Subject: Correct The Record Wednesday October 15, 2014 Afternoon Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:03:46 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Wednesday October 15, 2014 Afternoon Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: Clinton successfully advocated for
greater investment in breast cancer research #BreastCancerAwareness
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreastCancerAwareness?src=hash> #HRC365
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash>
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/mmemmottpdf/clinton-breast-cancer-4-7-2008.pdf
…
<http://t.co/X5VchAHSuc> [10/14/14, 7:01 p.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/522160219082604544>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: At @dreamforce
<https://twitter.com/Dreamforce>, HRC announced @ClintonFDN
<https://twitter.com/ClintonFdn> is partnering with @nextgen_usa
<https://twitter.com/nextgen_usa> to close the "word gap" #DF14
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/DF14?src=hash>
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Hillary-Clinton-Delivers-Keynote-at-Dreamforce-2014-Convention-279170681.html
…
<http://t.co/tcEkrWduNU> [10/14/14, 4:04 p.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/522115668209324032>]

*Headlines:*

*MSNBC: “Hillary Clinton’s private jet tab revealed”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clintons-private-jet-tab>*

"Clinton’s defenders said the investment was well worth it. “The Harkin
Streak Fry reportedly netted $100,000 and was enormously successful,
largely due to the Clintons’ attendance. This right-wing attack is ironic
coming from the Party where one potential presidential candidate used a
state police helicopter to get to his son’s baseball game while another
double-billed taxpayers and the state party for multiple plane tickets,”
said Correct the Record’s Adrienne Elrod, referring to New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio."

*WDRB News: “Hillary Clinton expected to campaign for Grimes in Louisville
tonight”
<http://www.wdrb.com/story/26792648/hillary-clinton-expected-to-campaign-for-grimes-in-louisville-tonight>*

“Hillary Clinton is expected to be in Louisville tonight. She's here to
campaign for U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes.”

*The Hill opinion: Brent Budowsky: “Grimes, a true Clinton Dem”
<http://thehill.com/opinion/brent-budowsky/220737-brent-budowsky-grimes-a-true-clinton-democrat>*

“Alison Lundergan Grimes is the true, ultimate Clinton Democrat who
believes in governing across the aisles.”

*Associated Press: “1 Charge Dismissed After Shoe Thrown At Clinton”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SHOE_THROWER_HILLARY_CLINTON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

“A federal judge in Las Vegas has dismissed a misdemeanor violence charge
against a Phoenix woman who pleaded guilty to trespassing after a shoe was
thrown at former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

*CNN: “Inside the GOP's secret school”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/politics/gop-secret-school/index.html>*

“Republicans -- well aware of Hillary Clinton's ability to spark an
Internet sensation with a single tweet -- are determined to mount a modern
media strategy to battle back in 2016.”

*The Detroit News: “Obama, Bill Clinton to campaign for Michigan Dems”
<http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2014/10/15/obama-midterms-michigan-schauer/17291025/>*

“The White House confirmed the visit Wednesday and said further details of
the president's trip will be announced in the coming days. There were no
other details about Bill Clinton's visit, which is scheduled to follow wife
Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign trip Thursday to Oakland University.”

*The Hill blog: Floor Action: “Bachmann: 'No plan to run for president'”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/220833-bachmann-no-plan-to-run-for-president>*

“Conservative firebrand Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Wednesday that
she has ‘no plan’ to launch another presidential campaign in 2016.”

*Articles:*

*MSNBC: “Hillary Clinton’s private jet tab revealed”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clintons-private-jet-tab>*

By Alex Seitz-Wald

October 15, 2014, 10:39 a.m. EDT

The Iowa Steak Fry spent more than $50,000 flying Bill and Hillary Clinton
to the Democratic event outside Des Moines in September honoring retiring
Sen. Tom Harkin.

New financial disclosure forms to the Federal Election Commission shows the
committee that organized the event made a $50,099 payment for “travel
expenses” to Executive Fliteways Inc, a Long Island, NY based charter jet
company. According to Bloomberg News, the payment was for the former first
couple.

It was the second largest single expense for the Steak Fry, after food.

Executive Fliteways offers a range of private planes, from a smaller
Learjet 35, which goes for $2350 an hour, to a Gulfstream G-V, which rents
for $7,500 per hour. A contract obtained this summer by the Las Vegas
Review Journal for an unrelated speech shows that Clinton’s team requests
“a Gulfstream 450 or larger jet.”

