“Democratic strategist James Carville, a longtime confidant of the Clinton family, is supporting the super PAC devoted to luring Hillary Clinton into the 2016 presidential race,” the Washington Post reports.
Clinton Returns to Public Stage
Hillary Clinton returned to the public stage last night “for the opening scene in what many expect to be a carefully plotted performance concluding with another presidential try,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The high-profile venue: the Kennedy Center in the nation’s capital. Several dozen mostly student-age supporters of a Clinton presidential run rallied outside, brandishing blue-and-white ‘I’m Ready for Hillary’ placards. But the event inside was strictly nonpartisan: an awards gala for an international women’s rights organization that Clinton had helped create.”
New York Times:
“It was an evening without overt politics and yet Mrs. Clinton’s
appearance drew attention as she enters a period of deciding whether to
run for president again in 2016.”
Super PAC Launches to Urge Clinton to Run
A new super PAC founded to urge Hillary Clinton to run for president officially launched today, “complete with a new Web site to help the group ramp up its online fundraising operation,” the Washington Post reports.
Cruz Will Speak in South Carolina
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) will be the keynote speaker at the South Carolina Republican Party’s Silver Elephant Celebration on May 3, The State reports.
Cruz is “widely considered to be a presidential candidate in 2016. His speech in South Carolina — which holds the crucial first in the South presidential primaries — will only intensify that speculation.”
Clinton’s Campaign Starts in Virginia
“Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign begins this year in Virginia,” Politico reports.
“She hasn’t said anything about 2016, but Terry McAuliffe’s 2013 gubernatorial campaign is serving as a testing ground for Clinton’s clout, operatives and donors. In fact, McAuliffe and some of his top allies have suggested to big donors and consultants that supporting his campaign is a way to get in on the ground floor of Hillary 2016.”
Clinton Has Donors and Rivals Frozen in Place
New York Times: “Hillary Clinton left the State Department nearly two months ago, but she still needs a staff to keep up with the considerable business of being Hillary Clinton. A half-dozen people now work for the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate in a tiny corporate space on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, in what is called her ‘transition office.'”
“Transition to what, Mrs. Clinton and her aides have not yet said. But the question hovers over her every move and has frozen in place the very early — but for some potential candidates, very important — presidential maneuvering on the Democratic side.”
Paul Says No Decision About Presidential Bid
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said not to expect an announcement about a possible 2016 presidential bid until next year, Roll Call reports.
Said Paul: “I want to be part of the national debate. I think the country faces a lot of problems, and I do want to be a part of trying to bring about answers and solutions for making the Republican party big enough that we can be competitive again, but I won’t make any decision until 2014 or so.”
The Case for Fewer Primary Debates
Former Mitt Romney strategist Stuart Stevens backs the RNC’s call for fewer presidential primary debates.
“This debate escalation is somewhere between silly and dumb and serves no public good. We pick a president with three general-election debates but it takes 20 debates to understand that maybe Ron Paul wants to blow up the Federal Reserve? Other important national questions are decided more expediently: it only takes 12 shows for The Bachelorette and The Bachelor to pick a mate.”
“The RNC report recommends cutting the number of debates in half and shortening the debating season. That’s a good start. But I think we should go further. To improve the quality of the debates and eradicate the commercial toxicity tainting the events, news organizations should get out of the business of sponsoring debates. Let’s don’t kid ourselves. These ‘debates’ have become phony entertainment spectacles not serious news events.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“You have a combination of large donors and very clever consultants, neither of whom have any interest in building a healthy party, so they look for nasty ways to have more impact. If it becomes how clever we can be in vilifying Hillary Clinton, that’s a party that will not win in 2016.”
— Newt Gingrich, in an interview with Howard Kurtz.
Napolitano Doesn’t Rule Out White House Bid
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, “buzzed about as a potential 2016 presidential candidate if Hillary Clinton doesn’t run, did not rule out an eventual bid when asked about it,” the Washington Examiner reports.
Paul Stops Pushing IRS Doom
Bloomberg digs through Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) campaign tapes and notes he “has called for abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service. He’s urged an audit of the Federal Reserve. He’s questioned the constitutionality of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”
“He’s even suggested there’s a risk Americans could soon become like Germans of the ‘Weimar Republic in 1923’ and need wheelbarrows full of money to buy groceries because of hyperinflation triggered by excessive debt. Adolf Hitler, Paul warned, gained power as a result.”
“Now that he’s considered a possible Republican candidate for president in 2016, Paul isn’t emphasizing any of that.”
Headline of the Day
“Clinton Is Strongest-Ever Frontrunner. If She Runs.”
— Al Hunt on Bloomberg
Biden Headlines Major Democratic Fundraisers
Ryan Fades Away
Politico: “He seems to have fallen entirely off the radar of early state Republicans. Democrats bring up his name with more zeal than do people in his own party. And his footprint at CPAC was so faint that his being an afterthought was itself an afterthought. What the heck has happened to Paul Ryan?”
Bush Will Return $270K Paid By Convicted Fraudster
Jeb Bush (R) has agreed to return $270,000 that he was paid as a consultant to convicted fraudster Claudio Osorio, the South Florida Business Journal reports.
An agreement outlining Bush’s settlement payment was filed Thursday in bankruptcy court in Miami.
Is Hillary Clinton Too Conservative to Win the Nomination?
Ruby Cramer notes that Hillary Clinton’s reversal on same-sex marriage is a sign she is “ready to revisit a campaign platform that has been all but frozen in amber since she left the political stage for the State Department four years ago.”
“Because the former Secretary of State jumped from the campaign trail in 2008 to Washington’s Foggy Bottom, where she was barred from talking domestic politics, Clinton will have to dust off, and likely shift, her policy positions, Democratic strategists say, if she wants to run for president in 2016 in a party that has moved sharply to the left in recent years.”
Iowa Caucuses Appear Safe in Wake of RNC Report
Even though the RNC autopsy report clearly favored primaries over caucuses, the Des Moines Register
doesn’t see any problems for the Iowa caucuses.
“The report… seems to bode well for the
first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. It doesn’t specifically call for
keeping Iowa first, but it gives a nod to tradition.” It then cites the
actual language: “Recognizing the traditions of several states that have
early nominating contests, the newly organized primaries would begin
only after the ‘carve-out’ states have held their individual elections.”
But the Boston Globe
notes that if Iowa “switches to a primary, it would disrupt a sort of
gentlemen’s agreement with New Hampshire that has allowed the two states
to operate in relative harmony.”
Rand Paul Planning 2016 Bid
An adviser tells CBS News that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “is already laying the groundwork for a potential bid — his team has ‘already had two meetings’ about 2016, and Paul’s recent trip to Israel is further evidence of his aspiration.”
Said the adviser: “You don’t go to Israel like he did unless you’re already exploring some of that territory.”
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