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.
Darryl Paulson: The zenith of Donald Trump
Here are two critical points concerning Donald Trump. First, he is barely a Republican. Second, he is certainly not a conservative. It is obvious that Trump is leading the field of 17 Republican candidates. His support in four recent polls all had Trump in first place, ranging from a low of 21 percent in the Bloomberg poll to 26 percent in both the Fox poll and the Monmouth University poll. That’s the good news for Trump. The bad news is that Trump may move up a few points, but he has reached the zenith of his support. A recent Economist/YouGov.com survey found that about a third of Americans had a favorable view of Trump and 58 percent had an unfavorable view. Trump will soon be taking the “down” elevator in public opinion polls. The same poll found that when the numbers were broken down by age, race, region, gender and income, Trump’s unfavorables were substantially higher in every category but one: voters 65 and older. His support among African-Americans, Hispanics and women is almost nonexistent. A Rasmussen Poll released Tuesday found strong evidence that the Trump decline may have already started. A survey of 651 likely Republican voters conducted between Sunday and Monday, found that support for Trump has declined from 24 percent to 17 percent in the past 10 days. Trump’s support among men has fallen from 30 percent to 19 percent, and support from women has dropped from 22 percent to 14 percent. Trump is at the top right now because he is perceived as the non-politician in the age where Americans of all political stripes hate the establishment. Voters are frustrated and alienated with politics and politicians, and Trump has successfully appealed to them. Trump’s supporters see him as the outsider who will shake-up the system, much like those who supported George Wallace and Ross Perot were viewed as political mavericks. Trump’s one major contribution to the presidential race us that he has demonstrated to the other candidates that the voters do not like them and their hollow promises one bit. Trump will falter for many reasons. As Larry Thornberry has written in The American Spectator, a leading conservative publication, Trump is “an arrogant, self-satisfied, crude and pompous windbag and bully who grossly overestimates his knowledge, his successes, and, not the least, his charm.” He attacks any critic as “stupid” or “loser,” but has a political glass jaw when he is criticized. Trump will lose because he is running as a Republican this year simply because he feels like it. He quit the party in 1999 saying that “Republicans are just too crazy right.” He then hired Roger Stone, who resigned as Trump’s campaign manager a few days ago, to consider a 2000 run as a Reform Party candidate. In 2009, Trump was back as a Republican. The next year he decided he was an independent and then in 2012, he was once again a Republican. His moving from one political party to another, all for political expediency, might remind Florida voters of Gov. Charlie Crist. Trump is the Bernie Sanders of the Republican Party. Both Trump and Sanders are running to lead a party that neither really calls home and that both have spent more time disparaging than uplifting it. During most of the first decade of the 21st century, the vast majority of the $1.5 million that Trump donated to political candidates went to Democrats, including contributions to Nancy Pelosi and $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. When asked about his contributions to both Democrats and Republicans, Trump justified them by saying, “When you give, they do whatever you want them to.” I am sure that will appeal to Americans who hate politics for precisely that reason. Trump will lose because he is not a conservative in a party that is dominated by conservatives. In a 2000 book Trump called himself a “liberal” on health care. He supported a single-payer health plan that conservatives loathe, and he was once pro-choice, although he now says he is against abortion. A few years ago, Trump supported a 14.25 percent mega-tax on those making more than $10 million. Now he wants to cut income taxes in half. As Bruce Bartlett, former aide to U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp, said of Trump: “He is nothing if not inconsistent. He’s been on every side of every issue from every point of view as far as I can tell.” If you have not noticed, Trump is also delusional. He calls immigrants “rapists and murderers,” and then says he will win the Hispanic vote. He insults conservative icon Megyn Kelly for attacking him unfairly and having blood coming out her eyes and “whatever.” Trump also believes he will win the votes of women. Republicans, conservatives and Americans deserve better than Trump. “Donald, you’re fired!” Darryl Paulson is Professor Emeritus of Government at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and resides in Palm Harbor.