Clinton’s previous campaigns have came under fire – including from donors –
for lavish spending. Her 2006 Senate re-election campaign, which faced only
moderate Republican opposition, spent $160,000 on private jet travel, along
with three-quarters of a million dollars on catering and entertaining,
$13,000 on flowers, and $27,000 on valet parking.

The year-end finance report from Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign shows
a payment of almost $110,000 to Executive Fliteways. The campaign, like all
other major presidential efforts, also had larger chartered plane for the
candidate, staffers, and reporters.

Clinton’s defenders said the investment was well worth it. “The Harkin
Streak Fry reportedly netted $100,000 and was enormously successful,
largely due to the Clintons’ attendance. This right-wing attack is ironic
coming from the Party where one potential presidential candidate used a
state police helicopter to get to his son’s baseball game while another
double-billed taxpayers and the state party for multiple plane tickets,”
said Correct the Record’s Adrienne Elrod, referring to New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

A new poll released on Wednesday shows that while Clinton’s foreign policy
record, a major issue in 2008, is unlikely to turn off Iowa Democratic
caucus-goers if she runs again in 2016, her ties to Wall Street could be a
problem. The first state in the presidential nominating process went for
Obama in 2008, fatally wounding Clinton’s presidential ambitions that year.

The former secretary of state is openly considering a second presidential
run, and has said she will announce her plans sometime early next year.

*WDRB News: “Hillary Clinton expected to campaign for Grimes in Louisville
tonight”
<http://www.wdrb.com/story/26792648/hillary-clinton-expected-to-campaign-for-grimes-in-louisville-tonight>*

[No Writer Menitoned]

October 15, 2014, 10:56 a.m. EDT

Hillary Clinton is expected to be in Louisville tonight.

She's here to campaign for U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Clinton will be speaking at the Convention Center at 7 p.m. Tickets are
free, but must be picked up at any Democratic Party headquarters across
Kentucky.

Grimes is running against incumbent Mitch McConnell.

A big blow for Grimes came Tuesday when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee pulled its television ads for Grimes. The committee will instead
focus its funds on competitive races in Arkansas, Colorado and Georgia.

Most of the latest polls show Senator McConnell ahead.

*The Hill opinion: Brent Budowsky: “Grimes, a true Clinton Dem”
<http://thehill.com/opinion/brent-budowsky/220737-brent-budowsky-grimes-a-true-clinton-democrat>*

By Brent Budowsky

October 14, 2014, 5:33 p.m. EDT

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes first met Bill and
Hillary Clinton decades ago, through the close friendship between their
families. Young Alison heard stories about politics from both Clintons, and
as the girl became a young woman — and now a candidate for the Senate — the
Clintons became an inspiration for her political style and career.

The hotly contested Kentucky Senate battle pits Grimes against Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R). The race has more subplots than a
Shakespearean drama, including control of the Senate, the unsavory
negativity of political campaigns, attacks by Republicans that blame
President Obama for every ill in the world, attempts by the GOP to tarnish
every Democrat with guilt by association with the president, the valiant
and somewhat successful efforts by red-state Democrats to distinguish
themselves from Obama, and questions about the appropriate role of the
press in fairly reporting the campaigns.

One recent poll found McConnell leading Grimes by 4 percentage points.
Another found Grimes leading by 2 points. As of noon Tuesday, the summary
of polling by RealClearPolitics finds McConnell ahead by 3 points, within
the margin of error, in a race either candidate could win.

Last week during an editorial board interview, Grimes described herself as
a Clinton Democrat and noted that she was a Hillary Clinton delegate in
2008. She also declined to say whether she voted for Obama.

Almost immediately, Chuck Todd, the moderator of “Meet the Press,” said on
“Morning Joe,” an MSNBC show that offers daily derision of President Obama
and leading Democrats, that Grimes should be “disqualified” from the race.
The derision of Grimes was repeated by MSNBC host Chris Matthews, who also
falsely described Obama as “intellectually lazy.” It was repeated again in
the New Republic, which called Grimes the worst candidate in 2014, a
ludicrous insult of a strong candidate running a virtually even race
against the Republican leader in the Senate.

