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Tag: 2016 democratic nominees
As Iowa Town Hall Looms, Differences Between Sanders And Clinton Sharpen

As Iowa Town Hall Looms, Differences Between Sanders And Clinton Sharpen

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O’Malley will have their last televised opportunity this evening to pitch their vision of a post-Obama America to Iowans. At a “town hall” hosted by CNN at Drake University in Des Moines, the candidates will appear on stage, one at a time, to answer questions ranging from inequality to electability. The event is particularly crucial to Sanders (I-VT), who is trying to maintain his campaign’s momentum as the primary season officially begins.

For her part, Clinton will continue to present herself as President Barack Obama’s successor, with her stances on gun control and healthcare, as well as many other issues where her views mirror his. Despite a recent surge of support for Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire, Clinton still maintains a sizable lead in national polls.

Clinton has styled herself as a mainstream Democrat who, with her decades of experience, knows what needs to be done and what is possible. Sanders has positioned himself as a political outsider and social justice crusader who believes that nothing will change without a radical break from the “establishment.” His calls for a political revolution are not empty rallying cries.

To her credit, Clinton has taken on many of the causes important to liberals. But in her traditional approach, the Clinton campaign has focused on a decades-old measure of support, the political endorsement — and she has received hundreds of them. In fact, she may have more endorsements for her candidacy than all the Republican nominees combined. She also depends on super PACs for funding, as do almost all Republican candidates.

Sanders, on the other hand, has run an unorthodox campaign that has relied on small cash donations and endorsements from people other than politicians. He received not only the endorsement of Killer Mike, a member of rap duo Run the Jewels and a politically active gangster rapper, but those of Dr. Cornel West and Glenn Greenwald, two personalities unequivocal in their criticism of the American political system and whose causes are much more popular among younger, more liberal voters.

These differences have translated into heated exchanges between the two sides. Last week Sanders accused Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organization frequently targeted by Republicans for providing abortions in addition to health services, and the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT civil rights advocacy group, of being “part of the establishment” after the groups endorsed Clinton. Former President Bill Clinton responded by saying, “Hillary Clinton does not consider Planned Parenthood a member of the establishment.” More than anything, Sanders most likely felt betrayed by the two organizations given he was a champion of abortions and gay marriage long before most politicians had the courage to do so.

Tonight the pressure is on again for Sanders to articulate his positions and policies clearly and attract an even wider coalition of Democrats to his camp. Clinton only needs to provide a solid performance, since she has a better chance of winning in Iowa, stopping Sanders at just the second primary in South Carolina, and proceeding to her place as the Democrats’ inevitable candidate. But as we are learning in this election cycle, nothing is guaranteed.

White Evangelicals: Early Influence On GOP Race, But Prospects Then Get Shakier

White Evangelicals: Early Influence On GOP Race, But Prospects Then Get Shakier

By David Lightman, McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — White evangelical Christians are well-positioned to have a strong say in early 2016 Republican primaries and caucuses, a new analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of Sabato’s Crystal Ball found Thursday. But they could face trouble later in the campaign season.

Voting starts Feb. 1 in Iowa, where in 2012 exit poll data showed 56 percent of caucus voters were white evangelicals. Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, had a strong appeal to those voters, and inched out a win.

Skelley, using data from exit polls in 2008 and 2012, as well as information from the Census Bureau and the Public Religion Research Institute’s American Values Atlas, found that 64 percent of total delegates in states with primaries or caucuses prior to March 8 will come from states with likely white evangelical majorities. South Carolina votes later in February, and on March 1, states with primaries or caucuses, and sizable evangelical populations, include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Three more such states, Kentucky, Louisiana and Kansas, vote March 5.

That means that candidates with special appeal to those groups could get an early boost, but it doesn’t mean that will last. A majority of convention delegates will be chosen after March 8.
“All this is to say that white evangelical Christians are going to impact the 2016 Republican nomination contest, just as they have in previous cycles,” Skelley found.

But because early delegates will be awarded proportionately, it will be hard for any single candidate in a multi-candidate field to get a huge early lead. And after March 15, some states will have winner take all primaries. And more states with smaller evangelical communities, such as Florida and Ohio, will be voting.

“This is not to say that a white evangelical-oriented outsider candidate won’t win the Republican nomination,” Skelley said. “But many states with large numbers of conservative born-again Christians will vote when many candidates may still be in the race, possibly splintering their delegate hauls.

“Nonetheless, if the white evangelical Iowa lane of the field winnows a great deal between now and March 1, it’s possible that someone could take advantage and rack up a solid delegate take. Only time will tell, but there’s little question that white evangelical Christians are going to be an important factor in determining the GOP nominee, particularly in the early going.”

So far, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has attracted a strong evangelical following. Also in the mix are real estate mogul Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana; Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and 2008 Iowa caucus winner; and Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania and 2012 winner in Iowa.

Photo: Ben Carson has a strong evangelical following. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Hillary Clinton Makes Her Announcement

Hillary Clinton Makes Her Announcement

Well, here we are. After years of anticipation, rumors, hand wringing, and prognostication, Hillary Rodham Clinton, former U.S. senator from New York and 67th Secretary of State, has made her move—officially announcing her candidacy for the White House. It has begun.

