Subject: CORRECTED VERSION: Correct The Record Tuesday November 4, 2014 Morning Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2014 09:31:49 -0500
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*​**Correct The Record Tuesday November 4, 2014 Morning Roundup:*

*Headlines:*

*Politico: “Chicken soup for the Democratic soul”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/2014-elections-democrats-112477.html>*

“And then, of course, there’s the chicken soup with instant healing power:
‘Just wait until Hillary Clinton runs and all the Republican candidates
start beating each other up.’”

*MSNBC: “Hillary concludes busy campaign season with raised profile”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-concludes-busy-campaign-season>*

“Earlier in the cycle, some Democrats worried she would not lend her star
power to the party’s candidates in what promised to be a difficult year for
Democrats, but campaigns from Pennsylvania to Iowa to Kentucky have been
very happy with her efforts.”

*Politico: “Hillary Clinton set to receive award”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/hillary-clinton-ripple-of-hope-award-112478.html>*

“Hillary Clinton will be honored by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for
Justice and Human Rights next month, alongside Robert De Niro and Tony
Bennett, according to an invitation for the event.”

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “House Dems brace for losses”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/222738-house-dems-brace-for-losses>*

“Many Democrats think they’ll have a shot at winning back the House in 2016
on the wings of a strong presidential candidate — say, Hillary Clinton — if
they can keep losses this year to a minimum.”

*MSNBC: “Meet Staci Appel, Hillary Clinton’s top congressional candidate”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/meet-staci-appel-hillary-clintons-top-congressional-candidate>*

“Appel is running for Congress in an open seat from this true tossup
district that includes Des Moines and the Southwest quadrant of the state.
And she’s got a fan in Hillary Clinton, who has praised Appel in speeches
from San Francisco to New York City.”

*Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton’s 45 events in 54 days: Midterm stops
and maybe a 2016 preview”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clintons-45-events-in-54-days-midterm-stops-and-maybe-a-2016-preview/2014/11/03/fed9688c-63a2-11e4-9fdc-d43b053ecb4d_story.html?tid=hpModule_f8335a3c-868c-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394>*

“As one of her party’s most popular figures and a proven fund-raiser,
Clinton was both doing a favor for Democrats around the country this year
and, perhaps, gathering supporters and building a network that she would
need next year and in 2016 if she were to launch another White House bid.”

*CNN: “Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign quietly begins to take
shape” <http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/03/politics/hillary-clinton-campaign/>*

“With a trio of pro-Hillary superPACs -- Ready for Hillary, Priorities USA
Action and Correct the Record -- months into shoring up support, a Clinton
campaign is already well underway outside of her inner circle.”

*Politico: “A midterm referendum on Barack Obama”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/midterm-elections-referendum-barack-obama-112474.html?ml=tb>*

“President Barack Obama’s policies aren’t actually on the ballot, and
neither is he. But 2014 has been all about him.”

*Mediaite: “Beck: GOP Taking Control Could End Up Helping Hillary”
<http://www.mediaite.com/online/beck-gop-taking-control-could-end-up-helping-hillary/>*

“Glenn Beck isn’t too eager about Republicans potentially taking control of
the Senate, and argued today that the GOP in charge could actually be
exactly what Hillary Clinton and President Obama are hoping for.”

*Articles:*

*Politico: “Chicken soup for the Democratic soul”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/2014-elections-democrats-112477.html>*

By David Nather

November 4, 2014, 5:04 a.m. EST

When this election is over, the Democrats are going to need a whole lot of
healing.

They’re staring at the very real prospect of losing the Senate for the
first time since 2006. If they somehow manage to hang on, they’ll be left
with an even thinner majority and more gridlock, as if that was possible.
They’re sure to lose more House seats, either way.

So they’re going to need some good talking points to make their voters —
and the donors — feel better. They’re going to need some chicken soup for
the Democratic soul.

They’ll have lots of heartwarming stories to offer. They can talk about how
terrible the Senate map was for them this year. They can certainly talk
about how much better it will be in 2016, with more Republicans defending
their seats in purple states — enough that they might have a real shot at
winning back the Senate.

And then, of course, there’s the chicken soup with instant healing power:
“Just wait until Hillary Clinton runs and all the Republican candidates
start beating each other up.”

Sooner or later, though, they’re going to notice the fly in the soup: two
years of lost seats and diminished power — and Barack Obama’s presidency
running on fumes. There’s sure to be finger-pointing as some Democrats
blame Obama’s plummeting approval ratings. And even if they win some
high-profile governor’s races, a feature that was supposed to be a
highlight of this election, it’s looking more likely that they’ll lose
others and it will end up a wash.

