Subject: Correct The Record Monday October 6, 2014 Afternoon Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 14:35:39 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Monday October 6, 2014 Afternoon Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: HRC said education "is one of the most
valuable assets that the United States has.”
http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/219743-early-childhood-education-investing-in-our-children-and-our-national-security
…
<http://t.co/W0RjxvTfvh> Via @TheHill <https://twitter.com/thehill>
 [10/6/14, 8:55 a.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/519108740008927233>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: Gen. Hugh Shelton names @HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> initiatives @2SmallToFail
<https://twitter.com/2SmallToFail> &@HIPPYUSA <https://twitter.com/HIPPYUSA> as
programs that improve education.
http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/219743-early-childhood-education-investing-in-our-children-and-our-national-security
…
<http://t.co/W0RjxvTfvh> [10/6/14, 8:44 a.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/519105893896814592>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: Gen. Shelton writes on @HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton>'s efforts to improve education at
home, which make us safer abroad
http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/219743-early-childhood-education-investing-in-our-children-and-our-national-security
…
<http://t.co/W0RjxvTfvh> [10/6/14, 8:33 a.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/519103180018569216>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> worked to establish an office of
teacher and principal recruitment#HRC365
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash> #WorldTeachersDay
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/WorldTeachersDay?src=hash>
https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/senate-bill/476?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22Hillary+Clinton+AND+teacher%22%5D%7D
…
<https://t.co/xXDDwcId8X> [10/5/14, 6:02 p.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/518883845739778049>]

*Headlines:*

*The Hill opinion: U.S. Army Gen. Hugh Shelton (ret.): “Early childhood
education: Investing in our children and our national security”
<http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/219743-early-childhood-education-investing-in-our-children-and-our-national-security>*

“Hillary Clinton recently said that education ‘is one of the most valuable
assets that the United States has. It’s something that we have to continue
to invest in, to protect and indeed to share with the rest of the world.’
The reasons for this are endless, and some are more obvious than others.”

*Las Vegas Sun: “Hillary Clinton rallying voters in fight for control of
Senate”
<http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/oct/06/hillary-clinton-rallying-voters-fight-control-sena/>*

“Democrats have their own superstar this month. No surprise, it's Hillary
Clinton.”

*Politico blog: Josh Gerstein on the Courts, Transparency, and More:
“Clinton Library sets new document release”
<http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2014/10/clinton-library-sets-new-document-release-196637.html>*

“The Clinton Presidential Library will release thousands of pages of
previously-secret Clinton White House documentsFriday, finally making
public all the records which archivists withheld from disclosure in recent
years because they contain presidential advice or pertain to federal
appointments, a National Archives spokeswoman said Monday.”

*Bloomberg: “How Gay Marriage Decision Instantly Changes the Midterms”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-06/how-gay-marriage-decision-instantly-changes-the-midterms>*

“Most of the potential Democratic presidential candidates, including
presumed frontrunner Hillary Clinton, support same-sex marriage. Maryland
Governor Martin O'Malley signed a law in his home state legalizing same-sex
marriage.”

*Washington Examiner: “Will Hillary Clinton tweet her way to victory in
2016?”
<http://washingtonexaminer.com/will-hillary-clinton-tweet-her-way-to-victory-in-2016/article/2554310>*

“Asked about Clinton’s social media strategy, spokesman Nick Merrill
responded with a joke alluding to Twitter’s limitations. ‘Much of our
strategy is based on speaking only in 140 characters, so with that in mind
I’d make 3 points about our Twitter approach. First, we’ Merrill emailed,
purposefully cutting off his comment mid-sentence.”

*CNN opinion: Julian Zelizer: “This is Elizabeth Warren's moment”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/06/opinion/zelizer-elizabeth-warrens-moment/index.html>*

“While former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, assuming she runs, would
be a formidable candidate and a clear frontrunner, there is also still room
for another candidate to challenge her and potentially to rise to the top
of the pack.”

*NBC News: “Bill Clinton's Endorsement Still Packs a Punch”
<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/bill-clintons-endorsement-still-packs-punch-n219476>*

“There’s still one golden ticket in American political endorsements, and,
yes, it’s the Big Dog.”

