Subject: Correct The Record Sunday July 6, 2014 Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2014 15:30:48 -0400
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**

*Correct The Record Sunday July 6, 2014 Roundup:*

*Headlines:*

*Reuters: “Hillary Clinton says Merkel is Europe’s ‘greatest leader’”
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/06/usa-clinton-merkel-idUSL6N0PH0N320140706>*

“Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton called Chancellor Angela
Merkel ‘the greatest leader in Europe’ during a visit to Berlin on Sunday and
said it was high time America had a woman leader too, though without
confirming she would seek the job.”

*Associated Press: “Spy Case Threatens to Sour German-US Ties Anew”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_US_SPYING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

“Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at a book
presentation in Berlin it's ‘a serious issue.’ ‘Let's find out what the
facts are and then let's act appropriately, but also try to be careful not
to undermine the necessary cooperation which exists between us,’ she said.”

*Politico blog: Politico Now: “McCain on being Clinton's 'favorite
Republican'”
<http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/07/mccain-on-being-clintons-favorite-republican-191582.html>*

“Sen. John McCain isn't eager to embrace the title of ‘Hillary Clinton's
favorite Republican.’”

*ITV: “Hillary Clinton on This Morning”
<http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/hillary-clinton-morning#.U7mHK_ldV8G>*

“Hillary Clinton on running for Presidency: ‘I have to decide that it is
the right thing for me and it is the right thing for my country at this
time.’”

*New York Times opinion: Jacob Heilbrunn, National Interest editor: “The
Next Act of the Neocons”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/opinion/sunday/are-neocons-getting-ready-to-ally-with-hillary-clinton.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimesworld>*

“Even as they castigate Mr. Obama, the neocons may be preparing a more
brazen feat: aligning themselves with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her
nascent presidential campaign, in a bid to return to the driver’s seat of
American foreign policy.”

*Washington Post: “What’s left of the political center?”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whats-left-of-the-political-center/2014/07/05/37122966-0447-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html>*

“We are in a time in which there are both rising expressions of
independence from the two major parties by many Americans and elections in
which the red-blue divisions are increasingly stark.”

*CNN: “The ‘Inside Politics’ Forecast: Hillary Clinton’s European road
test” [Excerpt]
<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/06/the-inside-politics-forecast-hillary-clintons-european-road-test/>*

“Hillary Clinton spent her Fourth of July across the Atlantic, selling
‘Hard Choices’ to a European audience and, as Politico’s Maggie Haberman
shares, looking to move past some of the rocky moments of her book roll out
tour.”

*The Hill: “Mitt Romney's 2014 renaissance”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/211363-mitt-romneys-2014-renaissance>*

“Mitt Romney is looking to keep his sterling endorsement streak alive as
the 2014 campaign transitions from primary to general election season.”

*Articles:*

*Reuters: “Hillary Clinton says Merkel is Europe’s ‘greatest leader’”
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/06/usa-clinton-merkel-idUSL6N0PH0N320140706>*

By Stephen Brown

July 6, 2014, 8:39 a.m. EDT

Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton called Chancellor Angela
Merkel "the greatest leader in Europe" during a visit to Berlin on Sunday and
said it was high time America had a woman leader too, though without
confirming she would seek the job.

Clinton also referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "tough
customer with a pretty thin skin" in an appearance at a Berlin theatre to
promote her new book, "Hard Choices".

The former senator and wife of ex-President Bill Clinton is widely expected
to run for the White House in 2016 and has cited Merkel as a good argument
for the United States having a woman president soon.

"I think we are ready for a woman to break through the glass ceiling,"
Clinton said in an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper, adding that
she would decide whether to run for president "at the end of this year or
early next year".

Clinton joked at the Schiller Theater about her and Merkel's shared taste
for pants suits and voiced admiration for the chancellor's leadership of
Europe in the euro zone debt crisis.

