might swing the results in his favor.”
The Bill de Blasio Primer
The Week has everything you need to know about New York City’s next mayor.
Another President Overreaches
Stuart Stevens: “Our political life seems to have a recurrent pattern that, perhaps not surprisingly, mirrors so much of our non-political life. We invest our faith in politicians who seem to understand the world better than we do, only to be disappointed.”
“We don’t seem to learn, but then neither do the politicians. Again and again, we see presidents overreaching on a key mission of their presidency, resulting in the opposite of their desired effect.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I’m thankful for my personal relationship with the President. I guess it’s a funny way to say it, but it is personal. There’s a real friendship between us, and I have a great deal of respect for him.”
— Vice President Joe Biden, quoted by Time.
