Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Obama launches veterans coalition--DNC hits Romney on veteran care--First look at Priebus' U Chicago speech--Chamber up with 6 new ads, Labor up with 3--Huntsman's 100th NH event--Rankin leads in AR poll
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 06:19:43 -0600

By James Hohmann (
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked] ; Twitter: @jameshohmann)

NEW ORLEANS-Good morning from The Big Easy, where the Bipartisan Policy Center convenes its third-annual Political Summit this morning. I'm here to moderate a panel featuring Karen Hughes, Peter Fenn, Bob Bennett and Richard Wolffe on "war stories" from the campaign trail and the White House. The day, co-hosted by James Carville and Mary Matalin at Tulane University, will bring together a dozen current and former elected officials, strategists from both parties and journalists to talk about opportunities for finding common ground in our political system. Watch the webcast [my panel is from 12:15-1:15 p.m. CT]:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=146e70abae986de9a24671465f386b3ca90d0a701c3a397ce99e58eaff56158e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=146e70abae986de9a24671465f386b3ca90d0a701c3a397ce99e58eaff56158e .

EXCLUSIVE - OBAMA FOR AMERICA LAUNCHES VETERANS AND MILITARY FAMILIES COALITION:Obama for America will announce today the launch of "Veterans and Military Families for Obama," an arm of Operation Vote, whose mission is to expand the electorate and to maximize participation from core constituencies. Leading this effort will be Robert Diamond, a New York native who served seven years in the Navy. He was stationed onboard the guided missile destroyer USS BULKELEY (DDG-84) and deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He also worked as the aide to the Navy's Chief of Legislative Affairs in the Pentagon and as a naval liaison officer to the House. Robert is a
 Security Fellow and Member of the Board of Principals with the Truman National Security Project, the progressive national security leadership institute. "No one is fighting harder for our veterans and military families than President Obama," Diamond says. The reelection campaigns' website has a page/blog devoted to vets:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d710782fd18bcb0600afa4df3a362fca50bb9cd7eb68edf751 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d710782fd18bcb0600afa4df3a362fca50bb9cd7eb68edf751 .

DNC SEES AN OPENING - NEW VIDEO HITS ROMNEY FOR VETERANS HEALTH PLAN:Speaking of vets,the Democratic National Committee is putting out a web video this morning that accuses Mitt Romney of being out to undermine veterans' health care by offering vouchers for medical care. The president has opened up an advantage on foreign policy, even if voters don't really care about the issue, but Democrats think they can win over independents by attacking the Republican frontrunner for wanting to keep troops in Iraq while not wanting to provide as much care for wounded warriors as the incumbent. Today's DNC hit, titled 'Mitt Romney: Our Veterans Deserve Better," features footage of a veteran being
 escorted out of a Romney event in South Carolina. Watch:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7db01ce10c11c923ab03d44b5ed3eaf53ba15c5cec9332107 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7db01ce10c11c923ab03d44b5ed3eaf53ba15c5cec9332107 

FIRST LOOK - PRIEBUS SHARPENS DEBT, SUPERCOMMITTEE MESSAGE:Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is giving a speech today at the University of Chicago (Obama's former employer) and sending a memo to state party chairmen that telegraphs his recommended messaging on the supercommittee. Priebus tells anyone who will listen that the country is fast approaching the $15 trillion in debt mark. In Obama's backyard, he will tell the crowd that the president called George Bush unpatriotic for increasing the size of the debt, but it was by less than he now has in three years. On the supercommittee, Priebus will accuse the Democrats of preemptively playing the blame game. Here are
 advance excerpts from his speech:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7fdbadb3472954fafa90e6b432e3635e02b0f570df7813538 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7fdbadb3472954fafa90e6b432e3635e02b0f570df7813538 . Here is the memo he's sending to state chairs:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7d480204fdb1a297b289a2b9afa15cfe8e2a1b4f748818063 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7d480204fdb1a297b289a2b9afa15cfe8e2a1b4f748818063 .

CHAMBER - LAUNCHES SIX STATE VOTER EDUCATION EFFORT:TheU.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching six TV ads today on issues affecting the economy. The ads will air on network and cable in 15 markets, including Iowa (3rd district), Montana (statewide), Nevada (statewide), Ohio (statewide), Pennsylvania (7th district) and Washington (8th district). In 2012, the Chamber plans to launch its largest voter education and grassroots mobilization campaign in its history. Ads will cover a gamut of jobs-related issues, including health care, energy, labor and regulatory issues. The Chamber's Jobs Agenda:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d720953fa746ac0019c6360e9790f3cd741d231d3efdb3a32a 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d720953fa746ac0019c6360e9790f3cd741d231d3efdb3a32a . Watch all six ads:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7c25e33704506e6b627bde63ae5262eaf45a212037207b050 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7c25e33704506e6b627bde63ae5262eaf45a212037207b050 .

