​Correct The Record Thursday January 15, 2015 Afternoon Roundup

podesta-emails 4,216 words email

V11 D6 P22 P17 P23

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*​**Correct The Record Thursday January 15, 2015 Afternoon Roundup:* *Tweets:* *Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton <https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> increased aid to assist Kosovo refugees #HRC365 <https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash> http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/EOP/First_Lady/html/generalspeeches/1999/19990518.html … <http://t.co/89ooYHdBan> [1/15/15, 12:01 p.m. EST <https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/555771698402689024>] *Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton <https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> fought to strengthen community efforts to end hunger #HRC365 <https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash> https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/senate-bill/1120/cosponsors … <https://t.co/9GHzAlv5Ou> [1/14/15, 8:01 p.m. EST <https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/555530114318888960>] *Headlines:* *Bloomberg: “Bobby Jindal to Travel to London to Bash Hillary Clinton on Foreign Policy” <http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-01-14/bobby-jindal-to-travel-to-london-to-bash-hillary-clinton-on-foreign-policy>* “Adrienne Elrod, a representative of the pro-Clinton group Correct the Record, responded in an e-mail: ’Bobby Jindal only wishes he had a fraction of the widespread support Secretary Clinton receives, and it’s no surprise he’s taking her words out of context to try to score a few political points. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton often utilized a strategy of engagement rather than isolationism to achieve America’s policy goals abroad, one of the many reasons she remains one of the country’s most accomplished secretaries of state.” *FROM MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA: Media Matters for America: “Mitt Romney And Hillary Clinton Are The Same Age -- Will Campaign Coverage Reflect That Fact?” <http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/01/15/mitt-romney-and-hillary-clinton-are-the-same-ag/202148>* “Mitt Romney's reemergence as a possible top-tier Republican contender for the 2016 White House race has created an awkward situation for some Republicans and conservative commentators who have been dwelling on Hillary Clinton's age in recent months.” *NBC News: First Read: “Three Things We've Learned About Hillary Clinton's Emerging Campaign” <http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/three-things-weve-learned-about-hillary-clintons-emerging-campaign-n286686>* “If Warren's not running, that allows Clinton the option to sit back and wait much longer than Republicans in the GOP field will.” *Washington Post blog: The Fix: “The rapid decline of the swing state, visualized” <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/01/15/the-rapid-decline-of-the-swing-state-visualized/>* “Some like to think Hillary Clinton could put some red states that her husband won in-play, but unless 2016 is an absolute blowout, that's just not feasible.” *The Hill blog: Briefing Room: “Bill Clinton jokes about where he'll live in 2016” <http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/229591-bill-clinton-jokes-about-where-hell-live-in-2016>* “Clinton did not shed any more light on Hillary Clinton's emerging plans for a campaign.” *Huffington Post: “Proud Grandpa Bill Thinks Baby Clinton Is 'The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread'” <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/bill-clinton-granddaughter-baby-clinton_n_6479472.html>* “The former president was on Late Night with Seth Meyers Wednesday and when the topic turned to Baby Clinton, the proud grandpa just couldn't stop gushing.” *Articles:* *Bloomberg: “Bobby Jindal to Travel to London to Bash Hillary Clinton on Foreign Policy” <http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-01-14/bobby-jindal-to-travel-to-london-to-bash-hillary-clinton-on-foreign-policy>* By David Knowles January 14, 2015 3:24 p.m. EST [Subtitle:] The Louisiana governor, and presumptive presidential candidate, is making some headlines of his own. It sounds like the setup for a roaring punchline: Did you hear the one about the Indian-American Republican governor of Louisiana and presumptive presidential candidate who goes to a European capital to deliver a speech in which he attacks an Illinois native turned lawyer turned Arkansas first lady turned U.S. first lady turned New York senator turned secretary of state over her "mindless naivete?" Bobby Jindal on Wednesday released excerpts of a speech he plans to deliver next week in London, including a section that directly responds to Clinton's recent assertion that America should attempt to "empathize" with its enemies. For Jindal, Clinton's remarks sounded, if anything, like a bad joke. "Our former secretary of state in America recently said that we need to 'show respect for our enemies' and 'empathize with their perspective and point of view,'" Jindal plans to say in London, the Weekly Standard reported. "Well, yes, understanding our enemies as a means of destroying them, I’m all for that. But empathizing with them as if perhaps we can find some common ground, I have no interest in that kind of mindless naiveté." Adrienne Elrod, a representative of the pro-Clinton group Correct the Record, responded in an e-mail: “Bobby Jindal only wishes he had a fraction of the widespread support Secretary Clinton receives, and it’s no surprise he’s taking her words out of context to try to score a few political points. