Subject: Correct The Record Monday October 27, 2014 Morning Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 09:28:10 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Monday October 27, 2014 Morning Roundup:*

*Headlines:*

*FROM MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA: Media Matters For America: “Media Forget
Context In Effort To Scandalize Hillary Clinton's Assessment Of
Trickle-Down Economics”
<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/10/26/media-forget-context-in-effort-to-scandalize-hi/201316>*

“Mainstream media figures, following in the footsteps of conservative
media, are trying to manufacture a scandal out of former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton's recent argument against trickle-down economics by
stripping her comments of context to falsely cast them as a controversial
gaffe or a flip-flop on previous statements about trade.”

*Associated Press, via Arkansas Business: “Clintonmania vs. Huckapalooza in
Arkansas Contests”
<http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/101567/clintonmania-vs-huckapalooza-in-arkansas-contests?page=all>*

“The state's biggest figures on the national political stage were back home
this last week, lending their names to their parties' candidates and
encouraging supporters to vote early (‘and vote often,’ former Gov. Mike
Huckabee said).”

*New York Times: “Ahead of 2016, Immigration Activists Want Answers From
Clinton”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/ahead-of-2016-immigration-activists-want-answers-from-clinton.html>*

"'There is a sense that she cares deeply about the issues confronting the
community, and she has spent time nurturing relationships within the Latino
community,' Mr. Castro added. When asked whether they would vote for Mrs.
Clinton or the Republican nominee for president in 2016, regardless of who
that is, 63 percent of Latinos ages 18 to 34 said they would vote for Mrs.
Clinton, according to a poll conducted in September by Bendixen and Amandi
International for Fusion, the fledgling network owned by ABC and
Univision."

*Bloomberg: “Republicans Blast Hillary Clinton's Attempt at Channeling
Elizabeth Warren”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-27/republicans-blast-hillary-clintons-attempt-at-channeling-elizabeth-warren>*

“Conservative news outlets have posted footage of the comments—dubbed
‘Hillarynomics’ by a headline on the blog Hot Air—the links of which have
been tweeted and re-tweeted by the public ad nauseam, at times with insults
attached.”

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “2014 feels like 2016 already in Iowa”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/221913-2014-feels-like-2016-already-in-iowa>*

“Prospective presidential hopefuls are swooping into Iowa as they try to
boost support for House and Senate candidates –along with the added benefit
of connecting with voters who play host to the first-in the-nation
presidential caucuses.”

*San Francisco Chronicle: “President Hillary Clinton key to Nancy Pelosi’s
return as speaker”
<http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/President-Hillary-Clinton-key-to-Nancy-Pelosi-s-5849341.php>*

“Nancy Pelosi has made clear she wants to make history again. Not this year
but in 2016, when she hopes to reclaim the House speakership under a
President Hillary Rodham Clinton and shatter the glass ceiling to
smithereens.”

*Associated Press: “Family ties can be a candidate's blessing or curse”
<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4e475d9338d8428aafb6f4e3ce19e4c3/family-ties-can-be-candidates-blessing-or-curse>*

“Separately, Ernst had to answer questions about critical comments her
husband, Gail, posted on his Facebook page, including calling former
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a ‘hag’ and joking about shooting
a former spouse.”

*Huffington Post opinion: Robert Kuttner: “Would Warren Really Run?”
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/would-warren-really-run_b_6051424.html?utm_hp_ref=politics>*

“The conventional assumption is that it's Hillary's turn, but in a sense
this is more Elizabeth Warren's moment than it is Hillary Clinton's. The
economy is still stagnant, and the health of the financial industry has
been put ahead of the wellbeing of regular Americans.”

*New York Times: “The Bushes, Led by W., Rally to Make Jeb ‘45’”
<http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/the-bushes-led-by-w-rally-to-make-jeb-45.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&referrer=>*

“As Mr. Bush nears a decision to become the third member of his storied
family to seek the presidency, the extended Bush clan and its attendant
network, albeit with one prominent exception, are largely rallying behind
the prospect and pulling the old machine out of the closet.”

*Articles:*

*FROM MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA: Media Matters For America: “Media Forget
Context In Effort To Scandalize Hillary Clinton's Assessment Of
Trickle-Down Economics”
<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/10/26/media-forget-context-in-effort-to-scandalize-hi/201316>*

By Ellie Sandmeyer

October 26, 2014, 3:41 p.m. EDT

Mainstream media figures, following in the footsteps of conservative media,
are trying to manufacture a scandal out of former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton's recent argument against trickle-down economics by
stripping her comments of context to falsely cast them as a controversial
gaffe or a flip-flop on previous statements about trade.

Conservative media outlets rushed to vilify Clinton's stance after she
pushed for a minimum wage increase and warned against the myth that
businesses create jobs through trickle-down economics at an October 24
campaign event for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley
(D). Breitbart.com complained, "Clinton told the crowd ... not to listen to
anybody who says that 'businesses create jobs,'" conservative radio host
Howie Carr said the comments showed Clinton's "true moonbat colors," while
FoxNews.com promoted the Washington Free Beacon's accusation that she said
"businesses and corporations are not the job creators of America."

Mainstream media soon jumped on the bandwagon.

CNN host John King presented Clinton's comments as a fumble "a little
reminiscent there of Mitt Romney saying corporations are people, too," and
USA Today called the comments "An odd moment from Hillary Clinton on the
campaign trail Friday - and one she may regret." In an article egregiously
headlined, "Hillary Clinton No Longer Believes That Companies Create Jobs,"
Bloomberg's Jonathan Allen stripped away any context from Clinton's words
in order to accuse her of having "flip-flopped on whether companies create
jobs," because she has previously discussed the need to keep American
companies competitive abroad.

Taken in context, Clinton's comments are almost entirely unremarkable --
and certainly don't conflict with the philosophy that trade can contribute
to job growth, as Allen suggests. The full transcript of her remarks shows
she was making the established observation that minimum wage increases can
boost a sluggish economy by generating demand, and that tax breaks for the
rich don't necessarily move companies to create jobs:

CLINTON: “Don't let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will
kill jobs. They always say that. I've been through this. My husband gave
working families a raise in the 1990s. I voted to raise the minimum wage
and guess what? Millions of jobs were created or paid better and more
families were more secure. That's what we want to see here, and that's what
we want to see across the country.

