Subject: H4A News Clips 6.7.15
From: Alexandria Phillips <[email-masked]>
To: Alexandria Phillips <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2015 10:21:06 -0400
List-Id: <HRCRapid.hillaryclinton.com>

*H4A News Clips*

*June 7, 2015*

*TODAY’S KEY
STORIES.....................................................................................
**3*

*Hillary Clinton Traces Friendly Path, Troubling Party* // NYT // Jonathan
Martin & Maggie Haberman – June 6,
2015...........................................................................................................................................
3

*On the economy, is Clinton prepared to take her stand?* // WaPo // Dan
Balz – June 6, 2015.......... 7

*HRC NATIONAL
COVERAGE.............................................................................
**9*

*In 2008, Clinton couldn’t buy Iowans’ love. So she bought them snow
shovels.* // WaPo // David A. Fahrenthold – June 6,
2015...............................................................................................................................
9

*Hillary Clinton talks education, health care at New Haven fundraiser* //
New Haven Register // Mary O’Leary – June 6,
2015..............................................................................................................................
15

*America may not understand the Clintons — but Wall Street does* //
Business Insider // Linette Lopez – June 6,
2015..........................................................................................................................................
17

*Malloy makes it official: His choice is Hillary* // CT Mirror // Mark
Pazniokas - June 7, 2015.......... 19

*GOP Has Reason To Fret As Clinton Leads Bush 47-40 In North Carolina* //
Politicus // Keith Brekhusmore – June 6,
2015......................................................................................................................................
20

*Experts Fear Messy Consequences if Hillary Clinton’s Automatic Voter Plan
Is Enacted* // The Blade // Fred Lucas – June 6,
2015..................................................................................................................
21

*Hillary has Roosevelt Island officials in the palm of her hand* // NY Post
// Bill Sanderson – June 7, 2015        22

*OTHER DEMOCRATS NATIONAL
COVERAGE................................................. **23*

*O’MALLEY...................................................................................................
**23*

*O'Malley makes a pitch to younger voters* // The Baltimore Sun // John
Fritze – June 6, 2015...... 23

*SANDERS....................................................................................................
**27*

*Exclusive–Iowa Gop Chairman Reacts To Bernie Sanders’ And Martin
O’Malley’s Reception In Iowa: ‘Socialism Is So Odd To Us’* // Breitbart
News – June 6,
2015..........................................................................
27

*Bernie Sanders isn’t a “crackpot” — and the progressive agenda isn’t
“left-wing”* // Salon // Bill Moyers And Michael Winship – June 6,
2015.................................................................................................
27

*OTHER........................................................................................................
**30*

*Obama, Clintons join mourners at Beau Biden's funeral* // AP – June 6,
2015.............................. 30

*Can You Be a Latino Politician If You Don't Speak Fluent Spanish?* // NBC
News // Suzanne Gamboa – June 6,
2015.........................................................................................................................................
32

*GOP.................................................................................................................
**34*

*BUSH...........................................................................................................
**35*

*For Jeb Bush, the challenge remains making it about ‘Jeb,’ not ‘Bush’* //
WaPo // Ed O’Keefe – June 6, 2015 35

*A foreign policy checkmark for Jeb Bush* // AP // Thomas Beaumont – June
6, 2015..................... 37

*RUBIO.........................................................................................................
**39*

*Rubio's real estate dealings often a drag on his finances* // AP //
Nicholas Riccardi – June 6, 2015 39

*Marco Rubio Is Now Channeling JFK — Explicitly* // The National Journal //
Shane Goldmacher – June 6,
2015................................................................................................................................................
43

*Marco Rubio is what Republicans hope the future looks like* // VOX // Dara
Lind – June 6, 2015.. 44

*Rubio seeks to rebut skeptics on the experience factor* // The Hill //
Rebecca Shabad – June 6, 2015 45

*PAUL...........................................................................................................
**45*

*Paul: Laws on sexuality could be more ‘neutral,’ but all should be
protected* // WaPo // Katie Zezima – June 6,
2015.........................................................................................................................................
45

*Rand Paul on Transgender Rights: "Government Shouldn't Ask About Your
Personal Life"* // David Weigel – June 6,
2015......................................................................................................................................
46

*Paul: 'We have come to take our liberty back'* // The Union Leader // Dan
Tuohy – June 6, 2015... 47

*Rand Paul demands White House release trade deal text immediately* // The
Hill // Rebecca Shabad – June 6,
2015.........................................................................................................................................
49

*Ron Paul: 'I don't want to distract' from Rand** // *The Hill // Mark
Hensch – June 6, 2015.............. 49

*WALKER.....................................................................................................
**50*

*Scott Walker Riding With Joni Ernst in Iowa as Rivals Give Chase** // NYT
// Trip Gabriel – June 6, 2015*           51

*Scott Walker’s Effort to Weaken College Tenure* // NYT // The Editorial
Board – June 6, 2015....... 53

*Iowa's 'Roast and Ride': 5 takeaways* // Politico // Katie Glueck – June
6, 2016............................ 54

*Republican Walker is leader of 2016 election pack in Iowa* // Reuters //
John Whitesides – June 6, 2015         56

*Scott Walker: Hillary Clinton "firmly out of touch" on voting rights* //
CBS News // Reena Flores – June 6,
2015................................................................................................................................................
58

*Scott Walker in Iowa: 'We did not inherit fame or fortune'* // The Hill //
Rebecca Shabad – June 6, 2015          59

*CHRISTIE...................................................................................................
**60*

*Christie slams Clinton on voter IDs: 'She doesn't know what she's talking
about'* // Washington Examiner // Sean Higgins - June 6,
2015...............................................................................................................
60

*PERRY........................................................................................................
**60*

*Can Rick Perry close the deal?* // WaPo // Stephanie McCrummen – June 5,
2015........................ 60

*Perry touts experience as governor* // The Hill // Mark Hensch – June 6,
2015............................. 67

*Rick Perry announces Iowa presidential campaign team* // The Des Moines
Register // William Petroski – June 6,
2015.........................................................................................................................................
69

*HUCKABEE.................................................................................................
**70*

*Huckabee: I'm 'only person' to take on Clinton machine* // The Hill //
Mark Hensch – June 6, 2015 70

*KASICH........................................................................................................
**71*

*Hillary Clinton draws ire of John Kasich on voting* // The Columbus
Dispatch // Darrel Rowland – June 6,
2015.................................................................................................................................................
71

*CARSON.......................................................................................................
**73*

*Ben Carson’s Nascent Campaign Faces Personnel Turmoil*  // NYT // Ashley
Parker – June 6, 2015 73

*Dick Morris: Ben Carson's Fame Helps GOP Run, But More Is Needed* //
Newsweek // Todd Beamon – June 5,
2015.........................................................................................................................................
73

*Why is Ben Carson doing so well in the polls?* // WaPo // Amber Phillips –
June 5, 2015............... 75

*Carson: Political experience not needed to be a good president* // The
Hill // Mark Hensch – June 6, 2015     76

*JINDAL........................................................................................................
**77*

*As he nears a 2016 bid, Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal hits political bottom* //
WaPo // Tyler Bridge – June 6,
2015................................................................................................................................................
77

*FIORINA......................................................................................................
**79*

*Fiorina: Government is 'giant, bloated, unaccountable'* // The Des Moines
Register // Grant Rodgers – June 6,
2015.........................................................................................................................................
79

*OTHER........................................................................................................
**80*

*Presidential Hopefuls Descend on Iowa, Courting Favor With Joni Ernst** //
NYT // Ashley Parker – June 6,
2015*................................................................................................................................................
80

*A First for Snapchat* // NYT // Ashley Parker – June 6,
2015........................................................ 81

*In Iowa, pork, patriotism and presidential politics* // WaPo // Jenna
Johnson & Dan Balz – June 6, 2015        84

*Can conservatives find their footing in Hollywood in 2016?* // CNN //
Maeve Reston – June 5, 2015 87

*GOP hopefuls blame Obama's China policy for data breach* // The Hill //
Cory Bennett – June 6, 2015              88

*TOP
NEWS......................................................................................................
**90*

*DOMESTIC..................................................................................................
**90*

*Marriage today: rich-poor gap, later vows, gays gain access* // AP //
David Crary – June 6, 2015... 90

*GOP-led states trying bolster budgets by limiting government assistance
programs* // Fox News – June 6,
2015................................................................................................................................................
95

*INTERNATIONAL.......................................................................................
**96*

*Behind Tough Talk on Russia, G-7 Leaders Face Tough Reality** // AP //
Julie Pace – June 6, 2015*. 96

*OPINIONS/EDITORIALS/BLOGS....................................................................
**98*

*Running Against Hillary* // NYT // Ross Douthat – June 6,
2015.................................................. 98

*Hillary the Tormentor* // NYT // Frank Bruni – June 6,
2015...................................................... 100

*Why Join the Military With a Reckless (Meaning Republican)
Commander-In-Chief?* // HuffPo // Doug Bandow – June 6,
2015............................................................................................................................
103

*TODAY’S KEY STORIES*

*Hillary Clinton Traces Friendly Path, Troubling Party
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/us/politics/hillary-clinton-traces-friendly-path-troubling-party.html>
// NYT // Jonathan Martin & Maggie Haberman – June 6, 2015 *

Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be dispensing with the nationwide
electoral strategy that won her husband two terms in the White House and
brought white working-class voters and great stretches of what is now
red-state America back to Democrats.

Instead, she is poised to retrace Barack Obama’s far narrower path to the
presidency: a campaign focused more on mobilizing supporters in the Great
Lakes states and in parts of the West and South than on persuading
undecided voters.

Mrs. Clinton’s aides say it is the only way to win in an era of heightened
polarization, when a declining pool of voters is truly up for grabs. Her
liberal policy positions, they say, will fire up Democrats, a less
difficult task than trying to win over independents in more hostile
territory — even though a broader strategy could help lift the party with
her.

This early in the campaign, however, forgoing a determined outreach effort
to all 50 states, or even most of them, could mean missing out on the kind
of spirited conversation that can be a unifying feature of a presidential
election. And it could leave Mrs. Clinton, if she wins, with the same
difficulties Mr. Obama has faced in governing with a Republican-controlled
Congress.

Should Hillary Rodham Clinton win the Democratic nomination for president
in 2016, she would most likely follow the path that Barack Obama took to
victory in 2008 and 2012.

Already, it is causing consternation among Democrats in conservative states
that could be given short shrift by her campaign or bypassed altogether.

When Bill Clinton reclaimed the presidency for Democrats in 1992, his road
to the White House ran through Southern and Southern-border states filled
with what were then a precious commodity: swing voters.

Twenty years later, Mr. Obama convincingly won a second term without
competing in states like Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee or West Virginia
that powered Mr. Clinton. And because of his strong appeal among liberals,
Mr. Obama did so even while losing among independent voters.

As Mrs. Clinton intensifies her campaign for the Democratic nomination, it
is clear from her left-leaning policy stances, her hiring and her focus on
data-driven organizing that her strategy is modeled on Mr. Obama’s, not her
husband’s.

If she won, it would suggest that the so-called Obama coalition of young,
nonwhite and female voters is transferable to another Democrat. And it
would validate the idea that energizing core supporters is more important
in presidential contests than persuading those still undecided.

To the architects of the Obama strategy, Mrs. Clinton’s approach is not
mere homage: It is unavoidable, given that there are few genuine
independents now and that technology increasingly lets campaigns pinpoint
their most likely voters.

“If you run a campaign trying to appeal to 60 to 70 percent of the
electorate, you’re not going to run a very compelling campaign for the
voters you need,” said David Plouffe, a top Obama strategist who has
consulted informally with Mrs. Clinton.

Mrs. Clinton has said repeatedly that she does not want a lonely victory in
2016; she wants to elect Democrats down the ballot. A group of her senior
aides met recently with officials at the Democratic House, Senate and
governor campaign arms to brief them on the aides’ research and plans for
her message and organization. And Senate Democrats are hopeful that she
will lift their prospects, because there is considerable overlap in crucial
states: The results in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, North
Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin will almost certainly determine both who wins
the White House and which party controls the Senate.

Bill Clinton, then the Democratic nominee for president, greeted supporters
in 1992 in Carrollton, Ky. His road to the White House took him through
many Southern and border states, where he won the support of swing voters.

House Democrats, while realistic about the difficulty of retaking control,
are also counting on Mrs. Clinton to drive turnout for their candidates.
There will be contested races in some presidential swing states, but
Democratic strategists say Mrs. Clinton could also help the party unseat
House Republicans in deep-blue states like New York and California.

So to Democrats in states where Mrs. Clinton is unlikely to compete, her
relying on Mr. Obama’s map would be worrisome. It would not only further
diminish beleaguered state parties, but also leave Mrs. Clinton with a
narrower margin for error.

“Go ask Al Gore,” Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, said
about the risk of writing off states such as his, where Democratic
presidential candidates prospered until 2000. “He’d be president with five
electoral votes from West Virginia. So it is big, and it can make a
difference.”

Centrist Democrats also worry that focusing on liberal voters could lead to
a continuation of the problems Mr. Obama has faced with a Congress elected
by a vastly different subset of the nation.

“That’s not good for the country,” Mr. Manchin said, adding that he hoped
Mrs. Clinton would “come to the middle” if she became president.

Of her campaign, he said, “If they get her too far over, it’s going to be
more difficult to govern, it truly is.”

Other rural-state Democrats are sending not-so-subtle messages.

“I think that we always appreciate when people want to kind of talk to the
whole country and listen to concerns, and I think farm country is
critically important,” said Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Democrat of North
Dakota.

A larger risk of a tailored strategy is that by taking advantage of
polarization, a candidate could lose some of the authority that comes from
the civic exercise of appealing to much of the nation.

“The president is the one person who potentially could be the unifying
figure in the country,” said H. W. Brands, a historian at the University of
Texas at Austin. “And if the president or a presidential candidate
basically writes off 40 states, then how in the world do the people in
those 40 states feel like they have a stake in that person or that
election?”

Mrs. Clinton’s strategists appear mostly unmoved.

“I think everybody understands how tough it’s going to be next year if we
get through the primary,” Robby Mook, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager,
said. “So I’m not concerned about hand-wringing on the strategy.”

Aides acknowledged that Mrs. Clinton’s map would closely resemble Mr.
Obama’s, with roughly the same eight or so key states as in the last two
presidential elections, and with the possibility of competing in
historically Republican states like Arizona where the demographics
increasingly favor Democrats.

But given the Clintons’ deep ties to party leaders, including in many red
states, and their instinct for building up party machinery, some Democrats
wonder whether Mrs. Clinton will be able to resist old friends who press
her to at least test the waters in Republican-leaning areas.

Gov. Steven L. Beshear of Kentucky said he had reminded Mr. Clinton this
year that he carried Kentucky twice — and said Mrs. Clinton could win it,
too.

Many in Mr. Obama’s orbit are watching closely to see which impulse wins
out: an Obama-style faith in the data or a temptation to acquiesce to the
familiar. So far, Mrs. Clinton is heeding her mostly new team of advisers.

“One of the hardest things to do in politics is dispense with old
behavior,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former Obama adviser. “That will be a
challenge. But they’re setting themselves up to avoid that.”

Mrs. Clinton and her husband expressed concern last year when Democratic
turnout fell precipitously. Recognizing that Democrats had to be galvanized
to show up at the polls, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers used surveys and focus
groups to assess the risks of running a strongly liberal campaign. They
concluded that there were few.

So she is embracing the central lesson of the Obama school: that voters
turn out when they believe that an election makes a difference and that
their party’s standard-bearer is a champion on issues important to them.

By emphatically staking out liberal positions on gay rights, immigration,
criminal justice, voting rights and pay equity for women, Mrs. Clinton is
showing core Democratic constituencies that she intends to give them a
reason to support her.

The stoke-the-base approach is a hallmark of Mrs. Clinton’s young campaign
manager, Mr. Mook. He used similar tactics to lift Gov. Terry McAuliffe of
Virginia to victory in 2013, in a race both Clintons watched closely.

It is a starkly different style from that of Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign,
when she was often concerned about being seen as too liberal to appeal to
centrists.

This time, Mr. Pfeiffer said, “she hired people with a sense of where the
electorate is now, not where it was in 1992.”

Mrs. Clinton’s strategic intentions are also evident in her focus on
organizing. Mr. Mook noted twice in an interview that her campaign already
had supporters in all 50 states mustering volunteers to register voters and
ensure Mrs. Clinton is on the ballot. That is partly why the campaign
postponed her first rally: so her team could have time to make it more of
an organizing event.

That kickoff in New York next Saturday will be an important test of
enthusiasm for Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, and of her campaign’s ability to
use big events to build the machinery that will identify and turn out
voters.

What Mrs. Clinton says there will matter. But the organizing around the
rally, and around the events her campaign is holding that night to build a
volunteer network, will be just as consequential.

It is a far cry from her husband’s campaigns.

“The highest-premium voter in ’92 was a voter who would vote for one party
some and for another party some,” said James Carville, Mr. Clinton’s chief
strategist in 1992. “Now the highest-premium voter is somebody with a high
probability to vote for you and low probability to turn out. That’s the
golden list. And that’s a humongous change in basic strategic doctrine.”

*On the economy, is Clinton prepared to take her stand?
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-the-economy-is-clinton-prepared-to-take-her-stand/2015/06/06/83e507d6-0bdf-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html>
// WaPo // Dan Balz – June 6, 2015 *

In a week, Hillary Rodham Clinton will take the next step in her campaign
for president with a big rally in New York. Her aides say that she will
offer a fuller description of where she would take the country. On economic
policies, will she stand with President Obama or apart from him and closer
to her populist rivals on the left?

The answer depends in part on how Clinton diagnoses the state of the
economy and on the effect of the president’s policies. Friday’s employment
report showed an increase of 280,000 jobs in May, the best this year. As
White House officials noted, the economy has added private sector jobs for
63 consecutive months. In the past two years, more than 5.6 million jobs
have been added to the economy and 12.6 million since the
consecutive-months streak started.

The employment report provided a helpful offset to the recent report that
showed the economy had contracted during the first quarter of the year,
because of severe winter weather and other factors.

That may be just one bad quarter. But for all the jobs added over the past
five years, the economy continues to grow slowly, and many Americans
continue to say that they haven’t seen much benefit. More than 7 in 10
Americans say they remain worried about the future direction of the
economy, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Clinton has said that the economy is not working for everyone, that the
deck is stacked against ordinary Americans and in favor of those with
power, influence and financial wealth. In one form or another, she is
saying that, after more than six years with a Democratic administration and
despite the number of jobs added, the economy still isn’t working the way
it should.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley
have launched their candidacies with a populist critique of the economic
status quo. As they, like Clinton, aim their toughest criticisms at
Republican policies, their economic analyses also represent at least a
partial rebuke of their own party’s policies.

When she announced her candidacy in April, Clinton highlighted the economic
unease of many American families and said she wanted to be a champion for
the middle class. What she has not done is offer an explanation of why
Democratic policies have failed to adequately address the factors that
contribute to middle-class angst.

Sanders and O’Malley have argued that the administration has not been
vigorous enough in taking on entrenched economic power in behalf of
workers. They also have said that officials have been negligent in not
trying to bring some in the banking community to justice for their
contributions to the collapse of the financial system in the fall of 2008.
Both call for significant increases in government spending for
infrastructure and other domestic initiatives.

Sanders and O’Malley also see the pending 12-nation Trans-Pacific
Partnership as emblematic of the administration’s upside-down values when
it comes to workers. They have come out against the agreement (which is
still being negotiated) as being bad for American workers. But that’s not
so with Clinton, who promoted a Pacific trade deal as secretary of state.
Until there is or isn’t an agreement, she is reserving judgment, keeping a
foot in both camps.

Rhetorically, Clinton often has sounded like Sanders and O’Malley and Sen.
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is credited with pushing populist themes
into the national debate. In policy terms, Clinton has been holding back,
but that time may be coming to an end.

Will she embrace the president’s policies, arguing that they simply need a
bit of tweaking and some more time to begin spreading benefits more widely?
Will she claim that the Republicans have blocked the Democrats’ policies
from being fully realized and provide evidence that she would have greater
success than Obama in getting them implemented? Or will she acknowledge
implicitly or explicitly that the policies haven’t worked by setting a
different course?

Right now, the 2016 president election appears to be headed toward a stale
rerun of the two-party economic debate of the last campaign. Republicans
see Obama’s policies — spending, taxing and regulatory — as inhibiting
growth. They see big government as an obstacle and would pare away at it
size and reach. Democrats see Republicans as offering a return to policies
that favor the wealthy and that provide little for working families,
policies that would cut spending and create pain.

This debate played out in 2012 as a “who-do-you-trust” choice. Obama cast
himself as the empathetic protector of the middle class and attacked
Republican rival Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch business executive who
cared only about profits for corporations and their owners and not for
average people. Romney described Obama as someone who understood little
about how the economy really worked.

Voters split over who would be better at handling the economy (49 percent
for Romney, 48 percent for Obama), but on the question of who cares about
“people like me,” 81 percent cited the president. Case closed.

But a “who-do-you-trust” frame isn’t sufficient. As the recovery has failed
to produce a more equitable distribution of benefits, and as overall growth
rates remain well below what they were a generation ago (through both
Republican and Democratic administrations), it’s clear that something more
is needed in the coming election. The prospect of another predictable
economic debate between the two parties is hardly what the country needs.

Republicans have their own questions to answer about how they would change
their policies. It is popular now for Republican candidates to talk about
the lack of economic mobility and the gap between Wall Street and Main
Street. They are trying to avoid the trap Romney fell into in the last
election. But voters have a right to know whether they have fresh thinking
behind their rhetoric. So far there’s been only a little of that.

Among Democrats, party progressives are clamoring for something more than
more of the same. But 21/2 years after Obama defeated Romney, some
Democrats plainly think that empathy alone will not solve the problems of a
struggling middle class. The possibility of an engaged
Democratic-nomination contest provides the vehicle for a debate that would
examine what has and hasn’t worked.

Sanders, O’Malley and the others who are joining the race might not be
equipped politically to deny Clinton the nomination. Still, their presence
makes it more likely that Democrats will get the debate that many say they
would like to see.

No one, including Clinton, argues for a return to the policies of her
husband’s presidency, though the economy was strong then. But neither is
she likely to want to run as a third term of the Obama presidency. If
Clinton thinks the president’s economic policies have been and are working,
she could say so directly. If she thinks they have been inadequate
regarding the size and complexity of the economic ills that she describes,
she can say that. She now has an open forum in which to engage those
questions.

*HRC** NATIONAL COVERAGE*

*In 2008, Clinton couldn’t buy Iowans’ love. So she bought them snow
shovels.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-2008-clinton-couldnt-buy-iowans-love-so-she-bought-them-snow-shovels/2015/06/06/742be0e0-07a6-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html>
// WaPo // David A. Fahrenthold – June 6, 2015 *

In Phyllis Peters’s garage, there is a snow shovel. A nice one: green,
shiny, with an ergonomic steel handle. It came from Hillary Rodham Clinton.

And it plays a part in a modern-day political legend, about some of the
strangest money a candidate has ever spent.

Eight years ago, Peters was a volunteer for Clinton’s first presidential
run. She had been an admirer of Clinton since her time as first lady. But
just before Clinton lost the Iowa caucuses, her staffers did something odd:
They bought shovels for Peters and the hundreds of other volunteers.

“If you’re in Iowa, you have a snow shovel” already, Peters said. But she
accepted. To be nice. This is Iowa. “We’re not rude people,” Peters said.

Today, the story of Clinton’s snow shovels is being told again in Iowa, as
supporters worry that her second campaign could repeat the mistakes of the
first. For both those who gave out the shovels and those who received them,
they came to symbolize a candidate who never quite got their home state.

Clinton doesn’t face near the same challenge in Iowa in 2016. But the state
still matters as a test of basic politics, a gauge of whether she has
gotten any better at connecting with the people she wants to vote for her.

Last time around, Clinton tried to win over Iowans with bloodless logic,
touting her résumé and her grinding work ethic. When that fell short,
Clinton’s well-funded campaign — unable to buy her love — started buying
everything else.

An expensive chartered “Hill-a-copter.” A $95,000 order of deli sandwiches.
And 600-odd new snow shovels, some of which still sit, unused, in basements
and garages across Iowa.

The idea behind them seemed to be that Clinton’s own voters might be so
old, or so un-enthused, that they wouldn’t leave the house if it snowed.
And that Clinton’s own Iowa volunteers — if sent on a voter-rescue mission
— might not be prepared for . . . winter. In Iowa.

“It’s sort of like, ‘Yeah, I’ll take a snow shovel,’ ” said Marisue
Hartung, one of Peters’s fellow Clinton volunteers in Ames. “But why?”

The story of the snow shovels starts way back in the fall of 2007. At that
time, Clinton — a second-term senator from New York — was crushing Barack
Obama in national polls,up 20 points. In Iowa, she was up by a handful.

But already, Clinton staffers were discovering a problem here:

Their voters.

There were large numbers of elderly people. Shift workers. Single mothers.
All people who might be too tired, or too busy, to come out and vote the
way Iowans vote: with their feet, in a gym, in a long caucus night of
speechifying and waiting around.

“We left, and we all wanted to go drink. It was like, ‘I don’t know what a
caucus is,’ ” said one Clinton staffer from the 2008 campaign. “We realized
that, like, we were going to lose because we weren’t going to be able to
get out all of these Hillary supporters” to stay as long as it took to be
counted.

So Clinton needed more people. New people. She was pouring resources into
Iowa. But so was Obama, and his soaring message of hope and change was
spreading among the kind of people who really would come to a caucus and
stay.

To Clinton, by contrast, politics was not about soaring. It was about
grinding — a constant, incremental struggle — and she was the candidate who
could succeed at it. That might have been true. But it was hardly the stuff
of joy.

“We all want change,” she would say. “Some people believe you bring it
about by hoping for it. I believe you bring about change by working really,
really hard for it.”

The other problem was Clinton’s distance — both emotional and real. Even
when she was in Iowa, it felt as if she wasn’t.

Obama “would get on a bus, and he would go from town to town to town, and
people would ride on the bus with him. People would get to know him,” said
Chris Gowen, who was part of Clinton’s advance team. “Whereas we would fly
into Des Moines . . . then dart back to the airport, and fly to northern
Iowa, then dart back to the airport.”

“We were spending all this money,” he said. “And you’d never really connect
with people.”

As the Jan. 3 caucuses approached, Iowa seemed to be slipping away from
Clinton. But her campaign still had money coming in — on some days, more
than $1 million.

And money is for spending. With Iowa still theoretically in play, there
would be no prizes for saving it.

“The reality is, the closer you get to an election day, the harder it is to
spend money in a smart way,” said Karen Hicks, a senior adviser to
Clinton’s 2008 campaign. It was getting too late to buy ad time on
television, or print up new fliers, or train new staff, before the
caucuses. “It gets harder to spend in a way that you can tie to an
incremental vote or caucus victory.”

At a time like that, Hicks said, “you probably should stop spending.”

The campaign didn’t.

It spent big on the “Hill-a-copter,” a Bell 222 with leather seats that the
campaign chartered, trying to hit 16 Iowa counties in five days. News
reports put the cost at thousands per day.

Even when it worked, this was not a perfect idea. Clinton — seeking to
project a common touch — would meet voters by descending from the sky.

An even more last-minute purchase was the $95,384 order of deli sandwiches
from the Hy-Vee grocery chain. The Iowa tradition was to bring munchies,
not meals. But the Clinton people were worried about their young mothers
and shift workers. Would they skip the caucuses if it meant waiting hours
to eat?

And then: the shovels.

“I remember when they were ordered. There was an actual conversation about
is there anything else, you know. ‘We are sure that we can’t purchase any
more phone time?’ ‘Are we sure that we can’t purchase any more flights of
mail?’ ” said the former Clinton campaign staffer, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to preserve relations with the current campaign.

The shovels were bought, and they were distributed to offices and precinct
captains by campaign staff. It’s not clear, from campaign-finance records,
what they cost — but it seems certain to have been at least $10,000.

In hindsight, there is debate about why snow shovels appeared to be a
better choice than nothing.

Some people saw them as a metaphor: a physical reminder that Clinton’s
volunteers were needed to get their people out, come hell or high water —
or snow.

“I think the same thing could have been accomplished by giving out a key
chain with a snow shovel on it that costs 30 cents,” said the former
Clinton staffer.