To be sure, if the Democrats hold on to the Senate, the future is a lot
brighter. All of a sudden, they’ll be talking about building their majority
rather than trying to win it back. No matter what happens, though, the next
two years on the Hill will be difficult ones — because they’ll either be
out of power or clinging to it by their fingernails.

Here are the morale boosters Democrats will use to cheer themselves once
the election is over:

1. We never had a chance

Democrats have been bracing for a terrible year all along. The seats
they’re trying to hold are heavy on conservative states like Arkansas,
Louisiana, North Carolina, Alaska, West Virginia and Montana.

Midterms rarely go well for the president’s party anyway, let alone for
someone whose approval ratings are in the low-40 percent range. So it’s
kind of a miracle for them that the races have been so close, in theory.

But really — Colorado? Iowa? What happened? It’s not as if Democrats can’t
compete in those purple states — Obama won them twice — yet Iowa’s Bruce
Braley and Colorado’s Mark Udall are in serious danger of coming up short.
Should they lose, Democrats won’t be able to blame the lousy Senate map.

Republicans, who have been through recent election night disappointments of
their own, have a bit of advice for the Democrats: If it turns out badly,
think about why you lost.

“Excuses are the first stage of grief,” said Ron Bonjean, a GOP strategist
and former Hill leadership aide. “They did have solid candidates and
incumbents, but the fact is that Obama’s policies just swamped it out
across the board.”

2. 2016 is our year

This is one of the Democrats’ favorite comebacks: If you think the Senate
map was bad to us this year, just look at how bad it will be to Republicans
in 2016.

This time, it will be Republicans defending seats in blue-to-purple states:
Rob Portman in Ohio, Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, Pat Toomey in
Pennsylvania, Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, Mark Kirk in Illinois. And it will
happen during a presidential election year, when voter turnout is sure to
be higher than it is during a midterm election.

“There is an increasing correlation between presidential voting and
senatorial voting and gubernatorial voting,” said Democratic pollster Mark
Mellman. “That means the map is our own worst enemy now, but in 2016, the
map will be a very good friend.”

Or, as former Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt put it: “They call them election
cycles for a reason.”

The catch: It’s not as if there are no vulnerable Democrats up in 2016.
Michael Bennet of Colorado, who squeaked by in 2010, will have to run for
another term. And don’t forget Harry Reid, who would be in for the fight of
his life if popular Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval decides to challenge him.

3. Hillary will save us

The rest of the country may be in suspense, but Democratic consultants
really aren’t. They have no doubt that Hillary Clinton will be the party’s
next presidential nominee and that Republicans will be at a big
disadvantage because they don’t have anyone who’s the same kind of natural
front-runner — and because they’ll tear each other up in the primaries.

“You’d think it would be tough for the party in power to hold on after
eight years, but the Republicans are fractured, and the primary process is
not going to help their problems,” said Democratic lobbyist and Hill
veteran Steve Elmendorf.

Democratic pollster John Anzalone put it bluntly: “The chicken soup’s name
is Bill and Hillary.”

This scenario, of course, assumes she won’t spend her campaign cleaning up
after the kinds of verbal stumbles she’s made on the road this year. But if
she hits her stride, they believe she’ll mobilize the key voting groups
that will help Democrats in races around the country.

There’s another big benefit, according to Democratic pollster Stan
Greenberg: Clinton would be able to give the party’s candidates the kind of
fully formed “economic worldview” that they can’t produce on their own —
and help them move forward from the Obama years. “The president is in a
different era,” Greenberg said, noting that whenever Obama focuses his
economic speeches on the recession, “it’s like a decade ago.”

Some are also convinced that the Republicans will blow it in 2016 by having
too many firebrands in the presidential field — like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul
and Marco Rubio — and that they haven’t really confronted their challenges
with changing demographics, especially among unmarried women,
African-Americans and Hispanics.

“There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that the Republicans are going to
win the White House in 2016,” said Democratic consultant Jim Manley, a
former spokesman for Reid. “That’s going to be one of my consolations on
Tuesday, depending on how it comes out.”

4. The Republicans will have to pass things now

Call them crazy optimists, but there are Democrats who predict that
Republicans may govern differently than they campaigned if they win the
Senate. After all, if the Republicans don’t show they can pass legislation
— and put an end to confrontational tactics like last year’s government
shutdown — their majority won’t last beyond two years. That’s one reason
White House officials are already looking for issues that could be ripe for
deals with a GOP majority.

Privately, Republican aides say the same thing — that senators like Ayotte,
Portman and Toomey will be looking for accomplishments that can boost their
cases for reelection. But that doesn’t mean tea party groups and
conservative activists will play along. They’ll want confrontations with
Obama at every turn, sending him veto-bait bills that, in their view, will
present clearer choices between the two parties for 2016.