*The Atlantic: “Bobby Jindal Joins the GOP Hawks”
<http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/bobby-jindal-joins-the-gop-hawks/381142/>*

“Jindal painted a gloomy portrait of America's domestic and global standing
in the Obama era, and in a nod to the upcoming race for the White House, he
made sure to link Hillary Clinton to the policies of the president she
served as secretary of state.”

*Articles:*

*The Hill opinion: U.S. Army Gen. Hugh Shelton (ret.): “Early childhood
education: Investing in our children and our national security”
<http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/219743-early-childhood-education-investing-in-our-children-and-our-national-security>*

By U.S. Army Gen. Hugh Shelton (ret.), former Special Forces soldier and
served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001.

October 6, 2014 7:00 a.m. EDT

Hillary Clinton recently said that education “is one of the most valuable
assets that the United States has. It’s something that we have to continue
to invest in, to protect and indeed to share with the rest of the world.”

The reasons for this are endless, and some are more obvious than others.
For example, a more educated workforce earns higher wages, which allows
people to rise out of poverty and climb the economic ladder, eventually
breaking the oppressive cycle of income inequality. With more money in
their pockets, people are able to spend more on goods and services, and
this increase in consumer spending grows our economy and creates jobs.

But investing in education is not just beneficial for our economy – it is
absolutely critical for our national security.

The correlation between education and national security is often
overlooked, not only members of the public, but by our policymakers. That
is why I, along with 450 other retired admirals and generals, am a member
of a group called Mission Readiness. Mission Readiness was launched in 2009
to inform policymakers that the decisions they make about our children’s
education today will have repercussions for our national security well into
the future.

Here’s why: 75 percent of the 17-24 year olds in this country are unable to
serve in the military due to three main problems: they don’t meet the
educational requirements; they have criminal records; or they are too
overweight. Nearly one in four high school graduates in America who want to
join the Army are unable to because their scores are too low to pass the
military’s basic entry exam. And another one-fourth of our young people
don’t even make it through high school in time to enlist.

Research shows that early childhood education is the best way to address
this national security issue. But no matter what career path our children
choose, it is clear that the learning that occurs from cradle to
kindergarten will affect their ability to succeed later on.

Unfortunately, too many children today are not receiving the necessary
development skills to set them up for success, either because their parents
don’t have the resources, the time, the education, etc.

There are two programs in particular that are aimed at making it easier for
parents to help their children develop these necessary skills.

The Home Instruction for Parents and Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program
was founded in Israel to help “teach parents to become their child’s first
teachers.” In 1985, Hillary Clinton learned about this innovative program
and tracked down the program’s founder and asked her to help bring HIPPY
here to the United States. Today, HIPPY has 135 program sites in 21 states
and the District of Columbia and serves 15,000 children.

Too Small To Fail focuses on improving early learning for children ages
zero to five. At the program’s launch, Hillary Clinton explained why she
was so excited about the initiative, stating:

“One of the best investments we can make as a nation is to give our kids
the ingredients they need to develop in the first five years of life. We
will help bring together the tools that will give children the chance to
succeed by the time they’re 5, so that when those kids get to school,
they’re able to compete, they are more able to pursue their own dreams.”

Let’s join together to help American children pursue their dreams and our
nation secure itself for generations to come.

*Las Vegas Sun: “Hillary Clinton rallying voters in fight for control of
Senate”
<http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/oct/06/hillary-clinton-rallying-voters-fight-control-sena/>*

By Amber Phillips

October 6, 2014, 8:11 a.m. PDT

In six weeks, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid will know if he will still run the
U.S. Senate.

The campaign to control the Senate is the defining storyline of American
politics in the Nov. 4 election, and Reid is one of the main characters.

Forecasts predict Republicans could have a slight majority in the Senate.
An unpopular Democratic president and the first national election since the
2013 implementation of Obamacare helped create a tough environment for
Senate Democrats up for reelection in red states.

If Republicans gain a net six seats, they would control both chambers of
Congress for President Barack Obama's last two years in office. And Reid
would lose control of the Senate after ascending to majority leader in 2007.

But six weeks is a long time in politics.