Hicks said this was a preemptive maneuver, grabbing a valuable resource
before the enemy did. And if voters didn’t stay home, there was another
worry: caucus sites. Snowy walks. Voters might not make it to the door.

Maybe. But, again, if you live in Iowa, you probably have a shovel.

Neither Obama nor Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), the other two top contenders,
seem to have bought snow shovels. Did they laugh when Clinton did? “I’m not
going to answer that on the record,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, Edwards’s
Iowa state director.

To the Iowans who got them, they did not make much sense. Either as a
metaphor or as a shovel.

“All down the hallway in the office are these brand-new snow shovels,” said
Justin Sharp, then a University of Iowa student volunteer. He asked.
Somebody explained. Sharp thought it was the same kind of thinking that had
led Clinton’s campaign to tell him to knock on doors in Iowa City on
Saturdays, during Iowa Hawkeyes football games.

“If they’re going to go to the caucus, they’re going to go,” Sharp
remembered thinking. “And if they’re not, they’re not going to go — even if
you shovel them.”

In West Des Moines, Clinton volunteer Tom Laughead, who admired the
candidate for her work on health-care reform, actually tried to put his
gift to use. A few days before the caucuses, he cleared old snow off a
walkway at one woman’s house.

Just to show that he, and Clinton, were serious.

“She said, ‘Oh, well, thank you very much,’ and then she just kind of like,
uhhh,” Laughead said, miming a woman trying to avoid eye contact with a
Clinton volunteer.

“I just hope to see you there,” Laughead remembered saying.

And?

“I don’t remember seeing her there.”

When caucus night came at last, Clinton’s volunteers saw what Clinton’s
staff had feared. Their well-funded campaign — so flush it could give
shovels to people who had shovels — was going to lose.

“It was like, ‘This half of the room is where the Obama delegates are going
to be, and everybody else go in this half of the room,’ ” said Sharp, the
University of Iowa volunteer. In his college town, Clinton’s supporters
were in the “everybody else” part, lumped in with the other losers. “They
never told us that this could happen. We were just expecting that the
support was going to be there.”

The sandwiches didn’t seem to help much. “The Obama people, and the Edwards
people, I think they ate as many as the few Hillary people did,” Sharp said.

And the shovels didn’t help much, either. On caucus day, it did not snow
anywhere in Iowa.

“The Obama people had these shirts. And everyone loved these T-shirts, and
people were running around like madmen to get these shirts,” said Gowen,
the advance man. In the caucus environment, where people can watch each
other vote, the red T-shirts signaled to undecided voters that Obama’s
strength was strong and catching. “Had we gone with T-shirts over shovels,”
Gowen said, “we might have had a different president right now.”

Okay maybe that’s a little strong.

“Had we gone with T-shirts, I think we would at least have come in second,”
Gowen said.

Instead, Clinton came in third, behind Edwards.

Now, Clinton is back in Iowa. Some supporters here say she doesn’t need to
change her logical, résumé-based appeal. The problem in 2008 was Obama and
the wellspring of frustration with the Bush administration that he tapped.

Both are out of the picture now.

“It’s sort of an urban myth that the Clinton campaign didn’t do well in
Iowa in 2008. The truth is that she got more votes than anybody in the
history of the Iowa caucuses,” said Jerry Crawford, her Midwestern co-chair
in 2008 and still a close adviser. “It just wasn’t as much as the other
two.”

But many in Iowa, and on Clinton’s campaign staff, say they are determined
to do some things differently.

For her first Iowa event, in April, she arrived in her “Scooby” van, not in
a Hill-a-copter. And she has held a series of small events — house parties
and roundtables — to emphasize her desire to start small and listen first.

“Hillary made it very clear to us that she wanted to have a conversation
with Iowans and hear their thoughts, concerns and ideas for the future,”
Matt Paul, Clinton’s Iowa state director, said in an e-mail interview. “The
caucus is about relationships, and to build those, you’ve got to listen —
and that’s exactly what she’s been doing.”

But elements of the old approach remain.

For one thing, Clinton’s small events have still been stiffly staged, with
attendees often pre-screened by staff or by the Secret Service. “We passed
the deadline for a security clearance, so we didn’t get to go,” said Nancy
Sweetman, a green-shovel owner who saw too late an invitation to a “house
party” with Clinton in Mason City. “But you know, living in Iowa, we’ll see
her again.”

Chuck and Nancy Sweetman of Mason City were staunch supporters of Clinton’s
2008 campaign. They have two souvenir snow shovels. (Jabin Botsford/The
Washington Post)

Clinton still focuses on her résumé and work ethic, casting herself as “a
champion” for the middle class. That means her appeal can still be tied to
the idea that politics is a grind.

“She’s got the strength to take the criticism right now from the press on
avoiding questions from the press,” said Dean Genth, a Clinton supporter
who hosted the Mason City house party.

“She’s going to have to connect at a very different level if she wants to
be president,” said Janelle Rettig, a Clinton precinct captain in 2008 who
is now a county supervisor in Johnson County. “It’s very hard for me to go
against a woman who’s smart, who’s qualified and who’s experienced. But I
also need somebody who I’m passionate about. And that’s not there, yet.”

A few weeks ago, one of Clinton’s new campaign staffers came to Ames to ask
advice from three locals who had seen the last campaign up close. All three
owned green snow shovels. Whatever else happened, they wanted Clinton to
know that they didn’t need more.

“The snow shovels aren’t necessary,” Hartung said. Iowans come to caucus,
whether it snows or not. “We were going to get there anyway.”

Hartung recalled the staffer’s response: “She sort of said, ‘You know, I’ve
heard other comments about this. . . . ’ ”

*Hillary Clinton talks education, health care at New Haven fundraiser
<http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20150605/hillary-clinton-talks-education-health-care-at-new-haven-fundraiser>
// New Haven Register // Mary O’Leary – June 6, 2015 *

Hillary Clinton was late for her fundraiser in New Haven, stuck with all
those other Connecticut drivers who regularly curse the congestion on
Interstate 95 through Fairfield County.

It was her second fundraiser of the day, having first picked up
contributions at the Greenwich home of philanthropist Malcolm Weiner and
his wife, Carolyn Weiner.

The ask at both the Greenwich event and the one in New Haven at the home of
Yale Law School professors Judith Resnik and Dennis Curtis was the same:
$2,700 per person.

To be a co-host to the invitation-only event and receive membership in her
Hillstarters Program, individual supporters were given the task of raising
$27,000, according to the Greenwich Times. Host of these private
fundraisers are asked to raise $50,000, which then puts them in the
Clinton’s Hillraisers Program.

Clinton is among three Democrats who have announced their intention to run
for president in 2016, a campaign that has already attracted nearly a dozen
Republicans for their primary fight.

One of those rivals, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was in Stamford
Thursday night, the honored guest at the GOP’s Prescott Bush Awards Dinner.
He picked up some $50,000 at a fundraiser prior to the dinner, according to
the Greenwich Times.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, and U.S.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., were among the estimated 100 people at the
Greenwich event, as was former Connecticut Secretary of the State Susan
Bysiewicz.

Blumenthal, who attended the Yale Law School at the same time as Clinton
and former President Bill Clinton, was at both events.

Bysiewicz, who said she was helping Clinton with grassroots organizing and
fundraising, did the same thing. She also brought her 93-year-old aunt,
Mary Stewart, a World War II Coast Guard vet. “She was hoping to meet her,”
Bysiewicz said.

Many in attendance from New Haven were associated with the Yale Law School,
with former Dean Harold Koh acting as one of the organizers.

Koh served as the legal adviser to the State Department during President
Barack Obama’s first term, when Hillary Clinton was secretary of the state.

The head count in New Haven was also around 100, according to Charles
Pillsbury, a neighbor of the hosts, who attended with his wife, the Rev.
Allie Perry.

Connecticut Democratic Party Chairman Nick Balletto showed up on time for
the New Haven event in the East Rock neighborhood, where the guests started
arriving just before 4:30 p.m. Mayor Toni Harp was also a guest.

“I think her values and the things she stood for over a lifetime and in
public life are things that would be good for our country,” Harp said.

Everyone was first checked off on an invitation list and then had to pass
through security set up on the front lawn at the home on St. Ronan Street.

The guests mingled inside and on a rear porch as they waited for Clinton,
who arrived around 6:15 p.m. by a back entrance, avoiding the small press
contingent assembled across the street.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the state party are expected to endorse Clinton
for president this weekend in Hartford.

Pillsbury said he feels Clinton “is our best hope.”

He said she spoke about the importance of early childhood education and
said the tension between the public schools and the charter schools is a
false dichotomy.

The former secretary of the state said the public and charter schools
should be working together. She offered the example of schools in Houston,
where the successful elements of the charters have been incorporated into
the public school system, Pillsbury said.

He said Clinton, who first conducted a listening tour before declaring her
candidacy, told the donors that she learned two things on that tour, that
she might not have stressed beforehand.

The candidate said families told her how drug addiction was ruining the
lives of their children, with heroin the problem in New Hampshire and meth
the scourge in Iowa.

The other issue was the lack of mental health practitioners. While there is
more coverage under the Affordable Care Act, there are not enough
professionals to serve the population, she told them.

Clinton, according to Pillsbury, talked of supporting a constitutional
amendment to overturn the Citizens United court ruling. The court found
that corporations and unions can pay for political ads made independently
of candidate campaigns. That finding and others have opened up a flood of
campaign spending, where often the names of donors are hidden.

Rubio on Thursday took a shot at the fundraising efforts of the Clintons,
according to press reports.

“I don’t have a family foundation that raised over $2 billion from Wall
Street and foreign nations,” Rubio said at the dinner.

On environmental issues, Clinton said in the move away from coal, something
will have to be done to replace those jobs now performed by miners.

Pillsbury said the candidate recalled her trip to Indonesia when she was
secretary of state and a talk show host had asked how she could work for
Obama who had said such harsh things about her in the campaign.

She said she did it because she loved her country. Clinton said she
realized that often people’s loyalties are to regions or tribes. The
concept of patriotism expressed in the United States was foreign to them,
Pillsbury recalled.

After having sat in traffic in Connecticut, Clinton, as she left the St.
Ronan Street home, was shouted a question as to whether she would advocate
for funds for the state to fix its commuter nightmare.

“Absolutely. I believe in infrastructure,” she said before getting back
into the black Explorer with Secret Service agents.

*America may not understand the Clintons — but Wall Street does
<http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-gets-the-clintons-2015-6> //
Business Insider // Linette Lopez – June 6, 2015 *

Here are some things the Clintons do that most of America doesn't
understand:

Using a separate email server at the State Department.

Borrowing your friend's private plane.

Owning shell companies.

Answering questions about your family foundation.

You know who does understand all that?

Wall Street does.

That's why the recent so-called scandals Hillary Clinton is facing in her
presidential campaign won't necessarily impact the money she collects from
The Street.

"The Clintons are not dirty," one young portfolio manager told Business
Insider this week.

"They make appearances, get money, put it in the fund, build schools. It's
not going into their personal bank accounts. It's the way the world works;
I find nothing wrong with it."

Lots of people on Wall Street are familiar with the hoops they and their
companies must jump through to give to the Clinton Foundation. All
donations must meet AML and AB+C requirements.

(That's anti-money laundering and anti-bribery and corruption for all us
civilians.)

For people who are used to giving to charitable organizations, this whole
rigmarole is rather familiar.

Big donors on Wall Street are also people who may have borrowed a friend's
private plane at one point — or known someone who knows someone who has.

One thing that Clinton could do to upset Wall Street — that in fact any
candidate can do to upset the industry — is talk about its money (or its
taxes, or its lawsuits). That's a no-no.

Clinton has touched on the no-no.

“There’s something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than
nurses or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here over the
last two days,” Hillary Clinton said while on the road in America's
heartland last month. “Something is wrong when CEOs earn more than 300
times than what the typical American worker earns and when hedge fund
managers pay a lower tax rate than truck drivers or nurses,” she added.

And that was more than enough. Masters of the Universe, you see, are very
sensitive.

Lee Cooperman, a billionaire hedge fund manager and Goldman Sachs vet went
off on these in an interview with CNN this week.

"I don't need anybody crapping all over what I do for a living," Cooperman,
72, told CNN Money's Cristina Alesci.

He added that Clinton "hangs out with these people in Martha's Vineyard and
in the Hamptons, and the very first thing she does is criticize hedge
funds."

Cooperman felt that Clinton's comments were "bogus."

"This notion of crapping all over hedge funds is so bogus it makes me
nauseous. The only thing that makes me more nauseous is those hedge funds
that support her," he said.

If you think that this may be a bit of an over-the-top reaction from people
who have drivers, hire private security, and live in gated communities,
that's your opinion. Obama went through this. Every politician goes through
this. After Occupy Wall Street it only got worse, and it's not going to
change.

All of this is means that Clinton's campaign probably won't go all in on
populism by any means.

However, given that America is really focused on economic inequality right
now, it also means you probably won't see Clinton throwing any big parties
at Goldman Sachs (where employees are actually pretty split down the middle
in terms of party affiliation).

When she courts Wall Street it will be done quietly. At private dinners
sponsored by bundlers who will assure the oh-so-sensitive Masters of the
Universe in attendance that her populism is just popular, and that at the
end of day Clinton understands their way of life.

That's all they really want anyway — to be understood.

*Malloy makes it official: His choice is Hillary
<http://ctmirror.org/2015/06/07/malloy-makes-it-official-his-choice-is-hillary/>
// CT Mirror // Mark Pazniokas - June 7, 2015*

Malloy embracing Bill Clinton at a rally in 2014. He is returning the
favor, endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.

It’s not a recent decision, nor is it a surprise. But the time has come to
go public: With the legislative session over, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is
endorsing Hillary Clinton for president Sunday.

"I've been an admirer of hers for many years, going back to when she was
first lady. I want to see her get elected president. I also think she is
the best candidate the Democrats could run. I think she is one of the most
experienced candidates that any party has run," Malloy said.

Clinton was elected U.S. senator from New York in 2000 as her husband's
presidency was winding down. After losing the Democratic presidential
nomination in 2008, she joined the administration of Barack Obama as
secretary of state.

“I’ve known the Clintons for a long time. I think she is the best prepared
candidate, and I’m really excited about helping her get elected president,”
Malloy said.

Malloy’s national profile will grow next year as becomes chairman of the
Democratic Governors Association, a role likely to win him a slot as a
speaker at the Democratic National Convention.

One of his friends and DGA predecessors, former Gov. Martin O’Malley of
Maryland, announced his candidacy last week, but Clinton already has
wrapped up key endorsements, even in O’Malley’s home state. O'Malley should
not be surprised by Sunday's news, Malloy said.

“The governor and I had discussion about this in the past, where I had made
it clear if Hillary was a candidate I would support her,” Malloy said. “And
I have had the opportunity more recently to indicate I would be supporting
Hillary. But I don’t think there was an expectation I would be supporting
him over Hillary.”

Malloy was to announce his endorsement at an event promoting the kickoff of
the Democratic Party’s municipal election season.

“I think it’s an opportunity to talk about two races at once, the municipal
races which are coming in November, followed by the first primaries and
caucuses that will play out,” he said. “They automatically overlap, so why
not admit that and do the two things together?”

He also talked about the endorsement in a taped segment to air Sunday
morning on WFSB, Channel 3’s “Face the State.”

In 2008, when Malloy was mayor of Stamford, Barack Obama defeated Hillary
Clinton in the Connecticut primary. Malloy’s two successful runs for
governor in 2010 and 2014 benefitted from get-out-the-vote rallies
headlined by Obama and Bill Clinton.

Bill Clinton is the Democrat who ended the GOP’s run of carrying
Connecticut in six consecutive presidential years. Beginning with his win
in 1992, Connecticut has gone blue in six straight presidential elections.

*GOP Has Reason To Fret As Clinton Leads Bush 47-40 In North Carolina
<http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/06/gop-reason-fret-clinton-leads-bush-47-40-north-carolina.html>
// Politicus // Keith Brekhusmore – June 6, 2015*

A Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey released on June 4th, found Democrat
Hillary Clinton enjoying a modest 47-40 lead over Republican presidential
hopeful Jeb Bush in North Carolina. The Tarheel State is a crucial
battleground state that Republicans cannot afford to lose. Barack Obama won
North Carolina in 2008, but lost the state to Mitt Romney in 2012.

The poll also found Clinton leading or tied with eight other GOP
candidates. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul
fared best of the Republican candidates. Walker managed a 45-45 tie with
Clinton, and Rand Paul tied her 44-44. Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted
Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio all trailed Clinton by
margins ranging from one to seven percentage points.

Clinton polled especially strong with women voters and African-Americans in
North Carolina. Although Jeb Bush held a slight 45-41 advantage with male
voters, Clinton held a dominant 51-37 lead with women voters. Clinton also
had a crushing advantage with black voters. The poll found Clinton
garnering 86 percent support from African-American voters compared to a
pitiful 3 percent who backed Jeb Bush.

While the election is still 16 months away, Hillary Clinton’s strong
numbers in North Carolina bode well for Democratic prospects in 2016. By
amassing overwhelming support from black voters and a decisive edge with
women voters, Hillary Clinton is well positioned to lock down North
Carolina’s 15 electoral votes.

The poll also points to Jeb Bush’s weakness if he becomes the Republican
nominee. His 7-point deficit to Clinton in North Carolina matched fringe
candidate Ted Cruz’s poor numbers in the state. Rather than being one of
the strongest GOP candidates, Jeb Bush appears to be one of the weakest
candidates in the Republican field.

Republicans have reason to fret about the poll numbers in the Tarheel
State, because without carrying North Carolina the GOP has no path to
victory in the 2016 presidential election. If the current polling numbers
continue to hold in North Carolina, Hillary Clinton would not only carry
the Tarheel State but the nation as well, becoming the 45th U.S. President.

*Experts Fear Messy Consequences if Hillary Clinton’s Automatic Voter Plan
Is Enacted
<http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/06/06/experts-fear-messy-consequences-if-hillary-clintons-automatic-voter-plan-is-enacted/>
// The Blade // Fred Lucas – June 6, 2015*

Hillary Clinton’s call for national automatic voter registration, if
enacted, could create messy consequences for ballot integrity, according to
some election law experts.

“Automatic registration, I’m afraid, would result in increasing the number
of ineligible registrations as well as duplicate registrations,” Hans Von
Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Elections Commission and now a
senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told TheBlaze.

“Many people are on government databases in more than one state,” he said.
“We already have a problem in the current system with people being
registered to vote in more than one state.”

During a speech Thursday in Houston, Clinton called for “universal
automatic voter registration” and declared that “every citizen in every
state in the union should be automatically registered to vote when they
turn 18 – unless they choose to opt out.”

In May, Oregon became the only state to enact automatic voter registration,
placing every adult with a driver’s license on a list to get a ballot in
the mail several weeks before Election Day. The new law is expected to add
another 300,000 registered voters, The Atlantic reported. Oregon was the
first state to move to all mail-in balloting in 1998.

“In light of legislative efforts around the country to make voting more
difficult, we are pleased that Oregon’s leadership to ensure voting access
for all eligible voters is receiving national attention as a model for
other states and the nation,” Oregon Secretary of State Jeanne P. Atkins
told TheBlaze in a statement.

During her speech, Clinton criticized voter ID laws and claimed concerns
about voter fraud was “fear mongering.”

But such a law could pose challenges for frontline election workers.

“How would it be automatic? Just show up to vote with a driver’s license or
proof you are 18?” Susan Gill, a board of directors member of the National
Association of Election Officials, asked.

The NAEO represents state and local election officials involved in voter
registration and election supervision. “What’s the mechanism to make it
workable?” she also wondered.

Gill, also the supervisor of elections of Citrus County, Florida, asked how
Oregon will handle eligible voters without driver’s licenses. Contrary to
making voting more difficult, Gill contended that basic voter integrity
laws ensure that votes count.

“The right to vote is so sacred we need reasonable safeguards against
fraud. Verification and ID are important parts of keeping the vote safe,”
Gill told TheBlaze. “But it is not like the 1960s or earlier. Because of
computers we are now far less likely to have large-scale voter fraud. We
are most likely to see it today in absentee voting.”

Clinton’s proposal is also similar to a measure enacted in Canada, which
adopted an automatic voter registration law in 1997 — but without the
desired effect.

A higher percentage of Canadians vote than Americans, but the nation to the
north has still seen a steady decline in voter participation since the
1970s that continued after the 1997 law, Von Spakovsky said.

He along with journalist John Fund coauthored the 2012 book, “Who’s
Counting? How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk.”

“Low turnout has nothing to do with voter registration rules. It is easy to
register to vote,” Von Spakovsky noted. “Canada went to automatic voting in
1997 and it hasn’t done a thing to increase turnout.”

*Hillary has Roosevelt Island officials in the palm of her hand
<http://nypost.com/2015/06/07/hillary-has-roosevelt-island-officials-in-the-palm-of-her-hand/>
// NY Post // Bill Sanderson – June 7, 2015*

Whatever Hillary wants, Hillary gets from the poobahs who oversee Roosevelt
Island’s memorial to Franklin Roosevelt.

Hillary Clinton will officially launch her campaign next Saturday with a
big event at the state-owned Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, on
the southern tip of Roosevelt Island.

The rally displaced an “Imagination Playground” event for kids, which had
to be rescheduled for October.

The park is overseen by a conservancy with a board of directors packed with
prominent Democrats.

The conservancy’s president, Sally Minard, is a longtime Clinton fan and
fund-raiser. She was a “coordinator” on Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign and
gave $6,900 to her 2008 presidential campaign, federal records show.

Minard was also a big “bundler” of donations to President Obama’s
presidential campaigns, gathering a total of $511,098 from various donors,
the campaign-finance monitoring Web site OpenSecrets.org reports.

So far, public records don’t show any donations by Minard to Clinton’s 2016
campaign. The Upper East Side resident took no salary from the conservancy
in 2013, records show.

The conservancy board’s chairwoman, Barbara Shattuck Kohn, is also a
longtime Clinton supporter. She also contributed $6,900 to Clinton’s 2008
campaign, records show.

Other Democrats on the conservancy’s board include former City Council
member Jessica Lappin, former Ambassador William vanden Heuvel and his
daughter, Katherine vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, a liberal magazine.

Conservancy officials could not be reached Saturday.

*OTHER DEMOCRATS NATIONAL COVERAGE*

*O’MALLEY*

*O'Malley makes a pitch to younger voters
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-omalley-young-voters-20150605-story.html#page=1>
// The Baltimore Sun // John Fritze – June 6, 2015*

Martin O'Malley came to this New England college town bearing pizza, and a
message he hopes will click with the young voters who could be critical for
his long-shot bid for president.

"One thing I've been struck by is a big generational shift underway in our
country," O'Malley told about 100 students gathered May 31 in a small
library meeting room at Dartmouth College last week. "I've rarely met
someone under 40 who denies climate change is real. I rarely meet anyone
under 40 who wants to scapegoat immigrants."

The line brought murmurs of agreement from the crowd of young Democrats.

As the former two-term Maryland governor sets out on an ambitious campaign
for president, he is courting the type of young voters who fueled Barack
Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012. He relies on words like "this
generation" and "new leadership" to make a not-so-subtle point about his
opponents, who are not only older but have spent more time in Washington.

But the 52-year-old guitar-slinging politician faces stiff competition for
the under-30 set. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie
Sanders of Vermont are also working to lock down the potentially powerful
constituency.

Whoever inspires them will have an important advantage in the Democratic
primaries next year, and the general election in November. In 2014 there
were 46 million eligible voters under 30, compared with 39 million seniors,
according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and
Engagement at Tufts University.

One display of their ability to influence an election: If Republican Mitt
Romney had managed to just split the youth vote with Obama in 2012, he
would have won Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio — and the
presidency.

Obama carried at least 60 percent of the young voters in each of those
states.

So it was little surprise that O'Malley planted himself in the Dartmouth
library a day after announcing his campaign on Federal Hill in Baltimore.
He spoke about college affordability, climate change and the job market
that some of the students listening are anxiously preparing to enter.

"I'm for moving us to a point as a country where we have debt-free
college," O'Malley told the group. "You can finance a home at less than you
can finance your college education. And sadly, if you can't finance your
college education you're never going to be able to buy a home."

Plenty of O'Malley's lines drew applause, and several students said they
would follow his campaign more closely.

Connie Lee, an 18-year-old freshman from Houston, said she was "vaguely"
aware of O'Malley before the event.

"It's interesting that he's taking the direction of appealing to the
younger audience in contrast with Hillary Clinton," she said. "He addressed
a lot of the social issues this younger generation cares about. I think it
was effective that he highlighted that."

Charlotte Blatt, also 18 and a freshman, is vice president of the Dartmouth
College Democrats.

"As a college student, it's important to hear politicians speaking about
the issue of college loans and student debt," she said. "It's really
crippling."

Because students arrive on campus from across the country, many do not
necessarily vote in the state where they study. But young voters are often
an important part of a campaign's volunteer base.

Turnout among young voters can be fickle, and it is frequently lower than
other age groups' rates.

O'Malley launched his long-expected bid for the Democratic nomination in
Baltimore on May 30. Polls show him in the single digits in Iowa, New
Hampshire and nationally — but he has managed to capture headlines when he
takes on Clinton. Most recently, that criticism has manifested itself as an
attack on Wall Street, and its ties to the Clinton campaign.

But as far back as last summer O'Malley was using words like "fundamentally
newer" and "new way of leadership" to describe his approach.

On the campaign trail, those phrases have become sharper, and they have
taken on added meaning in the context of a race that includes Clinton, a
former first lady, senator and secretary of state who has spent decades in
Washington.

O'Malley has never directly made an issue of Clinton's age — at 67, she is
15 years his senior — and he has demurred when asked about it directly. Yet
he has sought to project an image of youth by appearing more often with his
Celtic rock band and by talking about the data-focused management he
employed as Baltimore's mayor and Maryland's governor.

Clinton, by contrast, often touts her status as a new grandmother — as in
Houston last week, when she welcomed Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to "the
grandmothers' club."

"As a member of now a little over eight months," she said, "it is the best
club you will ever be a member of."

But Clinton also used the words "young people" three times.

"Now what possible reason could there be to end preregistration for 16- and
17-year-olds and eliminate voter outreach in high schools?" Clinton asked.
"We should be doing everything we can to get our young people more engaged
in democracy, not less."

Sanders is 73.

O'Malley has "got to say something," said Charlie Cook, editor and
publisher of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "But right now it
doesn't matter what Martin O'Malley is saying. The ball's in Hillary
Clinton's court. She's either resonating or she's not."

Early polling indicates that she is.

Clinton is viewed favorably by more 18- to 34-year-olds than she is by the
electorate as a whole. Among that group, 55 percent have a favorable
impression of her, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday. Among
those over 50, 42 percent have a favorable impression of Clinton.

That's a remarkable shift from the results of the 2008 Democratic
primaries. Obama received 57 percent of young voters in the first 16
primaries that year, compared to Clinton's 41 percent, according to exit
polls analyzed by the Pew Research Center.

He won the youth vote in every one of the early primary states except
California, Arkansas and Massachusetts.

A CNN/ORC poll from last month showed that just more than half of Americans
believe Clinton "represents the future." For O'Malley, a 42 percent
plurality said he "represents the past."

A quarter of respondents in the poll had no opinion of the former governor.

But there may be a sliver of good news for O'Malley in the polling from
Maryland, where he is known best. Though his approval slipped during the
2014 gubernatorial election, he does slightly better among young voters in
the state — though the difference is within the margin of error.

A Goucher Poll from October found than 18- to 34-year-olds in Maryland had
a slightly better impression of O'Malley than older age groups did.

"I think he will try to use his youthfulness as a way to attract those
voters," said Mileah Kromer, director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics
Center at Goucher. "While in Maryland we have seen this shtick before and
it's old news to us, it's not old news to the rest of the United States."

Alex Doser, president of the Iowa State University College Democrats, heard
O'Malley speak in April. If O'Malley becomes better known, Doser said, his
message could appeal to young voters.

"I see a lot in O'Malley's rhetoric that can connect to young people but he
hasn't really gotten his name out there yet," he said. "He hasn't made the
kind of dent on the Internet that Sanders has and he's not featured in the
media like Clinton has been.

