Subject: POLITICO Playbook, presented by Hewlett Packard Enterprise: IRMA makes landfall in Florida -- THE LIMITS of being a TRUMPOCRAT -- FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: TRUMP’s week ahead -- IVANKA and JARED dine with NICK AYERS -- NICK MERRILL and VAL GALASSO’s big night
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Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2017 09:38:09 -0600
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Today's POLITICO Playbook presented by Hewlett Packard Enterprise 
            
By JAKE SHERMAN ([email-masked]; @JakeSherman), ANNA PALMER ([email-masked]; @apalmerdc) and DANIEL LIPPMAN ([email-masked]; @dlippman)
        
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                  Driving the Day         
IRMA'S WRATH -- FROM THE MIAMI HERALD's live updates -- 10:05 a.m.: "Tropical storm-force winds and extreme gusts are pummeling Coral Gables, bending trees to unnatural, deformed angles or pushing them to the ground. The city's trademark canopy is being shredded, creating impassable streets covered with branches or blocked by downed trees." ... 9:45 a.m.: "Shortly after Category 4 Hurricane Irma made landfall in the Florida Keys Sunday morning, 1,378,773 Florida Power & Light customers were without power." ...

... 9:35 a.m.: "Miami-Dade police halted responding to calls Sunday morning after Hurricane Irma brought hurricane-strength winds to the county." ... 9:30 a.m.: "The center of fierce Hurricane Irma, pushing a dangerous flood of ocean water, made landfall early Sunday morning on Cudjoe Key, just a short drive drown the Overseas Highway from Key West." ... 8:30 a.m.: "Storm waters are surging in Key West as Hurricane Irma's powerful eyewall moves into the Lower Keys. Storm surge could rise as high as 10 feet, which authorities describe as life-threatening." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0941796fac769308ab04b7adf7015fa5f9f294ec5518e3a5ad5c835628faa81085926cc14149f771aba3db9d18ac26f09

-- Mike Theiss, National Geographic photographer, (@MikeTheiss): "Eyewall and Storm Surge !! #HurricaneIrma #KeyWest". Video http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0aaa1d51c28c7654a3cbb30228e1262c94f67da472eab6222173dc245d2f2427a4cd564b92ed789bbf4cf50010b7de930

-- @CNN: "This is what Miami Beach looked like Saturday night as the strong outer bands from Hurricane Irma moved onshore". 28-second video http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0c90806374818659b78869f4f873a87a503a21ba09fa8b344df940fd3c594ee30414689f9fa4ce703117a5b81b6f47a4b

--AP at 10:12 a.m.: "ATLANTA (AP) - First-ever tropical storm warning issued for Atlanta as Hurricane Irma hits Florida on its way toward Georgia."

SPOTTED: Ivanka and Jared at dinner last night with Nick Ayers at Siren, the new restaurant in the Darcy Hotel on Rhode Island Avenue.

TRUMP'S WEEK -- A FEW HIGHLIGHTS from the White House. MONDAY: The president and first lady observe a moment of silence for 9/11 Monday, and go to a ceremony at the Pentagon. VP Mike Pence is going to Shanksville, Pennsylvania. TUESDAY: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak visits the White House. WEDNESDAY: Trump is meeting with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.).

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE at 10:11 a.m.: "POTUS spoke to governors of Alabama, Georgia, [South] Carolina and Tennessee this morning. He's spoken numerous times to [Florida] Governor [Rick] Scott and Senator [Marco] Rubio of Florida over the last week as has [Chief of Staff] Gen. [John] Kelly. The Chief of Staff also spoke to Senator [Bill] Nelson of Florida this morning. The President and Vice President are also receiving a briefing this morning."

CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS are closely monitoring the delays and cancellations at Delta's hub, Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport, as they decide whether they can hold votes tomorrow. Many lawmakers from Florida are going to have a tough time getting to D.C. 

Good Sunday morning. THE LIMITS OF BEING A TRUMPOCRAT ... Let's try not to divine whether PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP will continue to work with Democrats at the expense of Republicans. Nobody knows the answer to that. Let's also take a deep breathe and recognize that Trump didn't cut some transformative deal for the history books. He extended the debt limit and government funding by three months and agreed to billions to aid hurricane victims. Barack Obama worked with Republicans to slash government spending. Trump didn't do anything like that. What Trump did do last week, whether he knows it or not, is create a governing coalition of 150 Republicans and all Democrats. This won't work
 everywhere. Let's explore where insiders think they have a shot, and where they don't:

-- INFRASTRUCTURE: The White House has said nothing about what it would like to do when it comes to a massive infrastructure bill. But Trump has said he wants to spend lots of money. A chunk of Republicans -- the Freedom Caucus and other fiscal conservatives -- won't be interested in a bunch of unpaid-for deficit spending. But there are moderates in the Senate and House GOP who, presented with the right package, could see benefits in a large-scale public works project. Republican lawmakers from upstate New York, the Midwest and even the outer edges of big cities would also likely be on board. The country's crumbling infrastructure has long been an issue that Democrats have tried to take on.
 Crafted the right way, not only moderate Democrats, but others could also support an infrastructure package. This could be an area where Trump finds natural allies in both parties.