“And don't let anybody tell you, that, you know, it's corporations and
businesses that create jobs. You know, that old theory, trickle-down
economics. That has been tried. That has failed. That has failed rather
spectacularly.

“One of the things my husband says, when people say, what did you bring to
Washington? He says, well I brought arithmetic. And part of it was he
demonstrated why trickle down should be consigned to the trash bin of
history. More tax cuts for the top and for companies that ship jobs over
seas while taxpayers and voters are stuck paying the freight just doesn't
add up. Now that kind of thinking might win you an award for outsourcing
excellence, but Massachusetts can do better than that. Martha understands
it. She knows you have to create jobs from everyone working together and
taking the advantages of this great state and putting them to work.”

Economic experts agree that job growth is tied to the economic security of
the middle class.

U.S. economic growth has historically relied on consumer spending, and
middle class consumers are "the true job creators," Nobel Prize winning
economist Joseph Stiglitz points out. Right now, the U.S. economy is
"demand-starved," as Economic Policy Institute's (EPI) Joshua Smith puts
it. Steiglitz says that, of all the problems facing the U.S. economy, "The
most immediate is that our middle class is too weak to support the consumer
spending that has historically driven our economic growth."

In a testimony before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions, Economist Heather Boushey noted that "It is demand for goods and
services, backed up by an ability to pay for them, which drives economic
growth" and "The hollowing out of our middle class limits our nation's
capacity to grow unless firms can find new customers."

UC Berkeley economist Robert Reich agrees that the problem in the U.S.
economy is demand. "Businesses are reluctant to spend more and create more
jobs because there aren't enough consumers out there able and willing to
buy what businesses have to sell," he writes, and places the blame on low
paychecks and growing inequality: "The reason consumers aren't buying is
because consumers' paychecks are dropping... Consumers can't and won't buy
more." He says the key to job growth is "reigniting demand" by "putting
more money in consumers' pockets." From The Huffington Post:

“Can we get real for a moment? Businesses don't need more financial
incentives. They're already sitting on a vast cash horde estimated to be
upwards of $1.6 trillion. Besides, large and middle-sized companies are
having no difficulty getting loans at bargain-basement rates, courtesy of
the Fed.

“In consequence, businesses are already spending as much as they can
justify economically. Almost two-thirds of the measly growth in the economy
so far this year has come from businesses rebuilding their inventories. But
without more consumer spending, there's they won't spend more. A robust
economy can't be built on inventory replacements.

“The problem isn't on the supply side. It's on the demand side. Businesses
are reluctant to spend more and create more jobs because there aren't
enough consumers out there able and willing to buy what businesses have to
sell.

“The reason consumers aren't buying is because consumers' paychecks are
dropping, adjusted for inflation.”

Clinton's emphasis on the minimum wage is supported by economic experts as
well. Reich says that raising the minimum wage is an effective way to
generate the consumer demand that would spur job growth. It "would put
money in the pockets of millions of low-wage workers who will spend it --
thereby giving working families and the overall economy a boost, and
creating jobs." He also rejected critics' claims that giving low
income-earners a raise hurts job growth: "When I was Labor Secretary in
1996 and we raised the minimum wage, business predicted millions of job
losses; in fact, we had more job gains over the next four years than in any
comparable period in American history."

EPI called the minimum wage a "critically important issue" that "would
provide a modest stimulus to the entire economy, as increased wages would
lead to increased consumer spending, which would contribute to GDP growth
and modest employment gains" (emphasis added):

“The immediate benefits of a minimum-wage increase are in the boosted
earnings of the lowest-paid workers, but its positive effects would far
exceed this extra income. Recent research reveals that, despite skeptics'
claims, raising the minimum wage does not cause job loss. In fact,
throughout the nation, a minimum-wage increase under current labor market
conditions would create jobs. Like unemployment insurance benefits or tax
breaks for low- and middle-income workers, raising the minimum wage puts
more money in the pockets of working families when they need it most,
thereby augmenting their spending power. Economists generally recognize
that low-wage workers are more likely than any other income group to spend
any extra earnings immediately on previously unaffordable basic needs or
services.

“Increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 by July 1, 2015, would give
an additional $51.5 billion over the phase-in period to directly and
indirectly affected workers, who would, in turn, spend those extra
earnings. Indirectly affected workers--those earning close to, but still
above, the proposed new minimum wage--would likely receive a boost in
earnings due to the "spillover" effect (Shierholz 2009), giving them more
to spend on necessities.

“This projected rise in consumer spending is critical to any recovery,
especially when weak consumer demand is one of the most significant factors
holding back new hiring (Izzo 2011). Though the stimulus from a
minimum-wage increase is smaller than the boost created by, for example,
unemployment insurance benefits, it has the crucial advantage of not
imposing costs on the public sector.”

The economic benefits of a minimum wage increase are widely accepted. Over
600 economists signed a recent letter supporting an increase, arguing,
"Research suggests that a minimum-wage increase could have a small
stimulative effect on the economy as low-wage workers spend their
additional earnings, raising demand and job growth, and providing some help
on the jobs front."

*Associated Press, via Arkansas Business: “Clintonmania vs. Huckapalooza in
Arkansas Contests”
<http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/101567/clintonmania-vs-huckapalooza-in-arkansas-contests?page=all>*

By Kelly P. Kissel

October 26, 2014, 8:33 p.m. EDT

PINE BLUFF — In the rock-star world of Arkansas politics, it's Clintonmania
vs. Huckapalooza.

The state's biggest figures on the national political stage were back home
this last week, lending their names to their parties' candidates and
encouraging supporters to vote early ("and vote often," former Gov. Mike
Huckabee said).

"The last part I was kidding about. It's the only thing that will make the
paper, but that's OK," Huckabee added at a downtown Little Rock rally.

Former President Bill Clinton was in North Little Rock, Pine Bluff and
Forrest City on Oct. 19, telling black voters that if they didn't show up
for the midterm election they would play into Republican hands.

"They assume you will show up for a presidential election but won't" vote
in off-year elections, Clinton said at Pine Bluff. African-Americans are 16
percent of the state's population, but Clinton said polls showing
Republicans ahead in key races predict a lower turnout by blacks.

Republicans countered Monday with a Huckabee-led rally, and with a firm
belief that people — black or white — would vote Republican on Nov. 4 as a
protest vote against national Democrats.