** As two Republicans get primary challengers, Huntsman tells New Hampshire voters that he doesn't care about anyone but them and labor goes up against three GOP Senate candidates, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

TOP TALKER - FREDDIE MAC PAID GINGRICH $1.6+ MILLION:Bloomberg posted a story late last night, citing "two people familiar with the arrangement," that says Newt Gingrich made between $1.6 million and $1.8 million in consulting fees from two contracts with the mortgage company. This is significantly more than previously known: in last week's debate, he was asked about a $300K payment. More importantly, the piece has former Freddie executives DISPUTING Gingrich's claims that he offered his services as a historian and warned against a bubble. In fact, the organization's chief lobbyist says on the record that the former Speaker consulted on a program to expand home ownership that he pitched to
 George W. Bush's White House. The promise of the ownership society was, of course, central to the 2004 reelect.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d780eebff8988b7cbc0cb9df9109629d4cde25bfb202996465 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d780eebff8988b7cbc0cb9df9109629d4cde25bfb202996465 

NEW HAMPSHIRE POLL - ROMNEY MAINTAINS COMMANDING LEAD:Romney is the preferred choice of 40% of likely New Hampshire primary voters in a Bloomberg News poll conducted Nov 10-12. Ron Paul places second at 17%, and Gingrich is third at 11%. All the other candidates are below 10%. Per Lisa Lerer: "While ahead, Romney doesn't have the race locked up. 66% of Romney backers say they could be persuaded to support another candidate. Those numbers aren't surprising given New Hampshire's history of delivering election night upsets." In a general election matchup, Romney leads Obama by 10 points in the Granite State.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d784e403a1540eb67d702870c5c2abd9348fd7238fb3fab5e3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d784e403a1540eb67d702870c5c2abd9348fd7238fb3fab5e3 

ALL IN -HUNTSMAN HOLDS 100TH NEW HAMPSHIRE EVENT:'We are working this state like no one else,' he told an audience of more than 100 voters last night in Portsmouth. "I don't care what the rest of the country thinks or feels. That's not important. I do care about what the people of New Hampshire feel, because this is important.' The Concord Monitor says he later told reporters he was referring to polls: "Last night's town hall was Huntsman's 100th public event in the state since May, according to the campaign...But Huntsman has a long way to go."Ben Leubsdorf:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7ed74dfc8ea819d6a64213c4d64d8e6a51b3f8061d419d7f3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7ed74dfc8ea819d6a64213c4d64d8e6a51b3f8061d419d7f3 . Here's a NYT story we missed yesterday on Huntsman's billionaire father funding the Super PAC:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7c178ea01881a98800c588e6ef92fa98211914c0dbbb72840 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7c178ea01881a98800c588e6ef92fa98211914c0dbbb72840 .

THE NEW CONTROVERSY - LIBYA FOLLOWS CAIN TO IOWA:"Herman Cain returned to Iowa for the first time since allegations of past sexual harassment surfaced, but all anyone wanted to talk about was Libya," Juana Summers reports. "He's been back to Iowa only once since his disappointing fifth-place finish at the Ames Straw Poll in mid-August, and has a state operation that's been struggling to organize ahead of the caucuses that are now just a month and a half away...Though Cain didn't make himself available for questions as he left his first event of the day - aside from several interviews with local outlets - reporters pressed him for questions there and followed him to where he was filming an
 ad after a protest from 30 Occupy Wall Street protesters caused him to cancel an event at his campaign headquarters."

CAIN FADES - CONSERVATIVES TURNING ON 9-9-9:With Cain at 8% in that Bloomberg poll of New Hampshire, Union Leader editorial page editor Drew Cline writes a column about former New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Jack Kimball's appearance as a surrogate for Cain during a GOP committee meeting last week. "In the question-and-answer part, Kimball was bombarded by questions about Cain's sales tax...the people seemed to understand that under Cain they would have to pay a sales tax they currently don't have to pay...In New Hampshire, 'sales tax' is an offensive term, at least to Republicans. Cain's plan raises more questions than it answers, or more questions than Cain and his surrogates have
 been able to answer effectively. If you want to see why Cain would have a hard time gaining traction in New Hampshire even if he were campaigning hard here, this video shows it." The 38-minute video:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d76b4be6a0194646dbbfa56f4dfc57f898e27913ab1d4f44f2 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d76b4be6a0194646dbbfa56f4dfc57f898e27913ab1d4f44f2 . Cline's column:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d74d7996923efaa82baa42ee646fe71caf13e2996a83655f4f 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d74d7996923efaa82baa42ee646fe71caf13e2996a83655f4f .

