Subject: Correct The Record Saturday December 20, 2014 Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 14:33:25 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Saturday December 20, 2014 Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: On her first trip to Iraq as Sec. of
State, @HillaryClinton held a roundtable with Iraqi women #HRC365
http://1.usa.gov/1dR4Hzg [11:00 a.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/546319411028566017>]

*Headlines:*

*Politico: “Democratic techies’ divided loyalties”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/democratic-techies-divided-loyalties-113713.html?hp=t2_r>*

"While Clinton has a deep bench to draw from, she’ll also be staffing up in
the first open Democratic presidential primary to feature so many different
tech companies competing for campaign business."

*Huffington Post: “Elizabeth Warren Is Good and Bad News for the Democrats”
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/elizabeth-warren-is-good-_b_6351438.html>*

“The saving grace for now is that Democrats, by a lop-sided margin, are
solidly behind Clinton. That's the good news for Clinton. The bad news is
those numbers mask the weak enthusiasm or outright opposition that many
Democrats have to a Clinton presidential bid. Warren almost certainly will
continue to remain their alternative.”

*The Washington Post: “In Paul-Rubio feud over Cuba, a preview of 2016”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-paul-rubio-feud-over-cuba-a-preview-of-gops-2016-foreign-policy-debate/2014/12/19/41218766-87ab-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html>*

“The spat was also the latest example of Paul's combative tendencies. He
has been the most aggressive GOP presidential contender in taking on
Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former secretary of state and likely Democratic
candidate, and showed Friday that he will not hesitate to throw punches at
fellow Republicans as well.”

*CNN Politics: “2016 Republicans slam Cuba announcement”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/17/politics/us-cuba-2016-reax/>*

“The GOP positions set up a clear contrast with a possible 2016 Democratic
election rival Hillary Clinton, who expressed support for Obama's moves in
a statement released Wednesday night.”

*Politico: “Leaked: Democrats' attack plan for Bush”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/jeb-bush-2016-election-talking-points-113709.html?hp=c4_3>*

“The Democratic National Committee wants surrogates to attack Jeb Bush as
the Mitt Romney of 2016, an out-of-touch representative of the 1 percent
who is more conservative than he lets on.”

*CNN Politics: “Inside the push to draft Ben Carson for president”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/20/politics/ben-carson-super-pac-sousa/>*

“Sousa, 67, launched a super PAC last year that has raised millions in an
effort to urge Dr. Ben Carson to explore a White House bid. Since the
launch, Sousa and his team have proven to be a fundraising powerhouse,
raising a whopping $12.2 million from more than 100,000 donors. That even
edged out the effort by Hillary Clinton's supporters, who have raised $12.1
million for the "Ready for Hillary" super PAC.”

*Washington Examiner: “Future uncertain, Romney sits atop GOP polls”
<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/future-uncertain-romney-sits-atop-gop-polls/article/2557618>*

“Many polls don't include Romney in their surveys. But the many that do
suggest that, at least for now, Romney is a front-runner, if not *the
*front-runner
in the 2016 Republican race.”

*Articles:*

*Politico: “Democratic techies’ divided loyalties”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/democratic-techies-divided-loyalties-113713.html?hp=t2_r>*

By DARREN SAMUELSOHN 12/20/14 9:03 AM EST

[Subtitle]: Ex-Obama hands split between Clinton, rivals.

Scores of the Democratic techies who helped Barack Obama defeat Hillary
Clinton for the 2008 presidential nomination are now seeking alternatives
to Clinton in 2016. Some are even promising the same kind of digital
throw-down to sink her presumptive front-runner campaign as they did in
2008.

Clinton is still expected to be able to field a formidable tech team. But
her troubles in grabbing many of the party’s young campaign innovators have
a good deal to do with Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who
insists she’s not running for president but who has quickly become an
appealing pick for Obama alumni who built his two campaigns’ data and
digital infrastructure. Earlier this month, more than 300 of Obama’s former
campaign staffers, including his chief information officer and senior aides
who handled email, online fundraising and field efforts, released a letter
begging Warren to jump into the race.

“What we were trying to do is send a signal to the larger country but also
to Sen. Warren herself to say a lot of this institutional knowledge and
power that’s been built up over the last couple of years actually is with
you,” Christopher Hass, an Obama 2008 and 2012 digital campaign aide, said
in an interview.

“We’re not robots,” added Catherine Bracy, who led Obama’s San Francisco
field office in 2012. “I think people are going to choose the candidate who
inspires them the most. And for many of us that’s Elizabeth Warren.”

While Clinton’s other potential 2016 rivals will be widely outmatched on
the financial front, they are hardly tech neophytes and each brings his own
digital skill sets to compete on the social media battlefield and for
critical early votes in Iowa and New Hampshire. After all, Bernie Sanders
is arguably Congress’ biggest social media powerhouse; Martin O’Malley has
governed both Baltimore and Maryland with an obsessive eye on statistics;
and Jim Webb has a proven track record as a candidate willing to use
progressive bloggers and viral videos to exploit his opponents’ weaknesses
for advantage.

“I’d not be surprised if [Sanders] or one of the others get several bumps
over the next six months,” said a senior Democratic source, noting the
Vermont senator’s ability to make waves on Facebook and Twitter while
Clinton at the same time would be working to define her own new narrative.
“I think she’s got an enormous challenge reintroducing a brand that’s been
around this long and getting people excited about it. It’s going to be
tricky.”

Clinton, of course, won’t be lacking in the tech department either. She‘ll
have plenty of money for the latest and greatest in campaign gadgets and
her front-runner status makes her the most alluring landing pad for many
senior Obama campaign officials who have gone on to lucrative careers
running the party’s leading digital and data consulting firms.