"Arkansas has an incredible opportunity — an opportunity for all seven of
the constitutional officers, all of them, to be Republican in the state
Capitol," Huckabee said.

Huckabee was dubbed "the accidental governor" when he took office in 1996
following the Whitewater-related conviction of Gov. Jim Guy Tucker. Until
Win Rockefeller won a special election for lieutenant governor later that
year, Huckabee was the only Republican at a Capitol dominated by Democrats
since Reconstruction.

"Maybe that doesn't sink in to some of you like it does to me," Huckabee
said. "It was lonely. There was no one to go down the hall with and say,
'Hey, could you get a cup of coffee?'"

Both Clinton and Huckabee's visits were homecomings and reunions in a place
far different than the one they left — it's a two-party state. When both
parties have had strongly contested primaries, like 2010, Democrats have
drawn more voters, but Republicans now hold both chambers of the
Legislature and five of six seats in Congress.

"I remember when we had one of the six, and it is to your hard work that
that has happened," Huckabee told Republican supporters last week. "Many of
you never gave up during the lean and tough years."

Combined with an unpopular Democratic president, Republicans have a chance
to make unprecedented gains in races that remain tight with Election Day
just around the corner. Clinton wants to use his personal connections to
make sure the party he has led for years remains in power; Huckabee wants
to use his personal connections to make sure things change.

At Pine Bluff, Clinton campaigned with Democrats, including gubernatorial
candidate Mike Ross, a former driver from Clinton's own races for governor;
James Lee Witt, Clinton's former FEMA director running for Congress; and
Mark Pryor, the two-term incumbent senator whose father preceded Clinton as
governor.

At the Little Rock River Market, Huckabee campaigned with Republican
attorney general candidate Leslie Rutledge, a former governor's office
lawyer who worked on his 2008 presidential campaign, and French Hill, who
has run Huckabee political campaigns.

To promote party unity, Huckabee is also campaigning for gubernatorial
candidate Asa Hutchinson, a one-time GOP rival with whom he buried the
hatchet during the 2006 governor's race, and Tom Cotton, a congressman
running for Senate who is endorsed by the conservative group Club for
Growth — which Huckabee referred to as the Club for Greed after it opposed
his 2008 presidential bid. Huckabee has another rally set Monday in Conway.

Clinton has drawn much-larger crowds than Huckabee, but packing public
plazas means little if no one follows up at the polls.

Huckabee told faithful Republicans that when he talked to high school
students while governor, he had to impress on them that failing to vote was
apathy.

"Politicians don't work for the people. Politicians work for the voters,"
Huckabee said. "If you miss an election, you're basically saying, 'Do
whatever to me you want to do.'"

At Pine Bluff, Pryor said all of the rallies were fine to a point, but "It
doesn't amount to a hill of beans if we don't get out and vote," he said.

*New York Times: “Ahead of 2016, Immigration Activists Want Answers From
Clinton”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/ahead-of-2016-immigration-activists-want-answers-from-clinton.html>*

By Amy Chozick

October 26, 2014

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hillary Rodham Clinton had just finished telling the
crowd that North Carolina families could count on Senator Kay Hagan when
the chants of Oliver Merino — a 25-year-old whose mother, an undocumented
Mexican immigrant, faces deportation — grew louder.

He held a sign that read, “Hillary, do you stand with our immigrant
families?” and shouted that his mother lives in constant fear of
deportation. “I have to say that I understand immigration is an important
issue, and we appreciate that,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We thank you for your
advocacy.”

President Obama has promised executive action on immigration change after
the midterm elections. But immigration activists have already turned their
focus — and their frustration — to his potential successor.

The incident at a rally here on Saturday was only the latest time members
of a group of young, undocumented immigrants who call themselves Dreamers
have aggressively confronted Mrs. Clinton.

Thom Tillis, right, a North Carolina Republican who is running for Senate,
and Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, in Greensboro, N.C., in
September.The Bushes, Led by W., Rally to Make Jeb ‘45’OCT. 26, 2014

Behind the public confrontations is a quieter but concerted effort by a
critical bloc of young Latinos to urge others like them not to
automatically support Mrs. Clinton in an increasingly likely 2016
presidential campaign.

“If you’re going to pick politics over our families, you should know that
you can’t take this constituency for granted,” said Cristina Jimenez,
managing director of United We Dream, the largest national network of young
undocumented immigrants.

The targeting of Mrs. Clinton comes amid growing disillusionment about Mr.
Obama’s failure to enact immigration change and his handling of the arrival
of thousands of Central American children on the United States border. The
four members of the Dream Organizing Network who attended the rally here on
Saturday urged Mrs. Clinton to support executive action to stop
deportations.

By mobilizing against Mrs. Clinton two years before the next presidential
election, the self-named Dreamers hope to pressure her to commit to
immigration change or risk losing critical Latino votes.

Mrs. Clinton had overwhelming support among Hispanics in the 2008
Democratic primaries; in the 16 Super Tuesday contests that year, 63
percent of Latinos voted for Mrs. Clinton, compared with 35 percent for Mr.
Obama. But in the past six years, the immigration issue has become a flash
point among the 25.2 million Latinos who are eligible to vote in the 2014
midterm elections.

“Immigration is not the only issue, but it is the defining issue, and she
will need to learn that the old lines and old dynamics no longer apply,”
said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a pro-immigration
group.

Mrs. Clinton has drawn criticism from some Latinos by campaigning for
Democrats like Ms. Hagan, who was one of five Senate Democrats to vote
against the Dream Act that would have given undocumented immigrants who
came to the United States as children a path to legal status.

This month, Mrs. Clinton headlined a rally in Kentucky for Alison Lundergan
Grimes, the Senate candidate, shortly after her campaign released a TV ad
criticizing her Republican opponent, Senator Mitch McConnell, for voting to
grant “amnesty and taxpayer-funded benefits to three million illegal
aliens.”

Yash Mori, 19, who videotaped the confrontation on Saturday for United We
Dream, said, “If she stands with Hagan, then she obviously doesn’t stand
with the Latino community.”

Mrs. Clinton has said she supports the Dream Act and comprehensive
immigration change.

“I think it’s important to provide opportunities for young people, many of
them brought here as babies or young children who have imbued the American
dream in their genes,” Mrs. Clinton said at an event in April at the
University of Connecticut.

“She strikes a chord within the Latino community,” said Representative
Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas who has already endorsed the “super
PAC” Ready for Hillary.

