Subject: ​Correct The Record Thursday December 18, 2014 Morning Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 08:04:33 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Thursday December 18, 2014 Morning Roundup:*

*Headlines:*

*Politico: “Hillary Clinton backs President Obama on Cuba”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/hillary-clinton-cuba-113661.html>*

“Hillary Clinton praised the Obama administration’s move to normalize
relations with Cuba on Wednesday, saying ‘isolation has only strengthened
the Castro regime’s grip on power.’”

*National Journal: “On Cuba, Clinton Stands with Obama”
<http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/on-cuba-clinton-stands-with-obama-20141217>*

[Subtitle:] “The former Secretary of State embraced the president's plan
for greater engagement.”

*The Hill: “Clinton faces challenge on Cuba”
<http://thehill.com/policy/international/227491-clinton-faces-challenge-on-cuba>*

“President Obama’s decision to seek normalized relations with Cuba sets up
new challenges for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for the
White House if she chooses to run.”

*Washington Post blog: Plum Line: “On Cuba, it’s Hillary Clinton versus Jeb
Bush and Marco Rubio”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/12/17/on-cuba-its-hillary-clinton-versus-jeb-bush-and-marco-rubio/>*

“President Obama’s historic announcement that his administration will
pursue normalization of relations with Cuba — and his suggestion that he
will ask Congress to lift the embargo — all but ensures that the Cuba
question will become another issue around which Hillary Clinton and the GOP
2016 presidential hopefuls square off, with Clinton embracing the Obama
position and Republicans lining up in opposition to it.”

*FROM MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA: Media Matters for America: “New York Times
Omits Key Facts To Fabricate Dishonest Clinton-Obama Fundraising Scandal”
<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/12/17/new-york-times-omits-key-facts-to-fabricate-dis/201940>*

“The New York Times omitted key facts it had previously reported to
dishonestly accuse Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration of selling
political favors to an Ecuadorean family in exchange for campaign
donations.”

*Wall Street Journal blog: Washington Wire: “Poll: Obama’s Standing
Rebounds With Hispanics”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/12/18/poll-obamas-standing-rebounds-with-hispanics/>*

“The survey also shows Hillary Clinton would begin a presidential race with
a strong advantage over her potential rivals in both parties among this
fast-growing set of voters, should she decide to run.”

*Des Moines Register: “This is Elizabeth Warren's time, activists tell
Iowans”
<http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2014/12/17/elizabeth-warren-fans-iowa-say-time/20563553/>*

“This is the perfect time for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for
president, and Iowans can succeed in coaxing her into the race, national
Democratic activists said Wednesday. ‘This moment is just built for a
Warren message,’ Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org's political
action committee, told The Des Moines Register in an interview.”

*Wall Street Journal blog: Washington Wire: “Second Liberal Group Urges
Elizabeth Warren to Run”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/12/17/second-liberal-group-urges-elizabeth-warren-to-run/>*

“Democracy for America said it will make an ‘initial’ expenditure of
$250,000 in hopes of persuading Ms. Warren to jump in the race.”

*Wall Street Journal blog: Washington Wire: “Iowa Liberals Try to Will
Elizabeth Warren Into 2016”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/12/18/iowa-liberals-try-to-will-elizabeth-warren-into-2016/>*

“At a basic level, the whole endeavor looked quixotic.”

*New York Times: “When Political Dynasties Converge”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/style/when-political-dynasties-converge.html>*

“Political dynasties with the last names Clinton and Bush dominate American
politics at the moment, but nobody draws a crowd quite like the Kennedys.”

*Articles:*

*Politico: “Hillary Clinton backs President Obama on Cuba”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/hillary-clinton-cuba-113661.html>*

By Tarini Parti

December 17, 2014, 8:46 p.m. EST

Hillary Clinton praised the Obama administration’s move to normalize
relations with Cuba on Wednesday, saying “isolation has only strengthened
the Castro regime’s grip on power.”

Clinton, a former secretary of state and likely Democratic presidential
frontrunner in 2016, also reaffirmed her view that the U.S. should lift its
embargo on the island nation.

She also added that she was “deeply relieved” that Alan Gross — a
government contract worker who had been held in Cuba for five years – was
released amid the negotiations. While at the State Department, she had
pushed for his freedom.

“I am deeply relieved by Alan Gross’s safe return to the United States, and
I support President Obama’s decision to change course on Cuba policy, while
keeping the focus on our principal objective — supporting the aspirations
of the Cuban people for freedom,” Clinton said in a statement late
Wednesday. “It is great news that Alan is finally home with his family,
where he belongs.”