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton often utilized a strategy of engagement rather than isolationism to achieve America’s policy goals abroad, one of the many reasons she remains one of the country’s most accomplished secretaries of state.” The bulk of Jindal's speech deals specifically with his belief that the West needs to change its thinking regarding radical Islam, veering away from what he sees as the permissive, cultural relativism being practiced in countries such as France. "I believe it is because radical Islamists have been given too wide a berth to establish their own nation within a nation," Jindal will say. "I am encouraged to see France’s prime minister speak out against this travesty." Aside from the desire to have his message heard by world leaders and politicians wishing to become one, Jindal's speech comes at a time when every day brings headlines detailing the moves by prospective presidential candidates, and opens a new line of attack against the Democratic frontrunner, who has yet to declare her candidacy. Still, as a political attack on Clinton, Jindal's remarks only went so far. Much of his planned speech contrasts radical Islam with how Jindal believes religion is viewed in the United States. "In my country, Christianity is the largest religion," Jindal, who converted from Hinduism to Catholicism as a teenager, plans to say. "And we require exactly no one to conform to it. And we do not discriminate against anyone who does not conform to it. It’s called freedom." *FROM MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA: Media Matters for America: “Mitt Romney And Hillary Clinton Are The Same Age -- Will Campaign Coverage Reflect That Fact?” <http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/01/15/mitt-romney-and-hillary-clinton-are-the-same-ag/202148>* By Eric Boehlert January 15, 2015 [Subtitle:] Or Do Different Rules Apply For Women? "In American politics, there's a sense you want to be new. You don't want to be too familiar. You want to be something fresh. You don't want to be something old and stale." Karl Rove discussing Hillary Clinton on Fox News, May 26, 2014. Mitt Romney's reemergence as a possible top-tier Republican contender for the 2016 White House race has created an awkward situation for some Republicans and conservative commentators who have been dwelling on Hillary Clinton's age in recent months. The development also poses a potentially thorny issue for journalists in terms of how they treat male and female politicians. To date, Republicans have been eager to highlight Clinton's age. "Republican strategists and presidential hopefuls, in ways subtle and overt, are eager to focus a spotlight on Mrs. Clinton's age," the New York Times reported in 2013. Just this week, conservative Washington Post contributor Ed Rogers mocked Clinton for being stuck in a cultural "time warp," circa the "tie-dye" 1960s. So why the newfound awkwardness for spotlighting Clinton's age? Because Mitt Romney's the same age as Hillary Clinton. They're both 67 years old. (Actually, Romney's older than Clinton by seven months.) The fact that early polling suggests the possible Republican front runner is the same age as Clinton raises interesting questions for the political press, which has carved out plenty of time and space in recent years to analyze the question of Clinton's age and to repeat Republican allegations that she might be too old for the job of president. Going forward, will the same press corps devote a similar amount of time and space asking the same questions about Romney? And if not, why not? (A recent Boston Globe article actually positioned Romney's age as a plus for the Republican: "Supporters have also noted that Romney would be 69 years old in 2016 -- the same age as Reagan when he was sworn into his first term.") Note that Clinton famously faced sexist commentary about her age during the 2008 campaign. The late Slate writer Christopher Hitchens ridiculed her as an "aging and resentful female," while Rush Limbaugh's website once asked, "Do the American people want to observe the aging of this woman in office?" Currently, we know where Republicans stand, albeit before they realized 67-year-old Romney might run again. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell compared Clinton to a cast member from "The Golden Girls," Rick Santorum called her "old," Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker claimed that Clinton "embodies that old, tired top-down approach from the government," while former Fox host Mike Huckabee wondered if the former secretary of state who traveled nearly one million miles while in office would have the stamina for a national campaign: "She's going to be at an age where it's going to be a challenge for her." And then there's Fox contributor Erick Erickson. Hillary Clinton is "going to be old" in 2016, he said. "I don't know how far back they can pull her face." Amidst the flurry of coverage that erupted since Romney signaled last week that he's seriously considering running again, the topic