That factor has already become clear with Obamacare, as Mitch McConnell has
tried to reassure conservatives that he’ll keep fighting to repeal the law,
even though Republicans know Obama would never sign it. And House
Republicans, who are poised to expand their majority, will have zero
incentive to soften their fights with the White House.

5. Hey, look at the governors

The governor’s races were supposed to be a bright spot for Democrats in
this year’s elections, which is one reason Obama put so many of them on his
campaign schedule. At one point, there were predictions that Democrats
could pick up anywhere from two to four governorships.

That’s looking less likely now. Democrats could still win a few
morale-boosting races, although one of their best prospects, Florida’s
Charlie Crist, is a guy who used to be a Republican. But for every
governorship they might pick up, they have others that they could easily
lose in states that they should have won. (We’re looking at you, Martha
Coakley in Massachusetts.)

In reality, the Democrats’ best bets are in Pennsylvania, where Tom Wolf is
virtually certain to defeat Gov. Tom Corbett, and Maine, where Michael
Michaud has a good shot at unseating Gov. Paul LePage. After that, they
could win toss-up races in Florida and Kansas, but they could also easily
lose Democratic Govs. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut and Pat Quinn of
Illinois, who are in too-close-to-call races of their own.

So look for Democrats to focus on the close races and hope for the best.
Mellman noted that Pennsylvania “almost certainly” will go Democratic, and
said the reelection races of two prominent GOP governors — Wisconsin’s
Scott Walker and Michigan’s Rick Snyder — are “still very much in play.”

*MSNBC: “Hillary concludes busy campaign season with raised profile”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-concludes-busy-campaign-season>*

By Alex Seitz-Wald

November 3, 2014, 2:38 p.m. EDT

Hillary Clinton made 45 appearances on the campaign trail this year for
congressional Democrats, according to her spokesperson, winning gratitude
from Democrats as she reintroduces herself to voters in key states ahead of
a likely presidential run.

Clinton largely left politics after losing her 2008 presidential race and
becoming President Obama’s secretary of state. But since early September,
she’s been crisscrossing the country for Democrats in key races and
exceeding expectations. She held fundraisers or rallies for 10 senate, 12
gubernatorial and four House candidates in 20 states.

That includes the key presidential state of Iowa, where she attended the
annual Tom Harkin Steak Fry in September and then returned last week to
campaign for Senate candidate Bruce Braley. On the second visit, Clinton
visited an iconic diner and mingled with voters, humbly reintroducing
herself to the state that scorned her in 2008 in favor of Barack Obama. Her
husband, former president Bill Clinton, also visited Iowa to campaign for
Braley this weekend.

On Sunday, the former secretary of state returned to New Hampshire, a state
which has always been good for the Clintons and she won in 2008.  Clinton
made four stops in the state, which holds the first primary in the
Democratic nominating process.

Earlier in the cycle, some Democrats worried she would not lend her star
power to the party’s candidates in what promised to be a difficult year for
Democrats, but campaigns from Pennsylvania to Iowa to Kentucky have been
very happy with her efforts.

She’s also raised millions of dollars for party committees, which support
all Democrats running for the House, Senate, or governor’s mansion.
Meanwhile, Bill Clinton has also worked harder for Democrats this year than
in previous cycles.

Clinton allies say she’s motivated by a desire to help Democrats get
elected in a tough year, but also privately acknowledge that her campaign
work is another sign that she’s preparing to run for president in 2016.

*Politico: “Hillary Clinton set to receive award”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/hillary-clinton-ripple-of-hope-award-112478.html>*

By Maggie Haberman

November 3, 2014, 8:01 p.m. EST

Hillary Clinton will be honored by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice
and Human Rights next month, alongside Robert De Niro and Tony Bennett,
according to an invitation for the event.

The event, on Dec. 16, will take place in New York City. Clinton, De Niro
and Bennett will be presented with Ripple of Hope Awards, according to the
invitation.

The event is one of the few public appearances Clinton has scheduled in the
next two months, a period during which she is expected to spend time with
her newborn granddaughter, Charlotte, and also talking to advisers and
friends as she makes a decision about a second presidential campaign.

Clinton’s schedule of paid speeches also appears to have wound down through
the end of the year.

Her advisers have been debating whether to lay down a marker on a campaign
if she decides to run this year, as opposed to early next year, with some
advocating for it but others strongly opposed, according to several people
familiar with the discussions. One adviser characterized an early move as
unlikely if for no other reason than, for all the activity of outside
groups on her behalf this last year, many open questions remain about how
her campaign would operate.