"I say in the book I think she is the greatest leader in Europe, I think
she is a great leader globally, I think she carried Europe on her shoulders
and it wasn't easy," she said.

*Associated Press: “Spy Case Threatens to Sour German-US Ties Anew”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_US_SPYING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

By Geir Moulson

July 6, 2014, 9:48 a.m. EDT

German-U.S. relations are facing a new test over a German intelligence
employee who reportedly spied for the U.S., with Germany's president saying
if the allegations are true, that kind of spying on allies must stop.

Prosecutors say a 31-year-old German was arrested last week on suspicion of
spying for foreign intelligence services, and that he allegedly handed over
218 documents between 2012 and 2014. German media, without naming sources,
have reported he was an employee of Germany's foreign intelligence service
who says he sold his services to the U.S.

Germany's Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador Friday to help
clarify the case. The country's top security official stepped up the
pressure Sunday.

"I expect everyone now to assist quickly in clearing up the accusations -
and quick and clear statements, from the USA too," Interior Minister Thomas
de Maiziere was quoted as saying in Bild newspaper.

The issue threatens to strain German-U.S. relations again after earlier
reports that the National Security Agency spied on Germans, including on
Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone.

If it turns out the U.S. "gave this kind of assignment to one of our
intelligence employees, then it really has to be said: That's enough now,"
President Joachim Gauck said on ZDF television.

The head of a parliamentary committee investigating the activities of U.S.
and allied spies, Patrick Sensburg, said he has no information that
documents from the panel were spied on, but government documents destined
for the committee may have been.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council have
declined to comment.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at a book
presentation in Berlin it's "a serious issue."

"Let's find out what the facts are and then let's act appropriately, but
also try to be careful not to undermine the necessary cooperation which
exists between us," she said.

*Politico blog: Politico Now: “McCain on being Clinton's 'favorite
Republican'”
<http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/07/mccain-on-being-clintons-favorite-republican-191582.html>*

By Kevin Robillard

July 6, 2014, 11:11 a.m. EDT

Sen. John McCain isn't eager to embrace the title of "Hillary Clinton's
favorite Republican."

"I hope this program is blacked out in Arizona," McCain said on CBS's "Face
The Nation." "Please cut this."

The former secretary of state named McCain as her favorite member of the
GOP during an interview last month. Asked by host Bob Schieffer who his
favorite Democrat was, McCain didn't return the compliment.

"I think it's my job to work with every president, if she regrettably
obtains the presidency," he said, adding: "I respect Hillary Clinton. I may
not agree with her."

*ITV: “Hillary Clinton on This Morning”
<http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/hillary-clinton-morning#.U7mHK_ldV8G>*

[No Writer Mentioned]

July 4, 2014

Hillary Clinton on running for Presidency: "I have to decide that it is the
right thing for me and it is the right thing for my country at this time"

On her marriage to Bill: "I knew he was trouble from the moment I met him"

On meeting Obama post losing out in the US Primaries: "It was like an
awkward first date"

During an interview on today's This Morning programme on ITV, Hillary
Clinton explained to hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford how she would
normally celebrate Independence day. Hillary said, "We would be at home,
we’d probably go to a barbecue or a picnic, we’d go see the fireworks,
that’s what we always do and I do miss it but I’m happy to be here” Before
praising the British weather.

On her new book, Hard Choices, Hillary expressed some of the hard choices
she has had to face during her personal and professional life. She said
"Obviously to get married, to stay married, to take care of my ageing
mother, she lived with us for the last years of her life. To worry about my
child and now my future grandchild... I don’t know any woman who doesn’t
worry about the hard choices we face and it is always a challenge to try to
make sure that you’re being responsible in making those choices and I
respect people who make responsible choices but that doesn’t mean they’re
less hard it just means they come at different points in your life and you
have to be ready for them.”

