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Correct The Record Tuesday September 23, 2014 Morning Roundup:
Headlines:
Reuters: “High-profile New York event highlights Clinton's 'elite' image”
“‘CGI has helped improve the lives of over 430 million people in more than 180 countries and has worked to secure $103 billion to spur innovative solutions to make the world a better place,’ said Adrienne Elrod of pro-Clinton group Correct The Record.”
Washington Post: “Clinton wonkparty outshines U.N. meeting”
“Ten meetings later, the Clinton Global Initiative now outshines the U.N. gathering, at least when it comes to star wattage. It also serves as an annual company picnic and convocation of the faithful for the Clintons’ far-flung political and business networks.”
Associated Press: “Clintons Mark 10 Years of Annual Summit”
“Bill and Hillary Clinton marked the 10th anniversary of the former president's annual Clinton Global Initiative, pointing to female empowerment around the globe as the former secretary of state considers a 2016 presidential campaign.”
MSNBC: “Clinton family basks in the glow of the global elite”
“The Clinton family relished their spot atop the extended network of friends and supporters they’ve built over the past ten years through the Clinton Global Initiative, using the first full day of the group’s annual meeting on Monday to review their success with an eye toward the future – where a potential presidential run loomed in the shadows.”
..."In the lobby, David Brock, the former professional Clinton hater-turned-chief Clinton defender, waited before some meetings with donors. He was not meeting with either Clinton this time, however, he said."
Wall Street Journal: “Clinton World Braces for Big News on Baby Front”
“If the baby arrives next week, the newest Clinton will turn 35 in the year 2049, missing the constitutional eligibility requirement for the 2048 election cycle — but making him or her fully eligible to run for president in 2052.”
Los Angeles Times: “Bill Clinton outlines 100-day agenda for next president”
“Hillary Rodham Clinton seems more eager to talk about her soon-to-arrive grandchild than her plans for a potential presidential run, but her husband seemed more than happy to allude to both prospects Monday.”
Politico: “Hillary Clinton to campaign for Charlie Crist”
“Clinton will headline a dinner Oct. 2 in Miami, according to an invitation.”
New York Times: “Seeding a Slogan? Clinton Talks Up Choice and Chance in Email Blast”
“In a Monday e-mail titled ‘A Choice & A Chance,’ Mrs. Clinton dove right into the political fray, urging Democrats to make a donation to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.”
CNN: “Tim Kaine: 'My intuition tells me' Hillary Clinton will run”
“Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said Monday he thinks Hillary Clinton will run for president next year and that her decision could be known as soon as December.”
CNN: “Republicans' favorite label for Hillary Clinton 2016: 'Obama's Third Term'”
“Multiple Republican operatives said this strategy -- which is coming from national party groups, outside super PACs and GOP politicians -- is best at engaging the base and raising money. Therefore, it is something they plan to continue in the coming months and possibly years.”
New Republic: “How to Save Obamacare: Make It a Women's Issue”
“The challenge for the next Democratic presidential nominee is thus to break the psychic link—to reshape the way the public thinks about health reform as something more than just a proxy for Obama. And whether she realizes it or not, Hillary Clinton has made a strong case that a female candidate will be better suited to the task than a male candidate.”
Variety: “Hollywood ‘Ready for Hillary’ at Political Fundraiser"
“The Ready for Hillary event on Sunday at the Pacific Palisades home of ‘Homeland’ executive producer Howard Gordon and his wife Cami was a preview of what attendees hope is to come: heavy and widespread Hollywood support for her presidential bid.”
Washington Free Beacon: “WFB’s Alana Goodman and Ellison Barber Discuss The Hillary-Alinsky Letters”
“Goodman said that because Alinsky remains a controversial figure in American history, particularly due to his role in the labor movement and community organizing in Chicago, an examination of his role in influencing Clinton’s ideology during the formative years of her political career remains relevant.”
Bloomberg View: Jonathan Bernstein: “Radical Smear Won't Stick to Hillary”
“Over the weekend, the Washington Free Beacon ran a story about Hillary Clinton’s long-ago correspondence with the community organizer Saul Alinsky.”
Boston Herald: “Ditch 2016 Elizabeth Warren for prez bid, local Dems ask”
“Local Democratic party boosters of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren told a frenzied group of progressives to ditch their bid to draft her as a 2016 presidential nominee, saying the push undercuts her vow to stay put as a Massachusetts lawmaker.”
Articles:
Reuters: “High-profile New York event highlights Clinton's 'elite' image”
By Gabriel Debenedetti
September 22, 2014, 6:07 p.m. EDT
When Hillary Clinton rubs shoulders with financial executives and philanthropic giants at the Clinton Global Initiative's meeting this week, it will underscore the tension between her elite connections and populist image likely to feature in her expected 2016 presidential campaign.
Seen by liberal critics as a close ally of the global elite, she will have to appeal to middle class voters after facing criticism this summer that she is out of touch.
Clinton drew the ire of progressives and Republicans alike in June by saying she was "dead broke" after leaving the White House as first lady in 2001. And to her populist critics, nowhere is the tension between her status as an emblem of the elite and the need to connect to voters more apparent than in New York, where this week's meeting takes place.
It is a city where she appears with high-profile billionaires, but also a city led by progressive hero Mayor Bill de Blasio, her one-time campaign manager.
"If you look at her track record from the past, it is out of step with the current Democratic Party. Not on social issues, but definitely on economic issues, so we're going to be watching very carefully," said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of liberal group Democracy For America.
"There's no question the de Blasio wing of the party is ascendant," Chamberlain added, calling Clinton a leader of Democrats' "Wall Street wing" and saying her appearances with financiers are concerning.
Clinton represented New York as a U.S. senator, and both her 2016 campaign and that year's Democratic convention could be based here.
