Subject: Correct The Record Thursday December 4, 2014 Morning Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2014 08:00:27 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Thursday December 4, 2014 Morning Roundup:*

*Headlines:*

*Roll Call: Burns Strider: Attacking Hillary's Strengths: Lame Duck GOP
Oughta Take a Holiday Break
<http://www.rollcall.com/news/attacking_hillarys_strengths_lame_duck_gop_oughta_take_a_holiday_break-238400-1.html>*

"Clinton’s decision-making process is demonstrative of the leadership she
will bring to our presidency if she decides to run: thoughtful, critical
and with the best interest of our country in her heart. We know this
because she has approached her entire lifetime of public service in such a
manner."

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “Pro-Clinton group hits back against paid
speeches attacks”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/225881-pro-clinton-group-hits-back-against-paid-speeches-attacks>*

“The memo, from Correct the Record executive director Isaac Wright,
indicates that some Clinton supporters feel the need to respond to the talk
of Clinton's speaking fees and travel requirements.”

*Washington Post blog: Post Politics: “As Hillary Clinton ponders 2016,
Clinton-themed super PACs seek a piece of the action”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/12/04/as-hillary-clinton-ponders-a-bid-clinton-themed-super-pacs-seek-piece-of-the-action/>*

Adrienne Elrod: "Organizations in support of Hillary Clinton and her vision
of how to move our country forward have come together organically in an
unprecedented and united front,’ she said in a statement. ‘The right wing
has certainly made early and intense efforts to dissuade her from running,
because they know that Hillary Clinton’s focus on advancing the middle
class and moving our country forward is one that excites Americans."

*Washington Post: Mary Landrieu, Deep South’s last Senate Democrat, must
fend for herself
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mary-landrieu-deep-souths-last-senate-democrat-must-fend-for-herself/2014/12/03/7bfa56e8-7b20-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html>*

"Landrieu’s only reinforcements have come from some modest ad buys by a
handful of groups, and some individual fundraising efforts, including one
in New York on Monday headlined by former secretary of state Hillary Rodham
Clinton."

*Associated Press: “Obama, Hillary Clinton 'catch up' in Oval Office”
<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f02c630f65fc462fae5decf0fdc06a7d/obama-hillary-clinton-catch-oval-office>*

“The White House says Obama and Clinton met for about an hour in the Oval
Office ‘to catch up and enjoy an informal discussion on a wide range of
issues.’ The White House did not say which issues were discussed.”

*Politico: “Clinton in the void”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/hillary-clinton-2016-decision-113303.html>*

“In 2006, when Clinton last prepared for an almost-certain campaign, she
was a sitting senator with existing infrastructure and the predictable
rhythms that come with a legislative office. This time, her circumstances
are different.”

*Washington Examiner: “Journalists claim 'Hillary fatigue,' but keep asking
if she'll run”
<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/journalists-claim-hillary-fatigue-but-keep-asking-if-shell-run/article/2556912>*

“Richard Grenell, a media critic and former foreign policy adviser to 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, told the Examiner that the
Clinton ‘fatigue’ is a product of the culture among the Washington, D.C.,
press corps. ‘The D.C. political media is insular, parochial and
functioning like a high school clique these days,’ Grenell said.
‘Regardless of whether or not they are bored with Hillary Clinton, they
should grow up and do their job by treating her like a serious candidate.
Hillary Clinton deserves their respect and serious attention, as does
anyone who runs for office.’”

*Politico: “#Hillary, #TedCruz rule social media”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/hillary-clinton-ted-cruz-social-media-2016-elections-113310.html>*

“Social media has no doubt who the most buzzworthy potential presidential
candidates are at the moment for 2016: Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz
together accounted for 40 percent of the discussion on Facebook and nearly
half — 47 percent — of mentions on Twitter among 10 top presidential
possibilities in the past three months, according to new data provided to
POLITICO by Facebook and Twitter.”

*Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton appears to support U.S.-secured civilian
havens in Syria”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-appears-to-support-us-secured-civilian-havens-in-syria/2014/12/03/6289db2e-7b08-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394>*

“Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday appeared to back the imposition of
civilian refuge zones inside Syria, as the White House considers whether to
enforce havens for rebel fighters or refugees.”

*CNN: “Hillary Clinton's 2016 announcement date a moving target”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/03/politics/hillary-clintons-announcement-date-is-a-moving-target/index.html>*

“If you feel like you've been hearing different dates about when Hillary
Clinton will announce her run for the presidency, it's not just you.”

*Associated Press: “Ex-Va. Dem Sen. Webb to decide soon on 2016 race”
<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c1e274025c864317a4776e951dc25a70/ex-va-dem-sen-webb-decide-soon-2016-race>*

“At the AP event, Webb declined to comment on Clinton or the role she could
play in a Democratic primary. But he said his own experiences in the
Senate, the military and leadership roles ‘have helped me understand the
issues in a way that I believe I could effectively lead.’ ‘I just don't
want to be seen as attacking Hillary Clinton,’ Webb said in an interview
with The AP following the question-and-answer session with reporters.”

*The Daily Beast: “Is Gay Marriage Going Away in 2016?”
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/04/is-gay-marriage-going-away-in-2016.html>*

“Christie, Walker, and Paul have all argued that the marriage issue is one
better left to the states. Their position is identical to the one held by
Hillary Clinton, a fact that delights Gregory T. Angelo, the head of the
Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights GOP group.”

*Washington Post column: Dana Milbank: “Hillary Clinton has lost that ‘new
car’ smell”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-hillary-clinton-shows-shes-lost-that-new-car-smell/2014/12/03/8c86a77e-7b24-11e4-9a27-6fdbc612bff8_story.html>*

“There was nothing new-car in Wednesday’s appearance, where Clinton gave a
brief exposition on her ‘smart power’ theme and often lapsed into the
bureaucratic and the banal.”

*Articles:*

*Roll Call: Burns Strider: Attacking Hillary's Strengths: Lame Duck GOP
Oughta Take a Holiday Break
<http://www.rollcall.com/news/attacking_hillarys_strengths_lame_duck_gop_oughta_take_a_holiday_break-238400-1.html>*

By Burns Strider
Dec. 4, 2014, 5 a.m.

The holiday season has arrived and Americans are decorating trees, taking
toys for their children out of layaway and planning holiday parties. Former
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will be celebrating the holidays
for the first time with her brand new grandbaby. ’Tis the season for
family, reflection and worship. Republican operatives, though, are busy
attacking Hillary Clinton. They are stuffing their stockings with hopes
that Clinton will decide not to run for president.

They oughta take a holiday break.

Clinton’s decision-making process is demonstrative of the leadership she
will bring to our presidency if she decides to run: thoughtful, critical
and with the best interest of our country in her heart. We know this
because she has approached her entire lifetime of public service in such a
manner.

She deserves and requires the space to make this decision on her own. And,
really, the American people deserve this type of thoughtful and sincere
leadership.

But the right wing has set itself to attacking her during this lame-duck
session of Congress following the midterm elections and the new Republican
congressional majorities.

Potential Republican presidential candidates, including those in Congress,
are attempting to disparage Clinton’s enduring and resilient strengths. The
right wing is propping up lines of attack attempting to tear down Clinton’s
message of renewing American upward mobility. These attacks, which lack any
substance, derive from their fear of Clinton’s ability to connect to the
middle class and their lack of any coherent message.

