Presidential Primary Brief: 428 days until Election Day
174 days until AL Presidential Primary 428 days until Election Day Convention Dates: Republican July 18-21 2016, Democratic July 25-28 2016 Weekly Headlines: Democratic support for Hillary Clinton at lowest since 2012 Iowa poll: Trump, Carson lead GOP race Ex-Clinton staffer who set up email server to invoke Fifth Amendment Press Clips: A look at union’s roles in the 2016 election (RTV-‐6 News 9/6/15) Presidential candidates are going after labor unions this election cycle, whether they’re trying to garner their support. “We’re going to get new laws to make sure your organizing and collective bargaining is respected again,” Clinton said to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union….or get rid of them altogether. “On the national level, who deserves a punch in the face?,” CNN’s Jake Tapper asks. Mike Huckabee to visit Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in jail (CNN 9/3/15) Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is planning to visit the Kentucky clerk taken into custody for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-‐sex couples next week. Huckabee will visit Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk, in jail Tuesday before he is set to rally supporters outside the detention center where she is being held, Huckabee spokesman Hogan Gidley told CNN on Friday. Hillary Clinton’s favorability numbers have gone under water (Politico 9/2/15) Americans’ views on Democratic front-‐runner Hillary Clinton have gone under water, nearing an all-‐time low in ABC News/Washington Post polling, according to the latest survey released Wednesday. Clinton is seen favorably by 45 percent of Americans, a decrease of 7 percentage points since July, while 53 percent said they did not have a favorable view of the former secretary of state, an increase of 8 percentage points in the same time frame. The numbers are close to Clinton’s all-‐time low in the poll, when she took in just 44 percent in the spring of 2008. Perry pulls plug on New Hampshire (Politico 9/2/15) Rick Perry’s campaign is all but over in New Hampshire. The former Texas governor has no more paid staffers in New Hampshire as of Wednesday. The last paid staffer, Michael Dennehy, told WMUR reporter John DiStaso that he hadn’t been paid since June. Rick Santorum first 2016 hopeful to visit all 99 Iowa counties (NBC News 9/2/15) Pizza Ranch served dozens of pizza pies, a congratulatory message from Rep. Steve King played over the loud speaker, and kids draped in oversized “Rick Santorum for President” t-‐ shirts jumped and laughed on a corn-‐themed bounce castle. That was the scene that greeted presidential candidate Rick Santorum as he arrived in Island Park in Lyon County on Tuesday evening. Carly Fiorina likely headed for second GOP 2016 debate after CNN revises criteria to qualify (NY Daily News 9/2/15) Carly Fiorina is no longer being relegated to the kiddie table. CNN said Tuesday it was revising its criteria so that “any candidate who ranks in the top 10 in polling between Aug. 6 and Sept. 10 will be included” in the prime time Republican debate on Sept. 16. Fiorina has consistently polled in the top 10 of GOP candidates after delivering a standout performance in the Aug. 6 Fox News undercard debate for Republican presidential hopefuls. Bush steps up attacks on Trump (CBS News 9/2/15) Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Donald Trump have been feuding for weeks, but now Bush is launching his most aggressive attack yet. One day after Trump mocked Bush for calling immigration “an act of love,” Bush released a video that questions Trump’s conservatism, and he used the billionaire’s own words to do it, reports CBS News national correspondent Chip Reid. “I’m very pro-‐choice,” Trump says in the video. The video highlights less-‐than conservative statements Trump has made in the past. “You’d be shocked if I said that in many cases I probably identify more as a Democrat,” Trump says. Inside Ben Carson’s quiet surge (CNN 9/1/15) Watch out Donald Trump. Here comes Ben Carson. While the bombastic real estate tycoon dominates much of the GOP field, the retired pediatric neurosurgeon with a calm bedside manner is quietly emerging as a serious presidential contender. Carson is tied with Trump for first place in a new Monmouth University survey of likely Iowa Republican caucus-‐ goers, with the rest of the field lagging by double digits. The Carson surge comes as Trump has set the terms of debate for the past two months, forcing other candidates to shift their focus and decide whether -‐-‐ and how -‐-‐ to fight back against his constant attack. Dick Cheney wants Joe Biden to run for President against Clinton (International Business Times 8/31/15) Former Vice President Dick Cheney made a peculiar suggestion during a CNN interview aired on Monday: He wants Vice President Joe Biden to throw his hat into the ring for the Democratic presidential nomination. Biden, who has been mulling a bid over the past couple of weeks, has said he will make his decision sometime in the next month. Cheney appeared on CNN’s “New Day” with his daughter Liz to promote their new book, “Exceptional: Why The World Needs a Powerful America,” which is reportedly very critical of President Barack Obama’s management of the U.S. military. As Biden considers a run, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has seen a slump in polls as the controversy surrounding her use of a private email server while at the State Department continues. Hillary Clinton to speak out in favor of Iran nuclear deal (CBS News 8/31/15) Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton will speak in support of the nuclear deal with with Iran on September 9 -‐ the same day Republican candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are headlining a rally in opposition to the deal. Clinton has previously voiced her support for the agreement. The speech next week will give her an opportunity to expand on her position and push back on Republican critics of the deal.
