Subject: ​Correct The Record Wednesday October 8, 2014 Afternoon Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 14:22:28 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Wednesday October 8, 2014 Afternoon Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> used economic tools to address global
security challenges #HRC365 <https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash>
http://correctrecord.org/engagement-abroad-prosperity-at-home/ …
<http://t.co/lQ3z4pHBTq> [10/8/14, 12:31 p.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/519887755359182849>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> worked to address mental health needs
of aging Americans #MIAW <https://twitter.com/hashtag/MIAW?src=hash> #HRC365
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash> #TimetoTalk
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/TimetoTalk?src=hash>http://1.usa.gov/1CP20xv
<http://t.co/rl8yrbJKTq>[10/7/14, 6:01 p.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/519608364104310784>]

*Headlines:*

*NBC News: “Bill Clinton Careful to Remain Mum on Hillary in 2016”
<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/bill-clinton-careful-remain-mum-hillary-2016-n221241>*

“Former President Bill Clinton acknowledged Wednesday that his wife's
possible presidential run has somewhat censored the normally candid
politician.”

*Mediaite: “Bill Clinton: I Can’t Fully Speak My Mind, in Case Hillary Runs
for Something”
<http://www.mediaite.com/online/bill-clinton-i-cant-fully-speak-my-mind-in-case-hillary-runs-for-something/>*

“Clinton said, ‘The great thing about not being president anymore is you
can say whatever you want, unless your wife might run for something.’”

*MSNBC: “Bill Clinton: Prison sentences to take center stage in 2016”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bill-clinton-prison-sentences-take-center-stage-2016>*

“America is reaching a broad consensus that too many people are spending
too many years in prison, former President Bill Clinton said Wednesday, and
he predicted the issue will play prominently in the 2016 presidential
election as politicians from both parties push to make changes.”

*Bloomberg: “Obama Should Take Lessons From Bill Clinton, Scalise Says”
<http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-10-08/obama-should-take-lessons-from-bill-clinton-scalise-says>*

“It’s an ironic choice because House Republicans impeached Clinton, and
Hillary Clinton could well be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.”

*Reuters: “Mitt Romney for president in 2016? Not entirely out of the
question”
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/08/us-usa-politics-romney-idUSKCN0HX0C020141008>*

“‘I’m sure there are people who invested a lot in him last time who are
urging him to consider it,’ said Republican Senator John McCain from
Arizona, the party's 2008 nominee.”

*CNN: “The hardest-working man in Democratic politics”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/08/politics/martin-omalley-2016/index.html?hpt=po_c1>*

“Clinton's status as the top choice of Democratic money-men and the party
establishment means she can enter the race and immediately unlock a
treasure chest of guaranteed support. O'Malley does not have that luxury.”

*CNN: “White House: Obama to campaign with candidates for midterms”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/08/politics/obama-campaign-2014-midterms/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+(RSS%3A+Politics)>*

“A key Democratic Party operative, who asked to speak on condition of
anonymity, said inserting Obama into crucial campaign contests carries some
risk… The first lady, Vice President Joe Biden, and Bill and Hillary
Clinton are seen as better alternatives.”

*Articles:*

*NBC News: “Bill Clinton Careful to Remain Mum on Hillary in 2016”
<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/bill-clinton-careful-remain-mum-hillary-2016-n221241>*

By Andrew Rafferty

October 8, 2014, 12:23 p.m. EDT

Former President Bill Clinton acknowledged Wednesday that his wife's
possible presidential run has somewhat censored the normally candid
politician.

“The great thing about not being president anymore is you can say whatever
you want, unless your wife might run for something,” Clinton said during an
address to the U.S. Conference of Mayors at the Clinton Presidential
Library in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The former president has remained relatively mum on the prospects of his
wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, running for president in
2016.

Clinton did get into hot water during the 2008 campaign for comments about
then-candidate Barack Obama. Their relationship has improved since improved
and Clinton became a top surrogate for Obama in his 2012 re-election
campaign.

Clinton has spent the week in his home state campaigning for Democratic
candidates, including vulnerable incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor.