Clinton’s passion for ensuring the American dream is alive and well for
every person comes from her own personal journey and fundamental
understanding that opportunity and upward mobility must be real in the
lives of Americans. The approaching Republican Congress would do quite well
to join in this message instead of unleashing its hounds with more petty,
partisan politics.

Clinton made 45 campaign stops for Democrats in the last 60 days before the
2014 election. She proudly fought for and stood with Democrats in every
region of our nation because she believes in her fellow Democrats and
embraces the values and principles of the Democratic Party as being
distinctly good for America, distinctly American.

With so many people excited about a potential Clinton presidential run, the
crowds at her events were huge. More importantly, Clinton’s message and
commitment to building a strong middle class, where work is rewarded with
opportunity, resonated. Women, for example, supported Democrats more in
2014 than they did in 2010, and in many states — including Colorado,
Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and North Carolina — the
increase in women’s support for Democratic candidates occurred after
Clinton campaigned for those candidates.

Americans know her mission is one of empowering families, valuing our
communities and making the American Dream real for every single citizen.
Hillary Clinton works hard, stands up for families and communities, seeks
common ground for the common good and believes in a Democratic Party that
is empowered to be as strong and good as the America we all want to build.

Clinton will make a decision based on what is best for her family and her
country; for our future. Americans applaud real leadership like this. And,
as is the usual case, our fellow Americans are correct.

’Tis the season for hope.

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “Pro-Clinton group hits back against paid
speeches attacks”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/225881-pro-clinton-group-hits-back-against-paid-speeches-attacks>*

By Peter Sullivan

December 3, 2014, 2:22 p.m. EST

A pro-Clinton group is hitting back against a focus on Hillary Clinton's
paid speeches and lifestyle, arguing that she is in fact a champion of the
middle class.

The memo, from Correct the Record executive director Isaac Wright,
indicates that some Clinton supporters feel the need to respond to the talk
of Clinton's speaking fees and travel requirements.

"It is important, now more than ever, not to cede one of Clinton’s greatest
strengths—her passion for advancing the middle class and renewing American
upward mobility—to the right-wing talking points factory and its efforts to
sow seeds of mistrust on the left," the memo states.

Clinton has faced scrutiny over paid speeches and the travel requirements
around them. The Washington Post reported last week on the details of
Clinton's speech to UCLA in March, where she was paid $300,000, a sum that
went to the philanthropic Clinton Foundation.

The report detailed that Clinton's staff had detailed requirements,
rejecting the podium the university first planned to use and calling for
hummus and sliced fruit backstage.

BuzzFeed reported last month that Democrats spent at least $700,000 to fly
Clinton on a private jet to her midterm campaign appearances this year.

Conservative groups like America Rising PAC have seized on these reports to
paint Clinton as out of touch, and the narrative could fuel calls on the
left for a more populist candidate like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

"The right wing is propping up lines of attack on Clinton’s speaking
engagements and other points in an attempt to tear down Hillary Clinton’s
message of renewing American upward mobility," the memo states. "This is a
classic Karl Rove strategy of attacking an individual’s strength, rather
than a weakness."

A major question ahead of a likely Clinton campaign is what her central
message will be. The memo points to Clinton's "emerging themes of economic
opportunity and advancing the middle class."

It points to Clinton's work on expanding health insurance as first lady,
and support for measures like raising the minimum wage and progressive tax
policies as a senator.

"Hillary Clinton was raised in a middle-class, suburban home in Illinois,"
the memo states, pointing to a life story that Clinton herself also
highlighted on the midterm campaign trail.

In June, after Clinton came under fire for saying she was "dead broke" upon
leaving the White House, former President Bill Clinton defended her.

"She's not out of touch," he said.

*Washington Post blog: Post Politics: “As Hillary Clinton ponders 2016,
Clinton-themed super PACs seek a piece of the action”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/12/04/as-hillary-clinton-ponders-a-bid-clinton-themed-super-pacs-seek-piece-of-the-action/>*

By Matea Gold

December 4, 2014, 7:00 a.m. EST

Hillary Rodham Clinton may not yet be ready to announce whether she'll
launch a bid for the White House in 2016 just yet, but a growing crowd of
political operatives are ready to to get in on the action of her expected
candidacy right now.

Along with high-profile outside groups being run by Clinton allies such as
Priorities USA Action and Ready for Hillary, there are more than a dozen
other Clinton-specific super PACs registered with the Federal Election
Commission – including three set up in the past six weeks.

Most have raised paltry sums or have not filed finance reports, but several
are pulling in sizable donations and mobilizing supporters in support of --
or opposition to -- her potential presidential bid. Some have launched
slick websites and started selling Clinton-themed merchandise, giving them
the trappings of other well-established groups.

Their independent activities could contribute to a chaotic political
environment for Clinton, who as a candidate would not be able to coordinate
with super PACs working on her behalf.

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill declined to comment.

The expanding cottage industry of pro-Clinton super PACs includes groups
such as Faith Voters for Hillary, Hillary 2016  and Hillarypac.

The latest entrant, Stand With Hillary, says it will use social media to
promote her image with Latinos and working families.

The California-based group is the project of Daniel Chavez, a longtime
Democratic political operative, and media producer Miguel Orozco, who wrote
a series of Latin-flavored songs celebrating Barack Obama in the 2008
election.

The super PAC’s Web site features a three-minute music video of a country
ballad called “Stand With Hillary,” written by Orozco. In the video, a
young cowboy plays guitar and gazes lovingly at his wife and young
daughter, as images of Clinton through the years flash by. At one point, he
sings, “Let’s smash this ceiling,” and takes a sledgehammer to a large
glass panel spray-painted with “2016.”

Chavez, who worked as a field organizer for Clinton’s 2008 campaign, said
that he was inspired to start the super PAC by his wife and 32-year-old
daughter, who are both also huge Clinton fans.

“She motivates my daughter to look for greater avenues to have a voice —
that kind of inspiration is priceless,” he said.

Chavez said he also supports groups such as Ready for Hillary, but wanted
to have his own venture.

“I’m pretty independent in how I like to work,” he said. “We just thought
we could control our message.”

The operatives behind some of the other new Clinton-themed groups remain a
mystery.

On its website, Blue Answer calls itself “a rapid-response communications
PAC” set up by “a team of experienced marketing and communications
professionals” to “combat the lies being spread by the conservative media.”

Its only apparent project is “Hillary Today” — a page featuring a large
photo of Clinton and a request for supporters to donate between $20 and
$500.

“Your contribution will be used to reach thousands of people and to help
get Hillary elected,” says a statement on the donation page.

The super PAC’s treasurer, Jennifer May, declined to comment on who is
running the group and what it plans to do. Blue Answer’s founders did not
respond to requests for comment The Washington Post relayed through May.

Blue Answer appears to be trying to fashion itself as a version of Correct
the Record, a project of the Democratic super PAC American Bridge.

Adrienne Elrod, a spokeswoman for Correct the Record, declined to comment
on the new group.

“Organizations in support of Hillary Clinton and her vision of how to move
our country forward have come together organically in an unprecedented and
united front,” she said in a statement. “The right wing has certainly made
early and intense efforts to dissuade her from running, because they know
that Hillary Clinton’s focus on advancing the middle class and moving our
country forward is one that excites Americans.”

A large share of the early super PAC activity hasn't sprung from Clinton's
supporters -- it's being driven by the deep animosity on the right toward
the former Secretary of State. A new group, Veterans Against Hillary, was
formed on Nov. 25, set up by a well-known GOP political compliance firm
based in Georgia.