“There is a sense that she cares deeply about the issues confronting the
community, and she has spent time nurturing relationships within the Latino
community,” Mr. Castro added.

When asked whether they would vote for Mrs. Clinton or the Republican
nominee for president in 2016, regardless of who that is, 63 percent of
Latinos ages 18 to 34 said they would vote for Mrs. Clinton, according to a
poll conducted in September by Bendixen and Amandi International for
Fusion, the fledgling network owned by ABC and Univision.

But how she handles the immigration issue could impact her popularity, said
Matt A. Barreto, co-founder of the polling and research firm Latino
Decisions.

In June, Mrs. Clinton told CNN that the Central American children “should
be sent back as soon as it can be determined who responsible adults in
their families are,” a statement that made some young Latinos question her
commitment to their communities.

Not long after that, Jorge Ramos of Fusion asked Mrs. Clinton if she had a
“Latino problem.” Mrs. Clinton replied, “I hope not!” and then said only
those children who do not have a legitimate claim for asylum or a family
connection in the United States should be sent back.

Her initial comments struck some immigration activists as even more
hard-line than the statements out of Mr. Obama’s White House.

“She was a lawyer who represented children,” said Mony Ruiz-Velasco, a
Chicago-based immigration lawyer who referred to Mrs. Clinton’s work with
the Children’s Defense Fund. “The last position we’d think she would take
would be curtailing due process for children.”

In September, after a campaign rally in Indianola, Iowa, Monica Reyes
introduced herself as a Dreamer and asked Mrs. Clinton about Mr. Obama’s
delay on immigration change. Mrs. Clinton eventually told the young
activists, “You know, I think we have to elect more Democrats.”

The exchange, posted on YouTube, made some Latinos believe Mrs. Clinton may
take their support for granted. Frustration with Mr. Obama, a record number
of deportations over the past six years and stalled immigration change have
made Latinos less devoutly Democrat than they have been in the past,
according to recent polls.

“I don’t think she had any idea of how that response was perceived by a
young Dreamer who is thinking, ‘Um, we’ve elected a lot of Democrats,’ ”
Mr. Sharry said of Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Merino, the protester who continued his chants until security personnel
escorted him out of the Charlotte Convention Center, said he wanted to see
Mrs. Clinton encourage Mr. Obama to take executive action to end
deportations. “For Hagan and for Hillary Clinton to say they support
families, but at the same time they want to deport my mother, I think that
is a contradiction that needs to be raised,” Mr. Merino said in an
interview after the rally.

The activists have also confronted Mr. Obama and potential 2016
presidential candidates on the Republican side, including Senator Marco
Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American.

For some of them, Mrs. Clinton is only marginally more aligned with them on
this issue than Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Jeb Bush, the former
governor of Florida whose wife is Mexican, who both enjoy support among
Hispanics.

In January, Mr. Christie signed into law a bill that allowed undocumented
college students to pay in-state tuition. And conservatives have criticized
Mr. Bush for saying that coming to the United States illegally is “not a
felony. It’s an act of love.”

Many immigration activists said it was Mrs. Clinton’s husband’s actions
that led to the formation of the Dreamers movement. In 1996, President Bill
Clinton signed into law the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act, which created new barriers for undocumented immigrants
to gain legal status or return after deportation.

“There were no Dreamers before 1996 because there was a way for people with
long-term status to obtain citizenship,” Ms. Ruiz-Velasco said.

While Mrs. Clinton cannot be held responsible for legislation her husband
enacted, given the importance of the Latino vote and the sensitivity about
immigration, activists said she would probably have to address the 1996
bill.

“She has to declare independence from both the Obama administration’s track
record and her own husband’s track record,” said Jose Antonio Vargas, an
undocumented Filipino immigrant and founder of Define American, an
immigration activist group.

Cesar Vargas, a co-director of the Dream Action Coalition who along with
Ms. Reyes yelled out to Mrs. Clinton in Iowa, said the group would continue
to try to get answers about her specific positions.

“We are going to make sure we are ready to question Hillary Clinton and not
be completely blinded by a candidate’s celebrity,” Mr. Vargas said.
“Immigrant communities are not ‘Ready for Hillary.’ ”

*Bloomberg: “Republicans Blast Hillary Clinton's Attempt at Channeling
Elizabeth Warren”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-27/republicans-blast-hillary-clintons-attempt-at-channeling-elizabeth-warren>*

By Steven Yaccino

October 26, 2014, 8:17 p.m. EDT

[Subtitle:] The former Secretary of State has given her GOP rivals a
memorable line of attack.

While campaigning in Massachusetts on Friday Hillary Clinton sounded, at
times, an awful lot like Elizabeth Warren.

While both women were in the state to stump for votes for Democratic
gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley, Clinton took a few moments to
praise Warren as a "passionate champion for working people and middle-class
families," and gushed "I love Elizabeth."

But when Clinton, who has sometimes been criticized by the left wing of the
Democratic party for her Wall Street ties, went on to test out a few
Warren-esuqe attacks on trickle-down economics, something didn't quite
click.

"Don't let anybody tell you that, you know, it's corporations and
businesses that create jobs,” Clinton said before continuing her critique
of Republican economic policies.

An aide to Clinton later told Politico she was talking about tax breaks for
corporations, but the comment has come in for a good old-fashioned
Twitterverse pummeling, and the remark is almost guaranteed to resurface in
a 2016 presidential campaign.

Among the swift and merciless Republican reactions, Ari Fleischer, the
former White House press secretary George W. Bush, tweeted:

*Ari Fleischer* @AriFleischer: Hillary: "Don't let anyone tell u it's
corporations&businesses that create jobs." How then did private sector
people get jobs? Who did it??? [10/24/14, 5:27 p.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/AriFleischer/status/525760488807096320>]

San Spicer, the communications director for the Republican National
Committee, also chimed in:

*Sean Spicer* @seanspicer: that make you go hmmmm..... @USAToday
<https://twitter.com/USATODAY> : @HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> : It's not businesses that create jobs
cc @singernews <https://twitter.com/singernews>
http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2014/10/25/hillary-clinton-its-not-businesses-that-create-jobs/
…
<http://t.co/hLENokPqh9> [10/25/14, 11:51 a.m. EDT
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-27/republicans-blast-hillary-clintons-attempt-at-channeling-elizabeth-warren>
]

Speaking to the New York Times, Tim Miller, head of the conservative
America Rising PAC, called Mrs. Clinton’s remark “a ham-handed attempt to
pander to liberal voters.”  The group put the video on its website with the
tagline “Who exactly is creating the jobs then, Sec. Clinton?“

Conservative news outlets have posted footage of the comments—dubbed
"Hillarynomics" by a headline on the blog Hot Air—the links of which have
been tweeted and re-tweeted by the public ad nauseam, at times with insults
attached.