-- HEALTH CARE: It's difficult to truly understand what Trump wants to do when it comes to health care, since he has been on many sides of the issue. But if he wants Democratic cooperation, he'd have to scrap pushing for Obamacare repeal and back a more limited plan to enact fixes. This would infuriate some Republicans, who are angry enough that, nine months into an all Republican Washington, Obamacare is still ticking. Lawmakers and lobbyists aren't optimistic that Trump can find enough common ground to get Republicans and Democrats on the same page.

-- TAXES: Democrats have been completely shut out of the tax reform discussions. The only people resembling Democrats in the room are Gary Cohn and Steven Mnuchin, two Trump administration officials who have donated to Democrats throughout their lives. It would take a miracle to change course at this point. A REMINDER: We are far from tax reform becoming a reality. Both chambers need to pass a budget, and we have not seen a shred of paper from the closed-door tax meetings. 

-- BASIC GOVERNANCE AND THE WALL: Democrats and Republicans can keep the lights on together -- that much we've seen. They can lift the debt ceiling, if there are no legislative riders. Here's where Trump could run into a major problem. We're not sure if you've heard but the president wants to build a wall on the border with Mexico. He will not be able to do that with Democrats -- they are a hard no on a border wall. Can he strike some sort of deal to put the DREAM Act into law in exchange for an uptick border security? Sure. But that would be awfully tricky.

MR. PRESIDENT -- YOU STILL HAVE TO BE NICE TO MCCONNELL AND RYAN. Why? Because Democrats are in the minority in both chambers and have extremely limited ability to bring bills to the floor. 

FROM 30K FEET -- NYT'S PETER BAKER: "Bound to No Party, Trump Upends 150 Years of Two-Party Rule": "President Trump demonstrated this past week that he still imagines himself a solitary cowboy as he abandoned Republican congressional leaders to forge a short-term fiscal deal with Democrats. Although elected as a Republican last year, Mr. Trump has shown in the nearly eight months in office that he is, in many ways, the first independent to hold the presidency since the advent of the current two-party system around the time of the Civil War. 

"In recent weeks, he has quarreled more with fellow Republicans than with the opposition, blasting congressional leaders on Twitter, ousting former party officials in his White House, embracing primary challenges to incumbent lawmakers who defied him and blaming Republican figures for not advancing his policy agenda. On Friday, he addressed discontent about his approach with a Twitter post that started, 'Republicans, sorry,' as if he were not one of them, and said party leaders had a 'death wish.' ...

"None of which means that Mr. Trump has suddenly transformed himself into a center-hugging moderate. More situational than ideological -- critics would say opportunist -- Mr. Trump adjusts to the moment, and his temporary alignment with Democrats could easily unravel tomorrow. The deal he cut, after all, merely postponed a fight over spending and debt for three months. It did not resolve any substantive disagreements." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b070c38b59e45f2909e045474b57ba29156949266ef96b95157984cf7d70169f9ede04cdadeaa842aaee11a2312b116fe1

WAPO'S TAKE -- "'Trump betrays everyone': The president has a long record as an unpredictable ally," by Ashley Parker and Phil Rucker: "President Trump prepared for the pivotal meeting with congressional leaders by huddling with his senior team - his chief of staff, his legislative director and the heads of Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget - to game out various scenarios on how to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling and provide Hurricane Harvey relief. But one option they never considered was the that one the president ultimately chose: cutting a deal with Democratic lawmakers, to the shock and ire of his own party.

"In agreeing to tie Harvey aid to a three-month extension of the debt ceiling and government funding, Trump burned the people who are ostensibly his allies. The president was an unpredictable - and, some would say, untrustworthy -- negotiating partner with not only congressional Republicans but also with his Cabinet members and top aides. Trump saw a deal that he thought was good for him -- and he seized it." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0d0659e63c08de2095f0facfc1afe19e889f489d3c9e3a656b7c31f0f0500d82ba07f0f654df43bf626412828fcf2ebbf 

-- DESPITE ALL THE GOP HAND-WRINGING, senior GOP aides say that everyone is being too dramatic and that lawmakers need to take a deep breath. This middle-of-the-road stuff is not permanent.

****** A message from Hewlett Packard Enterprise: How are Hewlett Packard Enterprise's supercomputers helping create the future in science, medicine and national security? Learn more: hpe.com/supercomputing ******

THE LATEST ON HURRICANE IRMA ... 

