Day: December 22, 2014

Jeb Bush’s Electability is Far from Inevitable

Buck Banks

In two solid years of being pitted against Hillary Clinton in polls, Bush has not led a single one, and trails her in the latest RealClearPolitics average by over 9%. That’s a poorer margin than for Ryan (6%), Christie (7%), and Huckabee (8%), and about the same as for Paul. Ted Cruz is the only regularly polled putative GOP candidate running significantly worse than Bush against HRC (an RCP average gap of 13%), and that’s largely because he’s far less well-known.

— Ed Kilgore, writing in Talking Points Memo.

Giuliani: Obama Encourages Hatred of Police

Buck Banks

We’ve had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police. The protests are being embraced, the protests are being encouraged. The protests, even the ones that don’t lead to violence, a lot of them lead to violence, all of them lead to a conclusion: The police are bad, the police are racist. That is completely wrong.

— Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, asserting that President Obama has encouraged people to “hate the police” in the wake of two New York City police officers being assassinated, The Hill reports.

Clinton Still Way Ahead for Democratic Nomination

Buck Banks

61%

Percentage of voters who support Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds. Clinton leads with 61%, followed by Joe Biden at 14% and Elizabeth Warren at 13%. “Still, Clinton’s support has slipped from 69 percent in June, down by 8 points, while support for Warren is up by 6 points – not remotely enough to make it look competitive at this stage, but movement nonetheless. Biden has held essentially steady.”

U.S. Government Made a $15 Billion Profit on the Bailout

Buck Banks

$15.35 billion

Amount of profit the government bailout of banks and auto makers made. “In all, through TARP and other efforts, taxpayers injected $426.35 billion into banks and auto companies. The sale of stock and interest payments brought in $441.7 billion,” the New York Times reports. “Six years after President George W. Bush began the auto bailout, the Obama administration on Friday declared a profitable end to the sweeping federal interventions in Wall Street and Detroit, saying a final sale of stock from General Motors’ former finance arm had closed a turbulent chapter of the financial crisis.”

Obama Encourages Athletes to Be Activists

Buck Banks

I think LeBron did the right thing… We forget the role that Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe and Bill Russell played in raising consciousness. We went through a long stretch there where [with] well-paid athletes the notion was: just be quiet and get your endorsements and don’t make waves… LeBron is an example of a young man who has, in his own way and in a respectful way, tried to say, ‘I’m part of this society, too.’ I’d like to see more athletes do that. Not just around this issue, but around a range of issues.

— President Obama didn’t hesitate in an interview with People to endorse LeBron James’s decision to wear an ‘I Can’t Breathe’ T-shirt.