of his age certainly has not been a hot one. We'll have to see if it becomes an area of media interest in the coming weeks and months if Romney decides to enter the race. Will it be the subject of a National Journal column, like this one last year by Charlie Cook: "Is Hillary Clinton Too Old to Run?" In it, Cook wondered if Clinton was "physically up to the rigors of running and serving in office." (Cook did follow that up with a column about Vice President Joe Biden's age and his political future.) The Clinton commentary drew a flag from syndicated columnist Froma Harrop. "Both men and women face age discrimination, but it's no secret that for women, ageism mixes easily with sexism. And obsessing over a woman's year of birth is often a slightly more respectable substitute for the latter," she wrote in response to Cook's column. "The point is that age arguments get dumped on women without much reflection." Example: Last year when it was announced Chelsea Clinton was pregnant the issue quickly (inexplicably?) became a topic for political commentary, with questions being raised if Hillary Clinton's pending grandmotherhood represented bad political news for her. And no, it wasn't just Fox News playing the sex/age card, asking if Clinton identifying herself as a grandmother might hurt against a possibly younger, more energetic Republican opponent. MSNBC's Aliyah Frumin noted at the time: The Christian Science Monitor ran a headline, "Chelsea Clinton baby: Will Hillary Clinton be less likely to run in 2016"? and New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin argued the pregnancy will "change the dynamic of the campaign" on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Politico had a story, "What to expect when she's expecting" saying the "armchair thinking" is that having a grandchild "may make the Iowa State Fair a less appealing place to spend the summer of 2015. Why beg donors for money at dozens of events a month when there's a happy baby to spend time with in New York?" Fact: Mitt Romney has 22 grandchildren. Will that become a topic of debate with commentators wondering if having so many grandkids means Romney won't want to run for president, or that he'd be distracted while campaigning? It certainly wasn't a media subject of interest during his 2012 campaign. As Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, told MSNBC last year, "There's a disproportionate attention to [Clinton] being a grandmother. Certainly, many men have run for president as grandfathers. And nobody worries if they can't do their job." To be clear, lots of political analysts who have weighed in on the topic of Clinton's age in the last year have concluded it won't, and shouldn't, matter. But the larger point is that Clinton's 67 years remain a recurring subject of scrutiny. And by regularly covering the issue the press has helped push a Republican talking point. Or as Stephen Colbert put it last year, "I know it's rude to talk about a woman's age, but that's not what I am doing. I am talking about people talking about other people talking about other people talking about a woman's age. That's called journalism." *NBC News: First Read: “Three Things We've Learned About Hillary Clinton's Emerging Campaign” <http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/three-things-weve-learned-about-hillary-clintons-emerging-campaign-n286686>* By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann January 15, 2015, 9:08 a.m. EST The Republican presidential field has received most of the recent attention -- and deservedly so, especially with Mitt Romney appearing to make another run. But in the last few days, we've also learned some important things about Hillary Clinton's budding presidential campaign. First, by grabbing Obama's chief pollster (Joel Benenson) and media consultant (Jim Margolis), Clinton has decided to enlist key parts of Obama's campaign 2008-2012 team, discarding the folks who ran her polling and media in '08. And she isn't only grabbing Benenson -- she's lured the other part of Obama's polling/analytics organization (John Anzalone and David Binder), the Washington Post reported. When you add the fact that John Podesta is leaving the Obama White House to serve as a liaison between the Clinton campaign and White House (as well as to handle the Clinton Old Guard), it's pretty easy to conclude that Clinton won't be running away from Obama. In fact, it's looking like she will be more connected to him than ever. And the people she's hiring are the best-equipped campaign folks to reassemble the Obama-voter coalition. It's not going to be Gore vs. Bradley or even Bush vs. Dole Two, we've learned that Clinton most likely won't receive any real Democratic primary challenge, allowing her to focus on a general-election campaign much earlier than everyone else. The final tell here came earlier this week when Elizabeth Warren once again said she wasn't running -- and this time did so in more than just the present tense. Fortune magazine: So are you going to run for president? Warren: No Yes, groups like MoveOn are still pining for Warren (and they're continuing to hire staffers for a draft campaign). Yes, Warren still wants to use her visibility and following to influence and pressure her party. And, yes, Democrats like Jim Webb, Martin O'Malley, and maybe even independent Bernie Sanders appear to be running or could run. But let's be