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “House Dems brace for losses”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/222738-house-dems-brace-for-losses>*

By Mike Lillis

November 4, 2014, 6:00 a.m. EDT

House Democrats are heading into Tuesday’s midterms hoping that a swelling
of Republican support does not crest into a tidal wave.

Democratic leaders had spent much of 2013 playing offense, with thoughts of
defying historic trends and retaking the lower chamber this year. Their
optimism reached its apex after last year’s government shutdown left the
Republicans badly bruised.

But Democrats have run into a perfect storm since then. Incumbents are
retiring; the public is anxious about a fragile economy and foreign unrest;
the perennial problem of low turnout among left-leaning groups in midterm
elections persists; and President Obama’s approval rating is near historic
lows.

Put it all together and it is perhaps no surprise that Democrats have been
forced into a defensive crouch, where their best hope is to stanch the
bleeding and prevent a Republican rout.

Party strategists are now focused merely on preventing the GOP gains from
exceeding the eight seats Democrats netted in 2012.

“Democrats should be happy if they keep [the number of] losses under double
digits,” one Democratic strategist said Monday.

Tuesday’s outcome will have obvious practical implications. Significant
Republican gains would likely help Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) advance his
policy agenda in the face of frequent resistance from a Tea Party wing that
criticizes GOP leaders as overly centrist and timorous. As indicated by
their “Drive for 245” slogan, the Republicans are hoping to net 11 seats.

But the consequences could also carry far beyond the 114th Congress. Many
Democrats think they’ll have a shot at winning back the House in 2016 on
the wings of a strong presidential candidate — say, Hillary Clinton — if
they can keep losses this year to a minimum.

“They want to keep this in the realm of a strong Democratic presidential
candidate being able to have enough coattails to shift control in 2016,”
Julian E. Zelizer, congressional historian at Princeton University, said
Monday. “If the expansion of the GOP majority is significant, even with a
poor Republican candidate in 2016, it will be much harder for Democrats to
regain control.”

Rep. Jim Moran, a veteran Virginia Democrat retiring at the end of the
year, suggested that a large Republican majority could pose its own perils
for the GOP.

“If the Republicans get the Senate, and pick up even another half dozen
seats in the House, they’ll overreach; and they’re going to get so far out
of the mainstream that there will be a big, critical backlash in 2016,”
Moran told The Hill. “[That] would enable a presidential candidate as
strong as Hillary … to usher in a wave election with her.”

First though, the Democrats have to survive 2014, no easy task in an
election year that seems increasingly to be “a referendum on President
Obama,” in the words of Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.), the third-ranking House
Democrat who blamed the party for not doing “a better job messaging exactly
what the president has done.”

Democratic leaders long ago wrote off several seats currently under their
control, including those of outgoing Reps. Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Jim
Matheson (Utah) and Bill Owens (N.Y.), three centrists who essentially
ceded their conservative-leaning districts to Republicans the day they
announced their retirements.

Democrats are also facing extremely tough odds of keeping seats held by
Reps. Nick Rahall (W.Va.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), John Barrow (Ga.) and
Rick Nolan (Minn.).

They’ve been frustrated by an inability to put more pressure on Rep.
Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), despite a long list of federal charges pending
against him.

And last month they were forced to pull money from several close contests
for open seats in order to protect incumbents whose races tightened late in
the cycle. Reps. Lois Capps (Calif.) and Steven Horsford (Nev.) were among
the Democrats who received first-time cash infusions from the party at the
eleventh hour.

There are some bright spots for Democrats, however. They’re expected to win
the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.); they have a
very good shot at picking off Republican Reps. Lee Terry in Nebraska and
Steve Southerland in Florida; they see another pickup opportunity in the
West Virginia seat of Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R), who’s expected to win
her bid for the Senate on Tuesday; and despite last-minute attacks by
outside conservative groups, both Capps and Horsford are expected to win
reelection.

Indeed, party leaders insist that every non-retiring incumbent has a
fighting chance to return next year. That’s a stark contrast to 2010, when
they’d written off a number of seats long before Election Day.

Rep. Steve Israel (N.Y.), head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee (DCCC) said Monday that there are 20 races still too close to
call.

“So anybody who tells you that they know what’s going to happen [Tuesday]
night is literally the last person that you should be listening to,” he
told MSNBC. “You still have 20 very close races.”

Still, party strategists are also bracing for likely losses — and eying the
next cycle with relish.

“No matter what happens Tuesday night, the field in 2016 flips dramatically
from 2014,” DCCC spokesman Josh Schwerin said Monday in an email. “[W]e’ll
be able to play offense in more seats and Republicans are going to spend
the next two years reminding voters that they are completely unable to
govern responsibly.”

Not everyone agrees the Democrats have a shot at the House in 2016,
regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s elections, however.