Others are joyfully comparing Clinton’s gaffe to the “you didn’t build
that” remarks President Obama made in 2012 while he was talking about the
role government plays in the success of businesses.

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,” the
president said two years ago, in the middle of his re-election campaign.
“There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to
create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to
thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business,
you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

As you may recall, the GOP immediately used those words in TV ads to
characterize the president as anti-business and out of touch. “We Built It”
became a theme for the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Somewhere, Republicans are likely brainstorming a similar refrain for 2016.

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “2014 feels like 2016 already in Iowa”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/221913-2014-feels-like-2016-already-in-iowa>*

By Scott Wong

October 27, 2014, 6:00 a.m. EDT

URBANDALE, Iowa – The 2014 midterm election is just over a week away, but
it might as well be 2016 in the Hawkeye State.

Prospective presidential hopefuls are swooping into Iowa as they try to
boost support for House and Senate candidates –along with the added benefit
of connecting with voters who play host to the first-in the-nation
presidential caucuses.

Vice President Biden will hold a rally Monday morning in Davenport with
Rep. Bruce Braley (D), who’s battling GOP state Sen. Joni Ernst in a race
to replace retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

Then, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who’s been visiting early presidential
primary states as he weights a White House run, will speak alongside Ernst,
Gov. Terry Branstad and other Iowa Republicans at the Scott County GOP’s
annual Ronald Reagan dinner Tuesday night in neighboring Bettendorf.

The next day, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic
frontrunner if she decides to run, will make two stops with Braley — the
first at a union hall in Cedar Rapids, the second at the RiverCenter atrium
in Davenport.

Former President Bill Clinton stumps with Braley on Saturday in Waterloo’s
Electric Park Ballroom, where he'll headline the 10th annual Bruce, Blues &
BBQ event.

“It’s going to be electric there on Saturday night,” Braley told supporters
Sunday at a canvassing rally here in Urbandale as he ticked off the
big-name Democrats who are offering their time and support.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has tamped down speculation about a
presidential bid, declaring herself a member of Team Hillary. But on
Saturday night after campaigning with Braley, the freshman senator
headlined the Iowa Democratic Party's annual Jefferson Jackson dinner in
downtown Des Moines, receiving a warm reception.

Across town that night, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another Republican
eyeing higher office, raised cash for Branstad at his annual birthday bash
in Clive. Christie, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association,
will be back in the state on Thursday to campaign for Branstad.

"America used to control events both here at home and around the world. And
now it seems that our fate is being dictated to us by others," Christie
told the crowd in what was described by the Associated Press as a
presidential pitch. "It is because of the lack of leadership that we have
in the White House. It has been six long years, but I bring you good news:
There are only two more years left.”

House Speaker John Boehner isn’t running for president, but he’s here in
Iowa too, railing against the man who now occupies the White House. The
Ohio Republican is campaigning with three GOP House candidates in a bid to
grow his current 17-seat majority in next week’s election.

“When you look at the president’s failed economic policies, from Obamacare
to the Dodd Frank law, to untamed bureaucracies in Washington writing every
rule and regulation,” Boehner said Sunday at a rally for GOP candidate
David Young in Urbandale, “you can  understand why … I’ve heard the same
thing over and over and over: Where are the jobs?

“His policies are not working and it’s time for a new path," Boehner added,
"and the way we get on a new path is right here in this district with this
election in eight days.”

Some Iowa voters said they’re downright sick of being bombarded by TV ads,
phone calls and mailers this election cycle — and haven’t even tuned into
the 2014 campaigns.

“I’m not looking at any of them really,” said Gwen Young, 58, a registered
Republican who lives in Des Moines. “All the negative ads and all the phone
calls, I don’t think they should call from the campaigns. That turns me
off.”

And forget Sen. Rand Paul  (R-Ky.) or Rubio or Christie. Young said,
without a hint of irony, she wants Donald Trump to run in 2016.

“I think a businessman would be better at getting the economy turned around
than all the politicians,” she said.

*San Francisco Chronicle: “President Hillary Clinton key to Nancy Pelosi’s
return as speaker”
<http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/President-Hillary-Clinton-key-to-Nancy-Pelosi-s-5849341.php>*

By Carolyn Lochhead

October 26, 2014, 8:55 p.m.

Nancy Pelosi has made clear she wants to make history again. Not this year
but in 2016, when she hopes to reclaim the House speakership under a
President Hillary Rodham Clinton and shatter the glass ceiling to
smithereens.

But first she must hold down Democratic losses on election day, or risk
seeing that vision slip out of reach.

“If the Republicans were to net 12 or 13 seats, it would be next to
impossible for Nancy to take over the speaker’s gavel even if Hillary won”
in 2016, said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “The Republicans would
almost have a Hillary-proof majority.”

Republicans now hold 234 House seats out of 435. Just a dozen more would
give them their biggest majority since Harry Truman was president in 1946.

Although California has reformed its election laws to remove control of
redistricting from politicians, gerrymandering in the rest of the country
means only about 50 House seats are in play in any election, O’Connell
said. With the GOP dominating deeply conservative states, primarily in the
South, O’Connell calculates that the Democratic presidential nominee in
2016 would have to win in a landslide to pull along enough of the party’s
House candidates to reinstall Pelosi as speaker.

*GOP 'wave’*

Some independent analysts are skeptical of GOP boasts of a “wave” election
breaking their way next week, but Republicans are expected to gain several
seats in the House. Analysts are wrestling with unpredictable turnout and
the sour national mood typical of the sixth year of all modern
presidencies, including the two most popular, Republican Ronald Reagan’s
and Democrat Bill Clinton’s.

Nathan Gonzales, House analyst for the Rothenberg Political Report, a
nonpartisan handicapping firm, is projecting GOP gains of two to 10 seats,
but said that could change. “I don’t think larger gains can be ruled out,”
he said. “Democrats might be putting themselves in a hole that might take
multiple cycles to climb out of.”