A high-stakes bidding war is also already underway among leading partisan
technology shops to get Clinton’s business, including Blue State Digital,
Bully Pulpit Interactive, Catalist, NGP VAN, Precision Strategies, Rising
Tide Interactive, Trilogy Interactive and 270 Strategies, according to
interviews with more than two dozen Democratic sources angling for 2016
work.

While Clinton has a deep bench to draw from, she’ll also be staffing up in
the first open Democratic presidential primary to feature so many different
tech companies competing for campaign business. Among prospective tech
consultants, multiple questions loom over how she would structure her tech
team (Bring the whole team entirely in house? Or create a patchwork of
people who report to campaign headquarters and others who remain at their
current employer?) and whether she would draw from multiple agencies that
have their own unique skill sets.

A Democrat working at one of the major tech firms predicted the battle for
Clinton business will get ugly. “Those guys are going to be knives out
fighting each other,” the source said.

Democrats say there’s also a strong sentiment that Clinton — whose
spokesman did not respond to a request for comment — won’t repeat her own
2008 presidential campaign’s tech flubs. There have been too many lessons
drawn from Obama’s successes — Republicans have gone to school too on his
playbook— that demonstrate just how important it is to build up a strong
data infrastructure and apply it routinely in the search for the right
voters, donors and volunteers.

More than anything, Democrats techies say they are waiting for the most
important signal of all out of Clinton’s camp: whether she’ll hire a
campaign manager with a solid digital and data pedigree. Two names most
frequently mentioned as candidates for the job, Robby Mook and Guy Cecil,
are both seen by their fellow Democrats as people who fit that bill given
their resumes leading the House and Senate party campaign arms respectively.

But Clinton’s front-runner allure isn’t stopping others from getting
started with their own 2016 plans — even if they don’t have an official
campaign to work for.

Revolution Messaging, a digital strategy firm founded by Obama 2008
external online director Scott Goodstein, has cut its ties with O’Malley’s
PAC after making more than $200,000 over two years helping the Maryland
governor with general online organizing, video production, and management
of its Facebook efforts and website.

At RootsCamp, an annual fair for progressive digital types held earlier
this month in Washington, Revolution was working for another long-time
client, MoveOn.org. The liberal group recently announced plans to spend $1
million urging Warren to run for president, and Arun Chaudhary, a
Revolution staffer and former Obama White House videographer, was busy
filming one of the group’s leaders during a well-attended “Draft Warren”
panel discussion that included activists from the Howard Dean-backed
Democracy for America and the Ready for Warren campaign.

Goodstein and several other Obama alumni declined comment on their plans
for the 2016 campaign. “I will work for the Cleveland Indians if they ask
me,” said Toby Fallsgraff, digital director for the Obama-affiliated
nonprofit Organizing for Action. But several others who helped build
Obama’s two tech operations say they are ready to go to work — for Warren.

“I think there is absolutely an implication in that, that if [Warren] were
to run, a lot of these people would be willing to use their talents and
their networks and she’d be able to build a really quality team with a lot
of veterans of the Obama campaigns,” said Hass, who helped organize the
pro-Warren letter among his former colleagues and who most recently worked
as digital director for Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s unsuccessful reelection
bid. “It wouldn’t be a question of that entire apparatus transferring over
to Hillary Clinton or to another candidate and Warren having to start from
scratch.”

Erica Sagrans, the campaign manager for Ready for Warren and an Obama 2012
digital team staffer, said in an interview she’s hoping she’ll get the
chance to square off against many of her former presidential campaign
colleagues who are now angling for jobs with Clinton.

“It’d be amazing to see a Warren-Clinton primary from the digital end,” she
said. “Because it’d be me and other people who worked on Obama with people
who are going to work on Clinton pushing each other in a much more serious
way than [John] McCain and [Mitt] Romney.”

While Clinton is sure to launch a digital fundraising and social media
juggernaut — the Ready for Hillary super PAC team is expected to offer up
an email list with about 3 million names — Sagrans said the Massachusetts
Democrat could quickly mount a rival organization. “It doesn’t matter what
you’ve been building for two years if there’s someone else who’s running
who people just flock to because they want to work for them and are excited
about them,” said Sagrans, who on Wednesday attended a Des Moines, Iowa,
rally with MoveOn.org as it begins staffing up its Iowa field operation on
Warren’s behalf.

Finding quality digital talent also shouldn’t be a problem for O’Malley,
Webb and Sanders. For starters, the chance to work on a smaller and more
nimble organization presents plenty of learning opportunities — “You can
take risks,” said Democratic microtargeting expert Ken Strasma— and each of
the candidates has shown they understand the importance of technology in
mounting a successful campaign.

Democrats say it’s only a matter of time before the three aspiring 2016
candidates add additional staffers with national and state campaign
experience, as well as experts from the private sector in Washington,
Silicon Valley and other innovation hubs around the country.

“If I was advising a 20-something if they wanted to take a very low level
position with the front runner or a higher position with the long shot, I’d
say take the higher position with the long shot,” said Strasma, who
directed the microtargeting programs for Obama’s 2008 campaign and John
Kerry 2004 efforts. “Get some experience. Join the nominee after the
primaries.”

Strasma added that technology can be something of a great equalizer among
the Democrats in 2016 thanks to lower costs for some of the essential
equipment needed to run a tech-savvy presidential campaign.

“It’s no longer that only the front runner can afford the talent, the
hardware and the software,” he said. “It doesn’t completely level the
playing field, or even come close. But to some degree it does. Just total
dollars for broadcast television becomes less important as campaigns are
more targeted.”

For Sanders, a potential presidential bid is likely to draw off a built-in
constituency of tech-savvy progressives —nearly 17,000 people have signed a
petition organized by the Progressive Democrats of America on CREDO urging
him to run as a Democrat instead of an independent. His following comes in
large part from social media success: More than 1.3 million people follow
Sanders’ Google+ page and another 253,000 followers on Twitter are treated
to a steady stream of pull quotes, graphics and video clips of the senator
speaking on the Senate floor and in his frequent MSNBC appearances.

