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I changed my mind!
— Barbara Bush, quoted by the Washington Post, on whether there have been “too many Bushes” in the White House.
Carson has never run even a single political race, raising huge questions about what kind of a candidate he will be and what kind of political team he will put together. The early indications are not good. … He and his conservative admirers dismiss his lack of campaign experience, as well as the fact that he has never held either high elective or appointive office. To them, his values and views strongly outweigh any lack of electoral experience or government service. But most voters consider experience an asset, not a liability, and candidate skills go well beyond being interviewed by a friendly voice from Fox News or conservative talk radio.
Americans are going to want someone who has been tested, someone who’s got results in their background and we’re not going to choose another young, untested United States senator. I don’t think that is where Americans are going to want to go.
— Rick Perry (R) predicted that the next president will have a track record of executive experience, NH Journal reports.
I know Elizabeth Warren well, and my strong feeling is she’s not going to run. I think she’s trying to influence the direction of the party, and you have more influence as a potential candidate than you do if you take yourself out. So she’s allowing, she’s sticking to this language of ‘I’m not running for president,’ and titillating people with it, because it gives her more leverage.
— Former Obama adviser David Axelrod, telling Hugh Hewitt that he doesn’t think Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) poses a credible threat to Hillary Clinton’s likely presidential bid in 2016. He added: “Hillary is probably as well-positioned within her own party as any open seat candidate has been in our lifetime.”
— Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), speaking in London, after he “was asked by a British moderator if he believes in evolution. He chose not to answer,” National Journal reports.
One simple reason that media organizations cover Trump is that stories about him generate Internet traffic. In part, that’s because Trump is the star of a successful reality television show. But the casino magnate has also built up an impressive 1.65 million Facebook friends and another 2.7 million Twitter followers, about twice the combined total for the rest of the Republican field. That’s enough potential eyeballs to make the case that is is never OK not to cover him.
It’s about the worst 30 days I’ve seen of any candidate. In his first couple of years, he had a lot of promise. But people who a year ago thought he was viable now say he’s not. He’ll be the Tim Pawlenty of this election cycle.
— GOP strategist Ed Rollins, quoted by the Newark Star Ledger, on Gov. Chris Christie (R).
I know there is a lot of concern, especially in this town among Republican party leaders. There’s this ideal of theirs, this idealistic belief, that if we could just have fewer debates, if we could have a gentler kinder nominating process that would be good for the party and good for the nominee. Well you know what? Democracy is messy.
— Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (D), dismissing “the Republican National Committee’s efforts to reduce the number of debates in the Republican presidential primary, and to shorten the primary process, calling the RNC’s changes futile,” Yahoo News reports.
Can Jeb Bush win Iowa? Of course he can. Can Jeb Bush come in fifth place in Iowa? Sure he can.
— Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann, quoted by BuzzFeed.
16%
Jeb Bush’s lead in New Hampshire, followed by Rand Paul at 13%, Scott Walker at 12%, Chris Christie at 10%, Mike Huckabee at 6%, Ben Carson at 6% and Marco Rubio at 5%, a new Bloomberg Politics/Saint Anselm poll finds.