“There is nothing better for the conservative movement than Hillary
Clinton, because she is such a robustly disliked character,” said Dan
Backer, a Republican campaign finance attorney who is helping run one of
the biggest anti-Clinton groups, Stop Hillary PAC.

The super PAC, which formed last year, has raised $1 million so far and
says it has a database of 600,000 activists.

“Our whole focus has been to build a massive digital army to keep her from
getting the nomination or winning the election,” Backer said.

*Washington Post: Mary Landrieu, Deep South’s last Senate Democrat, must
fend for herself
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mary-landrieu-deep-souths-last-senate-democrat-must-fend-for-herself/2014/12/03/7bfa56e8-7b20-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html>*

By Sean Sullivan and Karen Tumulty
December 3, 2014

BATON ROUGE — There remains the formality of a runoff election on Saturday
— but as far as the national Democratic Party is concerned, three-term Sen.
Mary Landrieu of Louisiana is presumed dead.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee canceled its plans to buy ads
and is not lifting a finger — or writing a check — to save her. Nor are any
of the heavy-hitting Democratic outside groups.

“I am extremely disappointed,” she said Tuesday of the DSCC’s decision.
“You know, they just walked away from this race.”

So with the odds stacked heavily against her, Landrieu soldiers on
virtually alone — this year’s political equivalent of those holdout
Japanese infantrymen who were discovered waging war on remote Pacific
islands decades after World War II had ended.

“The political true bloods have moved on to 2016,” said Brad Dayspring, a
spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. There was a time when both parties
thought control of the Senate might hinge on the results of the Bayou State
runoff election.

But whatever happens Saturday will not change the balance of power on
Capitol Hill. By comfortably winning a majority on Election Day,
Republicans turned the contest between Landrieu and her challenger,
Republican congressman Bill Cassidy, from a campaign firefight into a
footnote.

And whether she wins or loses, her Energy Committee chairmanship — the
gavel she touted as Exhibit A of her indispensability to this oil-producing
state — will be handed to the Republicans in January.

Emphasizing her clout as a chairman “was a short-sighted strategy, and when
it was removed, they were left with nothing,” Dayspring said.

Her expected defeat would mark the end of an era. Landrieu — whose father
is a former mayor of New Orleans and whose brother is the current one — is
the last statewide Democratic elected official in Louisiana, a state her
party once was presumed to own in perpetuity. If she loses, there will be
no Democratic senator from the Deep South in the new Congress.

Landrieu’s home-state supporters are doing their best to gin up enthusiasm.

“It’s the fourth quarter!” bellowed Louis Reine, a feisty union leader
rallying support for Landrieu as dusk settled over this city Tuesday
evening. “We’re on the 10-yard line! We have a great quarterback! Will you
call in the reserves? Will you get the team on the field?”

Landrieu dropped her right arm back and brought it forward as if to throw a
football down the field. Supporters assembled steps from City Hall that
crisp evening cheered her on.

But national Democrats speak — not for attribution, of course— as though
they have already left the field and headed for the locker room. Their
dispirited donors, they say, are tapped out and unwilling to open their
wallets for a lost cause.

All along, Landrieu’s biggest hurdle has been the political climate, which
helped the Republicans take eight other Democratic-held Senate seats.

Party strategists also fault her campaign for disregarding advice from
Washington and spending virtually all of its war chest on the November
election, in hopes of avoiding a runoff. She got just over 42 percent of
the vote in the eight-candidate field — eight percentage points shy of the
showing she needed to win outright.

Now Cassidy is expected to consolidate most of the support of those who
voted for the other six candidates.

Turnout could also be a problem for the Democrat. African American voters
supported Landrieu overwhelmingly in the Nov. 4 all-party primary. But
early-voting tallies suggest that the electorate will be whiter and more
conservative in the runoff.

The DSCC canceled its reservations for ad time in Louisiana shortly after
the Nov. 4 sweep. Senate Majority PAC, which spent millions trying to save
Democrats, has not run a single spot in the runoff. Landrieu’s only
reinforcements have come from some modest ad buys by a handful of groups,
and some individual fundraising efforts, including one in New York on
Monday headlined by former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Though Republicans have also scaled back their efforts in Louisiana — in
their case, a sign of confidence — Landrieu is still being heavily outspent.

Pro-Cassidy groups are on pace to air more than $5.65 million worth of ads
in the runoff, including more than $1.4 million from the National
Republican Senatorial Committee, records show.

An analysis of data by Kantar Media/CMAG for the Center for Public
Integrity found that outside groups allied with Cassidy have put up about
6,000 ads during the runoff period. That compares with fewer than 100 by
those supporting Landrieu, whose most active supporter has been the Humane
Society Legislative Fund.

The lack of a national rallying cry has driven Landrieu to frame the race
as a local contest, highlighting her record on jobs, education and disaster
relief.

At a sun-soaked rally across the Mississippi River from New Orleans on
Tuesday morning, with the sound of pile drivers echoing in the background,
Landrieu’s standard stump speech — delivered partly in the past tense —
seemed to sound an almost elegiac note. “It has been my joy to represent
you, to fight for you and to win for you in Washington,” she said.

“When we heard that the national Democratic Party pulled out, it really
kind of stunned us,” said Harriet Jones of Baton Rouge, who backs Landrieu.
“When we thought about it, we thought, you know, they’ve just given up on
us. It’s disappointing.”

On her own, Landrieu has flailed, veering from one issue to another. Last
month, she spearheaded a push to pass a measure pressuring President Obama
to construct the Keystone XL pipeline. It fell short in the Senate by one
vote thanks to her own party’s opposition. But it passed in the House,
where Cassidy’s name was strategically attached to it.

More recently, Landrieu has been hammering Cassidy over his work as a
part-time physician and teacher at Louisiana State University. After a
local blog revealed details about Cassidy’s time sheets that raised
questions about the amount of time he put in and whether it overlapped with
congressional work, LSU said it would look into the matter. Cassidy, who
has kept a lower profile than Landrieu in the final week of the race, has
denied wrongdoing.

In contrast with Landrieu, he has leaned heavily on a less muddy — and more
potent — line of attack: He has tied Landrieu to Obama, using the same
argument that helped propel Republicans to victory across the country.

“Senator Landrieu represents Barack Obama. I represent you,” he said Monday
at the candidates’ final debate.

According to Nov. 4 exit polling, Obama’s job approval rating in Louisiana
was just 39 percent. Fifty-nine percent of voters disapproved.

In response, Landrieu has tried to strike a tricky balance between
distancing her candidacy from the president and defending him.

“This isn’t about whether you like Bill Clinton as president or George Bush
as president or Barack Obama as president,” she told reporters.

Yet Landrieu has also run a radio ad geared at African American voters who
support Obama that suggests Republicans would try to impeach the president
if Cassidy wins — an idea GOP leaders have not embraced.

This week, Landrieu accused Cassidy of being “disrespectful” to Obama.
Asked what she meant by that, Landrieu said: “He refers to him by his last
name. Constantly.”

She added: “If you are going to refer to the president of the United
States, he’s at least earned the title that the people gave him when they
elected him.”

If an unpopular president has brought her to this lonely moment, Landrieu
is making a long-shot bet that he might help pull her through it.

*Associated Press: “Obama, Hillary Clinton 'catch up' in Oval Office”
<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f02c630f65fc462fae5decf0fdc06a7d/obama-hillary-clinton-catch-oval-office>*

[No Writer Mentioned]

December 3, 2014, 5:20 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has met privately at the White
House with his former secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The White House says Obama and Clinton met for about an hour in the Oval
Office "to catch up and enjoy an informal discussion on a wide range of
issues." The White House did not say which issues were discussed.