CAIN POSITIVE INTENSITY PLUMMETS - ROMNEY'S FAVORABLE AT 67%:"Herman Cain's Positive Intensity Score is 17, down from 29 immediately before news broke in late October about past sexual harassment allegations against him," Gallup reported last night. "Perry's Positive Intensity Score, which had been in the low single digits in recent weeks, fell further to a new low of 0, meaning as many Republicans familiar with him have a strongly unfavorable opinion of him as a strongly favorable one. That compares with his score of 25 in late August/early September...Sixty-seven percent of Republicans familiar with Romney have a strongly favorable or favorable opinion of him, essentially the same ratings
 as for Gingrich (66%) and Cain (65%) on this measure." Romney's unfavorable number among Republicans is 24%.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d74042604baa5ce586fc6ea67d1f4407a3e739cf47e89038c9 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d74042604baa5ce586fc6ea67d1f4407a3e739cf47e89038c9 

NOT A TARGET-RICH ENVIRONMENT - ROMNEYS FAMILY FOUNDATION FILES TAX RETURN:"Ann Romney...increased her donations to a family foundation by $1.5 million last year, raising its total assets to $10 million, according to a tax return filed on Tuesday," according to the New York Times. "The foundation handed out $647,500 in donations last year, bringing its total to $7.1 million since 1999. The largest donation in 2010, $145,000, went to the Mormon Church... The foundation gave $100,000 to a library for former President George W. Bush... It is not known how much else the Romneys have donated to charity because they have not released their tax returns."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d71d91687844b9e87f0b8b71203ac6e0845def24626b8ec581 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d71d91687844b9e87f0b8b71203ac6e0845def24626b8ec581 

WHAT THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES ARE UP TO:Cain is in Miami and Coral Springs, Florida. The third day of Gingrich's Iowa swing takes him to Urbandale. Santorum stops in Clinton, DeWitt, Bettendorf and North Liberty. Perry's in New Hampshire for a Manchester town hall and a VFW meeting in Nashua. Huntsman hosts one town hall in Derry.

Bachmann has a town hall in Storm Lake and Webster City before a house party in West Des Moines. She sits down with the Des Moines Register editorial board at 3:30 p.m. CT. The paper will livestream it:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7f7685a249923844c2ee85aca826fd50df540c19ee0de9c2e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7f7685a249923844c2ee85aca826fd50df540c19ee0de9c2e .

WHAT THE PRESIDENT IS UP TO:"In the morning, the President will participate in a wreath laying ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia...Later in the morning, the President will meet with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at Parliament House...[then] deliver an address to the Australian Parliament at Parliament House...join Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia for a visit to a local school...In the afternoon, the President will attend an U.S. Embassy meet and greet...then participate in a tree dedication ceremony...Later, the President will depart from Canberra en route Darwin, Australia...the President will participate in a wreath laying ceremony with Prime Minister
 Gillard at the USS Peary Memorial in Darwin...After, the President and Prime Minister Gillard will deliver remarks to Australian Troops and U.S. Marines at the Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin...In the evening, the President will depart Darwin for Bali, Indonesia."

COALITIONS - WOMEN FOR OBAMA LAUNCHES:Obama for America launched "Women for Obama" yesterday. Heather Colburn, directing the effort, worked on the Wisconsin Senate recall elections before arriving at the campaign. She has worked for EMILY's List, Planned Parenthood and the DSCC. Colburn has trained over 3,000 people in the fundamentals of organizing and fundraising.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7d6f9b0877edfd5614c144e3115e4830d3d0518bdfb598851 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7d6f9b0877edfd5614c144e3115e4830d3d0518bdfb598851 

EXCLUSIVE - MISSOURI GOP LAUNCHES "CHAMELEONCLAIRE.COM":The Missouri Republican Party launches a web video and website this morning attacking Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, who they dub "Chameleon Claire," because - as they put it - "She talks like a conservative while in Missouri, then she votes like a liberal in Washington." The minute-long video, the first in a series, accuses McCaskill of flip-flopping on whether government can create jobs. The new microsite has the video:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7ce4fa4e6b4fdbbc06312affedcac86036637c0f783b43837 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7ce4fa4e6b4fdbbc06312affedcac86036637c0f783b43837 .