Sanders staffers also gloat that their boss has more people talking about
him on Facebook than any other member of Congress, and more than twice as
many as Obama.

Looking to 2016, Sanders is poised to be a small-dollar fundraising machine
— he counts more than 1 million people combined who have signed up for his
official Senate and campaign email lists. Staff-wise, he’s surrounded by a
small pack of young tech talent: Senate press secretary Jeff Frank
co-founded his own Burlington-based social media analytics firm that was
later bought by Dealer.com; deputy spokesman Kenneth Pennington launched a
mobile technology blog and served for three years as its executive editor.

For Sanders’ staffers, a big challenge will be just getting their boss to
stop spending so much of his own time writing his own social media
messages. “You think we ought to tell him that?” Sanders communications
director Michael Briggs said.

O’Malley’s challenge will be using his tech skills to increase his name
recognition beyond the mid-Atlantic states. Over the last two years, the
Maryland governor has relied on Obama tech alumni from Blue State Digital
and Revolution to do just that — raising money on email with Democratic
heavyweights like Cory Booker and Gabrielle Giffords and pumping out a
series of social media messages and videos hyping his data-driven policy
focus on everything from lowering crime rates to Chesapeake Bay cleanup.
One biographical video — “Believe,” which O’Malley regularly shows at party
dinners — also came from Jimmy Siegel, a New York-based consultant who has
worked for Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo and Eliot Spitzer.

As he exits Annapolis, O’Malley will be leaning on Bill Hyers, who ran
Obama’s 2012 Pennsylvania operation and most recently managed New York
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign; Colm O’Comartun, a longtime adviser and
outgoing executive director of the Democratic Governors Association; and
political spokeswoman Lis Smith, who handled rapid response for Obama’s
2012 campaign.

If there’s a dark horse in the Democratic field, it’s Webb. The former
Virginia senator raised eyebrows last month when he released a 14-minute
video of himself speaking directly into a camera, with a plain blue
backdrop, as part of the launch of his presidential exploratory committee.
“In politics, nobody owns me, and I don’t owe anybody anything except for
the promise that I will work for the well-being of all Americans, and
especially those who otherwise would have no voice in the corridors of
power,” Webb says in the video.

Democrats may be snickering at the low budget quality of the spot, but they
also acknowledged that for relatively little money Webb has people talking
about his presidential aspirations and the maverick voice he will bring to
the primary.

“It’s not about the shiniest penny,” said David ‘Mudcat’ Saunders, a
Virginia-based Democratic strategist who worked on Webb’s 2006 Senate
campaign. That race, interestingly enough, got perhaps its biggest boost
thanks to another video: when Republican then-Sen. George Allen described a
dark-skinned Webb campaign aide with the derogatory slang term ‘macaca.’

Joe Stanley, another Virginia-based Democratic digital operative back
working for Webb’s Born Fighting PAC, was the first to recognize the
significance of the ‘macaca’ video and uploaded it onto YouTube. Also on
board for Webb is longtime aide Jessica Vanden Berg, a Democratic operative
with deep roots in Iowa and more than a decade of experience in data-driven
campaigning.

“This is really volunteer driven at this point,” Vanden Berg said in an
email. “We are however using tools to gauge support and communication [of]
Jim’s message.”

*Huffington Post: “Elizabeth Warren Is Good and Bad News for the Democrats”
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/elizabeth-warren-is-good-_b_6351438.html>*

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Posted: 12/19/2014 2:59 pm EST

For the record, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has repeatedly said
she's not running for president. She has not encouraged any of the
burgeoning draft movements for her to run. But she's coy enough to let the
legions that implore her to run to keep imploring her to do just that. But
it really doesn't make a difference whether she tosses her hat in the
presidential rink in 2016 or not. She will loom large in the 2016
presidential hunt anyway. That's good and bad news for Democrats, more
specifically for presumptive Democratic presidential contender, Hillary
Clinton.

It's true that Warren can energize frustrated liberals and progressives
whose numbers are still big and it's much-needed for Democrats to rebound
from its November mid-term shellacking. Warren's relentless pound of Wall
Street for greed and manipulation, as well as its cozy ties with Clinton,
are flashpoints of rage and disgust for many Democratic voters. Polls
consistently show that a majority of Americans agree that the financial
system is rigged for the rich, and that Wall Street and major corporations
play and massage the system with impunity. Warren has firmly staked out her
position as the one politician who is willing to confront Wall Street.

Without Warren in the race, there's the real possibility that many
Democrats could do exactly what many in the GOP's ultra-conservative base
did in 2008, and to an extent in 2012, and that's stay home on Election Day
in silent protest against GOP presidential candidates John McCain and Mitt
Romney. As it was with them, this would be a disaster for Democrats.
Warren, though, is no Obama. She can't match him in charisma, political
skill and a mountainous financial campaign kitty that he brought to the
political table. Yet, she would still send thousands of doubting Democrats
in a crusade to the polls in a Democratic primary joust with Clinton. But
what then when she doesn't win the nomination?

Clinton is mindful of the loathing that legions of Democrats have for her
Wall Street connection. In the general election, big bankers, financial
executives and top corporate donors are expected to be generous bankrollers
of her campaign. This was the reason that Clinton at a Democratic
gubernatorial campaign rally in Massachusetts in November was effusive in
her praise of Warren and in the process took a big shot at Wall Street and
the corporations minimizing their role in job creation. Later she walked it
back claiming she had "short-handed" her comments. In the run up to the
2016 presidential campaign, she will be continually challenged to tell
which Clinton Democrats are to believe; the Wall Street or the populist
Clinton. It will take deft political footwork on her part to try to be both
and neither at the same time. This will reinforce the notion among Clinton
detractors that she will say whatever it takes to try and please two polar
opposite political constituencies.