“As secretary of state, I pushed for his release, stayed in touch with
Alan’s wife, Judy, and their daughters, and called for a new direction in
Cuba,” she continued. “Despite good intentions, our decades-long policy of
isolation has only strengthened the Castro regime’s grip on power.”

“As I have said, the best way to bring change to Cuba is to expose its
people to the values, information, and material comforts of the outside
world. The goal of increased U.S. engagement in the days and years ahead
should be to encourage real and lasting reforms for the Cuban people. And
the other nations of the Americas should join us in this effort.”

Clinton’s statement comes after potential GOP 2016 contenders such as
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz
and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal slammed the White House’s shift in policy,
portraying it as another example of the president’s foreign policy blunders.

*National Journal: “On Cuba, Clinton Stands with Obama”
<http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/on-cuba-clinton-stands-with-obama-20141217>*

By Emily Schultheis

December 17, 2014

[Subtitle:] The former Secretary of State embraced the president's plan for
greater engagement.

Hillary Clinton Wednesday praised President Obama's move to loosen the
trade embargo and normalize relations with Cuba, saying she believed the
new policy is more likely to bring change to the Caribbean nation than the
current embargo.

"I support President Obama's decision to change course on Cuba policy …
Despite good intentions, our decades-long policy of isolation has only
strengthened the Castro regime's grip on power," she said. "As I have said,
the best way to bring change to Cuba is to expose its people to the values,
information, and material comforts of the outside world."

In her 2014 book Hard Choices, released in June, Clinton also wrote about
the need to revisit U.S. policy toward Cuba, and the trade embargo in
particular.

"Near the end of my tenure I recommended to President Obama that he take
another look at our embargo. It wasn't achieving its goals and it was
holding back our broader agenda across Latin America," she wrote in the
book. "After twenty years of observing and dealing with the U.S.-Cuba
relationship, I thought we should shift the onus onto the Castros to
explain why they remained undemocratic and abusive."

Clinton also noted Wednesday that she's "deeply relieved" by the release of
U.S. aid worker Alan Gross, who had been held for five years in Cuba.

"It is great news that Alan is finally home with his family, where he
belongs," she said. In Hard Choices, Clinton said not bringing Gross home
was one of her regrets about her time as Secretary of State.

Clinton's response to Wednesday's surprise Cuba news comes at the end of a
day full of Republican criticism for the change in policy, especially from
Clinton's potential 2016 GOP rivals. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said the
Obama administration's foreign policy is "more than just naïve, it is
willfully ignorant of the way the world really works."

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, another 2016 hopeful, said the move "will be
remembered as a tragic mistake."

*The Hill: “Clinton faces challenge on Cuba”
<http://thehill.com/policy/international/227491-clinton-faces-challenge-on-cuba>*

By Amie Parnes

December 17, 2014, 5:11 p.m. EST

President Obama’s decision to seek normalized relations with Cuba sets up
new challenges for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for the
White House if she chooses to run.

Clinton in recent months has called for an end to the embargo with Cuba.
She talked of recommending that Obama end the embargo toward the end of her
term as his secretary of State.

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have a contentious
history with the Cuban-American population in Florida that goes back to the
fight over Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban child whom the president allowed to be
returned to his father in Havana after Gonzalez fled to Florida with his
mother, who died on the voyage.

Many in the Cuban-American community blamed Clinton for Gonzalez's return
to the island, and some maintain it hurt Vice President Al Gore’s chances
of winning the presidency in 2000.

Former Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), who left Cuba as a child, predicted that
the move by Obama on Wednesday would affect the Cuban-American vote in a
way that would not be good for Obama or Clinton.

“It's so broad, so sweeping, with no measured steps that I really think
it's going to look pretty bad,” Martinez said in an interview with The Hill.

He also warned that the actions will remind Cuban-Americans of the Clinton
policies toward Cuba that they opposed, as well as the Gonzalez incident.

“It's a reminder,” he said. “I think all of that gets revived.”

Clinton late Wednesday said she backed Obama's decision to seek normalized
relations with Cuba.

"Despite good intentions, our decades-long policy of isolation has only
strengthened the Castro regime's grip on power," Clinton said in a
statement. "As I have said, the best way to bring change to Cuba is to
expose its people to the values, information, and material comforts of the
outside world.

"The goal of increased U.S. engagement in the days and years ahead should
be to encourage real and lasting reforms for the Cuban people.  And the
other nations of the Americas should join us in this effort," she said. .