Explaining how she balances personal choices and choices up for scrutiny on
the world stage, Hillary explained, “I was in a front row seat helping to
make some of the hardest choices during the four years I served as
Secretary of State. How do you gather information, how do you know it’s
right, who can you trust? … You have to make these decisions and you know
that you’re an imperfect person and you know that you have imperfect
information and you know that no matter what you decide there will be
consequences, some of them unintended.”

When asked if she is able to sleep at night when juggling all these things,
Hillary admitted, “Yes I can, because what I try to do during the day,
which is always very intense and active for me, is to do the best I can…
Leaders are like citizens, we have our strengths and we have our weaknesses
and I think in a democracy what is so great about our system of government
is we pick among the citizenry, there is no ordained leader… each of us
who’s given a responsibility has to do the best we can. I fault people who
don’t try to do the best they can. I believe that someone in whatever
position whatever job, if you’re doing the best you can… I give you my
respect.”

Following her confession of enjoying book tours - and Eamonn requesting her
to sign his copy - Hillary revealed how enjoyable she found writing the
book and the reasons for doing it and what people will learn from it. She
said, “I hope that they will see that the curtain has been pulled back on
how you make these hard choices or at least how we made them… I have a
whole chapter on women’s rights and gay rights because for me, that’s
unfinished business, I think we have to do more to make sure every woman
and girl has a chance to fully participate and I think we have to end
discrimination and other forms of abuse against gay people. I want people
to know what my values were, what the United States was doing, what we
stand for and see whether there’s any points of identification.”

When pushed on the big question of running for President in 2016, Hillary
looked into Eamonn eyes and confessed, "I don’t know. And the reason I
don’t know is because I know a lot about the job. I have had the most
extraordinary front row seat in the administration of my husband obviously.
After 9/11 I had to work very closely with President Bush because I was a
Senator from New York, I had to deal with the horror of our being attacked
and then serving as a partner and friend to President Obama. It is such an
overwhelming job.”

Hillary added, "We have a lot of very capable people, I am absolutely
confident that we have in my party, the democratic party, a number of
people who are governors, senators, others who could compete and be
successful. I have to decide that it’s the right thing for me and it’s the
right thing for my country at this time. I am going to become a
grandmother, to me, that’s really exciting… I want to fully participate in
that experience, I don’t want to be looking over the shoulder of my new
grandchild thinking ‘what am I going to be doing next year’ I want to be
really focused on what’s important in the here and now.”

On working mother guilt and whether she feels it, Hillary admitted, "I‘m
very proud of my daughter and very grateful that I’m her mother but I also
invested a lot of time and effort into being the best mother I could be,
not perfect by any means, but the best that I could be and I want to do the
same for my grandchild and I really feel at the end of the day the most
important responsibility that any parent has is to do that.”

Recalling the campaign against Obama and their first meeting post his win,
Hillary confessed, "We knew each other before that campaign, and it was a
very hard fought campaign. Everything you saw was exactly what was going
on."

She added, "We met - it was like an awkward first date between teenagers,
just the two of us one on one - after the end of the primaries and we sat
and talked and cleared the air between us. We had a glass of wine. Did I
swear? Not in that meeting! But what I told him was exactly how I felt. It
had been hard fought. He won, I lost. And I was going to do everything I
could to get him elected President. He asked for my help, he asked for
Bill's help... and we did more than a hundred events to try to help him and
we were thrilled and relieved that he won."

Before continuing, "And there were rumours that he might offer me something
but I really didn't not believe them because there are always rumours...
but I went to see him, he asked me to be his secretary of state. And I said
no! I also said no to my husband the first two times when he asked me to
marry him, so this is like a pattern that I have with these charismatic
men!"

On not taking Bill's name when she first got married, Hillary explained,
"He didn't mind at all, it was everyone else that minded. And that's why I
became Hillary Rodham Clinton as that covered every ones concerns. But it
is a right, it's a choice... and it's one of the choices a woman should
make. But when I made the decision to become Hillary Rodham Clinton, I felt
very comfortable with that."