*Mediaite: “Bill Clinton: I Can’t Fully Speak My Mind, in Case Hillary Runs
for Something”
<http://www.mediaite.com/online/bill-clinton-i-cant-fully-speak-my-mind-in-case-hillary-runs-for-something/>*

By Josh Feldman

October 8, 2014, 12:52 p.m. EDT

Bill Clinton is a guy who likes to speak his mind (though not nearly as
much as Joe Biden). But as he spoke today at the U.S. Conference of Mayors
in the Clinton Presidential Library, the former president admitted there’s
one thing that is keeping him from saying everything that’s on his mind,
and it involves 2016.

Clinton said, “The great thing about not being president anymore is you can
say whatever you want, unless your wife might run for something.”

And so once again, the Clintons play it incredibly coyly (while once again,
all of us just get tired of it and want a straight answer already).

Watch the video below, via NBC News:

[VIDEO]

*MSNBC: “Bill Clinton: Prison sentences to take center stage in 2016”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bill-clinton-prison-sentences-take-center-stage-2016>*

By Kasie Hunt

October 8, 2014, 1:05 p.m. EDT

America is reaching a broad consensus that too many people are spending too
many years in prison, former President Bill Clinton said Wednesday, and he
predicted the issue will play prominently in the 2016 presidential election
as politicians from both parties push to make changes.

“We basically took a shotgun to a problem that needed a .22 – a very
significant percentage of serious crimes in this country are committed by a
very small number” of criminals, Clinton told the 70 or so mayors and law
enforcement officials who were gathered at his presidential library here in
part to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the community policing program
he founded as part of the 1994 crime bill.

“We took a shotgun to it and just sent everybody to jail for too long,”
Clinton said, referencing the fight to reduce violent crime over the past
several decades. “I think in this next step where we’re going to be
apparently debating all this and as the presidential election approaches,
we’ll start to have a discussion of all of this,” he continued, pointing to
Republican support for reducing prison time, particularly among the
religious wing of the party.

It wasn’t Clinton’s only reference to presidential politics: As he took the
podium, he drew laughs from the crowd when he said, “the great thing about
not being president is you can say whatever you want – unless your wife
[Hillary Clinton] might want to run for something.”

The meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors here came after a summer of
violence and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri following the death of unarmed
black teenager Michael Brown at the hands of a white police officer – and
amid a widening spotlight on incidents of police using force against
citizens. This week, an Indiana man sued police after what he claims was
excessive force used during a traffic stop.

The mayors and police chiefs were set to meet privately Wednesday to
discuss the events in Ferguson and how to move forward; that session was
closed to the press.

Clinton touched on the events in Ferguson during a lengthy speech, though
he largely praised the speed with which the community returned to normal
after the protests broke out.

“We know that if we have a situation where the law enforcement community
and the government generally is inclusive and represents all elements of
the community and connect – we’re more likely to make good, decent
decisions and less likely to make big, bad mistakes,” Clinton said.

As president, Clinton started Community Oriented Policing Services – the
COPS program – as part of the 1994 crime bill. The COPS program put more
police officers on America’s streets and emphasized policing strategies
aimed at integrating officers into the local community.

The lesson of Ferguson, Clinton said, is that “we cannot afford not to know
our neighbors. It doesn’t matter if they don’t vote the way we do. It
doesn’t matter if they don’t worship the way we do – it doesn’t matter if
we don’t look the way they do. We cannot afford to not listen to and know
our neighbors.”

Attorney General Eric Holder also touched on events in Ferguson, though he
didn’t mention Michael Brown by name. The events in Ferguson “focused the
national spotlight on the rifts that can develop between police officials
and the citizens they are supposed to protect,” Holder said, saying that he
had traveled to the St. Louis suburb and pledged that “our nation’s
department of justice would remain focused on the challenges we faced.”

“We’re taking robust and sweeping action to make good on the pledge that we
made,” Holder said.

The event also served as a farewell of sorts for Holder, who is leaving his
post as attorney general. St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay thanked Holder for
visiting Ferguson.