I have great respect for Todd, who could someday be the heir to the late
David Broder of The Washington Post, who was called the dean of political
reporters. I will cut Todd a little slack. Even Derek Jeter occasionally
struck out. But his cheap shot against Grimes was more appropriate for a
GOP attack dog than a respected journalist analyzing the news. Predictably,
McConnell made Todd the star of a negative ad attacking Grimes.

When Grimes says she is a Clinton Democrat, she is telling the truth, and
when McConnell labels Grimes an Obama Democrat rather than a Clinton
Democrat, he is bearing false witness. Shouldn’t allegedly liberal-friendly
media outlets such as MSNBC and the New Republic report this? Shouldn’t all
media report it? Isn’t this why cable news ratings are dropping like a
rock, and why Gallup finds that public confidence in television news has
fallen to historic lows?

When Grimes charges McConnell with fomenting gridlock in Washington,
objective reporters should report that McConnell indeed held meetings to
undermine the Obama presidency even before his first inaugural; publicly
stated his first priority was not creating jobs for Kentucky but destroying
the Obama presidency; and pioneered the ultimate gridlock tactic of
threatening to filibuster virtually all legislation, a GOP obstruction
unprecedented in Senate history.

The Kentucky scenario is playing out in races across the nation. In the
only narrative Republicans offer, voters should be frightened by Ebola and
terrorism and angered by Washington, and it is all Obama’s fault! And all
Democrats are like Obama! The media should challenge the dishonesty of this
narrative in every race and ask why Republicans offer no better plans to
destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, combat Ebola, increase wages
or improve healthcare.

Voters get it even if the media don’t. Southern and red-state Democrats
remain standing in tight races even after rightist billionaires and GOP
partisans spend millions of dollars promoting dishonest attacks.

Alison Lundergan Grimes is the true, ultimate Clinton Democrat who believes
in governing across the aisles. This is why the Clintons champion her so
passionately. This is what Hillary Clinton will repeat with force in
Kentucky Wednesdaynight. This is a big truth. Any statement to the contrary
is a big lie. It is high time the media report it.

*Associated Press: “1 Charge Dismissed After Shoe Thrown At Clinton”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SHOE_THROWER_HILLARY_CLINTON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

[No Writer Mentioned]

October 14, 2014, 9:11 p.m. EDT

A federal judge in Las Vegas has dismissed a misdemeanor violence charge
against a Phoenix woman who pleaded guilty to trespassing after a shoe was
thrown at former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1nlcNMd ) Tuesday that
U.S. District Magistrate Judge George Foley Jr. accepted a prosecution
request to dismiss the violence charge against 36-year-old Alison Michelle
Ernst and scheduled a Thursday hearing on her release from custody.

Foley says he wants the defendant to be freed pending sentencing on the
misdemeanor trespassing count.

Ernst could face up to six months in prison but has already been in custody
since shortly after the April 10 incident in which a soccer shoe missed
Clinton on stage at the Mandalay Bay resort.

*CNN: “Inside the GOP's secret school”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/politics/gop-secret-school/index.html>*

By Peter Hamby

October 15, 2014, 10:00 a.m. EDT

Night after night, Republicans are going back to school in an effort to
build a new army of communications operatives for the Twitter age.

The courses at "Comms College" -- the GOP's secret training ground for
social media-savvy communications staffers -- are taught in a sterile
conference room on Capitol Hill. Students are instructed that the modern
news cycle, fueled by the disruptive power of the web and constantly-filing
reporters, has no patience for old political playbooks.

That's an especially important lesson for Republicans heading into the next
presidential election. President Barack Obama's press operation,
digitally-fluent and nimble, handily outpaced their GOP opponents in 2008
and 2012. Republicans -- well aware of Hillary Clinton's ability to spark
an Internet sensation with a single tweet -- are determined to mount a
modern media strategy to battle back in 2016.

"If you are stubborn and fail to adapt to the environment and think that
the strategy from 20 years ago is the way it is today, you are going to
lose, it's that simple," said Rob Lockwood, the 27-year-old leader of the
GOP boot camp, which is housed at the Republican National Committee in
Washington. "This is about understanding the modern reality of the media."

On a recent evening, two dozen operatives -- most of them in their 20s and
some in need of a shave -- filed into the RNC conference room. Lockwood
opened the lesson with a slideshow. It included a picture of boxer Mike
Tyson in the ring, accompanied by his famous maxim: "Everybody has a plan
until they get punched in the mouth."

The message to students: It's critical for campaigns to be adaptive and
resourceful in making their case to the media, and responding to a constant
barrage of press inquires and negative headlines.

