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48%
President Obama’s latest approval rating. “Why is that number important? Because the poll shows — once again — how Hillary Clinton and Obama are inextricably tied together,” according to First Read. “And so an Obama approval in the high 40s is good news for Hillary’s general-election prospects, and an Obama approval in the low 40s is bad news (like we saw in 2014). … Oh, and don’t forget this: George W. Bush’s approval rating at this same point in time heading into the 2008 contest was 29%.”
In a 2016 field with no clear frontrunner, yet no shortage of candidates, it took a non-candidate to recognize a major national moment and, well, lead. Gov. Nikki Haley did what governors and leaders more broadly seek to do all the time – to unite, to push forward, and to heal, all in the wake of unspeakable tragedy.
… Yes, this raises her veepstakes stock. But that’s almost secondary to the example she set. She managed to drain the politics out of a charged debate over the Confederate flag that’s been popping up for longer than she’s been alive. She consulted with national and state leaders in both parties to a degree that she could appear with both Democrats and Republicans in announcing her new position. She cut through a muddled, half-hearted set of responses from 2016ers and now sees them drafting behind her leadership. Out of a tragic story, this is politics at its best – not as pejorative but as a force for the positive.
— Rick Klein, for
ABC News.
30%
Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) approval rating in New Jersey, well below what is usually expected for a White House hopeful in his own state, where 55% disapprove of his performance,” according to a new Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind poll.
Somebody said to me the other day, a reporter, a very nice reporter, ‘But, Mr Trump, you’re not a nice person.’ That’s true. But actually I am. I think I am a nice person.
— Donald Trump, quoted by the Financial Times.
54%
Of the cases in which it had announced decisions as of June 22 were considered liberal decisions, according to the Supreme Court Database, using a widely accepted standard developed by political scientists. “If that trend holds, the final percentage could rival the highest since the era of the notably liberal court of the 1950s and 1960s led by Chief Justice Earl Warren.” “The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has been a conservative court. But even conservative courts have liberal terms – and the current term is leaning left as it enters its final two weeks,” the New York Times reports.
75%
Of national Democratic primary voters say Hillary Clinton is their first choice to win the Democratic presidential nomination – compared with 15% who pick Sen. Bernie Sanders, 4% who say former Sen. Jim Webb and 2% who select former Gov. Martin O’Malley, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds. Looking ahead to the general election, Clinton also leads Jeb Bush by eight points (48% to 40%), Sen. Marco Rubio by 10 points (50% to 40%) and Gov. Scott Walker by 14 (51% to 37%).
You know the great thing about the state of Iowa is, I’m pretty sure you all define gun control the same way we do in Texas — hitting what you aim at.
— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), dropping “a few gun control jokes during his latest swing through Iowa, days after the shooting deaths of nine people in a Charleston, South Carolina, church,” the Huffington Post reports.
This is the MO of this administration anytime there is an accident like this.
— Rick Perry (R), characterizing the shooting in Charleston as an “accident” during an interview with Newsmax, while accusing President Obama of using the massacre to push a gun control agenda.
I am not resigned. I have faith we will eventually do the right thing. I was simply making the point that we have to move public opinion. We have to feel a sense of urgency.
— President Obama, quoted by Politico, saying his comments after the Charleston shootings do not reflect surrender on gun control measures.
$137 billion
What repealing the Affordable Care Act would cost the U.S. government over the next decade, according to a new CBO report. “The new report is the first federal assessment since the main provisions of the law took effect in 2014. It found that repealing the health-care law would increase deficits by $353 billion over 10 years. But after taking into account economic factors, including slightly larger workforce participation that would result from repealing the law, that amount would fall to $137 billion. … The analysis also concluded that repealing the health-care law would increase the number of uninsured Americans by 19 million in 2016.”