This week's annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative boasts celebrities like actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon alongside business titans like Alibaba's Jack Ma and Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein. President Barack Obama will speak on Tuesday, at a hotel where early on Monday screens occasionally flashed thanks to sponsor Blackstone, the private equity giant.
Hillary Clinton's appearances with financial executives worry progressives who favor stringent bank regulations. But Clinton allies swat away such criticism by noting this week's event is based on philanthropy, and point to the foundation's work.
The initiative, part of the broader Clinton Foundation, brings together leaders to pledge to work on important global problems. Former President Bill Clinton created the foundation although now Hillary and daughter Chelsea also help lead it.
"CGI has helped improve the lives of over 430 million people in more than 180 countries and has worked to secure $103 billion to spur innovative solutions to make the world a better place," said Adrienne Elrod of pro-Clinton group Correct The Record.
LIBERAL GROUPS WARY
But liberal groups say they are keeping a wary eye on the summit.
"As business and political leaders converge in New York this weekend, the political atmosphere is set. An economic populist tide is sweeping the country," said Laura Friedenbach of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which heavily supports Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
But Clinton's recent speeches have hit a noticeably populist note, and she appeared with labor leaders in New York soon after returning to politically influential Iowa in mid-September.
And supporters of the former secretary of state point to preliminary polls that show Clinton with a considerable lead over potential liberal challengers in the Democratic primary field, including Warren.
A September CNN/ORC poll of Iowa Democrats showed Clinton with a 39 percent lead over Vice President Joe Biden, her closest competitor.
Peter Buttenwieser, a long-time Democratic donor, philanthropist, and Clinton supporter whose mother's family founded Lehman Brothers, said fears of a liberal backlash against Clinton were overblown.
"Most progressive candidates, including many who are running for the Senate this time, meet with business people, and there's nothing wrong with the vast majority of people who run good, successful businesses," he said.
Washington Post: “Clinton wonkparty outshines U.N. meeting”
By Anne Gearan
September 22, 2014, 3:46 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK — Which party would you rather go to: The one that begins with Leonardo DiCaprio, Eva Longoria and a rocking house band, or the one that begins with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff?
Oh, and one of the gatherings this week in New York City also has former president Bill Clinton and his wife — you might have heard of her — former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton. Plus a due-to-give-birth-any-second Chelsea Clinton.
That event is the Clinton Global Initiative, which also boasted comic Seth Meyers and of-the-moment singers Jason Mraz and Aloe Blacc on the opening night Sunday, if you’re keeping score at home.
Did we mention that Matt Damon is going to talk about clean water?
The meeting was established in 2005 as a three-day do-gooder wonkathon that took advantage of the spotlight of the other gathering — the annual United Nations General Assembly — to draw attention to development issues and other concerns.
Ten meetings later, the Clinton Global Initiative now outshines the U.N. gathering, at least when it comes to star wattage. It also serves as an annual company picnic and convocation of the faithful for the Clintons’ far-flung political and business networks.
The whiff of a potential Hillary Clinton presidential run was everywhere as Greater Clintonia gabbed and gossiped in the lobby of the New York Sheraton, alongside the sort of Aspen-sleek corporate types and earnest advocates who attend sessions such as “Reimagining Finance for Social Impact: Planning For Scale.”
“President Clinton is here! And so is Bill!” emcee Meyers joked Sunday, after she opened the glitzy awards banquet that inaugurated the gathering. (Bill grinned and applauded from the audience.)
Of course it isn’t really fair to compare UNGA and CGI, as the natives of both lands call the gatherings. But probably only the Clintons could build an organization that is now in many ways a bigger draw than the august world gathering it was designed to complement.
Brazil’s president will be the first of more than 150 leaders expected to address the United Nations beginning Wednesdaymorning. Rousseff is actually something of a rock star among world leaders and a fascinating story for foreign policy geeks because of her tough-talking persona. But it’s a good bet that the Hollywood Reporter and US Weekly don’t have assigned seats for her address, as they did for the CGI opening.
“There is a little sizzle with the substance,” said CGI spokesman Craig Minassian, “but it draws people into the substance.”
On Monday, the once-and-maybe-future presidents embraced warmly after Bill Clinton introduced Hillary Clinton. He outlined the accomplishments claimed by CGI: 430 million people in 180 countries helped by the pledges — or commitments, in CGI parlance — that participants must make to try to solve climate change, women’s deaths in childbirth, the lack of libraries in rural societies or a host of other problems.
That adds up to action valued at nearly $100 billion, and 27 million people with greater access to safe drinking water, Hillary Clinton said. They are very big on big data at CGI.
“The last thing we want to do is just get into a rut where we just do the same things over and over again,” she said. “We have been asking ourselves, ‘How can we continue to reinvent philanthropy and business as effectively in the next 10 years as well as we have done in the past?’ ” she said.
Membership costs $20,000 annually for corporations and other large organizations but is free for many charitable and advocacy groups. Membership is also by invitation only and is capped at about 600 slots. There is no shortage of applicants.
“We have not renewed” some members who did not carry through on their pledges, Minassian said.
“At first I asked people to come to New York when the U.N. was meeting and the world leaders were coming, which guarantees that you could join the world’s worst traffic jam,” Bill Clinton joked. “And then I asked people to come to a meeting where you had to make a commitment to do something, and do your best to keep it, and keep coming.”
Those commitments began as back-of-the-envelope sketches of ideas and promises, and now keep about 100 people employed year-round shaping, refining and measuring the progress of each member’s performance.
It is that culture of expectations that sets CGI apart from other “thought leader” gatherings such as the World Economic Forum, which holds an annual uber-glossy gabfest in Davos, Switzerland.
