“We’re three years away from the presidential election. In this sense, I feel bad for President Obama. He just won a year ago, and everybody’s like, ‘Who’s next?’ There is work to be done in this country. As we shove him out the door, we minimize his ability to be an effective executive. We shouldn’t do that.”
— New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
The Hill:
“Iowa Republicans are urging New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) to
contest the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses if he runs for
president in 2016, warning a decision to ignore the Hawkeye State would
do more harm than good to his campaign. Christie is widely expected to
focus on the New Hampshire primary if he runs — partly out of a
calculation that he’d fare better in the Granite State than among social
conservatives, who hold powerful sway in the Iowa GOP.”
Charlie Cook:
“So when people ask, ‘Why in the world is Elizabeth Cheney taking on
Mike Enzi?’ maybe the answer ought to be, ‘Why not?’ With so many Senate
seats now in states where the opposition party has no plausible chance
of winning, it does inject a bit of competition where there is
effectively none and punishes complacency in a body where members in
one-party states could easily get that way. When there is so much
animosity toward Washington, it actually is surprising that there are
fewer incumbents facing primary challenges. Cheney’s run appears to be a
campaign against Washington more than an ideological jihad. It would be
wrong to see this as a tea-party challenge; this is more of an
outsider–albeit from an insider family–running against a longtime
incumbent. These are so rare that they are newsworthy.”
“San Diegans will go to the polls Tuesday for the special mayoral
election, choosing from 11 candidates to replace Bob Filner, who
resigned in August following a sexual harassment scandal,” the San Diego Union Tribune reports.
“Because it’s
unlikely any one candidate will get more than 50 percent of the vote, a
runoff between the top-two finishers is expected to be scheduled for
sometime in February.”
Los Angeles Times: “With some policy
differences at the margins, the four top candidates have all promised to
improve neighborhood services, hire more police officers and streamline
city government to help private industry create jobs.”
National Journal:
“When budget negotiations began last month, Democrats felt confident
that public opinion surrounding the government shutdown would force
Republicans to the table, eager to prove their party could compromise.
But today, there’s little sense of urgency on a budget deal. With less
than four weeks to go before the conference committee’s deadline, the
public focus has shifted to the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care
Act and pressure on Republicans has subsided.”
Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was defiant in an interview with the Today Show saying, “They’re not going to find another Rob Ford.”
Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail asked me why Americans are so interested in the story.
A new St. Pete Polls survey in Florida’s 13th congressional district finds Alex Sink (D) leading Kathleen Powers (R), 50% to 31%, and topping David Jolly (R), 49% to 35%.
Rep. Phil Gingrey’s (R-GA) campaign for U.S. Senate took a blow as four top staffers resigned, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“We understand this was, in part, the result of a leadership struggle within the campaign. The Gingrey campaign has been marred by gaffes from the candidate — the latest when the congressman’s complaints on the issue of health care coverage for congressional staffers, made during a private House GOP caucus meeting, were leaked.”
John Edwards “is returning to his roots and opening a new law practice” with his former partner and daughter, the New York Times reports.
Said Edwards: “The reason we formed this firm is because we all believe in the same thing — in standing up for the disenfranchised and those who need an equal chance. That’s why we exist.”
A new ABC News-Washington Post poll finds Mitt Romney would win a presidential election if it were held today, 49% to 45%.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Mississippi finds Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) in trouble if he decides to run for re-election.
Cochran leads Chris McDaniel (R) in a head-to-head Republican primary match up by just six points, 44% to 38%.
Key finding: When asked if they want to vote for Cochran or “someone more conservative,” 55% of GOP primary voters chose the generic more conservative option.
“I urinated in a parking lot… what does that have to do with anything?”
— Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, quoted by the Toronto Star.
“Despite the disastrous rollout of the federal government’s healthcare website, enrollment is surging in many states as tens of thousands of consumers sign up for insurance plans made available by President Obama’s health law,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“A number of states that use their own systems, including California, are on track to hit enrollment targets for 2014 because of a sharp increase in November… The growing enrollment in those states is a rare bit of good news for backers of the Affordable Care Act and suggests that the serious problems with the law’s rollout may not be fatal, despite critics’ renewed calls for repeal.”
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds President Obama’s approval rate is now at the lowest point of his presidency, 42% to 55%, “with dwindling faith in his competence and in many of the personal attributes that have buoyed him in the past.”
“For the first time in Obama’s presidency, a bare majority of Americans, 52%, say they have an unfavorable impression of him, with 46 percent saying they view him favorably. Those ratings have declined from a net positive of 23 points at the time of his inauguration in January.”
The Obama administration “brought in a private consulting team to independently assess how the federal online health insurance enrollment system was developing, according to a newly disclosed document, and in late March received a clear warning that its Oct. 1 launch was fraught with risks,” the Washington Post reports.
“The analysis by McKinsey & Co. foreshadowed many of the problems that have dogged HealthCare.gov since its rollout, including the facts that the call-in centers would not work properly if the online system was malfunctioning and that insufficient testing would make it difficult to fix problems after the launch.”
Jeff Greenfield, one of the wisest political analysts around, is our guest on the Political Wire podcast.
The back and forth and ups and downs of the last few weeks in Washington, D.C. make for terrific political theater but Greenfield warns that predicting how it’s going to play out in 2014 or 2016 is not that easy.
It’s a great conversation. Listen here:
Subscribe via iTunes or RSS to get the latest episodes automatically downloaded om your phone.
President Obama “will be huddling — electronically, at least — with his former campaign supporters Monday night to shore up support after two months of troubles with his signature health law have left him bruised and put the brakes on his domestic agenda,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Senate Republicans “denied President Obama his third nominee in recent weeks to the nation’s most powerful and prestigious appeals court and insisted they would not back down, inflaming a bitter debate over a president’s right to shape the judiciary,” the New York Times reports.
“Unlike previous fights over judicial nominees, this one is not driven by ideology or divisive social issues like abortion. Republicans have raised few objections to any of the candidates’ qualifications or political leanings. Rather, Republicans are trying to prevent Mr. Obama from filling any slots on the court, fearing that he will alter its conservative tilt.”
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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