"People are losing faith in the idea that their voice makes a difference in
Washington. So there's a lot of room to bring in young voters if you can
convince them that you are sincerely fighting for them."

In other words, O'Malley's broader challenge — and perhaps also his
opportunity — lies in raising awareness of his campaign.

A few minutes after he left the Dartmouth event, two young men wearing
baseball caps walked by the room where he had spoken. One asked why all of
the desks had been pushed aside.

"Martin O'Malley was here," the one student said.

His friend's response: "Who?"

*SANDERS*

*Exclusive–Iowa Gop Chairman Reacts To Bernie Sanders’ And Martin
O’Malley’s Reception In Iowa: ‘Socialism Is So Odd To Us’
<http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/06/exclusive-iowa-gop-chairman-reacts-to-bernie-sanders-and-martin-omalleys-reception-in-iowa-socialism-is-so-odd-to-us/>
// Breitbart News – June 6, 2015 *

The self proclaimed socialist, “Sanders attracted overflow crowds in Ames
and Davenport, then Sanders capped his three-day trip with a Saturday night
stop in Kensett, where more than 300 people greeted him,” Radio Iowa’s O.
Kay Henderson wrote earlier last week.

“To a certain degree, I think socialism is so odd to us – I think there
would be people that want to hear how in the world an American could
promote socialism,” Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kauffman told Breitbart News –
adding that he is interested in how Sanders will put his campaign message
all together.

Breitbart News questioned if Iowans were interested in both Sanders and
O’Malley because they aren’t Clinton – as Clinton’s honesty and
trustworthiness has been crumbling among independent voters, a recent poll
suggests.

“The Democrats I know certainly are – I don’t know if a socialist is going
to provide that – but you know, if you look at Hillary’s voting record
she’s a socialist in the making – and wait until she gets in the Obama
White House and picks up whatever he leaves, in terms of his policies,”
Kauffman added.

Breitbart News noted how Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is the favorite in
Iowa in many recent polls but that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee
and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) were the only two candidates in a recent poll
that Iowans selected in an individual match up with Clinton.

“These polls are going to be so fluid … I listen to the polls obviously –
you know, I’m not going to get real serious about the polls at least for
the top ten until – I’ll tell you it’s going to almost have to be October
before I start listening,” he said.

Kauffman said it’s hard to believe anything in a June or July poll can be
of any predictive value of what is going to happen in February.

*Bernie Sanders isn’t a “crackpot” — and the progressive agenda isn’t
“left-wing”
<http://www.salon.com/2015/06/06/bernie_sanders_isnt_a_crackpot_how_democrats_can_win_big_in_2016_partner/>
// Salon // Bill Moyers And Michael Winship – June 6, 2015 *

Congressman John K. Delaney, what the hell are you talking about?

In a recent Washington Post op-ed piece, headlined, “The last thing America
needs? A left-wing version of the Tea Party,” the Democratic congressman
from Maryland scolds progressives and expresses his worry “about where some
of the loudest voices in the room could take the Democratic Party.”

He writes, “Rejecting a trade agreement with Asia, expanding entitlement
programs that crowd out other priorities and a desire to relitigate the
financial crisis are becoming dominant positions among Democrats. Although
these subjects may make for good partisan talking points, they do not
provide the building blocks for a positive and bold agenda to create jobs
and improve the lives of Americans.”

Rep. Delaney even implies that a freewheeling, open discussion of “these
subjects” could lead to the election of a Republican president.

Good grief, John. A trade agreement that favors multinational corporations
over working people? Cutting “entitlement programs” such as Social
Security, Medicare, Medicaid, worker’s compensation? Letting Wall Street
off the hook for crashing the economy and costing millions of Americans
their jobs and homes?  These are Republican policies, bought and paid for
by plutocrats. If Democrats simply mimic them, there would be no need to
bother with voting for a Republican president; we could cancel the election
and put the billions saved in campaign contributions straight into the
Clinton Foundation.

The progressive agenda isn’t “left wing.” (Can anyone using the term even
define what “left wing” means anymore?) The progressive agenda is America’s
story — from ending slavery to ending segregation to establishing a woman’s
right to vote to Social Security, the right to organize, and the fight for
fair pay and against income inequality. Strip those from our history and
you might as well contract America out to the US Chamber of Commerce the
National Association of Manufacturers, and Karl Rove, Inc.

At their core, the New Deal, Fair Deal, and Great Society programs were
aimed at assuring every child of a decent education, every worker a decent
wage, and every senior a decent retirement; if that’s extreme, so are the
Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution.

But such is the level of what passes for discourse inside the Beltway these
days. The cushioned political and media elites who eat, drink, and make
merry with each other at the annual White House Correspondents & Celebrity
Ball are so cozy up there in the stratosphere that they dismiss as the
lunatic fringe any voice from below that challenges the status quo.

And by the way, John, the “loudest voices in the room” aren’t populists or
progressives; they belong to the auctioneers selling our government to the
highest bidders.

Can you believe this? Rep. Delaney even thinks that progressives are too
engaged “in time-consuming rhetoric attacking banks that has little chance
of producing more financial reform and distracts from far more
consequential areas of economic risk…” Yet his words come on the heels of
another round of billions in fines against the big banks for perpetrating
fraud, an ongoing attempt by Republican Senator Richard Shelby and his Wall
Street-funded colleagues on the Senate Banking Committee to eviscerate the
reforms of Dodd-Frank, and an updated report from the University of Notre
Dame and law firm Labaton Sucharow that says, “Nearly seven years after the
global financial crisis rocked investors’ confidence in the markets and
financial services in general, our survey clearly shows that a culture of
integrity has failed to take hold. Numerous individuals continue to believe
that engaging in illegal or unethical activity is part and parcel of
succeeding in this highly competitive field.” (And why not, when the
chances of going to prison for your blatant misdeeds are virtually nil?)

But Rep. Delaney seems to think any objection to these behaviors and other
misdeeds just jams the works and keeps the grownups from taking care of
business. So does former Mitt (“47 percent”) Romney advisor and George W.
Bush (slash taxes on the One Percent!) speechwriter Peter Wehner, who
recently warned in The New York Times that many Democrats “are placing a
very risky bet that there are virtually no limits to how far left they can
go.”

How about far enough left to reach Main Street?

Just take a look at the initial press reaction to Vermont Senator Bernie
Sanders’ presidential candidacy. As Steve Hendricks observed in the
Columbia Journalism Review, “For not going with the flow, and for
challenging Hillary Clinton, the big fish many elites have tagged as their
own, Sanders’s entry into the race was greeted with story after story whose
message — stated or understated, depending on the decorum of the messenger
— was ‘This crank can’t win.’”

Hillary Clinton’s “corporatism,” Hendricks writes, “wed to her social
liberalism and her imperial hawkishness appeals to those in the moneyed
Second and journalistic Fourth Estates who would embrace Republicanism but
for its misogynistic, homophobic, racist, science-denying core.” And so
Sanders was tarred at the outset as a doomed crackpot candidate,  followed
then by article after article that fixated not on ideas and policies but on
various idiosyncrasies, Sanders’ age and hippie past, the ideology of
democratic socialism, and for heaven’s sake, his flyaway hair.

But if Senator Sanders is a crackpot, so are the majority of Americans. The
ideas and policies he espouses have far more public support than the
journalist habitués of Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue would have you
believe.

Juan Cole of the blog Informed Comment pulled together some of the figures:

Some 63 percent of Americans agree that the current distribution of wealth
is unfair. And in a Gallup poll done earlier this month, a majority, 52
percent, think that government taxation on the rich should be used to
reduce the wealth gap… A majority of Americans oppose the Supreme Court
Citizens United ruling, one of a number of such rulings that have increased
the ability of the super-wealthy to influence politics. A good half of
Americans support federally financed political campaigns so as to level the
playing field… Some79 percent of Americans believe that education beyond
high school is not affordable for everyone. And some 57 percent of people
under 30 believe student debt is a problem for youth… According to a very
recent Yale/Gallup poll, some 71 percent of Americans believe global
warming is occurring, and 57 percent are sure that human activity (emitting
greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide) is causing it…

There you have it: Far from being an outsider, Sanders is paddling his way
along the mainstream of American public opinion. Look at the crowds that
are gathering to hear him speak: More than 3,000 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
on Sunday, standing room only in Ames, Davenport and Iowa City, Iowa.
Reporters can’t help but take notice now. “At campaign stops in early
states and elsewhere, the firebrand from Vermont is drawing enthusiastic
crowds that are several times larger than those that gather for [fellow
presidential aspirant Martin] O’Malley,” notes The Washington Post. And The
New York Times: “The crowds at Mr. Sanders’s Iowa events appeared to be
different from the state’s famously finicky tire-kickers. Many said they
had already made up their mind to support Mr. Sanders. They applauded his
calls for higher taxes on the rich to pay for 13 million public works jobs,
for decisive action on climate change and for free tuition at public
colleges.”

Oh, how the mighty tremble when they hear such things!  The murmuring crowd
is their worst nightmare. So plutocratic Republican apologists like Peter
Wehner, the corporate Democrats of Clinton, Inc., and killjoys like
Congressman Delaney will double down against Bernie Sanders,  just as they
have against all those in politics before them who champion bottom-up
democracy. If that means turning “left,” so be it. For Democrats, it’s the
way home. They would do well to remember that apocryphal saying, usually
attributed to Gandhi: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then
they fight you, then you win.”

*OTHER*

*Obama, Clintons join mourners at Beau Biden's funeral
<http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/beau-biden-s-funeral-draws-barack-obama-bill-hillary-clinton-as-mourners-1.10514780>
// AP – June 6, 2015 *

Mourning a loss that touched people on Delaware street corners and far
beyond, President Barack Obama on Saturday remembered Beau Biden, the vice
president's son, as a public servant who learned through early tragedy what
mattered most and resolved to "live a life of meaning."

"He was a scion of an incredible family who brushed away the possibility of
privilege for the harder, better reward of earning his own way," Obama said
in a deeply personal eulogy. The president described Beau Biden as a son, a
father, a soldier and a politician who didn't cut corners in his efforts to
serve his country and others.

Obama reflected on the "cruel twist of fate" that killed Beau Biden's
mother and infant sister in a car crash four decades ago and left
3-year-old Beau and younger brother Hunter hospitalized.

Out of that tragedy, Obama said, Beau as a "very young boy made a very
grown-up decision: He would live a life of meaning. He would live a life
for others."

Vice President Joe Biden, who did not speak at his son's funeral, embraced
Obama at the funeral's start, after crossed himself solemnly as he entered
the church to the strains of "Bring Him Home," from "Les Miserables."

Obama's eulogy reflected the strong bonds that Joe Biden and the president
have developed after more than six years together in the White House, with
the president declaring his family to be "honorary members" of the extended
Biden clan.

Speaking directly to the vice president and his wife, Jill, Obama said,
"Michelle and I thank God you are in our lives. Taking this ride with you
is one of the great pleasures of our lives. Joe, you are my brother."

The overflow crowd of 1,000 at St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church
included Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, an array of state
and national political figures, as well as people from across Delaware and
beyond who lined up hours in advance, drawn by their strong bonds to the
Biden family.

"Joe Biden is Delaware, and his son is also Delaware to me," said Lisa
Rial, 54, who grew up in Delaware but lives in Pennsylvania. "They're
synonymous with Delaware." Outside, along the route to the church,
residents held up signs reading "Rest in Peace, Beau."

Gen. Ray Odierno, the former top U.S. commander in Iraq, where Beau Biden
once served, eulogized him as a dedicated soldier and selfless friend.
Odierno suggested that the presidency could even have been within Beau
Biden's reach as he spoke of his dedication to "a nation that I believed
one day Beau Biden would someday lead."

The vice president's two surviving children, Hunter and Ashley, also spoke,
and Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, a favorite of Beau Biden, sang the
meditation at the end of the service, "'Til Kingdom Come"

Joe Biden had just been elected senator in 1972 when his wife and baby
daughter were killed in a car crash. He developed a reputation over the
years for possessing a deep ability to comfort those in grief.

Often, Biden is called upon to eulogize fellow American leaders. Now, it
was Obama's moment to speak words of comfort to the vice president and his
family and friends.

The president described Beau Biden as very much his father's son.

"His dad taught him that everybody mattered. He even looked and sounded
like Joe a although I think Joe would be the first to acknowledge that Beau
was an upgrade a Joe 2.0," Obama said to chuckles from those in the
audience. "But as much as Beau reminded folks of Joe, he was very much his
own man. He was an original."

Beau Biden served two terms as attorney general before setting his sights
on the governor's mansion. Many imagined his career would mirror that of
his father, who represented Delaware for decades in the U.S. Senate before
becoming vice president.

But in 2010, at age 41, Beau Biden suffered a stroke. He was diagnosed with
brain cancer three years later. He returned to work after what doctors said
was a successful operation to remove a small lesion, but his illness
returned, and he died last Saturday, less than two weeks after being
admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda,
Maryland.

*Can You Be a Latino Politician If You Don't Speak Fluent Spanish?
<http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/clinton-ally-skewers-spanish-hud-secretary-julian-castro-n370731>
// NBC News // Suzanne Gamboa – June 6, 2015 *

The prospect that he might be a running mate to Hillary Clinton made
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro a target over his
Spanish speaking skills, something that many Latino politicians are all too
familiar with.

In a story published Thursday, Politico paraphrased an unnamed source
saying Castro's ethnic background "may not be as effective in appealing to
Hispanic voters as some believe."

"Tim Kaine speaks Spanish much better than Julian Castro does," the Clinton
ally told Politico. Kaine is a Virginia Democrat who spent a year working
in Honduras with Jesuit priests.

Castro is considered by many to be a potential running mate for Clinton, a
2016 presidential candidate.

Castro spokeswoman Betsaida Alcantara said she would not comment on the
criticism saying, Castro is "laser-focused on ending homelessness,
expanding responsible homeownership, tackling the affordable housing crisis
and creating communities of opportunity across the nation, not on 2016."

But what appeared to be a flippant matter to the "Clinton ally" is one that
can be agonizing and even embarrassing to some Latinos, something that
opens them to questioning about their Latino identity.

Former U.S. Rep. Charles Gonzalez of Texas experienced painful ridicule and
embarrassment over his Spanish speaking skills, often at the hands of other
Latinos.

"There were people who tested me all the time when I was in office, just to
see if I spoke Spanish," said Gonzalez, whose parents and grandparents
spoke Spanish and who like Castro is from San Antonio.

"I'm not sure if you are supposed to be shamed into some sort of apology
that you don't (speak Spanish) … It's expected of us and I don't think we
should have that expectation. As you move forward in the generations we are
no different than those groups that come from this country."

The focus on Castro's Spanish skills and the comparison of them to the
speaking ability of a white politician reflect a continuing struggle in the
country to understand the diversity of the Latino community and what it
takes to reach them politically, a struggle found even within the
Democratic party that won the Latino vote by 2-1 margin in the last
election.

Gonzalez acknowledged that speaking Spanish is an asset, something to
strive for, but said it cannot be something that determines how a person
votes. In the end, what matters is the substance of what is being said to
the Latino community in English or Spanish, he said.

"Our community should be be more engaged and involved in the substance,"
Gonzalez said.

Castro was born in the United States and is the son of a U.S.-born mother
fluent in English and Spanish.

Like a number of Latinos, his family can trace its presence in the U.S. for
several generations. Some Latinos had famiies in the U.S. Southwest when it
was still Mexico or family who were native Americans, or both. Castro's
maternal grandmother is from Mexico.

Castro is a Stanford University graduate who served as mayor of San
Antonio, the nation's seventh largest city with a large, long established
Hispanic population. He understands and speaks some Spanish but is not
fluent.

"Those kinds of comments from someone who is trying to get Hillary Clinton
elected are not helpful, not productive and misinformed," said Larry
Gonzalez, a Washington, D.C. lobbyist who is Mexican American, grew up in a
bilingual household but expanded his Spanish in school (he is not related
to Charlie Gonzalez.)

"While yes, Spanish is helpful with certain audiences in certain parts of
the country, it is his story and his family's story and their plan to help
the Latino community - their being Hillary as a potential president and him
as a potential vice president - that matter," said Gonzalez, who speaks
Spanish.

The criticism comes even as some are questioning the ability of Latinos to
weave themselves into the fabric of the country and demands are being made
for immigrants to be English proficient as a qualification for citizenship.

Republican Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, can move easily
between Spanish and English; Jeb Bush regularly uses his fluent Spanish.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican of Cuban descent who lived part of his
life in Canada, admits his inability to speak Spanish, which also exposed
him to questioning about whether he was truly Hispanic.

Castro has had to contend with other references to his heritage. The
Washington Post last August apologized after it was swiftly criticized for
a "We'll need more fajitas" subhead over a column item about Castro dining
with Bill Clinton. And while Castro might not be fully fluent in Spanish,
it hasn't stopped others from using Spanish when talking to him. While
testifying at a House hearing in February, Castro found himself unable to
quickly locate Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico, the committee member who
was about to ask him questions. As he looked around the dais, Pearce said
"Aquí! Right here" to get Castro's attention.

Recent waves of Latino immigrants, combined with the growth of
Spanish-language media as well as technology have boosted the language.
Progress has been made since recent decades when Jim Crow laws were applied
to Spanish speakers, prohibiting them from speaking the language in school
and segregating them into Mexican schools.

But as with previous generations of Latinos and other immigrant groups,
English takes over as time passes. Pew Research Center recently reported
that a record 33.2 million Hispanics speak English proficiently while the
share who speak Spanish at home is the lowest it's been in 13 years.

Former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros said he does think it's important
for a Latino candidate to speak Spanish. He said it's an act of respect to
one's heritage and often instills a degree of pride in Latinos watching
someone use their "heritage language."

Cisneros spoke only Spanish at home as young boy until his father, a World
War II veteran who was bilingual and born in the U.S., decreed English
would be spoken at home so they would not be at a disadvantage in school.

By high school, he said, he had forgotten most of his Spanish and took
Latin. He revived his speaking when he was in Washington, D.C. as a
graduate student and he taught citizenship classes to Latinos. His ability
to speak Spanish grew when he was a city council member and did
Spanish-language interviews and later in his role as president of Univision.

"All of us can improve. All of us educated in U.S. schools can work at it,"
Cisneros said. "It's something to work on and Julián will be just fine in
that regard in due course."

Charlie Gonzalez joked that he has a single recommendation for people who
are truly bilingual or not. Reaching into the language of Chicanos, he
said: "End each sentence with con safos," which can loosely mean the insult
can't come back to you.

*GOP*

*BUSH*

*For Jeb Bush, the challenge remains making it about ‘Jeb,’ not ‘Bush’
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-jeb-bush-the-challenge-remains-making-it-about-jeb-not-bush/2015/06/05/ecd087ea-0af2-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html>
// WaPo // Ed O’Keefe – June 6, 2015 *

A banner in the town square says “Happy 90th Barbara Bush.” Postcards read
“Kennebunkport: 2 presidents, 1 town.” A local gift shop is selling
unofficial Jeb Bush 2016 magnets.

In this coastal hamlet made famous by George H.W. Bush and his cigarette
boat, it is hard to escape the Bush family — but Jeb Bush is trying hard to
do so.

After festivities this weekend to celebrate his mother’s 90th birthday,
Bush will jet overseas for a foreign-policy tour and then launch his 2016
presidential campaign 1,500 miles to the south, in Miami.

The iconic family compound here, called Walker’s Point, is a fitting
metaphor for what has emerged as Jeb Bush’s central political challenge:
how far to distance himself from his family’s political legacy.

The past month has brought into stark relief the fundamental dilemma posed
by Bush’s lineage, even as his front-runner status fades. He repeatedly
stumbled to answer questions about the now-unpopular Iraq war started by
his brother and has been visibly conflicted about whether to embrace or
play down the policies and reputations of his closest relatives.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush's vacation home is seen under construction
on Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, Maine, on May 24. (Joel Page/AP)

He conceded last weekend to CBS that distancing himself from his brother
George W. Bush “is not something I’m comfortable doing.”

But when asked last Tuesday by Fox News whether he’ll use his brother on
the campaign trail, he said: “Absolutely. I will use my brother, my sister,
every relative, every person I can.”

On paper, Jeb Bush’s record — two terms as governor of a large swing state
with a conservative governing record — seems exactly what Republicans would
want. But the party faithful are increasingly seeking younger, fresher
candidates — they’re “Bushed out,” as Barbara Bush has told visitors here
in recent years.

And so when Jeb Bush’s anticipated presidential bid begins June 15, he will
seek to set himself apart from his brother and father — an effort that will
form one of the abiding themes of the impending campaign, according to
aides and close friends.

He will make his announcement at a Miami community college under the
moniker of his nickname, leaving the surname behind. There probably won’t
be “Bush” on the “Jeb 2016” campaign paraphernalia. On stage will be his
Mexican-born wife, Columba, and their three grown children. Neither of
Bush’s parents will attend the announcement, and aides won’t say whether
any of his siblings will, either.

Later, his two sons — not his father or brother — are expected to play
active and visible roles in the campaign.

Al Cardenas, a longtime Bush friend, said that polls have tightened because
media attention is too focused on Bush’s family history and not on his
record as Florida governor. “It’s about Bush, not Jeb,” he said.

Former president George H.W. Bush, then-President George W. Bush and
then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush walk from the 18th green after playing an early
morning round at Cape Arundel Golf Club in Maine on July 7, 2001. (Kevin
Lamarque/Reuters)

But once people learn more about his time as governor, Cardenas said, “then
it will become more about Jeb, not Bush.”

Bush has told voters repeatedly in recent months, “I have to show what’s in
my heart” regarding his family. But he also said recently that a
presidential run “can’t be about the past; it can’t be about my mom and
dad, or my brother, who I love. It has to be about the ideas I believe in
to move our country forward.”

Here in Kennebunkport, the prospect of another Bush in the White House
intrigues local residents, many of whom say they don’t know George and
Barbara’s second-oldest son that well.

Jeb Bush usually visits Maine once a year to see his parents, play
early-morning rounds of golf and visit local haunts such as the HB
Provisions general store. He has told voters that he rarely takes lengthy
vacations and — unlike his brother’s Crawford, Tex., ranch — he has no
vacation estate at the moment. He and his family usually spend their
Christmas vacation on Gasparilla Island in southwest Florida, sometimes
joined by his parents.

“I think Jeb’s the only one I really don’t know,” said John Downing, who
served as the local York County, Maine, chairman for the George H.W. Bush
and George W. Bush presidential campaigns. “I’ve not seen him around.”

“From everything I can gather, he’s been nothing but a good governor of the
state of Florida, certainly a good father and husband,” Downing said about
Jeb Bush. “I think those things are very positive about him.”

Downing, who is also a real estate agent, said local businesses are
pondering how a third Bush presidency might provide another jolt of
economic activity.

“We’ll take anything that helps the home values go up,” he said.

Despite not coming often, Bush appears to feel the pull of the family’s
coastal headquarters. After this weekend, Bush is expected to return July 9
for a two-day “retreat” with fundraising “co-chairs” who help him secure at
least $27,000 in donations, according to people who have received
invitations. The hope is to raise as much as $5 million for his campaign by
the end of July, said one Bush supporter, who was not authorized to speak
publicly about the plans. By then, a new home being built for him at the
family compound will probably be ready for guests.

On Thursday at Walker’s Point, construction workers could be seen climbing
ladders around the new home being built for Jeb’s use. A large, yellow
truck was seen backing away from the site, while a bulldozer was parked
behind it.

The $1.4 million, two-story cottage — in most places it would be called a
large house — sits on a 1.3-acre plot just south of several much smaller
cottages also used by Bush family members. Aides said that the new home
will be occupied by other relatives and guests when Jeb isn’t in town.

To the south of the new home is a ranch-style structure housing George H.W.
Bush’s office. On the southernmost point sits the iconic family home, where
the 41st president and former first lady live with unobstructed views of
the Atlantic Ocean.

Above it all flies an American flag, with the flags of Maine and Texas
billowing beneath. If the Lone Star state’s colors are flying, George and
Barbara are in town. They’re usually here every May to October, family
spokesman Jim McGrath said.

Elizabeth Spahr, a member of the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust, was at a
nearby overlook weeding and pruning a planter next to a memorial built by
locals to honor George H.W. Bush.

Spahr said she has met several of the family members and is most fond of
Laura Bush. Barbara Bush is seen most mornings walking her dogs on a nearby
beach.

Looking over at the compound, she said: “I guess they’re building a new
home for Jeb. It’s awfully big.”

When asked about Jeb Bush’s presidential ambitions, she turned back to her
weeding. “I don’t have an opinion on that,” she said.

*A foreign policy checkmark for Jeb Bush
<http://news.yahoo.com/foreign-policy-checkmark-jeb-bush-051426925.html> //
AP // Thomas Beaumont – June 6, 2015 *

Jeb Bush heads to Europe next week to put a checkmark in a final box before
making his 2016 Republican presidential campaign official: an overseas
visit to catch up with a few of America's friends.

All of his hosts, Germany, Poland and Estonia are stalwart U.S. allies, and
they're calmer destinations than the cauldron of the Middle East. But the
last name Bush still stirs anger in parts of Europe — a legacy of former
President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq.

For this Bush, the trick with his first trip overseas as a White House
hopeful is to avoid spending too much time making the same case to European
leaders he's had to make at home to American voters — that he's not his
brother.

"If he tries to make this trip about see-how-I'm-not-like-George W. Bush,
if that's the story line of the trip, it will not have been a success,"
said Peter Feaver, former head of strategic operations at the National
Security Agency and now a professor at Duke University.

The trip comes at a key time for Bush. He will return a day before kicking
off his campaign with an event in Miami, fresh from a journey he hopes will
show he's ready to step onto the world stage.

"A Republican doing a listening tour of American allies, that makes sense,"
said William Inboden, who served as senior director for strategic planning
with the National Security Council under President George W. Bush. "But
you're also wanting to demonstrate the ability to be proficient in personal
diplomacy."

Bush's six-day trip begins with a speech in Berlin on Tuesday to the
economic council of the Christian Democratic Union, the conservative party
led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A mix of public and private events
there and in Poland and Estonia follow.

The early days of the Republican campaign suggest much of the party's
presidential primary debate will focus on foreign policy, given the ongoing
unrest in Iraq, civil war in Syria and a preliminary agreement — deeply
unpopular among Republicans — between Iran and the U.S. and five allies
aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program.

There's also the prospect that next year the party's nominee will face
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was secretary of state in President
Barack Obama's first term.

Bush's early discussions about foreign policy have often drifted into his
brother's decision to invade Iraq in 2003, which some critics cite as the
cause of regional unrest that helped lead to the rise of the Islamic State.

Jeb Bush's effort to avoid publicly criticizing his brother led him into a
twisted series of answers about whether he would have made the same
invasion decision, making for his roughest political week since he
expressed interest last December in running for the White House.

While he still plans to talk about the threat posed by the Islamic State
during his trip, he'll do so in a place where the discussion can be about
how the extremist group is one of several shared threats faced by America
and its Western allies.

Aides said Bush aims to underscore the early themes of his approach to
global affairs during his visit, namely that the U.S. ought to reinforce
its relationships with its allies and demonstrate solidarity with the
democratic success stories in Eastern Europe.

Expect a lot of talk about Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.

"We need to restore the relationships with Europe and encourage them to be
part of their own national defense, as we see Russia engaged in parts of
the world they shouldn't be," Bush said in Michigan last week.

It's a message that will resonate most loudly in Poland and Estonia, two
nations paying particularly close attention to Putin's actions in Ukraine.

"At a time like this, when we have a rather unpleasant and difficult
situation with Russia, Poles are becoming more pro-American than they would
have been otherwise," said Marcin Zaborowski, the head of the Polish
Institute of International Affairs. "And having a presumed presidential
candidate to come and talk to the Poles about security, defense and the
relationship with the United States will be more than welcome."

*RUBIO*

*Rubio's real estate dealings often a drag on his finances
<http://news.yahoo.com/rubios-real-estate-dealings-often-drag-finances-135730257--election.html>
// AP // Nicholas Riccardi – June 6, 2015 *

During Marco Rubio's first year in the Florida Legislature in 2000, the
29-year-old lawmaker filled out the required forms detailing his personal
finances. On the line listing his net worth, Rubio wrote: "0."

Since then, he has risen to lead the state House as speaker, won election
to the U.S. Senate and earned at least $4.5 million at a series of
six-figure jobs and by writing a best-selling memoir. Yet his net worth has
improved only modestly.