All the while, non-candidate Warren will be repeatedly hailed as the one
Democrat not afraid to speak her mind and take action to reign in Wall
Street and not continue the corporate and Wall Street giveaways that, at
times, have been co-signed under GOP duress by President Obama. The only
real winner in an irreconcilable split among the Democrats is the GOP. GOP
strategists will not mention Warren in their attacks on Clinton. Instead
they will use her as their foil to paint Clinton as anti-business, and
another tax-and-spend Democrat. And worse, a Democratic president who would
be politically beholden, even hostage to Warren backers, and would impose
more crippling restraints on corporations and the financial industry.

If Warren did choose to enter Democratic primary contests, her backers
would cheer wildly. And this would force Clinton to spell out her position
on the issues and tell how a Clinton administration would differ from
Obama's and husband Bill's. She would also have to spend time making
assurances that she is not the unreconstructed hawk on foreign policy
issues that progressive Democratic critics lambaste her as.

This would pose fresh problems for Clinton. She'd have to talk even more
boldly about tough financial regulations and reforms, and that would make
her appear as even further to the left. That would feed Fox News and the
Republican National Committee with a bonanza of round-the-clock hit points
against Clinton. They would tar her as a Ralph Nader style Democrat who as
president would war perennially with a GOP controlled Congress. The result,
they'd loudly claim, would be even deeper gridlock that many Americans
dread.

The saving grace for now is that Democrats, by a lop-sided margin, are
solidly behind Clinton. That's the good news for Clinton. The bad news is
those numbers mask the weak enthusiasm or outright opposition that many
Democrats have to a Clinton presidential bid. Warren almost certainly will
continue to remain their alternative.

*The Washington Post: “In Paul-Rubio feud over Cuba, a preview of 2016”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-paul-rubio-feud-over-cuba-a-preview-of-gops-2016-foreign-policy-debate/2014/12/19/41218766-87ab-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html>*

By Philip Rucker December 19 at 10:25 PM

Two of the Republican Party's top White House hopefuls clashed sharply
Friday over President Obama's new Cuba policy, evidence of a growing GOP
rift over foreign affairs that could shape the party's 2016 presidential
primaries.

Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), who backs Obama's move to normalize relations with
communist Cuba, accused Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) of being an "isolationist"
with his hard-line opposition to opening up trade and diplomatic engagement
with the island nation. Paul suggested that Rubio "wants to retreat to our
borders and perhaps build a moat."

Paul's comments came after Rubio - the son of Cuban exiles who has stepped
forward as a leading voice of resistance to Obama's policy - told Fox News
that Paul had "no idea what he's talking about" when it comes to Cuba.

The feud is the loudest public dispute so far between potential GOP 2016
candidates and lays bare the divergent world views of traditional hawks -
including Rubio and past Republican presidents and nominees - and the
emerging, younger libertarian wing represented by Paul.

For decades, Rubio's position has been the GOP's natural default. But Paul
is testing that convention.

"Are we still cold warriors or are we entering a brave new world in
diplomacy?" Republican strategist John Feehery said. "Rubio's perspective
is we have Cuba, we have North Korea, we need a bold, internationalist,
America-led world that fights the bad guys. Rand Paul is taking his
father's position to a new level, which is constructive engagement, but
America isn't really the policeman of the world."

Hawkish Republicans have long called Paul's foreign policy "isolationist,"
a label he rejects. In this week's Cuba debate, Paul applied the label to
Rubio.

Paul's comments were unusually personal, beginning with a series of tweets
aimed at Rubio followed by a two-paragraph message on his Facebook page.
"Senator Rubio is acting like an isolationist" and "does not speak for the
majority of Cuban-Americans," he wrote.

Paul followed up with an op-ed on Time's Web site Friday afternoon in which
he wrote that he grew up learning to despise communism but over time
concluded that "a policy of isolationism against Cuba is misplaced and
hasn't worked." He noted that public opinion has shifted in favor of
rapprochement - especially among young people, including young Cuban
Americans - and that U.S. businesses would benefit by being able to sell
their goods in Cuba.

"Communism can't survive the captivating allure of capitalism," Paul wrote.
"Let's overwhelm the Castro regime with iPhones, iPads, American cars, and
American ingenuity."

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who traveled to Cuba this week with the U.S.
entourage to secure contractor Alan Gross's release, shared Paul's
sentiments. Flake said that he supported Obama's decision to normalize
relations and that after a five-decade embargo, it was time "to try
something different."

Rubio responded to Paul's comments Friday evening, telling conservative
radio host Mark Levin, "I think it's unfortunate that Rand has decided to
adopt Barack Obama's foreign policy on this matter."

For both Paul and Rubio, there are short-term political benefits to the
tussle. With potential donors and other influential Republicans deciding
between roughly a dozen presidential hopefuls, the pair are generating
media attention and staking out ground on a high-profile policy issue.

The spat was also the latest example of Paul's combative tendencies. He has
been the most aggressive GOP presidential contender in taking on Hillary
Rodham Clinton, a former secretary of state and likely Democratic
candidate, and showed Friday that he will not hesitate to throw punches at
fellow Republicans as well.

Ana Navarro, a Miami-based Republican strategist close to Rubio and former
Florida governor Jeb Bush, said it was an example of the "silly season."

"There are some issues, like eye surgery and Kentucky bourbon, Paul knows
something about," she said of the ophthalmologist turned lawmaker. "But to
try to outdo Rubio on Cuba policy - and to do it by trolling him on Twitter
in 140-character spurts - is frankly not productive, mature or senatorial."

Paul is trying to chart a new course for Republicans on foreign policy and
areas such as race relations, working with Democrats on legislation to
address drug sentencing guidelines.

"Paul is going to stretch the limits and try to grow the party in
directions Republicans aren't used to," said Ari Fleischer, a former White
House press secretary to George W. Bush. "I think the only upside he'll
have is with young people. Outside of that, I think it's going to be tough
going for him. . . . The history of the party is much more interventionist,
muscular, strong, Ronald Reagan foreign policy."