AP'S IRMA LEDEALL -- "'Pray for everybody': Irma begins its assault on Florida," by Tamara Lush and Jay Reeves in St. Petersburg, Florida: "Announcing itself with roaring 130 mph winds, Hurricane Irma plowed into the mostly emptied-out Florida Keys early Sunday for the start of what could be a slow, ruinous march up the state's west coast toward the heavily populated Tampa-St. Petersburg area. ... With an estimated 127,000 huddling in shelters statewide, the storm lashed the low-lying string of islands with drenching rain and knocked out power to over 1 million customers even hundreds of miles from Irma's center. 

"About 30,000 people heeded orders to evacuate the Keys as the storm closed in, but an untold number refused to leave, in part because to many storm-hardened residents, staying behind in the face of danger is a point of pride. While the projected track showed Irma raking the state's Gulf Coast, forecasters warned that the entire Florida peninsula - including the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people - was in extreme peril from the monstrous storm, almost 400 miles wide. Nearly 7 million people in the Southeast were warned to get out of the storm's path, including 6.4 million in Florida alone." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b08179c6f8f9eff03b03d248c07c13284acabdd57f7fab41bd2306f4ace6d8406b058b536d5cd52dd72f9ba03d8b556cb8

-- JOHN DICKERSON speaks with SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FLA.) on CBS'S "FACE THE NATION": DICKERSON: "Senator, you and I have talked over the years have talked about trust in government and people losing faith in their government. Do you see any of that? I mean are people not taking things seriously because sort of either because of crying wolf or because they lost faith in in voices of authority on these kinds of things?" RUBIO: "No I can't say that in this case. I really can't. I think that people have really responded. You see an enormous amount of people have acted. The most massive evacuation I think in the history of the state, millions of people have moved. And I think coming in the
 aftermath of those images from Harvey people have really jumped on it. 

"So I think the bigger concern that we have is we've got -- this is a very unique situation. The whole state is impacted. A lot of the relief efforts are being directed from places that now themselves are in, in the path of, of the storm. And we have a lot of people for example that left South Florida, that drove to Orlando, or Tampa who are now figuring out maybe I need to go back to Miami or something or, or Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach. This is no time to be on the road. This is a very unique storm because of its size and scope. You usually are able to say that there's some safe place in the state that you can go to. In this particular case, virtually the entire state is being impacted
 by the storm."

-- @PascoSheriff: "To clarify, DO NOT shoot weapons @ #Irma. You won't make it turn around & it will have very dangerous side effects".

-- "Weather Channel Goes Into Overdrive Covering Back-to-Back Hurricanes," by NYT's David Gelles: "The Weather Channel averaged nearly 1.3 million viewers during prime time over the first half of last week, up sharply from an average of 150,000 viewers during the last week of July, when the weather wasn't a story, according to Nielsen." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b095f2b8cadcb17f47fd1e54ba2977d247f9466284538c7ec0768c245c3565d287ae8bfc88989cf0b4747d7e86c02e7cca 

FLORIDA FRONT PAGES - Miami Herald: "Damage from Irma could surpass Andrew's aftermath"  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0bbbd2047cf4ac3b066629ed597c7be82c1560820a098ea1806c47c08209d5e0eaa2b3147e4f3ddc73b8bf4386e3ed58e ... Tampa Bay Times: "READY OR NOT -- Irma is projected to hit Tampa Bay today, and 'This is a killer hurricane.'"  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0560d11bdb354224d8e12224b28ec9505eee6c0bb5da109fd93c5871a42db3d7903dcb6f6bf728d25a4ebcd25637cb101 ... Naples Daily News: "BRACE FOR IMPACT -- Category 4 Irma Could Smash Southwest Florida Sunday"  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b06fd2cb7f2cc54c1f2046d2b6d595e84f41b0c0fdf00c918de548ea87d3028eb47cd28f9881e330c4e699a0b8a24586f7 ... Tallahassee Democrat: "STRIKING DISTANCE"  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0f5fbe54efcd45b6fdfe4e26b04e10a2a8390ea1203cb68621fe3b9a56ea7ec31e81619b897adf8bf037e122eee9bf585 ... South Florida Sun Sentinel: "IN IT TOGETHER"
  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0875a48f1ea81484e7466995efa17b98b89bfdcdba512009f27622e04631856c070f5c457e8b31e22f74cf3feee19ca51 ... 