Like many Americans in the days since the recession, Rubio and his family —
he has four children — have struggled in the housing market.

Factor in some questionable moves with money and a hefty load of student
loans, and it's clear that the Republican presidential candidate's real
estate dealings often have been a drag on his finances despite an income
most would relish.

"He's like any normal American with four kids that has a mortgage," said
Bernie Navarro, a past president of the Miami-based Latin Builders
Association, who has advised Rubio on his real estate transactions. "He
goes through what any normal family goes through, living with a salary, and
he has to make adjustments."

Rubio made two in the past few weeks:

—he sold a home in Tallahassee, Florida, that he owned with a former
colleague. That freed Rubio from a monthly payment on an interest-only loan
and the cost of upkeep. But he lost money on the deal.

—he consolidated the debt on his primary residence in West Miami, Florida.
The original mortgage required only payments of interest on the principal
in its first decade. Rubio has only paid off about 4 percent of overall
principal since buying the house.

At end of last year, Rubio was worth no more than $355,000, according to an
analysis of his personal financial disclosures records filed with the
Senate. That does not include any equity he may have in his West Miami home
or proceeds expected from his second book, published in December.

Rubio, 44, has written and spoken of being torn between a drive for public
service and the need to support his family. At times, he has made decisions
that put politics ahead of his personal comfort or financial security.

He and his wife, Jeanette, moved in with his mother-in-law to make ends
meet at the start of his career. Late last year, he liquidated a retirement
account, saying he might need the cash for everything from a new
refrigerator to college for his eldest daughter.

At other points, Rubio's political connections have helped financially.

One of Rubio's biggest political backers, Miami billionaire Norman Braman,
hired Rubio as his lawyer after Rubio left the Florida Legislature in 2008,
and Braman funded a teaching position at Florida International University
that Rubio still holds.

Braman's foundation also pays Rubio's wife to advise it on charitable
giving.

Rubio isn't shy about his relative lack of wealth, which is a far cry from
the financial standing of his fellow Floridian and rival for the Republican
nomination, former Gov. Jeb Bush.

Rubio told conservative activists in Nevada last week that "the latest one
I've heard now from some is I'm not rich enough to be president."

In an interview, Rubio said, "The cost of living goes up, and you can just
imagine how people who make a quarter of what I do face today."

Rubio's career began in politics, and he rarely has not held office or
worked for those who do.

After graduating from the University of Miami's law school in 1996, the
then-25-year-old worked as the South Florida coordinator for Bob Dole's
presidential campaign. Dole lost soundly to President Bill Clinton, but
Rubio impressed Florida GOP powerbrokers; one, Al Cardenas, offered him a
job.

Rubio had planned to join a local prosecutor's office after the election,
but the job paid less than $30,000. Cardenas was offering $57,000.

Rubio wrote in "An American Son," his 2012 memoir: "I wanted to be a
prosecutor. I wanted to gain courtroom experience. I relished the
excitement of trying cases and had little interest in the land use and
zoning law that Al practiced. But I had student loans to repay. I wanted to
get married. And I wanted to help support my family so my father could at
last retire."

Despite the financial incentive, the job at Cardenas' firm couldn't hold
Rubio's interest. Less than two years later, he was running for office,
winning a seat on the West Miami city commission and landing a job at
another law firm. Roughly a year after that, he moved up to the Florida
House, but his new firm deducted Rubio's $27,000-a-year lawmaker's salary
from his paycheck.

In his book, Rubio said he was unsure he could keep his full-time job while
spending months at the state Capitol. In 2000, he listed the value of his
household furnishings at $5,000 on state records but reported more than
$160,000 in student loan debt plus $30,000 in "assorted credit + retail
debt."

To save $1,500 a month in rent, Rubio and his wife moved in with her
mother. He was climbing the GOP ranks, but, "I imagined telling my children
someday that I had been the majority whip of the Florida House but ... had
to leave politics to make a living," he wrote in his book.

A headhunter helped Rubio land a new job, this one with a $93,000 salary at
a law firm that wouldn't hold his time in Tallahassee against him. It was
enough for the Rubios, who had their first child in 2000, to buy a
1,200-square-foot three-bedroom house in the working-class West Miami
neighborhood where Rubio grew up.

The Rubios would sell that house near the peak of the Florida real estate
bubble for more than twice what they paid for it. The buyer was the mother
of a neighbor — a chiropractor who unsuccessfully lobbied Rubio to extend a
state insurance provision and was later prosecuted for violating campaign
finance laws unrelated to Rubio.

A few years later, in 2003, Rubio secured the votes needed to become state
House speaker. Not long after that, he moved up to a new, politically
connected law firm and a much bigger salary: $300,000 a year. He was moving
homes, too.

In March 2005, Rubio and a fellow state lawmaker, David Rivera, went in
together on a house in Tallahassee to live in while in the state capital,
making no down payment and taking out a $135,000 mortgage that initially
only required interest payments. Meanwhile, the Rubios upgraded to a newly
built four-bedroom 2,600-square-foot home with a pool in West Miami.

Real estate records show the Rubios made a 10 percent down payment to buy
that $550,000 house. He says he paid cash for upgrades to the home before
construction finished.

A little more than a month after the Rubios closed on the house in December
2005, a bank owned by one of his political supporters appraised the house
at $735,000 and gave Rubio a $135,000 home equity loan. Rubio has said the
add-ons to the house, plus Florida's heated real estate market, justified
the appraisal.

It was around this time that other issues in Rubio's finances started to
surface.

He shut down two political groups — one run out of his house — that had
come under scrutiny for tens of thousands of dollars in poorly explained
expenses. In his book, Rubio acknowledged the committees were "an
accounting mess."

Rubio also gained access to a state Republican Party charge card in 2005,
which he says he inadvertently used at times to pay for personal items.

Records from 2007 and 2008 show Rubio charged about $160,000 to the card,
including $1,000 for repairs to the family minivan after it was dented by a
valet at a political event, a $134 bill at a hair salon and numerous meals
and airline flights.

Rubio has said most of the spending was the legitimate expense of building
party infrastructure, but he paid $16,000 of the charges personally.

They became a campaign issue when Rubio ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010,
but not one that kept him from winning handily.

Once in Washington and making a $174,000 salary as a senator, Rubio still
felt the bite of his old real estate transactions.

The bank moved in 2010 to foreclose the house in Tallahassee after Rubio
and Rivera fell behind on the payments. Rivera paid $9,200 to bring the
house out of foreclosure, and the pair sold the house for $117,000 last
week — $18,000 less than the original purchase price.

(Federal prosecutors have said Rivera, who served one term in Congress, is
being investigated by a grand jury in a campaign finance case unrelated to
Rubio.)

The collapse of the housing market in Florida haunts Rubio, too.

The home next to his in West Miami was foreclosed, which he says is part of
the reason why the county has assessed the value of his current house at
$400,000 — well below the price Rubio sought when he put it on the market
in 2013. The asking price was $675,000, but it didn't sell.

"We wanted to see if we could get the right price," Rubio said. "We had
offers, but I'm not going to give it away."

He decided to refinance his initial mortgage and the separate home equity
loan. On May 26, Professional Bank in Coral Gables, Florida, wrote Rubio a
$604,000 mortgage at 4.5 percent interest, according to records and Rubio's
campaign.

Navarro, the Rubio backer who owns a real estate firm and helped him with
the refinance, said that lowers Rubio's monthly payment by about $1,000 a
month.

"It was a good financial move for him," Navarro said.

*Marco Rubio Is Now Channeling JFK — Explicitly
<http://www.nationaljournal.com/2016-elections/marco-rubio-is-now-channeling-jfk-explicitly-20150606>
// The National Journal // Shane Goldmacher – June 6, 2015 *

Sen. Marco Rubio has slipped a symbolically significant new passage into
his stump speech, linking his candidacy to that of another youthful and
charismatic 40-something politician: John F. Kennedy.

From the start, Rubio, 44, has wrapped his campaign in the rhetoric of
youth. "Yesterday is over," he said the day of his launch in Miami.
Campaigning near Iowa State on Saturday, Rubio railed against "outdated
leaders" and declared, "If we keep promoting the same people we'll be left
behind by the future."

But it was a new line he began road testing in Iowa that stood out. Rubio
presented the 2016 campaign as a generational pivot point, likening his
vision for a "New American Century" — the tagline of his campaign — to
Kennedy's 1960 challenge to the nation to embrace a "New Frontier."

"This election isn't about what laws we're going to pass. It's about what
kind of country we're going to be," Rubio said to a packed Holiday Inn
conference room. "And we've made that choice before. Asked six decades ago,
this nation and that generation chose to embrace a New Frontier. In fact,
they took up the challenge of a then young president who said, 'Ask not
what your country can do, ask what you can do for your country.'"

"And here's the hard truth," Rubio continued. "For far too long, leaders in
both parties have been campaigning on the promise of what your government
can do for you. But my campaign is built on the idea of what together we
can do for America. Because America doesn't owe us anything. But every
single one of us, especially me, has a debt to this country we will never
repay."

The line broke through.

"He's got it like Kennedy got it!" said an unprompted Ed Enright, a
70-year-old Republican who was clutching a copy of Rubio's book and wearing
a "Marco Rubio for president" t-shirt.

Asked if he had caught the reference to Kennedy's New Frontier, Enright
smiled. "Maybe he's sending us a little message there," he said. "Fresh
ideas, fresh youth."

Jack Whitver, Rubio's Iowa campaign chairman, said the Kennedy comparison
was apt. "He is a person who can reignite the Republican Party and unite
it," Whitver said. "Like JFK, he can inspire the country."

If elected, Rubio would be the youngest president since Kennedy, who took
office at 43. Rubio turned 44 a little over a week ago.

But, as he said to laughs on Saturday, "I feel 45."

*Marco Rubio is what Republicans hope the future looks like
<http://www.vox.com/cards/marco-rubio-issues-policies/marco-rubio> // VOX
// Dara Lind – June 6, 2015 *

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is a presidential candidate Republicans can
feel good about. He's young and relatively handsome; he has a compelling
biography (his parents emigrated from Cuba to make a better life in
America, with his father working as a hotel bartender and his mother
working as a cashier and housekeeper) that he's spun into an optimistic
stump speech; and he is, by most accounts, an extremely compelling public
speaker.

He's also firmly in line with the Republican establishment on the issues —
which sets him apart from some of the other candidates running for the 2016
nomination. He's best known for his break with the GOP base to support
comprehensive immigration reform in 2013, but he's reversed his position
and is vocally opposed to it now (unlike, say, Jeb Bush). He's hawkish on
foreign policy and reliably conservative on social issues. And he's pushed
some innovative reforms, notably on tax and education policy, but is
clearly trying to appease traditional Republican tax-cutters.

In other words, Rubio is a fresh face who doesn't pose much of an
ideological challenge to his party. From the standpoint of the Republican
establishment, it would be great if the future of their party were fresh
and forward-thinking while continuing to advocate its current stands on the
issues.

But is 2016 too soon for the future? In Washington, Rubio's still seen as a
little young and callow. It doesn't help that he's spent the past two years
trying to distance himself from his only major legislative accomplishment,
the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate in 2013.

Rubio shares a support base with his fellow Floridian and former mentor Jeb
Bush — the people who'd be most excited about Rubio in any other year are
Bush backers in 2016. And Rubio's appeal to the GOP base beyond Florida is
untested. So many political insiders assume he's running for the VP spot on
the ticket.

But Rubio's likely to stay in the race for a while. Thanks to his foreign
policy hawkishness, he's likely to get support from Republican megadonor
Sheldon Adelson — which could be enough to keep him in the race for a
certain amount of time. And he's done well in polls since announcing the
start of his campaign in April. It's possible that he's been underestimated
by observers who've called him "the perfect second choice for GOP voters."

*Rubio seeks to rebut skeptics on the experience factor
<https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCAQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fblogs%2Fballot-box%2Fpresidential-races%2F244218-rubio-takes-aim-at-those-skeptical-of-his-experience&ei=63NzVeH4OdPisATp5YCACg&usg=AFQjCNHOECozaUiyYRHqBnic8snaH2qB0A&bvm=bv.95039771,d.cWc>
// The Hill // Rebecca Shabad – June 6, 2015 *

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Saturday took aim at those skeptical of his
qualifications to lead the White House.

At the inaugural “Roast and Ride” hosted by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in
Boone, Iowa, the GOP presidential candidate defended his experience and his
ideas.

“I’ve had some people say i’m not old enough or I haven’t been in
government long enough, and I heard that, too, when I was speaker of the
Florida House, but let me tell you what we did,” Rubio said.

As speaker, Rubio said the Florida legislature balanced the third largest
state budget without raising taxes and increased school standards without
Common Core.

“I’m 44 years old, but I feel 45. And I’ve been in government long enough
to know that what we’re doing now doesn’t work anymore,” he said.

The latest criticism Rubio received, he said, is that he’s “not rich
enough.” He then used the statement to jab at Democratic presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton and the Clinton foundation.

“It’s true I don’t make $11 million a year giving speeches to special
interests. And I don’t have a family foundation that’s raised $2 billion, a
lot of it from foreign interests,” he said. “But my wife and I work to
ensure that we have enough money to send our kids to have a Christian
education at a private school and we have a mortgage we pay every month.”

“We have all of these leaders, especially on the left, that are stuck in
the past,” he said.

Rubio’s campaign theme focuses on a “New American Century” because he says
the economy and world have changed too much to keep using ideas from the
20th century.

*PAUL*

*Paul: Laws on sexuality could be more ‘neutral,’ but all should be
protected
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/06/06/paul-laws-on-sexuality-could-be-more-neutral-but-all-should-be-protected/>
// WaPo // Katie Zezima – June 6, 2015*

Sen. Rand Paul said Saturday that he thinks the issue of sexuality is one
that should be left behind closed doors.

“And I think if we did a little more of that then maybe the law doesn’t
have to engage in stuff that’s really personal, and the law could be more
neutral, but I think the law ought to be fair to people and ought to
provide equal protection for everybody,” he said.

Paul was asked about Bruce Jenner coming out as a woman named Caitlyn.
Social conservatives in the Republican Party have felt isolated by the
nation’s acceptance of Jenner, a change they see as immoral. Paul said he
hasn't given Jenner's transition much thought but said that sexuality
should remain private.

“We’ve exposed so much of our lives that were at one time private, and if
it were private, than maybe the law wouldn’t have to take a position on it,
you know what I mean?” Paul said in an interview here.

Paul said that if he goes to a cocktail party, “most of us don’t talk about
our personal sexuality, our sex lives, why does it have to be part of
public discourse?”

*Rand Paul on Transgender Rights: "Government Shouldn't Ask About Your
Personal Life"
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-06/rand-paul-on-transgender-rights-government-shouldn-t-ask-about-your-personal-life->
// David Weigel – June 6, 2015 *

A news week that started with Caitlyn Jenner's debut in Vanity Fair ended
with another transgender rights milestone. On Thursday, the United States
Air Force announced that it would no longer discharge recruits with gender
dysphoria, and that "identification as transgender, absent a record of poor
duty performance, misconduct, or a medically disqualifying condition, is
not a basis for involuntary separation."

Republican candidates for president did not exactly sprint for the
microphones. The two veterans in the contest, South Carolina Senator
Lindsey Graham and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, served in the Air
Force Reserve and Air Force, respectively. Neither commented on the new
ruling; neither has said much, generally, on the frontiers of LGBT policy.

On Friday, I asked Kentucky Senator Rand Paul if, as president, he'd
continue the Obama administration's approach to transgender rights. Since
December, the Department of Justice has interpreted Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act to include gender identity.

“I don't know why we have to talk about our sex life.”

On the question of the Justice Department's move, Paul didn't exactly
endorse the policy but, interestingly, he didn't exactly repudiate it
either. He speculated that government could bar discrimination, but
wondered about the legal implications.

"I think that government should not ask about your personal life," said
Paul. "I would make that a rule – government shouldn’t ask about your
personal life when you apply to anything. It would be wrong for the
government to discriminate based on anything like that. But then, I don’t
know what that exactly means. You get into [questions like] can you sue
over it? The government ought to be as neutral as possible."

Asked about the Air Force's new transgender rule, Paul continued
speculating about a way the law could be fair without getting into the
thorniness of identity.

"The thing that’s weird about this was that there was a time when it was
nobody’s business," he said.

New Hampshire State Senator Andy Sanborn, a supporter of Paul who sat in
for the interview, suggested that this was the defunct "Don’t Ask, Don't
Tell" policy.

"We had rules, and these rules went back to the beginning and could be
applied in a non-discriminating way," said Paul. "It’s behavior. It’s
fraternizing. No matter what it is, you’re not supposed to do it in the
barracks, because that disrupts discipline. So it wouldn’t have to be that
specific. You’d still have rules about it."

Paul had not quite endorsed either of the new non-discrimination policies;
as he finished, he suggested that the subject might be a little overheated.

"I don’t know why we all have to talk about our sex life," he said. "I’m
just not interested in other peoples’ – I never go to anybody’s house and
everybody wants to talk about it. Why do we have to talk about it?"

*Paul: 'We have come to take our liberty back'
<http://www.unionleader.com/article/20150606/NEWS0605/150609379&source=RSS>
// The Union Leader // Dan Tuohy – June 6, 2015 *

Rand Paul shouted to supporters as press huddled around and asked him yet
again about the Patriot Act.

"Hey, anybody here think it’s a good idea for the government to have all of
your phone records?"

"No!" came the anticipated response.

Paul, the Republican presidential hopeful and Kentucky senator, boasted of
his work to end the National Security Agency’s "illegal spying program,"
even as he says the USA Freedom Act, which replaces expired Patriot Act
provisions, still threatens constitutional rights.

Paul acknowledged it was a partial victory during remarks at his campaign
office opening Friday in Manchester.

Some of his colleagues in the U.S. Senate called Paul’s filibuster of the
Patriot Act a political stunt because he has used the issue to raise
donations. Other critics called Paul an isolationist, a tag he has rejected
in the past.

Paul, in an interview with the Union Leader on Friday, said national
defense is the federal government’s most important function.

"I believe in a robust national defense," Paul said. "I believe in a
national defense that is strong enough to deter and repel all attacks. I’m
a Reagan Republican. And I don’t think any of that speaks to any, or in
anyway resembles any of those critiques. I think there are a lot of
candidates, some of them grasping for relevancy, and so they will hurl ad
hominem and names at people. But the bottom line is I don’t think there’s
anything more important that we do than national defense and it doesn’t
just stop at the water’s edge. There are international and there are
American interests around the world that have to be defended."

The bulk collection of phone records was illegal and unconstitutional, and
even the government says it is not getting any useful information from
those surveillance provisions, according to Paul.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who announced Monday he is running for
the Republican nomination for President, is one of Paul's critics. In an
interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader on Tuesday, Graham called
Paul "ill-prepared" for the White House.

Paul dismissed criticism from political rivals and the establishment,
saying most Americans agree with him on this issue.

"I’m not so sure I like all of the replacement (Freedom Act) where the
phone companies may well be doing some of the same thing," Paul said in the
interview. "My understanding is the NSA works at the phone companies,
snatches up all the data and sends it to Utah. I’m worried that they’ll
still be doing the same thing, they just won’t be pressing the 'send'
button."

Paul said he supports the NSA looking into information for those suspected
of terrorist acts, with  appropriate, individualized warrants.

Paul spoke to a packed office in Manchester, and greeted an overflow crowd
outside his office at 50 Bridge St. His schedule included stops Saturday at
Joe’s Diner in Amherst, MaryAnn’s Diner in Derry, "Politics & Pie" at the
Snow Shoe Club in Concord, and a town hall event at Turbocam in Barrington.

In his remarks in Manchester, Paul said he is the Republican best
positioned to beat Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton in battleground states.

Following the event, he criticized Clinton for answering few press
questions.

"If she ever pops her head up and takes questions, we should ask Hillary
Clinton: Knowing what you know now, was it a good idea to topple Gaddafi
and get involved in Libya. I think all of the objective evidence shows that
things are more chaotic, worse, and that there’s more of ISIS influence in
Libya, and we are more threatened by having toppled the government there."

*Rand Paul demands White House release trade deal text immediately
<http://thehill.com/policy/finance/244220-rand-paul-demands-white-house-release-trade-deal-text-immediately>
// The Hill // Rebecca Shabad – June 6, 2015 *

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Saturday it “boggles the mind” that the White
House has not yet released the text of trade deal it’s pushing, known as
the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

“It kind of boggles the mind,” Paul said in an interview with Breitbart
News. “Who’s in charge of the administration that decides to keep a trade
treaty secret? To keep it classified makes no sense at all.”

Paul said the administration should immediately release the text of the
trade deal so members of the Senate can decide how to vote later on.

The Senate recently voted to fast-track the trade deal, which would allow
an up-or-down vote on it. House GOP leaders could hold the fast-track vote
as early as next week despite opposition from groups in both parties.

“To me, it’s kind of you put the cart before the horse to give the
permission to do something you haven’t seen,” Paul said. “They claim you’ll
get to see it, again but you’ll only get an up-or-down vote with no
amendments. Also, they get rid of some of the rules on — I guess it’s not,
you can’t filibuster it either. It passes with a simple majority.”

Paul explained he has proposed legislation that would require the Senate to
wait one day before a vote is held for every 20 pages of legislation.

“So 800-page legislation [like Obamatrade] would wait 40 days. You’d wait
40 days so we’d have adequate time to read it. Yeah, I’m a believer that we
should read legislation before we vote on it.”

Last month, Secretary of State John Kerry said the final text of the trade
deal would be made public at a minimum of 60 days before President Obama
would sign it.

*Ron Paul: 'I don't want to distract' from Rand
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/244212-ron-paul-i-dont-want-to-distract-from-rand>
// The Hill // Mark Hensch – June 6, 2015 *

Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Saturday he did not want to steal
attention from his son’s 2016 GOP presidential campaign.

“There’s no plans for it,” Ron Paul told CNN host Michael Smerconish when
asked whether he would stump for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on the campaign
trail.

“I went to his announcement and supported him there,” he said. “But it’s
his show right now. And I don’t want to distract from what he’s doing. So
it’s one of those things that I think will work its way out.”

Rand Paul launched his White House bid April 7 in Louisville, Ky.

Ron Paul praised his son’s performance Saturday amid one of the most
crowded GOP presidential fields in recent memory.

“He’s the only one that, from my viewpoint, is talking any commonsense,” he
said.

“I think he is able to talk more to the American people than the other
candidates because I think he has a set of principles, which means that
he’d much rather see smaller government and not make excuses for expanding
the surveillance state and not expanding our military presence around the
world.”

Ron Paul also praised his son’s repeated battles to reform the National
Security Agency (NSA) and its intelligence-gathering methods.

“When he did the NSA thing, people said, you know, ‘he’s done – he’s
finished,’ ” he said. “And Republicans and Democrats all in the Senate –
everybody in Washington – jumped on him.”

“Yet when you did a poll of the national people, they were with him and not
with McConnell,” Ron Paul added, citing Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.) and his opposition to NSA reforms.

The Senate approved the USA Freedom Act on Tuesday.

It ended the NSA’s controversial warrantless bulk collection of individual
phone records while reauthorizing less divisive counterterrorism measures.

Ron Paul also expressed concern with how the media would handle 2016’s
large Republican presidential field for televised debates.

“I’d take it out of the hands of the media because that becomes very
biased,” he said, noting his own problems appearing on a Fox News debate in
New Hampshire while on the 2012 campaign trail.

“So, no, I don’t think they should have as much clout,” Ron Paul added.

“I think it was better when the League of Women Voters or some other
independent group, a truly independent group, would schedule the debates,
rather than the media outlets, because I think they’re very, very slanted.”

Ron Paul retired in January 2013. He sought the White House twice while in
office, in 2008 and again in 2012.

*WALKER*

*Scott Walker Riding With Joni Ernst in Iowa as Rivals Give Chase
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/us/politics/scott-walker-riding-with-joni-ernst-in-iowa-as-rivals-give-chase.html?_r=0>
// NYT // Trip Gabriel – June 6, 2015 *

When Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin throws his leg across his beloved
Harley-Davidson Road King for a celebration of motorcycles and Iowa pork on
Saturday, the political symbolism will be as thick as the smoke from the
roasting pits.

Mr. Walker, who first broke from the pack of other Republican presidential
hopefuls thanks to a speech in Iowa, will be alone among seven declared and
likely candidates on a chopper alongside Senator Joni Ernst, a fellow biker
and one of Iowa’s most popular Republicans.

The other 2016 candidates will be left in the dust for the initial 28-mile
ride of “Joni’s Roast & Ride,” a daylong political fund-raiser.

Mr. Walker, whose early surge in national polls has receded, still enjoys a
decisive lead in Iowa, thanks to an unflashy style that resonates with
Iowans’ Midwestern sensibilities and to an unusual appeal across a wide
ideological swath of Republicans.

But that head-of-the-pack status has come with high expectations and a
target on his back.

Two challenges loom on the near horizon for Mr. Walker, who has said the
path to the presidency “comes through the Midwest.” They are the first
Republican debate, in Ohio on Aug. 6, in which he could be the target of
the nine other candidates on stage, and a decision on whether to compete in
Iowa’s straw poll in Boone two days later.

Several top-tier candidates, including former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida,
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas,
have said they will skip the straw poll, a gathering of thousands of Iowa
Republican activists that does not award any delegates for the party’s
nomination. It is costly for campaigns to organize and bus in supporters,
and the poll’s reputation as a predictor of victory has tumbled in recent
years.

The decisions of others gives Mr. Walker cover if he, too, takes a pass.
His Iowa advisers declined to say if he would participate in the straw
poll, noting he has yet to declare his candidacy. (An announcement is
expected late this month or early July.)

If Mr. Walker skips the event, Republican strategists in Iowa said, he
risks allowing another candidate to steal some of his momentum. Party
insiders unaffiliated with other candidates said he was in a lose-lose
situation.

“If you don’t participate, it’s going to be viewed as a sign of weakness by
some, and you’re going to turn off some of the party establishment and key
activists,” said Craig Robinson, who ran the straw poll for the state
Republican Party in 2007. “And if you do it, he has no choice but to win
and win convincingly.” He could end up spending time and money to compete
against long shot candidates like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ben Carson,
the retired neurosurgeon.

Mr. Walker’s favorability rating among likely Republican caucusgoers in
Iowa was higher than any other candidate, 67 percent, in a poll conducted
at the end of May for The Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics (with
a five-point sampling error). He enjoyed a solid seven-point lead, an
opening he first created with a passionate speech to conservatives in Des
Moines in January.

“I had never heard him before; I was blown away,” said Sam Clovis, a
prominent Iowa conservative who is state chairman for former Gov. Rick
Perry of Texas, who entered the race Thursday.

At a reception after a recent fund-raising dinner for the state Republican
Party, Mr. Walker, in an apron, served Wisconsin cheese to a long
procession of admirers, many of whom signed pledge cards to support him.

His support in Iowa, as elsewhere, traces to his reputation for winning
conservative fights against state employee unions in 2011 and Democrats who
mounted a recall effort against him in 2012.

“There were an awful lot of folks riveted to that whole recall thing,” said
Eric Woolson, a senior adviser to Mr. Walker in Iowa. “They watched it
every night on Fox or wherever else. It was high political drama.”

So far, Mr. Walker has had an unusual ability to draw support from both the
social conservatives and the business-oriented wing of the party.

The social conservatives embrace his signing of bills as governor to defund
Planned Parenthood, and his strong expression that prayer is central to his
life. Business conservatives admire that he cut taxes and dealt crippling
blows to unions.

But his ability to span the wings of the party — to win the argument that
he is the most conservative candidate capable of winning the general
election — could become a weakness if enough voters decide they would
rather go with a purer expression of their ideal candidate.

He is competing for social conservatives against Mr. Huckabee, who won the
caucuses in 2008, as well as Mr. Carson, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and
others.

Among business-focused candidates he must fight for supporters with Mr.
Bush, who is expected to announce his candidacy this month, and Mr. Rubio

“Each of those lanes within the caucus electorate are crowded with other
credible options,” said Matt Strawn, a former chairman of the Iowa
Republican Party. “So the challenge going forward is how well Governor
Walker can balance support from two distinct factions that rarely align
behind the same candidate.”