“This is Davos with action items,” said John Wood, who credits CGI with nurturing his library- and school-building project, Room to Read. “It forces you to say what you are going to do, what is your time frame, how are you going to do it.”
There is some cross-pollination between CGI and UNGA. President Obama is set to address both organizations this year, for example. But many business and development professionals hobnob at CGI without getting anywhere near U.N. headquarters.
Not to mention the Hollywood contingent and their causes.
“The world is now at a turning point, and climate change is the defining issue of our time,” DiCaprio said as he accepted a CGI Global Citizen award. “The task before us to protect this planet will require the largest movement in human history.”
Associated Press: “Clintons Mark 10 Years of Annual Summit”
By Ken Thomas
September 22, 2014, 4:52 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK (AP) -- Bill and Hillary Clinton marked the 10th anniversary of the former president's annual Clinton Global Initiative, pointing to female empowerment around the globe as the former secretary of state considers a 2016 presidential campaign.
The Clintons presided over their yearly gathering of world leaders, corporate executives and philanthropists on Monday, drawing attention to the role of women in leadership positions and opportunities for women and girls around the world.
"We cannot grow the global economy if we do not open the doors to women to participate in the economy," Mrs. Clinton said. "It's been quite exciting to see a lot of the changes that are going on, but it's also been somewhat distressing to see how hard change still is, including in my own country."
The conference theme is called "Reimagining Impact," a notion that might apply to a future presidential candidate. During a conversation on stage with Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, the former first lady listened intently as the IBM executive spoke of the importance of constantly seeking transformation.
Reimagining impact, Hillary Clinton said at the end of the session, "requires leaders who will reimagine and who will be unafraid to do so and ask themselves, beginning with themselves, hard questions."
Bill Clinton, in a separate conversation with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, said the rest of the world often views Latin America as a "real macho place" and might be surprised to learn that Bachelet had won a second term while Brazil is led by a female president, Dilma Rousseff.
"When there are no women in a high-level position, people can talk about equal rights but it's just a speech," Bachelet said. She said when female leaders excel, "then it's a model for others."
Since 2005, the Clintons said their efforts had improved the lives of 430 million people in 180 countries, including giving 44 million children access to a better education. The ex-president, who turned 68 in August, said he was glad to be joined by his wife and daughter Chelsea Clinton in the family foundation's pursuits.
"One of my ideas is that I want them to do more of the heavy lifting," he said. "You know, I'm not a young guy anymore."
Here's a look at other news from the Clinton Global Initiative:
---(equals)
- 2014 CAMPAIGN: Delving into politics, Hillary Clinton sent out a fundraising appeal Monday on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, urging activists to help elect House Democrats. Clinton has been stepping up her campaign activity for the party in the weeks before the November elections. Republicans hold a majority in the House and need to pick up six seats to take control of the Senate.
- SERVICE YEAR: Chelsea Clinton, who is expecting her first child in the coming weeks, announced the creation of Service Year, a four-year effort to encourage young people between the ages of 18 and 28 to take part in a year of service. The initiative, led by the National Service Alliance, the Cisco Fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the Lumina Foundation, aims to create 30,000 annual service opportunities by 2017 and 1 million a year by 2023.
- CLIMATE CHANGE: Mayors Annise Parker of Houston, Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles and Michael Nutter of Philadelphia announced plans for their cities to address climate change. The cities will develop plans to reduce greenhouse gas, adopt a common way of tracking and reporting emissions and promote ways of participating in cap-and-trade programs like California's system.
MSNBC: “Clinton family basks in the glow of the global elite”
By Alex Seitz-Wald
September 22, 2014, 7:51 p.m. EDT
The Clinton family relished their spot atop the extended network of friends and supporters they’ve built over the past ten years through the Clinton Global Initiative, using the first full day of the group’s annual meeting on Monday to review their success with an eye toward the future – where a potential presidential run loomed in the shadows.
“I want to begin by making a totally unbiased, objective statement. I think my husband has invented an extraordinary initiative,” Hillary Clinton said at the first major session of three days of meetings here. “And I can say this because I had nothing to do with creating CGI and I want to thank him for 10 years and so much that we have to celebrate and to build on.”
The conference is now at a crossroads. Former President Bill Clinton started the annual event, operated under the auspices of the Clinton Foundation, in 2005 to bring together heads of state, titans of industry, celebrities, thought leaders, and philanthropists to make commitments to improve the world.
Now a family business, the conference was already thrown into question when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, forced to curtail some of its activities and reveal its donors. If she decides to run for president again in 2016, CGI’s future would be even more unpredictable, as the deals struck here could open her campaign (or White House) to charges of conflict of interest.
But for now, the Clintons were proud to tout the success they have achieved over the past decade. When she took the stage, Hillary Clinton ticked off an impressive list of accomplishments: 3,100 commitments from organizations and governments to do something good, nearly $100 billion promised, and 430 million lives affected in 180 countries. “Extraordinary,” she said.
The conference, which is timed to coincide with the U.N. General Assembly, is like a who’s who of do-gooder global elites.
It’s the kind of place where Bill Clinton muses about a promise from the president of Mongolia to provide him with a strong horse ride across the steppe before quizzing the King of Jordan and the president of Chile on turmoil in the Middle East.
“Why did I run [for president] again? Because I just couldn’t help it,” Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, who is close with someone else at the conference who is considering a second run at the presidency, told Bill Clinton.
It’s a rare place where Hillary Clinton does the interviewing, putting questions to the CEO of IBM and the World Bank. And where Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple is major star – but not as big as Leonardo DiCapio, who was given an award here Sundaynight.