“You brought with you a high level of credibility, certainly a high level
of hope as well to the community that this government cares, that the White
House cares, that the Department of Justice cares, and that was a big, big
deal,” Slay said.

*Bloomberg: “Obama Should Take Lessons From Bill Clinton, Scalise Says”
<http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-10-08/obama-should-take-lessons-from-bill-clinton-scalise-says>*

By Derek Wallbank

October 8, 2014

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise criticized President Barack Obama, saying
he hasn’t outlined a clear plan for a U.S.-backed coalition to defeat
Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Obama also hasn’t engaged with Congress on how to raise the U.S. debt
limit, Scalise said today in an interview with Bloomberg News editors and
reporters in New York. Lawmakers will need to vote on an increase in the
debt limit next year.

Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, said Obama should take lessons from former
President Bill Clinton.

“I don’t know if Barack Obama’s got that in him,” he said.

“Bill Clinton worked with a Republican House, they got spending under
control, they got the economy moving again,” Scalise, the third-ranking
U.S. House Republican, said. “Clinton got most of the credit, but they
actually solved real problems.”

It’s an ironic choice because House Republicans impeached Clinton, and
Hillary Clinton could well be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.

One of the first areas Obama should work on more with Congress is in the
fight against Islamic State.

“In our conference, there’s a real interest in having the president laying
out a broader plan,” he said, “and if he lays out a clear plan, then we’ll
support it.”

*Iraq War*

Lawmakers have been reluctant to vote to authorize force more than a decade
after the U.S. invaded Iraq. Three-quarters of Americans thought the Iraq
war was worth it in early 2003, according to a Gallup survey; in the latest
Gallup survey in June, 57 percent said it was a mistake.

Scalise said Republicans plan as part of the federal-funding process to
insist on policy changes limiting government regulations that he argued are
impeding the economic recovery.

Current government funding runs through Dec. 11. Scalise said he’d like to
have an omnibus bill that would set new spending levels for the fiscal year
ending Sept. 30, 2015, rather than continuing current levels.

No decision has been made yet, he said.

After that, the next major fight could be on the debt limit. The debt
ceiling suspension lasts until March 15, though the Treasury Department
could use extraordinary measures to extend it.

*‘Spending Problem’*

The U.S. borrowing limit is reached because of spending disagreements in
Washington, and “to increase the debt ceiling, it ought to be tied to
reforms that finally solve the spending problem,” he said.

Democrats have said the debt limit should be raised without conditions to
avoid spooking financial markets and because rising levels of U.S. debt
come from spending that Congress has already approved.

A debt ceiling increase with conditions is a measure Republicans may put on
Obama’s desk in his last two years -- especially if they take control of
the Senate in the Nov. 4 election -- that could force the president to sign
or veto legislation he’s threatened to block before, Scalise said.

Others include legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline and expand
energy production on federal lands.

“It sets up a contrast, but it also gives the president the opportunity to
work with us to get the economy moving again,” he said.

*Ronald Reagan*

That contrast will be drawn as Republicans turn their attention to the 2016
presidential election, and what Scalise said would be a wide-open field
looking to run. His ideal candidate: The next Ronald Reagan, someone who
can communicate conservative principles with ease.

Scalise said Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the 2012 Republican
vice presidential nominee, has that ability.

“He’s proven that he can come up with really smart ideas, but also convey
them to regular people,” Scalise said. Others who could be good Republican
presidential candidates, he said, include his state’s governor, Bobby
Jindal, and Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

Scalise was elected whip in June after then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor
lost his primary to a Tea Party-affiliated political novice, Dave Brat.
Scalise, as whip, is responsible for ensuring Republicans have the votes to
pass their bills.

*Reuters: “Mitt Romney for president in 2016? Not entirely out of the
question”
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/08/us-usa-politics-romney-idUSKCN0HX0C020141008>*

By Steve Holland

October 8, 2014, 1:10 a.m. EDT

Mitt Romney, day in and day out, hears it wherever he goes, whether at
campaign events for Republican congressional candidates, restaurants, or
private dinners, the message is the same - run for president in 2016.