Mr. Walker may lead the pack on two wheels on Saturday, but his competitors
are not ready to stay behind.

*Scott Walker’s Effort to Weaken College Tenure*
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/opinion/scott-walkers-effort-to-weaken-college-tenure.html>*
// NYT // The Editorial Board – June 6, 2015*

Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal for weakening tenure at Wisconsin’s highly
respected state university system and undermining the faculty’s role in
campus governance will appeal to conservative voters whose support he needs
to win the Republican presidential nomination.

But if this proposal becomes law, it will damage the university, perhaps
irreparably. It will make it harder to recruit top-tier faculty members,
who have the pick of other institutions that respect academic independence
and where they do not have to fear dismissal for taking controversial views
or for doing research that might be frowned upon by politicians.

It has become fashionable to portray academia as a haven for people who
enjoy job security while others are subject to layoffs and downsizing. But
most college instructors are not protected by tenure. According to federal
data, only 20.35 percent of instructional faculty at American colleges are
full-time, tenure-track workers (down from 45 percent in 1975). Colleges
rely heavily on miserably paid part-timers who flee the campus when class
is finished so they can get to the next job.

Tenure protections were devised in the mid-20th century to protect
academics from political reprisals. Current Wisconsin state law respects
this tradition, allowing tenured faculty to be fired for just cause or in
financial emergencies.

A committee of state lawmakers last week approved a new proposal that would
remove tenure from state law, leaving the matter to the university system’s
18-member Board of Regents, 16 of whom are appointed by the governor with
the confirmation of the State Senate. Under the proposal, the board would
be able set new, vaguer standards for firing tenured faculty: “when such an
action is deemed necessary due to a budget or program decision requiring
program discontinuance, curtailment, modification or redirection.” Another
provision would weaken the faculty’s voice in policy and personnel
decisions.

Faculty members have ample reason to suspect Mr. Walker’s motives. Earlier
this year, he issued a budget containing devastating spending cuts that
also sought to amend the university’s mission statement to make it sound
more like a trade school than a prominent research institution. He backed
away from the new language after the state erupted in protest.

The Legislature, which will take up the new proposals later this month, can
still reject them. Rubber-stamping them would set the state university on a
course that Wisconsinites could regret for decades to come.

*Iowa's 'Roast and Ride': 5 takeaways
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/iowas-roast-and-ride-5-takeaways-118702.html#ixzz3cNoE4vCX>
// Politico // Katie Glueck – June 6, 2016*

Seven presidential prospects showed up but it was Harley-riding Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker who stood out.

BOONE, Iowa — The Iowa caucuses are a long eight months away, but a gaggle
of presidential hopefuls descended on a field here Saturday anyway, eager
to work the crowd, hone their organizing skills and build out their
volunteer lists. For the candidates who made it to Sen. Joni Ernst’s first
annual “Roast and Ride” event — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Florida Sen.
Marco Rubio, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Hewlett-Packard
head Carly Fiorina, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry
and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — it was a chance to pay their
respects to Ernst, the state’s freshman senator and a newly influential
figure in state politics.

Yet it was also an opportunity to connect with hundreds of Iowans and the
state’s political establishment in an informal, festival-like setting, one
without the pressures and expectations of the next big event on the state
political calendar — the Iowa Straw Poll in August.

Here are POLITICO’s five takeaways from the event:

This was Scott Walker’s day

The “Roast and Ride” event was tailor-made for Walker, the neighboring
Wisconsin governor who’s already leading the field in Iowa polls. He stood
out Saturday by being the only candidate to suit up and ride with Ernst on
the optional 38-mile motorcycle journey from Des Moines to Boone — he’s a
motorcycle owner himself. And as an aficionado of the iconic Wisconsin
manufacturer Harley-Davidson, Walker naturally showed up to the ride’s
kick-off in a leather jacket and boots bearing the brand’s name.

The governor basked in media attention for the first half of the day as he
fielded questions about his frontrunner status, leading the influential
Drudge Report website to feature a photo of Walker with the banner
headline: “Leader of the Pack.”

At the pig roast portion of the event, Walker’s PAC’s booth was
consistently busy, offering more goodies and swag — including beer coozies
that read “Go big. Go bold” and candy — than any of the other campaigns.
Walker’s remarks didn’t deviate much from his standard stump speech, but
they were well-received. It was a day that offered a good, high-profile
opportunity for down-home retail politicking, and Walker seized it.

There’s room for Rubio in Iowa

The Florida senator is still introducing himself to the state after
skipping several other cattle calls here. But the reception he received
Saturday suggests that Iowans are interested in learning more, and they
like what they hear so far. When he arrived, Rubio was mobbed by attendees
who asked for meetings, talked policy and clamored for pictures. One voter
asked Rubio to record a message for his girlfriend, and the senator
obliged, while several people who were volunteering in Carson’s tent left
their posts to take pictures with Rubio, saying they hadn’t decided whom to
support yet. The crowd was receptive to Rubio’s speech, including his
swipes at critics and his implicit jabs at Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton.

Rick Perry’s still got it

The former Texas governor’s stump speech didn’t stand out, but when it
comes to glad-handing and working a crowd, Perry still sets the gold
standard even if he trails in the polls. When he arrived in Boone, fresh
off of a separate motorcycle ride he did for an organization that supports
veterans, attendees and cameras swarmed him. The Texan posed for pictures,
put his hands on peoples’ shoulders and clasped attendees’ hands as he
worked his way across the field as voters praised him as a “patriot.” He
also got the rare shout-out from Ernst, who was asked how she felt about
his organizing another motorcycle event.

“I do want to thank him, actually, for doing this because he is riding with
a number of military veterans” and those are the beneficiaries of his ride,
she said, adding that she was “grateful” for his effort.

It’s clearly not 2011, when Perry entered the presidential race as the
frontrunner before flaming out shortly after, but don’t underestimate his
retail politicking skills. There’s a reason he’s the longest-serving
governor in Texas history, and he gave a taste of that Saturday.

Carly Fiorina continues to gain traction

Fiorina often gets rave reviews from conservative activists for her pointed
criticism of Hillary Clinton — and she continued to impress with that
message Saturday.

“There was recently a poll this week that asked Americans who they most
wanted to see debate Hillary Clinton,” she said, as someone appeared to
shout, “you!” To applause and laughter, Fiorina continued, “I was gratified
that I won that poll, and so I was thinking this morning, I really would be
tempted, on that general election debate stage, to ask Hillary, if she’s
ever ridden on a John Deere tractor [something Fiorina did that morning.].
I know she’s had a few photo ops. But the truth is, the question we need to
ask Hillary Clinton now is, ‘Mrs. Clinton, what else don’t we know?’”

Fiorina also scored points in talking about Israel, the Veterans’
Administration and the size of government. She received loud applause when
she said her first phone call as president would be to Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “a man I’ve known a long time.”

At the moment, Fiorina isn’t yet guaranteed a place in the upcoming debates
because of her low station in the polls. But if she continues to use her
Clinton zingers to stand out and energize crowds — as she did here — it’s
hard to imagine she’ll remain at the bottom of GOP polls.

Noted in Iowa — who wasn’t there

A few top-tier contenders failed to make the scene — Jeb Bush, Rand Paul
and Ted Cruz all skipped the event.

Bush had a family obligation — it’s his mother’s 90th birthday weekend —and
Paul and Cruz were both campaigning elsewhere, in New Hampshire and North
Carolina respectively. Paul, in particular, has missed a slew of cattle
calls, opting to campaign on his own schedule instead.

This one stands out as a missed opportunity, though. It’s not that
attendees were lamenting their absence. Rather, they didn‘t seem to be
missed at all. Voters were too distracted by, and excited about, the
face-time they were getting with the other 2016 candidates — and that’s
exactly the problem for Bush, Cruz and Paul. At the Roast and Ride, even
candidates who barely register in the polls, like Lindsey Graham, were
generally surrounded by curious voters, and all of the candidates in
attendance used the event as an organizing tool to build out their Iowa
lists. Given the uncertainties about who will participate in the Iowa Straw
Poll in August, it’s unclear when another Iowa politicking opportunity this
good will come along.

*Republican Walker is leader of 2016 election pack in Iowa
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/06/us-usa-election-iowa-idUSKBN0OM0YI20150606>
// Reuters // John Whitesides – June 6, 2015 *

Scott Walker, a likely Republican presidential contender who is riding high
in polls in the early voting state of Iowa, was literally the leader of the
pack on Saturday at a gathering of 2016 White House hopefuls.

Walker, the governor of neighboring Wisconsin, joined U.S. Senator Joni
Ernst at the head of a parade of about 300 motorcycle riders who traveled
39 miles (62 km)to Ernst's inaugural "Roast and Ride," a political event
combining barbecue and the roar of Harley-Davidsons.

The spot in front was appropriate for the new front-runner in Iowa, the
state that in seven months holds the first nominating contest to pick the
party's presidential candidate before the November 2016 election.

Walker, who built his reputation by taking on labor unions, has led the
five most recent polls in Iowa, including the respected Des Moines Register
poll. The Register showed him with a seven-percentage point lead over four
tightly bunched rivals and found he was viewed favorably by two-thirds of
likely Iowa caucus-goers.

"If the caucuses were today, he would win. Unless he really screws up, he
should win," said Doug Gross, state chairman for Mitt Romney's 2008
campaign and former chief of staff for longtime Governor Terry Branstad.

Iowa political veterans say Walker's popularity stems from his Midwestern
background and his appeal to all elements of the state's Republican base,
from pragmatic establishment voters looking for a winner to the social and
religious conservatives who play an influential role in the state's
politics.

But things will get tougher for Walker as he moves into the daily grind of
face-to-face campaigning in a state where voters are accustomed to being
wooed.

"The next test for Governor Walker is transitioning from the big stage,
multi-candidate events to the hand-to-hand combat of retail campaigning and
organizing in Iowa," said former state party chairman Matt Strawn.

Walker has not formally declared his candidacy, and he told reporters on
Saturday he would make the announcement "probably soon after the end of
this month."

The governor also dodged questions about whether he would participate in
the state's straw poll in August, a test of strength that traditionally
winnows the field. The poll has been criticized for being too expensive for
candidates.

Several other contenders, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, have
said they will skip the straw poll. Without Walker, the state party might
be forced to drop it.

Walker, a motorcycle enthusiast who addressed Saturday's crowd in his black
Harley-Davidson t-shirt, was one of seven declared or likely Republican
presidential contenders to give brief speeches at Ernst's barbecue.

Texas Governor Rick Perry led his own motorcycle ride to the fairgrounds.
U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio, former Arkansas Governor Mike
Huckabee, former business executive Carly Fiorina and retired neurosurgeon
Ben Carson spoke but did not participate in the motorcycle ride, although
each contender put up a tent at the site to woo voters.

Walker pushed back at criticism from Democratic front-runner Hillary
Clinton about Wisconsin's voting laws.

"In our state, we have a law that makes it easy to vote but hard to cheat,"
he said. "It’s another example of how Hillary Clinton is squarely out of
touch with mainstream America."

Republicans at the barbecue said Walker's record of battling public sector
labor unions to restrict bargaining rights was a strong selling point -
along with his two election wins and a victory in a recall effort in
Democratic-leaning Wisconsin.

"My No. 1 thing is I want to support a Republican who can win in 2016, and
I think Walker can win," said Ron Tekippe, a computer programmer from
Ankeny who likes Walker but is still undecided.

*Scott Walker: Hillary Clinton "firmly out of touch" on voting rights
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-walker-hillary-clinton-firmly-out-of-touch-voting-rights/>
// CBS News // Reena Flores – June 6, 2015 *

Potential Republican presidential candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
knocked Hillary Clinton for being "firmly out of touch" on the issue of
voting rights just days after the former secretary of state announced her
proposals championing minority access to voting.

"In our state we have a photo ID requirement that would make it easy to
vote and hard to cheat," Walker told reporters Saturday at Iowa Sen. Joni
Ernst's Roast and Ride event. "And I think that's a good example where her
statements of late show that she's firmly out of touch with I think where
mainstream America is."

When asked by a reporter about universal voter registration for the state
of Wisconsin, Walker shrugged and shook his head, pointing instead to
Wisconsin's turnout records.

"From our standpoint, we think we've got one of the most effective systems
right now where we have one of the highest levels of voter participation,"
Walker said. "We've got a pretty good system."

In the 2012 general election, Wisconsin had the second-highest
voter-turnout rate in the nation with 73 percent of the population
participating. The state trailed just behind Minnesota, which had a 76
percent turnout rate. Wisconsin also ranked second in the nation during the
2008 general election.

In a speech Thursday calling on Congress to restore portions of the Voting
Rights Act, Clinton singled out the Wisconsin governor for cutting back
early voting and signing legislation that would make it more difficult for
college students to vote.

"Today, Republicans are systematically and deliberately trying to stop
millions of American citizens from voting," Clinton said Thursday at Texas
Southern University in Houston, a historically black college. "What part of
democracy are they afraid of?"

Clinton specifically named three other current and former Republican
governors who, the former first lady says, enacted policies that limited
minority voting opportunities.

"We have a responsibility to say clearly and directly what's really going
on," Clinton said. "What is happening is a sweeping effort to disempower
and disenfranchise people of color, poor people and young people from one
end of our country to the other."

When Walker was asked Saturday about the changes his administration had
done in Wisconsin, he said the reforms were "just common sense."

"I can pull out my driver's license right here," Walker said, drawing out
the ID card. "Again, we make it available for people to get a driver's
license or a state-issued ID card. I think most Americans regardless of
party overwhelmingly think that's a common sense reform."

Clinton also attacked former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who recently declared
his candidacy for president, and criticized other potential GOP contenders
like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Christie told CBS' "Face the Nation" this week that the former secretary of
state "doesn't know what she's talking about" on voter fraud.

"In New Jersey, we have early voting that are available to people," the
Republican governor said. "I don't want to expand it and increase the
opportunities for fraud. And maybe that's what Mrs. Clinton wants to do. I
don't know. But the fact is that the folks in New Jersey have plenty of an
opportunity to vote."

*Scott Walker in Iowa: 'We did not inherit fame or fortune'
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/244215-scott-walker-in-iowa-we-did-not-inherit-fame-or-fortune>
// The Hill // Rebecca Shabad – June 6, 2015 *

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told voters in the key early-voting state of
Iowa on Saturday he didn’t inherit fame or fortune, but worked hard to
achieve the American dream.

“I look back on my life, and my brother and I realized we did not inherit
fame or fortune from our family. What we got was more important, and that
is the belief that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can do and
be everything you want in America,” Walker said in a short speech at an
event hosted by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

“That’s the American dream!” he said.

The Wisconsin governor, who has not yet officially launched a 2016
presidential bid, has been leading other GOP contenders in recent Iowa
polls.

On Saturday, Walker led a pack of 300 motorcyclists on a 28-mile route with
Ernst for the “Roast and Ride” event.

Walker said his first jobs were washing dishes and flipping hamburgers at
McDonalds. His dad was a small-town preacher and his mom was a bookkeeper.

“We understand that true freedom and prosperity does not come from the
mighty hand of the government," said Walker, who was dressed in jeans, a
black t-shirt and a baseball cap.

Walker slammed President Obama’s foreign policies, calling for a president
who will view radical Islamic terrorism is a threat.

"We’re going to stand up and fight it,” he said. “We need a leader in
America that Israel is actually an ally and should start treating it as
such.”

“We need to lead from the front again in America,” he added.

Walker was the only speaker at the "Roast and Ride" event to note launch a
2016 White House campaign.

The other speakers were former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Sen. Lindsey Graham
(S.C.), Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Dr.
Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.

*CHRISTIE*

*Christie slams Clinton on voter IDs: 'She doesn't know what she's talking
about'
<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/christie-slams-clinton-on-voter-ids-she-doesnt-know-what-shes-talking-about/article/2565751>
// Washington Examiner // Sean Higgins - June 6, 2015*

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, R-N.J., slammed former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, over her recent remarks
that Republicans were using voter ID laws in an effort to discourage legal
voters.

"Well, first, she doesn't know what she's talking about. ...[T]he fact is
that the folks in New Jersey have plenty of an opportunity to vote. And
maybe, you know, if she took some questions some places and learned some
things, maybe she wouldn't make such ridiculous statements," Christie told
CBS's "Face the Nation." The interview was recorded Friday and set to air
tomorrow, according to Politico.

In a speech Thursday in Houston, Clinton attacked the push for voter ID
laws, mostly initiated by Republican governors.

"What is happening is a sweeping effort to disempower and disenfranchise
people of color, poor people and young people from one end of our country
to the other," Clinton said.

Suggestions include: taxes and spending, environmental laws, govt research,
Medicaid and infrastructure.

She singled out Christie for vetoing a bill that would have allowed
in-person early voting at polling places. New Jersey does not have a voter
ID law.

Republicans counter that the laws are modest protections to prevent fraud.
The Supreme Court said in 2008 that state could adopt laws requiring a
photo ID, such as a driver's license, to vote. In March, it refused to hear
an appeal regarding a Wisconsin law.

*PERRY*

*Can Rick Perry close the deal?
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/06/05/can-rick-perry-close-the-deal/>
// WaPo // Stephanie McCrummen – June 5, 2015 *

*W*hen it happens, Rick Perry is speaking to a friendly crowd in a
plaid-and-paisley living room in Greenville, S.C. He appears relaxed. His
suit fits perfectly. Hair: just great. Glasses: starting to seem more
natural.

He’s gotten nods talking about jobs in Texas, laughs with the line about
flunking organic chemistry and claps when he says a brighter future “starts
right here . . . today!”

Then a man poses a question about the importance of speaking plainly, and
Perry pauses a moment before he answers by asking rhetorically, which is to
say confidently: “Did I say anything today you couldn’t understand?”

Because Rick Perry is a winker, and has been for a long time.

“It’s something he’s always done,” said a friend who has known Perry since
he was a Texas state legislator in the 1980s. “I’ve seen him do it at an
inaugural, from a podium. It’s a way he communicates. He’s very good at it,
and it’s very disarming. It’s real natural to him. Like some people can
whistle with their fingers? Actually, he can do that, too.”

It could be argued that the Perry persona comes down to the wink, which
friends and supporters describe as part of a broader repertoire of
natural-born gifts that makes the 65-year-old former Texas governor one of
the most instinctive retail politicians in the 2016 GOP field.

Other notable political winkers: George W. Bush, who winked at Queen
Elizabeth II after he accidentally suggested she helped America celebrate
its birthday in 1776 rather than 1976; Sarah Palin, who winked during 2008
vice-presidential debates; President Obama, who winked in his State of the
Union speech earlier this year, after dressing down the congressmen who
clapped when he alluded to the end of his term.

More recently, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott apologized for winking
at the host of a call-in radio show as a retiree explained that she was
surviving by working for an adult sex line, an incident that came to be
called “winkgate.”

The Rick Perry wink, though, comes with its own set of associations.

On one hand, it evokes his bona fide country upbringing, Texas swagger and
ability to say things such as “I’m gonna love on you,” meaning flatter you,
without sounding as though he is laying it on thick. Only a winker could
sell T-shirts with his own grinning mug shot, as Perry did after being
indicted last year on felony abuse-of-power charges that he has dismissed
as politically motivated.

More fundamentally, the wink can seem to reveal a certain sensitivity — an
ability to read a room, to feel for the right moment to reach in for the
handshake, touch an elbow or a shoulder and close the deal.

On the other hand, a wink can evoke the overconfidence and cheap tricks of
the used-car salesman, the sort of character that Perry’s critics have
often cast him as, especially after his performance in the 2012 Republican
primary. The infamous debate when Perry froze — trying for 45 seconds to
remember the third federal agency he would abolish, before he finally gave
up with an "oops" — has been read not just as a human fumble but the moment
he was exposed as a lightweight.

All of which leads to the question: Which is it?

Is the wink the mark of Perry’s essential authenticity, possibly his
greatest asset? Or does it represent his biggest challenge — overcoming the
perception that he’s all flash and little substance? Or is it something
more complicated?

What is the meaning of the Rick Perry wink?

Part of the answer lies in Greenville, where the wink is playing well in a
friendly room.

For one, Perry’s timing is impeccable. He deploys the wink at the moment
the audience seems most with him, as they’re still laughing. Second, the
wink isn’t strained; it seems natural, even through the lenses of his
hipster glasses. Third, he aims it not at the man who asked the question
but in the opposite direction — toward a cluster of women, including Racine
Cooper, the bylaws chairwoman of the Greenville County Republican Women’s
Club, who says later that he struck her as “a simple person who knows what
it is to say something plainly. He’s not full of it.”

After the wink, Perry grins and shifts back into a more serious tone.

“Good,” he says as the laughs die down. “All right. Hey, listen. I’m
telling ya. We’re on the verge of the greatest days in America’s history.
That’s not rhetoric.”

He thanks South Carolina for sending soldiers to defend the Alamo, then
steps into a red-walled room for the meet-and-greet.

“Watch him,” says Katon Dawson, state chairman of Perry’s political action
committee. “Whether you’re with Rick or not, you can’t not like him.”

“C’mon, man, get in here!” Perry is saying to a man in a blue blazer,
shaking his hand then pulling him in for a photo, arm around his back in
what seems less like a pose than a one-armed hug. “All right.”

To a man in a button-down shirt: “Get in here. . . . What kind of work you
do?”

“I’m in property,” the man says.

To the man in khakis: “How old?”

“Twenty-nine,” the man says.

“Twenty-nine,” Perry repeats, taking the arm of a woman next in line while
keeping eye contact with the man. “I got a daughter who’s 29 . . . ”

He turns to the woman, who shakes his hand with her two and holds it.

“We watched you in Spartanburg last time,” she says gravely, referring to
the last days of his 2012 campaign. “Good to see you again.”

“Well,” Perry says, upbeat, “I’m healthy and prepared this time.”

He gives her shoulder a squeeze and moves on to a woman who says she is
from Colombia.

“Medellin?” Perry guesses.

“Yes!” the woman says.

To a man with a buzz cut who appears to lift weights: “I bet I can guess
your line of work.” Then Perry guesses correctly: security.

To a couple: “And who are you?”

“Seth and Mariah,” the husband says.

“And the wind was named Mariah,” Perry sings for a moment, riffing on
lyrics from a Broadway musical far older than them, “Paint Your Wagon.”

“Pretty name,” he says to the woman, then turns to a young man. “C’mon in
here!”

It all suggests an extroverted personality, and yet when asked how he
prefers to spend his free time, Perry answers like an introvert.

“I’d rather spend time with my dogs,” he says in an interview at a Hyatt
Place hotel in Greenville the morning after the fundraiser. “I just like
being in the country and being with the dogs. It’s fun to watch the dogs.”

Asked about how he reads a room, or closes a deal, Perry shrugs.

“I don’t have a checklist I go down,” he says.

He grew up in the dusty flat sprawl of Paint Creek in West Texas, where his
father, Ray Perry, was a cotton farmer and longtime county commissioner, so
politicking was always in the air.

Perry’s mother, Amelia, told the Dallas Morning News that when Ray and
other men would gather to talk before service at the Methodist church, her
7-year-old son was always there, trying to work his way into the circle.
“He wanted those men to recognize him,” she said.

In elementary school, he campaigned for Halloween king by handing out candy.

There is the often-told but unverified story that when Perry, a popular
high school football player, once got knocked flat out on the field and the
coach went to ask if he was okay, Perry replied that he was fine but wanted
to know how the fans were taking it.

At Texas A&M, Perry was known for elaborate pranks, such as dropping an
M-80 firecracker down a toilet pipe.

He was popular, but he also wanted to be popular, winning election to be
one of five “yell leaders,” a prestigious position at the school that is
essentially like being a cheerleader.

Then there was his first job: as a Bible-book salesman.

During college, Perry worked for the Southwestern Co. in Festus, Mo., where
he was dropped off with a friend from college, John Brieden, at a gas
station with nothing but his dad’s old Army bag and a box of Bible
encylopedias, dictionaries and Wycliffe commentaries.

The young men rented a room in town, ate breakfast at a diner and split up
for long, hot days of knocking on doors in their sections of town, making
the sales pitch they were taught during a week of training in Nashville.

“You’d do it so many times it became normal,” recalls Brieden, who went on
to become an insurance salesman and is now a county judge in Texas. “We had
a case we carried a set of books in. So you’d set the book on the case,
hold the book so you’re looking at it upside down, flipping the pages, and
then ask them to buy.”

At night, the two young men would sit at the diner and compare notes.

“John and I, we would support each other every evening when we got in,”
Perry says in the interview, then leans in and lowers his voice to reenact
the dinner-table scene. “ ‘You know how many super-sets I sold today? A
bunch.’ And we might not have sold any.”

The former governor of Texas is a good bluffer.

“Got told no a lot,” Perry says, asked about whether selling came easily.

He pauses and leans in again.

“But I got told yes enough to buy a 1967 Catalina Pontiac!” he says,
grinning. “I want to say it was $2,700, which, that is a huge amount of
money in 1969!”

Perry always had a well of ambition underneath the charm, Brieden says,
recalling a conversation at the washateria that summer. Perry asked Brieden
whether he had goals; Brieden said he wanted to pay for college.

“He said, ‘No, no, what are your goals?’ ” Brieden recalls. “He said, ‘I’ve
got three goals.’ ”

One was to graduate, which the chemistry-challenged Perry knew was no
guarantee for him; two was to be a yell leader; three was to be a member of
the Ross Volunteers at Texas A&M, an elite group of cadets who served as
honor guard for the Texas governor.

“He did all of those three things,” Brieden says.

Perry talks to a Fox News reporter via speakerphone in December in his
Austin office, a few weeks before the end of his term. (Julia Robinson for
The Washington Post)

After college, Perry joined the Air Force and flew C-130 cargo planes, duty
that included rotations in England and Germany and missions to Saudi Arabia
and South America.

Then something happened that could be considered out of character for
someone as driven and cocky as Perry seemed: In 1977, he came home to Paint
Creek, moved into his childhood bedroom and spent six years adrift.

“I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t happy,” Perry has said of that time,
describing himself as “lost.”

He helped on the cotton farm, but Perry’s parents also recalled in an
interview with the Dallas Morning News how their son would disappear for
days with nothing but a bedroll, his horse and his dog. A neighbor
recalledhow Perry would borrow his plane and just take off somewhere.

Eventually, he decided to apply for a pilot job with Southwest Airlines.
But before he got hired, a group of young Texan politicos convinced him
there was a better use for his rugged good looks and obvious gifts, and
Perry entered a profession that chose him as much as he chose it.

He was elected as a Democrat to the state legislature, and then was
persuaded to run as a Republican for agriculture commissioner, a campaign
that included the famous “Marlboro Man” ad in which Perry is filmed in
chaps, saddling up a horse and silhouetted at sunset.

He won, and kept on winning, eventually becoming the longest-serving
governor in state history, a job he approached the way he knew best: as a
salesman.

Perry’s critics and admirers alike say that his central achievement has
been to sell Texas, luring companies from Toyota to eBay to Latex Foam
International to the state with billions in incentives, face-to-face
pitches and radio ads.

“This is Texas Governor Rick Perry, and I have a message for California
businesses,” began one that aired in the state in 2013. “Come check out
Texas . . . and see why our low taxes, sensible regulations and fair legal
system are just the thing to get your business moving. To Texas.”

Perry set up the controversial Texas Enterprise Fund, which critics called
a massive slush fund that has rewarded Perry’s political allies and which
Perry called “the largest deal-closing fund of its kind in the nation.”

“Look, in powers of persuasion, he is among the top of all the governors,
and I’ve worked with a lot,” says Dennis Cuneo, a former vice president for
Toyota who was in charge of site selection for a new pickup-truck assembly
plant soon after Perry became governor in 2000. “It’s his whole demeanor.
The way he shakes your hand, how he looks you in the eye. He says, ‘I’m
here to make you successful.’ ”

Cuneo says he was struck by the governor’s unbridled enthusiasm.

“Texas was a long shot,” he says. “So I paid a visit to Perry in 2002. It
was supposed to be a half-hour meeting and turned into two hours.”

Cuneo says Perry knew he had grown up in Pennsylvania and struck up a long
conversation about Pittsburgh. Perry told him that the pickup was “born in
Texas” and that moving there would help with Toyota’s marketing. He upped
the incentive package. He mentioned that he had spoken to the family that
needed to sell the land for a potential site. He gave Cuneo his cellphone
number, and when Cuneo called later, Perry answered.