Steven Kurlander: Donald Trump “phenomenon” defines new age of American ShockReality politics
Whether you love him or hate him (I don’t think there’s an in-between), you have to admit Donald Trump has established his personal brand and fortune throughout the years by being extremely brash, creative, and smart: all with a very flippant attitude. Whether you like him or not, you have to admit that first in real estate, then reality TV, and now in politics, Trump has led the way in redefining the conventional and in turn achieving power, success, notoriety, power, and wealth. Now with Trump’s run for the White House, he is redefining American politics in terms of translating his brash, contentious style into what may be an unbeatable methodology of capturing the hearts and minds of disgruntled American voters. Trump has never been afraid to say what’s on the tip of his tongue. In the past, this propensity to attack, detract, and offend has lessened his intellectual credibility by defining his vision as Kardashian reality star style banter. But now his push-the-limit style converted into political rhetoric in a serious run for the White House, is playing well to many voters. He can berate Mexicans and Chinese, call John McCain a fake hero, be accused of raping his ex-wife and consorting with the mob, and even be described as uncharitable in his giving. Right now, he’s more than Ronald Reagan teflon, he’s kryptonite. Whether they are Republican, Democrat or a growing number of independent voters, American voters are tired most living paycheck to paycheck with no hope of digging out of debt. They are frustrated with a lackluster economy, ineffective governance in both Washington and state capitals, and continuous undeclared war. Most importantly, no matter where they stand in the political spectrum, the electorate is fed up with traditional mainstream politics, and even fringe Tea Party and leftist politics, too. In his ShockReality manner, Trump is spouting off truisms that Americans are feeling, but won’t enunciate on their own. If you believe the polls, Trump’s ShockReality messaging is playing well with the Republican base,. with him leaping ahead in a crowded pack of GOP hopefuls. No matter what he says, Americans now used to years of watching reality TV, want more from him, even demand more, with really no severe consequences to his popularity in a fast 24-7 news cycle that keeps moving on to the next sound bite. Some, though, say it’s one thing to practice ShockReality politics, it’s another to get down to the basics of backing up acerbic banter with hard policy. A major criticism, which shows signs of being out of touch with the true state of American politics, says he needs to come up with solutions and not just lash out about systemic problems in 2015 America. In recognizing his success so far in his messaging, David A. Fahrenthold in The Washington Post wrote: “But, so far, he’s missing something basic: a policy platform. A formal list of Trump’s ideas for America.” Here’s the game changer that Trump recognizes and no one else wants to admit: Americans don’t need or demand a policy platform for a presidential candidate to earn their vote. They just want some serious change, no matter how it comes. They want instead, a president, or any politician, who is sympathetic to their many frustrations and fearless enough to say what they feel, what they want, and want they need. It’s simple: They want a great America again. And Trump’s ShockReality political style works better than the Tea Party rhetoric precisely because it is not chained down in inflexible ideology. Instead, it stimulates a hope that President Obama correctly identified and ran on in 2008, but failed, like George W. Bush before him to deliver during his term in office. Donald Trump, and even now Joe Biden too with his own style of shooting off his mouth, is about to change American presidential politics for good. Calling Trump’s ShockReality messaging a phenomenon, and discounting his 2016 run, in our age of disdain is not only a mistake, but a lack of vision of the future of American politics. Steven Kurlander blogs at Kurly’s Kommentary (stevenkurlander.com) and writes for Context Florida and The Huffington Post and can be found on Twitter @Kurlykomments. He lives in Monticello, N.Y.