Watch her announcement video below:


Unfortunately, we can be sure this means that the Republican machine hellbent on the Clintons’ destruction is gearing up for another run as well.

Fifteen years after its original publication, The Hunting of the President, co-authored by National Memo editor-in-chief Joe Conason, is still relevant.

The Left Is Building A Movement Of Movements To Pressure Hillary

The Left Is Building A Movement Of Movements To Pressure Hillary

By Emily Greenhouse, Bloomberg News (TNS)

For Democrats, there is not even a nominee, yet. She’s coming, but there’s still no guarantee of a primary fight. In the absence of a genuine challenger to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — in the absence, most particularly, of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy, for which hungry liberals pine — a sort of movement of leftist movements has emerged to bring pressure on the presumptive nominee.

This week, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee announced that a petition it launched calling for the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee to campaign on a populist platform has been signed by 5,000 current and former elected leaders, as well as Democratic Party officials, union leaders, and progressive activists. These include 25 members of Congress, such as Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Alan Grayson, Donna Edwards, and Barbara Lee, plus former Sen. Tom Harkin. The petition — which was posted below a page header that reads ReadyforBoldness.com, and rides above a shooting star — begins, “We want the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee to campaign on big, bold, economic-populist ideas that tangibly improve the lives of millions of Americans.”

Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for similarly big, bold, economic-populist ideas, from a podium at Gracie Mansion. On Thursday, de Blasio announced that he, with a coalition of progressives he had convened, would in May put forward a template for how best to conquer inequality, and then ask presidential candidates to respond. (He said it would parallel the GOP’s 1994 Contract for America.) De Blasio and his allies in the project, progressive activists and lawmakers including Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut, offered no specific policy suggestions, but spoke of their “vision.” The mayor talked of changing the national conversation, of “making sure income inequality is at the forefront of the national discussion.” A reporter asked if Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, had been involved in the gathering. De Blasio replied that her team had not been a part, but that he expected every candidate, including Clinton — were she to decide to run, he was careful to say — to speak to the matter.

No one present asked about Warren, and she wasn’t in the room with the mayor and the activists. De Blasio told the Washington Post that a scheduling conflict kept her from attending. But Warren’s spirit, and her robust commitment to middle-class families and working people, was felt. The focus on income inequality — even Republicans including Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and even Mitt Romney have taken up the cause, or at least phrase — is thanks, most of all, to her.

On Wednesday, Warren gave her stamp of approval to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee effort. In a statement to the Associated Press, she said, “Anyone who runs for president should talk about big economic ideas that will help rebuild the middle class in this country and improve the lives of working-class families. I applaud those who are working hard to make big ideas central to the conversation in 2016.”

The PCCC petition’s already mirrored her beliefs: the policy suggestions given were “establishing a national goal of debt-free college at all public colleges and universities, expanding Social Security benefits instead of cutting them, creating millions of clean-energy jobs, reducing big-money influence in politics, breaking up the ‘too big to fail’ Wall Street banks that crashed our economy, and ensuring that working families share in the economic growth they help create.”

We’ve entered announcement season for Republicans, which gives the GOP at least a news-cycle advantage: their speeches at universities, their press availabilities and political confessions, are dominating the airwaves. There’s little going on on the Democratic side, as liberals wait for Hillary Clinton to take the stage. Although Warren has repeatedly said, and continues to say, that she won’t run in the 2016 presidential race, she manages to fill the vacuum that is the present Democratic camp.

The same day she gave her imprint to the Bold Progressives petition, she criticized the government on Conan O’Brien’s talk show for spending money to keep tax loopholes around for billionaires, rather than helping reduce the interest rate on student loans. With vigor, she said, “The United States government should not be making profit off the backs of kids who are trying to get an education.” In late March, Warren introduced an amendment to the Senate budget resolution that would expand Social Security benefits. Every Democrat in attendance but two voted for it — quite a change in approach from January 2013, when Warren entered the Senate. Then, Democrats and Republicans alike were considering cutting Social Security. Pema Levy wrote in Mother Jones this Monday that Warren has “turned Social Security expansion — once a progressive pipe dream — into a tough-to-ignore 2016 issue.”

Earlier in the month, Warren, who, through a representative, declined to comment for this article, led an effort against President Barack Obama’s attempt to negotiate free trade deals with the European Union and Pacific Rim countries, an “investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.” Warren said. “The name sound a little wonky,” — she tends to speak to the people — “but this is a powerful provision that would fundamentally tilt the playing field further in favor of multinational corporations. Worse yet, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty.” Warren’s challenge was not just to Obama’s administration, but to Clinton: as secretary of state, Clinton had supported the negotiations.

(c)2015 Bloomberg News, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Photo: Democrat Elizabeth Warren, center, waves to the crowd with her husband Bruce Mann, left, during an election night rally at the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel in Boston after Warren defeated incumbent GOP Sen. Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)