Now 74 and the longest-serving party leader in the House since the
legendary Sam Rayburn of Texas died in office in 1961, Pelosi has shown no
sign of stepping down. At a press conference this month in Washington,
Pelosi said, “I know that in two years there will be a Democratic Congress
and a Democratic president.”

When reporters pounced, asking if she was conceding Democratic losses this
year, Pelosi replied, “I’m saying that this fall it’s important for us to
come as close to that as possible.”

At a women’s “power luncheon” for Hillary Clinton that Pelosi hosted in San
Francisco last week, Pelosi broadly hinted at her goals.

*Title goal*

“I am frequently introduced as the highest-ranking woman in political
office in our country,” she said. “I’d like to give up that title and elect
a Democratic woman for president of the United States. And soon.”

Pelosi’s political action committee, the House Majority PAC, has shifted
its focus recently from attacking vulnerable Republicans to protecting
endangered Democrats, including one of the most embattled in the country,
first-term Rep. Ami Bera. He defeated veteran Republican Rep. Dan Lungren
two years ago to win his Sacramento-area district but is struggling in this
election to hold off GOP challenger Doug Ose.

House leaders traditionally step down after big election losses, but Pelosi
has defied expectations, even after a historic drubbing in 2010 that cost
Democrats 63 House seats and robbed her of the gavel.

*Minority clout*

Speculation about her future is a perennial Washington parlor game, but her
caucus appears to remain solidly behind her. And she’s more than a
figurehead. House Speaker John Boehner’s difficulty managing a GOP caucus
heavily weighted with Tea Party conservatives has given Pelosi an unusual
amount of leverage, even in the minority.

A House leadership aide said a big motivation for Pelosi in staying on is
to protect her accomplishments during President Obama’s first term,
including passage of the Affordable Care Act.

As for making history again — Pelosi is the first woman to ever be House
speaker — the aide pointed to Pelosi’s comments in San Francisco as a sign
of her intentions.

*Big fundraiser*

Pelosi’s biggest trump card is money. She’s a prolific fundraiser who has
brought in $400 million for her party since 2002, more than a third of the
budget of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That alone all
but assures that she can remain Democratic House leader as long as she
wants.

Maybe someone would challenge Pelosi for the leadership if Hillary Clinton
were to be elected president in 2016, said Stanford University political
scientist Bruce Cain.

But until then, he said, “who wants to incur the career costs of a failed
coup for a job with no policy impact and the downside risk of getting
blamed if the Democratic caucus loses more seats in the meantime?

“I don’t see any hands in the air,” Cain said. “Nancy, you can keep your
job.”

*Associated Press: “Family ties can be a candidate's blessing or curse”
<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4e475d9338d8428aafb6f4e3ce19e4c3/family-ties-can-be-candidates-blessing-or-curse>*

By Donna Cassata

October 27, 2014, 4:59 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ah, the family. They can be a candidate's sounding board,
worthy surrogates and an attractive image for a television ad.

Or they can be a massive headache to rival any uncomfortable Thanksgiving
dinner.

In Arkansas, former Sen. David Pryor and his wife, Barbara, campaign for
son Mark, the incumbent Democratic senator, while onetime elected officials
— Georgia's Sam Nunn, Florida's Bob Graham and Louisiana's Moon Landrieu —
are lending a hand to their daughters.

Gwen Graham is seeking a House seat in northern Florida, Michelle Nunn is
running for the Senate and Mary Landrieu is pursuing a fourth Senate term.
The presence of their fathers, whether in campaign ads or on the trail, is
a reminder to older voters, crucial in low-turnout midterm elections, of
the Southern Democrats of the past.

Family also can be about the future.

Republican Rep. Tom Cotton, who is looking to unseat Mark Pryor, frequently
mentions that he and his wife, Anna, are expecting the couple's first
child, a boy, in April.

Those are the positives, but the family affair can have its pitfalls,
creating problems for political hopefuls who suddenly have some explaining
to do because of a spouse or relative.

In Nevada last week, seven members of Paul Laxalt's family endorsed his
rival for attorney general, Democrat Ross Miller, writing in a letter to
the editor in the Las Vegas Sun that Miller was the "most qualified."

In Oregon this month, the fiancee of Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber
shockingly admitted that she was paid to illegally marry an immigrant in
1997. The sham marriage forced the governor to talk about how he was hurt
rather than the issues.

___

House Republican candidate and Iraq War veteran Paul Chabot couldn't make
the Immanuel Baptist Salt and Light Ministry forum with local and
congressional candidates on Oct. 9 in Highland, California, so he sent his
wife, Brenda.

Questioned whether the country was spending enough on defense, Brenda
Chabot said no and then offered a testimonial about her husband, saying "he
wouldn't tell you this because he is pretty humble, but he actually wrote
the strategy to defeat al-Qaida in Iraq in 2008 when the surge occurred."

Retired Army Gen. David Petraeus is largely credited with drawing up the
strategy of dispatching more U.S. troops into Iraq that former President
George W. Bush announced on Jan. 10, 2007.

Chabot, it turns out, was a military intelligence officer who wrote a paper
in 2008 titled, "Theory to Strategy: How to Defeat al-Qaida in Iraq and
around the Globe. A conceptual model to defeat terrorist and high-level
criminal organizations."

Asked about his wife's comments, Paul Chabot said in an interview, "It's
not 'the' strategy, it was 'a' strategy, in fact there were many strategies
if you will."

He complained that "it's a new low when they drag in a candidate's spouse."

Chabot faces Democrat Pete Aguilar, the mayor of Redlands, for the open
seat.

___

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter has the most high-profile
relative — his grandfather, former President Jimmy Carter.

In his campaign against Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, the younger Carter has
had to answer for several of his grandfather's comments and positions.

The elder Carter criticized Israel and Hamas in Foreign Policy magazine
this year. Carter wrote that "there is no humane or legal justification for
the way the Israeli Defense Forces are conducting this war," and the former
president called the death of hundreds of Palestinian noncombatants a
"humanitarian catastrophe."

Facing questions, Jason Carter told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "I
believe that Israel has a right to defend itself, especially against Hamas'
terrorist actions."

___

In Iowa's competitive Senate race, Republicans have made hay about
chickens, specifically the dispute that Democratic candidate Bruce Braley
and his wife, Carolyn, had with a neighbor over her chickens who wandered
onto the couple's vacation property.