Martin Dyckman: Winner-take-all winner could be Trump
Our next president may well owe the office to arrogant billionaires or be one himself. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that fewer than 400 families account for nearly half the $388-million already invested in that election still more than a year away. Did America shed blood to be rid of monarchy only to have it come to this? And yet the vast moral and political corruption unleashed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s confusion of free spending with free speech is only one of four ways in which government of the people, for the people and by the people has gone off the track. Voting districts in nearly every state are drawn by the party in power to control the outcomes. The elections themselves are monopolized by two increasingly polarized political parties, excluding the increasing numbers of citizens who want nothing to do with either of them. The elections, whether primary or general, can be won with much less than majorities by unpopular candidates who would not be the second choices of most voters. Florida is powerless to control the money. That will take a constitutional amendment or the election of a president who would insist that his or her Supreme Court nominees agree that the Buckley and Citizens United cases were wrongly decided. Florida has made inroads on the gerrymandering through the adoption of the Fair Districts initiatives five years ago and the state Supreme Court’s willingness to enforce them. But that fortunate condition is imperiled by the next four court appointments, which will be controlled by Rick Scott‘s nominating commission. Time is running very short for people who believe in judicial independence to do something about that. The “All Voters Vote” initiative petitions now circulating would break the shared monopoly of the Republicans and Democrats by allowing everyone to vote in an open primary that could nominate two candidates of the same party — or of no party — for state offices and Congress. That’s good for the growing number of voters who claim no party — presently 27 percent — or who identify with the Greens and other minor parties. To that extent, it would be a significant improvement for everyone. Jim Smith, the former Florida secretary of state and a supporter of the initiative, acknowledges that it hasn’t done much to change the lineup of elected officials in Louisiana and California, the other two open-primary states. He is right, however, in saying that it has “changed the conversation — and it’s a conversation that a broader spectrum of voters want to hear candidates talk about.” Republican candidates in districts with sizable Democratic minorities would have to think twice about toeing the Tea Party line. Democratic candidates in safely blue districts would need to court Republican votes for the first time. But “Top Two” is still vulnerable to the winner-take-all weakness. In 1991, a 12-candidate field in Louisiana’s open primary left voters with a dismal runoff choice: former Gov. Edwin Edwards, whose corruption was flagrant, or David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard and an avowed Nazi. There were bumper stickers saying, “Elect the crook — it’s important,” and so the voters did. Edwards went to federal prison in 2002. That same year, 16 candidates sought the French presidency. Nearly everyone assumed there would be a runoff between a conservative, Jacques Chirac, whose ethics were as suspect as Edwards’, and the prime minister, Socialist Lionel Jospin. Chirac ran first, as expected, with 19.8 percent of the vote. But Jospin was edged out of the running by Jean Marie le Pen of the far right National Front, an ultranationalist party. Although nearly two-thirds of the voters had preferred other candidates, their final options were, as in Louisiana, between two obviously unappealing politicians: a suspected crook and a presumed fascist. (Chirac won.) There’s a way to avoid such dismal outcomes. It’s called ranked-choice voting, a task that computer science makes simple. To see how simple — and have some fun — go to this website: www.fairvote.org. There are links on the page to exercises where you can cast rank-ordered votes for political parties and for the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates. Here’s how the presidential game played out for me and for other participants on Monday. In the Republican poll, Donald Trump led the first round, but with only 18 percent. Bobby Jindal ran last and was eliminated. The second-choice votes of his supporters were distributed. There were 15 more rounds, all conducted instantly by computer. Marco Rubio fell out in the 12th and Jeb Bush in the 13th. In the 16th and last round, Trump finally gave way to Rand Paul, who won the nomination with 51.28 percent support. Bernie Sanders led the Democrats with 46 percent. Hillary Clinton ran third, trailing Joe Biden, who isn’t an announced candidate. Martin O’Malley ran last, with 6 percent, and the second choices of his supporters were counted. Clinton was gone in the fourth round. In the sixth and final, Sanders’s support increased to 51.9 percent and he became the nominee. These results are hardly scientific and not necessarily predictive. The samples were small and self-selected. Anyone could vote in either race, and the biases were obviously liberal. But they’re interesting nonetheless. The two “nominees,” Paul and Sanders, project more authenticity than nearly all the others. As for Trump, he piled up more second-choice votes than everyone except Paul. If the Republican Party of Florida still insists on a March 15 winner-take-all primary, which will be well after many of the trailing and financially poorer candidates have dropped out, Trump could easily win it all. Martin Dyckman is a retired associate editor of the St. Petersburg Times. He lives in Western North Carolina.
Too many Republicans in Montgomery? Gov. Robert Bentley thinks so
Gov. Robert Bentley spoke to an estimated 250 people at the Kiwanis Club anniversary celebration in Tuscaloosa on Friday. The Tuscaloosa News reported on the event and here’s some key shots to start your week off in case you missed the story. “I’ve always been a Republican,” Bentley said, “but we’ve got too many Republicans in Montgomery.” “We don’t have anybody to fight.” “You’ve got to have taxes. If you don’t, you don’t have government.” “And they said if you’ll get out in front, we’ll be right there behind you. “And they were. About a mile and a half back.” Chaser: The Tuscaloosa News reported in that same story, “The governor assured those in attendance that he and the Alabama legislators would will find a solution to the budgetary crisis, even if he had to call for a second or possibly third special session.” We do have a lot of republican’s in Montgomery but the problem I hear the most frequently is that there are too many republicans that act like democrats in Montgomery. The strong conservatives in Montgomery are the ones opposed to tax increases, opposed to Common Core, as it’s being implemented, and those who fall on the side of the free market, business friendly climate and limited government. We don’t have “too many” of that type of republican in Montgomery.