Since the beginning of 2014, the RNC says it has graduated over 200
operatives and placed many of them as communications directors and press
secretaries in Capitol Hill offices and federal campaigns nationwide, from
Alaska to Arizona to New York and North Carolina. Lockwood has also
conducted media training boot camps with nearly 1,000 candidates, staff and
local political figures in a dozen states.

There's a session on opposition research and tracking, Facebook algorithms
and Google metrics. There are also tips on dressing for television (no
pocket squares, seersucker or dangly jewelry), and lessons on social media
and partisan news sites that give campaigns the power to peddle their
messages without the filter of "mainstream" reporters. Lockwood even has
reading recommendations, including "Collision 2012," "The Victory Lab" and
"Double Down."

Above all else, Lockwood preaches how mobile devices and the social web, in
just a matter of years, have dramatically altered media behavior. For
click-hungry reporters in the digital ecosystem, their motives,
competitiveness and editorial standards have all mutated — presenting all
manner of opportunities and dangers.

"Doing a press conference just to do a press conference doesn't work
anymore," Lockwood tells students. "It's an antiquated way of thinking. If
you don't know what you want your headline to be, and think you can go out
there and say what you want in five points, and answer none of the
questions, that the news reports are going to be about your five points.
Nope. The reports will probably be about the five things you didn't answer.

The RNC runs other "colleges" for young operatives or staff veterans
looking to brush up on their skills, including a campaign management
college run by Ohio GOP operative Jonathan Gormley, and a campaign finance
school for Republican attorneys.

But as Republicans surveyed their losses after the 2012 presidential
campaign and looked at their roster of communications operatives, they
realized they weren't able to field their best talent to compete with
Obama's brigade of Chicago-based digital natives — in part because the GOP
equivalent didn't exist.

"During the last campaign, we would sit around with the Romney campaign
trying to identify potential press folks, either for Victory positions here
at the RNC, or staff positions with the campaign, and we realized that that
bench was not deep with people who had been trained or had significant
campaign experience," says Sean Spicer, the RNC's communications director.
"We would struggle to fill those positions with qualified people."

Spicer and Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman, embarked on an overhaul of the
organization's media operations, hiring web-fluent staffers, streamlining
their surrogate database and stepping up their media-training operations to
instill discipline over candidates. The latter move, Priebus said, became
essential after witnessing Republican candidates up and down the ballot in
2012 ruin news cycles with offensive or tone-deaf comments on issues like
abortion or rape.

"I'd rather have candidates being careful to a fault than, you know, having
a fountain of blabber coming out of their mouth that's not disciplined,"
Priebus says. "We are training candidates, training state parties, training
operatives to appreciate that communicating isn't just a free-for-all,
natural-born type of activity. People need to be trained and disciplined."

Reeling from their demographic drubbing among Hispanics, African-Americans
and women in 2012, they understood the need to present a fresher face to
the American public, an ongoing process. Spicer said he recently met with
the executive producer of a network Sunday show who begged him for "new hip
conservatives" to feature on the show's roundtable.

Spicer said the committee is obliging, not just to aid the media, but to
help campaigns tap into a database of Republican surrogates with ease. "It
used to be, like, people would call the RNC and say, 'How do I get in touch
with Rudy Giuliani?' And we'd be like, 'Google!'"

"Now all of those things are catalogued," Spicer says. "Someone will call
and say, 'We are doing a health care push next week, how many doctors or
primary care physicians do you have? How many Asians do you have? How many
Jews? You wanna do a Rosh Hashanah thing or something on Israel?' You name
it."

Ben LaBolt, who served as Obama's national press secretary during the 2012
campaign, says it's shrewd for Republicans to update their media strategy,
even if they're starting from behind.

"Communications tools and methods change each election cycle, sometimes
rapidly," LaBolt says. "While they were once siloed, by President Obama's
re-election campaign, we had learned to fully integrate media relations
with digital communications in order to reach all prospective supporters
where there were. It might be catch-up, but the Republicans are smart to
play it."

The RNC's post-election "Growth and Opportunity Project" — unofficially
known as the party's "autopsy" report — recommended much more than just
cosmetic fixes. It called for overhauling the professional culture of the
party and fixing rusted-over campaign mechanics so that Republicans could
better compete with Democrats in the tactical realm. The Republican
coalition has since worked to improve their data, digital and
information-sharing programs.