Michael Mezey, political scientist at DePaul University, said Republicans’
redistricting efforts in 2010 mean there’s “no chance for the Democrats to
regain control of the House until 2022,” after the next census.

“Pennsylvania, for example — a reliably blue state — has a congressional
delegation composed of 5 Dems and 13 Republicans,” Mezey said Mondayin an
email. “Hillary’s coattails, if they exist, are not going to overcome that.”

*MSNBC: “Meet Staci Appel, Hillary Clinton’s top congressional candidate”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/meet-staci-appel-hillary-clintons-top-congressional-candidate>*

By Alex Seitz-Wald

November 3, 2014, 10:16 p.m. EDT

DES MOINES, Iowa – If you’ve heard Hillary Clinton on the stump for
Democrats this year, you’ve heard her praise incumbents locked in titanic
$100-million Senate battles. But you may have also heard her single out
Staci Appel, who is running for Congress here and may be a rare bright spot
for Democrats on what is shaping up to be a bleak Election Night Tuesday.

Appel is running for Congress in an open seat from this true tossup
district that includes Des Moines and the Southwest quadrant of the state.
And she’s got a fan in Hillary Clinton, who has praised Appel in speeches
from San Francisco to New York City.

“I was in Iowa with a candidate for Congress Staci Appel. She is a great
mom who worked her way up from minimum wage to management, and with enough
support, she could be the first women ever elected from Iowa to Congress,”
Clinton said at a gathering of Democratic women in Washington in September.

Appel, a former state senator who was a county chair for Clinton’s
presidential campaign in 2008, is happy to hear it. “Well, I’m a fan of
hers!” she said in an interview during a campaign stop at a coffee shop
here.

The state has a history of rejecting women at the polls – as Clinton, who
came in an embarrassing third place here, knows – but it might elect two or
more Tuesday night, including Appel and Republican Senate candidate Joni
Ernst.

While other Democrats have struggled here, Appel is feeling good heading
into election night, with a strong financial lead, a narrow edge in polls,
and a chance to break Iowa’s glass ceiling that Democrats say is firing up
voters.  “The excitement to elect the first woman to Congress is really
huge,” she told msnbc.

Appel is counting on that excitement to help her do better than other
Democrats on the ticket. “We’ve outperformed Bruce Braley,” she said. “I
think it’s because I haven’t served in Washington, D.C. I’ve served here in
Iowa and I have a record of getting things done.”

Also confident is Ernst, whom Gov. Terry Brandstad introduced on Monday at
event in Newton as “the first woman senator from Iowa, the first woman
combat veteran in the United States Senate.”

In a memo, her campaign touted an internal poll that they say shows 8% of
voters in the district plan to vote for Ernst and Appel. “We believe it is
important to share with you that we have been running ahead of the Braley
in the 3rd district since we began polling in July,” campaign manager Ben
Miller wrote.

In the entire county, her campaign is one of only a small handful of
congressional races where Democrat have a good opportunity to pick up a
seat, and where the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is still
spending outside money to back a candidate in an open seat.

Republican opponent David Young, a former chief of staff to Sen. Chuck
Grassley, came in fifth place in a Republican primary, but won during a
party convention. A magician who has raised eyebrows with campaign ads
featuring illusions, Young has struggled at times. He had only $30,000 on
hand in his most recent campaign finance report, to Appel’s nearly $250,000.

He also came under criticism from fellow Republicans recently for saying
Obamacare was “here to stay.” An influential conservative blogger slammed
his “schizophrenic” campaign.

Still, polls show a close race that could come down to the wire.

In the state Senate, where Appel served as assistant majority leader, the
mother of six worked on family-centric issues: Universal pre-school, a ban
on texting while driving, equal pay for equal work, a seat belt law, and an
indoor smoking ban.

The state has attracted other top-tier women candidates, like Christie
Vilsack in 2012, but has yet to send a woman to Congress.

Appel took a pass on responding to Sen. Tom Harkin’s controversial comments
that Ernst is “very attractive.”

As for Hillary Clinton, Appel wants to help her again – and this time to
win the state. “She will win,” Appel said.

*Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton’s 45 events in 54 days: Midterm stops
and maybe a 2016 preview”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clintons-45-events-in-54-days-midterm-stops-and-maybe-a-2016-preview/2014/11/03/fed9688c-63a2-11e4-9fdc-d43b053ecb4d_story.html?tid=hpModule_f8335a3c-868c-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394>*

By Anne Gearan

November 3, 2014, 8:23 p.m. EST

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Hillary Rodham Clinton closed out her first political
season since stepping down as secretary of state with a scene that looked
very much like the beginning of the long 2016 campaign.