Romney associates say he is flattered by the attention and believes he
would have done a better job if he had defeated the Democratic incumbent
President Barack Obama in 2012 when he was the Republican nominee.

But Romney typically insists in public that he is not going to run for a
third time after losses in 2008 and 2012.

"I'm not running and I'm not planning on running. I've got nothing to add
to that story," he told supporters during a stop this week at Atlanta's
Varsity restaurant, where he had a hot dog and onion rings, according to
the Marietta Daily Journal.

Still, friends and former aides say, he could seek the nomination if a
series of events plays out in his favor, chiefly that no single powerhouse
emerges from what is expected to be a crowded field of Republicans vying
for the party's nod.

Some Republicans who know Romney well are advising him to tread carefully.

"I’m sure there are people who invested a lot in him last time who are
urging him to consider it," said Republican Senator John McCain from
Arizona, the party's 2008 nominee.

"I think it's fine if he considers it. But at the same time I think Mitt
would have to feel that he has a real strong shot at winning because it is
such a very, very tough ordeal not only on the candidate but also on the
family," McCain told Reuterson Monday.

"One thing that he's got going for him is everybody in the Republican Party
likes Mitt Romney. They may not think he ran the best campaign, but he’s
such a very decent human being, he certainly checks the box for likeability
amongst the Republican Party," McCain added.

Karl Rove, the Republican strategist who was the architect of George W.
Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns, was similarly cautious.

"If he were to do this again, it would be the equivalent of running three
back-to-back-to-back marathons," Rove told Reuterson Monday. "It would
require basically a year's commitment to the primary and another year
commitment to the general election. That's a hard thing to ask of anybody
in politics."

Romney has stoked some of the 2016 speculation himself. He has gone from
absolutely ruling it out in the months after he lost the 2012 election to
equivocating in more recent public comments. "We'll see what happens," he
told the New York Times Magazine.

He has clearly been energized by the attention he has drawn in campaigning
for congressional candidates ahead of theNov. 4 elections, most recently on
a swing through Virginia, Georgia, Oklahoma, Michigan, Kentucky and
Louisiana.

Polls are sounding an encouraging note. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll
in August said 35 percent of Republican voters in Iowa, which Romney
narrowly lost in the 2012 Republican caucuses, would go for him in 2016,
far better than any other potential candidate.

A Romney run would depend on whether any of the current crop of potential
candidates caught fire. Announcements are expected to begin shortly after
the Nov. 4 elections and continue well into 2015.

Possible contenders range from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush to New
Jersey Governor Chris Christie to a trio of senators: Marco Rubio of
Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas. All appeal to various
Republican constituencies, but all could encounter difficulties in winning.

Under the "draft Mitt" scenario, Romney could put off deciding for months,
well into 2015. The problem with this, party strategists say, is that
Republican donors attracted to Romney could go to other candidates.

"Mitt's a smart enough guy to see that there are potential opportunities
that are created by whatever happens to other people in the race," said a
former Romney aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I think the best
way to characterize where Mitt is in the race is observing."

*CNN: “The hardest-working man in Democratic politics”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/08/politics/martin-omalley-2016/index.html?hpt=po_c1>*

By Peter Hamby

October 8, 2014, 8:29 a.m. EDT

A Democrat with White House ambitions is furiously criss-crossing the
country to help the party's candidates -- and it's not Hillary Clinton.

Martin O'Malley, the two-term governor of Maryland, has headlined more than
80 Democratic fundraisers since last year. He's rallied the party faithful
at over 40 campaign events and Jefferson-Jackson Dinners in Democratic
strongholds like Massachusetts and in reliably-red states like Mississippi
and Kansas.

All told, he's steered money and staff to 134 Democratic campaigns in more
than 25 states, aiding high-profile Senate hopefuls and little-known county
commissioner candidates alike.

O'Malley is outpacing Clinton in his work on behalf of Democratic
candidates running for election this year. Though Clinton is her party's
biggest star, her operation for the midterms is only now gearing up with
less than a month to go before Election Day. Her aides revealed a campaign
schedule last week that will take Clinton to a half dozen states this
month, including all-important Iowa and New Hampshire, to boost Democrats
in tough races.