Opening up about standing by her husband during difficult times with
indiscretions, Hillary revealed, "It is such an individual choice and I
have lived long enough to have had close friends go through similar
situations. Some have made the choice to continue the relationship and some
not to, for me, it was a very hard choice but the right choice to choose
forgiveness and to continue what had become such a central part of our
lives. I'm very grateful that that was the decision I made, but I'm also
very respectful when others make a different decision."

She added, "I believe I would have made exactly the same decision if we had
of been Mr and Mrs Smith, but when you're in public and people are throwing
their views at you, you really have to be very conscious of listening to
your own heart and not being pushed or pulled prematurely in one direction
or another... and that was challenging."

When Eamonn said 'as they say in Ireland, do you still fancy him?' Hillary
replied, "Yes. Because I knew he was trouble from the moment I met him!
That's why I turned him down twice when he asked me to marry him! He is an
extraordinary combination of intelligence and charisma, but also of empathy
and kindness and sensitivity...he was raised to really try and put himself
in another person's shoes, so he's always very aware of what others are
going through and I find him incredibly fanciable!"

On what her husband feels about her decision to stand for Presidency or
not, Hillary said, "He says very clearly that he will support whatever I
decide and that's the right attitude. He knew from a very young age that he
knew he wanted to run for public office and maybe some day run for
president... but I never thought that. It was not something that I grew up
believing. So he's a great guide as he's been through it and understands
the various difficulties of the decision making."

*New York Times opinion: Jacob Heilbrunn, National Interest editor: “The
Next Act of the Neocons”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/opinion/sunday/are-neocons-getting-ready-to-ally-with-hillary-clinton.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimesworld>*

By Jacob Heilbrunn

July 5, 2014

After nearly a decade in the political wilderness, the neoconservative
movement is back, using the turmoil in Iraq and Ukraine to claim that it is
President Obama, not the movement’s interventionist foreign policy that
dominated early George W. Bush-era Washington, that bears responsibility
for the current round of global crises.

Even as they castigate Mr. Obama, the neocons may be preparing a more
brazen feat: aligning themselves with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her
nascent presidential campaign, in a bid to return to the driver’s seat of
American foreign policy.

To be sure, the careers and reputations of the older generation of neocons
— Paul D. Wolfowitz, L. Paul Bremer III, Douglas J. Feith, Richard N. Perle
— are permanently buried in the sands of Iraq. And not all of them are
eager to switch parties: In April, William Kristol, the editor of The
Weekly Standard, said that as president Mrs. Clinton would “be a dutiful
chaperone of further American decline.”

But others appear to envisage a different direction — one that might allow
them to restore the neocon brand, at a time when their erstwhile home in
the Republican Party is turning away from its traditional interventionist
foreign policy.

It’s not as outlandish as it may sound. Consider the historian Robert
Kagan, the author of a recent, roundly praised article in The New Republic
that amounted to a neo-neocon manifesto. He has not only avoided the
vitriolic tone that has afflicted some of his intellectual brethren but
also co-founded an influential bipartisan advisory group during Mrs.
Clinton’s time at the State Department.

Mr. Kagan has also been careful to avoid landing at standard-issue neocon
think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute; instead, he’s a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution, that citadel of liberalism headed by
Strobe Talbott, who was deputy secretary of state under President Bill
Clinton and is considered a strong candidate to become secretary of state
in a new Democratic administration. (Mr. Talbott called the Kagan article
“magisterial,” in what amounts to a public baptism into the liberal
establishment.)

Perhaps most significantly, Mr. Kagan and others have insisted on
maintaining the link between modern neoconservatism and its roots in
muscular Cold War liberalism. Among other things, he has frequently praised
Harry S. Truman’s secretary of state, Dean Acheson, drawing a line from him
straight to the neocons’ favorite president: “It was not Eisenhower or
Kennedy or Nixon but Reagan whose policies most resembled those of Acheson
and Truman.”