She shook scores of hands, posed for pictures and caught up with supporters
from her failed 2008 run at a restaurant owned by a stalwart of the New
Hampshire Democratic Party. The packed scene Sunday at the Puritan Backroom
was among 45 midterm-related political events listed by Clinton’s office
this year. Four of those were in New Hampshire.

Of course, many of the New Hampshire voters she met encouraged her to run
again in 2016, and Clinton looked the part of a candidate. She has said she
will decide after Jan. 1 whether to mount a second run for the White House.

As one of her party’s most popular figures and a proven fund-raiser,
Clinton was both doing a favor for Democrats around the country this year
and, perhaps, gathering supporters and building a network that she would
need next year and in 2016 if she were to launch another White House bid.

The list of her appearances and other work for Democrats this year began
with a D.C. fundraiser for female Democratic Senate candidates on Sept. 9
and included stops in 19 states. Including, yes, Iowa.

*CNN: “Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign quietly begins to take
shape” <http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/03/politics/hillary-clinton-campaign/>*

By Brianna Keilar

November 3, 2014, 6:42 p.m. EST

Hillary Clinton has spent the final moments of the midterm campaign season
publicly deflecting the flurry of questions about her likely run for
president.

But behind the scenes, her campaign machine is quietly whirring to life.

Clinton insiders have begun to approach Washington-based Democratic
operatives who may play a role in a potential campaign and are soliciting
their recommendations on other possible staffers, according to Democrats
familiar with the conversations.

A number Clinton associates are compiling staffing lists, according to
multiple Democratic sources. Michael Whouley and Minyon Moore of the
Democratic communications and consulting firm Dewey Square Group are one
conduit to Clinton's inner circle and among the primary compilers of the
campaign universe that will surround Clinton, should she run.

The firm is led by veteran players in Clinton world. Whouley was an adviser
to Vice President Al Gore and a Clinton campaign aide while Moore is a
longtime Clinton confidante.

Ginny Terzano, head of communications for Dewey Square, said the
characterization is "incorrect."

"DSG officials have no role" in a potential Clinton campaign, she said.

Operatives at the firm are reviewing possible Clinton staffers "under the
guise of spitballing ideas," as one Democratic source put it.

With a trio of pro-Hillary superPACs -- Ready for Hillary, Priorities USA
Action and Correct the Record -- months into shoring up support, a Clinton
campaign is already well underway outside of her inner circle.

"The reality is that if you have a message and you're larger than life, the
organization can come together pretty quickly," said Tom McMahon, who
served as deputy campaign director for Howard Dean's 2004 campaign. "It can
be a turnkey operation."

As the Clinton campaign apparatus is constructed, those close to her are
trying to shroud it from view, wary of the glaring political spotlight that
amplifies every move the former secretary of state makes.

"There are no formal talks, no one is being offered jobs," one source told
CNN, dismissing the signs of campaign life as "a lot of jockeying" from
Democrats who want to work on a Clinton campaign.

In September, Clinton and her inner circle were dismayed by a leak to
Politico that revealed the presence of John Podesta -- former Chief of
Staff to President Bill Clinton, current top aide to President Barack Obama
and the person favored to serve as chairman of a Hillary Clinton campaign
-- at meetings with pro-Clinton super PACs this summer.

Huma Abedin, one of Clinton's closest aides, has told multiple Democrats to
rein in chatter about 2016, saying Clinton wants to keep attention on the
midterm elections and minimize attention on a presidential run, according
to a Democratic source who spoke to Abedin.

Clinton and the small team she employs are trying to keep her out of the
tarnishing political spotlight until she is ready to make a run official,
something Clinton will likely do by the end of winter, though she would
like to put it off as late as possible.

"If there's not a competitive primary, the general election starts as soon
as she declares," said Katie Packer Gage, former deputy campaign manager
for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential run, who says the challenge of a
Clinton campaign will be more of what her current team is already
struggling with -- ''how do they keep her fresh for the American people?"

Recent campaigns for viable Democratic or Republican presidential
candidates were well into the preliminary phase of staffing up at this
point in time, with top aides already getting in line ahead of an official
announcement.

In 2012, Matt Rhoades, at the time the executive director of Mitt Romney's
Political Action Committee and later Romney's campaign manager, was already
in early discussions with all of those who would become senior staff.

Well before the 2006 midterms, then-Sen. Barack Obama had conducted
preliminary discussions with and identified a number of top aides. His
campaign effectively went into high gear after the elections, though he
launched his exploratory committee in January 2007 and declared his
candidacy in February.

But some political operatives warn not to read too much into the beginning
phase of a Clinton campaign currently underway.

"Of course the preliminary conversations should be going on," said Steve
Elmendorf, Deputy Campaign Manager for John Kerry's 2004 campaign. "But
there are a lot of people who have had those conversations - who thought
about running for office, made plans to run for office, and didn't."