"I am doing everything in my power to strengthen the party in every state
and to elect as many Democrats as I can," O'Malley said in an interview
with CNN. "Call me old-fashioned, but it's been my experience that we can
only govern effectively when we make our party stronger."

O'Malley might be the hardest-working man in Democratic politics but that's
obscured by his low standing in national polls.

Early surveys about the 2016 presidential race show Clinton with a runaway
lead over her potential rivals, both nationally and in places like Iowa, a
product of her global fame and an impressive resume written over decades in
public life.

Clinton routinely registers in the 60% territory, with favorable ratings
that soar even higher. Other potential Democratic presidential contenders,
including Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
follow distantly, barely crack double digits.

Then there's O'Malley, perpetually hovering just above 1%.

Each new poll induces a new round of Twitter snark about O'Malley's low
standing, but it could be said that those one-percenters might be the
people who matter the most. Academic studies and past campaigns have shown
that the opinions of party elites and local activists in key states matter
far more than any horse race poll at this stage in the nominating game.

Clinton's status as the top choice of Democratic money-men and the party
establishment means she can enter the race and immediately unlock a
treasure chest of guaranteed support.

O'Malley does not have that luxury.

But he also doesn't have to worry about the giant entourage and weighty
expectations that follow Clinton wherever she goes. His relative obscurity
gives him the freedom to move — and he has embarked on a national tour to
build a network from the ground up, befriending rank-and-file Democrats in
locales far from the Amtrak corridor.

Some of them already know O'Malley from the 2012 presidential race, when he
was one of President Barack Obama's most loyal surrogates. And as chairman
of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) from 2011 to 2013, he
traveled extensively, assisting gubernatorial candidates and getting
valuable face-time with big-ticket donors in the process.

O'Malley might go unrecognized at the mall, but among people who spend
Saturday nights eating rubber chicken at Democratic fundraisers, he's
becoming a familiar face.

"There is a level of recognition that I have been surprised to find
wherever I go," O'Malley said. "People want to learn more. There is a
curiosity about what we've done in Maryland. Some people that recognize me
had seen me before during the presidential re-elect, or on MSNBC — a lot of
these people watch MSNBC — as an advocate for the president's reelection.
And then people have seen me on television squaring off with the RGA chair,
whoever that was at the time."

Clinton's midterm schedule is taking her to familiar 2014 turf — marquee
battlegrounds like Kentucky, Iowa and New Hampshire — mostly to help
Democrats in the key Senate races that will decide control of Congress.
Biden, too, has appeared on the campaign trail and at fundraisers with an
eye toward 2016, while Warren drew lively, standing-room-only crowds during
a campaign swing to Kentucky and West Virginia this summer.

But O'Malley's itinerary looks like something out of the Democratic
National Committee travel office.

He appeared at a Hispanic voter event in Chicago for Illinois Sen. Dick
Durbin, walked in a gay pride festival in South Carolina with gubernatorial
nominee Vincent Sheheen, delivered the headline address at the California
Democratic Party in Los Angeles and made nice with key Obama organizers in
Des Moines.

He has pumped money into scores of campaigns across the country, including
the top tier Senate and governor's contests. Charlie Crist, Bruce Braley,
Michelle Nunn, Mary Landrieu, Jason Carter: All have received help from
O'Malley personally or from his political action committee, O'Say Can You
See PAC, according to a spreadsheet of his fundraising activity obtained by
CNN.

Then there are the small-time county party committees and obscure
candidates further down the ballot. He's come to the aid of a county
commissioner candidate in Nebraska, Nevada's rising-star nominee for
lieutenant governor and state legislators near and far — though many of
them are near Iowa and New Hampshire.

Mayors have received special attention. A former mayor of Baltimore,
O'Malley has raised money and campaigned for the mayors in Kentucky,
Florida, South Carolina and elsewhere.