In her memoir Hard Choices released last summer, she wrote that she
recommended Obama “take another look at our embargo” toward the end of her
tenure.

“It wasn’t achieving its goals and it was holding back our broader agenda
across Latin America,” she wrote. “After twenty years of observing and
dealing with the U.S.-Cuba relationship, I thought we should shift the onus
onto the Castros to explain why they remained undemocratic and abusive.”

Martinez argued that would be difficult for Clinton to break from Obama’s
policies given her own positions on Cuba. “She owns so much of [Obama's]
foreign policy,” Martinez said.

And such positions historically have not gone down well with Cuban-American
voters in Florida, a decisive swing state in any presidential election.

“The overwhelming majority of those who vote are conservative,” Sebastián
Arcos, the associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida
International University in Miami, said of Florida’s Cuban-Americans. “I
think it’s a problem for her.”

Some observers believe the political climate has changed, particularly
among younger people born in the United States who have no deep attachment
to the embargo.

“The trend lines show that most Cuban-Americans think the embargo has
failed, and they have a very different prospective than their parents and
grandparents. It’s a very different landscape,” said Luis Miranda, a
strategist who previously served as the director of Hispanic Media at the
White House during the Obama administration. “Hillary Clinton recognizes
that and that’s why she felt so comfortable putting it in her book.”

The Cuban Research Institute conducted their annual Cuba poll earlier this
year asking respondents if they favored or supported the embargo in Cuba.
And while the results came back at almost a dead-even split, 51 percent of
those registered to vote favored continuing the embargo. However, only 43
percent of unregistered voters, likely a younger demographic, favored
keeping it.

Several Republicans thought to be possible White House contenders have
taken a much tougher line than Clinton, ensuring the issue could resonate
in a general election.

Jeb Bush — a former governor of Florida who resides in Miami and announced
on Tuesday that he’s actively exploring a 2016 presidential campaign — said
Wednesday that he opposed Obama’s decision to normalize relations.

“I don’t think we should be negotiating with a repressive regime to make
changes in our relationship,” Bush said at an event in Florida, according
to USA Today.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), whose parents fled Cuba, took an even tougher
line in accusing the White House of having a naive foreign policy.

“It is a victory for the repressive Cuban government and a serious setback
for the repressed Cuban people,” he said of the announced changes. “The
White House has conceded everything and gained little.”

*Washington Post blog: Plum Line: “On Cuba, it’s Hillary Clinton versus Jeb
Bush and Marco Rubio”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/12/17/on-cuba-its-hillary-clinton-versus-jeb-bush-and-marco-rubio/>*

By Greg Sargent

December 17, 2014, 3:15 p.m. EST

President Obama’s historic announcement that his administration will pursue
normalization of relations with Cuba — and his suggestion that he will ask
Congress to lift the embargo — all but ensures that the Cuba question will
become another issue around which Hillary Clinton and the GOP 2016
presidential hopefuls square off, with Clinton embracing the Obama position
and Republicans lining up in opposition to it.

The politics of Cuba, of course, occupy a special place in presidential
politics. As Ed Kilgore puts it, one of the leading obstacles to
normalization has been “the 29 electoral votes of Florida, and the belief
that a highly politically engaged Cuban-American community would wreak
vengeance on any president or party who dared to refuse to repeat the stale
pieties of Cold War anti-Castro rhetoric.”

Two possible GOP candidates — Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, both from Florida —
have already come out against Obama’s push for normalization, both arguing
against expanded engagement with a repressive regime.

Clinton has not publicly weighed in yet. But it turns out that in her
memoir, Hard Choices, she wrote that as Secretary of State, she asked Obama
to consider lifting the embargo.

Clinton also made a very similar argument to the one we heard from the
President today, that the best way to spur human rights change in Cuba is
through engagement that will increasingly expose the Cuban people to
outside ideas and weaken the Castro regime’s grip. On page 265 of Hard
Choices, Clinton wrote:

“Near the end of our tenure, I recommended to President Obama that he take
another look at the embargo. It wasn’t achieving its goals, and it was
holding back our broader agenda across Latin America. After twenty years of
observing and dealing with the U.S.-Cuba relationship, I thought we should
shift the onus onto the Castros to explain why they remained undemocratic
and abusive.”