While the point of the event is philanthropy, politics is never far away. Spotted were Clinton hands like Paul Begala, a longtime Clinton strategist who currently advises a big money pro-Clinton super PAC, and Gene Sperling, the Clinton and Obama White House adviser.
In the lobby, David Brock, the former professional Clinton hater-turned-chief Clinton defender, waited before some meetings with donors. He was not meeting with either Clinton this time, however, he said.
A big emphasis on this anniversary event was accountability for the money that has been committed over the years. Chelsea Clinton has taken a lead in evaluating the Clinton Foundation’s work, commissioning an audit from an outside firm.
“One of the ways that CGI has grown over the years is that the rest of my family joined the business,” Bill Clinton said with a laugh. “One of my ideas is that I wanted them to do more of the heavy lifting. You know I’m not a young guy any more.”
The former first daughter, looking very comfortable despite the fact that her baby is due any day, is increasingly taking charge of the foundation. She strode on stage to report that almost 90% of projects are on track or have already been successful.
She also announced a new project, Service Year, which will help connect young people with one-year service opportunities, such as AmeriCorps. Stanley McChrystal, the retired general who was demoted by President Obama after insulting the president in a Rolling Stone article, is involved in the effort and Chelsea praised him as “an example to all of us.”
The evaluation effort has left Hillary Clinton to think a lot about data, she said. “The idea that big data, information, can be valuable seems so obvious. Because who can be against information? But it turns out, a lot of people are because they don’t want information that violates their ideology or some other pre-existing belief or conviction that they have held,” she told Jim Yong Kim, the head of the World Bank.
Regardless of the future of the Clinton Global Initiative, it already serves as an ideal platform for Clinton to elevate herself and issues that would be important in a presidential run, not to mention stay in touch with potential donors and other influential people.
Twenty nine out of 30 companies listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average have donated to the CGI, according to Bloomberg. And Democratic donors like Ted Waitt, the founder of computer maker Gateway, and investor Alan Patricof were among the sponsors of some programs.
Wall Street Journal: “Clinton World Braces for Big News on Baby Front”
By Peter Nicholas
September 22, 2014, 4:25 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK – The Clinton family is about to drop some big news – having nothing to do with Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions.
Back in April, Chelsea Clinton announced that she was pregnant with her and husband Marc Mezvinsky’s first child. Now, the family is signaling that the baby is due any day.
In an interview with CNN over the weekend, former president Bill Clinton said that he hopes to be a grandfather “by the first of October.” Mr. Clinton also said he didn’t know if the baby was a boy or a girl, as his daughter and son-in-law “decided not to know. They want to be surprised.”
Mrs. Clinton has also had some fun in describing life on tenterhooks as she awaits word of the baby’s arrival.
Speaking at a campaign event in Iowa earlier in the month, she said: “I’ve got a few things on my mind these days. First and most importantly, Bill and I are on constant grandchild watch.
“I’m calling Chelsea every five minutes to make sure things are going alright and when the big moment comes you can bet that I will drop everything to be there in a flash. So I’m telling you now, if you see us sprinting off stage, that’s why.”
Playfully, she added: “And then of course there’s that other thing.”
That other thing would be the presidency.
Can we connect the two? Let’s try.
If the baby arrives next week, the newest Clinton will turn 35 in the year 2049, missing the constitutional eligibility requirement for the 2048 election cycle — but making him or her fully eligible to run for president in 2052.
Looking very pregnant, Chelsea Clinton has made a few appearances thus far at the Clinton Global Initiative conference this week in New York. On Monday she took the stage to talk about AmeriCorps, the service project signed into law by her father.
Mr. Clinton had been leading a panel discussion with Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile, and King Abdullah of Jordan. The conversation ran long, and Mr. Clinton apologized to his daughter as he ceded the stage.
“You don’t need my forgiveness,” Chelsea Clinton told her father. “I’m always happy to listen to President Bachelet and his majesty. I think all of us are.”
She went on to praise her father for AmeriCorps. She called it “one of my father’s – in my humble opinion, as my mother said, we’re not terribly biased in our family – one of his signature achievements while he was president.”
Los Angeles Times: “Bill Clinton outlines 100-day agenda for next president”
By Maeve Reston
September 22, 2014, 8:29 p.m. EDT
Hillary Rodham Clinton seems more eager to talk about her soon-to-arrive grandchild than her plans for a potential presidential run, but her husband seemed more than happy to allude to both prospects Monday.
Bloomberg’s Charlie Rose interviewed the former president during the 10th Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Monday, the international gathering sponsored by his family's foundation. Rose danced around the specific question of whether Hillary Clinton will run in 2016, presumably because Bill Clinton has repeatedly insisted that he does not know. But he pressed Clinton for clues about what another Clinton presidency might look like, while encouraging him to expound about the changes in the U.S. political climate since he first ran in 1992.
“Let’s assume you are advising a presidential candidate,” Rose said, to laughter.
"That's a heavy assumption," Clinton quipped back. “My advice has sometimes been welcome, sometimes not. Sometimes right and sometimes not."
Regarding the next president’s first hundred days, Clinton said they should focus on helping people climb out of poverty into the middle class. He said he would favor a revived effort in building energy infrastructure and directing investments toward programs to create jobs that would also simultaneously change the job mix to create higher-paying positions. He also called for altering student loan programs to help students with debt, working on initiatives to make higher education more affordable and reforming the U.S. corporate tax system.
Clinton described the presidential campaign as a very difficult job interview. He did not explicitly discuss his wife’s ambitions.
Rose questioned Clinton about why people consider him to be “the best political animal that's ever been in American politics.”
“I don't know if that's true or not. But to be really good at this, you’ve got to like people; you’ve got to like policy; and you’ve got to like politics,” Clinton said. “You've got to have a pain threshold.”