Still, the results are mixed.

With free-spending outside groups taking on a greater role in campaigns and
siphoning resources away from the RNC, Priebus figured staff training was
something the committee could own.

"Training has to be a cornerstone of what we do today and in the future,"
Priebus says.

Lockwood, a veteran of the North Carolina Republican Party and the College
Republican National Committee, was recruited in late 2013 to cultivate
future communicators for the party.

A brawny, 6'4'' Massachusetts native who rarely lets his iPhone out his
clutches, Lockwood came of age in the digital era and knew instinctively
that a single link circulated on Twitter could have more power in shaping a
narrative than any newspaper front page or morning TV show. "Rob was the
ideal choice for this," Spicer says. "We call him the dean."

The "college," a series of eight night classes, focuses on tactics, not
policy. The presentations are heavy with do's and don't's for Republicans
who work with the press.

His opening statement sets the tone. "Understanding that the press is
attracted to conflict is paramount to understanding the modern media,"
Lockwood says.

Then, on his laptop, he ticks through his slideshow: "Don't use jokes that
you've never told before ... Jay Carney showed everyday that it's better to
be dull than offensive," referring to the former White House press
secretary who is now a CNN political commentator. "Don't introduce new
phrases, like Etch-a-sketch."

Lockwood says the boot camp isn't just for up-and-comers. Comparing it to
spring training, he says veteran GOP operatives are encouraged to take the
course, too.

"There are a lot of people who are not of this generation but are subject
to the rules of it," he says. "That's why we want everybody to get up to
speed."

As much as the classes focus on the capacity of the web to drive a message,
students are urged not to chase every shiny object or micro-story that pops
on Twitter.

The seminars put an emphasis on breaking down the traditional barriers that
exist between different segments of a campaign. Press staffers are given
crash courses in polling and media-buying, for instance, so they can be
conversant on those topics when a reporter calls.

"I really had very little exposure to polling or digital until then," says
Charlotte Guyett, a former RNC intern who worked at a GOP consulting firm
before enrolling in "Comms College." Guyett is now the press secretary for
Elise Stefanik's House campaign in New York's 21st Congressional District.

Guest speakers with recent, real world campaign experience, young and old,
parade through and field questions. In one September session, Tim Miller,
the executive director of America Rising, a GOP research firm, encouraged
the students to engage with the media proactively instead of keeping them
at arm's length.

"If you treat reporters with hostility," Miller said, "there will be blood."

Miller, himself a former RNC staffer, praised the committee for changing
its way of thinking.

"As recently as 2008 and 2010, you would sit in these rooms and it would be
somebody from the Lee Atwater era, talking about how the media is your
enemy," he says. "My talk was about talking the ways to use the 24/7 news
cycle and Twitter and social media to your advantage, as well as
recognizing the pitfalls."

*The Detroit News: “Obama, Bill Clinton to campaign for Michigan Dems”
<http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2014/10/15/obama-midterms-michigan-schauer/17291025/>*

By David Shepardson

October 15, 2014, 12:34 p.m. EDT

President Barack Obama will make a campaign stop in the Detroit area in the
final week of the midterm campaign, while former President Bill Clinton
will stump in Flint next week.

The White House confirmed Wednesday that the president will make the Metro
Detroit visit as part of a series of events in at least four states. The
former president's visit was confirmed by a high-ranking Democratic source.

Obama will campaign for Democrats Mark Schauer, who is running for governor
against first-term Gov. Rick Snyder, and Rep. Gary Peters, the Bloomfield
Township Democrat who is challenging former Michigan Secretary of State
Terri Lynn Land to replace the retiring Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit.

The White House confirmed the visit Wednesday and said further details of
the president's trip will be announced in the coming days. There were no
other details about Bill Clinton's visit, which is scheduled to follow wife
Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign trip Thursday to Oakland University.

Michigan's election has drawn many high-profile politicians including Vice
President Joe Biden, first lady Michelle Obama, 2012 GOP presidential
candidate Mitt Romney, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as well as former
Florida Gov. and 2016 presidential prospect Jeb Bush.

Obama will be in Bridgeport, Conn., Wednesday, followed by a rally in
Maryland for gubernatorial hopeful Anthony Brown and Gov. Pat Quinn in
Illinois on Sunday.