Neither Reid nor Republican Nevada Sen. Dean Heller are up for re-election
this year. But the Las Vegas Sun politics team will share links and
insights on the Senate showdown leading up to the election.

*It's all about that money*

Reid and his team are doing everything they can to hang on to control of
the Senate. And this year, that means raising hundreds of millions of
dollars from billionaires.

Reid's sophisticated team of former aides, like former chief of staff Susan
McCue, has raised so much outside money this election cycle that Democrats
have actually out-coordinated Republicans in some cases, according to the
New York Times.

More than half of all the outside ads supporting Democratic Senate
candidates has come from the Reid-affiliated Senate Majority PAC and other
closely related groups. Although Reid's not legally allowed to directly
help raise money for outside groups, the Senate Majority PAC has benefited
so much from its de facto ties to Reid that Republicans wish they had a
similar relationship, says Peter Overby of NPR.

*So, who's up for re-election again?*

As Nov. 4 draws nearer, the field of races that could change the Senate
majority becomes narrower and more important. The Huffington Post has a
quick, easy-to-read guide to the top 10 races in November that will decide
which party controls the Senate. And The New York Times' Nate Cohn, using
forecasting models, tightens that number even further to six Senate races.

*The man trying to oust Reid*

Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas figures life would be better in a Republican
Senate, out of Reid's tight grip. In fact, almost all of his Republican
colleagues share that view, including Nevada's Heller. Moran is doing all
he can to make that happen as head of his party's Senate campaign
committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Senators from both
parties take turns chairing this committee, and Moran tells Politico's
Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan that part of his motivation to raise
money and politically outmaneuver Democrats in 2014 is Reid.

*The woman trying to save Reid*

Democrats have their own superstar this month.

No surprise, it's Hillary Clinton.

The former secretary of state and senator from New York will spend much of
October traveling to key states in the battle for the Senate, such as
Kentucky. She'll rally voters in places Democrats' data shows she's quite
popular, and she'll surely raise funds from big-money donors behind the
scenes, reports Politico's Maggie Haberman. Part of this pull could lay the
groundwork for her potential 2016 presidential bid: Clinton is coming to
Las Vegas next week to speak at UNLV, and she'll host a fundraiser for
Reid's potential 2016 race.

*What the pundits say*

If you want to follow the Senate showdown day-by-day, there are a number of
forecasting models that try to predict the political winds.
Statistic-driven models at The New York Times, The Washington Post and
FiveThirtyEight use slightly different methodology, but all come to the
same conclusion: Republicans have better than a 50/50 chance to take the
Senate.

*Politico blog: Josh Gerstein on the Courts, Transparency, and More:
“Clinton Library sets new document release”
<http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2014/10/clinton-library-sets-new-document-release-196637.html>*

By Josh Gerstein

October 6, 2014, 11:56 a.m. EDT

The Clinton Presidential Library will release thousands of pages of
previously-secret Clinton White House documentsFriday, finally making
public all the records which archivists withheld from disclosure in recent
years because they contain presidential advice or pertain to federal
appointments, a National Archives spokeswoman said Monday.

"The representatives of the incumbent and former Presidents have completed
their review of the Clinton Presidential records related to appointments to
Federal office and/or confidential advice that were previously withheld
under the provisions of the Presidential Records Act," Archives spokeswoman
Diane LeBlanc said. "All remaining documents will be released and available
for review at the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas and on the
Library's website...on October 10, 2014 at 1:00 PM EST."

The announcement appears to indicate that neither President Barack Obama
nor former President Bill Clinton will assert executive privilege to
attempt to withhold any of the previously-restricted documents. Those
decisions had been closely watched because at least some of the records
pertain to former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who's
mulling a bid for the presidency.

In a POLITICO story in August, I reported that the yet-to-be released
records delve into the creation of the now-pilloried Don't Ask, Don't Tell
policy on gays in the military, details of advice to Clinton on various
pardons, as well as files on a variety of other subjects ranging from
terrorism to Whitewater to the death of White House lawyer Vince Foster.

However, even after Friday's planned release, tens of millions of pages of
records will still be off limits at the Clinton Library, most often because
they haven't been processed yet by archivists. In other cases, the papers
remain secret in whole or in part because they're classified or contain
other sensitive information.