In her memoir, Clinton also talked about the case of Alan Gross, the U.S.
contractor who was brought back home from Cuba today as part of a swap
involving the U.S. release of three Cubans convicted of spying, paving the
way towards the broader push for normalization of relations. Clinton wrote
that even in spite of frustration with the Castros over the continued
imprisonment of Gross, deepening engagement with the Cuban people might be
the best way to weaken their grip on power, an argument Obama repeated
today. From page 264 of Hard Choices:

“Based on lessons we learned all over the workd, we believed that the best
way to bring change to Cuba would be to expose its people to the values,
information, and material comforts of the outside world. Isolation had only
strengthened the regimes’s grip on power; inspiring and emboldening the
Cuban people might have the opposite effect. In early 201, we announced new
rules to make it easier for American religious groups and students to visit
Cuba and to allow U.S. airports to allow charter flights. We further raised
the limit on remittances Cuban Americans could send back to family members.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans now visit the island annually. They are
walking advertisements for the United States and for the benefits of a more
open society.

“Every step of the way, we faced vocal opposition from some members of
Congress who wanted to keep Cuba in a deep freeze. But I remained convinced
that this kind of people-to-people engagement was the best way to encourage
reform in Cuba and that it was profoundly in the interests of the United
States and the region.”

This thinking, Clinton wrote, is what led her to ultimately recommend to
Obama that he consider lifting the embargo, which he now has called on
Congress to do.

Obviously it’s not surprising that Obama and his Secretary of State agreed
on this matter. The point is that, now that the President has taken the
dramatic step of breaking with decades of precedent in relations with Cuba,
this may now become a major point of argument in the context of the 2016
presidential race. Clinton has not weighed in on the specifics that Obama
announced today. But given her on-record views, she will probably reiterate
her support for the general thrust of the new direction he outlined, and
her claim that she suggested lifting the embargo is newly relevant.

By contrast, Jeb Bush said today: “I don’t think we should be negotiating
with a repressive regime to make changes in our relationship.” And Marco
Rubio opined that the move is “the latest in a long line of failed attempts
by President Obama to appease rogue regimes at all cost,” vowing to “block
this dangerous and desperate attempt by the President to burnish his legacy
at the Cuban people’s expense.” One can only imagine the hurricane of rage
and demagoguery that Ted Cruz, who is also of Cuban descent, is preparing
to unleash.

Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans have also piled on. John Boehner
condemned the move, arguing that relations should not be normalized one
iota until the Cuban people have achieved “freedom,” while Mitch McConnell
threw in his lot with Rubio’s criticism. That would suggest Obama’s call
today for Congress to take a serious look at lifting the embargo might not
go that far.

The domestic politics surrounding relations with Cuba have changed over the
years. As Harry Enten details, polling suggests that a majority of Cubans
living in south Florida now supports lifting the embargo, meaning there is
not likely to be any serious backlash to the announcement. More broadly,
the American public overall has grown more favorable towards Cuba, with
majorities supporting re-establishing diplomatic relations.

It’s hard to know how much of an impact this will have on 2016. But given
that Obama looks likely to talk a lot about relations with Cuba in coming
months — he plans to push Congress to lift the embargo — his position on
Cuba might enjoy a higher profile as a focal point of Republican anger.
Just as with climate change — another issue Obama will be talking about a
lot as a global climate treaty is negotiated next year, and another issue
where Clinton has thrown in her lot with the president — this could become
another area where the 2016 argument gets framed around the President.
Clinton may argue for a forward-looking emphasis that gambles on increased
engagement as a driver of change, while casting her opponents as trapped in
the past.

*FROM MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA: Media Matters for America: “New York Times
Omits Key Facts To Fabricate Dishonest Clinton-Obama Fundraising Scandal”
<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/12/17/new-york-times-omits-key-facts-to-fabricate-dis/201940>*

By Jeremy Holden

December 17, 2014, 11:14 p.m. EST

The New York Times omitted key facts it had previously reported to
dishonestly accuse Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration of selling
political favors to an Ecuadorean family in exchange for campaign
donations. Excised from the Times reporting is the fact that prominent
Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio, have the exact same relationship
with the donors that the Times is now portraying as a problem for
Democrats.

"Ecuador family wins favors after donations to Democrats," the Times
headline claimed. The article detailed the decision to grant a travel visa
to a "politically connected Ecuadorean woman," and argued that the decision
to do so was connected to "tens of thousands of dollars" the family of the
woman, Estefania Isaias, has given to Democratic campaigns.

According to the Times, "the case involving Estefania could prove awkward
for Mrs. Clinton," based on the fact that she was Secretary of State when
members of Congress were advocating for travel visa for the relative of two
Florida residents seen as fugitives by the Ecuadorean government.