Paul's aides said the senator considers Cuba policy an economic and
diplomatic issue and not a partisan one.

But GOP primary voters may see it differently. "There's a certain
willingness among conservatives to reconsider our Cuba policy, but the fact
that it's been negotiated by Obama - whom we have no confidence or trust in
- makes it suspect," said Richard Viguerie, a longtime conservative leader.
"If this had been done by a trustworthy, conservative Republican, it would
have been different."

Rubio, as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has worked to
distinguish himself as a leading voice on international affairs. Almost
immediately after Wednesday's Cuba announcement, Rubio spoke out
aggressively and in personal terms. Raised in Miami by parents who fled
Cuba in the 1950s, Rubio grew up surrounded by other Cuban American
families and now represents them in Washington.

"It is just another concession to a tyranny by the Obama administration
rather than a defense of every universal and inalienable right that our
country was founded on and stands for," Rubio told reporters on Capitol
Hill.

Most 2016 GOP hopefuls - including Bush, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Sen. Ted
Cruz (Tex.) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker - issued statements similar to
Rubio's. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has not spoken specifically on Cuba
but generally shares Rubio's more hawkish worldview.

William Kristol, a prominent neoconservative and editor of the Weekly
Standard, noted that most of the potential candidates, as well as the
party's congressional leaders, are "all in the same neighborhood" on
foreign policy.

"Rand Paul is a lonely gadfly," he said. "Rand Paul speaks for a genuine
sentiment that's always been in the Republican Party, but maybe it's 10
percent? 15 percent? 20 percent? I don't think he's going to be a serious
competitor for guiding Republican foreign policy."

*CNN Politics: “2016 Republicans slam Cuba announcement”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/17/politics/us-cuba-2016-reax/>*

By Stephen Collinson, CNN

updated 10:29 AM EST, Fri December 19, 2014

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama's historic move to loosen the
U.S. embargo on Cuba set off an immediate clash with Republicans keen to
use the dramatic foreign policy shift to further their own White House
aspirations.

The announcement immediately threw two Florida politicians -- Sen. Marco
Rubio and former Governor Jeb Bush -- into the spotlight and served as
another reminder of the state's enduring importance in presidential
politics.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, quickly took a hardline position,
vowing to block any nominee the administration might put forward to be an
ambassador to Cuba. He called Obama's announcement "truly outrageous and
counterproductive" because there has been no "democratic opening" in Cuba.

"It is a lifeline for the Castro regime that will allow them to become more
profitable ... and allow them to become a more permanent fixture," he said
on CNN. "The embargo is leverage, these sanctions are leverage."

Rubio continued: "We have just lost a significant part of our leverage ...
not a single democratic concession."

In a subsequent press conference, Rubio expanded his critique into a direct
attack on Obama's foreign policy, previewing the assault Republican hawks
could adopt in the presidential race.

"This president has proven today that his foreign policy is more than just
naive," Rubio said. "It is willfully ignorant of the way the world truly
works."

Rubio called Obama "the single worst negotiator we have had in the White
House in my lifetime."

Bush, who shocked the political world on Tuesday by announcing he would
explore a White House bid, welcomed the release of US contractor Alan Gross
but said it was too early to transform Cuba policy.

"He shouldn't have been in prison to start with.  He didn't do anything to
deserve it. But the fact that he's coming home is spectacular news for
himself and his family --- on the first day of Hanukkah," Bush said when
asked about the Cuba news at a holiday event with Florida Governor Rick
Scott.

In his first major foreign policy comments of the nascent 2016 campaign,
Bush then warned in a statement that only Fidel and Raul Castro, who
between them have ruled Cuba for over half a century, would benefit from
Obama's "ill-advised move."

"Cuba is a dictatorship with a disastrous human rights record, and now
President Obama has rewarded those dictators. We should instead be
fostering efforts that will truly lead to the fair, legitimate democracy
that will ultimately prevail in Cuba," Bush said in a statement posted on
his Facebook page.

Bush's consistent hard line towards Havana could be appealing to thousands
of Cuban Americans in Florida. But there's also the question of whether the
issue will be as potent in 2016 as it has been in previous election cycles,
as the younger generation of Cuban-Americans, many of them born in the
U.S., are not as steeped in the Cold War-era struggle as their parents.

Bush has been a strong supporter of the trade embargo and believes it
should only be lifted once political prisoners are freed, Cuba fully
embraces democracy and a market economy is established.

"Instead of lifting the embargo, we should consider strengthening it again
to put pressure on the Cuba regime," Bush said at a meeting of the US-Cuba
Democracy PAC earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, whose father fled Cuba, expressed
"rejoice" that Gross is back in the U.S. But he slammed Obama for easing
restrictions on Cuba.

"Make no mistake, although we are glad Alan is now free, the agreement the
Obama Administration has entered into with the Castro regime has done
nothing to resolve the underlying problem," he said in a statement.
"Indeed, it has made it worse."

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is also considering a presidential run,
tweeted "this is an incredibly bad idea."

The GOP positions set up a clear contrast with a possible 2016 Democratic
election rival Hillary Clinton, who expressed support for Obama's moves in
a statement released Wednesday night.

"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," she said. "It is great news
that Alan is finally home with his family, where he belongs."

The former secretary of state ran for the White House in 2008 opposing
calls to lift the embargo, but she has since shifted her stance.

In an interview with Fusion television network earlier this year, Clinton
argued that the embargo had "propped up" the Castro regime.

"I would like to see us move toward normalizing relations eventually and
therefore more Americans (allowed to move) back and forth," she said.
"That's something President Obama did and I supported in the first term."