“He’s governor of a pretty big state — that doesn’t happen often,” he says,
laughing slightly at Perry’s aggressive pitch. “He knows how to close the
deal.”

At the start of the 2012 GOP primary, Perry was closing deals all over the
place, raising millions from the business community, winning the support of
conservative Christians, bounding out of his bus in the South Carolina sun
and soaring to the top of the polls.

The wink and all the confidence and swagger it embodied seemed to be
working again — until the oops, and an especially animated speech in New
Hampshire that was odd enough that some speculated that Perry was drunk or
high on painkillers for a back condition, all of which Perry denied.

There was a last, awkward swing through South Carolina in which Perry
wandered through an empty antique shop and, finally, in a moment that was
the opposite of a wink, announced he was dropping out and returned to Texas.

Rick Perry in his own words: His take on guns, Obamacare and more

Only now here he is again, trying to get it all back.

He’s at a Pizza Ranch in Indianola, Iowa, where some voters say they can
get past the oops if Perry can.

He’s at the conservative gathering called CPAC in Maryland, walking on
stage to AC/DC’s “Back in Black” and delivering a speech during which his
body language appears stiffer than it does in a small room. As he often
does, he begins by saying the world is more dangerous now than ever before,
and that “on three points, we must be clear” — and then successfully reels
off the three.

And he’s in Greenville, at the Hyatt Place hotel, saying that he didn’t
learn everything about retail politics in one place, and talking about
Paint Creek, dust storms and his parents, the well-worn stories of his
stump speech.

“So,” Perry is saying, “watching your—”

He stops himself. He pauses. Five seconds pass. Six. He’s squinting into
the corner of the room. Seven seconds. Still pausing.

And this is the other thing about Rick Perry: As confident and swaggering
as he can seem these days, there are still moments when he can seem lost.
Not exactly lost in thought. Just lost, not unlike he appeared to be on
stage during the debates in 2011 — far from Texas and the persona he
created there, standing before crowds that were not always friendly, not
necessarily buying what he was selling.

“We never had a lot of new things,” Perry says finally, and now he’s back
to the familiar persona and stump-speech stories, talking about how the
harsh life of west Texas taught him how to handle adversity, his father’s
stoicism, and on until an aide tells him that it’s time to go.

And it is somewhere between then and Perry’s closing argument — that he’s
better prepared this time, and that he’s certain voters “will see a very
different individual when it comes to my performance” — that it happens
again.

Perry winks and, a little while later, heads to New Hampshire.

*Perry touts experience as governor
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/244216-perry-touts-experience-as-governor>
// The Hill // Mark Hensch – June 6, 2015 *

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said Saturday his time
governing Texas made him the best candidate for the White House in 2016.

“This is going to be a ‘show me, don’t tell me’ election,” Perry told
listeners at the inaugural “Ride and Roast” event in Boone, Iowa.

Perry cited the diverse range of challenges he had faced while governing
Texas as proof he was ready to lead the nation.

“No one gave me a manual that says, ‘Here’s how you deal with Ebola when it
shows up on the shores of America and in your state,’ ” he said.

“No one gave me a manual when tens of thousands of people showed up on our
borders and our federal government failed in its constitutional duty to
keep it secure,” Perry said. “If you elect me president, I will secure that
border.”

Perry said he would authorize the Keystone XL oil pipeline as a means of
making the U.S. “energy secure.”

He also promised he would lower the nation’s corporate taxes, regulations
he called the “highest corporate tax rate in the Western world.”

“Let’s make 2016 the great year of getting America back to being America
again,” Perry told listeners.

“America’s freedoms are the greatest in the world, and we need to fight for
them every day,” Perry added. “If you elect me the president of these
United States, that is exactly what I will do for you.”

Perry touted past U.S. history as proof of American exceptionalism.

“We’ve been through a Civil War, we’ve been through two World Wars, we’ve
been through a Great Depression,” he said.

“We’ve been through Jimmy Carter, we can make it through a President
Obama,” he quipped.

The former Texas governor remarked that the right president could make 2016
the starting point of America’s brightest future yet.

“We are just a few policy changes at the top from the greatest days of our
nation,” Perry said.

“This is an incredible country,” he added. “I am excited about the future
of America.”

Perry launched his 2016 campaign Thursday from an airplane hangar outside
Dallas.

“We have the power to make things new again,” he said Thursday, flanked by
Marines, Navy SEALs and Medal of Honor recipients. “And that is why I am
running for the presidency of the United States of America.”

Perry vowed he would approach the campaign trail with renewed resolve after
his failed 2012 bid.

He has made his gubernatorial experience a central part of his campaign
rhetoric since joining the race.

“Leadership is not a speech you give on the Senate floor,” he said
Thursday. “It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.”

“I have been tested,” he added. “I have led the most successful state in
America.”

*Rick Perry announces Iowa presidential campaign team
<http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/06/06/perry-unveils-iowa-campaign-team/28596103/>
// The Des Moines Register // William Petroski – June 6, 2015 *

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who announced his candidacy for the
Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, said Saturday his Iowa
caucus campaign will be headed by Sam Clovis, a prominent Republican
activist from northwest Iowa.

Clovis, who supported Rick Santorum for president four years ago,
unsuccessfully ran for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in a June primary
last year and then lost a November bid for state treasurer. Clovis served
25 years in the Air Force as a fighter pilot and now is an economics
professor at Morningside College in Sioux City. He is also well-known in
northwest Iowa for his work as a radio talk show host.

Robert Haus, senior strategist. Haus was co-chairman of Perry's 2012 Iowa
campaign. He has helped oversee the Iowa presidential caucus campaigns for
Steve Forbes, Fred Thompson and Phil Gramm. He is a New Hampton native who
has also led several statewide and congressional races in Iowa.

Jamie Johnson, senior director. Johnson will work with conservative leaders
in Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire. He has spent three decades in
local, state and federal politics across the United States, including work
on Santorum's 2012 campaign. Johnson is an ordained Anglican minister.

Sheila Murphy, Iowa consultant focusing on coalition building. Murphy is a
longtime GOP activist in Iowa and Nebraska. She was campaign manager for
Brenna Findley's attorney general campaign in 2010 and political director
of Rod Robert's 2010 governor's campaign.

Andy Swanson, Iowa state director. An Iowa native, Swanson has experience
in Iowa, having worked on two previous presidential campaigns and several
statewide efforts. He is originally from Dayton.

Dane Nealson, eastern Iowa political director. He is a native of West
Liberty and has more than a decade of campaign experience. He worked for
Perry in 2012. Nealson is also the former chairman of the Story County GOP.

Kip Murphy, western Iowa political director. Murphy is a longtime Iowa
grassroots activist, having worked in the field for several congressional
and statewide candidates. Murphy is also the former chairman of the
Harrison County GOP.

Quentin Marquez, Iowa field director. He worked with Americans for
Prosperity in 2014, and has held executive positions with the University of
Iowa College Republicans and Iowa Federation of College Republicans.

Christina Bettini, Iowa field director. Bettini worked with the Iowa House
Majority Fund in 2014 and has been a legislative clerk in the Iowa
Statehouse.

*HUCKABEE*

*Huckabee: I'm 'only person' to take on Clinton machine
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/244219-huckabee-im-only-person-to-take-on-clinton-machine>
// The Hill // Mark Hensch – June 6, 2015 *

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Saturday he was the only 2016 GOP
presidential candidate who had experience facing off with the Clintons in
past elections.

“I fought the Clinton political machine in every election I’ve been in,” he
said at the first annual “Roast and Ride” in Boone, Iowa.

“If you want someone who has fought the Clinton political machine and won,
you’re looking at the only person who has lived to tell about it,” he said
of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband,
former President Bill Clinton.

Huckabee encountered the Clintons while serving as Arkansas’ governor
between 1996 and 2007.

He charged Saturday that they represent the kind of political power he
would avoid should he win in 2016.

“America is a great country, but we are losing this nation because we have
failed to understand that when we elect people, they have to serve us,”
Huckabee said. “We are not supposed to serve them.”

Huckabee argued that a government divorced from its people put its own
interests before theirs.

He cited the economy as an example of imbalance he would fix upon taking
the Oval Office.

“People are working harder than ever before and have less to show for it,”
Huckabee said. “There are a lot of people in this country that are sweating
through their clothes and lifting heavy things every day.”

Military veterans struggling for their benefits, he added, was another
example of failed leadership.

“It is a shame they have to beg and plead to get their veterans’ benefits
from” the Department of Veterans Affairs, he said.

“This is a government that has broken a lot of its promises,” he added.

Huckabee also ripped Social Security as a program the federal government
was badly mismanaging.

“We’re not talking about an entitlement,” he said. “This is an earned
benefit you paid for.”

The former Arkansas governor doubled down on his recent criticism of the
Supreme Court for abusing its powers.

“Nine unelected, black-robed judges do not get to determine what’s right or
wrong,” he said, calling their decisions “judicial tyranny” if left
unchecked.

Huckabee concluded his remarks by mentioning that the birth of his fifth
grandchild was expected on Sunday.

He said he wanted to ensure a vibrant future for his family’s latest
addition by winning the White House next year.

“I’m on a mission to make this country a better one for my five
grandchildren than it would be if we keep going down the direction we’re
heading on,” Huckabee said.

*KASICH*

*Hillary Clinton draws ire of John Kasich on voting
<http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/06/06/clinton-draws-ire-of-kasich-on-voting.html>
// The Columbus Dispatch // Darrel Rowland – June 6, 2015 *

Ohio Gov. John Kasich chastised Hillary Clinton on Friday for engaging in
“pure demagoguery” on voting rights when the country is struggling with
racial issues.

“We live in a time when race relations are very sensitive, and to be using
that kind of reckless language is not helpful to this country,” Kasich said
before his final event of the two-day swing through the state that holds
the nation’s first primary election.

“To be saying that Republicans are intent on cutting people off to vote —
that’s targeted at folks that feel very vulnerable.”

Clinton, speaking at a historically black college in Texas on Thursday,
blasted voting restrictions imposed by the GOP in Ohio and other states.

“We have a responsibility to say clearly and directly what’s really going
on in our country, because what is happening is a sweeping effort to
disempower and disenfranchise people of color, poor people, and young
people from one end of our country to the other,” the former secretary of
state said.

But Kasich fired back: “It’s downright divisive to say that there is a plot
to take away your right to vote. That’s the kind of thing in this campaign
that will further divide America, and I’m not in this to divide the
country, I’m in this to help be a uniter.”

The jousting with Clinton came the day after he warned fellow Republicans
about criticizing her over issues such as Benghazi and the Clinton
Foundation.

He defended the latest remarks by noting they did not touch on any of the
areas he warned about. “I said there’ll be a time and place. Unfortunately,
the time has come because of those comments. It’s outrageous.”

The back-and-forth began with an appearance on Fox News where Kasich said
Clinton’s language “ was really offensive to me. And I like Hillary and I
haven’t been attacking Hillary, OK? But for her to say that there are
Republicans who are deliberately trying to keep people from voting? It’s
just pure demagoguery.”

He said it was “silliness” for Clinton to criticize Ohio for repressing the
vote when the state has 28 days of early voting and New York (where Clinton
lives) has only Election Day.

Daniel Wessel, press secretary for the pro-Clinton group Correct the
Record, said, “Gov. Kasich is trying to distract from the many efforts of
Republicans in his state to make it more difficult for Ohioans to vote —
including limiting early-voting locations and attempting to limit
early-voting hours. Hillary Clinton’s proposals would make it easier for
all eligible voters to vote, unlike Gov. Kasich, who has turned this
fundamental right of Americans into a partisan issue.”

Kasich’s comments echoed those made by other Ohio Republicans on Thursday —
including Secretary of State Jon Husted — who noted that Clinton’s proposal
to require at least 20 days of early voting in every state already is
exceeded in Ohio.

Last month, an attorney who represents the campaign of Clinton and several
other Democrats filed a federal lawsuit against Husted and Attorney General
Mike DeWine, saying that GOP officials’ actions were designed “to bolster
artificially the likelihood of success of Republican candidates in Ohio
elections,” which “threatens the very bedrock of our democracy.”

Ohio Democratic Chairman David Pepper said in a statement: “When Gov.
Kasich says it’s ‘ demagoguery’ to fight for expanded access to the polls,
he’s the one being divisive. The act of voting is essential to our idea of
America, and our democracy is better when every citizen can participate.
Wanting more people to vote and modernizing elections doesn’t divide
Americans; it unites them.

“When Kasich and Secretary of State Jon Husted tout Ohio voting laws, they
leave out a key fact: Ohio’s voting laws are what they are today because
civil-rights groups, community leaders and Ohio Democrats have taken Husted
and the state to court over and over again to stop numerous attacks on
voting rights.”

*CARSON*

*Ben Carson’s Nascent Campaign Faces Personnel Turmoil
<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/06/06/ben-carsons-nascent-campaign-faces-personnel-turmoil/?ref=us>
// NYT // Ashley Parker – June 6, 2015*

Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and Tea Party folk hero, has emerged as
one of the most talked-about Republican candidates for president in 2016,
buoyed by the strength of his outsider’s appeal and captivating life story.

But the very political greenness that has made Mr. Carson such an
attractive candidate to his fans is also proving problematic as he tries to
ramp up his campaign organization.

Since officially declaring himself a candidate in Detroit last month, Mr.
Carson’s organization has unraveled, with the loss of four top staff
members: his campaign chairman, national finance chairman, deputy campaign
manager and general counsel. The Washington Post first reported the turmoil
on Saturday.

But walking into Senator Joni Ernst’s “Roast and Ride” here on Saturday,
Mr. Carson showed up with an easy smile and ready set of talking points,
brushing off the reports. He breezily described the recent staff departures
as a “planned exodus” and said his campaign was “running as smoothly as it
possibly can be.”

“Things could not be better,” Mr. Carson said, listing his more than
140,000 donations, social media presence and standing in the polls. “It’s
hard to imagine how we could be doing any better, so if that’s what chaos
is, bring it on.”

Yet the struggles of Team Carson appear to be both internal and external.
Two outside “super PACs,” Run Ben Run and One Vote, have found themselves
competing with each other, and the Carson campaign, to attract money and
volunteers.

Terry Giles, who resigned as Mr. Carson’s campaign chairman last month,
plans to start yet another super PAC; he told The Post he hoped to convince
the other two groups to stand down and coordinate with his effort, the goal
of which is to complement the official campaign more seamlessly.

Asked about the tension between his outside groups, Mr. Carson noted that
he was, by law, not allowed to coordinate with them. But, he added, in an
ideal world, “I would like to see everybody singing ‘Kumbaya.’ ”

*Dick Morris: Ben Carson's Fame Helps GOP Run, But More Is Needed
<http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/dick-morris-ben-carson-republicans-president/2015/06/05/id/649117/>
// Newsweek // Todd Beamon – June 5, 2015 *

Presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson has so far successfully translated
his fame as a world-renowned neurosurgeon to politics, but the biggest
challenge he faces is trying to "convince Republicans that he can take on
Hillary Clinton," political analyst Dick Morris told Newsmax TV on Friday.

"You're asking someone who's never been around a heavyweight boxing match
to get into the ring with Muhammad Ali," Morris, who served in the Bill
Clinton administration, told "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth. "There is
nobody that has more experience at doing this than Hillary.

"All of the debates she had while running for Senate, running for
president, and all the primaries and now again," he added. "It's scary to
think of somebody who has never been around, been fighting for a round, to
be in that match.

"He has to convince people that he can hold his own — and that's the big
obstacle."

Carson's soft-spoken, easygoing style could prove daunting for a White
House run, Morris said as he reflected on Arizona Sen. John McCain in the
2008 presidential race.

"It didn't work with McCain. You're always sort of wanting to turn up the
volume when he was speaking," Morris said. "I don't think it's going to be
an effective approach. He's got to be much more forceful and much more
dynamic.

"Politics is its own occupation — and I don't think I could do
neurosurgery, and it takes some adjustment of skills to do politics.

"Dr. Carson's approach is a very good one in a vacuum, but when it comes to
fighting someone and going head-to-head, toe-to-toe, that's harder — and
that kind of a low-key approach sometimes will get run over by a truck,"
Morris said.

But there's another reality that could work against Carson: President
Barack Obama.

"We all have in the back of our minds have Obama, who had almost no
experience, more than Carson, but not much — and look at how ineptly he's
governed," he told Hayworth.

"I'm just concerned about bringing someone in who's got nothing, doesn't
know anything about the process."

Throughout the campaign trail, Carson has noted the pressure involved in
separating conjoined twins and other sensitive pediatric operations around
the world during his nearly four decades as a physician, but politics
requires a different set of skills, Morris cautioned.

"What's important here is the give and take, because there's always a
subtext going on. One is who's wining the debate, who's making the points.
The other is who's a strong and forceful leader?

"That's the one strength that Hillary has — and going against Carson
without Carson being more aggressive is going to be difficult to watch,"
Morris said.

The analyst's advice to Carson: distinguish himself from other Republican
candidates.

"It is important that Carson takes one or two issues, preferably issues
where he disagrees with the other Republicans," Morris told Hayworth.
"Maybe it's free trade fast-track deal, maybe the NSA reform bill that just
passed — maybe he wants to go further.

"It's important that he takes a political issue and use it to define his
advocacy, his strength, and his position. Because you can't run for
president just on a resume."

*Why is Ben Carson doing so well in the polls?
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/05/why-is-ben-carson-doing-so-well-in-the-polls/?wprss=rss_the-fix&tid=sm_tw_pp>
// WaPo // Amber Phillips – June 5, 2015 *

He has compared Obamacare to slavery, thrown around words like bestiality
and pedophilia while arguing against same-sex marriage and said our society
resembles Nazi Germany.

He's basically the longest of long shots to run our country in 2017, and
there are signs his nascent presidential campaign is struggling with this
reality.

So why is retired pediatric neurosurgeon, political novice and presidential
candidate Ben Carson near the top of almost every recent poll of the 2016
race?

A recap:

A Washington Post-ABC News poll out this week had Carson tied for sixth
among Republican-leaning voters -- but in a statistical tie for the lead in
the crowded field. He was at 7 percent alongside Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, while
the leader, Jeb Bush, was at 13 percent.

A Fox News poll released Wednesday of likely GOP primary voters found
Carson third among 16 candidates, at 11 percent. That's just behind Bush
and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, each at 12 percent. Again, a statistical
tie for the lead.

The Real Clear Politics average of national polls has Carson tied with
libertarian-leaning Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul for fourth place overall.

The answer has less to do with Carson's skill as a candidate and more to do
with his background and fortunate timing. Carson has arguably the best
non-political background in the field, and he's running for president in an
election in which there are so many candidates on the GOP side that it's
going to be incredibly tough for one person to command much of a lead.

In contrast, around this time before the 2012 presidential elections, seven
GOP candidates were in the race. Eventual nominee Mitt Romney led the field
with 17 percent of the vote, according to the Real Clear Politics average.
And even that was pretty low for a frontrunner.

At this point, any candidate who has a small, committed group of supporters
is going to stand out. And Carson definitely has street cred among tea
party supporters.

He earned star power and fueled presidential buzz in conservative circles
back in 2013, when he criticized President Obama at a National Prayer
Breakfast with the president sitting just a few feet again. Since then he's
elevated himself to celebrity status among conservatives.

There's a big difference between getting 10 percent of the vote and
competing to win states -- a far taller hurdle for a political novice like
Carson. But being at 10 percent also means Carson will look like a
contender until other candidates start actually rising from the mess of a
crowded field that exists.

But we shouldn't expect that 10 percent support to dry up, no matter how
badly his campaign struggles. After all, he got it with very little skill
as a candidate, and the things that give him a niche today aren't really
going away.

*Carson: Political experience not needed to be a good president
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/244217-carson-political-experience-not-needed-to-be-a-good-president>
// The Hill // Mark Hensch – June 6, 2015 *

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson argued Saturday that a lifetime of
private-sector success was just as valuable as a political background for
running the nation.

“I’ve had decades of experience on corporate boards seeing how things work
efficiently and inefficiently,” he said at the inaugural “Roast and Ride”
in Boone, Iowa.

“Our government is incredibly inefficient at this stage right now,” he said.

“There are a lot of people in politics who are wise and can solve our
problems,” Carson added. “But there’s some people in politics I wouldn’t
let tie my shoes.”

Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, hit back at claims his medical career meant
he was unqualified on issues like finances or foreign policy.

“The government is not supposed to tell us what to do,” he said, citing
ObamaCare as an example. “If we accept that, it will continue to erode our
freedoms.”

Carson said the economy offered proof that the “experts” did not always
have the correct lawmaking solutions.

“One of our most severe problems is the stagnant economy,” he said.  “As we
go forward, something has to give.”

*JINDAL*

*As he nears a 2016 bid, Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal hits political bottom
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-he-nears-a-2016-bid-louisianas-bobby-jindal-hits-political-bottom/2015/06/06/26f9c98e-0a28-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html>
// WaPo // Tyler Bridge – June 6, 2015 *

Just weeks before he is expected to announce his presidential campaign,
Bobby Jindal is at the nadir of his political career.

The Republican governor is at open war with many of his erstwhile allies in
the business community and the legislature. He spent weeks pushing a
“religious freedom” bill that failed to pass, while having little contact
with legislators trying to solve Louisiana’s worst budget crisis in 25
years.

Jindal is now so unpopular in deep-red Louisiana that his approval rating
plunged to 32 percent in a recent poll — compared with 42 percent for
President Obama, who lost the state by 17 percentage points in 2012.

“This is very much a low point for Bobby Jindal,” said Pearson Cross, a
political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who
is preparing a book on the governor.

Much of the trouble swirling around Jindal is connected to his unannounced
presidential campaign and his regular travels to early primary states,
which have angered many of his fellow Republicans in the GOP-controlled
legislature.

In recent months, Jindal has focused his political energy here on trying to
appeal to social conservatives nationally by pushing the Marriage and
Conscience Act, which would have prohibited the state from taking “adverse
action” against those opposed to same-sex marriage. But the measure died
last month in the legislature amid opposition from major corporations that
feared boycott threats by gay rights groups viewing such measures as
sanctioning discrimination.

The legislature is also in the final days of grappling with the budget
crisis, which was caused, in part, by personal and corporate tax cuts
passed under Jindal’s watch that haven’t paid for themselves.

Yet he has kept up his thinly veiled 2016 travels, having appeared at
political events Monday in New Hampshire and Tuesday in Florida. Jindal
will announce his plans in New Orleans on June 24.

Jindal will need a serious bump in popularity if he hopes to compete:
Currently, he doesn’t make the Top 10 cut in national polls to participate
in the first Republican presidential debate, to be held Aug. 6 in Cleveland.

But Jindal told reporters recently that he is merely paying the price for
making hard choices in cutting the number of state employees and refusing
to raise taxes. He also vowed to do the same if he won the White House.

“If I were to run for president, it would certainly be based on the premise
that this country needs big changes,” Jindal said. “We need somebody who
will go to D.C. and rescue the American Dream from becoming the European
nightmare. This president has presided over an expansion in federal
government spending, taxing, borrowing and regulating that is hurting our
economy.”

A Rhodes scholar long described as a whiz kid, Jindal headed Louisiana’s
state Department of Health and Hospitals at 24, moved on to a series of
high-level government jobs, was elected to Congress at 33 and now, at 43,
is completing his second and final term as governor. Until recently, he was
described as a rising star in the Republican Party.

“A lot of people disapprove of his national travel at a time of a budget
crisis,” said Bernie Pinsonat, whose firm, Baton Rouge-based Southern Media
& Opinion Research, conducted the poll showing Jindal at 32 percent
favorability.

“There’s been no end in sight to the red ink and headlines over concerns
about state cuts to public hospitals and universities,” Pinsonat said.

The governor has championed a business-friendly environment in Louisiana,
supporting tax breaks for companies, revamping the state’s worker-training
programs to better suit the needs of businesses and depleting a $450
million economic-development fund to subsidize new plants and facilities.

But his rightward turn ahead of a likely presidential run has also put him
in conflict with the business community. Jindal dropped his support of the
business-backed Common Core education standards and this year pushed the
legislature to abandon them; state lawmakers paid him no heed.

With Louisiana facing a projected $1.6 billion budget deficit this year —
20 percent of the state’s general fund — Jindal sought to eliminate $526
million per year of tax refunds given to businesses.

Nixing the refunds — which Jindal calls “corporate welfare” — adheres to
the guidelines of Americans for Tax Reform, the influential anti-tax group
run by Grover Norquist. But business leaders say Jindal is trying to raise
their taxes.

In the meantime, Jindal made passage of the Marriage and Conscience Act one
of his three legislative priorities this year. He said it would protect
those who oppose same-sex marriages.

“In Indiana and Arkansas, large corporations recently joined left-wing
activists to bully elected officials into backing away from strong
protections for religious liberty,” he wrote in a New York Times op-ed in
late April. “It was disappointing to see conservative leaders so hastily
retreat on legislation that would simply allow for an individual or
business to claim a right to free exercise of religion in a court of law.”

IBM, Dow Chemical, the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau and gay
rights groups all opposed Jindal’s bill, and lawmakers wanted no part of
the controversial legislation in an election year. They gave it a single
committee hearing late in the session before it was killed on a 10-to-2
vote.

Two hours later, Jindal issued an executive order prohibiting the executive
branch from taking action against anyone who opposes same-sex marriage.

“We perceive this as largely a political statement by our conservative
governor in support of his national position on the issue,” the convention
bureau said in a statement, adding that the order was not likely to have
any practical impact.

Buddy Roemer, a former Republican governor, said many are disappointed in
Jindal and doubt his ability to mount a credible presidential bid.

“Several times a day, I get phone calls from business people who are
concerned,” Roemer said. “They are irate, angry and bewildered at how he
thinks he can amass a national political following. The next governor will
have to spend four years making tough decisions that Jindal hasn’t made.”

*FIORINA*

*Fiorina: Government is 'giant, bloated, unaccountable'
<http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/06/06/fiorina-calls-federal-government-bloated-unaccountable/28614933/>
// The Des Moines Register // Grant Rodgers – June 6, 2015 *

"You got it going on, girl," Carly Fiorina told a young admirer after her
Roast & Ride speech, pointing to the girl's painted toenails.

Unlike six other candidates at Saturday's event, the former software CEO
waited until after her 10-minute speech to mingle with the audience. An
enthusiastic group met her moments after she stepped off stage and snapped
photos in front of a trailer stacked with hay bales.

Between photos, she autographed a man's Harley-Davidson baseball cap. "We
need your brain in office," another supporter shouted.

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO is keen to point to her career in business
to separate herself from competitors. A successful showing at the Iowa
GOP's Lincoln Dinner in May and earlier multi-candidate cattle calls has
created hype around her long-shot candidacy.

Best moment: Two women wearing buttons supporting Ben Carson, the
conservative former neurosurgeon who also spoke Saturday, asked to have
pictures taken with Fiorina.

"I mean, I love Ben, too, but you gotta have a picture without that
button," she jokingly told the women.

Quote: "There was recently a poll earlier this week that asked Americans
who they most want to see debate Hillary Clinton. I was gratified that I
won that poll. ... I think what we need to ask Hillary Clinton now is,
'Mrs. Clinton, what else don't we know?'"

On stage: Fiorina highlighted what she called the federal government's
inept response to foreign hack attacks.

The remark came a day after the U.S. government announced that personal
data of 4 million federal employees had been breached in a hack from China.
It's just one example of vulnerabilities created by a "giant, bloated,
unaccountable" federal government, Fiorina said.

Reaction: One of Fiorina's biggest applause lines came when she said she'd
call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on her first day in office.
"We need to reassure our allies that a friendship with the United States
means something," she said.

*OTHER*

*Presidential Hopefuls Descend on Iowa, Courting Favor With Joni Ernst
<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/06/06/presidential-hopefuls-descend-on-iowa-courting-favor-with-joni-ernst/>
// NYT // Ashley Parker – June 6, 2015 *

Arriving at the kickoff of her inaugural “Roast and Ride” event here, fresh
off a two-hour ride up from Red Oak on her 2009 Soft Tail Deluxe
Harley-Davidson Saturday morning, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa grinned as a
friend pressed a Monster Energy drink into her hand.

“I need the caffeine,” she enthused.