The Times fixated on political donations given by the Isaias family to
Democrats as if it were news, but the Times already reported on the money
the Isaias family has given to elected officials in a March 11, 2014,
article. Moreover, that prior article noted that potential Republican
presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio and Republican Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen had also aided the Isaias' at the same time their political
campaigns received donations linked to that family -- facts absent from the
more recent piece.

In March, the Times made clear that the family gave significant campaign
contributions to Florida Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who "acknowledged trying to help the family with
immigration troubles." The Republicans sent letters -- in one case directly
to Clinton herself -- inquiring into the immigration issues surrounding
members of the family or advocating on their behalf.

"The family gave about $40,000 to Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, whose district members
live in," the Times reported then. "Last month, she acknowledged to The
Daily Beast that while she was chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee she sent four letters to top American officials, including
Hillary Rodham Clinton, then secretary of state, advocating on behalf of
three members of the Isaias family who had problems with their residencies.
She called it 'standard practice' for constituents."

That detail has is absent from this week's Times article.

Here's the Times in March: "Mr. Rubio, whose political action committee
received $2,000 from Luis Isaias, also made 'routine constituent inquiries'
into immigration matters for two family members, his office said." In
December, Rubio's advocacy vanished from the Times.

Additionally, while the article suggests in its opening paragraph that
Estefania Isaias was given permission to enter the country in 2012 in
direct response to the donations from her family, she reportedly received
the same access on six prior occasions dating back to the first
restrictions on her movement in 2007 under the Bush Administration. Indeed,
the Times reported in the 23rd paragraph of its article that a spokesperson
for Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) said the senator's office had gotten
involved with the Isaias case because "because Ms. Isaías had previously
been allowed to travel to the United States six times despite the ban, and
the decision to suddenly enforce it seemed arbitrary and wrong."

Conservative media are exploiting the Times' shoddy reporting -- reporting
that doesn't stand up to basic scrutiny in light of what the Times itself
has previously reported.

"Clinton State Dept Pulled Strings for Menendez in Pay-to-Play Deal with
Dem Donor," the Washington Free Beacon headline claimed. "Controversial
Ecuadorian Family Donated About $100,000 to Obama ... and the State
Department Returned the Favor," is the take over at The Blaze. The Daily
Caller: "Sen Menendez Pushed Hillary Clinton To Grant Visa For Daughter Of
Ecuadoran Bank Fugitive."

Taking The New York Times' lead, Rubio's and Ros-Lehtinen's advocacy on
behalf of their donors is nowhere to be seen.

*Wall Street Journal blog: Washington Wire: “Poll: Obama’s Standing
Rebounds With Hispanics”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/12/18/poll-obamas-standing-rebounds-with-hispanics/>*

By Laura Meckler

December 18, 2014, 12:01 a.m. EST

President Barack Obama’s standing with Hispanic Americans has rebounded in
the wake of his decision to act unilaterally to shield millions of illegal
immigrants from deportation, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC
News/Telemundo survey.

The survey also shows Hillary Clinton would begin a presidential race with
a strong advantage over her potential rivals in both parties among this
fast-growing set of voters, should she decide to run.

Hispanic voters were among Mr. Obama’s strongest supporters in 2012, but
they grew dissatisfied with his presidency in the two years since. Their
drop-off in support mirrored falling approval among white voters, but also
may have reflected particular frustration with the stalemate over
immigration in Washington.

The new survey shows the president rebounding. Fifty-seven percent of
Latinos said they approved of the job he is doing as president, up from 47%
in September though still shy of the 62% mark in April 2013. Fifty-six
percent said they approved of the job he was doing handling immigration, up
from 45% in May 2010.

Additionally, 66% said the president was doing “very” or “somewhat” well
addressing the concerns of the Hispanic and Latino community, compared to
just 30% who said the same when asked about “Republican elected officials.”

That support may be helpful as the president and his administration work to
sign up undocumented immigrants for his new deferred action program, which
offers a shield from deportation for those who qualify. The program is
under withering attack from Republicans and supporters believe it needs
robust enrollment to assure it survives.

The survey underscored the challenges ahead for the GOP. About half of all
Hispanics said it would be better for the country to have a Democrat as the
next president, vs. 27% who said a Republican.

Asked about potential candidates, 61% of Latinos said they could see
themselves supporting Mrs. Clinton for president, the only person to
register a majority on that question–with the general public or with
Hispanics. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012
presidential nominee, rated best among the Republicans asked about. Still,
just 31% said they could see themselves supporting him in 2016, a notch
better than his support in 2012 with this group.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been touted as a Republican who could
appeal to Hispanic voters, chiefly because of his centrist positions on
immigration. The new poll suggests that he would have work to do. It found
28% saying they could see themselves supporting Mr. Bush and 48% saying
they could not.