Clinton wrote in her book "Hard Choices" that towards the end of her time
in the Obama administration, she "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

Meanwhile, Obama's announcement surprised many on Capitol Hill. Outgoing
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez, who has often
crossed swords with Obama on Iran and Cuba policy, issued a statement that
hinted at the tough fight to come over the embargo in Congress.

While hailing a "moment of profound relief" for Gross, Menendez blasted
Obama, who he said had "vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban
government."

"Trading Mr Gross for three convicted criminals sets and extremely
dangerous precedent," said Menendez.

"It invites dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans serving overseas
as bargaining chips," he said and argued that the"asymmetrical trade" will
invite further belligerence from the government towards the Cuban
opposition.

House Speaker John Boehner also hammered Obama's foreign policy, rebuking
the President for "another in a long line of mindless concessions to a
dictatorship that brutalizes its people and schemes with our enemies."

Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker, who will take control of the foreign
relations panel next year, said lawmakers "will be closely examining the
implications of these major policy changes in the next Congress."

*Politico: “Leaked: Democrats' attack plan for Bush”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/jeb-bush-2016-election-talking-points-113709.html?hp=c4_3>*

By JAMES HOHMANN 12/19/14 3:42 PM EST Updated 12/20/14 4:28 AM EST

The Democratic National Committee wants surrogates to attack Jeb Bush as
the Mitt Romney of 2016, an out-of-touch representative of the 1 percent
who is more conservative than he lets on.

DNC strategists hosted a private conference call Friday to prepare
Democrats going on the Sunday news shows to address the former Florida
governor’s announcement this week that he will actively explore a run for
president. A participant on the call shared the talking points with
POLITICO, and a DNC official confirmed their veracity.

Story Continued Below

The talking points offer a window into the Democratic plan of attack
against the GOP establishment figure. It is also a strong indication that
Democrats view Bush as a formidable general-election candidate, if he can
make it through a GOP primary.

“Jeb Bush has spent his career doing what would benefit himself and people
like him – certainly not looking out for working Americans,” the talking
points say. “Bush spent recent years cashing in on Wall Street as Americans
were hit by the financial crisis. Since leaving public office, Bush has
been involved in several problematic business deals, creating a
multi-million dollar fund in a tax haven, and leveraging his family name to
reap profits for himself.”

Democrats also signaled they will try to lash Jeb Bush to unpopular aspects
of George W. Bush’s White House tenure.

“But we also know what to expect from a Bush presidency because we’ve seen
it before: policies that wreck the economy, that give massive breaks to the
wealthy and corporations, and that are out of step with American people
including women, LGBT Americans, Latinos and people of color,” the talking
points say.

On Friday evening, Bush responded with a message on his Facebook page.

“Everywhere I go, people tell me how tired they are of the dysfunctional,
squabbling silliness of politics today. These silly talking points,
misleading and misinformed as they are, show you just how void of ideas the
Democrats have become after six years of poor results in every area of our
nation’s business, from our struggling economy to our weakening position on
the world stage,” he wrote.

“If I do decide to run for President,” Bush continued, “I can promise you
this: no more Kindergarten attack politics. Instead, I would offer a
substantive campaign that will present the fresh conservative ideas and
meaningful reforms that will help all Americans to rise up, seize
opportunity and pursue a better life for themselves and their loved ones.”

Bush then reprinted the talking points in full on his page.

The 600-word DNC document pushes back on the narrative that Jeb Bush is
relatively moderate compared to the rest of the field. The impetus for the
push is that some leaders on the right have been criticizing Bush as
insufficiently conservative on issues like Common Core and immigration. The
concern for Democrats is that Bush will be more appealing to independent
voters if the perception of him being willing to challenge GOP orthodoxy
solidifies.

There are targeted appeals at various constituencies. Democrats note
controversial Bush quotes about opposing the Equal Rights Amendment, the
Paycheck Fairness Act and equal pay. There are also attacks on Bush over
his opposition to gay rights and for saying that gay couples should not be
able to adopt. And he has defended his support for voter ID laws, which
many African-Americans see as discriminatory.

But the brunt of the attacks focus on Bush helping the wealthy at the
expense of the needy, which worked to President Barack Obama’s advantage in
the 2012 campaign against Romney. Bush has reportedly told allies that he
will push back earlier and more aggressively than Romney did when his
record at Bain Capital was criticized.

“Jeb Bush is looking out for himself and people like him over the
priorities of everyday Americans,” the suggested DNC talking points say.
“On that point he is no different than the rest of the Republican field.”

There are also past quotes from Bush about issues affecting women and
African-Americans. Democrats are also encouraged to point out that Bush
endorsed the conservative budget blueprint of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

*CNN Politics: “Inside the push to draft Ben Carson for president”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/20/politics/ben-carson-super-pac-sousa/>*

By Chris Moody, CNN

Updated 10:16 AM EST, Sat December 20, 2014

Washington (CNN) -- John Philip Sousa IV has a mission: Convince a retired
neurosurgeon with no political experience to run for President -- and then
help him win.

Sousa, 67, launched a super PAC last year that has raised millions in an
effort to urge Dr. Ben Carson to explore a White House bid. Since the
launch, Sousa and his team have proven to be a fundraising powerhouse,
raising a whopping $12.2 million from more than 100,000 donors. That even
edged out the effort by Hillary Clinton's supporters, who have raised $12.1
million for the "Ready for Hillary" super PAC.

Sousa's group, dubbed the "National Draft Ben Carson for President Campaign
Committee," is laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign in early
voting states with plans to open a second office in Iowa later this month.

If Sousa's last name sounds familiar, that's because it should. He's the
great grandson of John Philip Sousa, the composer known for his patriotic
music. Sousa's effort is adding to the buzz surrounding Carson, who
catapulted onto the national political scene at last year's National Prayer
Breakfast by delivering a stinging rebuke to Obamacare -- with President
Barack Obama sitting just a few feet away. He has captivated some
Republicans with stories of his difficult childhood and placed second
behind Mitt Romney in a CNN/ORC poll last month that asked the GOP about
their preferred presidential nominee.