Read more here on what's in the forthcoming batch of records, the seventh
and final tranche of files withheld under provisions in the Presidential
Records Act which expired with respect to Clinton records in January of
last year, 12 years after Clinton left office.

*Bloomberg: “How Gay Marriage Decision Instantly Changes the Midterms”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-06/how-gay-marriage-decision-instantly-changes-the-midterms>*

By Jonathan Allen and Annie Linskey

October 6, 2014, 12:31 p.m. EDT

[Subtitle:] The Supreme Court decision means gay marriage may become an
issue in the midterms – and maybe 2016.

The Supreme Court threw gay marriage back into the national political
conversation Monday, a month ahead of midterm elections and just before the
2016 presidential campaign begins in earnest.  It's a situation Republicans
in particular had hoped to avoid.

The court's refusal to hear a slate of same-sex cases is likely to force
candidates in swing states and districts to answer questions about whether
Congress should take up the issue, and how it affects their calculations on
judicial confirmations to the high court.

"By punting on marriage, the Supreme Court keeps the issue in the political
sphere and amplifies the conversation just before the midterms," said Brian
Ellner, a political strategist at Edelman Public Affairs who played a key
role in legalizing same-sex marriage in New York.

Republicans didn't want this fight. While polls suggest that a majority of
Americans now support same-sex marriage, it doesn't play well with the
party's base.  The GOP's political arms declined to comment in the
immediate aftermath of the decision.

Most Republican presidential and Senate candidates are on record against
gay marriage. In July, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who opposes it,
said that broader public opinion shouldn't discourage Republicans from
fighting on the issue.

"I don't think there's some referee who stands up and says, 'OK now it's
time for you to change your opinion," Christie said at a National Governors
Association meeting in Nashville. "The country will resolve this over a
period of time. But do I think it's resolved? No."

One notable exception: Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who has a gay son.
Portman, a conservative on most social issues, became the first Senate
Republican to support gay marriage a year and a half ago, when the Supreme
Court considered cases involving the federal Defense of Marriage Act and
California's Proposition 8.

The issue's re-emergence in the political debate could also be
uncomfortable for a handful of Democrats fighting to hold onto their Senate
seats.

For example, Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas
both oppose gay marriage, but voters in their socially conservative home
states might be convinced to vote Republican in hopes of establishing a GOP
majority that would block the expansion of gay rights through legislation
or the judiciary.

Of the five states affected by the decision – Indiana, Oklahoma, Wisconsin,
Utah and Virginia -- only Virginia has a potentially competitive Senate
race this cycle. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, endorsed same-sex
marriage in 2013 in a wave of politicians who followed Portman's lead. His
opponent, Republican Ed Gillespie, has said that marriage should be between
a man and a woman.

Most of the potential Democratic presidential candidates, including
presumed frontrunner Hillary Clinton, support same-sex marriage. Maryland
Governor Martin O'Malley signed a law in his home state legalizing same-sex
marriage.

Former Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, who is weighing whether to run for
president, has opposed it in the past, but saidSunday on NBC's "Meet the
Press" that "the evolution" on the issue "has been a good thing for the
country."

*Washington Examiner: “Will Hillary Clinton tweet her way to victory in
2016?”
<http://washingtonexaminer.com/will-hillary-clinton-tweet-her-way-to-victory-in-2016/article/2554310>*

By Rebecca Berg

October 6, 2014, 5:00 a.m. EDT

The first presidential debate in 2012 took place between Mitt Romney and
Barack Obama at the University of Denver. The second debate took place that
same day on Twitter between their supporters.

The Oct. 3 debate generated a record-setting 10.3 million tweets of jokes,
analysis, quotes and observations, according to Twitter. Before the event
had even begun, its Twitter chatter dwarfed that of all the 2008
presidential debates combined.

After the election, Obama adviser David Axelrod reflected on the influence
of the social media platform in a paper published by CNN journalist Peter
Hamby for the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at
Harvard University.

“These tweets tend to frame how people are reading this and how they are
evaluating what they are seeing,” Axelrod said. “Twitter was a big player
in the debates. Twitter is a powerful force.”