... Florida Today of Melbourne: "STATE OF FEAR -- 15 pages of Hurricane Irma coverage inside"  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0f4f62aa84fbca88771d20c92c38d30efd4bc40c801092462a4641e02e3a67998a3ec118dfb25117802dfe913f7344910 ... Sarasota Herald Tribune: "IRMA COMING -- Residents urged to be ready for a storm as big as our state"  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0c2e013d7c46b2034b6d0ac9712b037465e36ad0e60b183a017331f33b4e75fa4b3cd50beaa159597d4fe6d5cd609d6c8 ... Panama City News Herald: "HERE SHE COMES -- Mainland U.S. braces for massive Irma"  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0652675bd2bd1fe684f8641ffd3ad446b2c0559427e7ed5d862125d43d2c7e76806fd83adf8be6faac4596fcb8a777a48 ... Pensacola News Journal: "Governor Warns of Irma's Storm Surge" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0df160ccadbf29006e6d00650c0cc2543da14155012b9fd09d5d787308652b8752b01c53df71977bf7d04fe36a0d689de

POLITICO INVESTIGATION -- "How U.S. News college rankings promote economic inequality on campus: Once ladders of social mobility, universities increasingly reinforce existing wealth, fueling a backlash that helped elect Donald Trump," by Benjamin Wermund: "America's universities are getting two report cards this year. The first, from the Equality of Opportunity Project, brought the shocking revelation that many top universities, including Princeton and Yale, admit more students from the top 1 percent of earners than the bottom 60 percent combined. The second, from U.S. News and World Report, is due on Tuesday - with Princeton and Yale among the contenders for the top spot in the annual
 rankings. The two are related: A POLITICO review shows that the criteria used in the U.S. News rankings - a measure so closely followed in the academic world that some colleges have built them into strategic plans - create incentives for schools to favor wealthier students over less wealthy applicants." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0ad7e614fcdf546fe03d504554d009706e613798fd4d319680d7bf1619c147c4500c23184750bbd00e02a9af45ff0c159

FOR YOUR RADAR -- "NATO's Stoltenberg says North Korea's 'reckless behaviour' requires global response," by Reuters: "North Korea's 'reckless behaviour' is a global threat and requires a global response, the head of the NATO military alliance said on Sunday. ... 'The reckless behaviour of North Korea is a global threat and requires a global response and that of course also includes NATO,' NATO head Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with BBC television. Asked whether an attack on the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam would trigger NATO's Article 5, which requires each member of the alliance to come to the defence of any other, Stoltenberg said: 'I will not speculate about whether Article 5
 will be applied in such a situation.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b00b8f8e594009ebb8c0b1ba1871037dac56d68bd5bceb89c9c3dce359ffad33f98f70f294122ff970060bf07885fe8d25

-- "Vast new intelligence haul fuels next phase of fight against Islamic State," by LATimes' W.J. Hennigan: "U.S. intelligence analysts have gained valuable insights into Islamic State's planning and personnel from a vast cache of digital data and other material recovered from bombed-out offices, abandoned laptops and the cellphones of dead fighters in recently liberated areas of Iraq and Syria. In the most dramatic gain, U.S. officials over the last two months have added thousands of names of known or suspected Islamic State operatives to an international watch list used at airports and other border crossings. The Interpol database now contains about 19,000 names. The intelligence haul -
 the largest since U.S. forces entered the war in mid-2014 - threatens to overwhelm already stretched counter-terrorism and law enforcement agencies in Europe." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b04ec97694b480f8ee4f77497d12617aa3c0acfafd350e0cf241a5a53c931ef63bc097e28934c616f99179957f9f125a22

INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE -- "Former Sessions aides chart different paths in Trump's White House," by Andrew Restuccia, Nancy Cook, and Josh Dawsey: "In Donald Trump's White House, there are few tales about power more instructive than the story of Jeff Sessions' two former top aides. Both Stephen Miller, Trump's senior policy adviser, and Rick Dearborn, a White House deputy chief of staff, started out in the same place - as top congressional aides in Jeff Sessions' Senate office. Together, they worked as Trump campaign advisers, and then won senior administration jobs.

"But while Miller has rapidly accumulated power in the West Wing by personally advising the president on high-profile policy questions like immigration and publicly defending Trump on television and in the briefing room, Dearborn has become increasingly marginalized, having struggled to form a close bond with the president, the new chief of staff and Trump's family

"Their diverging stock in the administration offers a case study in how to thrive in Trump's West Wing. Among the lessons: The president often responds to aides who mirror his big personality, while wallflowers tend to get ignored. And the president deeply values loyalty to himself, with little interest in the relationships top aides and other staffers bring into the West Wing. But getting close to the president has its risks, as the long list of former Trump White House aides shows." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b05772bb88770a256d43c23d35e0a5f713ffb3b914b5b910e43472cce2ed2dc05670422f3329b14f05e53bc56eb429e2c9

SUNDAY BEST ... 

SEVERAL SUNDAY SHOWS were preempted due to the storm. NBC's "Meet the Press" and ABC's "This Week" both turned to storm coverage. 