Carson himself has said he has been considering a run after seeing the
outpouring of support.

"It definitely seems to be having an impression," said Adam Waldeck, a
spokesman for the American Legacy PAC, which Carson chairs.

Federal election rules bar Sousa from coordinating with Carson, who hasn't
yet said whether he'll run in 2016. But Sousa talks about a potential run
in the same unvarnished style that Carson embraces.

Sousa recently visited CNN's Washington bureau. Read the interview below,
which has been edited and condensed for clarity:

Why did you decide to start a super PAC?

In August 2013, a few of us got together and wondered what we wanted to do
in terms of politics, PACs and so forth. We thought, gee, well, let's start
a PAC and support senators, and candidates in '14 and '16. That sounded
boring since everyone else in the world was doing it. One of us said, "Did
you see Ben Carson at the National Prayer Breakfast?" And we all nodded,
yes. And someone almost jokingly said, "Why don't we draft him to run for
president?"

What drew you to him?

Because of his background, Dr. Carson can relate. He's a multi-millionaire
now, but when he was a kid, he was far from it. He was a nasty thug in
school. Thanks to a mother who probably deserves something close to
sainthood, he started reading books instead of watching television. He read
himself right into Yale and the head of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins.

His mother worked three jobs. She married when she was 13, and had two
boys. Of course, the father took off. So she was on her own. She worked
very, very hard in Detroit in the ghettos to provide for her boys. She was
cleaning the house of a rather wealthy individual one day and noticed that
the television was covered with books. She said to the gentleman, "How do
you watch TV with all these books on your TV?" ...She went home and she
said, "Boys, new rule in the house. No more than one hour of television in
the house, and we're going to read." ...It was thanks to that that really
pulled Dr. Carson out of the gutter and to the very top.

That's a story that lots of people can relate to. More importantly, Dr.
Carson knows how to get people out of the rut, out of the ghetto. Because
he's lived it. He's done it. Not that every kid in the ghetto will become
head of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, but Carson has a plan to do that and
it's not simply throwing more money into these neighborhoods.

Have you met him?

I've met him once. ...We have decided to take the road of being very, very
cautious. We don't want the [Federal Election Commission] knocking on our
door.

What happened during your encounter with him?

It was about a year ago. ...We talked briefly. I asked him, "Do you like
what we're doing?" He said, "I'm not stopping you."

What have you done to vet him?

Did we thoroughly vet the guy? No. But we went back through his record as
much is public and checked into his family life as much as we could, and we
didn't see anything we didn't like. But to tell you we thoroughly vetted
the guy, that wouldn't be accurate.

What was the key part of him that made you decide to devote so much effort
into him?

A few things: His belief in the United States Constitution, his common
sense approach to resolving things, the fact that this man developed the
process of separating conjoined twins at the head so both halves lived.
...Once he developed the process, he realized that he didn't know it all.
That he needed experts to help him with some of this stuff. So he brought
in experts from around the world to help him with that surgery. So that
tells us that he's not an egomaniac, that he's willing to reach out to
professionals to help him in areas where he needs help. I think that's
critically important if you're going to run a business, do a complicated
surgery or run the United States of America.

We like the fact that he is a Christian man—he has a strong belief in God.
And quite frankly, we liked the fact that he stood up at the National
Prayer Breakfast, two feet from the president, and said, sir, you're wrong.

How do you plan to convince him to get into the race?

We think we've gone just about as far as we can go in convincing Dr. Carson
to run. We've raised close to $12 million. We've spent close to that.

I send Dr. Carson a letter once a week and with that letter is anywhere
between four and six thousand petitions encouraging him to run.

He never responds?

We know he gets them. We know he reads them.

How have you spent the money you've raised?

Direct mail is very expensive, so a lot of money went to direct mail.
Fundraising is expensive, period. We ran ads in black communities in North
Carolina and Louisiana in the Senate races. Spent about half a million on
that total.

You've spent almost as much as you've raised. What do you say to critics
who say this is just a lucrative project for contractors and consultants?

I mean, the Post Office is doing really well, the printer is doing really
well...these things all cost money. Our fundraising firm, Everly, cut their
prices pretty substantially for this cause. They've been good friends of
mine for a lot of years. I've used them on a lot of campaigns. They earn
every single dollar that they've charged us and I begrudge them not a penny.

Anyone who wants to say this is simply an effort to raise money to support
a fundraising firm is just dead wrong. We are very committed, and I think
our success over the last 16-18 months has been proven. Carson never talked
about running before we started this.

I don't want to say we get credit for Carson running, but we have been
instrumental in showing how many people like him and want him to run.
That's been our role, and I think we've done it damn well.

Do you ever have second thoughts about him when he says Obamacare is the
worst US policy since slavery or uses compares policies to Nazis?

Listen, if I were a little bug on his shoulder I might pull on his ear and
say, "Stop that!" But I'm not. Show me a presidential candidate who hasn't
tripped on their tongue.

But do you think that could hurt his chances to be president?

I want Dr. Carson to be Dr. Carson. That's the guy who I really like and
who I want to run this country, and if he trips on his tongue occasionally,
OK, people are going to have to come along and clean it up. But geez,
that's what candidates do, right? Rick Perry, two years ago, and [New
Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie almost every time he opens his mouth. We can
pick on Dr. Carson, but they all do it. They all say things they probably
shouldn't have. Or they don't explain what they meant is articulately as
well as they should have.

On policy, he acknowledges that he doesn't have all of his positions set
yet.

He doesn't.

If you want to support somebody, you don't know where he necessarily stands
on many of the issues. Doesn't that give you pause?

No, and I'll tell you why. He's a very firm believer in the Constitution of
the United States. His policy will be driven by the Constitution. His
policy will be driven by being a Christian. His policy will be driven by
being a good human being. His policy will be driven by being good to the
American people, and not because a bunch of lobbyists have given him bucket
loads of money. The great thing about Dr. Carson running is that he is
beholden to no one.