Indeed, monster energy was on the agenda Saturday, as no fewer than seven
2016 Republican candidates descended on the state for a day heavy on the
hogs (both the bikes and the pork) and an opportunity to make their pitch
to primary voters.

Early caucus and primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire have recently
found themselves facing the threat that the look-every-candidate ethos on
which they have long prided themselves may be slipping away. A confluence
of factors, including the national polling criteria to qualify for
televised debates and the waning influence of the Iowa straw poll, are
pressuring candidates to focus on raising their national media standing
instead of greeting voters one Pizza Ranch and town hall at a time.

But Saturday’s overcast skies promised a day of retail politics on
overdrive — with heaping plates of ribs and coleslaw; lawn games like
cornhole and horseshoes; and white-topped candidate tents giving away candy
as if it were Halloween, in an effort to attract new supporters.

Before leading bikers on a 39-mile ride from the Big Barn Harley-Davidson
(where the event began) to the fairgrounds in Boone, Ms. Ernst — clad in
black motorcycle boots, snug blue jeans, and a black leather vest with a
bald eagle on the back — made sure to say “Iowa is a great cross-section of
America.” She dismissed questions that had implied her state may be losing
its coveted influence, but said that the nature of campaigning here,
including the premium placed on the Iowa straw poll, may be changing.

“I think it’s important that they participate in one way or another,” Ms.
Ernst said. “Maybe they won’t be able to be there physically, but I hope
they have some sort of presence here in Iowa.”

After greeting her fellow bikers like old friends — “This is so fun!” she
said excitedly, “You look wonderful!” — Ms. Ernst demurred when asked
whether Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a motorcycle aficionado who
participated in the ride alongside Ms. Ernst, had a leg up on the other
candidates.

But she noted that motorcyclists possess some of the traits she would like
to see in a future president: “I think you have to be a leader and you have
to make decisive determinations of what path you take,” she said. “Whatever
that path his, you have to follow it.”

Ms. Ernst had also offered several other candidates, including Senator
Marco Rubio of Florida, a ride on the back of her bike, but none took her
up on the offer. (Arriving at the main event, clad in a plaid shirt and
khakis, Mr. Rubio said his schedule simply had not worked with hers, but
joked, “Can’t wait until they do the Jet Ski one. I’ll be here for that
one.”)

The day, after all, was Mr. Walker’s to lose. Asked if he was the
front-runner, the Wisconsin governor said he was going to be riding behind
Ms. Ernst.

And, in fact, Mr. Walker’s joke held more than an Iowa kernel of truth. As
the bikes pulled out, there he was, just behind Ms. Ernst as promised — but
just close enough to her left shoulder to be visible in all the media shots.

*A First for Snapchat
<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/06/06/a-first-for-snapchat/?ref=politics>
// NYT // Ashley Parker – June 6, 2015 *

The fast-growing social media platform Snapchat just landed its first
political ad.

The American Action Network, an outside group closely associated with the
House Republican leadership, placed a 10-second ad on Snapchat pegged to
Senator Joni Ernst’s inaugural “Roast and Ride” here on Saturday.

The buy is part of a larger, $900,000 campaign by the network urging
Congress to pass trade promotion authority.

The ad will appear as part of a Snapchat-curated “live story” — which will
include a variety of photos and videos from Ms. Ernst’s event — and will be
promoted to users in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Washington,
D.C.

“We’re excited to be the first in the political space to utilize the
growing medium for advertising,” said Dan Conston, communications director
for the American Action Network. “A.A.N. is using Snapchat because its
allowing us to deliver an engaging ad experience to an audience of
influencers and younger, hard to reach voters.”

Indeed, Snapchat users not only trend younger but, to view any content on
the app, including ads, users must hold a finger on the screen — meaning,
says Snapchat, they are the highly engaged audience that advertisers covet.

“Users watching the Roast and Ride story today are likely interested in
politics but may be surprised to see our direct appeal to pass T.P.A. in
the story,” Mr. Conston said. “We think that will resonate and be memorable
with this key audience.”

*Grilling, but no flare-ups, at Ernst's 'Roast and Ride'*
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/grilling-but-no-flare-ups-at-ernsts-roast-and-ride-118701.html>*
// Politico // Katie Glueck – June 6, 2015 *

Scott Walker rode a Harley, Marco Rubio jabbed his rivals and Rick Perry
rolled up with an entourage of veterans.

Seven presidential candidates and likely contenders came to a field here in
this rural part of the state, about 45 minutes from Des Moines, for
freshman Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst’s first “Roast and Ride.” The event featured
a significantly longer and more prominent guest list than the Iowa Straw
Poll currently has, making the Saturday gathering potentially the biggest
retail politicking event here of the year.

It was an opportunity for the candidates to gladhand, take shots at Hillary
Clinton and show off their barbecue skills in a very casual setting, where
attendees listened to speeches from lawn chairs and candidates — some
sporting jeans — traipsed through muddy grass to greet voters.

Each candidate was given eight minutes to address the crowd — a timeframe
they more or less stuck to — and the speeches focused heavily on veterans,
the American Dream and praising Iowa and especially its junior senator, the
host of the event. The 2016ers in attendance were Walker, Rubio, Perry, Ben
Carson, Lindsey Graham, Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee.

“I love a senator who knows how to castrate a pig, ride a hog and cut the
pork from Washington, D.C.,” Walker said, referencing an Ernst ad from her
2014 Senate race in which she discussed castrating hogs and making
Washington “squeal.” “Wouldn’t it be nice if she had an ally in the White
House to help get the job done?”

The Wisconsin governor was the only candidate to join Ernst on the “Ride”
part of the event — a 38-mile motorcycle jaunt from Des Moines up to Boone,
to honor veterans.

“I’m riding behind Joni today in the ride so I guess that makes me second
to her,” Walker, in a leather Harley Davidson jacket, motorcycle gloves and
Harley Davidson boots, told reporters when asked whether he was the
frontrunner in Iowa.

Graham, the South Carolina senator who opened his address in Boone with one
joke after another, said of Ernst, “Joni rocks … She promised to make
people [in Washington] squeal. They’re squealing. Mainly the men,” before
going on to praise her military service.

Most of the content in the addresses from the candidates was typical GOP
campaign fare: calls to rein in government, tackle radical Islam and
embrace American exceptionalism.

Rubio, the Florida senator, made those points as well, but he also used his
speech to sharpen his rebuttal to criticism from some, including those
within his own party, who say he’s too inexperienced to run for president.
Some Republicans had expected Rubio to step aside for fellow Floridian Jeb
Bush and hold onto his Senate seat instead.

“I’ve heard the voices, some have said I shouldn’t run, I should have
waited my turn,” Rubio said, adding he heard the same at the beginning of
his successful 2010 Senate race. In a veiled swipe at both Bush and Hillary
Clinton, he said to applause, “I ran then for the same reason I run now. If
we keep promoting the same people, we get the same results and the future
leaves us behind.”

“The latest one is that I shouldn’t run for president because I’m not rich
enough,” continued Rubio, whose personal finances have come under some
scrutiny. “And it’s true I don’t make [millions] from speeches and I don’t
have a family foundation that’s raised [billions], a lot of it from foreign
donations. But my wife and I work to ensure we have enough money to send
our kids to a Christian education at a private school. We have a mortgage
we’re paying … but the biggest debt I owe is to the United States.”

Walker, like Rubio, also dinged family dynasties, comments that appeared
directed at Bush: “My brother and I did not inherit fame or fortune from
our family. What we got was more important. And that was the belief that if
you work hard and play by the rules, you can be anything you want to be in
America.”

Everyone received standing ovations and had some applause lines — and as
usual, Fiorina’s Clinton zingers were well-received —but no one’s
performance brought down the house. The real action took place on the
sidelines, where each of the candidates had a tent set up. There,
volunteers took down attendees’ information, and some — like Walker’s tent
— served up swag like beer coozies and candy. The candidates made
appearances at their booths, where some Iowans demanded photos while others
probed policy positions. Walker, Rubio and Perry were particularly mobbed
as they worked the crowds, though everyone drew interested bystanders.

“I doubt the candidates will win any converts during their eight allotted
minutes onstage — all of the activity is going to take place off stage, off
the bikes, actually interacting with and talking to Iowans,” said Matt
Strawn, a former Iowa GOP chairman who worked closely with Ernst during her
2014 Senate campaign. “What I’m watching for are, which candidates
understand this is meant to be a fun, relaxing event designed for them to
interact with Iowans? Most of the large events in the state have been
forums in ballroom theater settings, not an opportunity to spend a lot of
time personally interacting.”

To that end, Rubio indulged a woman who ribbed him about a recent story
highlighting his rocky driving record — she referenced someone who had made
it well into life without a ticket, to which Rubio replied that that person
“doesn’t live in Florida!” He could be found later carving up meat, while
Walker was seen flipping pork chops on the grill. Perry was constantly
surrounded by bikers and veterans, following a charity motorcycle ride he
did to benefit an organization that provides service dogs to wounded
veterans. And Fiorina lingered for pictures after the speeches were done.

The “Roast and Ride” shone the national spotlight on Ernst, who has been
showered with attention from presidential contenders since her Senate
contest — a race in which the bulk of the current presidential field showed
up to curry favor as Ernst surrogates. Rubio, in particular, was an early
endorser, and there is considerable overlap between Ernst’s Senate campaign
team and both the Rubio and Walker 2016 shops.

Ernst has no plans to endorse, but instead is aiming to serve as a
facilitator between Iowa voters and the candidates who want to cozy up to
them.

With the inaugural hog roast, Ernst is following in the footsteps of
longtime Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, whose seat she now holds. Harkin feted
his party with an annual steak fry that became a must-attend event for
Democratic presidential candidates and aspiring national Democratic figures
over its 37-year run. The freshman senator aims to build a similar
tradition.

“Sen. Harkin had the wonderful tradition of the Steak Fry, and this is
actually an event we’ve wanted to do during the campaign cycle but didn’t
have the opportunity,” Ernst said Saturday morning in Des Moines, where she
kicked off a motorcycle ride to the event. “So we thought, why not start
with an inaugural ‘Roast and Ride,’ a little twist … this is something
uniquely Joni Ernst and I love it, so I’m glad to have so many people
participating.”

So far, there appears to be important party buy-in. Top Iowa officials
attended, including Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds —a
personal friend of Ernst’s —and both of them sent out solicitations for the
event to build attendance.

“We’ve got a great group [of candidates], they’re spending a lot of time in
Iowa and I love that,” Reynolds said. “My role is to encourage them to come
here, come here often, go to all 99 counties … and really give Iowans the
opportunity to ask questions.”

*In Iowa, pork, patriotism and presidential politics
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/06/06/in-iowa-pork-patriotism-and-presidential-politics/>
// WaPo // Jenna Johnson & Dan Balz – June 6, 2015 *

The day started with the sputtering roar of motorcycles and ended with pork
sandwiches, and Republican presidential hopefuls taking shots at Hillary
Rodham Clinton and President Obama.

Throughout the first "Roast and Ride" here on Saturday, Iowa Republicans
made this case to anyone who would listen: This state still deeply matters
in the nominating process -- plus, look how much fun it is to campaign here.

Presiding over the day was Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, who has
only been in Washington for five months but has quickly emerged as a
powerful and popular conservative in her party. She hopes that the event --
which started with a 39-mile motorcycle ride from the edge of Des Moines to
a rural event center -- will replace the famed Steak Fry that her
predecessor, Democrat Tom Harkin, once held. Especially ahead of
presidential elections.

"Iowa is always very important," Ernst told reporters after downing an
oversized can of a zero-calorie energy drink, but before hopping on her
bike. "Iowa is a great cross-section of America."

For a brand-new event, it sure felt like a time-tested tradition: Roughly
300 bikers showed up, plus hundreds more spectators carrying their own lawn
chairs, dozens of national reporters and seven announced or likely
presidential contenders. The candidates differentiated themselves by
talking about their biographies, rather than attacking one another. But
there was no clear winner from the afternoon's speeches -- one more sign of
just how fluid the GOP race is here and nationally.

Iowans often roll their eyes at how easily they become stereotyped during
the caucuses, but this event played up so many things that East Coasters
think of when they think of the Midwest -- and that political strategists
look for when planning campaign stops. A large red tractor sat near the
stage, behind a wall of hay bales and in front of the local fire
department's massive ladder truck that displayed an oversized American
flag. Nearly every candidate who took the stage declared "God Bless
America" and focused heavily on talking about how the working class has
fallen behind under Democratic control -- along with criticizing Clinton,
the Democratic front-runner.

The day started with breakfast at the Harley-Davidson Big Barn in Des
Moines. The ride honored military veterans and many of the bikers wore
leather vests, T-shirts or tattoos featuring patriotic phrases like:
"Freedom isn't free."

Ernst has been riding bikes for most of her life -- starting with a dirt
bike when she was a farm kid, riding messages from her mom out to her dad
in the fields. She now rides a 2009 Harley-Davidson Softail Deluxe, which
she wheeled to the front of the pack on Saturday morning. Right behind her
was Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on a rented 2015 Harley-Davidson Road King
that he said rode just like the 2003 model he has at home. Alongside them
was a black pickup truck with seven photographers and videographers in the
bed. Former Texas governor Rick Perry also rode to the event, although on
his own route accompanied by his own posse of military. Ernst had offered
to let her Senate colleague, Marco Rubio of Florida, ride on the back of
her hog, but he passed.

Ernst said there are parallels between riding a Harley and governing: "You
have to be a leader, and you have to make decisive determinations of what
path you want to take. So whatever that road is, you have to follow it."
But when asked if riding a motorcycle should be a prerequisite for running
for president, Ernst laughed and said: "Not a qualifier but definitely an
interesting factoid."

Upon arriving at the event site, Ernst quipped, “No bugs in my teeth but
plenty on the windshield.”

The venue, the Central Iowa Expo, provided a state-fair-like feel to the
event -- much like the Iowa Republican Party's straw poll, which is
expected to happen in August in the same location, although no top-tier
candidates have committed to attending. Attendees ate roasted pork
sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans and chips, while the Iowa band The
Nadas played country music over blaring speakers. Some people played picnic
games. Perry and Walker wore black shirts, jeans and caps. Former Arkansas
governor Mike Huckabee was the only one to wear a sport coat.

The main attraction was speeches from seven declared or likely presidential
candidates. Among those missing was former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who
was with his family celebrating the 90th birthday of his mother, Barbara.
They all painted a bleak picture of America under Obama's leadership and,
of course, lavished praise on Ernst. "I love a senator who knows how to
castrate a pig, ride a hog and cut the pork in Washington, D.C.," Walker
said.

Walker talked up his Midwestern values and the importance of freedom, while
pointing out that Harley-Davidson is based in Wisconsin. Perry -- who took
the stage with a "Howdy, Iowa!" -- focused heavily on patriotism and the
need for national leadership. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and
retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson both blasted big government. Sen. Lindsey
Graham of South Carolina -- who dropped joke after joke -- called for a
better defense of the country. Rubio talked about the American Dream, the
new century and defended himself against criticism that he is too young and
inexperienced to run. Huckabee talked about an economic vision that is at
odds with many in his party.

Collectively, the candidates impressed the activists who sat through the
seven speeches, but individually there was no clear favorite.

“I think we have a fantastic field,” said David Freligh of Pella. “I am not
yet in favor of anyone in particular but I am reassured that there’s a good
strong field of very qualified people. I feel good about it.

“I’ve always liked Ben Carson because he can unite the nation. I thought
Carly was very articulate, and Scott Walker was very articulate. I have not
made up my mind.

“They’re all so impressive,” said Bonnie Cornick, of Creston. “I’ve been
sitting here talking to the people next to us saying how am I ever going to
caucus because I like them all?"

She cited Walker, Rubio and Perry as three who impressed her, but added,
“There isn’t a one of them I don’t [like].”

Sonya Crosby of Ottumwa listed Graham, Rubio and Huckabee among her
favorites. “They’re all good, though,” she said. Asked how she would make
up her mind, she said, “I don’t know at this point. Keep listening. It’s
tough.”

*Can conservatives find their footing in Hollywood in 2016?
<http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/04/politics/hollywood-fundraising-conservatives-2016-election/index.html>
// CNN // Maeve Reston – June 5, 2015 *

The West Coast has long been a fundraising bastion for Democrats --
famously fueling the long struggle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton
in the 2008 presidential race when Hollywood's loyalties were divided. And
George Clooney grabbed headlines in 2012 by raising a $15 million haul for
Obama in one night.

But Republicans have raised plenty of money on the West Coast -- albeit
more quietly than their Democratic rivals. Now the Republican Jewish
Coalition, with its roster of influential donors and board members, is
looking to raise the profile of Hollywood conservatives at their annual
gala Sunday night in Beverly Hills.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Wisconsin
Sen. Ron Johnson will be the featured guests at the gathering, but the
Republican Jewish Coalition is also hosting its own red carpet to draw
attention to more conservative actors and studio executives including
Raquel Welch, Angie Harmon, Jeremy Boreing and Nick Searcy.

On Sunday night, the group plans to honor actor Jon Voight, who has often
drawn headlines with his vociferous critiques of President Barack Obama's
approach to foreign policy.

The group plans to praise Voight for his outspoken support of Israel, and
specifically for responding publicly to an open letter signed by Penelope
Cruz and Javier Bardem, as well as other Spanish actors, directors and
writers that condemned the incursion into Gaza by the Israeli military last
year. European press outlets reported that the letter signed by Cruz,
Bardem and Pedro Almodovar urged a cease-fire and was critical of Israel's
actions in Gaza.

In his opinion column in The Hollywood Reporter, Voight wrote that he was
"heartsick that people like Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem could incite
anti-Semitism all over the world and are oblivious to the damage they have
caused."

Both Bardem and Cruz, who are married, issued statements after the event
clarifying that they were expressing their wish for peace in the region.

"I am now being labeled by some as anti-Semitic, as is my wife -- which is
the antithesis of who we are as human beings," Bardem said in a statement
last year. "We detest anti-Semitism as much as we detest the horrible and
painful consequences of war."

Nick Searcy of the FX series "Justified" said he and others would be
attending the gala Sunday in part to honor Voight's advocacy for
conservative causes as an example to others with similar political views.

"There are really are some (conservatives)" in Hollywood," Searcy told CNN
in a telephone interview. "I've met them -- some of them will tell you who
they are and some of them won't."

Searcy called political recognition of Voight by the Republican Jewish
Coalition "a big step."

"Jon obviously has been very outspoken in his disagreements with the
Obama-Democrat foreign policy, and at the same time, he doesn't seem to be
hurting for work," Searcy said. "In a town like Hollywood -- where we're
supposed to be about freedom of thought and freedom of expression -- it's
good to see Jon practicing that."

*GOP hopefuls blame Obama's China policy for data breach
<http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/244190-gop-hopefuls-blame-obamas-china-policy-for-data-breach>
// The Hill // Cory Bennett – June 6, 2015 *

OP presidential hopefuls are bashing President Obama over his handling of
China in the wake of a massive digital theft of federal workers’ data that
officials have tied to Beijing.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Thursday revealed that hackers
had snapped up roughly 4 million employees’ records.

Several Republican candidates argued on Friday that Obama’s failure to
employ a strong hand with the Asian power empowered the country to launch
digital assaults at will against the U.S. government and private sector.

“The lack of common sense in this White House is beyond breathtaking,” said
former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

“We need a different strategy to confront Chinese behavior — whether in the
South China Sea or in cyberspace,” said Carly Fiorina, the former
Hewlett-Packard executive, on Facebook.

“Yet another example of America being walked over by rivals and
adversaries,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who declared his candidacy
Monday.

In recent years, security experts say China has built up its cyber
capabilities, ranking as a leading world power.

In addition to using its considerable prowess to monitor its own citizens,
China has also launched a pervasive cyber espionage campaign against the
U.S.

“China is rapidly evolving from a sometime partner, sometime competitor,
into an adversary,” Fiorina said.

The recent OPM breach is thought to be part of a broader scheme to create a
database on high-ranking U.S. officials and defense contractors.

Researchers have linked the suspected OPM hackers to the digital intruders
behind the gargantuan breaches at health insurers Anthem and Premera, which
exposed over 90 million people’s data, possibly including that of White
House cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel.

Experts worry the stockpile of data could be used to imitate or even
blackmail senior U.S. officials.

“They have a tremendous amount of stepping stones they can use for further
activity,” said John Hultquist, senior manager of online espionage threat
intelligence at iSight, a security firm.

The problem, say Republican candidates, is that China has no fear of
repercussions.

“We need a leader who will challenge the status quo in Washington and
confront our adversaries abroad,” said Fiorina.

The U.S. has struggled to maintain diplomatic cyber relations with China,
while simultaneously trying to step up pressure on Beijing to end its
hacking and digital theft of commercial secrets.

The Justice Department last year indicted five members of the Chinese
military for hacking.

Recently updated White House and Pentagon national security and
cybersecurity documents also directly call out China on cyber espionage.

But the administration continues to promote a diplomatic path in the hopes
of establishing international norms in cyberspace. The Department of
Homeland Security has taken steps to reestablish an official cyber
dialogue, which was cut off following the DOJ indictments last year.

The tactic doesn’t sit well with the GOP field.

“The Obama administration's failures in foreign policy and national
security continue to pile up yet they do nothing to change course,” Graham
said.

Huckabee has criticized the president for even engaging China in trade
deals.

“China cheats, rips-off American products, abuses its people, taunts our
allies, and now they're crawling through our federal government stealing
sensitive personal information from millions of people,” he said.

“As president, I will stop Chinese cheating, hold China accountable, and
never, ever apologize for protecting Americans.”

*TOP NEWS*

*DOMESTIC*

*Marriage today: rich-poor gap, later vows, gays gain access
<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f1052c7dc5bd4e2e8dfbc4696eadc6d3/marriage-today-rich-poor-gap-later-vows-gays-gain-access>
// AP // David Crary – June 6, 2015 *

Through two decades of debate on whether America's gays and lesbians should
have the right to marry, opponents of such unions depicted their resistance
as "defense of marriage." Now, on the cusp of a Supreme Court ruling that
could legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, the underlying institution is
under scrutiny anew.

Does marriage in America indeed need help? What kind of shape is it in? In
simplest terms, the diagnosis is mixed.

Among college-educated, relatively affluent couples, marriage is doing
pretty well. Where education and income levels are lower, it's often a
different story — higher divorce rates, and far more children being born
out of wedlock, including many to single mothers.

There's broad sentiment that this "marriage gap" is unfortunate, but no
consensus on what to do about it. Some believe government-funded
marriage-promotion programs can make a difference, although their
effectiveness has been questioned. Others depict marriage-focused solutions
as misguided and say the problems can be eased only by broader economic and
social initiatives benefiting all types of households.

"There is no one silver bullet," said David Blankenhorn, head of a centrist
think-tank, the Institute for American Values, that focuses much of its
work on marriage and families.

Yet despite uncertainty about solutions, he and others believe there is now
an opportunity to bridge the left-right split over marriage, particularly
in light of the sweeping gains for gay and lesbian couples, which have
changed the tenor of the discussion.

For many years, the gay-marriage debate was intertwined with assertions
about "traditional marriage" between a man and a woman. A federal act
passed in 1996 and a subsequent wave of amendments adopted in many states
used the term "defense of marriage" to deny recognition to same-sex unions.
Many opponents of same-sex marriage argued that allowing gays to wed would
somehow undermine heterosexual marriage.

Such arguments have fared poorly in recent federal court cases. And there's
a strong likelihood that the Supreme Court will order the legalization of
same-sex marriage in all 50 states in a ruling expected soon. Opinion polls
show a solid majority of Americans support it.

"Marriage as culture war in America can now be replaced by marriage as
common cause," said a coalition of scholars and civic leaders in their
manifesto for a new initiative called Marriage Opportunity.

The group, with Blankenhorn as an organizer, envisions liberals fighting
for economic opportunity, conservatives fighting for stronger families and
gays who have now won marriage rights for themselves all uniting to
confront the marriage gap and to promote "a new embrace of marriage's
promise."

Among the scholars chronicling the marriage gap is Andrew Cherlin, a
sociologist at Johns Hopkins University and author of "Labor's Love Lost:
The Rise and Fall of the Working-Class Family in America."

Cherlin says the gap stems in large measure from the loss of stable,
well-paid industrial jobs — consigning legions of young adults to
precarious, low-paid jobs, and prompting many to put off marriage even
while having children out of wedlock.

In contrast, college-educated young adults are more likely to wait until
marriage to have children and then have the prospect of raising them in a
household supported by two good incomes. For such couples, Cherlin writes,
marriage is a status symbol, and their divorce rates are now much lower
than for couples with only a high school education.

According to the Pew Research Center, the share of American adults who have
never been married is at an historic high. In 2012, roughly 20 percent of
adults 25 and older had never been married, compared to only 9 percent of
adults in that age range in 1960. Back then, according to Pew, the
likelihood of being married didn't vary according to level of education;
now men with advanced degrees are far more likely to have married than
those who didn't go beyond high school.

There's a wealth of other data illustrating challenges confronting the
institution of marriage:

—Americans are waiting longer to get married. According to the Census
Bureau, the current median age for a first marriage — 29 for men and 27 for
women — is the highest in more than a century. In 1960, the median age at
first marriage was 23 for men and 20 for women.

—Unmarried mothers account for 40.6 percent of children born in the U.S.,
according to the latest Census data. The rate is particularly high in the
African-American community — 71.5 percent.

—Even for couples raising children, marriage is increasingly optional.
According to the research group Child Trends, there were 3.1 million
cohabiting but unmarried couples in the U.S. raising children in 2014, up
from 1.2 million in 1996.

Tera Jordan, a professor of human development at Iowa State University, has
studied various aspects of marriage and relationships among black Americans.

To the extent that marriage is under siege in their communities, she sees a
need for multiple changes — more access to good-paying jobs, better
educational opportunities, a lowering of the incarceration rate for young
black men. Her advice to young adults wondering about marriage: "Be clear
about your goals, be patient. Finish your education."

Long-term, she is optimistic.

"Americans still hold marriage in very high regard," she said.

Before moving to Iowa, Jordan worked with a federally funded
marriage-strengthening program in Georgia. In all, according to experts who
study the field, more than $1 billion in public funding has been spent
since 2005 on an array of marriage and relationship programs.

Yet the effectiveness of these programs remains subject to debate.

For example, there were negative findings in a rigorous study of a
federally funded program called Building Strong Families, which taught
relationship skills to more than 5,100 low-income, unwed couples who were
expecting a child or just had a baby.

The study by Mathematica Policy Research found that after three years, the
program had no effect on the quality of couples' relationships and
co-parenting skills, and did not make them more likely to stay together or
get married.

The largest and most durable state-level program is the Oklahoma Marriage
Initiative, recently renamed Project Relate. Since its launch in 1999, it
has served more than 400,000 Oklahomans — about 10 percent of the
population.

Alan Hawkins, professor of Family Life at Brigham Young University,
describes it as "the most comprehensive and effective public policy effort
to help couples achieve healthy relationships and enduring marriages." It
provides relationship education for teens, young adults, unmarried
cohabiting parents, engaged couples and married couples.

One of its primary programs, Family Expectations, entails 30 hours of
classes for low-income expectant parents, whether married or not, who want
to strengthen their relationships. Independent assessments found that
couples taking the program are more likely to stay together than other
couples. Other research has credited Oklahoma's initiative with a slight
increase in the percentage of children living with two parents and a slight
decrease in the percentage living in poverty.

Kendy Cox, a senior director of Project Relate, said its annual funding is
between $6.5 million and $7 million, mostly from federal welfare
appropriations.

Many low-income couples believe in the concept of marriage, Cox said, yet
are unsure if it's the right step for them.

"It's become seen as sort of pie in the sky for some couples," she said.
"Even if they've already had a baby, they have this sense of, 'I have so
much work to do before we can even consider marriage.'"

Among the graduates of Family Expectations is Rachel Chudoba, 27, who now
has a job with Public Strategies, the private firm which handles daily
management of the marriage initiative.

Chudoba and her then-fiance, Chad — now her husband — were only 19 when
they signed up for Family Expectations in 2007.

"We both wanted to do it," Chudoba said. "We were pretty much in agreement
that we didn't know what we were doing."

They put in a full day of coursework each Saturday for six weeks, then
received periodic coaching over the next two years. They're now parents of
a son and daughter.