It is likely that the 2016 presidential election will surpass even 2012 in
social media engagement and its influence on the election. What isn’t known
is whether Hillary Clinton, who last ran for president in 2008, will be
ready to face that monumental shift.

Asked about Clinton’s social media strategy, spokesman Nick Merrill
responded with a joke alluding to Twitter’s limitations. “Much of our
strategy is based on speaking only in 140 characters, so with that in mind
I’d make 3 points about our Twitter approach. First, we” Merrill emailed,
purposefully cutting off his comment mid-sentence.

Recently, Clinton has established an impressive presence on Twitter, thanks
in large part to the work of her director of digital strategy, Katie Dowd.
Although Clinton’s account has only published about 100 tweets, she has
already amassed more than 2.1 million followers.

But the live-tweeting, free-wheeling social media dynamic of a presidential
campaign — with reporters constantly plugged into Twitter and Instagram —
is an entirely different beast than the controlled messaging of a
candidate’s official Twitter account, and it’s not clear whether it will
mesh with the Clintons’ more conservative campaign style.

The Clintons and their aides are notoriously suspicious of the press.
During the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York last month, one
reporter wrote that she was escorted to the bathroom by a CGI press aide
who waited outside the stall to make sure she didn’t leave.

The urge to exert control over reporters and the campaign narrative is at
odds with the style of Twitter and the Internet, where campaigns now unfold.

In 2012, that dynamic clashed with Mitt Romney’s stiff, awkward
personality. When he committed a gaffe on the campaign trail, as he often
did, the press rushed to tweet it. Romney’s campaign often did not respond
— and the candidate ended up as the butt of a joke, not a party to it.

“For Mitt it was hard, because if you hold tight, it makes it really hard
if you make a mistake,” said Zac Moffatt, who directed the Romney
campaign’s digital strategy.

The counterexample: Sen. Marco Rubio’s response after he conspicuously
gulped a bottle of water during his response to the president’s State of
the Union address in 2013. Rather than ignore the incident, Rubio owned it
— joking about it at every juncture, tweeting photos with water bottles,
and even selling branded water bottles to raise money.

“The Internet is much more forgiving if you acknowledge it than if you just
put your head down, which is why Hillary’s campaign might have trouble,”
Moffatt said. “She’s a different generation, and it’s not instinctive for
her.”

Seth Bringman, a spokesman for the pro-Clinton group Ready For Hillary,
disagreed, and rattled off a list of Clinton’s recent social media
triumphs, including a “pretty epic” selfie with the actress Meryl Streep.

“Hillary has a brand like no one else, and she has consistently captivated
the political universe in less than 140 characters,” Bringman said.

Clinton’s own Internet influence and celebrity is not in dispute. In 2012,
a Tumblr page called Texts From Hillary captured the Internet’s imagination
as it turned a photo of Clinton wearing sunglasses and texting into a meme.

Ultimately, Clinton invited the site’s founders, Stacy Lambe and Adam
Smith, to meet with her at the State Department. She laughed about her
favorite post, and her staff submitted one of its own.

“Going forward, that’s the kind of thing she should do more of,” Smith
said. “On social media, being authentic is really important and being in on
things, saying, ‘I get this joke.’ “

“I think it’s hard for any politician to come across on social as
authentic,” Smith added. “She will have to work harder than some.”

*CNN opinion: Julian Zelizer: “This is Elizabeth Warren's moment”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/06/opinion/zelizer-elizabeth-warrens-moment/index.html>*

By Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton
University and a New America fellow

October 6, 2014, 7:23 a.m. EDT

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has just been handed a giant political opportunity.

After spending several years championing the cause of the consumer and
railing against the power of big banks, the Massachusetts Democrat may be
perfectly positioned to react to the revelation of secretly taped
conversations within the Federal Reserve that have exposed the cozy
relationship that exists between the regulators in Washington and the
regulated on Wall Street.

The tapes, which were made in 2012, involve examiners for the New York
Federal Reserve who are heard being protective and deferential to Goldman
Sachs when discussing some financial transactions that the firm had
undertaken. Their actions were said to be "legal but shady."