He will also attend rallies for gubernatorial candidates Mary Burke in
Milwaukee, Tom Wolf in Philadelphia and Mike Michaud in Portland, Me.

Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Maine are states that Obama carried twice.
Obama won Michigan by 9.5 percentage points in 2012 over Detroit native
Romney. He had such a strong lead in Michigan that he didn't visit the
state in the six months before the election.

The first lady campaigned in Detroit Friday for Peters and Schauer, while
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is scheduled to campaign in Michigan later this
month.

Obama appeared in Ann Arbor with Peters in April, but hasn't campaigned
with Schauer. He hasn't campaigned in Michigan for more than six months.

"Democrat candidates for governor have spent this election cycle running
away from President Obama's record low approval ratings and failed
policies, but make no mistake, they own them now," said Republicans
Governors Association spokesman Jon Thompson.

With Democrats facing increasingly long odds of holding the Senate, Obama
is shifting his focus to the governors' races in closely fought states.
Peters — who holds a lead of close to 10 percentage points in most polls —
is the only Senate candidate for whom Obama has announced plans to campaign.

Republicans need to pick up six states to win control, but have shifted
focus away from Michigan. The National Republican Senatorial Campaign
committee earlier this month canceled $850,000 in planned advertising on
behalf of Land.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., will campaign Wednesday for Land in Utica.

Schauer trails Snyder in most polls.

Obama is certain to highlight the auto bailout and the successful
turnaround of the U.S. auto industry in his Michigan trip — a staple of
almost all speeches the president makes. Democrats in Michigan have made
Land's initial opposition to the auto bailout and support for Romney's
position — that automakers had to first file for bankruptcy before getting
government loans — a big part of the campaign.

*The Hill blog: Floor Action: “Bachmann: 'No plan to run for president'”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/220833-bachmann-no-plan-to-run-for-president>*

By Cristina Marcos

October 15, 2014, 1:06 p.m. EDT

Conservative firebrand Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Wednesday that
she has "no plan" to launch another presidential campaign in 2016.

Bachmann, who is retiring from Congress at the end of this year, told The
Hill in an interview that running for president in 2012 was enough.

"I have no plan to run for president in 2016," Bachmann said.

"I was so honored to be able to do it in 2012. It was really one of the
greatest experiences in my life. But I think the men who run will tell you
too, it's one of the most difficult things you ever embrace upon," Bachmann
added.

Earlier this year, Bachmann hinted that she might run for president again
even though she's not frequently mentioned as a candidate.

"The only thing that the media has speculated on is that it’s going to be
various men that are running,” Bachmann told RealClearPolitics in July.
“They haven’t speculated, for instance, that I’m going to run. What if I
decide to run? And there’s a chance I could run.”

Asked if she had changed her mind since then, Bachmann insisted that she
had merely made a "rhetorical comment" when asked about the lack of
potential female Republican presidential candidates in 2016.

"Oh, no, no, no. Not at all. No. The context of my remarks were that they
were suggesting that no woman would be running for president on the
Republican side and I said, 'Well, I'm an obvious choice,'" Bachmann said.
"So that was the nexus of my remarks: Who knows, maybe I'll run. It wasn't
that I was going to. It was just a rhetorical comment."

Bachmann briefly surged in the polls in 2011 and won the Iowa Straw Poll.
But her campaign fizzled afterward and she came in a disappointing sixth
place in the Iowa caucuses.

The Minnesota Republican said that having a woman on either presidential
ticket shouldn't be prioritized over a compelling policy alternative.

"I think the issue isn't gender so much as it is ideas. That's what people
are looking for," Bachmann said.

Bachmann also denied that the Republican presidential field lacked
diversity, noting that she was part of a 2012 GOP presidential field that
also included Herman Cain, an African-American.

"We had people on the stage that demonstrated diversity," Bachmann said.

She argued that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be viewed
as an extension of President Obama's administration.

"If Mrs. Clinton is running in 2016, she will effectively be the ideas that
would be Barack Obama's third and fourth term for president," Bachmann said.

During a farewell speech at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday, Bachmann
indicated that she won't be leaving the political scene despite her
departure from Capitol Hill. She urged Republicans to "go bold" if they win
both chambers of Congress in this year's elections and consider proposals
like reforming the tax code and allowing the Export-Import Bank to expire.

"You either go bold or you don't go at all," Bachmann said. "If you want
somebody to lead the debate, I'll lead the debate."