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.
GOP hopefuls take on illegal immigration in debate preview
The Republican Party’s presidential class called for aggressive steps to curb illegal immigration, seizing on a delicate political issue as more than a dozen White House hopefuls faced off in New Hampshire on Monday night for a pointed preview of the first full-fledged debate of the 2016 primary season. All but three of the 17 major Republican candidates for president participated in what was essentially a debate lite, which – unlike Thursday’s nationally televised debate in Cleveland – didn’t have a cut-off for participation. The candidates focused their criticism at Democrats instead of each other, yet Monday’s meeting offered a prime-time practice round for the GOP’s most ambitious, who appeared on stage one at a time. They addressed several contentious issues, immigration topping a list that included abortion, climate change and foreign policy. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who may not qualify for the upcoming formal debate, called the flow of immigrants crossing the border illegally “a serious wound.” “You want to stanch the flow,” he said as his Republican rivals watched from the front row of the crowded St. Anselm College auditorium. On those immigrants who have overstayed visas, Perry charged, “You go find `em, you pick `em up and you send `em back where they’re from.” Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum went further, calling for a 25 percent reduction of low-skilled immigrants coming into the country legally. “Everyone else is dancing around it. I’m going to stand for the American worker,” Santorum declared. Monday’s participants included seven current or former governors, four senators, a businesswoman, a retired neurosurgeon and one former senator. Billionaire businessman Donald Trump, who has dominated the GOP primary in recent weeks, is among the three major candidates who decided not to join. Trump, who launched his presidential bid by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, declined to attend the New Hampshire event. He cited criticism from the local newspaper host, yet he is expected to play a prominent role in Thursday’s formal debate, where only the GOP’s top 10 candidates – as determined by national polls – will be allowed on stage. Monday’s event was broadcast live on C-SPAN and local television stations in Iowa and South Carolina – states that, along with New Hampshire, will host the first contests in the presidential primary calendar next February. The New Hampshire meeting came amid new developments on politically charged issues. Just an hour before the 7 p.m. forum was to begin, the Senate blocked a GOP-backed bill to strip funding from Planned Parenthood, reviving a debate on social issues that some Republican officials hoped to avoid in 2016. Three of the four senators participating in Monday’s event — Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky – did so via satellite from C-SPAN’s Washington studio so they wouldn’t miss the high-profile vote. “We had to be here to vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood,” Cruz said. It’s a welcome debate for Democrats who see women – married women, particularly – as a key constituency in 2016. Leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who would be the nation’s first female president, lashed out at the attacks on Planned Parenthood in a web video released before the GOP forum. “If this feels like a full-on assault for women’s health, that’s because it is,” Clinton said in the video, criticizing by name former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Perry. Just one woman was featured on stage Monday night: former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who is unlikely to qualify for Thursday’s higher-profile debate. Democrats are also eager to debate Republicans on immigration. GOP leaders have acknowledged the need to improve the party’s standing among the surging group of Hispanic voters. Yet while many Democrats favor a more forgiving policy that would allow immigrants in the country illegally a pathway to citizenship in many cases, many Republicans focus on border security. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, once a lead salesman for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, said Americans want the border fence completed and more border security agents before there’s any discussion of what to do with those 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. Others offered a softer tone on the divisive issue Monday night. Ohio Gov. John Kasich said “law-abiding, God-fearing” immigrants in the country illegally should be allowed to stay. Those who break the law, he said, “have to be deported or put in prison.” Bush said fixing the nation’s immigration system is a key part of his plan to help the economy grow 4 percent each year. He also called for reducing legal immigration, particularly the number of people allowed to enter the country on family petitions. President Barack Obama injected another contentious issue Monday when he unveiled new emissions limits on power plants designed to address climate change. He called it a moral obligation and warned anew that climate change will threaten future generations if left unchecked. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called the move “a buzz saw to the nation’s economy.” “I want to balance a sustainable environment with a sustainable economy,” Walker said. Several candidates involved Monday night won’t make the cut for Thursday’s debate. Those on the bubble include South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Fiorina. Both were aggressive critics of Clinton Monday night. Fiorina charged that Clinton has repeatedly lied during investigations into her use of a private email server and an attack on an American embassy in Libya while she was secretary of state. “These go to the core of her character,” Fiorina said. “We have to have a nominee on our side who’s going to throw every punch,” she continued. “This is a fight.” Graham said he’s worked with Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, for more than 20 years, adding that, “I’m fluent in Clinton speak.” “When Bill says, `I didn’t have sex with that woman,’ he did” – a reference to Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Presidential primary brief: 505 days until Election Day