Obama and Clinton have met occasionally since she left the administration
shortly after the 2012 election. Wednesday's meeting comes as Clinton is
weighing a decision on whether to pursue another bid for the White House.
She lost the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination to Obama.

Obama recently said Clinton would make a "great president" but added that
he thought Americans would want a "new car smell" in the 2016 election.

*Politico: “Clinton in the void”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/hillary-clinton-2016-decision-113303.html>*

By Maggie Haberman

December 3, 2014, 5:46 p.m. EST

[Subtitle:] She faces a challenge in how to spend her time before a 2016
decision

She’s not going to announce her 2016 plans for at least another six weeks —
possibly longer.

So the question for Hillary Clinton has become how to fill the space
between the midterms, when she made dozens of appearances on behalf of
embattled Democrats, and the launch of her own presidential campaign,
should she decide to run.

Clinton’s camp clearly hopes to delay the window in which she is treated
like a candidate. But with a sprawling shadow campaign effort in effect for
more than 18 months, Clinton will be viewed through a political lens
regardless.

The tension she faces was on display Wednesday at Georgetown University,
where the former secretary of state delivered a brief speech on “smart
power” at the Institute for Women, Peace and Security, which she founded
three years earlier.

The theme of the appearance wove Clinton’s work at the State Department
into her infamous 1995 speech on women’s rights at a United Nations
conference in Beijing. Her work on the No Ceilings project at the Clinton
Foundation, a massive data-gathering effort to document women’s
participation globally, was also referenced.

But the appearance was announced only a few days ahead of time and came
during the last week of classes for the semester, and Gaston Hall, where
she has spoken before and has packed the room, was barely half-full.
Republicans seized on pictures of the empty balcony during her speech.

Clinton delivered a short address, then engaged in a brief
question-and-answer session with her close adviser and friend, Melanne
Verveer, who is the executive director of the institute, and another
speaker. Overall, Clinton’s comments and the event broke little new ground
at a time when she has been avoiding making news.

The Georgetown event fell two days after Clinton was the featured speaker
at a League of Conservation Voters dinner in Manhattan, where her sweeping
speech on the environment was largely pleasing to the audience, but covered
no new ground and was similar to a speech she gave about energy in Las
Vegas in September.

Taken together, the two events highlighted the challenge Clinton faces in
this stretch of time: She’s a non-elected official who is still viewed as
an incumbent. And while she became deeply political again in the fall due
to the midterms, she is downshifting back into neutral territory now as her
own likely campaign has been pushed into early next year.

People close to Clinton stress that although she is expected to run for
president, she hasn’t firmly made a decision. But not being a candidate has
meant, for instance, that there have been relatively few calls for her to
comment on issues dominating headlines, like the grand jury decisions in
fatal cases involving unarmed black men and police in New York and Missouri.

But in 2006, when Clinton last prepared for an almost-certain campaign, she
was a sitting senator with existing infrastructure and the predictable
rhythms that come with a legislative office. This time, her circumstances
are different.

It’s like watching the movie theater employee in charge of the projector
try to entertain the audience while changing the film reels.

“This is the first such institute of its kind at a leading American
university,” said Clinton, adding that the goal was to make women “fully
integrated into the process of making peace and keeping peace.”

Women “are not just victims of conflict, they are agents of peace and
agents of change,” she said.

“Smart power” was Clinton’s organizing principle while she was secretary of
state, and it’s a theme she’s explored many times since leaving Foggy
Bottom.

But the event felt much more like those Clinton held in her early days
after leaving State than those she’s held in the last six months, when she
answered questions about the news of the day at a string of interviews
promoting her book, “Hard Choices.”

On Wednesday, she took two questions from students that had been written
down ahead of time.

She discussed issues such as the military situation in Ukraine. In her
speech, she mostly spoke without looking at her notes. She was late,
beginning about 20 minutes after the anticipated start time because of what
were described as “weather delays.”

*Washington Examiner: “Journalists claim 'Hillary fatigue,' but keep asking
if she'll run”
<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/journalists-claim-hillary-fatigue-but-keep-asking-if-shell-run/article/2556912>*

By Eddie Scarry

December 3, 2014, 2:48 p.m. EST

Many in the political news media are suffering from “Hillary fatigue,” they
say. Then they sit up and type out a story or do a TV hit speculating when
she’ll announce her 2016 intentions.

It’s proving to be a cycle that serves as a placeholder until former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton officially declares or declines her
candidacy.

Jonathan Capehart, a liberal columnist for the Washington Post, believes
that to be the case. “The media is tired of her because they've been
talking about Hillary 2016 since the day after the Obama 2012 re-election,”
he told the Washington Examiner. “We won't know if the general public is
tired of Clinton until she officially announces. And that's still a big if.”

The latest CNN poll shows Clinton remains a clear favorite among U.S.
adults who describe themselves as Democrats or who lean Democratic. Support
for her potential candidacy is at 65 percent. At a distant second is Sen.
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts with 10 percent.

“If Clinton's book tour is a prologue, then we know there will be renewed
interest,” Capehart added.

A recurring pattern is for an individual commentator or journalist to write
or talk about Clinton shortly before or after mentioning the “fatigue.”

In his latest column, Politico’s Roger Simon says, “Hillary needs to
announce for the presidency. Soon. The media have moved from Hillary
fatigue to Hillary exhaustion, and this is not helping her.”

That comes four months after he said that Clinton is “not comfortable in
her own skin.” And three months after he wrote on “why Hillary hates Iowa.”
And just two months after listing “four things Hillary can do to win” in
2016.

“Three columns in two months does not seem a lot to me when it comes to
Hillary Clinton,” Simon told the Examiner. “In any case, I don't shy away
from a subject because of how many columns I have done on it in the past.”

He admitted, though, that the news media “play a role” in Clinton fatigue.
“But Clinton's book tour, her speeches around the country, and now her
plans for a listening tour are all designed to generate attention.”

Donny Deutsch, a regular talking head on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said in
late October there’s “Hillary fatigue” across the nation. The next month on
the same show, he advised how Clinton should run her potential 2016
campaign (“[W]hen you're on top, run it as if you're going out of
business”).

As far back as summer 2013, CBS Political News Director John Dickerson
said, “the issue lurking behind Clinton drama is really one of Clinton
fatigue.”

After Clinton’s memoir Hard Choices came out, Dickerson wrote a column
dissecting the book as if it were a 2016 pamphlet: “As a campaign document,
'Hard Choices' presents the picture of a methodical, hardworking public
servant.”

That’s not to say there hasn’t been a saturation of Clinton coverage since
last year. The New York Times in August 2013 appointed reporter Amy Chozick
as its full-time correspondent covering the Clintons, “particularly
Hillary.”

Politico has its own de facto Clinton correspondent in Maggie Haberman.
Eight of her most recent 10 stories are about Clinton, one of which was
featured Wednesday on the website’s homepage. The Washington Post’s
Wednesday print edition also featured a front-page story on Clinton.
Haberman declined to comment for this article and Chozick never got back to
the Examiner.

Richard Grenell, a media critic and former foreign policy adviser to 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, told the Examiner that the
Clinton “fatigue” is a product of the culture among the Washington, D.C.,
press corps.