The former president said the nation’s political and media climate was bad in the mid-1990s, but had gotten even more difficult because party politics “are even more polarized.” While Americans are “less racist and homophobic” than they used to be, he said, they tend to be far less willing to spend time listening to those who don’t agree with them, he said, calling that a dangerous trend.
Of course, one of the most buzzed-about topics at this year’s Clinton Global Initiative has been the coming arrival of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s first grandchild. A very pregnant Chelsea Clinton, who plays a leading role in running her family’s foundation, appeared onstage during the Sunday night gala that launched the conference.
The younger Clinton, who announced in April that she was expecting a child with her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, playfully thanked Clinton Global Initiative attendees for their well wishes on their “impending, though hopefully not immediate, arrival.”
On Monday, she took the stage to talk about a new service project championed by the Clinton Foundation that is designed to boost the work of AmeriCorps. Her father, who had been leading the previous panel with President of Chile Michelle Bachelet and King Abdullah of Jordan, apologized to his daughter for allowing his discussion to run over the allotted time.
“You don’t need my forgiveness,” Chelsea responded, teasing her father. “I’m always happy to listen to President Bachelet and his majesty. I think all of us are.”
Chelsea’s due date has been a closely guarded secret within the family, but Bill Clinton said during a CNN interview that he hoped to be a grandfather by Oct. 1.
The former president told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in the interview airing Sunday that his daughter and her husband decided not to find out whether the child is a boy or a girl, and said he didn’t have a preference. “I can’t wait,” the former president said.
Hillary Clinton rarely delivers a speech these days without noting her excitement about what she calls “grandbaby watch.” She has said the experience of becoming a grandmother could affect her thinking about running for president, and during her recent visit to Iowa she admitted that she was calling her daughter every few minutes to check in.
“When the big moment comes, you can bet that I will drop everything to be there in a flash,” Clinton told the crowd at Sen. Tom Harkin’s steak fry in Iowa. “So I’m telling you now, if you see us sprinting offstage, that’s why.”
Here in New York, the Clintons have been able to keep a watchful eye on Chelsea, who attended most of the conference's large events.
No one has sprinted offstage just yet. But both soon-to-grandparents seem to be enjoying this moment of anticipation.
Charlie Rose began his interview with the former president by noting that within a few weeks a child might arrive who would be calling him “Grandpa.”
“If my grandchild can talk in one or two weeks, the future of my family is secure,” Bill Clinton replied.
Rose quickly rejoined that he hadn’t meant to say he was expecting the baby to be talking quite that quickly. But considering it’s the loquacious Bill Clinton’s grandchild, anything is possible.
Politico: “Hillary Clinton to campaign for Charlie Crist”
By Maggie Haberman
September 22, 2014, 7:56 p.m. EDT
Hillary Clinton will headline a fundraising dinner for Florida Democratic gubernatorial Charlie Crist next month, putting her in a key presidential state in the midterms battle, according to an invitation.
Crist, a Republican turned Democrat running for his old job, is in one of the toughest gubernatorial races in the country. He is facing incumbent Republican Rick Scott.
Clinton will headline a dinner Oct. 2 in Miami, according to an invitation.
She is holding a book-signing the same day in the state.
New York Times: “Seeding a Slogan? Clinton Talks Up Choice and Chance in Email Blast”
By Alan Rappeport
September 22, 2014, 6:10 p.m. EDT
Hillary Rodham Clinton has said that she’ll likely announce a decision about running for president sometime next year. But from the sound of things, she might be trying out a campaign slogan already.
In a Monday e-mail titled “A Choice & A Chance,” Mrs. Clinton dove right into the political fray, urging Democrats to make a donation to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“This November, we have a clear choice — and a chance,” Mrs. Clinton wrote. “It’s a chance to elect Democrats to Congress who will fight for us every day.”
The phrasing echoes remarks Mrs. Clinton has made in other appearances recently, including at a steak fry in Iowa last week, where she proclaimed that “in just 50 days Iowans have a choice to make — a choice and a chance — a choice between the guardians of gridlock and the champions of shared opportunity and shared prosperity.”
A few days later, at a women’s forum in Washington, she used the same line, reminding voters of the “choice and chance” to steer issues such as equal pay, health and education.
While Mrs. Clinton has not tipped her hand, she certainly has not closed any doors either.
CNN: “Tim Kaine: 'My intuition tells me' Hillary Clinton will run”
By Peter Hamby
September 22, 2014, 2:56 p.m. EDT
Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said Monday he thinks Hillary Clinton will run for president next year and that her decision could be known as soon as December.
Kaine, a Democrat who has vowed to endorse Clinton should she run, made the comments in a question and answer session with students at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, Virginia.
An audio clip of the event was provided to CNN by a person in the room who wished to remain anonymous.
The former governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee was asked if he would run for president in 2016, but Kaine waved off the question and quickly pivoted to Clinton.
"The answer is no," he said. "I had come out in, I guess in April or May, to strongly support Sen. Clinton, Secretary Clinton, should she run. I have no knowledge about whether she will or won't, but my intuition tells me that she will. But that will probably not be known until, I would say, December."
Clinton has said publicly that she will make her decision about 2016 known sometime after the new year.
Kaine was one of President Obama's first supporters when Obama launched his presidential bid in 2007. With his impressive resume and a deep well of respect within Democratic Party ranks, Kaine has been talked about as a potential candidate himself in 2016.
But Kaine signed on with the Ready For Hillary super PAC earlier this year and announced that he will get behind Clinton if she seeks the Democratic nomination.
He will also host a Washington fund-raiser for the group on Tuesday, Politico reported last week.