Chudoba said the communications skills they learned came in handy when
Chad, a member of the Army National Guard, was deployed to Afghanistan in
2013.

"Our communication was so sporadic — mostly by email," she said. "All the
things I was taught were really important in those moments."

Among the lessons she applied, Chudoba said, was learning to take a timeout
when an argument flared.

"It's hard to acknowledge that you need a timeout in a conversation when
you don't get to talk very often," Chudoba said. "But being separated for a
year, you are going to have disagreements, and solving them is difficult."

Chudoba said both she and her husband came from challenging backgrounds —
both of Rachel's parents had multiple divorces, while Chad spent time in
foster care.

"We didn't have a lot of positive examples of how to have a relationship
and how to raise children," she said. "That was a huge thing for me and my
husband — not repeating the mistakes of the older generation."

Several members of her extended family are in their early 20s, and
wondering where marriage fits in their future. "I see people who are
apprehensive," Chudoba said. "I see a lot of looking for answers."

Oklahoma, along with Utah, also has initiated a program seeking to save
some marriages by curtailing divorce. Hawkins, the BYU professor, says they
are the only states with mandatory education programs for divorcing parents
that include specific advice on how to reconcile.

According to Hawkins, about 10 percent of divorcing couples — both husband
and wife — still want to save the marriage even near the end of the divorce
process.

"Divorce may be easy legally, but it's not easy psychologically — very few
people are casual about it," he said. "Even many people experiencing some
of the hardest problems — adultery, substance abuse — don't want a divorce
and are willing to work hard to solve those problems."

Looking nationally, Hawkins says he understands the widespread skepticism
about state-backed marriage programs.

"Success has been modest in relation to the size of the problem," he said.
"We don't know what levers we could pull to make a difference."

In Raleigh, North Carolina, Brad Hambrick says he's seen positive results
from a mentoring program for young couples at the Summit Church, a Southern
Baptist congregation that he serves as pastor of counseling.

Raleigh, he says, has a large population of transients — a status that can
be challenging for newly married couples.

"If you don't have that network of parents, aunts, uncles, high school
friends, marriage bears much more of the total social weight," he said.
"What is expected of marriage becomes much greater — it either winds up
being really good or really bad."

He recalls one younger couple in the church's program telling their
mentors, "You're the first people who've talked positively to us about
marriage."

Among the veteran mentors is Tom Droege, 57, a software developer who has
teamed up with his wife, Paula, for more than a decade of counseling
younger couples. Part of what they teach is how to handle conflict —
including "how to fight fairly," he says.

"What they get from our program is a better understanding of expectations,
so that when they run into the typical kinds of challenges that marriage
presents, they don't feel that it only happens to them — it's normal."

*GOP-led states trying bolster budgets by limiting government assistance
programs
<http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/06/gop-led-states-trying-bolster-budgets-by-limiting-government-assistance/>
// Fox News – June 6, 2015 *

Lawmakers in the Sunflower State have been scrambling for years to make up
a $400 million revenue gap following a 2012 income tax cut that left deep
holes in the state budget.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback wants recover some of the money by placing
limits on government assistance.

Starting in July, people in Kansas who collect government assistance will
be limited to a single ATM withdrawal not exceeding $25 per day. The Kansas
law also prohibits public-assistance spending at swimming pools, tattoo
parlors and video arcades.

Though it might sound extreme to some, Kansas is just the latest GOP-led
state to launch campaigns to cut or limit public assistance.

A 2014 Pew Research Center survey found that 73 percent of Republicans and
32 percent of Democrats believe the government can’t afford to spend much
more on assistance programs. The number of families receiving cash through
the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program stood at 1.5 million at
the end of 2014.

When Brownback signed the bill in April he defended it by saying the
primary focus isn’t a handout but instead to “get people back to work,
because that’s where the real benefit is – getting people off public
assistance and back into the marketplace with the dignity and far more
income there than the pittance that government gives them.”

Shannon Cotsoradis, president of the advocacy group Kansas Action for
Children, told Bloomberg News that state lawmakers “acted on anecdotes”
about TANF cards being used on cruise ships and casinos and that the
information used to sway lawmakers isn’t “data-driven.”

But lawmakers in a growing number of states believe chipping away at a
budget shortfall can be done by limiting the amount of government
assistance being doled out.

In Michigan, the state Senate recently passed a bill that would put
families on the welfare chopping block if their children are regularly
absent from school. The “Parental Responsibility Act” would give the state
the ability to cut off assistance if a child whose parents are receiving
assistance is chronically truant.

If the child is younger than 16, the whole family could lose its cash
benefits.

“During the recession there were lots of blue states, for fiscally driven
reasons, that were cutting welfare,” Liz Schott, a senior fellow at the
liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank,
told Bloomberg News. “This year’s cuts feel more ideologically driven.”

In May, Missouri’s Republican legislature overrode a veto by Gov. Jay
Nixon, a Democrat, to enact a bill that would take away assistance from
more than 6,400 children -- 2,600 of them below the age of 5, his office
said in published reports.

Nixon described the bill “a misguided measure that punishes poor children”
in a “zeal to reduce reliance on government assistance.”

And in Arizona, lawmakers slashed the amount of time residents could stay
on assistance to 1 year – the shortest window in the nation.

The Associated Press described the cuts as a reflection of the “prevailing
mood” among lawmakers who believe that public assistance programs are what
keeps the poor from getting back on their feet permanently.

But not everyone subscribes to the sentiment.

Jessica Lopez, 23, said cutting off benefits isn’t fair.

Lopez, who gets $133 per month, gave birth to her son while living in a
domestic violence shelter and has struggled to hold onto jobs because she
has dyslexia and didn’t finish high school.

“We’re all human,” she told the AP. “Everybody has problems. Everybody is
different. When people ask for help, we should be able to get it without
having to be looked at wrong.”

*INTERNATIONAL*

*Behind Tough Talk on Russia, G-7 Leaders Face Tough Reality
<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/tough-talk-russia-leaders-face-tough-reality-31573787>
// AP // Julie Pace – June 6, 2015 *

Behind the tough talk on Russia expected from President Barack Obama and
other leaders gathering in Germany this weekend is a stark reality.

None of the world powers believes the economic and diplomatic punishments
levied on Russia for its alleged aggression in Ukraine are changing
President Vladimir Putin's calculus, yet there are no plans to shift
strategies.

At most, leaders hope to emerge from two days of talks in the Bavarian Alps
with an agreement to keep U.S. and European Union sanctions against Russia
in place, and perhaps a pledge to enact deeper economic penalties if the
crisis escalates. While there is little expectation that a show of unity
will lead to a quick resolution in Ukraine, officials hope it will at least
give Putin pause if he is considering ratcheting up Russia's moves.

A fresh outbreak of violence between government troops and pro-Russian
separatists in eastern Ukraine is threatening to derail an already tenuous
cease-fire.

The fact that sanctions have not altered Putin's military posture is "a
sign of how heedless the Russian government seems to be about the long-term
welfare of its own people that it has not yet resulted in a change, in a
reversal at least, of course, which is what we want out of Russia," Defense
Secretary Ash Carter told reporters after a Friday meeting in Germany with
American military and diplomatic leaders.

The Group of Seven summit marks the second year in a row that leaders from
the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan will
assemble without Putin. After Russia annexed territory from Ukraine last
year, the world powers kicked Russia out of what had been called the Group
of Eight, a move aimed at isolating Putin and signaling the West's united
opposition to his provocative actions.

Yet Putin remains a major player on pressing issues.

Russia is a partner of the U.S. and other nations in the nuclear talks with
Iran, an Obama priority. Putin is a linchpin in any discussions on
resolving the civil war in Syria, given Russia's status as President Bashar
Assad's biggest benefactor.

Republicans have accused Obama of putting his interest in the Iran nuclear
talks above supporting Ukraine. GOP White House hopeful Jeb Bush is set to
arrive in Europe just as Obama departs, with stops in Germany, Poland and
Estonia. Bush is expected to pledge broader U.S. backing for the region if
elected president.

White House officials defend the engagement with Russia on Iran and other
matters, and say the U.S. can work with Moscow on issues of mutual interest
while also confronting Putin over Ukraine.

But experts say Secretary of State John Kerry's meetings with Putin in
Russia last month raised questions in Europe about whether Washington might
be pursuing a new policy toward the Kremlin. Kerry's trip was the first
time a senior U.S. official has traveled to Russia since Moscow annexed the
Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

"It created this cloud of controversy around what is the U.S. strategy: Why
did he go?" said Julianne Smith, a former Obama White House official who is
now a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security. "So I think
there'll be a little bit of mopping up from that trip."

European nations are watching whether the U.S. commitment to isolating and
penalizing Russia is weakening. Europe has far stronger ties to Russia than
the U.S. and some leaders face pressure from the business community to ease
off penalties that have affected their finances.

Still, the European Union is expected to renew expiring sanctions later
this summer.

Thousands of people gathered Saturday in a town a few miles from the summit
venue to protest a range of causes, including a proposed trans-Atlantic
trade deal, before the leaders' arrival.

Obama departed Washington Saturday evening after delivering an emotional
eulogy at the funeral service for Vice President Joe Biden's son, Beau.
Joining Obama on Air Force One for the trip to Germany were four House
Democrats who support his efforts to win special authority to negotiate a
Pacific Rim trade deal.

The trade debate on Capitol Hill is being closely watched by G-7 leaders.
While Obama has Senate backing to seek fast-track authority of the Trans
Pacific Partnership pact, he faces a steep challenge in getting his own
party's support in the House. Japan a*nd Canada are both part of TPP.*

European nations are not part of the pact, but the congressional debate
could affect whether Obama has the political capital left to pursue a
trans-Atlantic trade deal with the EU before leaving office.

After his overnight flight to Munich, Obama was to meet with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, then join other leaders for talks at Schloss
Elmau, a one-time Bavarian ar*tist retreat turned luxury spa.*

Also on Obama's schedule was a meeting with British Prime Minister David
Cameron, whose party is coming off an unexpectedly strong election victory.
The president also planned to see Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who
was invited to the G-7 meeting to discuss the U.S.-led campaign against the
Islamic State in his country, as well as in Syria.

*OPINIONS/EDITORIALS/BLOGS*

*Running Against Hillary
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-running-against-hillary.html>
// NYT // Ross Douthat – June 6, 2015 *

BEFORE anything else is said, they deserve the thanks of a grateful nation.
Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, even Lincoln Chafee: They are stepping up
where others quailed, laying their bodies on democracy’s altar, saving
their party’s nominating contest from resembling a presidential re-election
in Kazakhstan.

But if they aspire to more than just holding Hillary Clinton below the 97.7
percent of the vote that Nursultan Nazarbayev claimed in his last trip to
the hustings, her primary rivals will need more than courage. They’ll need
a plan.

A little while ago, the plan for a not-Hillary candidate looked obvious:
While Clinton played it safe and hugged the political center, her
challenger would run hard to her left, channel the energy of the party’s
grass-roots activists, campaign against the front-runner’s establishment
instincts and her husband’s triangulating past.

This road map did not promise victory. (Only Hillary herself can stop
Hillary from winning — and even then not without a lot of work.) But it
promised, at least, a meaningful battle of ideas, and maybe even a chance
to make things close in Iowa.

Since her official entrance into the race, however, Hillary has moved
aggressively to shrink the space for that kind of battle. Her big policy
statements – on criminal justice reform, immigration, and now universal
voter registration – have all aligned her explicitly with the party’s
activists, and to an extent many them did not expect.

Her theory seems to be that the political center has moved leftward, and
that mobilizing Democratic constituencies will matter as much in the
general election as reaching out to swing voters; she may also be haunted,
understandably, by memories of 2008. (There’s no reason to think she isn’t
sincere in her new stances, but with the Clintons it’s always fair to
analyze strategy before belief.)

Whatever the motivation, this new positioning has made it even harder for
the not-Hillarys to run against her. They can move further to her left
(Sanders, in particular, won’t have trouble doing so), but then their
campaigns will seem even more quixotic. And if Hillary stays committed to
their major goals, the party’s activists will have clear incentives to just
take her “yes” for an answer.

So what remains for our brave few, our band of brothers? Well, they can
attack her as a latecomer, a flip-flopper, a fair-weather progressive. But
such charges are rarely politically effective; if they were, Mitt Romney
would never have been the 2012 G.O.P. nominee. At some level, voters know
that they’re voting for the platform more than for the candidate. And the
left, in particular, has philosophical reasons to be comfortable with
flip-flops: If you think the Arc of History is bending toward your ideas,
then it’s actually a kind of vindication when a politician bends your way.

Alternatively, our anti-Hillarys can focus on foreign policy, where her
Iraq War vote helped doom her seven years ago. Here they’ll have a stronger
case, since she probably remains more hawkish (see her role in our Libyan
war for evidence) than her party’s dovish base.

But Clinton can find shelter by associating herself with the current
president: She’ll just say (as she’s already saying) that she’s exactly as
hawkish as Obama, no less and no more. If he escalates against ISIS, she’ll
support it; if not, she won’t. Ditto Putin, Assad, you name it. This won’t
protect her left flank fully, but so long as she’s hugging the president
she’ll lose more left-wing intellectuals than actual progressive voters.

So all that really remains for her would-be challengers is to attack her
ethics. There, at last, the anti-Hillary argument becomes an easy one: From
the Nixonian style of her State Department operation to the way her family
fattened itself on global tribute during her recent public service, her
rivals can point to sins and misdemeanors that would have already
disqualified a lesser candidate.

But will many Democrats really want to hear that argument? The advantage of
making an ideological case against Hillary is that progressives can accept
it – yes, she’s not as liberal as we would like, we’re glad somebody’s
pressing her, and maybe we’ll cast a protest vote for them – and still feel
O.K. about her inevitability and about voting for her in the general
election.

The ethical case, on the other hand, is more personal, discomfiting, and
easily repurposed by Republicans. So any time Hillary’s rivals offer those
kinds of critiques, their audience will hear intimations of G.O.P. attacks
to come. And since she’s almost certainly going to be the nominee,
Democratic voters may not be particularly grateful for the foretaste; they
may, instead, dismiss the men offering it for giving aid and comfort to the
enemy.

In which case those men will still deserve our gratitude. Because then, at
least, whatever happens in a Clinton presidency, her supporters won’t be
able to say that they weren’t warned.

*Hillary the Tormentor
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-hillary-the-tormentor.html>
// NYT // Frank Bruni – June 6, 2015 *

LATELY I’ve been running into people even more put off by the Clintons than
the nefarious operatives in the “vast right wing conspiracy” ever were.

They’re called Democrats.

I had breakfast with one last week. I’d quote him directly, but The Times
doesn’t permit profanity.

He’s furious at Hillary and Bill, because they’ve once again created all
these ugly, obvious messes that they could and should have avoided. He’s
disgusted, because he has come to believe that they’re tainted.

He’s also resolute: He’s voting — even rooting — for Hillary.

Party loyalty motivates him. On top of which, he’s worried about the
Supreme Court and how a Republican president might pack it.

And he keeps hearing the voices of little girls in his life who have asked
him whether a woman can be president of the United States in reality, not
just on some TV show.

He wants them to see: Yes, she can.

So here he stands, or rather squirms, exhilarated by what Hillary embodies
and repelled by what she represents, wanting to see her take the oath and
wanting never to lay eyes on her and Bill again, determined that they
reclaim the White House and despairing of the muddy road there and the
certain muck beyond. He’s a riot of warring emotions, a paradox with a
pulse.

The Clintons will do that to a person.

Or to a country.

There was a suggestion last week that Clinton weariness and wariness had
again overtaken Americans: Two new national polls showed that regard for
Hillary had declined, at least for the moment, to levels not seen in many
years.

In both surveys, more respondents saw her unfavorably than favorably. In
the one by ABC News and The Washington Post, only 41 percent said that she
was honest and trustworthy, while 52 percent said that she wasn’t.

Such findings will fluctuate, as Jack Shafer noted aptly and archly in
Politico: “While glory awaits the journalist who buries Hillary Clinton,
carves her tombstone and tidies her grave, the makings of her demise cannot
be read in these poll results. Clinton rides a favorability roller coaster,
and has been riding it hard for the past 23 years.”

I bring no coffin, carry no shovel and am less interested in her roller
coaster than in the hard ride that she and Bill have taken us on. It never
ends.

And it’s different from politics as usual. It’s politics as a peculiar form
of psychological torture, because the Clintons have a way — it’s their
trademark — of being the best, most exciting vessel for people’s hopes even
as they make those people feel icky about their investment in the couple.

Just ask Democrats who were in Congress during Bill’s impeachment. Many
fought to save his presidency, and thus gave the requisite interviews and
said the right words, all the while roiling with outrage over the selfish,
reckless manner in which he’d put his and the party’s agenda at risk.

Just look at all the liberal women who rallied then to his defense,
studiously turning a blind eye to his personal behavior because his policy
priorities were preferable to those of his attackers. It was an
understandable bargain, but it wasn’t a pretty one.

It’s never as simple and humdrum as being for or against the Clintons. And
while countless other politicians force supporters to make special
allowances, stomach imperfections and come to terms with a tangle of good
and bad, few do so on the Clintons’ operatic scale.

A prediction: With the publication on June 16 of two new books that assess
Richard Nixon — “One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon,”
by Tim Weiner, and “Being Nixon: A Man Divided,” by Evan Thomas — you’re
going to see and hear some comparisons of Nixon and Hillary.

These will touch on paranoia and on relationships (or, rather, the lack of
them) with reporters.

“It’s definitely true that Hillary is like Nixon in her sense of
aggrievement and her deep suspicion of the press,” Thomas told me, though
he hastened to add, “Nixon ultimately was a darker figure.”

It’s also true that voting for her may require of many Democrats what
voting for him did of many Republicans, which is the suppression of
profound misgivings. Thomas said that in 1968, people backing Nixon often
felt that “there really wasn’t any other choice.” At least for the
nomination, he was inevitable.

As is she, and this time around, in contrast to 2008, there’s no Barack
Obama in the wings, at least none that Democratic operatives can detect.
Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee don’t qualify.

At some point over the last year Democrats placed just about all of their
chips on Hillary, reassured by the depth of her experience, aware of how
much money she could raise, and inspired by what a perfect sequel to Barack
Obama she’d be. He broke the color barrier. Now she’d shatter the glass
ceiling that she put all those cracks in.

But the Clintons facilitate a thrilling scenario only to pollute it. They
come wrapped in shiny folds of promise and good intentions, then the
packaging comes off, and what lies beneath are emails from Sidney
Blumenthal, shakedowns of Petra Nemcova.

Recently Bill wrote a letter to supporters of his, Hillary’s and Chelsea’s
sprawling charitable foundation, outlining its global reach. He described
the breadth of services it provides, including H.I.V./AIDS medicines for
nearly 10 million people in 70 countries, and the diversity of people it
supports, from farmers in Africa to female entrepreneurs in Latin America.

His words were a reminder that perhaps no other former president has
lavished so much travel and star power on such an ambitious engine of good
deeds. The foundation is an exemplar.

Until you peek inside and behold a convoluted braid of public service and
personal aggrandizement, a queasy-making brew of altruism and vanity, a
mechanism for employing loyalists and rewarding friends, a bazaar for favor
trading. Straightforward admiration is no longer possible.

Frustration supplants it. Worry, too. A few days ago I spoke with one
Democratic elder who ranted, like my breakfast companion, about all the
ammunition that the Clintons had needlessly created for a Republican
nominee.

He envisioned a flood of negative ads in Florida and Ohio about State
Department emails, speaking fees and foreign donations. He said that this
deluge could very well make a difference.

He was livid.

Would that keep him from campaigning for Hillary?

No, he said. Even if he couldn’t count on her, she could count on him.

It didn’t seem fair.

It did seem familiar.

*Why Join the Military With a Reckless (Meaning Republican)
Commander-In-Chief?
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug-bandow/why-join-the-military-with-a-reckless-meaning-republican-commander-in-chief_b_7524954.html>
// HuffPo // Doug Bandow – June 6, 2015 *

Former governor and presidential candidate Michael Huckabee issued a
clarion call for young Americans not to join the military if he or
virtually any Republican wins the presidency in 2016. Well, that's not
exactly what he said. But it was the obvious implication of his remarks.

Huckabee declared: "I'd wait a couple of years, until we got a new
commander-in-chief, that will once again believe one nation under God and
believes that people of faith should be a vital part of the process of not
only governing, but defending this country." It was an oblique, even
confusing attack on President Barack Obama. Apparently the former Baptist
pastor was upset about Pentagon restrictions on proselytizing within the
armed services.

It's a fair area for debate since the Obama administration sometimes has
taken a careless, if not hostile, stance toward religious liberty. But
there's no evidence that the president doesn't want people of faith joining
the military (or being involved in "governing," whatever that means).

However, Huckabee inadvertently raised a far more important issue. Should
Americans join the military if the next commander-in-chief of the armed
services is an arrogant, ignorant, irresponsible, war-happy hawk? Patriotic
young men and women want to serve their country, challenge themselves and
more. Many of America's best and brightest join the armed services. But
with the U.S. constantly at war, joining is a life or death decision,
dependent on the judgment of whoever sits in the Oval Office.

There is much to criticize in President Obama's foreign policy. He is too
aggressive -- twice increasing troop levels in Afghanistan, and recently
prolonging the U.S. presence, going to war in Libya, making the Islamic
State's sectarian conflict America's own, putting combat and training
personnel in a number of smaller conflicts, including Uganda and Ukraine.
The administration's execution also often suffers. Sadly, the word
incompetent comes to mind.

Nevertheless, the president apparently is thoughtful and thus reluctant to
loose the dogs of war. In contrast, ever-angry 2008 presidential candidate
John McCain urges war in virtually every circumstance. He never seems to
think about the consequences of bombing or invading other nations. One
would be a real risk-taker to join the military under such a
commander-in-chief.

President George W. Bush demonstrated a different set of faults. By all
accounts he knew little about the countries he was invading and peoples he
was fighting. He believed the fairy tale promises of more "optimistic"
advisers. He wasn't willing to finish what he started, essentially
abandoning the Afghan war, which was tied to 9/11, to initiate the far most
disastrous Iraq war, which was unrelated to the attack on America. Bush
then refused to accept responsibility while carrying on with a failed
policy.

As a consequence, more than 4,500 American service members, plus other U.S.
employees and contractors, died needlessly. New enemies and enemy
organizations were created, such as the Islamic State, which are active
today. Iran was greatly empowered, the same Iran that most of the current
GOP presidential candidates believe should be bombed. It is a miracle -- or
a testament to so many Americans' deep patriotism -- that anyone enlisted
while Bush was president (and Richard Cheney was vice president, a scary
heartbeat away from the Oval Office).

The 2016 contenders are almost all worse than President Obama. There are
some outliers, like Sen. Rand Paul and former Senators Jim Webb and Lincoln
Chaffee. A few others are unclear players such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich and
former governors Jeb Bush and Martin O'Malley. The first group take a more
nuanced and restrained approach to foreign policy, though not all their
positions are consistent. The others so far have not committed themselves
or have given conflicting signals.

The other contenders appear more interested in promoting ideology than
addressing reality in foreign policy. For instance, Hillary Clinton has
spent most of her political life as a hawk. She reportedly was a leading
advocate of military action in the Balkans in the 1990s -- a complicated,
murderous conflict of primary interest to Europe in which the U.S. ignored
massive ethnic cleansing by its allies, Croatia and the ethnic Albanian
Kosovars. Bosnia and Kosovo remain problems because the U.S. attempted to
impose a "solution" from outside through force.

As senator, Clinton voted to authorize the Iraq war, the most foolish,
counterproductive foreign policy decision by the U.S. government in
decades. Iran was empowered, sectarianism exploded in Iraq, and radical
forces including the Islamic State were born. She obviously learned no
lessons, however.

As secretary of state, Clinton was a constant advocate of more war. She
appeared to enthusiastically back the force build-up in Afghanistan and
insisted that war was an option against Iran. Observed neocon intellectual
Robert Kagan: "I feel comfortable with her on foreign policy." He told the
New York Times that her policy is "something that might have been called
neocon, but clearly her supporters are not going to call it that."

Libya was Clinton's war. That conflict was supposed to be another cakewalk.
Alas, it resulted in thousands of deaths, multiple war atrocities, an
incipient civil war, another home for Islamic State killers, and the
regional spread of arms, including anti-aircraft missiles. The good news is
that no Americans died fighting. But Americans stationed in Libya died
afterwards, on her watch, and now are at risk battling the Islamic State.
Out of office, she supported the president's initial plan for bombing Syria
over its apparent use of chemical weapons as well as re-involvement in Iraq
to fight the Islamic State.

When has she ever supported peace? Anyone serving under her should
recognize the risks of being sent into another foolish, counterproductive
war.

However, most of the Republicans are no better -- indeed, some are a good
deal worse. Lindsey Graham is running in order to promote a policy of
constant conflict. In recent years he joined with John McCain to advocate
on behalf of every war fought and many not started. If Graham was
president, members of the armed services could expect to spend years
overseas occupying and remaking foreign societies. Kind of a permanent
Afghan-Iraqi policy, only everywhere.

The media has anointed Sen. Marco Rubio as having "expertise" in foreign
policy, despite his endorsement every war since his election in 2010. He
backed bombing Libya, bombing Syria, bombing the Islamic State, and
possibly attacking Iran. Apparently unaware that Iran was, if anything,
even more hostile than Washington to the Islamic State, Rubio recently
combined bellicosity with ignorance. Alas, George W. Bush demonstrated that
that is a really bad combination for a president. (Rubio also has taken on
the contradictory task of promoting new thinking while backing the half
century old economic embargo on Cuba.)

A couple of former governors, Huckabee and Rick Perry, previously ran as
"bomb-first" neocons, believing that most every foreign policy problem
would be solved by another war. A gaggle of governors -- Scott Walker,
Chris Christie, and Bobby Jindal -- avoided much of the foreign policy
debate while serving but generally have been attempting to outflank each
other with hawkish pronouncements. None has demonstrated knowing very much
about the subject and, in general, they have backed the Iraq war, inveighed
against the nuclear agreement with Iran (the alternative to which likely is
a nuclear Iran or war with Iran), insisted in increased military outlays,
spouted the usual pabulum about the importance of "leadership" and
"toughness," and denounced President Obama as weak. It is hard to know what
they would do in any particular instance, but taken at their word they
likely would send military personnel into combat for reasons minor or even
frivolous.

One suspects that when the issue of foreign policy comes up at the
Republican presidential debates, most of these candidates will break into
the Maori Haka in an attempt to demonstrate that they are tougher and
meaner and readier for war than their competitors. That is, unless someone
reminds them that New Zealand is a peaceful nation which does not
constantly start stupid wars.

Other Republicans who today are back benchers might come to the fore with
an uber-hawkish president. Sen. Tom Cotton, for instance, recently made a
thinly veiled appeal for military action against Iran despite the prospect
of a negotiated settlement. But he argued it wasn't anything to worry
about, that a few days of bombing would suffice. Even more bizarrely, he
contended that "You have to be focused everywhere." The failure to set
priorities really works well in wars.

All of the Republicans, including Rand Paul, also advocate essentially a
blank check for the Pentagon, adopting the traditional Democratic position
that spending more money on something is the same as achieving something.
Paul, at least, wants to cut other outlays as an offset. Most of the
candidates simply favor more money for more wars, wherever they might be
fought.

What's a patriotic potential service member to do? Pine for Ronald Reagan.

It's not just the grand rhetoric of freedom and genuine appreciation for
military service. It's also his very restrained, responsible use of the
armed services. Caricatured as a wild cowboy, he only used the military
three times. Once to oust a bloody communist regime in nearby Grenada
which, he contended, threatened American students in medical school there.
Another instance was to retaliate against Libya for a terrorist attack. The
last was to support Lebanon's government in the middle of that nation's
tragic civil war.

The first two were finished quickly. The third proved to be a horrible
mistake, from which Reagan learned. He didn't send in another 100,000
troops, impose a multi-year occupation, and engage in nation-building.
Instead, he pulled the troops out. And he never repeated that mistake.

Michael Huckabee is right. Americans should consider the commander-in-chief
before joining the military. Unfortunately for Huckabee, if they did so
they would disqualify him and most of the other presidential contenders.
Voters should insist on good military as well as moral character.

*Alexandria Phillips*

*Press Assistant | Communications*

Hillary for America | www.hillaryclinton.com