Still, as with other voters, Latinos show signs of Obama fatigue. Nearly
six in 10 said the next president should take a “different approach” than
Mr. Obama, vs. 34% who said his successor should take a similar approach.

The survey of 250 Hispanic adults was conducted Dec. 10-14, with interviews
in English and Spanish. The margin of error is plus or minus 6.2 percentage
points.

[GRAPH]

*Des Moines Register: “This is Elizabeth Warren's time, activists tell
Iowans”
<http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2014/12/17/elizabeth-warren-fans-iowa-say-time/20563553/>*

By Jennifer Jacobs

December 17, 2014, 8:05 p.m. CST

This is the perfect time for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for
president, and Iowans can succeed in coaxing her into the race, national
Democratic activists said Wednesday.

"This moment is just built for a Warren message," Ilya Sheyman, executive
director of MoveOn.org's political action committee, told The Des Moines
Register in an interview.

The progressive group kicked off a "Run Warren Run" effort in Des Moines on
Wednesday evening. About 80 people showed up at Java Joe's CoffeeHouse to
eat free cookies and listen to rousing speeches meant to draw activists
into helping with MoveOn.org's $1 million effort to prepare for a Warren
campaign, should the Massachusetts senator decide to run.

Warren is favorite of some liberals, who would like to see her challenge
former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the presumptive
front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2016. Warren has said
numerous times, sometimes quite emphatically, that she isn't running. That
doesn't deter her most passionate supporters, who point out that it took a
draft effort to get her to run for the Senate.

"She can win the caucuses, and she can win the primary, and she can go on
to win the general election," Sheyman said during the kick-off meeting.

One of the defining issues of the 2016 Iowa caucuses will be confronting
income inequality, Sheyman told the Register, and there's no one better to
lead that fight than Warren, a Wall Street watchdog who fights for
working-class Americans.

"There's a sense that in this moment, when the middle-class and working
families are falling further and further behind, Sen. Warren's unique voice
and unique track record is needed," Sheyman said.

Iowa Senate President Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, told the audience that she
thinks Warren is brilliant and courageous and she hopes she gets into the
race. Later, she told the Register that doesn't mean she'd back Warren over
Clinton. "Not yet," said Jochum, who was the only elected official spotted
at the event.

"If she jumps in, I think we're a better nation for it, and a better
party," Jochum said. She added that she thinks Clinton is "a remarkably
brilliant woman as well," and that she hopes Clinton and others run, too.

This is the first draft-a-candidate effort in MoveOn.org's 16-year history.
The advocacy group was founded in 1998 to stand up to the GOP attempt to
impeach President Bill Clinton and has since delved into anti-war
activities and campaigning for various Democrats.

MoveOn polled its 8 million members — including the 55,000 in Iowa — to ask
whether they should encourage Warren to run, and on Tuesday, 81 percent
said yes.

"They felt like a vigorous contested caucus and primary process was good
for all the candidates, good for the party and a way to surface progressive
ideas and make sure they got a real airing," Sheyman said.

Organizers created a website, RunWarrenRun.org, and a video introducing her
— then came to Iowa. "Iowa is where it all begins and where conventional
wisdom can turn on its head overnight and where ordinary activists get a
voice and any candidate can get a fair hearing," Sheyman said.

In just six days, MoveOn has found Democrats in 95 of the 99 counties who
say they want to volunteer for this draft campaign, he said.

Next up: Hire a state director, field staff and regional field organizers
who will build "a volunteer army," Sheyman said. They will open offices in
Iowa, and conduct focus groups and polling to test whether Warren's
biography, political message and Warren herself as a messenger are
appealing. They'll ramp up in New Hampshire as well, he said.

"What's unique about Senator Warren is there's just so much passion and
hunger out there that for us the key is to channel that in a way that's
visible to her," Sheyman told the Register.

Warren has set the agenda for the Democratic Party over the past two years,
Sheyman said. "She was one of the first to talk about student debt," he
said. "She's talking about Social Security, she's talking about giveaways
to Wall Street. She certainly scrambles the math and gives Democrats a
chance to pursue a whole broader coalition of folks who feel like there's
somebody fighting for them."

Asked why Clinton can't be that voice for the working poor, Sheyman said
people "want someone who's been out there with a track record, fighting on
these issues and succeeding and winning.