CNN: “Republicans' favorite label for Hillary Clinton 2016: 'Obama's Third Term'”
By Dan Merica
September 23, 2014, 7:09 a.m. EDT
Republicans who want to taint Hillary Clinton are going to lengths to link the former secretary of state with President Barack Obama and his sagging poll numbers.
Throughout the party's infrastructure, Republicans say that linking Clinton with Obama, especially labeling her possible 2016 campaign as "Obama's Third Term," is the most potent attack.
America Rising, an anti-Clinton super PAC that has looked to define the former first lady for the better part of a year, will push out a series of talking points giving Clinton the third-term label, and the group plans to fundraise off the push staring Tuesday.
"Hillary Clinton has a Barack Obama problem," reads a lengthy research document that will go out to GOP pundits, strategists, conservative organizations and media members Tuesday. "No matter how many of her advisors whisper to reporters that she's different from Barack Obama, Americans still know who she is: Barack Obama Part Deux."
The document lists "10 Reasons Why Clinton 2016 = Obama's Third Term," including her praise for Obama as she left the State Department in 2013, her role in his first four years of foreign policy and Clinton's support of Obamacare.
"Looking ahead to 2016, it's critical that Obama's 3rd Term is an element of the broader narrative defining Sec. Clinton, especially since she still has a higher approval than he does," Tim Miller, the group's director, said in a statement to CNN.
Multiple Republican operatives said this strategy -- which is coming from national party groups, outside super PACs and GOP politicians -- is best at engaging the base and raising money. Therefore, it is something they plan to continue in the coming months and possibly years.
Democrats, too, are concerned about the attack line. In August, some close to Clinton told CNN that labeling the former secretary of state as the successor to Obama's legacy was a possible problem.
"She was in his government, she was at his side," said one source. "That is, the way to go after her is four more years of the same old thing. The question they should ask her is 'Tell me 10 things that you disagree with him on.' "
Republican lawmakers -- including those who may challenge Clinton in 2016 -- have been quick to use some variation of Obama-Clinton in speeches, statements and interviews.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has been the most strident in linking Obama and Clinton, a tactic he first used after the former secretary of state headlined a CNN town hall in June.
"The most consistent error of the Clinton/Obama foreign policy is a failure to understand the nature of the people we're dealing with, of our enemies," Cruz said in an interview with CNN after the event.
According to a senior Cruz aide, the attack engages the senator's base and is something Cruz plans to use again.
"His mindset is it is not just Obama's failed policies, it is all of them," the aide said. "We want to draw attention to the fact that she owns this foreign policy and she is not speaking. She is supposed to be the leader, especially on foreign policy, and she is saying nothing. She has a voice, she doesn't use it."
Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, too, have been linking the two. In an op-ed earlier this month, Rubio called for voters to reject the "the veiled isolationism of Obama and Clinton," and Paul has looked to link the two on issues including terrorism and Syria.
For her part, Clinton has both distanced herself from Obama and drawn closer to him.
In her memoir, "Hard Choices," Clinton distanced herself from Obama on Syria and did so again in a much-talked-about interview with The Atlantic.
But the former secretary of state has also heralded Obama, like in Iowa this month when she touted his handling of economic issues as getting the country "on the road to recovery."
This is a common refrain for Clinton. At the Brookings Institution this month, she touted Obama's "extraordinary leadership," adding "thanks to the economic policies that were pursued by the President and endorsed by the Congress ... we are in a much stronger economic position than we were."
Whether she will continue this trend of heralding Obama while also distancing herself depends, according to former aides.
Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor and Al Gore's 2000 campaign manager, said whether or not Clinton needs to break with Obama "all depends on the political climate and environment in mid-2015 to 2016."
"In 2000, I had to answer this question," she said. "And the answer is always the same. Each year is different and every candidate must make his or her case to the voter of why they represent someone else."
New Republic: “How to Save Obamacare: Make It a Women's Issue”
By Brian Beutler
September 22, 2014
When Senator Mark Pryor, the embattled Democrat from Arkansas, produced an ad last month touting the Affordable Care Act’s health coverage guarantee, a thousand Republican party operatives bombarded his campaign with the word "Obamacare." Pryor didn’t voluntarily pin a scarlet "O" on his campaign, so Republicans did it for him. Fast forward to last week, when Michigan Governor Rick Snyder raised a glass to the “outstanding progress” of his state’s Medicaid expansion, which has already enrolled nearly 400,000 new beneficiaries, and those same GOP operatives sat on their hands.
The upshot is simple. Remove the moniker, and the component benefits of the Affordable Care Act become real political assets. The moniker itself remains unpopular, though. Indeed, what remains of the campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act is the blind faith that a rose by the name Obamacare will spontaneously putrefy. But though outright repeal has become impossible, Republicans still understand that any catchall for health care reform is a useful way to channel broader unhappiness with the president himself. The enduring unpopularity of reform as a whole is a testament to that fact, and to the likelihood that—absent an Obama favorability surge—these numbers won’t change much for the next couple years. They might never change at all.
The challenge for the next Democratic presidential nominee is thus to break the psychic link—to reshape the way the public thinks about health reform as something more than just a proxy for Obama. And whether she realizes it or not, Hillary Clinton has made a strong case that a female candidate will be better suited to the task than a male candidate.
Last Thursday, Clinton joined a Center for American Progress panel about women’s economic security, focused mainly on gendered issues like equal pay and child care. But Obamacare fits neatly into the same framework. And if a broad category of issues pertaining to gender equity can redound to the Democrats’ political advantage—as Clinton’s appearance at the event suggests—then Obamacare can, too.
As Matt Yglesias observed at Vox last week, in our political discourse, we tend to lump all “women’s issues” together into the same category as culture war flashpoints like abortion. But for public opinion purposes, this is a big mistake. In truth, the politics of things like childcare and wage equality cut very differently than the “social” issues we associate them with, and that's at least in part because they alter the distribution of income. Higher wages, family leave, subsidized childcare—all of these increase women’s income, and, thus, their economic power.