JAKE TAPPER speaks with SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-ARIZ.) on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION": TAPPER: "I hope I don't run this clip for another 50 years, but how do you want the American people to remember you?" MCCAIN: "He served his country. And not always right. Made a lot of mistakes. Made a lot of errors. But served his country, and I hope we can add, honorably." The clip http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0c1cb41a825402f2232348c02c3c89522a2b20ee8d716a22744b17102ae65c100a4f3f0396db8d6c774dd1e7b964c2a70 

-- TAPPER: "You went through chemo and radiation to fight this cancer. When do you find out if it worked?" MCCAIN: "On Monday we will take a MRI, but so far all indications are very good. But again I'm not trying to paint this as a rosy picture. This is a very virulent form of cancer, it has to be fought against. We have new technologies ... that make chances much better. But Jake, you know, every life has to end one way or another. I think it was the playwright [William Saroyan] ... he said I always knew that no one could live forever but I thought there might be one exception. You gotta have joy, joy. Listen, those joyful memories of the campaign in 2000 are some of the most enjoyable
 times of my life. We were the underdogs, we were fighting our way up, we went to Sedona, you remember, everything was so magic about that campaign."

REP JIM JORDAN (R-OHIO) to CHRIS WALLACE on "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": @FoxNewsSunday: ".@Jim_Jordan on his confidence in @SpeakerRyan: We meet with him every week, no one is talking about changing leadership."

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS speaks to FLORIDA GOV. RICK SCOTT on ABC'S "THIS WEEK": STEPHANOPOULOS: "What is your biggest worry right now?" SCOTT: "My biggest worry is the people that didn't evacuate and they don't understand the risk of the storm surge. George, last year, we got storm surge up in the panhandle. And this water just comes in. And it just fills up your house. And then it goes out. And people -- this lady -- I can tell you a story about a lady, she was -- she wanted to stay because of her pets. She was in a one-story house. The water got to three feet, she knew she wouldn't survive. Thank god when she left her house to try to get away, there was a high-water vehicle just leaving and
 she got -- she survived. Of course, her pets didn't. But, I just hope people understand that this storm surge is just deadly."

THE JUICE ...

NICK AND VAL'S NIGHT -- "Valery Galasso, Nicholas Merrill" -- N.Y. Times: "The bride, 31, is a senior policy adviser in the office of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. From 2010 to 2015, she served in the Obama administration in Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s office of legislative affairs. She graduated from the University of Connecticut and received a master's degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins. ... The groom, 34, is the communications director in the office of Hillary Clinton in New York. He has worked for Mrs. Clinton since 2007, and was the traveling press secretary for her 2016 presidential campaign. He graduated from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y." With pic 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b05821b52218e25e1c06374238947dc4ce2cf7cd6f7c559b5f82c8681860976cf4c13e6a612f5b6c597575135a209960f8 

-- SPOTTED: Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, Jon Davidson, Bari Lurie and Jeff Westerberg, Michael Kives, Brian Fallon, Heather Samuelson and Mitch Herckis, Sara Latham (who was in from London), Rachel Kelly, Adrienne Elrod, Angel Urena, Christina Reynolds, De'ara Balenger, Connolly Keigher, Bob Barnett and Rita Braver, Dan Schwerin, Mike Feldman, Tina Flournoy, Opal Vadhan, Rob Russo, Matt McKenna, Kamyl Bazbaz, Jason Rahlan. Philippe Reines and Nick's mom Becky hosted the event.

-- FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG is in Des Moines to speak at Progress Iowa's Corn Feed: HERE IS WHAT HE'LL SAY: "Nothing about politics is theoretical for me. I've sat with loved ones facing cancer and tried to figure out what we would do if Congress kicks them off Obamacare. I've looked into the eyes of an 8-year old American boy who lost his father to deportation and tried to tell him things were going to be okay. I've called 911 on a young man having an overdose, and rolled him over so he wouldn't choke to death.

"I've stood in a basement flooded by extreme rainfall hitting South Bend in just the way scientists have warned us about for decades. And I've carried a weapon in a foreign land on the orders of an American president. See, when Donald Trump and his sons were working on Season 7 of Celebrity Apprentice, I was driving and guarding convoys outside the wire in Afghanistan.

"I had a lot of different responsibilities, but the job that mattered most was to make sure the men and women in my vehicle got where they were going, alive. And when they got in my vehicle, they didn't care if I was a Democrat or a Republican. They cared about whether I had selected the route with the fewest IED threats, not whether my immigrant father was documented or undocumented. They cared about whether my M-4 was locked and loaded and whether I knew how to use it, not whether I was going home to a girlfriend or a boyfriend. They just wanted to get home safe, like I did." The full speech http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b069137e4eed00e250c7f560beecaf38247ef116e2577f3e8da176522989241c92586c0f4c87b8279ce937c14ffcd59ecf

          Playbook Reads         

PHOTO DU JUOR: Waves crash over a seawall at the mouth of the Miami River from Biscayne Bay, Fla., as Hurricane Irma passes on Sept. 10 in Miami. | AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

KATY TUR on the SUNDAY N.Y.T. OP-ED PAGE: "The Trump Fever Never Breaks": "For more than 500 days, I watched as Mr. Trump's campaign grew from an awkward rally around a backyard pool in June 2015 to a raucous, 10,000-person convention center event in November 2016. In that same time, I also watched as Mr. Trump's candidacy survived a procession of death predictions. ...