“The D.C. political media is insular, parochial and functioning like a high
school clique these days,” Grenell said. “Regardless of whether or not they
are bored with Hillary Clinton, they should grow up and do their job by
treating her like a serious candidate. Hillary Clinton deserves their
respect and serious attention, as does anyone who runs for office.”

Grenell added that "the political media’s inability to aggressively report
on policy issues and leadership skills, and instead focus on shallow
inconsequential issues, is part of the dysfunction in Washington.”

*Politico: “#Hillary, #TedCruz rule social media”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/hillary-clinton-ted-cruz-social-media-2016-elections-113310.html>*

By Hadas Gold

December 4, 2014, 5:34 a.m. EST

[Subtitle:] Social media grows as platform with political reach.

Social media has no doubt who the most buzzworthy potential presidential
candidates are at the moment for 2016: Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz
together accounted for 40 percent of the discussion on Facebook and nearly
half — 47 percent — of mentions on Twitter among 10 top presidential
possibilities in the past three months, according to new data provided to
POLITICO by Facebook and Twitter.

Meanwhile, Jeb Bush’s big name didn’t spark much chatter at all. He
garnered only 3 percent of the Facebook mentions and 2 percent of tweets,
fewer than nine other would-be contenders.

The mentions cut both ways, including negative comments as well as positive
ones. But they reflect the extent to which Clinton, a long-standing subject
of debate, and Cruz, who casts himself as a conservative renegade, have
dominated the conversation at a time when others are trying to gin up some
grass-roots energy.

“Imperfect as it is, [Facebook] is probably the biggest trove of data of
what actual human beings outside of Washington, D.C., are talking about day
to day and that makes it intrinsically important, and these platforms are
actually important for reaching people and motivating them,” said Teddy
Goff, partner at Precision Strategies and former digital director for
Obama’s reelection campaign.

“Anything that gives indication as to who’s sort of breaking through and
seems to be of interest and topical among the gigantic sampling of
Americans is important,” he added. “To the extent it’s correlated to who is
going to have the ability to mobilize people, that’s going to have actual
outcomes.”

Barack Obama proved in both his presidential campaigns that social media
can be a major component of an effective grass-roots campaign. And heading
into 2016, some campaign data experts believe social media will be an even
more powerful tool than traditional media as a way to get a message out to
millions, mobilize activists and target swing voters.

Of the 27 million Facebook posts, comments and content likes related to the
potential White House candidates between Aug. 22 and Nov. 22, Clinton and
Cruz each were mentioned in 20 percent of the posts, according to
Facebook’s data scientists. Clinton topped Cruz though in the number of
people talking about her with 2.3 million people making 5.6 million
interactions, while Cruz had 1.8 million users referencing him in 5.6
million interactions. (POLITICO provided the list of contenders to Facebook
and Twitter.)

Of the 15.9 million mentions of candidates’ names or Twitter handles
between Sept. 1 and Dec. 1, Cruz snagged 4.6 million mentions, or 29
percent, while Clinton garnered 2.9 million mentions, or 18 percent.

Some 185 million Americans are on Facebook, and nearly half of adults who
use the site say they read political stories in the past week, according to
a recent Pew report. Far fewer people use Twitter on a regular basis —
Twitter estimates 65 million monthly active users in the United States —
and only 9 percent say they use it to find political news, according to the
same Pew report.

Nickie Titus, the digital director for the Ready for Hillary campaign, said
the group has been using its social media presence to mobilize Clinton
supporters in the absence of any official campaign.

“What matters is [Clinton is] part of the discourse. [It’s] about having
conversations and amplifying a message,” said Titus. “One of the things
that’s really great, particularly on Twitter, is a way to amplify the
message, then people can keep spreading it which you see with her hashtag
or when people are retweeting her handle. It’s helping her spread her word.”

Following Cruz and Clinton on Facebook are Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, each tied for 11 percent of the conversation, or 2.9
million interactions. Perry had 1.1 million people talking about him, while
Walker had 1 million. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) follow with 8 percent for 2.1 million interactions each, though
Warren beats out Paul with 900,000 people talking about her, compared with
800,000 people for Paul.

“These numbers are important because they help determine reach,” said
Vincent Harris, who until last month helped run Cruz’s digital strategy
before taking up the role of chief digital strategist for Paul’s RANDPAC.
“Because of how Facebook’s algorithm works, engagement equals reach, so
people who are not asking for engagement and aren’t focused on engagement
are not getting the reach they need to.”

Going further down the Facebook list, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a
favorite of grass-roots liberals, had 6 percent for 1.7 million
interactions, just ahead New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with 5.5 percent,
or 1.5 million interactions, according to Facebook. At the bottom of the
list were Florida’s potential hopefuls, both Republicans — Bush at 3
percent, or 700,000 interactions, with 300,000 people talking about him,
and Sen. Marco Rubio with 1 percent, or 200,000 interactions, and 100,000
people talking about him.

On Twitter, mentions were counted for the politician’s full name and
official Twitter handles. Paul came in third with 12 percent of total
mentions, or 1.9 million mentions, while Christie followed with 11 percent,
or 1.81 million. Rubio fared far better on Twitter than on Facebook with 9
percent, or 1.37 million, mentions. Perry had 7 percent of the mentions on
Twitter, or 1.06 million, while Walker, Warren and Sanders each held about
4 percent of the mentions, at 715,000, 690,000 and 630,000, respectively.
And similar to his placement on Facebook, Bush came in last with just 2
percent of mentions, or 310,000. For the full list of mentions and search
criteria on Twitter, click here.

But the high numbers on social media don’t necessarily correlate to a
candidate’s standing in the polls — a recent CNN poll showed that among
Democrats, Clinton tops the list for president versus an eighth-place
finish for Cruz among Republicans.

“Looking at mentions is a topline number,” said Joe Rospars, founder and
CEO of Blue State Digital and Obama’s former chief digital strategist. “Are
people sharing mainstream press stuff, are people saying things on their
own, and then, are people sharing the actual content produced by that
person — which I would argue is probably the better of those three.
Ultimately, it’s about the reach of what the candidate or organization or
in this case PACs or Senate offices are trying to accomplish.”

Not surprisingly, social media mentions surge with specific news events.

Clinton’s name skyrocketed on Facebook three times in the past three
months. The first came about the time of her appearance at Sen. Tom
Harkin’s steak fry in Iowa on Sept. 14. Clinton’s mentions also jumped
around Oct. 26, when she tried to walk back an earlier comment, “Don’t let
anybody tell you that, you know, it’s corporations and businesses that
create jobs.” Her third and biggest spike came around Election Day.

Cruz experienced two significant bumps in the past three months on
Facebook. The first was on Sept. 10, when he was booed off stage after
making pro-Israel remarks at a Middle Eastern Christian conference. The
second and largest was on Nov. 10, when Cruz called net neutrality
“Obamacare for the Internet.”

A spokesperson for Clinton did not respond to requests for comment, though
Titus said Clinton’s high numbers despite the lack of an official page
proves the power of her presence.

“She’s Hillary Clinton, you know? I think that the interesting thing about
Facebook and Twitter is you don’t have to have an official presence. It’s
an opportunity for people to talk with their networks about what they care
about and that’s everything from the picture of your friend’s baby to
Hillary Clinton and what she’s saying about equal pay or Jeanne Shaheen.
It’s great, right? It’s the modern-day kitchen table in some ways,” Titus
said.

Cruz’s digital operation has put an emphasis on outreach and engagement
with the user, especially through entertainment, Harris said.