The Braleys complained to the neighborhood association. The association's
board ruled that the chickens were pets that could be kept in the yard if
they were fenced in.

Republican candidate Joni Ernst claimed that Bruce Braley had threatened to
sue his neighbor over chickens. Braley and fact-checkers said not so.

Separately, Ernst had to answer questions about critical comments her
husband, Gail, posted on his Facebook page, including calling former
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a "hag" and joking about shooting
a former spouse. The candidate told the Des Moines Register she was
appalled by her husband's comments, which were removed from his Facebook
page.

*Huffington Post opinion: Robert Kuttner: “Would Warren Really Run?”
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/would-warren-really-run_b_6051424.html?utm_hp_ref=politics>*

By Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect

October 26, 2014, 8:42 p.m. EDT

What is Elizabeth Warren up to?

Elizabeth Warren's offhand remark in an interview with People magazine
strongly suggested that the Massachusetts senator has revised her previous
firm declarations of non-candidacy for president and is now deliberately
leaving the door open a crack. Asked whether she was considering a run in
2016, Warren said disarmingly, "I don't think so," but added, "If there's
any lesson I've learned in the last five years, it's don't be so sure about
what lies ahead. There are amazing doors that could open."

That sure opened one door. Is Warren really thinking about challenging
frontrunner Hillary Clinton? I'd be surprised if Warren has made any
decision on that question, but her remark immediately set off two kinds of
political waves.

First, it produced great excitement among the Democratic Party's
long-suffering progressive base. And second, it reminded many commentators
of Clinton's several vulnerabilities.

Clinton, after all, was the certain Democratic nominee once before, in
2008. But she couldn't quite close the sale. Despite her extensive
experience, Clinton was overtaken by a novice senator, an African American,
no less.

Among her other liabilities, Clinton is well to the right of the party
base, both on issues of financial reform and on foreign policy. She comes
attached to Bill Clinton, who is a superb politician but also something of
a loose cannon. The financial/political conglomerate that links the Clinton
Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative and other family enterprises to
six-figure speaking gigs could present a high profile target.

Her one trump, despite the fact that Hillary often seems so yesterday and
so centrist is that she represents a dazzling breakthrough in American
politics -- she would be the first woman nominee of a major party and the
first female president. On the other hand, if Warren ran, she would
immediately deny Clinton that trump. And unlike Clinton, Warren is a woman
who made it in politics on her own, and not as half of a couple whose
husband was president first.

Warren has dazzled progressive Democrats as the loyal opposition to Barack
Obama in her role as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the
financial bailout known as the TARP. She also came from behind to win a
senate race in Massachusetts raising the most money -- $43 bilion -- ever
raised for a senate campaign, most of it in small donations. She assembled
an army of 250,000 grass roots volunteers.

The conventional assumption is that it's Hillary's turn, but in a sense
this is more Elizabeth Warren's moment than it is Hillary Clinton's. The
economy is still stagnant, and the health of the financial industry has
been put ahead of the wellbeing of regular Americans.

Warren has a capacity to energize passion among grassroots voters, probably
to a greater degree than Clinton does. One of the reasons for the rise of
the Tea Parties was the sense that the Obama administration was too close
to Wall Street. Nobody could say that of Elizabeth Warren.

That said, it is still a long shot that Warren would challenge Clinton. I
have no inside information on this, but I suspect that Warren softened her
Shermanesque declaration of non-candidate because Clinton in fact may not
run. If Clinton decided not to make the race, for health or other reasons,
Warren would find grassroots pressure well nigh irresistible. She is the de
facto leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and for good
reason. She has now signaled that there are in fact circumstances under
which she would run.

Warren may also want to keep Hillary guessing in order to put salutary
pressure on her to run as a more resolute progressive. And sure enough, in
her recent appearance on behalf of Martha Coakley, the Democrats'
lackluster candidate for governor of Massachusetts, Clinton gave a populist
speech right out of Warren's playbook, declaring, "I am so pleased to be
here with your senior senator, the passionate champion for working people
and middle-class families, Elizabeth Warren!"

In the latest issue of the American Prospect, I wrote a feature piece
comparing Warren's strengths with Clinton's latent weaknesses. I couldn't
quite believe that Warren would run against Clinton, so I framed the piece
as "What Clinton Can Learn from Warren."

Clinton may yet learn a few campaign tricks from Warren. But she will be 69
years old in 2016, and it would take a miracle for her to be reborn as a
Warren-style progressive. It's still a long shot that Warren will make the
race, but stranger things have happened in American politics.

*New York Times: “The Bushes, Led by W., Rally to Make Jeb ‘45’”
<http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/the-bushes-led-by-w-rally-to-make-jeb-45.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&referrer=>*

By Peter Baker

October 26, 2014

WASHINGTON — When Jeb Bush decides whether to run for president, there will
be no family meeting à la Mitt Romney, no gathering at Walker’s Point in
Kennebunkport to go over the pros and cons. “I don’t think it’ll be like a
big internal straw poll,” said his son, Jeb Bush Jr.

But if there were, the results of the poll are pretty much in. As Mr. Bush
nears a decision to become the third member of his storied family to seek
the presidency, the extended Bush clan and its attendant network, albeit
with one prominent exception, are largely rallying behind the prospect and
pulling the old machine out of the closet.

“No question,” Jeb Jr. said in an interview, “people are getting fired up
about it — donors and people who have been around the political process for
a while, people he’s known in Tallahassee when he was governor. The family,
we’re geared up either way.” Most important, he added, his mother, Columba,
the prospective candidate’s politics-averse wife, has given her assent.

Within the family, the top cheerleaders have been George H. W. Bush and
George W. Bush, both of whom know something about running for president,
and both of whom have an interest in perpetuating, if not redeeming, the
family legacy. Barbara Bush, the former first lady and Jeb Bush’s mother,
is unconvinced, according to people close to the family, but has been
persuaded to stop saying it so publicly. George P. Bush, his other son, who
is running for Texas land commissioner, has been supportive of what he
calls a likely run.

And then there is the larger Bush clan, the vast constellation of friends,
advisers, strategists, pollsters, fund-raisers, donors and supporters
assembled over several generations in public life. With Jeb Bush, the
former two-term governor of Florida, comes one more chance to reach the
top. “They’re like horses in the stall waiting for the gate to break,” said
one family insider who has known Jeb Bush for decades and like others did
not want to be named. “They’re all jumping up and down.”