Other neocons have followed Mr. Kagan’s careful centrism and respect for
Mrs. Clinton. Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign
Relations, noted in The New Republic this year that “it is clear that in
administration councils she was a principled voice for a strong stand on
controversial issues, whether supporting the Afghan surge or the
intervention in Libya.”

And the thing is, these neocons have a point. Mrs. Clinton voted for the
Iraq war; supported sending arms to Syrian rebels; likened Russia’s
president, Vladimir V. Putin, to Adolf Hitler; wholeheartedly backs Israel;
and stresses the importance of promoting democracy.

It’s easy to imagine Mrs. Clinton’s making room for the neocons in her
administration. No one could charge her with being weak on national
security with the likes of Robert Kagan on board.

Of course, the neocons’ latest change in tack is not just about
intellectual affinity. Their longtime home, the Republican Party, where
presidents and candidates from Reagan to Senator John McCain of Arizona
supported large militaries and aggressive foreign policies, may well
nominate for president Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has been beating
an ever louder drum against American involvement abroad.

In response, Mark Salter, a former chief of staff to Senator McCain and a
neocon fellow traveler, said that in the event of a Paul nomination,
“Republican voters seriously concerned with national security would have no
responsible recourse” but to support Mrs. Clinton for the presidency.

Still, Democratic liberal hawks, let alone the left, would have to swallow
hard to accept any neocon conversion. Mrs. Clinton herself is already under
fire for her foreign-policy views — the journalist Glenn Greenwald, among
others, has condemned her as “like a neocon, practically.” And humanitarian
interventionists like Samantha Power, the ambassador to the United Nations,
who opposed the second Iraq war, recoil at the militaristic unilateralism
of the neocons and their inveterate hostility to international institutions
like the World Court.

But others in Mrs. Clinton’s orbit, like Michael A. McFaul, the former
ambassador to Russia and now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a
neocon haven at Stanford, are much more in line with thinkers like Mr.
Kagan and Mr. Boot, especially when it comes to issues like promoting
democracy and opposing Iran.

Far from ending, then, the neocon odyssey is about to continue. In 1972,
Robert L. Bartley, the editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal and
a man who championed the early neocon stalwarts, shrewdly diagnosed the
movement as representing “something of a swing group between the two major
parties.” Despite the partisan battles of the early 2000s, it is remarkable
how very little has changed.

*Washington Post: “What’s left of the political center?”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whats-left-of-the-political-center/2014/07/05/37122966-0447-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html>*

By Dan Balz

July 5, 2014, 7:37 p.m. EDT

In a politically polarized nation, what constitutes the middle ground?

The answer is not as simple as it might seem. We are in a time in which
there are both rising expressions of independence from the two major
parties by many Americans and elections in which the red-blue divisions are
increasingly stark.

Party identification tells one part of it, the story of a country moving
away from allegiance to the major political parties. A decade ago, about
one-third of Americans described themselves as independents, according to
Gallup surveys. Today that’s grown to four in 10 or more. In some states
that allow registration by party, the biggest increases have been among
those who decline to identify with either the Republicans or Democrats.

Voting behavior tells a different story. In recent elections, at least nine
of every 10 people who identify themselves as Republicans or Democrats — or
who say they are independents but lean toward one party or the other — vote
for the candidate of their party down the ballot. In 2012, only about 11
percent of voters said they cast split tickets. The percentage of true
independents may be only about 10 percent of the electorate.

The trend toward polarized politics is well documented. From the most
recent studies by the Pew Research Center to a sizeable body of continuing
work by political scientists, it’s clear that partisanship drives a
considerable portion of the electorate. The gap between those on the left
and right — especially among the most politically engaged citizens — is
deeper and more passionately expressed that it was in the past.

