Subject: ​Correct The Record Tuesday December 23, 2014 Afternoon Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 13:38:10 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Tuesday December 23, 2014 Afternoon Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> wants everyone to enjoy the same
opportunities she had growing up,@jengranholm
<https://twitter.com/JenGranholm> writes for @cnbc
<https://twitter.com/CNBC> http://www.cnbc.com/id/102291832
<http://t.co/egJLapRVPg>[12/23/14, 11:37 a.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/547430739269021696>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@jengranholm
<https://twitter.com/JenGranholm>: @HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> embodies a "fierce duty and loyalty to
[the American] family."http://www.cnbc.com/id/102291832
<http://t.co/egJLapRVPg> [12/23/14, 10:56 a.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/547420404680114177>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> successfully fought to expand Family
and Medical Leave Act for families of wounded soldiers.
http://correctrecord.org/hillary-clinton-a-record-of-service-to-veterans/ …
<http://t.co/bSpDUIIA9i> [12/22/14, 2:32 p.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/547112381726208001>]

*Headlines:*

*CNBC opinion: Gov. Jennifer Granholm: “The message Democrats need to hit
for 2016” <http://www.cnbc.com/id/102291832#.>*

“Since long before the time Hillary Clinton wrote that ‘it takes a
village,’ she has been advocating a belief that we, as a country, are all
in this together.”

*Bloomberg: “The Man Poised to Guide Hillary Clinton's Presidential
Campaign”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-12-22/the-man-poised-to-guide-hillary-clintons-presidential-campaign>*

[Subtitle:] “Robby Mook, Terry McCauliffe's makeover artist, may be the one
to bring discipline to the Clintons' 2016 campaign.”

*Associated Press: “Late At Night, Christie Doing 2016 Foreign Policy
Homework”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOP_2016_CHRISTIE_FOREIGN_POLICY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

“Such preparation is expected from prospective White House candidates,
especially those such as Christie, a long-time politician in New Jersey and
former U.S. attorney who lacks the foreign policy experience of the
favorite for the Democratic nomination, former U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

*Articles:*

*CNBC opinion: Gov. Jennifer Granholm: “The message Democrats need to hit
for 2016” <http://www.cnbc.com/id/102291832#.>*

By Gov. Jennifer Granholm

December 23, 2014

After the 2014 electoral debacle, much has been written about Democrats
needing a message. Of course, first and foremost, Democrats must be
obsessed about creating good-paying jobs in America. But there's one other
message that is authentic to us and to our hopeful Democratic nominee:

Family.

Since long before the time Hillary Clinton wrote that "it takes a village,"
she has been advocating a belief that we, as a country, are all in this
together. That, just like in your own family, our American family takes
care of each other. In your family you take care of your aging parents.
Period. In our American family, we take care of all of our parents, through
strong policies like Social Security and Medicaid.

In your family, you lend your brother a hand if he gets laid off. You don't
cut him off; you help him. In our American family, we make sure that all of
our brothers and sisters are given a bridge to something better through
unemployment insurance, if they find themselves without income.

That's what we do. That's who we are. As we say in the faith community,
that's whose we are.

Yes, we believe that people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
But we also know this truth: many children were not issued boots upon
arrival. These are all our children. We are a family. And in a family, no
one gets left behind.

And you know what? It turns out that when we believe that way, and act upon
that belief, our economy does better too. If our children are better
educated, our brothers and sisters make a better living, and our parents
are taken care of, we will all be better off.

This is exactly what Hillary Clinton has dedicated her life to — what she
calls "the basic bargain of America," that "no matter who you are or where
you come from, if you work hard and play by the rules, you'll have the
opportunity to build a good life for yourself and your family." This is the
same opportunity that young middle-class Hillary Rodham had, and the
opportunity that she wants for everyone in the American family.

That is why Hillary has long advocated for a progressive tax structure to
ensure, among other things, that we can fund a basic safety net for
Americans. For while you may fall on hard times today, and I may fall on
hard times tomorrow, together we hold a net that is strong enough that
neither of us will fall through.

That is why Hillary has protected working families going through difficult
times through no fault of their own, leading the fight in the Senate to
extend emergency unemployment benefits.

That is why she has been determined to expand access to education and
healthcare for children across all walks of American life. As First Lady of
Arkansas, she expanded early childhood education for economically
disadvantaged children. In the Senate, she worked across the aisle with
former Missouri Senator Kit Bond in an effort to expand voluntary full-day
pre-K for children from low-income families. Today, as part of the Too
Small to Fail Initiative to improve the health and well being of children
five and under, she is working to close the "word gap" for kids in
low-income families who often have smaller vocabularies than their
classmates.

Hillary Clinton has worked to increase health coverage for millions of
children in low-income and working families through the State Children's
Health Insurance Program, a program she helped created as First Lady.