Just six years ago, at the end of the last tumultuous Bush presidency, this
would have been all but unthinkable. But President Obama’s troubles, the
internal divisions of the Republican Party, a newfound nostalgia for the
first Bush presidency and a modest softening of views about the second have
changed the dynamics enough to make plausible another Bush candidacy. And
while Jeb Bush wants to run as his own man, invariably this is a family
with something to prove.

For the elder Mr. Bush, Jeb was always the son expected to go far in
politics, the serious one with drive to spare. After George W. gave up
drinking and surpassed his brother, the elder Mr. Bush still harbored
ambitions for the second son. Now 90 and in fading health, Mr. Bush has
been animated about a possible Jeb campaign, according to friends.

“If it were up to his father, he would be a candidate,” said Jim McGrath, a
spokesman for the former president. But the Bushes are wary of the
presumption of a dynasty.

“They’re very sensitive to the idea that anyone might think the family
feels entitled to the nomination,” Mr. McGrath said. “First of all, it just
wouldn’t be true. And second of all, they understand it would be poison to
a candidacy if that perception were ever to get out there.”

As for George W., he has not been especially close to Jeb, who is seven
years younger. By all accounts, the former president is closer to their
younger brother, Marvin, who visited him in the White House or at Camp
David regularly.

But George W. has become an outspoken advocate of a White House bid by Jeb.
“The one person who is really, really trying to get Jeb to run is George
W.,” said the family insider. “He’s talking it up all the time.”

The former president lobbied Jeb when the two saw each other in Dallas
several weeks ago, but he acknowledged with a laugh that his pressure could
backfire. “I don’t think he liked it that his older brother was pushing
him,” Mr. Bush told Fox News afterward.

None of that means Jeb Bush will run. He has said he will decide by the end
of the year, and could simply be keeping the possibility open to enhance
his influence on the political stage. To some who have spoken with him in
recent months, he has not exhibited the same fire that his father and
brother did at this stage.

Advisers to Mr. Bush said he has not authorized anyone to line up money or
people to work for him. Some of the positions he has taken on immigration,
taxes and education are at odds with the prevailing orthodoxy of his party.
He knows he would have to find a way to distance himself from some of the
unpopular decisions of his father, and especially of his brother, while
overcoming broader Bush fatigue.

And he has said publicly he does not want to run if it means getting caught
in the “vortex of a mud fight,” acutely aware of the perils of bringing his
family into the harsh light of modern politics. Columba was once stopped by
customs agents for not declaring the full value of $19,000 in clothing and
jewelry she bought in Paris, and their daughter Noelle was arrested on a
prescription drug fraud charge a dozen years ago.

“He has certainly not given anyone I’m aware of the ability to have
conversations with potential donors or staff to keep his powder dry,” said
Sally Bradshaw, a longtime adviser. “That doesn’t mean people don’t call us
and say we want Jeb to run. But he has not given a green light to that.”

Having said that, Mr. Bush has been active on the campaign trail,
effectively building up chits. He has appeared at more than 35 campaign
events for such figures as Governors Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina,
Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma and Rick Snyder of
Michigan and Senate candidates like Joni Ernst in Iowa, Tom Cotton in
Arkansas and Cory Gardner in Colorado.

He has cultivated the family network as well, appearing at an anniversary
of his father’s administration held in College Station, Tex., last spring
and speaking to many other family supporters at his brother’s presidential
library outside Dallas several weeks ago. The family believes the party’s
money men have been waiting for Jeb and will give him an instant foundation
if he runs, making him an establishment favorite against the insurgent
conservative wing of the party.

“The Bush network is definitely there, and a lot of good feelings about
both 41 and 43 and what they stood for — a lot of that translates to Jeb,”
said Mark Langdale, former president of the George W. Bush Foundation who
saw him in Dallas. “He had a great record in Florida. He’s somebody who
could bring a lot of different groups together. He’s a thoughtful guy.”

In an interview that aired on “This Week” on ABC News on Sunday, George P.
Bush said that he thought it was “more than likely” that his father would
run. “If you had asked me a few years back, I would have said it was less
likely,” he said.

Friends and relatives took notice when Jeb Bush told a reporter during a
campaign swing for his son that his wife would support a bid should he make
one. Jeb Bush Jr. said that was important. “She’s not a big fan of politics
and all the ugly things that go along with it, especially as it seems like
it’s gotten worse with every passing cycle,” he said. “But she loves Dad
and she loves the country, and I think she’ll be supportive.”

Jeb Bush Jr. said his father would make a decision after next week’s
midterm elections, informed by experience no other possible candidate has
had.

“If there’s one guy out there who knows how to run a presidential campaign,
it’s definitely him,” he said. “He’s been around it, really, since 1980. He
understands the full-court press.”

*Calendar:*

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

·  October 27 – NY: Sec. Clinton campaigns for Rep. Sean Patrick
Maloney (Capital
NY
<http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/10/8555194/hillary-clinton-stump-sean-patrick-maloney?top-featured-1>
)

·  October 29 – IA: Sec. Clinton campaigns for Iowa Senate candidate Bruce
Braley (Quad-City Times
<http://qctimes.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/hilary-clinton-to-visit-davenport-on-wednesday/article_2b22a4a8-419e-5804-a2b8-08525879199d.html>
)

·  October 30 – Washington, DC: Sec. Clinton speaks at the launch of The
International Council on Women’s Business Leadership (CNN
<https://twitter.com/danmericaCNN/status/522470101749342208>)

·  October 30 – College Park, MD: Sec. Clinton appears at a rally for
Maryland gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown (WaPo
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/hillary-clinton-to-rally-support-for-anthony-brown-at-the-university-of-maryland/2014/10/26/e853aa2e-5c94-11e4-bd61-346aee66ba29_story.html>
)

·  November 2  – NH: Sec. Clinton appears at a GOTV rally for Gov. Hassan
and Sen. Shaheen (AP
<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/03fe478acd0344bab983323d3fb353e2/clinton-planning-lengthy-campaign-push-month>
)

·  December 1 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton keynotes a League of
Conservation Voters dinner (Politico
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/hillary-clinton-green-groups-las-vegas-111430.html?hp=l11>
)

·  December 4 – Boston, MA: Sec. Clinton speaks at the Massachusetts
Conference for Women (MCFW <http://www.maconferenceforwomen.org/speakers/>)