He's also hired and dispatched field staffers to help in a passel of races,
most recently sending aides to help the state Democratic Party in Kansas,
where the Senate and governor's races are surprisingly competitive.
O'Malley has PAC aides working on the ground in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada
and South Carolina, giving him an early foothold in the states that raise
the curtain on the 2016 presidential nominating process.

"People are grateful for the help," he said.

O'Malley's party-building spadework began last year. He cut early checks to
embattled red state Democrats like Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of
Arkansas.

He campaigned in hot off-year races, including Terry McAuliffe's successful
bid to become Virginia's governor. He also helped Cory Booker, a former
mayor like O'Malley, in last summer's special Senate election in New Jersey.

And while national Democrats were keeping their distance from Barbara
Buono, the underdog challenger to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, O'Malley
showed up in Trenton at her side.

"Sometimes the uphill fights are the most important," he said during the
New Jersey swing.

Buono took note. "Hillary Clinton wrote me a nice letter — after I lost,"
she told The New York Times earlier this year.

O'Malley dodges questions about the 2016 race and is careful to avoid
criticism of Clinton, whom he endorsed during her ill-fated 2008
presidential bid even though he had backed the passionately anti-war Howard
Dean four years earlier. It's still not clear that he will run if she does.

But the story O'Malley tells about himself as he campaigns for Democrats is
often framed around his progressive accomplishments and generational
differences in leadership — two flanks where Clinton might be vulnerable in
a Democratic primary.

O'Malley, 51, said he sometimes feels closer in spirit to his 20-something
daughters than to the baby boom generation.

"I am noticing a generational shift," he said. "While baby boomers were led
to believe that sometimes our prosperity comes from separating from other,
people under 40 believe that it will come from being closer to others."

Befitting his roots in city politics, O'Malley gushes about the re-birth of
American cities, a renaissance he said is driven by young people who "have
an awareness of our interdependence" and chafe at hierarchies and top-down
leadership. He praises the power of technology to streamline government,
slips terms like "innovation cluster" into his commentary, and name-drops
the urban theorist Richard Florida.

"Baby boomers and older were often told that if we specialize in terms of
our skills, we will be more secure and prosperous, that the definition of
'making it" was living out in the suburbs as far way as possible with the
biggest lawn possible," he said. "Young people have flipped that on its
head. Younger people are choosing to live in cities. They realize that
connections to each other are making us better. That WiFi is a human right.
That proximity is important to entrepreneurship, access to capital and
talent and diversity. There is an opportunity there for us as a nation to
embrace that new perspective."

There are glimmers of a campaign message as he reflects on his 2014
travels. O'Malley is quick to talk up his record in Annapolis, which,
coming out of his mouth, sounds custom-built for Democratic primary voters
— top-rated schools, in-state college tuition breaks for young illegal
immigrants, legalizing same-sex marriage, repealing the death penalty,
enacting strict gun control laws.

"People are interested in hearing how we have done and what we have done in
Maryland," he said. "When you lay out the accumulation of achievements,
it's pretty impressive."

The twin themes he encounters most, he said in the interview, are
frustration with Washington and a palpable sense of economic anxiety.

"Every place I have traveled, after every talk, the constant theme that I
hear from people coming up afterwards just to shake my hand or do a cell
phone picture, the phrase I hear again and again is the phrase 'getting
things done,'" O'Malley said.

'"We need leaders who can get things done, or people who can bring us
together to get things done. There is a sense that the economy is not
working for us. The majority of us are not making any more in real dollar
terms that we were making in 1994. That is the primary concern out there.
People are less optimistic about being able to give their kids a future
with more economy opportunity even now than they were even four years ago,"
he said.

Even with those notes of pessimism, O'Malley said his visits with Democrats
have "made me feel pretty good about where our country is headed and the
direction that we will eventually end up going. I have seen that people
still believe in the greatness of who we are a county."

"I am sensing a deep, deep hunger to get things done again as a country and
as Americans," he said. "People have a greater appetite for the unvarnished
truth about the choices and costs and tradeoffs we have to make."