EXCLUSIVE ARKANSAS HOUSE POLL - RANKIN HOLDS COMMANDING LEAD IN GOP PRIMARY TO REPLACE ROSS:An internal poll shows Beth Anne Rankin with a commanding lead in the race for Arkansas' 4th district. The seat, being vacated by Mike Ross, is a top GOP pick-up opportunity and has two NRCC Young Guns running - Rankin and Tom Cotton. From a memo on the results by the firm Dresner, Wickers, Barber, Sanders: "Rankin begins the campaign with high district-wide name recognition and an impressive 4 to 1 favorable to unfavorable ratio. Rankin also stands to benefit from her close association with, and support from, Governor Mike Huckabee - who enjoys total name recognition and 90% of all Republican
 primary voters rating him favorably. Rankin's GOP primary opponents are virtually unknown." Read the full memo:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d76ae3971bd08672ee741f6b9f1f1822292eb30f239462da70 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d76ae3971bd08672ee741f6b9f1f1822292eb30f239462da70 .

WHAT THE DCCC IS READING - "GOP FRESHMEN SEE FUNDRAISING DWINDLE":"Two-thirds of the Republican freshmen who captured Democratic-held seats in the GOP's 2010 takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives saw their fundraising dip in the past quarter, campaign-finance reports show," according to an article in today's USA Today. "Several of the new incumbents, including Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, in a rematch with former congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, have been significantly outraised by their challengers. In addition, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took in nearly twice as much campaign cash as House Republicans in September....Forty-three of 65 Republicans elected to formerly
 Democratic seats raised less in the July-to-September period for their House campaigns than the previous quarter, a USA TODAY tally shows."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7d2a0bbbc5a9c26c007836a261dac119d442ba6567101c067 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7d2a0bbbc5a9c26c007836a261dac119d442ba6567101c067 

ARIZONA SENATE - FLAKE GETS A PRIMARY:Businessman Wil Cardon announced last night that he is running for the Republican Senate nomination. Democrats hope that Jeff Flake, favored overwhelmingly to win the open Senate seat, gets a tough primary challenge from someone who forces him to the right, defines him as an insider and bloodies him going into the general-especially if Chicago makes a decision to play for Arizona. They're excited about the tough line he takes in this four-minute announcement video:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d72cf198cf106a4ea32005b3ed6670da0673b4ef72539247ac 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d72cf198cf106a4ea32005b3ed6670da0673b4ef72539247ac .

"IF YOU CUT MY MEDICARE, I'LL REMEMBER" - LABOR AIRS ADS AGAINST HELLER, BROWN AND REHBERG:Americans United for Change, AFSCME and SEIU are behind an ad campaign, starting today, to push Dean Heller, Scott Brown and Denny Rehberg not to support potential supercommittee cuts to Medicare or Medicaid. They won't share the buy size, but the target markets are Boston, Reno and Billings/Missoula. The announcer's voiceover in the cookie cutter spot could offer a taste of what's to come against incumbents next year, regardless of what the supercommittee agrees to do: "If you vote to cut Medicare, Senator Heller - I will remember it every time I visit my doctor." Brown:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7a8d41fd458f6a3504bb3327041706cc930077625c183739d 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7a8d41fd458f6a3504bb3327041706cc930077625c183739d . Heller:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d73b33b469319464c376836c600c950c9606dfd509a661e037 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d73b33b469319464c376836c600c950c9606dfd509a661e037 . Rehberg:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d706c173c4c7187a36425162622ea7a40414c96defda54aa68 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d706c173c4c7187a36425162622ea7a40414c96defda54aa68 .

MISSOURI GOVERNOR - KINDER'S GOP CHALLENGER WAS FRATERNITY BROTHER:"When St. Louis businessman Dave Spence confirmed last month that he was interested in running for governor, he insisted he'd only do so if Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder didn't. He even donated $5,500 to Kinder's campaign. Then last week he said there was a chance he'd run regardless of Kinder's decision. Tuesday, with Kinder widely expected to launch his campaign for governor next week, Spence beat him to the punch and announced he was jumping into the Republican primary," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. "Spence, 53, is the president and chief executive of Overland-based Alpha Packaging...The two were fraternity brothers at
 the University of Missouri-Columbia." Kinder is deeply damaged after a series of embarrassing revelations about reimbursements for hotels and ties to an exotic dancer. So this primary could actually help Republicans get a stronger candidate in their race against incumbent Jay Nixon, who holds a strong lead in the polls.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7395392bce4325efd0a2d01b895ceb224dcf229383d348e31 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d7395392bce4325efd0a2d01b895ceb224dcf229383d348e31 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY:"Dr. Kissinger turned my offer down to be secretary of state. He said he's perfectly happy doing what he's doing." - Herman Cain is apparently oblivious that Kissinger was one of Gerald Ford's biggest liabilities with conservatives during his 1976 primary battle against Ronald Reagan. He later walked back the comment, which came during his sit-down with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, by saying he was joking.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d73e702228042111029705ed0ed59afabdd6ea04ae5ce90d8f 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aad0137f5cb6e5d73e702228042111029705ed0ed59afabdd6ea04ae5ce90d8f 

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