Among those believed to be part of a potential Clinton campaign, Guy Cecil,
the current executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee, appears to be one of Clinton's most likely choices for campaign
manager, according to interviews with more than two dozen Democrats.

"Even if Democrats don't hang onto the Senate, people respect the job that
he's done," said one.

Cecil's role is expected to fall under the oversight of Podesta, seen as a
calming force who could squash much of the internal drama that plagued
Clinton's 2008 campaign. Podesta is expected to stay at the White House
through the State of the Union, according to two sources familiar with his
current plans, despite his initial commitment of one year service when
Obama named him to his post in the West Wing last December.

By last Spring, Robby Mook, who managed the campaign that propelled Clinton
fundraising guru, Terry McAuliffe, into the Virginia governor's mansion,
has "been on ice" - as one Democrat put it - since as early as the spring,
according to two Democrats familiar with the discussion. He was told not to
make long term plans by those close to Clinton, the sources say, and is
widely expected to play a major role in running the campaign.

Dennis Cheng, who manages fundraising for the Clinton Foundation and served
as Hillary Clinton's deputy chief of protocol at the State Department, is
the frontrunner for finance director, according to multiple Democrats. Huma
Abedin, as well as longtime Clinton aide Philippe Reines and Nick Merrill,
Clinton's current spokesperson, are expected to serve in influential roles
in and around the campaign.

*Politico: “A midterm referendum on Barack Obama”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/midterm-elections-referendum-barack-obama-112474.html?ml=tb>*

By Edward-Isaac Dovere

November 4, 2014, 5:05 a.m. EST

President Barack Obama’s policies aren’t actually on the ballot, and
neither is he. But 2014 has been all about him.

The midterm map put Democratic candidates on defense — there are indeed red
states and blue states, and they vote Republican in the red states,
especially with an anti-incumbency mood in the air.

But the predominant theme has been opposition to Obama himself. Unstoppable
in his 2008 and 2012 campaigns, he is now likely headed for another midterm
rebuff from a churning country with buyer’s remorse.

That the only Obama campaign stop on Monday was the first lady’s rally in
Baltimore for Anthony Brown’s gubernatorial bid says everything about the
president’s standing at the end of the midterms. (That the governor’s race
narrowed in Maryland says a lot about how the campaigns closed for
Democrats, too.)

The president was the theme that ran through all the races. Obamacare,
ISIL, Ebola, the economy — for Republicans, these all were different ways
of talking about how terrible the president is, not making the country or
the world work for Americans. And that talk only hardened in the final days
of this year’s races.

Rep. Bill Cassidy, a Republican hoping to knock out Sen. Mary Landrieu,
said plainly to reporters Saturday in New Orleans what the GOP’s been
thinking all across the country.

“The issues are on our side. Every week the president does something to
help us. Folks here are wondering why in the heck she would support the
fellow when he’s against what they see as the right thing to do,” Cassidy
said. “So, it works for us.”

Democrats, meanwhile, spent months figuring out new ways to distance
themselves from the president and say they disagreed with his positions.

Obama himself has missed the adoring crowds, replaced by an endless parade
of fundraisers where he has gone through the motions of a speech about hope
over cynicism that even he didn’t seem to believe anymore. In contrast, at
his Saturday night rally in Detroit for gubernatorial candidate Mark
Schauer and Gary Peters — the only Senate candidate who wanted him — he was
sharp and funny and energetically ripped into the Republicans, feeding off
the energy of 6,000 people actually ecstatic to see him.

There, Obama put himself at the center of the conversation again, as he
hasn’t since the early October speech in which he insisted his policies
were on the ballot, making Democrats everywhere bang their collective head
against the wall.

“Gary needs your vote, and Mark needs your vote,” Obama said. “I need your
vote.”

But there aren’t many crowds like that left. Most Democratic campaigns
didn’t want Obama anywhere near them, and with his negative numbers
continuing to rise through the fall, several of those that had expressed
interest rescinded their requests.

That only added to Republican glee.

“Everybody wants Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush, but nobody wants Obama, so he’s
hiding in the White House somewhere,” said Bob Dole, as he campaigned for
Sen. Pat Roberts over the weekend at the American Legion in Overland Park,
Kansas.

But Monday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest pushed back on the
idea that the midterms were a referendum on Obama. Earnest chalked up the
negative feelings to voters holding Obama accountable for Washington
dysfunction rather than disapproving of his policies.

“The vast majority of voters are not making their decision in this election
based on their appraisal of the president,” Earnest said.