That helps explain why they're winning political issues. Transfer payments and “big government” aren’t exactly in vogue right now, but gender equity is very popular. And the key is that Obamacare doesn’t stand apart from these issues in any way.
Whether you like Obamacare or you hate it, chances are you don’t think of it as a heavily gendered initiative, like equal pay. But though the debate over Obamacare centers around nominally gender-neutral values—should the government guarantee coverage, and are the benefits too generous?—the law operates as a substantial income transfer from men to women. For the past few years, this aspect of the law has given rise to rancorous debates over contraception and maternity care. But the contraception and maternity care guarantees are both manifestations of the fact that the law prohibits gender rating. Women consume more health care than men. This is in large part by accident of the fact that men don't get pregnant and give birth. Before Obamacare, insurers sorted that out by charging women higher premiums than men. Women were therefore less likely to be able to afford insurance on the individual market than men, more financially dependent on their employers for insurance than men, and thus faced greater tensions between their familial and professional ambitions than men. Obamacare doesn't end these inequalities, obviously, but it seeks to curb them. As a result, employers and spouses are less able to interfere in women’s professional and reproductive decision making.
The similarities to, say, universal child care, are clear. Remove that cost, and women gain bargaining power in both the home and the workplace. On a cleaner political level, it helps free women from a socially imposed choice between childcare and professional advancement.
This may have sunk in to some extent already. In polling, Obamacare fares noticeably worse with men than with women.
Variety: “Hollywood ‘Ready for Hillary’ at Political Fundraiser"
By Ted Johnson
September 22, 2014, 1:16 p.m. PDT
Burt Bacharach sang “Alfie” and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) talked of the urgency of keeping the Senate this year from Republican Mitch McConnell’s leadership.
But the several dozen industry figures and Los Angeles politicos who attended a political fundraiser on Sunday had a singleness of purpose: to elect Hillary Clinton as the next president.
She wasn’t there, she hasn’t announced, and officially has nothing to do with Ready for Hillary, an independent expenditure committee set up last year.
But the Ready for Hillary event on Sunday at the Pacific Palisades home of “Homeland” executive producer Howard Gordon and his wife Cami was a preview of what attendees hope is to come: heavy and widespread Hollywood support for her presidential bid. Gordon was co-chair along with “Glee” and “American Horror Story” executive producer Ryan Murphy and his husband David Miller.
According to sources who were there, Boxer said that she didn’t have any inside knowledge of whether Clinton would run but said it was “looking good.”
She also expressed doubts that Democrats would be faced with the kind of split loyalties that they were in 2008 when Clinton and Barack Obama carried their nomination fight to the end of the primary season. In Hollywood, it created sometimes bitter divisions as both campaigns jockeyed for money and endorsements.
Ready for Hillary is setting up a grassroots infrastructure of supporters and a campaign-like operation in anticipation of a run — what supporters hope will clear the way for Clinton and avoid a repeat of the divisions of 2008. The political action committee has raised more than $8 million as of the end of June and, according to the Washington Post, its national finance counsel includes Gordon and producer Marcy Carsey.
A trio of singers did a medley of Bacharach standards, and, as he played piano, he joined them in singing among his most famous songs, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” another collaboration with lyricist Hal David, “Alfie.”
Also at the event: Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin, Fox’s Dana Walden and producer Gail Berman, as well as Sim Farar, national finance chair for her campaign in 2008; Michael Trujillo, senior adviser to Ready for Hillary and David Wolf, its L.A. finance consultant.
Tickets were $1,000 per person, or $2,500 for a VIP reception.
Washington Free Beacon: “WFB’s Alana Goodman and Ellison Barber Discuss The Hillary-Alinsky Letters”
[No Writer Mentioned]
September 22, 2014, 8:30 p.m. EDT
Washington Free Beacon staff writers Alana Goodman and Ellison Barber appeared on The Blaze TV to discuss Goodman’s recent article revealing correspondence between Hillary Clinton and left-wing political activist Saul Alinsky in the early 1970s.
“We already knew that Hillary Clinton had some sort of relationship with Saul Alinsky, she wrote her Wellsley College thesis on him in 1969, but we didn’t really know the extent of it,” Goodman said. “These letters show that they clearly were pretty close, they had a friendship.”
Goodman said that because Alinsky remains a controversial figure in American history, particularly due to his role in the labor movement and community organizing in Chicago, an examination of his role in influencing Clinton’s ideology during the formative years of her political career remains relevant.
“I think that there is kind of this idea among many of the people in the media that Hillary Clinton’s past has just been picked over, there’s nothing else there, in 2016 the real vetting that the media will have to do will take place against Republicans,” Goodman said. “But I think that the Free Beacon stories that we have done, our coverage of Hillary Clinton over the past year, has shown that she also has vetting that can be done of her background as well, and there’s new information that could come to light.”
Bloomberg View: Jonathan Bernstein: “Radical Smear Won't Stick to Hillary”
By Jonathan Bernstein
September 22, 2014, 4:16 p.m. EDT
Over the weekend, the Washington Free Beacon ran a story about Hillary Clinton’s long-ago correspondence with the community organizer Saul Alinsky. Yes, after wasting years attempting to convince voters that Barack Obama was disqualified from the presidency because of his association with that New Left radical (and others), Republicans now seem to be trying to do the same to Clinton. Jonathan Chait points out the obvious: Clinton has decades of experience in public office and political action, which are far more likely to tell us her “real” thoughts and character than anything she did 40 years ago.