One of the Federal Reserve officials on the tape explains that they should
not be too tough with the banks to make sure the lines of communication
remain open in the future: "We don't want to discourage Goldman from
disclosing these types of things in the future and therefore maybe you know
some comment that says don't mistake our inquisitiveness, and our desire to
understand more about the marketplace in general, as a criticism of you as
a firm necessarily."

The tapes have shocked many listeners because they reveal how weak the
rules are and, even worse, how the regulators don't have much interest in
being tough with the banks. Years after the horrendous financial collapse
of 2008 that led to international economic havoc, Washington is not doing
very much to improve the situation. There have been many critics of the
Dodd-Frank legislation who have warned that the law fell short, but to
actually hear these conversations has a more powerful impact.

As Warren said on an interview with NPR's Morning Edition, when people
listen to the tapes "for a moment, [they] get to be the fly on the wall
that watches all of it, and there it is to be exposed to everyone: the cozy
relationship, the fact that the Fed is more concerned about its
relationship with a 'too-big-to-fail' bank than it is with protecting the
American public."

Warren, who was instrumental to the creation of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau, reacted to the substance of the tape by arguing that
"the point of these tapes is that the regulators are backing off long
before anyone's in court making a legal argument about whether or not they
came right up to the line or they crossed over the line." She has called
for oversight hearings as soon as possible.

The weakness of our regulatory system for finance is an issue that deserves
attention, and it is a policy problem that attracts the interest of
liberals, conservatives and moderates, all of whom have been stung by the
economic toll of the financial meltdown.

Anger toward the banking system is one of the few issues that provides a
common thread between the disparate parts of our political world. Tea party
Republicans hate the intimate connections between banking and politicians
as much as do left-wing Democrats.

If Warren handles oversight hearings on this problem in the right way, they
could attract huge interest and really define who she is as a national
politician, right as the 2016 presidential race heats up. In this case,
politics and policy can work hand in hand.

Given the widespread concern about this problem and Warren's skill at
handling this issue, these could shape up to be hearings that have the same
kind of impact as Sen. William Fulbright's classic interrogation of
officials about Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam policies in 1966 or the select
committee investigation of Watergate in 1973 when Sen. Sam Ervin revealed
all the wrongs that Richard Nixon had committed.

Right now the Democratic playing field for 2016 is more fluid than many
think. While former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, assuming she runs,
would be a formidable candidate and a clear frontrunner, there is also
still room for another candidate to challenge her and potentially to rise
to the top of the pack.

While many names have been mentioned, like Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley or
former Virginia Sen. James Webb, nobody other than Clinton generates the
kind of excitement as does Elizabeth Warren.

Clinton exposed some of her own vulnerabilities during the roll out for her
book "Hard Choices," and there still remains big questions as to whether
Democrats will want a fresher voice, one who speaks more directly to the
populist economic tradition of the party, as their candidate. While today
it seems inevitable that she will be the party's nominee in 20016, Hillary
Clinton learned in 2008 that "inevitable" doesn't always cut it.

Warren has said that she won't run for the presidency. But these kinds of
statements rarely are the best way to predict what a candidate will
actually do.

The Fed tapes might prove to be the development that moves her to the front
and center of the public eye. Oversight hearings would be a way to expose
her to a large national audience and to demonstrate that she is deeply
invested in solving the economic problems that have harmed the security of
Americans and been at the heart of the laggard economic conditions that
define our era.

Warren has been a huge attraction on the campaign trail during the past few
months, speaking about these very issues and promising to devote her time
to this cause.

Ever since Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy died, Democrats have not been
able to find a new liberal lion to champion the progressive economic
traditions that been so integral to the party since the New Deal.

President Obama, who many Democrats thought would be that person, has
failed to live up to expectations. He surrounded himself with economic
advisors who were comfortable with the status quo and whose pragmatism
pushed him away from the bolder policies that the Democratic base hoped for.

Now, with the disclosure of these tapes, Warren has a very real chance to
prove to Democrats that she is the new voice.

*NBC News: “Bill Clinton's Endorsement Still Packs a Punch”
<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/bill-clintons-endorsement-still-packs-punch-n219476>*

By Carrie Dann

October 6, 2014

There’s still one golden ticket in American political endorsements, and,
yes, it’s the Big Dog.