About a fifth of the population is now either consistently conservative or
consistently liberal, according to Pew’s analysis. Add to that those
citizens who are generally conservative or generally liberal and that
accounts for, roughly, an additional 40 percent of the population. That
leaves about four in 10 somewhere in the ideological middle. According to
Pew, that middle ground has shrunk over the past decade or so, when it
accounted for half the population.

Those in the middle are often assumed to be moderate in their political
outlook. If that’s the measure, they too constitute a smaller share of the
electorate than they once did. Until 2009, according to Gallup’s historical
tables, moderates were the largest group in the electorate — more than four
in 10. Last year, 34 percent of Americans identified themselves as
moderate, the lowest found by Gallup in its polls.

Today a plurality of people describe themselves as conservatives — but the
group that has risen most rapidly in the past few years are those who call
themselves liberals.

Independents are still more likely to call themselves moderates than as
liberals or conservatives. What Gallup has seen in recent years is that
more and more independents describe their ideology as conservative.

The reason for that, according to Gallup’s analysis of the numbers, is that
people who once called themselves Republicans now say they’re independents.
Their party identification has changed but not necessarily their ideology.

Still another factor that complicates the picture is the fact that people
who may be classified as part of the political middle aren’t necessarily in
the middle of the electorate and doesn’t mean they really are moderate in
their views.

The Pew study in fact found something quite different. People who didn’t
fall into the polarized extremes sometimes hold views similar to those who
are. They’re just not consistent about it. “Being in the center of the
ideological spectrum means only that a person has a mix of liberal and
conservative values, not that they take moderate positions on all issues,”
according to the Pew analysis.

One consistent finding is that those who now constitute the middle are less
active politically than those on the left or right. “The voters in the
middle tend to be much less engaged in politics than those near the poles —
less interested, less attentive, less knowledgeable and less active,” said
Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University. “So the
more active and knowledgeable the set of voters, the more polarized they
tend to be.”

The Pew study looked at the electorate in another way, grouping people into
different categories based on a variety of measures. This typology, the
latest in a series dating to 1987, described eight distinct groups among
the population. Seven of the groups are politically engaged. The other is
on the sidelines — not even registered to vote.

Three of the seven politically engaged groups are the partisan anchors for
either the Democrats or the Republicans. “Steadfast Conservatives” and
“Business Conservatives” are loyal to the Republican Party and “Solid
Liberals” are attached to the Democratic Party. Together they make up 36
percent of the population, 43 percent of registered voters and 57 percent
of the people who are politically engaged.

Among those not at the polarized wings of the electorate are three groups
that lean toward the Democrats — “Hard-Pressed Skeptics,” “Next Generation
Left” and “Faith and Family Left” — and one that aligns with the
Republicans — “Young Outsiders.” These four groups make up 54 percent of
the population but only 43 percent of politically engaged people.

Notably they are more difficult to categorize in their political behavior.
As the Pew study put it, they are “less partisan, less predictable and have
little in common with each other or the groups at either end of the
political spectrum. The one thing they do share is that they are less
engaged politically than the groups on the right or left.”

However disparate, however disengaged and whatever its size, the middle of
the electorate cannot be ignored by either party. The shifting sentiments
of these voters have caused big swings in elections over the past decade.
In 2006, independents swung one way and helped Democrats take control of
the House. In 2010, they went the opposite way and gave Republicans control
of the House.

Gary Jacobson, a political science professor at the University of
California at San Diego, describes the political middle this way in an
e-mail message: “It does not form a potentially coherent coalition around
which some political entrepreneur might build a centrist party,” he wrote.
“People in it are more susceptible to short-term political tides (because
they are less partisan and ideological) and thus help to swing elections.”