As Hillary says, "You should not have to be the grandchild of a governor or
a senator or a former secretary of state or a former president to believe
that the American Dream is in your reach." Opportunity and success
shouldn't be limited to those lucky enough to be born into wealthy
families, or to the grandchildren of governors or senators. Instead, we
should remind ourselves that we belong to one another, to one team, to one
family. And we are fiercely proud of belonging to a country — a big
American family — where no one gets left behind.

That is why I am ready for Hillary.

*Bloomberg: “The Man Poised to Guide Hillary Clinton's Presidential
Campaign”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-12-22/the-man-poised-to-guide-hillary-clintons-presidential-campaign>*

By Jonathan Allen

December 22, 2014 6:37 p.m. EDT

[Subtitle:] Robby Mook, Terry McCauliffe's makeover artist, may be the one
to bring discipline to the Clintons' 2016 campaign.

In 2009, Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic power broker and close Clinton
friend, lost a three-way Democratic primary for Virginia governor; four
years later, with Robby Mook aboard as his campaign manager, McAuliffe won.

It was that performance that solidified Mook's status as one of the leading
candidates to help Hillary Clinton to change her own fortunes from primary
loser to general election winner. Now Mook, a 35-year-old Vermont native,
has emerged as a clear front-runner to manage Clinton's expected
presidential campaign after Guy Cecil, the political director for her 2008
bid, acknowledged Sunday he won't have an official role this time around.

Mook already is working on special projects for Clinton, according to two
longtime Democratic strategists. One said Mook was influential in shaping
her role helping Democrats during the 2014 midterm elections.

Clinton advisers say Mook could serve as a bridge between Clinton's past
and present, because he's close enough to Clinton to be trusted, and
experienced enough in more recent campaigns to know which parts may need
fixing.

"You can't have someone in such a pivotal and important position who is
unknown," said Ellen Tauscher, a former congresswoman, State Department
official, and Clinton ally. "For people that want to be reassured about no
repeat of 2008 issues, I think that he definitely answers the mail on that,
too." Tauscher said she did not know whether Mook would manage a campaign
or whether Clinton would run.

McAuliffe's first campaign relied heavily on old friends as operatives and
advisers, just as Clinton's had during her 2008 presidential bid. As a
result, both suffered from an air of arrogance and a lack of political
sophistication. For the 2013 race, McAuliffe wanted something different.

"He wanted to have a professional organization, he wanted to make sure it
was based on the most recent tactics and wanted to make sure the campaign
was strategic and data-focused," said Michael Halle, who managed field
operations for McAuliffe.

Enter Mook, who was coming off a stint as the executive director of the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and had managed Clinton's
primary-vote victories over Barack Obama in Nevada, Ohio, and Indiana in
2008.

He brought in talent from the data-obsessed Obama re-election campaign,
including Elan Kriegel, who was the director of analytics in battleground
states, and kept in touch with Obama adviser David Plouffe.

"Robby understands modern campaigns, the value of data and technology,"
Plouffe told Bloomberg in 2013. "He beat us three times; his footprint was
on our back."

And, Plouffe added, "our sense was he did the best job of anyone over
there."

Mook was also able to instill discipline in McAuliffe, a famously difficult
mission. When he ran McAuliffe's operation, Mook mapped out campaign
strategy on big white boards at meetings and was "absolutely anal about
every meeting ending with action items," Halle said.

He also sought to understand the operation from the ground up. Every other
week or so, he ordered headquarters staffers to go into the field to get a
sense of what voters were telling volunteers. That's not terribly unusual
in a campaign. What's less common: Mook knocked on 50 to 60 doors himself
each time, Halle said.

Mook's experience with McAuliffe could prove valuable, because Clinton has
struggled with discipline on the campaign trail and on her recent book
tour, a weakness that Mook supporters say he has a track record of
addressing. And, her operation is famous for the kind of infighting that
Mook-run shops have been able to avoid.

Clinton hasn't officially announced whether she's running–and other names
including Emily's List President Stephanie Schriock and California
Democratic strategist Ace Smith still surface for the top job.

Obama counselor John Podesta, a onetime chief of staff to President Bill
Clinton, is expected to take on a high-ranking role, perhaps as campaign
chairman.

Mook and Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill declined to comment for this story.

Last month, ABC News published leaked excerpts from a private email
listserv called the "Mook Mafia" in which Mook and other Democratic
operatives shared thoughts on politics and politicians. In one, Mook wrote
about wanting to "smite Republicans mafia-style."

Mook, who is rarely quoted in news stories, has been silent on the
prospective Clinton campaign. That's a good sign for Clinton allies who
want a lower-drama operation this time around.