*CNN: “White House: Obama to campaign with candidates for midterms”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/08/politics/obama-campaign-2014-midterms/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+(RSS%3A+Politics)>*

By Jim Acosta

October 8, 2014, 11:55 a.m. EDT

Just months after President Obama was described by his own advisers as a
"bear" on the loose, there are few midterm sightings of the man once dubbed
the "campaigner in chief" by his Republican adversaries.

The President has spent much of the 2014 cycle behind closed doors, either
cloistered inside the White House cocoon dealing with a seemingly endless
series of crises and scandals, or at private fundraisers, urging donors to
write checks to top Democratic Party campaign and political action
committees.

That political calendar will evolve somewhat as Election Day draws near, a
White House official told CNN. For starters, the President will appear at
events with Democratic candidates in the coming weeks, the official said.

Obama will make the argument for policies aimed at middle class voters,
just as he did in last week's speech on the economy in Chicago.

"The President has already succeeded in making a pretty aggressive case
about why that's important for the country, and I would anticipate that in
the context of the upcoming elections you'll hear the President make that
case again," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

Even though the White House is not quite ready to announce Obama's upcoming
campaign stops, there are a few states that can be crossed off the map.

Races in Louisiana, Arkansas, Alaska, where incumbent Democratic senators
face uphill battles to win reelection, remain at the top of the Obama no-go
list.

"There are definitely deeply red states in play this cycle where it won't
make sense to send the President," a White House official said.

So far, Obama is also avoiding crucial Senate races in states where he won
decisive victories in the past. The White House has yet to signal any plans
to send the President to Iowa, a critical battleground he captured twice:
in 2008 and 2012.

Instead, first lady Michelle Obama will travel to Iowa Friday to appear
with Democratic congressman Bruce Braley, who remains locked in a close
race with state Sen. Joni Ernst for the seat vacated by liberal stalwart
Tom Harkin.

"We defer to the campaigns who know their states best how to win," a White
House official said.

Another sign of Obama's drag on his party's midterm hopes can be found in
North Carolina, a critical Obama victory in 2008 that he and his party
failed to translate into a more lasting Democratic incursion into southern
red states in the years that followed.

Despite North Carolina's potentially strong base of Democratic support from
African-Americans and countless college-aged voters, Obama has become a
major obstacle for the state's endangered incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan.

Her opponent, state House Speaker Tom Tillis, repeatedly tried to link
Hagan to the President during a debate Tuesday in the state's prosperous
Research Triangle area.

"I think it's fair to make this election about his policies," Tillis said
in the debate.

That remark was a reminder of a comment made by Obama at a speech on the
economy last week in Chicago: "These policies are on the ballot -- every
single one of them," the President said. His long-time adviser, David
Axelrod, called that part of the speech a "mistake."

Michael Steel, a spokesman for U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and a
midterm strategist for the North Carolina Republican Party, described the
Obama factor as "huge" in Tuesday's debate.

"Her worst moments in the debate were when she refused to distance herself
from the President," Steel said of Hagan.

A key Democratic Party operative, who asked to speak on condition of
anonymity, said inserting Obama into crucial campaign contests carries some
risk. Not only does the President's unpopularity drive up enthusiasm among
conservatives, the strategist said. It may encourage some moderate
Democrats to stay home.

"Even Obama supporters, they're disappointed in him," the strategist said.
"We can't find a way to motivate them."

The first lady, Vice President Joe Biden, and Bill and Hillary Clinton are
seen as better alternatives.

Even though Biden has spent the last several days calling leaders in the
Middle East to clarify his comments that appeared to suggest Arab nations
were partly responsible for the rise of ISIS, the vice president appears to
be in demand among Democrats.

"So what if he f***ed up?" one Democratic strategist said, noting the
party's base is attracted to the vice president's "Uncle Joe"
shoot-from-the-lip style. Biden just wrapped up an event on Tuesday with
Amanda Renteria, a congressional candidate in California. He is scheduled
to appear with Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon on Wednesday.

The one campaign setting where the president appears to thrive are
fundraisers. A White House official provided a list of approximately 50
fundraisers where Obama has spoken to Democratic donors this year. His
events this week in New York, Connecticut, Washington and Chicago generated
between $2-3 million, Democratic sources said.