“I believe in persuasion by entertainment and I believe at the end, it’s
when people go in and they want to be entertained and what they want is to
have interesting and unique content given to them. That’s something I’ve
been proud to work on with Sen. Cruz’s team, that’s what they’ve been doing
for past 3½ years,” Harris said.

“[Cruz] is someone who has an ability to stir up and motivate and mobilize
a certain fringe community within American politics,” Goff said. “It
doesn’t surprise me that someone who has thrown red meat to an audience who
feels very passionately about what they feel will see a lot more chatter …
Cruz has a particular ability to irritate a broad swath of American people.”

Unlike Clinton, Cruz has a robust Facebook presence, boasting more than 1
million likes on just one of his two Facebook pages. His most popular
recent post was on Nov. 20, criticizing Obama’s executive action on
immigration. The post, which directs readers to a website called
stopobamasamnesty.com (and subsequently asks for your name, email and ZIP
code), had 79,694 likes, 16,576 shares and 12,610 comments by the first
week of December.

On Twitter, where she has an official account, Clinton boasts more than
2.48 million followers. Cruz has more than 697,000 followers between his
two Twitter accounts @SenTedCruz and @TedCruz.

The data provided to POLITICO by Facebook also included topics discussed
related to each contender. For Clinton, the No. 1 topic of conversation was
what Facebook termed Government Ethics, mostly about Benghazi, followed by
Foreign Policy, Jobs and the Economy, Money in Politics and Economic
Equality and Mobility.

For Cruz, the most discussed topic was Foreign Policy, followed by Jobs and
the Economy, Health Care, Public Safety (mostly Ebola-related) and
Immigration.

To see the full list of topics for the other contenders, click here.

“It’s striking the extent to which these topics largely reflect the broader
media narrative and messaging by these candidates — for instance, Elizabeth
Warren and income inequality, or Jeb Bush and education,” said Patrick
Ruffini, partner and co-founder at Echelon Insights, a Republican research
and analytics firm.

“That tells me there’s something real in these numbers,” he added. “And if
people are talking about the candidates in relation to something that’s not
yet part of the media narrative, then that might be an early warning that
something is up, and to monitor and respond accordingly.”

This type of digital data is widely expected to become an even larger part
of the 2016 campaign than in previous cycles. BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief
Ben Smith in November went so far as to say that “Facebook is on the cusp —
and I suspect 2016 will be the year this becomes clear — of replacing
television advertising as the place where American elections are fought and
won.”

Ruffini agreed that the 2016 election will very likely see the digital
mediums converge with traditional methods.

“Different research tools are good at different things. Polling is good at
asking a series of structured questions, and social media analysis is
better at understanding emerging topics and what people find important, in
their own words,” he said. “In 2016, I expect to see these two disciplines
coming together.”

*Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton appears to support U.S.-secured civilian
havens in Syria”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-appears-to-support-us-secured-civilian-havens-in-syria/2014/12/03/6289db2e-7b08-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394>*

By Anne Gearan

December 3, 2014, 6:32 p.m. EST

Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday appeared to back the imposition of
civilian refuge zones inside Syria, as the White House considers whether to
enforce havens for rebel fighters or refugees.

The former secretary of state and potential presidential candidate also
told a Georgetown University audience that the conflict in Syria has ceased
to be a fight only to oust President Bashar al-Assad and is now also a
scramble for territory among multiple groups and factions.

“Part of what we have to do in continuing to try to combat the depredations
and criminal conduct of a group like ISIS, and continue to put pressure on
Assad, is probably first and foremost a protective humanitarian approach,”
Clinton said, using one of the acronyms for the Islamic State terrorist
group.

That suggests wider U.S. military involvement to establish safe areas —
variously called humanitarian buffers or corridors — inside Syria, or an
even more comprehensive “no-fly zone.” Clinton did not elaborate on which
of those options she might prefer.

A spokesman for Clinton did not immediately respond to a request for
clarification on whether she would support the kind of buffer zones along
the Turkish border that are under review.

The fight against the Islamic State has become the chief foreign policy
challenge for President Obama and one he is likely to hand off to his
successor.

If she runs for the White House in 2016, Clinton is expected to play up her
experience handling national security crises. Her credentials as a relative
hawk within the Democratic Party could be considered an asset in a general
election contest with a Republican.

Turkey has long sought a safe zone across its long southern border with
Syria, partly in hopes that some of the Syrian refugees who have crossed
into Turkey could return to their country. A buffer created by the United
States would primarily serve a military purpose, but the area also would
surely be considered an invitation to refugees inside and outside of Syria.

“There is a lot of discussion going on,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry
told reporters Wednesday in Brussels. “But it is premature to suggest at
this moment of time that we are close to making a decision or moving
forward with any form of a safe zone or a buffer zone.”

“We are continuing our discussions with our Turkish allies in order to have
conversations about how we best bolster security in the region and deal
with the problem of Syria,” Kerry said.

Any safe zone would be established without the consent of Assad and
probably would bring American warplanes into more direct confrontation with
Syrian aircraft.

Refugee advocates for years have sought humanitarian refuges, and a debate
about whether such zones could be secured by outside air power took place
during Clinton’s time as the top U.S. diplomat. Since leaving office in
2013, Clinton has gone public about being on the losing side of an
administration debate over whether the United States should arm the rebels
and become more deeply involved in the Syrian conflict.

The war is well into its fourth year, with no end in sight. It was not
clear from Clinton’s comments Wednesday that she would back a major
military expansion in Syria, which the Pentagon has long warned would be
required to establish an effective no-fly zone and protect civilians or
rebel fighters from Assad’s warplanes.

Obama chose to launch airstrikes and greatly expand U.S. support for the
rebels after Clinton left office. The war had changed by then to become one
in which the Islamic State had seized huge amounts of territory and
beheaded captured Americans and Britons.

“Syria is now a multi-sided conflict,” Clinton said during a discussion of
women in conflicts and peacemaking. She cited the Assad government,
“propped up by Iran,” and Hezbollah and the proliferation of outside
extremist groups such as Islamic State as among the players. Assad is also
still getting money and weapons from his old patron Russia, she charged.

“It’s not only now a fight against Assad, it is a fight to seize and hold
territory and to establish their own governance, if you will,” Clinton said.

A United Nations effort to inaugurate peace talks between Assad’s
government and rebel-backed political opponents fell apart almost as soon
as it began last year. U.S. officials privately acknowledge that the Syrian
leader is not leaving soon and that the U.S.-led air war actually helps him
remain in power.

The buffer zone along the Syria-Turkish border that is under review would
open a new front against the Islamic State in Syria. It would be part of
the effort to push back militants along the western part of Syria’s border
with Turkey and create a relatively safe zone for U.S.-backed Syrian rebel
forces to move.

*CNN: “Hillary Clinton's 2016 announcement date a moving target”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/03/politics/hillary-clintons-announcement-date-is-a-moving-target/index.html>*

By Dan Merica

December 3, 2014, 4:25 p.m. EST

If you feel like you've been hearing different dates about when Hillary
Clinton will announce her run for the presidency, it's not just you.

Democrats -- some who are close to Clinton, have been close to Clinton or
want to be close to Clinton -- are willing to talk about it, even if very
few people besides the former secretary of state actually know.

This variable has made the when-will-she-announce question a moving target
for reporters this fall.

Most recently, Politico reported Wednesday that Clinton is not expected to
form an exploratory committee "until well after January 1" and that her
"speech schedule indicates 2016 announcement may be months away."

