The Wrap: “In what might be the subjectively raciest political ad ever, Democratic lobby group Progress Action Fund debuted a steamy sex scene takedown of the GOP this week…
“Per its website, the Progress Action Fund’s slogan is, “Democrats are afraid to fight back. We aren’t.” We’d say this ad at the very least is living up to that promise.”
“We won a district where we can nominate a bag of cement… and we won by 1,000 votes. That means… they are playing 50 seats deep in our infield and almost winning. What does that tell you about our midterms?”
— GOP strategist Mike Murphy, quoted by The Atlantic, on what last night’s Ohio special election says for the November midterms.
Of Gov. John Kasich’s constituents think he should quit the presidential race, compared to 38% who think it’s time for him to drop out, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey in Ohio.
Donald Trump’s lead in the GOP primary race in Ohio, followed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 26%, Ted Cruz at 21%, Marco Rubio at 13% and Ben Carson at 5%, according to a new Quinnipiac poll in Ohio. Said pollster Peter Brown: “A Kasich Ohio win is crucial to the Republicans trying to stop the New York businessman’s nomination. If Trump can defeat Kasich in his home state, that would be an impressive demonstration of his strength in a state that is just now getting attention.” On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders, 55% to 40%.
I’m just hoping that as we go forward he’s going to be a unifier. Because I’m going to tell you, you can’t win the White House without winning Ohio. If we have a candidate that comes into Ohio who is a divider, there’s no chance they’re going to win it.
— Gov. John Kasich, quoted by The Hill, noting that Donald Trump has “toned down the rhetoric” lately.
John Kasich’s standing rises to an all-time high among voters as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination, a new Quinnipiac poll in Ohio finds. Voter approval of Kasich’s job performance is even stronger numbers among Republicans at 84% to 10%.
FeingoldWe’re not yet halfway through 2015 but the 2016 race for control of the U.S. Senate is starting to take shape. This week The Hill ranked the 10 most competitive races — and since then there has been a development in the race The Hill listed as likely to be the easiest pickup for Democrats.
Yesterday former Sen. Russ Feingold, the Democratic incumbent who was unseated by current Sen. Ron Johnson in 2010, announced he was entering the race. Johnson, a tea partyist, won by 5 percentage points in the tea party’s anti-Obamacare wave election after spending millions of his own money. The Hill quotes him as saying he won’t self-fund this year — which only means he’ll rely on his wealthy cronies to spend unlimited money anonymously to fund his campaign. The Hill cited a poll by PPP taken before Feingold’s announcement that found Feingold with 50 percent support against Johnson’s 41 percent. Wisconsin has voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential cycle since 1984.
Within hours after Feingold’s announcement, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts endorsed him, according to an email sent by the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.
This is Josh Mandel, the Republican Party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio. Watch as he nods, but refuses to say out loud, that he agrees with Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock — and GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan — that there should be no exception for rape when the Republican Party outlaws abortion. Mourdock suggested that rapes that produce children are God’s will.
Signs are emerging that the campaign of GOP frontrunner and disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is in disarray. Gingrich, who has a reputation in Washington for being undisciplined, nearly missed the filing deadline to be on the New Hampshire primary ballot and then missed the deadline for Missouri’s primary altogether.
Even the Washington Times, a GOP propaganda sheet owned by the right-wing South Korean cult leader Sun Myung Moon, has taken notice:
“We are going to give it our damnedest. We are going to do everything in our capacity to meet this deadline,” Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammand said of the Ohio deadline. “As far as the next deadline, we’re on pace for everything else.”
Gingrich backers said the campaign could mount a write-in effort in Ohio if need be. But missing that state’s 4 p.m. Wednesday deadline would be the latest embarrassment for Mr. Gingrich’s organization.
The recent news out of Kentucky was just awful,
They found the senator unconscious and horizontal.
And since his hospitalization,
There’s been little news about his condition,
But now everybody’s having a 20-minute conversation with Mitch McConnell.
“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”
An Associated Press-NORC survey found that 44% of American Jews hold a favorable opinion of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, compared with 39% who view him unfavorably. By contrast, just 32% of respondents said they have a favorable opinion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while 59% said they have a negative view.
“Their New Deal is socialism for the super-rich (and their own enrichment) even if it means increasing poverty, inequality, and illness at home and around the world. They also want to rewrite history to ignore and outright deny our past flaws while banning books that say otherwise from our libraries. And they select even our military leaders based on their version of political correctness over ability.”
— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by Deadline, in his July 4th message.
President Donald Trump is asking for $1,500,000 million for the military for next year. That’s close to $600 billion (adjusted for inflation) more than we were spending on the military in fiscal year 2025, before Trump took office, Alternet reports. This increase is huge by any measure. It comes to around $4,600 per household. It is around 8% of the total budget.
A new Emerson College survey of likely 2026 voters finds the Democrats with an 11-point advantage over the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, leading 53% to 42%. President Trump holds a 39% job approval rating, consistent with the past two months, whereas his disapproval increased another point, to 57%.
A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.
Wall Street Journal: “Around 40% of voters in the 2024 election said the economy was their top issue, far outstripping any other matter. And those voters favored Donald Trump by 60% to 38%. Many say they were moved by his pledges to tame inflation, rebuild U.S. infrastructure, cut red tape and trim government waste. … About a year and a half later, more voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy than approve, 61% to 35%, an average of polls by the Cook Political Report found this month.”
A Reuters analysis of Trump’s public comments from June 23 through July 6 (13 days) — when a string of left-wing Democratic candidates won their party’s primaries in New York — found he invoked communism 81 times.