252 days until AL Presidential Primary 505 days until Election Day Convention Dates: Republican July 18-21 2016, Democratic July 25-28 2016 Weekly Headlines: Jeb Bush launches 2016 presidential bid Donald Trump announces candidacy for president Swing-state polls suggest Rubio could be trouble for Clinton Polling data as of June 21, 2015. For more polling data visit RealClearPolitics. Press Clips: Republicans tread carefully in criticism of Confederate Flag (NY Times 6/21/15) The massacre of nine African-Americans in a storied Charleston church last week, which thrust the issues of race relations and gun rights into the center of the 2016 presidential campaign, has now added another familiar, divisive question to the emerging contest for the Republican nomination: what to do with the Confederate battle flag that flies on the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol. Walker wows social conservatives with attacks on Obama, puts GOP rivals on notice (Washington Times 6/20/15) Just weeks away from likely entering the 2016 presidential race, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is putting his Republican rivals on notice that he plans to position himself as a get- it-done governor in a field with several members of Congress and former chief executives. Mr. Walker’s latest audition came Saturday night when he keynoted the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Patriot’s Gala in Washington, carefully mixing withering attacks on President Obama with folksy Midwest humor and a healthy touch of faith and support for Israel. John Bolton to push GOP foreign policy discussion (International Business Times 6/21/15) John Bolton wants the Republicans to talk about foreign policy this year. And he’s building a trifecta political operation — a PAC, a super PAC and a foundation — to push foreign policy into the forefront of the coming presidential primary. Bolton — who served as the ambassador to the United Nations for a little more than a year under President George W. Bush — said he isn’t picking favorites at this point in the GOP Field, though he’s publicly ruled out Sen. Rand Paul as an option. But with so many foreign policy neophytes, Bolton wants to push for them to begin thinking through where they stand on international issues. Many in GOP wary of Donald Trump’s entry into race (CNN 6/17/15) Steer clear of the “stupid zone.” That’s how one Republican consultant is telling the GOP Field to react to Donald Trump’s explosive entry into the White House race. The real estate mogul, Clinging insults and bombast while announcing his run Tuesday, is threatening to upend the party’s singular focus on a primary process that yields the strongest possible nominee and avoids some of the farcical scenes that tarnished candidates in 2012’s circus- style debates. Republican National Committee building its Latino, millennial engagement outreach for 2016 (Latino Post 6/16/15) Recognizing that 60,000 Latinos turn 18 years old every month in the U.S, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has been building its Latino and millennial engagement efforts ahead of the 2016 election. CRNC Deputy Political Director Jennifer Sevilla Korn, who oversees the committee’s strategic initiatives — which includes the Latino, Asian and African American, veterans and faith-community’s vote, recognized that campaigns cannot be won approximately five months before an election and more grassroots efforts are required to gain better relationships with the electorate. Confederate Flag sets off debate in GOP 2016 class (Yahoo News 6/20/15) Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president in 2012, called for the immediate removal of the Confederate battle flag from outside the South Carolina Statehouse, scrambling the 2016 GOP presidential contenders into staking a position on a contentious cultural issue. Some still steered clear from the sensitive debate, even after the shooting deaths of nine people in a historic African-American church in Charleston further exposed the raw emotions about the flying the Flag. Ted Cruz: ‘2016 will be the religious liberty election’ (Washington Times 6/18/15) Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said Thursday that religious liberty is under assault at home and aboard, and he said that the 2016 presidential race will be “the religious liberty election.” Mr. Cruz is among a handful of GOP candidates who are trying to court evangelical Christians in the run-up to the nomination contest. He told the religious conservatives who turned out for the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference here in Washington, D.C., that they are key to the GOP’s hopes of capturing the White House and turning the country around. Rick Perry describes Charleston shooting as an ‘accident’ (CBS News 6/19/15) Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry characterized the recent shooting in Charleston as an “accident” during an interview on Friday, accusing President Obama of using the massacre, which claimed nine lives, as a pretext for pushing a gun control agenda. “This is the MO of this administration anytime there is an accident like this,” Perry said during an appearance on Newsmax TV. The former Texas governor said the president “doesn’t like guns,” so “he uses every opportunity” to tighten restrictions on gun ownership. Video of the appearance was posted on YouTube by Right Wing Watch. Poll: Clinton’s honesty and trustworthy problem extends to swing states (CNN 6/17/15) A majority of voters in three key presidential swing states view Hillary Clinton as not honest and trustworthy, according to a new poll out Wednesday. The Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll finds that by margins of 8 to 14 percentage points voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania are skeptical of Clinton’s trustworthiness. In Florida, 51% of voters hold the negative view of Clinton, compared to 43% who feel she is trustworthy. In Ohio, 53% of voters find Clinton not trustworthy, compared to 40% who do. And in Pennsylvania, 54% of voters don’t find her honest, while 40% do.
