Here are the latest headlines from Wonk Wire, our companion site which focuses on policy:
William Koch, the brother of conservative Tea Party funders David Koch and Charles Koch, is accused of holding a senior executive of his company captive for almost two days after discovering his concerns about a plan to avoid U.S. taxes on $200 million in profit, Bloomberg reports.
Fab.com just opened a pop up shop filled with great gear for the political season.
A big seller: Democratic Dream Mug Set.
In the wake of President Obama’s widely panned performance in his first debate against Mitt Romney, the Washington Post says the stakes for Vice President Biden “are suddenly higher than ever. In the Oct. 11 vice-presidential debate he must not only avoid making any gaffes but also try to puncture his Republican opponent’s arguments on taxes, entitlement reform and deficit reduction, something Obama was criticized for failing to do last week.”
“The pressure on Ryan has risen as well. Romney greatly exceeded expectations, appearing both presidential and in command of the debate stage. Ryan, who has never before debated at the national level, must prove that he is potential presidential material — while also defending the numbers that Romney put forth last week, especially on tax cuts.”
Mark Halperin: “Is Paul Ryan’s goal to win the debate or just not lose it?”
Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) failed to report almost $130,000 in Missouri legislative pension income over the past 10 years on his congressional financial disclosure report, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Said Akin: “This was an unintentional oversight and I regret any inconvenience this may cause.”
President Obama’s campaign answers the question Mitt Romney keeps asking.
Greg Sargent: “The use of Clinton in the new ad is also interesting: As noted here recently, the Obama campaign believes that true undecided voters see Clinton as a kind of ‘referee’ figure on the economy — hence the ad’s back-to-back footage of Clinton and Obama both making the case that electing a Republican president would take us back to the policies that got us into trouble in the first place. Clinton will play a major role in trying to get swing voters to feel that things are indeed recovering.”
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Out next month: No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen.
The book was written by a former Navy SEAL who helped plan and execute the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Fox News says the book is penned under the pseudonym “Mark Owen,” but multiple sources identify him as Matt Bissonnette, 36, of Wrangell, Alaska.
Nevada Democrats are registering voters at a much faster clip than Republicans, the Las Vegas Sun reports.
“New numbers released this week show Democrats have increased their advantage over Republicans to 47,500 voters. Since April, Democratic voter registration has increased by 20,500. Republican registration in that time has increased by 9,700.”
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“It wasn’t about body parts. It wasn’t about dissent. It wasn’t about anyone’s religious beliefs. It was that last comment that took it a step too far, and that’s what crossed the line about … The ‘no means no’ comment. That went a step too far. As I said to someone up north here, it’s like giving a kid a time out for a day, you know. Hey, time out.”
— Michigan state Rep. Wayne Schmidt (R), explaining why state Rep. Lisa Brown (D) was barred from speaking on the House floor for saying the word “vagina.”
“Even before it became clear that Mitt Romney would be the GOP presidential nominee, many wondered whether his most outspoken surrogate, Gov. Chris Christie, was angling for an invitation to run for vice president,” the Newark Star Ledger reports.
“But there’s another high-profile role that could exploit the Garden State governor’s talents and catapult him in the minds of Republican voters already surveying the 2016 field: keynote speaker at the GOP Convention in Tampa.”
A new USC Dornslife/Los Angeles Times poll in California finds that women, independents, moderates and Latinos help President Obama take a commanding lead over Mitt Romney, 56% to 37%.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) “is now embarking on an all-out effort to revive his standing in Texas and prove he’s still a dominant force in the Lone Star State,” Politico reports.
“Unlike other failed White House candidates — Tim Pawlenty, for example — Perry has declined to become one of many full-time foot soldiers for Mitt Romney’s general election campaign. And unlike Sarah Palin, another superstar governor who flamed out as a national candidate, Perry still has a taste for wielding power on the state level. He has toyed publicly with the idea of running for governor again in 2014, and even with another presidential bid down the line.”
“The governor has endorsed 16 candidates for state and local office this year, including throwing his full weight behind Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who is locked in a battle for the Republican Party’s Senate nomination next Tuesday… The decision to back Dewhurst so aggressively represents a gamble that as a three-term governor, Perry is still the political king of Texas.”
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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