Former President Bill Clinton remains the most valuable surrogate among the
nation’s top political celebrities, with 38 percent of Americans saying his
endorsement would make them more favorable towards a candidate, versus 24
percent who said it would make them like a candidate less, according to an
NBC News/ Wall Street Journal/Annenberg poll outSunday.

And there’s a reason that Clinton is in the midst of an excellent adventure
stumping for candidates around the country while his Democratic successor,
President Barack Obama, sticks to reliably blue states like Illinois. The
same percentage – 38 percent -- who said they’d be positively influenced by
a thumbs up from Clinton said a seal of approval from Obama would make them
dislike a contender.

Unlike other big names like First Lady Michelle Obama and likely
presidential contenders Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Chris Christie, Bill
Clinton also has a net positive effect as an endorser among self-described
independents. In fact, the only other candidate whose endorsement would
attract more independents than it would repel is libertarian-leaning
Republican Rand Paul.

The current president fares particularly poorly with the independent group.
Only 15 percent of independents say they would look favorably on a
candidate as a result of Obama’s backing, compared to 35 percent who said
they would like the endorsee less as a result.

The most positive draws among Democrats are Bill Clinton and his wife
Hillary Clinton, while Mitt Romney has the most juice among Republicans.

Still, most endorsements don't really matter, even for the most popular
surrogate campaigners. About four-in-ten respondents said that an
endorsement from Bill Clinton or Mitt Romney wouldn't influence their
support for a candidate either way; about a third say the same about a nod
from Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

*The Atlantic: “Bobby Jindal Joins the GOP Hawks”
<http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/bobby-jindal-joins-the-gop-hawks/381142/>*

By Russell Berman

October 6, 2014, 12:35 p.m. EDT

[Subtitle:] The Louisiana governor calls for higher defense spending as he
eyes a Republican presidential bid in 2016.

Republican presidential hopefuls are quickly picking wings in the party's
foreign-policy divide, and Bobby Jindal on Mondaycame down forcefully on
the muscular side.

The Louisiana governor delivered a detailed argument for higher levels of
defense spending during a policy speech in Washington, blaming President
Obama for squandering America's prestige on the world stage.

Once a GOP wunderkind, Jindal has been overshadowed in recent years by the
likes of Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, and Rand Paul. He didn't
help his cause with a shaky national debut responding to Obama's State of
the Union address in 2009, which drew unfavorable comparisons to a sitcom
character and cast Jindal as unready for prime time. But as the 43-year-old
finishes his second and final term in the statehouse, he is trying to raise
his stock as he weighs a run for the party's presidential nomination.

To that end, Jindal checked off a key box for a governor on Monday by
outlining his views on foreign policy. Aligning himself alongside the
interventionist Rubio rather than the more inward-focused Paul, he called
for maintaining defense spending at 4 percent of the GDP, which would mark
a sharp reversal from the budgets that Obama has outlined.

"We must be willing to pay the price for peace," Jindal said in his
25-minute address at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "We
must undo the president’s harmful spending cuts, and ensure that our
fighting men and women always have the tools they need to succeed."

Jindal painted a gloomy portrait of America's domestic and global standing
in the Obama era, and in a nod to the upcoming race for the White House, he
made sure to link Hillary Clinton to the policies of the president she
served as secretary of state.

“Today, we are living with the consequences of the Obama-Clinton ideas when
it comes to foreign, domestic, and defense policy. And those ideas have set
America on a path that will create more chaos, more conflict, and more
wars.”

He also sought to reconcile his call for more defense dollars with his
self-described identity as a "fiscal conservative." Jindal backed a
proposal to require audits of the Defense Department, and in renewing his
push cuts to healthcare and entitlement spending, he reiterated that he
wanted "to shrink the costs of government in other ways."

Jindal's twist on a now-familiar foreign-policy critique of Obama was that
he also faulted the administration of President George W. Bush.

"By the time President Obama took office, the American military was in an
increasingly fragile condition," he said.

In outlining his views and releasing a detailed defense plan with former
GOP Senator Jim Talent, Jindal is getting out a bit ahead of some of his
rivals in the 2016 race. But whether the Louisiana governor can break out
in a crowded field next year is another question entirely.