Three additional comments:
In the discussion about Matt Bai’s contention that Gary Hart would have won the presidency in 1988 had it not been for a “gotcha” media unearthing an affair (see good new pieces from Dan Drezner and Ramesh Ponnuru), a few people observed that Hart would have done better than the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, because the Massachusetts governor was vulnerable to attacks tying him to the disastrous furlough of convicted murderer Willie Horton and condemning his veto of a state bill requiring teachers to lead students in the Pledge of Allegiance. But George H.W. Bush’s campaign probably would have come up with something against any potential challenger. In 1992, for example, Bush and Republicans maligned Bill Clinton by alleging that there was something suspicious about a trip he took to Moscow as a young man. Candidates who are inclined to use smears (and Bush, whatever his strengths as a president, had the campaign ethics of Tom Zarek) will use them, and there's no target pure enough to be immune.
I agree with Chait that it’s silly to pretend that any politician would keep their real intentions secret until he or she reached the Oval Office. But even if they did, it wouldn't matter much, because we’re well into what political scientist Richard Skinner described as the era of “partisan presidency.” When a party is essentially united on policy, as Democrats are now, policy isn't what's at stake in choosing among candidates. And a president who attempted to govern based on a secret agenda would be severely constrained by his party outside -- and even inside -- the White House. For example, like Obama and George W. Bush, the next president will probably have a chief of staff with a long history within the party, but only limited experience with the president himself.
In any case, presidential-campaign smears are usually a waste of time. Obama won, as did Bill Clinton. People remember the smears against Dukakis or the later attacks on John Kerry’s war record because of an Iron Law of Politics: The losing candidate is always thought to have run a bad campaign. Republicans today are united in believing that Mitt Romney did a poor job managing his race. Even so, presidential general elections are such high-visibility, high-information contests that campaigns probably matter less than in any other type of election. A major gaffe really can matter in a Senate race (see Todd Akin and his foolish comments on rape and reproduction in 2012), because the misstep might be all that inattentive voters retain about the candidate. That can’t happen in presidential general elections, in which whatever is news in August will have been superceded dozens of times by November. In reality, neither the campaign successes or failures usually matter much, and to the extent they do. we rapidly forget the losing candidates successes and the winning candidate’s failures.
Boston Herald: “Ditch 2016 Elizabeth Warren for prez bid, local Dems ask”
By Hillary Chabot
September 23, 2014
Local Democratic party boosters of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren told a frenzied group of progressives to ditch their bid to draft her as a 2016 presidential nominee, saying the push undercuts her vow to stay put as a Massachusetts lawmaker.
“I think these people are very enthusiastic about Elizabeth Warren’s positions on issues and they want her to play an increasing role in national politics, but she has made it pretty clear to Massachusetts voters that she intends to remain in the Senate,” said Philip W. Johnston, former chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, who was an early backer when Warren considered running for Senate in 2011.
Johnston’s comments came after a Herald front-page story yesterday revealed nearly a year’s worth of emails by an ultraliberal group called “Gamechanger Salon,” which show how their “Ready for Warren” campaign is trying to emulate GOP Tea Party election successes.
“It’s wonderful that they are supportive,” Johnston added. “But I think Elizabeth Warren understands who she is and what she thinks, and I don’t think she’ll be influenced by outside groups.”
Other members in the email chain worried that the draft movement might hurt Warren.
“This kind of thing does make me very nervous,” Mike Lux, a Democratic consultant wrote last year as the draft effort revved up.
“Elizabeth is working very hard to be an effective Senator, and if there is a big draft effort, a lot of people will assume, fair or not, that she is encouraging it,” Lux added.
The email thread — which ordered members not to share its contents with the press — makes it clear that Warren’s emergence was a happy accident and that the collaborators were searching for a progressive to run against the presumed front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“A thought here — the goal is to send a message: We want a progressive to lead the ticket in 2016. But when we get into “draft XX” movements we run into problems,” wrote Richard Eskow, a radio personality who works in the progressive action group “Campaign for America’s Future.”
Johnston said while the progressives are a distraction for Warren, he believes they are doing a good job keeping Clinton on her toes and potentially influencing her campaign policies.
Said Johnston: “I think they should pay heed to (Warren’s) success.”
Calendar:
Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official schedule.
· September 22 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton at CGI (CGI)
· September 23 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton at CGI (CGI)
· September 23 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton headlines the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women CGI Dinner (Twitter)
· September 29 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton headlines fundraiser for DCCC for NY and NJ candidates (Politico)
· September 29 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton headlines another fundraiser for DCCC (Politico)
· September 30 – Washington, DC: Sec. Clinton keynotes Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Inc., conference (CHCI)
· September 30 – Potomac, MD: Sec. Clinton fundraises for Maryland gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown (WaPo)
· September 30 – Washington, DC: Sec. Clinton fundraises for New Hampshire state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro of Manchester (New Hampshire Journal)
· October 2 – Miami Beach, FL: Sec. Clinton keynotes the real estate CREW Network Convention & Marketplace (CREW Network)
· October 2 – Miami, FL: Sec. Clinton signs “Hard Choices” at Books and Books (HillaryClintonMemoir.com)
· October 2 – Miami, FL: Sec. Clinton fundraises for Charlie Crist (Politico)
· October 6 – Ottawa, Canada: Sec. Clinton speaks at Canada 2020 event (Ottawa Citizen)
· October 13 – Las Vegas, NV: Sec. Clinton keynotes the UNLV Foundation Annual Dinner (UNLV)
· October 14 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton keynotes salesforce.com Dreamforce conference (salesforce.com)
· October 28 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton fundraises for House Democratic women candidates with Nancy Pelosi (Politico)
· December 4 – Boston, MA: Sec. Clinton speaks at the Massachusetts Conference for Women (MCFW)