realistic here: Any challenge that Clinton gets probably won't look like Gore vs. Bradley in 2000 or even Bush vs. Dole in 1988. Just look at all of the polls among Democratic voters out there. And if Warren's not running, that allows Clinton the option to sit back and wait much longer than Republicans in the GOP field will. How does Clinton distance herself from what's looking like a growing list of has-been candidates? And three, the growing realization that 2016 is going to be the year of the political re-run or spinoff -- you've got Romney, a Bush, a Paul, Huckabee, Santorum, and of course Clinton -- is a potential problem for her. When it was just Jeb running, that appeared to neutralize maybe her chief weakness in that she's not a fresh face or name to lead the country into a new decade. But when it's a growing cast of the same stale characters (or their relatives), it's automatic to lump Clinton into that group. So she has to find a way to distance herself from that. Running as a historic candidate -- trying to be the first female president -- is a way to do that. But this could very well be her biggest challenge in 2016. GOP backlash to Romney builds There's even MORE Republican backlash to Mitt Romney's likely third presidential bid. Politico: "A Republican backlash against Mitt Romney that had been simmering for days boiled over on Wednesday as conservatives across the GOP spectrum panned the prospect of another presidential bid by the former Massachusetts governor and two-time loser on the national stage. Leading the anti-Romney charge was the voice of the GOP establishment wing, the Wall Street Journal editorial page. 'The question the former Massachusetts Governor will have to answer,' the newspaper wrote, 'is why he would be a better candidate than he was in 2012… The answer is not obvious.' The Journal's owner, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, piled on: 'He had his chance, he mishandled it, you know? I thought Romney was a terrible candidate.'" More: "Even Sarah Palin took a shot. 'We need new energy,' the former vice presidential nominee told "Inside Edition.' 'We need new blood. We need new ideas.'" Throwback Thursday: 2016 contenders edition Mitt Romney's first presidential run started back in February 2007. (For context, that was just a month after most Americans started hearing the word "iPhone" for the first time.) For better or worse, that's a lot of time and experience running for the White House. So one of us(!) took a look back at what all the major 2016 candidates were doing back when Romney announced for the first time. Some, like Rand Paul and Elizabeth Warren, weren't even in public office. Others, like Gov. Scott Walker, were dealing with the nitty-gritty issues of local governance. And Rubio, Cruz and Jindal were barely old enough to legally be president. Does Romney attend Steve King's upcoming cattle call in Iowa? Romney, of course, speaks Friday night at 10:00 pm ET at the RNC winter meeting in San Diego. (And today, Ben Carson and Scott Walker address the confab.) Yet for us, the question is if Romney ends up attending Rep. Steve King's cattle call in Iowa on Jan. 24. Remember, Romney used the issue of immigration to distinguish himself from McCain in '08 and Rick Perry in '12. And it seems to be the obvious way he could run against Jeb Bush in '16. As we've pointed out time and again, immigration -- especially the "A"-word, amnesty -- is one of the most powerful attacks in intra-party GOP fights. Just ask Eric Cantor. Immigration battle turns to the Senate Speaking of immigration, as NBC's Alex Moe reported yesterday, the GOP-controlled House passed its bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security by a 236-191 vote, and it contained two noteworthy amendments: 1) an effort to rollback Obama's executive action on immigration from late last year, and 2) an effort to rollback his DACA action from 2012. The House's passage shouldn't be surprising; Republicans have the numbers. What will be key is how the legislation fares in the GOP-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will need 60 votes. Wanna get away? Republicans hold joint retreat: By the way, House and Senate Republicans are holding their two-day retreat in Hershey, PA. Is Kamala Harris going to have a freer ride than we all expected? Lastly, after Elizabeth Warren quickly endorsed Kamala Harris in the race to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), we've got to ask: Is Harris going to have a freer ride than we all expected? Now remember, it's a LONG time before the filing deadline. And all it takes is for one very wealthy person (Tom Steyer?) to jump into the race to make things interesting. But the conventional wisdom was that this was going to be a JAM-PACKED field to succeed Boxer, and that doesn't look as likely today. *Washington Post blog: The Fix: “The rapid decline of the swing state, visualized” <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/01/15/the-rapid-decline-of-the-swing-state-visualized/>* By Aaron Blake January 15, 2015, 12:45 p.m. EST The United States is an increasingly polarized country. There are fewer and fewer swing voters, which means there are also fewer and fewer swing states. But what some might not realize is precisely how quickly this shift has occurred. According to an analysis from Randal Olson (based on data from the pro-electoral reform group