Until he is beholden to somebody.

Until he is. But today he's not.

What if he doesn't run? What will come of the super PAC?

We haven't really thought. But we have such an infrastructure in place that
we will probably sit down around the same table and say, OK, is there
anyone we believe in that we can use this infrastructure to help win in
2016?

Are there any candidates you would you rule out?

I don't think we would support [Texas Sen. Ted] Cruz because I don't think
he can win.

I don't think we would support Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney, because they're
just too close to the center and it's more of the same.

If Ben Carson can win and Ted Cruz can't, what are the differences?

Big differences. I like what Ted Cruz says about the issues, but I think
he's a bull in a china shop. He's too polarizing. The media will absolutely
fry him every time he opens his mouth—not that they won't go after
Carson—but Carson is not loud. He's not forceful. Ted Cruz will go on for
hours about a given subject jumping up and down—again, I like his
positions—I just don't think his methods can get him elected.

The other difference is that we believe Carson will get at least 17 percent
of the black vote.

What do you base that on?

He's black.

I mean, what data have you seen that shows that?

Herman Cain's campaign polled it and showed that 17 percent at a minimum
would support him.

If Carson gets 17 percent of the black vote, he wins. He can't take 17
percent of the black vote away from the Democrat and have the Democrat win
on a national basis. It just won't happen.

Are you planning to try to replicate those polls for the new cycle?

We're going to be out shortly doing our research.

What are the next phase for your super PAC?

We will go from "Run Ben Run" to "Ben Carson for President." We will begin
increasing our paid staff in the Carolinas and Florida. We will open
another office in Iowa.

We're spending a lot of time working on Iowa. We have committee chairman in
all 99 counties. We're paying a lot of attention to Iowa an dhow we knock
everybody else out of the box.

Who will his biggest competitor be?

I don't know.

But if I die before the debates, I'm going to be really angry. Because I
can hardly wait to see Dr. Carson take on any of them in the debates. His
style is so different and so smooth. Nothing seems to get under his skin. I
think he will absolutely tear them apart.

*Washington Examiner: “Future uncertain, Romney sits atop GOP polls”
<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/future-uncertain-romney-sits-atop-gop-polls/article/2557618>*

By: Byron Yo

December 18, 2014  | 10:44 PM

It can be hard to take the idea of a Mitt Romney 2016 presidential run
seriously. After all, this is the man who said of losing general election
candidates, "They become a loser for life." At least in presidential terms,
he had that mostly right.

But what to make of polls continuing to show Romney at the head of the
Republican presidential pack a little more than a year before the Iowa
caucuses? A Fox News survey released this week found Romney the GOP leader,
with 19 percent, ahead of Jeb Bush, who was pretty far back at 10 percent.
Everybody else was bunched together behind Bush.

A McClatchy-Marist poll a few days earlier showed a similar result, with
Romney leading at 19 percent and Bush at 14 percent. A Quinnipiac poll
before that found Romney at 19 percent and Bush at 11 percent.

Many polls don't include Romney in their surveys. But the many that do
suggest that, at least for now, Romney is a front-runner, if not the
front-runner in the 2016 Republican race.

People in Romney's circle realize that some of his standing in the polls
reflects nothing more than name recognition; everybody knows the guy who
ran for president in 2012. But they believe there's more to it than that.
In discussions this week, they pointed to what they think is a widespread
belief among voters, certainly among Republicans, that Romney was right
about some key issues in the 2012 campaign.

"I don't really think you can objectively chalk it up to name ID," says one
resident of Romneyworld. "People are saying, 'He was right.' I think that
has happened in so many different ways that people are looking at it with a
fresh perspective." Another Romneyworld insider points to Russia,
terrorism, and the economy as areas where Romney was prescient in 2012.

Some of the people who talk with Romney say they specifically avoid the
subject of his running in 2016. They still believe he would be a good
president, but they don't want to push. "I don't press him on it," says yet
another in Romney's circle. "It's a personal decision."

"I don't bring it up," says another. "When we talk, we talk about what's
going on in the world."

Some of the donors who supported Romney in 2012 aren't so shy; they're
happy to tell Romney they believe he should run again. "He's being
encouraged by people every day," says one confidant.

The big mystery, of course, is what Romney himself is thinking. As long as
Romney keeps quiet, the outside world will be guessing. But it's probably
smart to divide the question into two parts.

The first is what Romney thinks about the actual decision to run or not to
run. That, nobody knows. The second is what Romney thinks about who would
be the best president. That's not so mysterious. Romney ran in 2012 because
he believed he was the best man for the job. There's no indication he has
changed his mind.

Those close to Romney don't believe the recent moves by Jeb Bush, who now
says he is "actively exploring" a presidential run, will have any effect on
Romney. A bigger question will be whether a leader emerges in the GOP field
to bring Republican voters together.

"One of the luxuries he has is he doesn't have to necessarily make up his
mind and make a decision right now," says one. "He can take stock of the
field and how it develops."

So here is a scenario. The Republican race that develops in 2015 is
splintered and unhappy, with no candidate gaining the stature and respect
needed to make a good nominee. The campaign becomes a protracted fight that
diminishes each of its participants. Party leaders look for a savior.
Romney is there.

It probably won't happen. And Romney knows — we know he knows because he
has said as much — that a political figure who has a halo around his head
when he is out of the fray will be just another punching bag if he gets in.

Still, there are the polls. And, for some of those around Romney, the hope.
Right now, all they know is that there is a chance — maybe a tiny one, but
a chance — of another run.

"I can't really put any kind of prediction on it," says one of the
Romneyworld insiders of the possibility that Romney will run again. "I
wouldn't say there is zero chance of it. I would definitely not say it is
zero."

*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>)