*CNN: “The ‘Inside Politics’ Forecast: Hillary Clinton’s European road
test” [Excerpt]
<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/06/the-inside-politics-forecast-hillary-clintons-european-road-test/>*

By John King

July 6, 2014, 8:47 a.m. EDT

CNN's John King and other top political reporters empty out their notebooks
each Sunday on "Inside Politics" to reveal five things that will be in the
headlines in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Washington (CNN) – This week’s final trip around the "Inside Politics"
table unearthed some glimmers of Democratic hope this midterm election
year, a potential replay of sorts in Kansas and a glimpse at Hillary
Clinton’s hopes for the Europe leg of her book tour.

1. Hillary Clinton’s European road test

Hillary Clinton spent her Fourth of July across the Atlantic, selling “Hard
Choices” to a European audience and, as Politico’s Maggie Haberman shares,
looking to move past some of the rocky moments of her book roll out tour.

Clinton has a few more interviews where her allies expect she's going to
continue cleaning up a lot of the fallout from the dead-broke gaffe and
some of her other missteps.

Then she's going to disappear for most of the summer - in the Hamptons.

And the hope from her allies, according to Maggie, is that she has learned
something from what went wrong in the last couple of weeks and will
demonstrate that in the fall.

…

*The Hill: “Mitt Romney's 2014 renaissance”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/211363-mitt-romneys-2014-renaissance>*

By Cameron Joseph

July 6, 2014, 6:00 a.m. EDT

Mitt Romney is looking to keep his sterling endorsement streak alive as the
2014 campaign transitions from primary to general election season.

The former GOP presidential nominee has a perfect record after getting
involved in a number of competitive Republican races this year. Now, with
Senate control on the line and his party eager to add to their House
majority, he’s turning his attention to helping many of those same
candidates in tough fall battles.

Free from the pressures of daily life in the spotlight, Romney has
undergone a latter-day renaissance, rebuilding his public image after a
brutal 2012 campaign.

Two years later, he’s being welcomed on the trail with open arms as one of
his party’s most sought-after surrogates. Republican candidates and
strategists salivate over his fundraising prowess and seem less and less
worried about potential baggage from appearing with him.

“As an elder statesman in the party, he's able to endorse good,
conservative candidates that can win. For too long the party has been
without someone who can help the most conservative candidates who can win a
primary and still win the general,” said Ryan Williams, a former Romney
aide who is now working former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, now running
in New Hampshire.

Romney stumped with Brown on Wednesday in the Granite State, just the
latest in a crowded schedule of campaign events. He’s already headed to
more than a dozen states to help the GOP, from New York and California to
Idaho and Michigan.

The former Massachusetts governor has endorsed 33 candidates this election
cycle, including many facing competitive primaries. So far, not a single
one has lost.

The prodigious fundraiser has held about two dozen campaign and fundraising
events for those candidates and the national party, including major
fundraisers for the Republican National Committee, National Republican
Senatorial Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and
Republican Governors Association.

And he’s not done yet. Sources close to Romney say he’s in the midst of
scheduling another round of campaign trips for his allies heading in mid-
to late-August.

With his presidential hopes gone, Republicans say Romney is able to help
boost candidates without regard for his own political fortunes. He’s
repaying allies and helping the party wrestle down candidates the GOP
establishment believes could cost them seats and hurt their national brand.

His deep fundraising network, maintained by former Romney finance chairman
Spencer Zwick, remains a powerful weapon for the GOP. Candidates and
committees have also taken advantage of renting his robust email list,
Targeted Victory, for online fundraising.

Strategists say Romney may not be universally beloved, but say the stench
of the 2012 campaign has mostly faded. They also point out that he won most
of the states and districts the 2014 campaign is being fought in,
particularly with red-state Senate seats the GOP hopes to flip.

Even though his primary appeal may be to donors and not voters in the
general election, he’s still playing a critical role for a party that lacks
someone with the star power of a President Obama or Hillary Clinton.

“He's a tier-one fundraiser,” said one national GOP strategist whose
organization has benefitted from Romney’s help in recent months. “His skill
is primarily fundraising.”