*Associated Press: “Late At Night, Christie Doing 2016 Foreign Policy
Homework”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOP_2016_CHRISTIE_FOREIGN_POLICY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

By Jill Colvin

December 23, 2014, 2:19 a.m. EST

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- It's after 9 p.m. on a Sunday night in late November
and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is deep into a conference call talking
about nuclear weapons and Iran.

One voice is advocating a hard line, arguing against allowing Iran any
capability to enrich uranium. Another summarizes the status of current
negotiations and argues that forcing Iran to give up enrichment entirely
isn't realistic.

This is how Christie has spent many of his nights during a year in which he
raised record-setting amounts of campaign cash for his fellow Republican
governors and methodically tried to recover from a political scandal
involving traffic jams near a New York City bridge. Late at night, away
from the spotlight of the midterm elections and 2016 speculation, he's been
on the phone with some of the brightest foreign policy minds in the
Republican Party, getting ready to run for president.

"They've been much more quiet in general in their outreach and their
approach than, say, (Texas Gov.) Rick Perry, who's been very public and
active," said Lanhee Chen, who served as 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney's
chief policy adviser and is among those whom Christie's aides have sought
out for guidance.

"I think that reflects a difference in terms of what they perceive that
they need to accomplish here very early on to be viable as presidential
candidates," Chen said.

Such preparation is expected from prospective White House candidates,
especially those such as Christie, a long-time politician in New Jersey and
former U.S. attorney who lacks the foreign policy experience of the
favorite for the Democratic nomination, former U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But the previously undisclosed prep sessions are another indication that
Christie's political ambitions are undeterred by the George Washington
Bridge scandal and the all-but-formal entry into the 2016 campaign of
former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a competitor for support among donors eager
to back an establishment nominee.

The briefing efforts are led by Bob Grady, a longtime adviser to Christie
and a former White House official who has become the point man on policy in
the tight-knit Christie circle. Assisting is Bob Zoellick, the former
president of the World Bank and U.S. Trade Representative, and Brian Hook,
a former assistant secretary of state who was the Romney campaign's senior
adviser on foreign policy.

Zoellick and Grady said some of the sessions have covered Christie's recent
trips to Mexico and Canada. Other topics have included Ukraine and Russia,
the Islamic State, Syria and Iraq, Iran, and the U.S. defense budget.

The calls, which generally last about 90 minutes, typically begin with
several experts discussing a region's history, recent developments and the
views of foreign leaders of the countries involved, followed by a detailed
question-and-answer session. The format is designed, they said, to expose
Christie to multiple points of view and help him build a deeper
understanding of history and world affairs.

"The idea is, the governor will form his own views, and this is the stage
where he can get some sort of range of perspectives, some sense of
questions that he should be thinking about," Zoellick said. "I personally
think, having been through these since the `88 campaign in one form or
another, is that it's the best way for him to actually think through and
develop a foundation."

Christie has also met one-on-one or on the phone with officials, business
leaders and academics, including former secretaries of state Condoleezza
Rice and Henry Kissinger, and Council on Foreign Relations President
Richard Haass.

While selling himself as a brash straight-talker, Christie has been notably
reluctant to share his views about policy issues that fall outside his
wheelhouse as governor. That includes immigration, which Christie has
repeatedly said he won't discuss unless he chooses to run.

That has triggered criticism, with a Washington Post columnist suggesting
Christie was at risk of becoming the "Rick Perry of 2016" - a reference to
the Texas governor's dismal performance in 2012 and his inability to recall
in one debate the details of his own plan to eliminate three federal
departments.

While Christie and his aides have also been reluctant to share other
details about their preparations, members of his team, led by his chief
political adviser Mike DuHaime and money man Bill Palatucci, have begun a
quiet outreach effort to potential donors as well as conservative
activists, people familiar with the efforts said.

One of Christie's most loyal cheerleaders, Ken Langone, the billionaire
founder of Home Depot, told The Associated Press that he's been chatting up
friends and associates who may also be interested in backing a Christie
campaign.

"As I talk, I'm keeping a list of people that, if the governor decides to
run, these are the people I'm going to go to and say, `Would you like to
help?'" he said.

There is more to be done, and soon, should Christie want to stay
competitive in a race defined by Bush's announcement last week that he
plans to "actively explore" a campaign.

Christie's people have been less aggressive in feeling out potential
staffers in early voting states, and he does not have any kind of political
action committee to allow him to raise money to pay for his travel and
other campaign preparation.

With nearly a dozen potential candidates raring to go, there is little time
left for the behind-the-scenes approach. Florida's Mel Sembler, a former
finance chair of the Republican National Committee, said he received a
flurry of calls from donors last week telling him, "We're ready," following
Bush's announcement.

"Sides," Sembler said, "are beginning to be drawn."