"Everyone knows exactly why she's there, who she's fighting for — low- and
middle-class families, and they're confident that should she make it to the
White House, she would keep fighting for them."

Another liberal group, Democracy for America, announced in Iowa on
Wednesday that it will put an initial $250,000 into the Run Warren Run
effort.

*Wall Street Journal blog: Washington Wire: “Second Liberal Group Urges
Elizabeth Warren to Run”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/12/17/second-liberal-group-urges-elizabeth-warren-to-run/>*

By Peter Nicholas

December 17, 2014, 6:30 p.m. EST

DES MOINES, Iowa — A second liberal advocacy group is joining a fledgling
effort to lure Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) into the 2016 presidential
race, is announcing that it will help her compete in the party’s nomination
contest if she chooses to run.

Democracy for America said it will make an “initial” expenditure of
$250,000 in hopes of persuading Ms. Warren to jump in the race.

The group, which says it has one million members, is to announce the
commitment at an event in Des Moines on Wednesday night hosted by
supporters of the draft Warren movement.

MoveOn.org, the liberal group staging the event, has already said it will
spend $1 million to help build support for Ms. Warren and entice her to
enter the race.

Ms. Warren has repeatedly said she “is not running” — a present tense
formulation that seems to leave the door open a hair.

Polling shows that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the
overwhelming front-runner for the nomination, running 50 points ahead of
Ms. Warren, according to the Real Clear Politics average of presidential
polls.  Mrs. Clinton is widely expected to run and has said she’ll announce
her decision next year.

In a sign of a split within party ranks, Howard Dean – founder of Democracy
of America – has endorsed Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Dean, who ran for president in
2004, now serves as an adviser to the group.

In a news release, Democracy for America said that it polled its members
and 88% wanted it to formally join the push to persuade Ms. Warren to run.

“After the clear mandate we’ve received from our members, Democracy for
America is all-in on drafting Senator Warren and joining the ‘Run Warren
Run’ campaign,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy
for America. “The battle against income inequality is a defining issue of
the 2016 race. Sen. Warren is Democrats’ most powerful voice in the fight
against income inequality, capable of rallying our country to take
aggressive action to protect struggling working families, hold powerful
special interests accountable, and end the wealthy’s grip on government.”

In tandem with MoveOn.org, Democracy for America said it plans to help open
offices in states that hold early caucuses and primaries; run ads
showcasing Ms. Warren’s populist message; recruit donors; and build a
volunteer network that Ms. Warren could potentially enlist in a
presidential campaign.

On all these fronts, Mrs. Clinton is far ahead. A super PAC called “Ready
for Hillary” has spent more than a year doing grassroots organizing work on
Mrs. Clinton’s behalf. Another super PAC called Priorities USA Action has
been approaching well-heeled Democratic donors about underwriting a
pro-Clinton ad campaign.

*Wall Street Journal blog: Washington Wire: “Iowa Liberals Try to Will
Elizabeth Warren Into 2016”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/12/18/iowa-liberals-try-to-will-elizabeth-warren-into-2016/>*

By Peter Nicholas

December 18, 2014, 7:03 a.m. EST

DES MOINES – There are two ways to look at the political rally Wednesday
night at Java Joe’s coffee shop, in a room right across from the “Order
Here” sign and the glass cases displaying the muffins and cookies.

It was either the birth pangs of a grassroots movement that will launch an
Elizabeth Warren presidential campaign — or the left’s futile bid to trip
up Hillary Clinton, who seems on a glide path to the Democratic nomination,
should she run.

The answer won’t be clear for a few months. But the liberal activists,
students, farmers and yogurt shop owners who turned out for the “Run,
Warren, Run” meeting hope that by the time they’re done, they’ll at least
have shown Ms. Warren there is a national appetite for the fiery populism
she’s come to symbolize.

About 100 people attended – a week before Christmas and more than a year
before Iowa holds the first contest of the 2016 presidential cycle.

At a basic level, the whole endeavor looked quixotic. Ms. Warren, a
Massachusetts Democrat, has already said she’s backing Mrs. Clinton for the
presidency. Asked repeatedly about her plans, she says she isn’t running.
Her staff says she stands by an earlier pledge to finish out her term.

It sounds as if she’s shut the door.

So, the people in the room were devising a strategy to entice her to jump
in. They told stories about why they’d like to see her run. An Iowa State
student said she was holding down two jobs and working 45 hours a week to
pay for school. She said she is carrying a 12% interest rate on her student
loan.

Ms. Warren, she believes, would fight to curb student debt.