FairVote), more than half the states in 1992 and 1996 qualified as something amounting to swing states -- i.e. not favoring either party by more than double digits, according to FairVote's partisanship index. That number has declined very steadily ever since, all the way to 14 in 2012. (This is actually a pretty broad definition of a swing state, given only about 10 states were genuinely contested in 2012, but it's the trend line that matters here.) [GRAPH] Here's another way to look at this. Olson calculated the number of consecutive election in which the states voted for one party or another. The darker states vote more consistently for one party or another, while the lighter states have flipped more recently. (Swing states are gray.) [GRAPH] What's striking is that even many of the lighter states aren't competitive -- like, at all -- anymore. Republicans will not compete for California, Illinois, New York or New Jersey in 2016, despite George H.W. Bush carrying them in 1988. And Democrats will not contest Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia in 2016, despite them having gone for Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Indeed, the days when these states were even on the map for the minority party seems long past. Some like to think Hillary Clinton could put some red states that her husband won in-play, but unless 2016 is an absolute blowout, that's just not feasible. And it's because our electorate has gotten so much more polarized -- and thus, predictable -- over the least two decades. *The Hill blog: Briefing Room: “Bill Clinton jokes about where he'll live in 2016” <http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/229591-bill-clinton-jokes-about-where-hell-live-in-2016>* By Peter Sullivan January 15, 2015, 9:38 a.m. EST Former President Bill Clinton was ready with a joke when asked about his 2016 plans on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Myers" Wednesday night. "Do you think you might live in a different house in 2016?" Myers asked. "I hope not because 2016’s the election year and I don’t have any place to move," Clinton replied with a laugh. Clinton did not shed any more light on Hillary Clinton's emerging plans for a campaign. Joking aside, some of the interview did delve into the response to the terror attacks in Paris. Asked about finger-pointing at Islam after the attacks, Clinton said "I agree that Muslim leaders have to do more to combat the extremists but I don’t think that you can blame the religion." "These people are politicians, guerrillas, stone cold killers, they just are throwing the religion out to try to lure more and more converts in and legitimizing cold blooded murder," he added. He pointed to the response to last month's Taliban killings at a school in Pakistan as an example. "Finally you had people in the society saying, 'We’ve got to go after these people and we’ve got to stop letting them pretend that they’re speaking in the name of religion,'" Clinton said. "It’ll only be heard by the people who are the targets of the recruitment if they are Muslim leaders," he said. Speaking of Islamic extremism, he said, "I think it can be rooted out if and only if the modernizing Muslims, the Arab Emirates for example, Oman, which has tried to be a force in moving away from this, will do what they should do." He praised the presence of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the march in Paris in response to the attacks. "I think the fact that the Palestinian President, Mr. Abbas, came and marched in that parade was a big deal and was willing to do it with the Israeli Prime Minister with all their deep political differences," he said. After reports of a massacre by Boko Haram, Clinton said he is "hopeful" for an "ongoing, consistent response about Boko Haram." *Huffington Post: “Proud Grandpa Bill Thinks Baby Clinton Is 'The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread'” <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/bill-clinton-granddaughter-baby-clinton_n_6479472.html>* By Yagana Shah January 15, 2015, 12:25 p.m. EST While we're used to seeing Bill Clinton talking hardball politics and diplomacy, we've seen a softer side of Grandpa B since the arrive of his first grandchild Charlotte Clinton-Mezvinsky. The former president was on Late Night with Seth Meyers Wednesday and when the topic turned to Baby Clinton, the proud grandpa just couldn't stop gushing. "I love it," Clinton said. "Like every other grandparent, I think my granddaughter's the greatest thing since sliced bread." He also raved about daughter Chelsea and son-in-law Marc Mezvinsky's parenting skills, calling them "impressive." The first-time parents welcomed Charlotte in September , announcing the birth on social media. Grandma Hillary Clinton has also professed the joys of grandparenthood, calling it "one of the happiest moments of our life." And Chelsea and Marc don't have to look far for a babysitter. Bill also said that he and Hillary get to spend plenty of time with the newborn, as they live close by. We have no doubts they're fantastic grandparents. But just to be sure, another former president, George W. Bush, offered Bill advice on being a grandparent, from his own experiences: "Be prepared to fall completely in love again. It’s going to be an awesome period," Bush told Clinton at an engagement last year. "Get ready to be, like, the lowest person in the pecking order.”