The map shaped the macro-dynamics: Montana, Arkansas and Louisiana were
slipping away from Democrats, while Republicans fizzled in Minnesota,
Oregon and Michigan. West Virginia’s GOP turn was what kept Shelley Moore
Capito gliding to a Senate seat. Pennsylvania gubernatorial hopeful Tom
Wolf didn’t break away in polls because of his dynamism on the stump.

But in a year when so many Senate and governor’s races stayed within 3
points even in the final hours, Obama was a constant. In purple states like
Colorado, New Hampshire and Iowa, he was a clear drag.

Joni Ernst, the Republican nominee who headed into the final days appearing
to have an edge over Rep. Bruce Braley, told POLITICO on Saturday that the
president is the reason she believes she’s headed to a win in the state
where Obama’s march to the White House began.

“Iowans are rejecting President Obama and his policies, which Congressman
Braley has supported over the past six years of his time in Congress,”
Ernst said while standing at a train depot in Osceola. “We are seeing that
Iowans want a different direction, and they are choosing to go with me.”

North Carolina GOP Senate nominee Thom Tillis used the specter of Obama’s
last two years in office to propel his cause. “Can you imagine if we don’t
get a Senate majority what this president will do in the remaining two
years of his term?” he asked 300 supporters in a high school cafeteria in
Catawba, North Carolina.

Speaking a day earlier at a rally for Sen. Kay Hagan in Raleigh, Bill
Clinton said Tillis’ strategy was clear.

“He’s trying take to her off the ballot and put the president on it,”
Clinton said. “Isn’t that what’s going on? He knows the president’s having
a hard time.”

Even with Obama’s job approval ticking slightly up in recent weeks,
according to Wall Street Journal/NBC News polling released Sunday, the
overall number of people who say they want “a great deal of change” is
higher than in 2010 — 87 percent of Republicans and 47 percent of Democrats.

Lynne Smith, a Democrat who’d already voted by the time she showed up for a
Davenport rally that Vice President Joe Biden led for Braley last week,
said she thought Obama had made the right decision to stay away from the
Senate race.

“I’m sure he would be highly criticized if he would come to campaign. The
Republicans will pull anything to put him down,” Smith said.

Some Democrats tried to push back.

“If they don’t like Obama, that’s fine,” said former Sen. John Breaux
during an interview at a pro-Landrieu rally in Lafayette, Louisiana, on
Friday. “But he’s not on the ballot in Louisiana.”

But at a rally Saturday, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the senator’s
brother, acknowledged that is indeed where Republican feelings are in one
of the races that could end up deciding control of the Senate.

“Bill Cassidy has told everybody who he hates and this is really clear,” he
said. “If you want to elect somebody who will spend every day hating every
breath that Obama makes and tearing down everything that Congress tries to
do, you know who to vote for.”

*Mediaite: “Beck: GOP Taking Control Could End Up Helping Hillary”
<http://www.mediaite.com/online/beck-gop-taking-control-could-end-up-helping-hillary/>*

By Josh Feldman

November 3, 2014, 3:59 p.m. EDT

Glenn Beck isn’t too eager about Republicans potentially taking control of
the Senate, and argued today that the GOP in charge could actually be
exactly what Hillary Clinton and President Obama are hoping for. Beck
warned that a GOP victory “isn’t necessarily a good thing” for the country.

Obama will be happy, Beck argued, because after the midterms, Obama will
have nothing left to lose, and with no more elections in his future, he’s
gonna go all-out in pushing his agenda. And Beck predicted the ensuing
fight will be “the end of the republic as we know it.”

He cited the immigration debate in particular and said the fight between
the president and Congress will help out a presidential contender:

“Who will be there to say, ‘Look, the GOP is crazy, they’re full of haters,
they’re full of racists… there’s a place in between here and we need to
start talking about common sense?’ May I introduce you to the next
President of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Watch the video below, via BlazeTV:

[VIDEO]

*Calendar:*

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

·  November 14  – Little Rock, AR:  Sec. Clinton attends picnic for
10th Anniversary
of the Clinton Center (NYT
<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/10/17/?entry=2674&_php=true&_type=blogs&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0>
)

·  November 15  – Little Rock, AR: Sec. Clinton hosts No Ceilings event (NYT
<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/10/17/?entry=2674&_php=true&_type=blogs&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0>
)

·  November 21  – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton presides over meeting of the
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (Bloomberg
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-02/clinton-aides-resist-calls-to-jump-early-into-2016-race>
)

·  November 21  – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton is honored by the New York
Historical Society (Bloomberg
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-02/clinton-aides-resist-calls-to-jump-early-into-2016-race>
)

·  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/>)

·  December 16 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton honored by Robert F. Kennedy
Center for Justice and Human Rights (Politico
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/hillary-clinton-ripple-of-hope-award-112478.html>
)