"When I was out on the road following Mr. Trump, I sneaked in a bit of "Game of Thrones" on my laptop between rallies. What I learned, to paraphrase the show, is that what is dead may never die -- and, in Mr. Trump's case, may only rise stronger....In August 2015, a month after a high-ranking [RNC] operative promised me that America would never tolerate a man with no military service disparaging an American military hero, I was standing on a football field in Mobile, Ala., surrounded by 30,000 screaming Trump fans, an unheard-of turnout six months before a primary. Were they mad about the candidate's words on Mr. McCain? No. The opposite. 'He's not afraid of anybody,' one woman told me." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b08282dd7028c2a2f40938ea94e1c7159fcedb3dcce51b053159a19009838951ae497c3fc1bd4818269a4307183c83fd4e 

-- SNEAK PEEK: JILL ABRAMSON reviewed Katy's "Unbelieveable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History" for the Times. The review and book are out Tuesday. It is already the No. 1 election book on Amazon. ... $16.19 on Amazon  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0af957b56b31559c0e84b8ba902802f21f4656a684862f1b75fdf08e41ab58955db4dbe8fc3d94ab8d7da469b70aa2fe3 

WHAT KEN GROSS IS READING -- "Nestled in House Spending Bill: Campaign Finance Deregulation," by WSJ's Cezary Podkul: "House Republicans are backing several provisions that could reshape campaign finance rules ahead of next year's midterm elections as spending negotiations continue this fall. ... While the House package is unlikely to advance in the Senate, its provisions could become bargaining chips in the negotiations leading up to the next government funding deadline, now Dec. 8. ... If they do, churches may be able to contribute to candidates without fear of losing their tax-exempt status, furthering President Donald Trump's promise to 'get rid of and totally destroy' a law that
 forbids such activity.

"Corporations would be able to ask their employees to donate to unlimited numbers of trade associations' political action groups instead of limiting employee solicitations to one group per year. Other measures included in the bill would continue to prevent the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission from implementing rules that would affect political activities of 501(C)(4) nonprofits and publicly traded corporations, respectively. And the government would again be prohibited from requiring federal contractors to disclose their political contributions and campaign expenditures." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0aeab197a523d2d998d8f73d670a48760fa07a8a021f3d427224bbe234a43733a38798bed6f11e8a298c1184403fd301b

****** A message from Hewlett Packard Enterprise: A nation's strength is increasingly measured by its technical prowess. As the designer and builder of more supercomputers than any other company in the world, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is proud to lead the way in one of the future's most important technologies. Visit hpe.com/supercomputing to learn more about how Hewlett Packard Enterprise's supercomputers are helping create the future in science, medicine and national security. ******

2020 WATCH -- "How California could jolt the 2020 presidential race," by David Siders and Gabe Debenedetti, with a Los Angeles dateline: "California is pushing forward with a plan to change the state's primary date from June to March, a move that could scramble the 2020 presidential nominating contest and swing the early weight of the campaign to the west. If adopted by the legislature this week - as is widely expected - and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, the early primary would allocate California's massive haul of delegates just after the nation's first contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

"The earlier primary could benefit at least two potential presidential contenders from California - U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti - while jeopardizing the prospects of other candidates who will struggle to raise enough early money to compete in expensive media markets in the nation's most populous state. 'In all probability, the winner of the California primary would be the nominee,' said Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman from South Carolina." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0e364e260ed01bc4783d3c4465fb658717aa6ce8825c08f785f426c9c23e3a7ca8660bedc41d89576df6bdd39d6d9ddbd

-- "Retirement watch: The four California members of Congress most likely to bow out by 2018," by L.A. Times' Sarah D. Wire -- featuring Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Reps. Grace Napolitano, Dana Rohrabacher and Duncan Hunter  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0be12440b5e4217bfd49887b75ac181dca34b4ead8312e0c6840f26a11548231763d05fe79f73d05f36ae41f1bb0c75e6

MEDIAWATCH -- "The Wall Street Journal's Trump problem: Dozens have left the paper in the past year and interviews with current and ex-staffers show outrage over pressure from management to normalize Trump," by The Guardian's Lucia Graves. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b031ba66418dab686ec6fa944bc2d7f92939b583620a8ad28cbca95a20d9b4c57062ebe4d43c982456d06aa3edfcd72cf0 

BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:

--"This Private Investigator Was The Original Most Interesting Man In The World," by Eamon Javers in BuzzFeed: "The story of Tom Corbally, a private investigator whose career crisscrossed continents and spanned decades, is its own secret history of the 20th century."  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0d4145247bf146b03c775ef1a3670014a1753d9c7a52b1c44e9d1f9157ac2591eb10550e4d749c11ce1e893f68f602915 