Romney was one of the first big-name Republicans to back Iowa state Sen.
Joni Ernst in her come-from-behind primary victory. He helped boost her
struggling fundraising and low name recognition to give national
Republicans the candidate they wanted in the open seat race. A number of
Romney’s past Iowa staff are involved in Ernst’s campaign.

“Romney got behind Joni before anybody did, back in February, back before
anyone else had endorsed us, before the squeal ad or anything,” Ernst
spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said. “He got out early behind Joni and did
bring some attention to her.”

He also played a big role in helping Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) slay his
Club for Growth-backed Tea Party challenger. Romney came into the heavily
Mormon district for fundraisers and campaign rallies, and cut an ad for the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce to boost Simpson’s campaign.

“We are proud to have worked closely with Gov. Romney in Idaho and the Iowa
Senate race,” Chamber political director Rob Engstrom told The Hill in an
email. “His support for American free enterprise speaks for itself.

Democrats are still trying to reuse some of their old playbook against
Romney, attacking the blue- and purple-state candidates who have appeared
with Romney. But most privately admit that Romney can raise big money and
won’t be their main boogeyman this fall.

“There are some states he's been a liability in, but not nearly as much as
the Republican candidates themselves are,” said Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee spokesman Justin Barasky. “Joni Ernst is a bad
fundraiser and Mitt Romney can provide her a boost. But she has a whole
host of problems he can't fix.”

Romney’s flurry of events come as his numbers have improved and President
Obama’s have sunk. A recent poll from Quinnipiac University found that 45
percent of voters thought the country would be in better shape had Romney
beaten Obama, while 38 percent disagreed.

“The fact that candidates are so eager to be endorsed and supported by Gov.
Romney show that he's much more popular than he was even a year ago. He's
an elder statesman, serious, sober with gravitas in the party and he's
really taken up the mantle of elder statesman,” said Williams.

All that activity has led to some buzz about Romney running for president
one more time. But he’s repeatedly ruled out a third presidential bid, and
those close to him dismiss the notion.

“I'm crossing my fingers but I don't think that's likely,” Williams
laughed. “He's pretty emphatic in ruling that out.”

 *Calendar:*

*Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official
schedule.*

·  July 6 – Berlin, Germany: Sec. Clinton is interviewed at Schiller
Theater (AFP
<https://uk.news.yahoo.com/clinton-takes-book-tour-europe-164143589.html#8EKq7Zq>
)

·  July 7 – France (AFP
<https://uk.news.yahoo.com/clinton-takes-book-tour-europe-164143589.html#8EKq7Zq>
)

·  July 8 – France (AFP
<https://uk.news.yahoo.com/clinton-takes-book-tour-europe-164143589.html#8EKq7Zq>
)

·  August 9 – Water Mill, NY: Sec. Clinton fundraises for the Clinton
Foundation at the home of George and Joan Hornig (WSJ
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/06/17/for-50000-best-dinner-seats-with-the-clintons-in-the-hamptons/>
)

·  August 28 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton keynotes Nexenta’s OpenSDx
Summit (BusinessWire
<http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140702005709/en/Secretary-State-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton-Deliver-Keynote#.U7QoafldV8E>
)

·  September 4 – Las Vegas, NV: Sec. Clinton speaks at the National Clean
Energy Summit (Solar Novis Today
<http://www.solarnovus.com/hillary-rodham-clinto-to-deliver-keynote-at-national-clean-energy-summit-7-0_N7646.html>
)

·  October 2 – Miami Beach, FL: Sec. Clinton keynotes the CREW Network
Convention & Marketplace (CREW Network
<http://events.crewnetwork.org/2014convention/>)

·  October 13 – Las Vegas, NV: Sec. Clinton keynotes the UNLV Foundation
Annual Dinner (UNLV
<http://www.unlv.edu/event/unlv-foundation-annual-dinner?delta=0>)