This comes shortly after organizers announced last week that Clinton has
added a number of seemingly paid speeches to her calendar, including two in
Canada for late January and one in Silicon Valley in February. It's
unlikely that Clinton would announce her candidacy before or during the
midst of those paid speeches.

Here's a sampling of reports from the moving target that is Clinton's
announcement date:

The New York Times, Nov. 6: Midterms, for Clinton Team, Aren't All Gloom -
"Over the past few days, a consensus formed among those close to Mrs.
Clinton that it is time to accelerate her schedule ..."

The Hill, Nov. 12: Clinton in no hurry to announce 2016 plans - "Sources in
Clinton World say while there's been some chatter about an
earlier-than-expected announcement, given the Democratic midterm thumping,
Clinton is likely to stick to the timeline of making her plans known early
next year."

NBC News, Nov. 17: Democrats Ready for Post-Holiday Clinton Announcement -
"Hillary Clinton is expected to announce in January that she will run for
president, Democratic sources say. ... She is expected to begin preparation
for a campaign over the next two months."

And CNN has received similar reports from inside Clinton's circle.

Some sources tell CNN that if Clinton runs -- many still include this
caveat -- her announcement will come in January 2015, much like she
declared in January 2007 for her 2008 run. Others have said, however, that
the former secretary of state is likely to wait later into the cycle to
declare because there is no upside to getting in early.

"If she hasn't said no by January, it will be a sign she is running," said
one former Clinton aide at last month's Ready for Hillary strategy session
in New York, suggesting that if she had plans to get out of the race she
would want to give Democrats enough time to ready other candidates.

"I think she has the time as she makes her decision," said Stephanie
Schriock, head of Emily's List and a woman reportedly on the shortlist to
be Clinton's campaign manager.

Clinton has also given an array of answers on the issue.

In Ottawa in October Clinton said that she will "think hard about it in a
way you make a decision until after these elections," referring to the
midterms. Earlier in the year, Clinton said she would make her decision
"after the first of the year."

*Associated Press: “Ex-Va. Dem Sen. Webb to decide soon on 2016 race”
<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c1e274025c864317a4776e951dc25a70/ex-va-dem-sen-webb-decide-soon-2016-race>*

By Alan Suderman and Ken Thomas

December 3, 2014, 4:08 p.m. EST

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Former Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia said
Wednesday he is considering running for president because his party has
splintered into a series of interest groups and failed to address the
economic concerns of middle class Americans.

But for now, he's limiting his critique to the party, not Hillary Rodham
Clinton.

"The Democratic party has lost the message that made it such a great party
for so many years, and that message was take care of working people, take
care of the people who have no voice in the corridors of power, no matter
their race, ethnicity or any other reason," Webb said at a Virginia
legislative preview organized by The Associated Press. "The Democratic
party has basically turned into a party of interest groups."

Webb, who last month announced a presidential exploratory committee, said
he would make a decision in the next few months on whether to compete for
the Democratic nomination in 2016. He is one of a handful of potential
Democratic candidates who have been overshadowed by Clinton, who has yet to
decide but remains the dominant figure in the early campaign to succeed
President Barack Obama.

The 68-year-old Vietnam War veteran and Navy secretary under President
Ronald Reagan said he was concerned about the direction of the country and
advocated reorienting national security and foreign policy while addressing
the country's economic challenges.

"I'm not a career politician. This is not a planned trajectory," Webb said,
pointing to his unlikely Senate run in 2006 that unseated GOP Sen. George
Allen. "If I commit to something I will see it though."

At the AP event, Webb declined to comment on Clinton or the role she could
play in a Democratic primary. But he said his own experiences in the
Senate, the military and leadership roles "have helped me understand the
issues in a way that I believe I could effectively lead."

"I just don't want to be seen as attacking Hillary Clinton," Webb said in
an interview with The AP following the question-and-answer session with
reporters.

Democrats have represented interest groups rather than "working people" and
those without political power, Webb added. He pointed to the lack of
support in the fall elections among "white working people" for Senate
Democrats like Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina.
Landrieu faces an uphill challenge in Saturday's Senate runoff race while
Hagan was defeated by Republican Thom Tillis.

"The very people who would have a natural affinity for what the Democratic
party used to offer feel alienated," he said.

Webb offered a mix of concerns about the country's direction, citing the
need to reshape U.S. national security and foreign policy, which he said
had been "on autopilot" since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He
said the Obama administration's decision to use unilateral military force
in Libya was improper and expressed concern about domestic surveillance by
the National Security Agency.

The former senator said he plans to decide about a presidential campaign in
the next few months.

"If we get the right kind of support and the right kind of financial
backing we'll move forward," he said.

*The Daily Beast: “Is Gay Marriage Going Away in 2016?”
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/04/is-gay-marriage-going-away-in-2016.html>*

By David Freedlander

December 4, 2014

[Subtitle:] Would Rob Portman’s presence on the GOP primary debate stage
have pushed his fellow candidates to support same-sex marriage? We’ll never
know—and now the issue may be off the table.

In the long sweep of LGBT equality, it could have stood as a seminal moment.

Rob Portman, the well-respected Ohio senator and former Bush administration
official, and someone well within the mainstream of the GOP establishment,
could have been the first serious Republican presidential candidate to be
an avowed supporter of same-sex marriage. He was not likely to
win—Portman’s charisma deficit has made him a perennial also-ran in the
vice-presidential sweepstakes—but he probably would have done well enough
to prove that being pro-same-sex marriage was not disqualifying for a
Republican candidate.

As it stands, candidates do not have much of an incentive to come out in
favor of same-sex marriage. Those most likely to do so, like Chris Christie
or Rand Paul, already are facing suspicion from conservatives, and so are
seeking to show their hard-right bonafides in the run-up to a campaign. But
once Portman made room on the debate stage for an idea that has broad
acceptance seemingly everywhere but among GOP primary voters, it is easy to
imagine that others would have jumped on board. It’s already happened in
the Senate, after Portman, citing his college-age son who had recently come
out as gay, wrote in a Columbus Dispatch op-ed in 2013: “I have come to
believe that if two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to
love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government
shouldn’t deny them the opportunity to get married.” Seemingly before the
ink was dry, three other Republican senators—Mark Kirk of Illinois, Susan
Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—declared their support, as
well.

But on Monday Portman said that he would not run for president, choosing to
seek reelection in Ohio. Which prompts the question: In a GOP field minus
Portman, what role will same-sex marriage play? Presidential primaries have
a way of bringing out issues that later become policy or law. In 2008,
trying to get to the left of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama proposed
withdrawing from the war in Iraq. In 1968, Richard Nixon touted his plan to
end the war in Vietnam in the face of a challenge from the anti-war George
Romney.

Without any diversity of opinion, candidates tend to bunch together as much
as possible. In 2012, without any countervailing force to his left, Mitt
Romney was forced to advocate for the “self-deportation” of undocumented
immigrants, describe himself as “severely conservative,” and along with the
rest of the field raise his hand at a Fox News debate when asked whether he
would not raise taxes for even 10 times the amount of spending reductions.

Some polls show that as many as 59 percent of Americans favor full marriage
equality, a figure that rises as the age of those polled goes down, with up
to 81 percent of millennials supporting the legalization of gay marriage.
But in a GOP presidential primary, “If someone takes that position, it
raises trust concerns about their other core beliefs,” said Gary Marx, a
Republican strategist and former head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
“The old adage was that if you couldn’t trust somebody to do what they said
they were going to do on taxes, how could you trust them to be pro-life?
You are looking for a consistent conservative across the board when you are
considering candidates in a presidential primary.”