“Please run for president, Elizabeth,” she said.

Standing in the back of the room, Beverly Swecker said she had never before
attended a political rally. She was there with her husband, a farmer.

Why the plunge into politics now?

“I like her commitment to the common person,” Mrs. Swecker said. “That’s
what we need more of in this country right now.”

After the speeches, everyone broke up into groups to talk tactics. They
planned some house parties around the state.

MoveOn.org and Democracy for America, a pair of liberal advocacy groups,
are joining forces to hire staff in Iowa and New Hampshire and begin
assembling what they hope to be an “army” of Warren volunteers.

MoveOn took out a full page ad in the Des Moines Register on Wednesday,
with a boldfaced entreaty: “Elizabeth Warren, Please run for President.”

Speaking to the group, Ilya Sheyman, the executive director of MoveOn,
said: “We’re here today to kick off this ‘Run, Warren, Run’ effort. But
more than that, today in this room we’re launching a movement that’s
Iowa-wide and that’s nation-wide.

“We’re at a crossroads: the rich — the ones at the very top — are getting
wealthier and wealthier. The middle class and those struggling to get into
it are falling further and further behind. … This is a moment for Elizabeth
Warren.”

Afterwards, as people went home, one of the organizers mused about the
meeting’s import. Was this night at the coffee shop the start of something
big and meaningful? Or would it all prove fruitless?

At this point, Ms. Warren may not even known for sure.

*New York Times: “When Political Dynasties Converge”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/style/when-political-dynasties-converge.html>*

By Amy Chozick

December 17, 2014

Political dynasties with the last names Clinton and Bush dominate American
politics at the moment, but nobody draws a crowd quite like the Kennedys.

On Tuesday night, an awards dinner for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
organization drew a guest list that defied easy characterization. There
were liberals (Mayor Bill de Blasio) and conservatives (the Fox News host
Bill O’Reilly), actors (Robert De Niro and Debra Winger) and activists
(Kerry Kennedy), union leaders and philanthropists.

A long head table spanned the center of a bland ballroom at the Hilton in
Midtown Manhattan. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mr. De Niro, who both
received awards for their human-rights work, sat at the head of the table,
alongside Ethel Kennedy. Also seated nearby were Tony Bennett and the
global health activist Donato Tramuto, who both also accepted R.F.K. honors.

The extended Kennedy clan was also in attendance, including Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. and Joseph P. Kennedy III, a grandson of Robert and Ethel
Kennedy, who introduced a charity auction that included lunch for two with
Sam Waterston and a live taping and behind-the-scenes tour of NBC’s “Today”
show.

Human rights activists, many of whom had survived brutal conditions in
their home countries, were seated for a steak and pasta dinner alongside
Melanie Griffith, America Ferrera, Mandy Patinkin and Catherine Keener
(who, on the red carpet, said “I love Hillary!”).

“It’s what the Kennedys are famous for, not only eclecticism, but
diversity,” the actress Kate Mulgrew (“Orange Is the New Black”) said of
the crowd.

She, like many in attendance, had personal stories about the Kennedys. Her
mother was a close friend of Jean Kennedy Smith and dated Ethel’s brother
George Skakel, she said.

During a break in the program, guests swarmed Mrs. Clinton for pictures as
her Secret Service detail tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to steer people
back to their seats.

A very hoarse Kerry Kennedy, who introduced Mrs. Clinton, had to plead with
the crowd to settled down. “I am up here on this podium and I have
laryngitis, so I really need everybody to sit down,” she said at one point.

The head table was so long that the actors seated toward the center joked
that they were ostensibly at the same table as Mrs. Clinton. “You’re going
to make note of that, right?” the actor Matt McCoy told a reporter. “She’s
about 16 miles away.”

Ms. Mulgrew said she has admired Mrs. Clinton since she first met her at
the White House. “I’d like to say hello to her,” Ms. Mulgrew said. She
cupped her hands around her mouth as if to yell. “Hellooooooo!” she said
toward Mrs. Clinton’s end of the table.

The former Mayor David N. Dinkins, who wore a green and navy plaid blazer
and bow tie, said he didn’t even try to approach “my candidate” Mrs.
Clinton.

“It was too crowded down there, but she knows I love her,” he said. As for
the turnout on Tuesday, he called the R.F.K. dinner “top of the list.”

*Calendar:*

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

·  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>
)

·  March 19 – Atlantic City, NJ: Sec. Clinton keynotes  American Camp
Association conference (PR Newswire <http://www.sys-con.com/node/3254649>)