--"There's No Such Thing as a Good Dog," by Wes Siler in Outside magazine: "People love to tell me how lucky I am to have a good dog like Wiley. But they're dead wrong - there was no luck involved. Wiley's good behavior and good temperament are products of four years of hard work, nothing else. The more people who understand this, the more people there will be who have 'good' dogs too." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b032df6b26d897f5019b3703d77ccbf2bde8eb26a0b22581d7efa9837c1ebe128352739290419d35c270537994c2d4bf64 (h/t TheBrowser.com)

--"Remembering Moynihan in the Age of Trump," by Charles F. McElwee III in The American Scholar: "If the late senator-scholar were alive, he would see his most acute societal warnings confirmed." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b02deb6327778d932495aa8f399c0ad1d2d3fdb7d43c598434ff1392b6698d9feb2329d8bf1afaea833dd84f753ffc6014

--"The Tamarind is Always Sour," by Keane Shum in Granta: "By law, the more than one million Rohingya in Myanmar are almost all excluded from Myanmar citizenship, making them the largest stateless group in the world. ... There are anywhere between two to three million Rohingya in the world, and the large majority of them do not exist on paper."  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b080176c68ea4323dcd43288d273a7bd6e3ff281c4c6d9c8c2036e461940dab306c405b118255aa434f77ef6a163c487bc

--"Imagination is a powerful tool: Why is philosophy afraid of it?" by Amy Kind in Aeon Magazine: "Hume ... talked about how our facility for fantasy helps us to move beyond and change our present reality. One need only think of how Leonardo da Vinci's fantastical flying machines paved the way for the Wright brothers, or how H G Wells's novel 'The War of the Worlds' (1898) inspired the first liquid-fuelled space rocket, to see the truth of this insight."  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0c3543d59af5911e078fc3d60b113e02b6eee72f257a00eaacf9c01a65507baca776c304dc7bf8c4c86bd6b8f2680ad39

--"The Japanese Origins of Modern Fine Dining," by Meghan McCarron in Eater Magazine -- per Longreads.com's description: "How kaiseki - Japan's formal dining tradition - became a major (though often unacknowledged) influence on modern haute cuisine."  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b065170a8ff0170cfae57e9eb15c92923c57b0256b8ba85274a0c2f73f0e887b59183aad5f4c292932d41d23d5606f5dfb

--"What Does an Innocent Man Have to Do to Go Free? Plead Guilty," by Megan Rose in ProPublica: "A case in Baltimore - in which two men were convicted of the same murder and cleared by DNA 20 years later - shows how far prosecutors will go to preserve a conviction." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b06563606c8bc33956e83545fa7f303d72e2d44845078f31e0733e4f04c0be3c94660637f75ff94a08be01566f390723e9 (h/t Longform.org)

--"Donald Trump Slept Here - and So Did I: A Visit to a Presidential Home in Queens," by Newsweek's Alexander Nazaryan: "Above the bed I am sitting on is a sign encased in a wooden frame. 'In this bedroom,' it says in calligraphic font, 'President Donald J. Trump was likely conceived, by his parents, Fred and Mary Trump. The world has never been the same.'"  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b045e8ad3872b9828ac6f212f901d98e72b86bbf37d85149bb3e53a94a9283ee82d847faece8de380f3bca2b84dbcbd8a9

--"Inside the Growing Guest Worker Program Trapping Indian Students in Virtual Servitude," by Nikhil Swaminathan in the Sept./Oct. issue of Mother Jones: The article "takes an in-depth look at America's Optional Practical Training program and its effect on Indian students and workers. Swaminathan spoke with three dozen guest workers, and analyzed data and lawsuits related to the issue, to illustrate how the OPT program is trapping guest workers in student loan debt and without labor protections. Furthermore, he takes a look at the role of American universities as willing partners in this practice, and the corrupt businesses or 'body shops' that prey on these workers."  
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b03950c6cff6d8df557db3137510df80b30bbaf733d5908b35df82c8e92d685086374c0fda037e519f5a2630432d6ae5c6

--"Hacking Health: Has Silicon Valley Found Its Soul on a Mountaintop in Utah?" by Newsweek's Abigail Jones: "Started by five young entrepreneurs in 2008, [Summit is] known for drawing participants like Bill Clinton, Richard Branson, actress Sophia Bush and GE vice chair Beth Comstock, and taking attendees (who range from innovators and artists to academics and scientists) on cruises, glamping expeditions-even to the White House."  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0eebc0a4f59a1fb7056bd4d39eca12f9002b5927ae64f5e84e60d624553704778a5e704513d1943f2a412b40df7b0516e
                  Playbookers         
SPOTTED: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) standing with veterans last night when they did the "Waive Your Caps" tribute at the Nats baseball game ... Patrick Ewing at dinner last night at Legal Sea Foods holding court in the back room ... former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd boarding a delayed flight yesterday to Hartford from DCA (h/t @KMAndersonDC)

SPOTTED celebrating Neil Alpert's 40th birthday at BLT Prime last night at Trump Hotel: Lisa Spies, Teri Galvez, Michael Steele (former Maryland LT Gov./RNC Chair) and Morgan Ortagus.