In the 2012 GOP presidential primary, same-sex marriage did not come up
much, in part because the candidates were all in agreement, not only with
each other but with President Obama, who did not announce his own evolution
on the issue until the Republican contest was all but settled. This time
around, some social conservative strategists think the issues could be
muted again, since the pressing questions on same-sex marriage reside
mostly with the courts. In the first in the nation primary state of New
Hampshire, 54 percent of Republicans favor allowing gays and lesbians to
have legal civil marriage. In the first in the West caucus state of Nevada,
the state Republican Party has dropped opposition to same-sex marriage as
part of its platform.

But the presence of evangelical primary voters, especially in Iowa and
South Carolina among the early states, means that some candidates will
press their advantage.

“You could easily see a situation where a Rick Santorum or a Mike Huckabee
are pressing this issue, and you hope that the rest of the field just
leaves it to them,” said one pro-same-sex marriage GOP strategist.

“Traditionally, the Republican Party supports traditional marriage,” said
Alice Stewart, a GOP strategist allied with Huckabee. “If Governor Huckabee
were to enter the race, he has supported traditional marriage. He always
has and he always will.”

Evan Wolfson, the president of Freedom to Marry, one of the nation’s
foremost same sex marriage advocacy groups, said that even without Portman
in the race, it is too early to tell if the GOP field will be without a
marriage equality candidate, considering how fast public opinion—and with
it, public officials—are moving on the matter.

“2016 is still a long time away,” he said. “Who knows what will happen?”

Wolfson pointed to a number of Republican governors who already at the very
least have chosen not to fight the issue out in their states where courts
or the legislature acted, including Christie and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker,
who once county clerks began issuing marriage licenses said, “For us, it’s
over.”

Christie, Walker, and Paul have all argued that the marriage issue is one
better left to the states. Their position is identical to the one held by
Hillary Clinton, a fact that delights Gregory T. Angelo, the head of the
Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights GOP group.

“Hillary Clinton has a position on marriage that is to the right of
everyone else in her party,” he said. “Part of me cannot wait to see her
twist herself into contortions explaining why her position is different
from her party’s platform.”

In other words, expect the marriage matter to be a bipartisan affair.

“That is a fact we are certainly going to be reminding Democrats about,”
Angelo said.

*Washington Post column: Dana Milbank: “Hillary Clinton has lost that ‘new
car’ smell”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-hillary-clinton-shows-shes-lost-that-new-car-smell/2014/12/03/8c86a77e-7b24-11e4-9a27-6fdbc612bff8_story.html>*

By Dana Milbank

December 3, 2014, 5:08 p.m. EST

There was something in the air before Hillary Clinton addressed Georgetown
University students Wednesday, but it definitely wasn’t a new-car smell.

It was a faint but unmistakable whiff of indifference.

When the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination spoke
in the same place a year ago, the room was reportedly packed. When she
spoke in October, Gaston Hall again “was filled to capacity,” the campus
newspaper reported; some students lined up overnight and others were turned
away.

But when it was time for Clinton’s appearance to begin Wednesday morning,
half of the 700 seats in the place were empty. After a half-hour “weather
delay,” diplomats and VIPs filled a few more chairs, but more than 300
remained vacant when the former secretary of state and first lady walked in
wearing a robin’s-egg-blue jacket and her signature pants.

Roughly half a dozen people rose to applaud, and for a terrifying moment it
appeared they might be the only ones standing. But slowly, lazily, most of
the others struggled to their feet.

Maybe it was just overexposure. Clinton began by joking that she’d been to
Georgetown more in the last couple of years than her husband, who is an
alumnus. This got a polite chuckle. A spokeswoman for the university said
that this is the last week of classes, so students may be busy preparing
for final exams.

But it has to be a worrisome sign for Clintonistas as they prepare to
launch her 2016 juggernaut. President Obama, talking to ABC News’s George
Stephanopoulos last month about Clinton’s efforts to distance herself from
the unpopular president, said “the American people, you know, they’re going
to want that new-car smell.” Doug Schoen, whose polling firm worked for
Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign and who now is a Fox News regular,
contributed his view that his former client lacks that particular scent.

The students who did show up Wednesday did not seem dazzled. They gave
another polite chuckle for her reference to Harvard as “that small
university up in Cambridge, Massachusetts,” but they were dead quiet during
most of her speech. A few took photos with their phones; others fiddled
with their hair. Several began trickling out before the 40-minute
appearance was over. The main applause line Clinton generated was her
reference to another woman joining her on the stage, Norwegian Defense
Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide, who, Clinton said, “belongs to a small but
fierce club of women who are proving they can defend their countries as
well as any man.”

Those who bothered to listen could have heard the rationale for Clinton’s
candidacy as she spoke about the need for women to play a greater role
around the world in war-fighting and diplomacy. “We know when women
contribute in making and keeping peace, entire societies enjoy better
outcomes,” she said. “Women leaders, it has been found, are good at
building coalitions across ethnic and sectarian lines and speaking up for
other marginalized groups. . . . They act more as mediators to help foster
compromise and to try to organize, to create the changes they seek.”

This is a smart way for Clinton to position herself. Last time, she largely
avoided campaigning on her potential to be the first female president,
until her famous “glass ceiling” concession speech. The bad news is she’s
now tied to Obama’s foreign policy at a time when the world seems to be
falling apart.

She has tried, haltingly, to draw distinctions between her hawkish views
and Obama’s dovish ways. But there was nothing new-car in Wednesday’s
appearance, where Clinton gave a brief exposition on her “smart power”
theme and often lapsed into the bureaucratic and the banal.

“I’m a big believer in trying to make decisions based on evidence wherever
possible,” she reported. She also spoke, numbingly, of her “commitment to
launch a series of practical discussions on the implementation of national
action plans,” and of her effort “to call for the institution of a
representative to the secretary general to begin at the U.N. level to try
to implement what were the sentiments and the aspirations behind these
actions.”

There was supposed to have been a Q&A following Clinton’s remarks, but the
moderator, former Clinton adviser Melanne Verveer, said there was no time
for that and instead read Clinton a single question about Syria and
Ukraine. Clinton ventured her opinions that Ukraine will have to “rebuild
its military forces” and that “Syria is now a multi-sided conflict.”

The ride and handling were stable. The acceleration and braking were
adequate. But this car was not new.

*Calendar:*

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

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

·  December 5 – Washington, DC: Sec. Clinton speaks at the Saban Forum (CNN
<https://twitter.com/danmericaCNN/status/539475682183880705>)

·  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>
)

·  January 21 – Saskatchewan, Canada: Sec. Clinton keynotes the Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce’s “Global Perspectives” series (MarketWired
<http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/former-us-secretary-state-hillary-rodham-clinton-deliver-keynote-address-saskatoon-1972651.htm>
)

·  January 21 – Winnipeg, Canada: Sec. Clinton keynotes the Global
Perspectives series (Winnipeg Free Press
<http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Clinton-coming-to-Winnipeg--284282491.html>
)

·  February 24 – Santa Clara, CA: Sec. Clinton to Keynote Address at
Inaugural Watermark Conference for Women (PR Newswire
<http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hillary-rodham-clinton-to-deliver-keynote-address-at-inaugural-watermark-conference-for-women-283200361.html>
)