Martin Dyckman: Mike Huckabee’s tax plan is huckster’s scheme to slam seniors
There’s a Republican running for president who promises unequivocally to “protect Social Security and Medicare … to kill anything that poses a threat to the promises we have made to America’s seniors.” But he’s also calling for a “tax reform” that would bleed seniors as they’ve never been bled before. What do you call such a politician? Huckster, for one. Fraud, for another. Mike Huckabee, to be specific. “Robbing people of the benefits they have contributed is not a solution – it’s an escape,” says his website. Yet Huckabee is also the arch apostle for the so-called “Fair Tax,” which would replace income and payroll taxes with a national sales tax at likely 50 percent. Half again, in tax, added to what you pay for food, clothing, utilities and other necessities. Half again in tax, even on what you pay for doctors, medicine and insurance. That 50 percent isn’t a wild guess. It’s the sober estimate of Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal group, and the bipartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, on what it would take to replace current revenue from income and payroll taxes. The tax rate could be much less, of course, if a President Huckabee shut down the Pentagon, abolished food stamps, sold off the national parks and forests, and stopped putting money into the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. This radical scheme is Huckabee’s bid to win over the economically subversive wing of the Republican Party, epitomized by Grover Norquist, whose stated mission is to make the federal government small enough “to drown it in a bathtub.” Norquist and his fellow travelers have opposed Huckabee on account of some decent things he did as governor of Arkansas. Norquist himself won’t mistake Huckabee for a potential winner. But there are ordinary folk, in the Tea Party and elsewhere, who are susceptible to anti-IRS propaganda. Huckabee needs them. He figures to have a lock already on the party’s other extreme wing, the religious conservatives whose growing influence terrified even Barry Goldwater. It’s deceptively easy to dismiss Huckabee as a fringe candidate who might win early primaries in atypical states like South Carolina, but who wouldn’t be able to finish the race. One trouble with that view is in the damage he could do along the way to the not-so-whacko candidates in the Republican presidential rumble. Another is that he might give a camouflage of respectability to a “tax reform” scheme that’s beyond wrong: It’s fundamentally evil. It would switch the entire base of federal taxation from what people earn to what they spend, and from they earn to what they have saved — in many cases, on money they saved after paying taxes on it. Consider an elderly couple subsisting on Social Security, augmented by withdrawals from their small savings account. They spend all of it on necessities, most of which the states already tax. The federal government taxes none of it now. If your only income is Social Security, it is entirely exempt from the federal income tax. For those with other income, no more than 85 percent of Social Security is taxed. But while Huckabee’s scheme leaves that as it is, it would heap an enormous new federal tax on what that couple spends on necessities from their Social Security income and savings. For others whose income is great, the “Fair Tax” promises a windfall. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the top 1 percent would see their taxes fall by an average of $225,000 a year. Meanwhile, eight of every 10 Americans would be paying $3,200 more. There is a case that a sophisticated form of national sales taxation could make American exports more competitive and in that way contribute to the economy. The value-added tax common in Europe refunds the levy on goods taken or shipped out of their countries. The late Sam Gibbons, the Florida congressman who briefly chaired the House Ways and Means Committee, had this in mind when he proposed a value-added tax. But recognizing its regressive effect on most people, he would have offset it with a straight levy – with no exemptions – on higher incomes. However, that’s far from the case Huckabee is making. His is a cynical concoction of simple solutions – abolish the Internal Revenue Service, replace it with a national sales tax that the states would collect for Uncle Sam, and call it a day. This is what Huckabee claims: “The Fair Tax is the only plan that lowers everyone’s tax rates, untaxes the poor, broadens the tax base and helps protect Social Security and Medicare.” The last person who sounded like that was Bernie Madoff saying, “Just trust me.” Martin Dyckman is a retired associate editor of the St. Petersburg Times. He lives in Western North Carolina.