OUT AND ABOUT -- Luke Mullins, senior writer at Washingtonian and Christina Lennon, senior manager of client experience at Charles Schwab, had a reception last night to celebrate their upcoming marriage. They are getting married in late October in Scotland. Pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b0458a6fdb080133dc8c01fceec4527cda6ec2c59fdd6665b0e112a181ea53db395824e7de593b49bd489c15871b56013f SPOTTED: Paul Kane, Charlotte Sellmyer, Brody and Lauren Mullins, Susan Davis and Adam Aigner-Treworgy.

WEEKEND WEDDING -- "Tatiana Schlossberg, George Moran" -- Times: "The couple met at Yale, from which they both graduated with distinction. Ms. Schlossberg, 27, was until July a reporter at The New York Times, where she covered climate change and the environment. She also received a master's degree in United States history from the University of Oxford, England. She is a daughter of Caroline B. Kennedy and Edwin A. Schlossberg of New York. The bride's father, an artist, founded ESI Design, an interactive design firm in New York, of which he is the principal designer. Her mother served as United States ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017. ... The bride is a granddaughter of President John
 F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Mr. Moran, 28, is a fourth-year medical student at Columbia." With pic  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b07f459ec2ad1031ce114e80fa66ba9a88d876e639a21c52c3d5195601866c6a492c6af8e5be2f1e97a600b027c32afaf0 

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: NYC PR exec Josh Nass, who speaks five languages and says "although I'm told it's unpopular to confess to this these days, my first language is Russian." How he's celebrating: "I plan to have brunch with my close family, followed by dinner with friends at The Prime Grill. My kosher dietary restrictions don't allow me to explore the many steakhouses that I see everywhere I go in New York City, but fortunately it's New York, so there are plenty of good kosher options." Read his Playbook Plus Q&A:  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9d52368f2a1a6b04a4e1b895a77c9ff35752a5088366f94026f546f3a7cff402ba95a59b063e6ccddb02ae61fafaaec398ad061379428cf 

BIRTHDAYS: Sara Bonjean (hat tips: hubby Ron and Sean Spicer) ... CAP president Neera Tanden, celebrating by spending the day at the Progress Iowa Corn Feed, where she is one of the featured speakers (h/t Lindsay Hamilton) ... Jess McIntosh, writer, speaker and Democratic strategist and alum of Hillary for America, Franken and EMILY's List (h/t Jon Haber) ... Bill O'Reilly ... Andrew Shapiro, founder and managing director at Beacon Global Strategies and a Hillary and State alum ... Hunter Walker, White House correspondent at Yahoo News ... Corinne Hoare, professor at AU's School of Communication (h/t Spicer) ... WSJ's Mara Gay ... 1776 founder Donna Harris (h/ts Peter Cherukuri and Kurt
 Bardella) ... James Killen ... Dan Centinello ... USA Today SCOTUS reporter Richard Wolf ... Politico's Nahal "Halley" Toosi and Paulina Mangubat ... Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) ... former Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) ... Trey Yingst, chief WH correspondent for OANN ...

... Michael Moroney, managing supervisor at FleishmanHillard ... Deirdre Hackleman ... Charlie Szold, public affairs consultant at Midland Strategies ... Steve Brusk, CNN White House and Congress supervising producer ... Molly Bordonaro ... Amanda Cowie, head of business and strategy comms at Bloomberg Media (h/t Ashley Bahnken) ... Jocelyn Miller Zeitzoff, AtlanticLIVE director of business development and a Knopf and Weber Shandwick alum, celebrating with a night out in the District (h/t Patrick Garrigan) ... Jack Rivers, associate at Goldman Sachs ... Lauren Defranco ... Rey Ramsey ... Mahen Gunaratna, deputy comms director for Mayor Bill de Blasio ... Heather Barber ... Andy Levin, chief
 legal officer at Relativity Media ... Rachel Teron DeGirolamo ... Jane Gross ... Karen Steinberg ... Kimberly Marie Abbott ... Christina Estrada Teczar ... CNBC's Hadley Gamble (h/t Keil) ... Barbara Lippert ... Oliver Kim ... former Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) ... Justin Wiley ... Justin Mikita ... Tia Torhorst ... Reynolds Honold ... Justin Cooper (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

****** A message from Hewlett Packard Enterprise: To super compete, America must super compute. Supercomputing is key to future breakthroughs in medicine, science and manufacturing. As the designer and builder of more supercomputers than any other company in the world, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is helping America increase its competitive edge in not only today's economy, but tomorrow's. Visit hpe.com/supercomputing to learn more about how HPE supercomputers help America compete. ******
    
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