Tag: Campaign 2016
Ryan Advises Clinton Not to Be a Campaign Robot
You can’t let the process numb you to the point where you’re just a robot. Even though all the pressure is ‘Don’t gaffe, don’t deviate, be prepared, give the prepared thing,’ you’ve got to watch that, because you can just be boring and you can be vanilla and you can so sanitize yourself that you’re not yourself.
— Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), quoted by Politico, on running for national office.
Only Three Republicans are Viable Candidates
At the end of the day, when you put all the assets and liabilities on the table, it’s hard to see anyone but Rubio, Bush or Walker as the ultimate nominee. Sure, one of them could stumble or come up short in a key early state. It’s also highly likely that someone like Huckabee, Paul, Cruz and even Perry could win in Iowa. But, when you look at the candidate vulnerabilities instead of just their assets, these are the three who are the most likely to win over the largest share of the GOP electorate. Winning the ‘Evangelical’ or the ‘Establishment’ or the ‘Tea Party’ lane isn’t how you win the nomination. Cobbling together the broadest coalition is the key.
— Amy Walter, for the Cook Political Report.
Waka Flocka Flame Endorses Hillary for 2016
Hillary, a woman could do it.
— Rapper Waha Flocka Flame, endorsing Hillary Clinton’s run for president after he realized he is still seven years too young to qualify to run for president himself, Mediaite reports. At the tail end of a new interview with MTV News, the rapper added a comment that is unlikely to resonate with most of Hillary Clinton’s female supporters. “I just feel like when it’s the time of that month, they need to get the f**k out of that office,” he said, before quickly adding, “Nah, just playing.”
Sounds Like ‘Trickle Down’ to Us, Jeb
The challenge isn’t that some people are successful and some people aren’t. Taking from the successful people to provide for those that aren’t isn’t the solution. The solution is, How do you build capacity so people can achieve earned success?
— Jeb Bush, speaking after a closed meeting at the Metropolitan Republican Club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, reports the Palm Beach Post.
Cruz: Obama’s Not a ‘Distaster’ Because He was a Senator
Obama is not a disaster because he was a senator. Obama is a disaster because he’s an unmitigated socialist, what he believes is profoundly dangerous, and he’s undermined the Constitution and the role of America in the world.
— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), saying that the only reason that pundits say the GOP needs to run a governor for president, not a senator, wi that “most of the establishment moderates” in the field were governors, reports David Weigel.
GOP Now Fears Backlash from ‘Sad Sack Stories’ about People Dying If Supreme Court Kills Obamacare Subsidies
The Supreme Court will rule as early as June on a Republican lawsuit seeking to revoke subsidies provided by the Affordable Care Act to cover the cost of health-insurance premiums for low-income workers. If the court rules in the Republicans’ favor in King v. Burwell, more than 7 million Americans will be forced to cancel private health insurance coverage paid for, in part or in whole, with government subsidies.
SEN. RON JOHNSON: [Pres. Obama will] have the ads all racked up with the individuals that have benefited from Obamacare on the backs of the American taxpayer. He’ll have all those examples as well so…
RADIO HOST JAY WEBER: And the sad sack stories about who’s dying from what and why they can’t get their coverage.
JOHNSON: Right.
The suit is based on a line of poorly constructed language in the ACA that suggests subsidies are only available from state-run insurance exchanges. The problem is that in 2010 — as a partisan gambit to hobble the Obamacare rollout — about 30 governors, mostly Republicans, opted not to stand up state exchanges thereby forcing their constituents to purchase insurance from federal exchanges. Because their subsidies do not come from state exchanges, it’s these low-income, mostly red-state workers, who will lose their insurance if Republicans prevail in King v. Burwell.
A few Republicans in Congress seem to be waking up to the fact that they could face unintended consequences if the Supreme Court rules in their favor. Sen. Ron Johnson, a tea partyist from Wisconsin who is up for reelection next year, may have spoken for many of his co-ideologues during an interview with right-wing radio host Jay Weber in Milwaukee last week:
