Subject: ​Correct The Record Thursday January 15, 2015 Afternoon Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 15:26:07 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Thursday January 15, 2015 Afternoon Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> increased aid to assist Kosovo
refugees #HRC365 <https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash>
http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/EOP/First_Lady/html/generalspeeches/1999/19990518.html
…
<http://t.co/89ooYHdBan> [1/15/15, 12:01 p.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/555771698402689024>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> fought to strengthen community efforts
to end hunger #HRC365 <https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash>
https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/senate-bill/1120/cosponsors …
<https://t.co/9GHzAlv5Ou> [1/14/15, 8:01 p.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/555530114318888960>]

*Headlines:*

*Bloomberg: “Bobby Jindal to Travel to London to Bash Hillary Clinton on
Foreign Policy”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-01-14/bobby-jindal-to-travel-to-london-to-bash-hillary-clinton-on-foreign-policy>*

“Adrienne Elrod, a representative of the pro-Clinton group Correct the
Record, responded in an e-mail: ’Bobby Jindal only wishes he had a fraction
of the widespread support Secretary Clinton receives, and it’s no surprise
he’s taking her words out of context to try to score a few political
points. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton often utilized a strategy of
engagement rather than isolationism to achieve America’s policy goals
abroad, one of the many reasons she remains one of the country’s most
accomplished secretaries of state.”

*FROM MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA: Media Matters for America: “Mitt Romney
And Hillary Clinton Are The Same Age -- Will Campaign Coverage Reflect That
Fact?”
<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/01/15/mitt-romney-and-hillary-clinton-are-the-same-ag/202148>*

“Mitt Romney's reemergence as a possible top-tier Republican contender for
the 2016 White House race has created an awkward situation for some
Republicans and conservative commentators who have been dwelling on Hillary
Clinton's age in recent months.”

*NBC News: First Read: “Three Things We've Learned About Hillary Clinton's
Emerging Campaign”
<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/three-things-weve-learned-about-hillary-clintons-emerging-campaign-n286686>*

“If Warren's not running, that allows Clinton the option to sit back and
wait much longer than Republicans in the GOP field will.”

*Washington Post blog: The Fix: “The rapid decline of the swing state,
visualized”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/01/15/the-rapid-decline-of-the-swing-state-visualized/>*

“Some like to think Hillary Clinton could put some red states that her
husband won in-play, but unless 2016 is an absolute blowout, that's just
not feasible.”

*The Hill blog: Briefing Room: “Bill Clinton jokes about where he'll live
in 2016”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/229591-bill-clinton-jokes-about-where-hell-live-in-2016>*

“Clinton did not shed any more light on Hillary Clinton's emerging plans
for a campaign.”

*Huffington Post: “Proud Grandpa Bill Thinks Baby Clinton Is 'The Greatest
Thing Since Sliced Bread'”
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/bill-clinton-granddaughter-baby-clinton_n_6479472.html>*

“The former president was on Late Night with Seth Meyers Wednesday and when
the topic turned to Baby Clinton, the proud grandpa just couldn't stop
gushing.”

*Articles:*

*Bloomberg: “Bobby Jindal to Travel to London to Bash Hillary Clinton on
Foreign Policy”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-01-14/bobby-jindal-to-travel-to-london-to-bash-hillary-clinton-on-foreign-policy>*

By David Knowles

January 14, 2015 3:24 p.m. EST

[Subtitle:] The Louisiana governor, and presumptive presidential candidate,
is making some headlines of his own.

It sounds like the setup for a roaring punchline: Did you hear the one
about the Indian-American Republican governor of Louisiana and presumptive
presidential candidate who goes to a European capital to deliver a speech
in which he attacks an Illinois native turned lawyer turned Arkansas first
lady turned U.S.  first lady turned New York senator turned secretary of
state over her "mindless naivete?"

Bobby Jindal on Wednesday released excerpts of a speech he plans to deliver
next week in London,  including a section that directly responds to
Clinton's recent assertion that America should attempt to "empathize" with
its enemies.

For Jindal, Clinton's remarks sounded, if anything, like a bad joke.

"Our former secretary of state in America recently said that we need to
'show respect for our enemies' and 'empathize with their perspective and
point of view,'" Jindal plans to say in London, the Weekly Standard
reported. "Well, yes, understanding our enemies as a means of destroying
them, I’m all for that.  But empathizing with them as if perhaps we can
find some common ground, I have no interest in that kind of mindless
naiveté."

Adrienne Elrod, a representative of the pro-Clinton group Correct the
Record, responded in an e-mail:

“Bobby Jindal only wishes he had a fraction of the widespread support
Secretary Clinton receives, and it’s no surprise he’s taking her words out
of context to try to score a few political points. As secretary of state,
Hillary Clinton often utilized a strategy of engagement rather than
isolationism to achieve America’s policy goals abroad, one of the many
reasons she remains one of the country’s most accomplished secretaries of
state.”

The bulk of Jindal's speech deals specifically with his belief that the
West needs to change its thinking regarding radical Islam, veering away
from what he sees as the permissive, cultural relativism being practiced in
countries such as France.

"I believe it is because radical Islamists have been given too wide a berth
to establish their own nation within a nation," Jindal will say. "I am
encouraged to see France’s prime minister speak out against this travesty."

Aside from the desire to have his message heard by world leaders and
politicians wishing to become one,  Jindal's speech comes at a time when
every day brings headlines detailing the moves by prospective presidential
candidates, and opens a new line of attack against the Democratic
frontrunner, who has yet to declare her candidacy.

Still, as a political attack on Clinton, Jindal's remarks only went so far.
Much of his planned speech contrasts radical Islam with how Jindal believes
religion is viewed in the United States.

"In my country, Christianity is the largest religion," Jindal, who
converted from Hinduism to Catholicism as a teenager, plans to say. "And we
require exactly no one to conform to it. And we do not discriminate against
anyone who does not conform to it. It’s called freedom."

*FROM MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA: Media Matters for America: “Mitt Romney
And Hillary Clinton Are The Same Age -- Will Campaign Coverage Reflect That
Fact?”
<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/01/15/mitt-romney-and-hillary-clinton-are-the-same-ag/202148>*

By Eric Boehlert

January 15, 2015

[Subtitle:] Or Do Different Rules Apply For Women?

"In American politics, there's a sense you want to be new. You don't want
to be too familiar. You want to be something fresh. You don't want to be
something old and stale." Karl Rove discussing Hillary Clinton on Fox News,
May 26, 2014.

Mitt Romney's reemergence as a possible top-tier Republican contender for
the 2016 White House race has created an awkward situation for some
Republicans and conservative commentators who have been dwelling on Hillary
Clinton's age in recent months. The development also poses a potentially
thorny issue for journalists in terms of how they treat male and female
politicians.

To date, Republicans have been eager to highlight Clinton's age.
"Republican strategists and presidential hopefuls, in ways subtle and
overt, are eager to focus a spotlight on Mrs. Clinton's age," the New York
Times reported in 2013. Just this week, conservative Washington Post
contributor Ed Rogers mocked Clinton for being stuck in a cultural "time
warp," circa the "tie-dye" 1960s.

So why the newfound awkwardness for spotlighting Clinton's age? Because
Mitt Romney's the same age as Hillary Clinton. They're both 67 years old.
(Actually, Romney's older than Clinton by seven months.)

The fact that early polling suggests the possible Republican front runner
is the same age as Clinton raises interesting questions for the political
press, which has carved out plenty of time and space in recent years to
analyze the question of Clinton's age and to repeat Republican allegations
that she might be too old for the job of president. Going forward, will the
same press corps devote a similar amount of time and space asking the same
questions about Romney? And if not, why not? (A recent Boston Globe article
actually positioned Romney's age as a plus for the Republican: "Supporters
have also noted that Romney would be 69 years old in 2016 -- the same age
as Reagan when he was sworn into his first term.")

Note that Clinton famously faced sexist commentary about her age during the
2008 campaign. The late Slate writer Christopher Hitchens ridiculed her as
an "aging and resentful female," while Rush Limbaugh's website once asked,
"Do the American people want to observe the aging of this woman in office?"

Currently, we know where Republicans stand, albeit before they realized
67-year-old Romney might run again. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
compared Clinton to a cast member from "The Golden Girls," Rick Santorum
called her "old," Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker claimed that Clinton
"embodies that old, tired top-down approach from the government," while
former Fox host Mike Huckabee wondered if the former secretary of state who
traveled nearly one million miles while in office would have the stamina
for a national campaign: "She's going to be at an age where it's going to
be a challenge for her."

And then there's Fox contributor Erick Erickson. Hillary Clinton is "going
to be old" in 2016, he said. "I don't know how far back they can pull her
face."

Amidst the flurry of coverage that erupted since Romney signaled last week
that he's seriously considering running again, the topic of his age
certainly has not been a hot one. We'll have to see if it becomes an area
of media interest in the coming weeks and months if Romney decides to enter
the race.

Will it be the subject of a National Journal column, like this one last
year by Charlie Cook: "Is Hillary Clinton Too Old to Run?" In it, Cook
wondered if Clinton was "physically up to the rigors of running and serving
in office." (Cook did follow that up with a column about Vice President Joe
Biden's age and his political future.)

The Clinton commentary drew a flag from syndicated columnist Froma Harrop.
"Both men and women face age discrimination, but it's no secret that for
women, ageism mixes easily with sexism. And obsessing over a woman's year
of birth is often a slightly more respectable substitute for the latter,"
she wrote in response to Cook's column. "The point is that age arguments
get dumped on women without much reflection."

Example: Last year when it was announced Chelsea Clinton was pregnant the
issue quickly (inexplicably?) became a topic for political commentary, with
questions being raised if Hillary Clinton's pending grandmotherhood
represented bad political news for her. And no, it wasn't just Fox News
playing the sex/age card, asking if Clinton identifying herself as a
grandmother might hurt against a possibly younger, more energetic
Republican opponent.

MSNBC's Aliyah Frumin noted at the time:

The Christian Science Monitor ran a headline, "Chelsea Clinton baby: Will
Hillary Clinton be less likely to run in 2016"? and New York Times
columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin argued the pregnancy will "change the dynamic
of the campaign" on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Politico had a story, "What to
expect when she's expecting" saying the "armchair thinking" is that having
a grandchild "may make the Iowa State Fair a less appealing place to spend
the summer of 2015. Why beg donors for money at dozens of events a month
when there's a happy baby to spend time with in New York?"

Fact: Mitt Romney has 22 grandchildren. Will that become a topic of debate
with commentators wondering if having so many grandkids means Romney won't
want to run for president, or that he'd be distracted while campaigning? It
certainly wasn't a media subject of interest during his 2012 campaign.

As Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics
at Rutgers University, told MSNBC last year, "There's a disproportionate
attention to [Clinton] being a grandmother. Certainly, many men have run
for president as grandfathers. And nobody worries if they can't do their
job."

To be clear, lots of political analysts who have weighed in on the topic of
Clinton's age in the last year have concluded it won't, and shouldn't,
matter. But the larger point is that Clinton's 67 years remain a recurring
subject of scrutiny. And by regularly covering the issue the press has
helped push a Republican talking point.

Or as Stephen Colbert put it last year, "I know it's rude to talk about a
woman's age, but that's not what I am doing. I am talking about people
talking about other people talking about other people talking about a
woman's age. That's called journalism."

*NBC News: First Read: “Three Things We've Learned About Hillary Clinton's
Emerging Campaign”
<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/three-things-weve-learned-about-hillary-clintons-emerging-campaign-n286686>*

By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann

January 15, 2015, 9:08 a.m. EST

The Republican presidential field has received most of the recent attention
-- and deservedly so, especially with Mitt Romney appearing to make another
run. But in the last few days, we've also learned some important things
about Hillary Clinton's budding presidential campaign. First, by grabbing
Obama's chief pollster (Joel Benenson) and media consultant (Jim Margolis),
Clinton has decided to enlist key parts of Obama's campaign 2008-2012 team,
discarding the folks who ran her polling and media in '08. And she isn't
only grabbing Benenson -- she's lured the other part of Obama's
polling/analytics organization (John Anzalone and David Binder), the
Washington Post reported. When you add the fact that John Podesta is
leaving the Obama White House to serve as a liaison between the Clinton
campaign and White House (as well as to handle the Clinton Old Guard), it's
pretty easy to conclude that Clinton won't be running away from Obama. In
fact, it's looking like she will be more connected to him than ever. And
the people she's hiring are the best-equipped campaign folks to reassemble
the Obama-voter coalition.

It's not going to be Gore vs. Bradley or even Bush vs. Dole

Two, we've learned that Clinton most likely won't receive any real
Democratic primary challenge, allowing her to focus on a general-election
campaign much earlier than everyone else. The final tell here came earlier
this week when Elizabeth Warren once again said she wasn't running -- and
this time did so in more than just the present tense.

Fortune magazine: So are you going to run for president?

Warren: No

Yes, groups like MoveOn are still pining for Warren (and they're continuing
to hire staffers for a draft campaign). Yes, Warren still wants to use her
visibility and following to influence and pressure her party. And, yes,
Democrats like Jim Webb, Martin O'Malley, and maybe even independent Bernie
Sanders appear to be running or could run. But let's be realistic here: Any
challenge that Clinton gets probably won't look like Gore vs. Bradley in
2000 or even Bush vs. Dole in 1988. Just look at all of the polls among
Democratic voters out there. And if Warren's not running, that allows
Clinton the option to sit back and wait much longer than Republicans in the
GOP field will.

How does Clinton distance herself from what's looking like a growing list
of has-been candidates?

And three, the growing realization that 2016 is going to be the year of the
political re-run or spinoff -- you've got Romney, a Bush, a Paul, Huckabee,
Santorum, and of course Clinton -- is a potential problem for her. When it
was just Jeb running, that appeared to neutralize maybe her chief weakness
in that she's not a fresh face or name to lead the country into a new
decade. But when it's a growing cast of the same stale characters (or their
relatives), it's automatic to lump Clinton into that group. So she has to
find a way to distance herself from that. Running as a historic candidate
-- trying to be the first female president -- is a way to do that. But this
could very well be her biggest challenge in 2016.

GOP backlash to Romney builds

There's even MORE Republican backlash to Mitt Romney's likely third
presidential bid. Politico: "A Republican backlash against Mitt Romney that
had been simmering for days boiled over on Wednesday as conservatives
across the GOP spectrum panned the prospect of another presidential bid by
the former Massachusetts governor and two-time loser on the national stage.
Leading the anti-Romney charge was the voice of the GOP establishment wing,
the Wall Street Journal editorial page. 'The question the former
Massachusetts Governor will have to answer,' the newspaper wrote, 'is why
he would be a better candidate than he was in 2012… The answer is not
obvious.' The Journal's owner, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, piled
on: 'He had his chance, he mishandled it, you know? I thought Romney was a
terrible candidate.'" More: "Even Sarah Palin took a shot. 'We need new
energy,' the former vice presidential nominee told "Inside Edition.' 'We
need new blood. We need new ideas.'"

Throwback Thursday: 2016 contenders edition

Mitt Romney's first presidential run started back in February 2007. (For
context, that was just a month after most Americans started hearing the
word "iPhone" for the first time.) For better or worse, that's a lot of
time and experience running for the White House. So one of us(!) took a
look back at what all the major 2016 candidates were doing back when Romney
announced for the first time. Some, like Rand Paul and Elizabeth Warren,
weren't even in public office. Others, like Gov. Scott Walker, were dealing
with the nitty-gritty issues of local governance. And Rubio, Cruz and
Jindal were barely old enough to legally be president.

Does Romney attend Steve King's upcoming cattle call in Iowa?

Romney, of course, speaks Friday night at 10:00 pm ET at the RNC winter
meeting in San Diego. (And today, Ben Carson and Scott Walker address the
confab.) Yet for us, the question is if Romney ends up attending Rep. Steve
King's cattle call in Iowa on Jan. 24. Remember, Romney used the issue of
immigration to distinguish himself from McCain in '08 and Rick Perry in
'12. And it seems to be the obvious way he could run against Jeb Bush in
'16. As we've pointed out time and again, immigration -- especially the
"A"-word, amnesty -- is one of the most powerful attacks in intra-party GOP
fights. Just ask Eric Cantor.

Immigration battle turns to the Senate

Speaking of immigration, as NBC's Alex Moe reported yesterday, the
GOP-controlled House passed its bill to fund the Department of Homeland
Security by a 236-191 vote, and it contained two noteworthy amendments: 1)
an effort to rollback Obama's executive action on immigration from late
last year, and 2) an effort to rollback his DACA action from 2012. The
House's passage shouldn't be surprising; Republicans have the numbers. What
will be key is how the legislation fares in the GOP-controlled Senate,
where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will need 60 votes.

Wanna get away?

Republicans hold joint retreat: By the way, House and Senate Republicans
are holding their two-day retreat in Hershey, PA.

Is Kamala Harris going to have a freer ride than we all expected?

Lastly, after Elizabeth Warren quickly endorsed Kamala Harris in the race
to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), we've got to ask: Is Harris
going to have a freer ride than we all expected? Now remember, it's a LONG
time before the filing deadline. And all it takes is for one very wealthy
person (Tom Steyer?) to jump into the race to make things interesting. But
the conventional wisdom was that this was going to be a JAM-PACKED field to
succeed Boxer, and that doesn't look as likely today.

*Washington Post blog: The Fix: “The rapid decline of the swing state,
visualized”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/01/15/the-rapid-decline-of-the-swing-state-visualized/>*

By Aaron Blake

January 15, 2015, 12:45 p.m. EST

The United States is an increasingly polarized country. There are fewer and
fewer swing voters, which means there are also fewer and fewer swing states.

But what some might not realize is precisely how quickly this shift has
occurred.

According to an analysis from Randal Olson (based on data from the
pro-electoral reform group FairVote), more than half the states in 1992 and
1996 qualified as something amounting to swing states -- i.e. not favoring
either party by more than double digits, according to FairVote's
partisanship index.

That number has declined very steadily ever since, all the way to 14 in
2012. (This is actually a pretty broad definition of a swing state, given
only about 10 states were genuinely contested in 2012, but it's the trend
line that matters here.)

[GRAPH]

Here's another way to look at this. Olson calculated the number of
consecutive election in which the states voted for one party or another.
The darker states vote more consistently for one party or another, while
the lighter states have flipped more recently. (Swing states are gray.)

[GRAPH]

What's striking is that even many of the lighter states aren't competitive
-- like, at all -- anymore. Republicans will not compete for California,
Illinois, New York or New Jersey in 2016, despite George H.W. Bush carrying
them in 1988. And Democrats will not contest Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and West Virginia in 2016, despite them having gone for Bill
Clinton in the 1990s.

Indeed, the days when these states were even on the map for the minority
party seems long past.

Some like to think Hillary Clinton could put some red states that her
husband won in-play, but unless 2016 is an absolute blowout, that's just
not feasible. And it's because our electorate has gotten so much more
polarized -- and thus, predictable -- over the least two decades.

*The Hill blog: Briefing Room: “Bill Clinton jokes about where he'll live
in 2016”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/229591-bill-clinton-jokes-about-where-hell-live-in-2016>*

By Peter Sullivan

January 15, 2015, 9:38 a.m. EST

Former President Bill Clinton was ready with a joke when asked about his
2016 plans on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Myers" Wednesday night.

"Do you think you might live in a different house in 2016?" Myers asked.

"I hope not because 2016’s the election year and I don’t have any place to
move," Clinton replied with a laugh.

Clinton did not shed any more light on Hillary Clinton's emerging plans for
a campaign.

Joking aside, some of the interview did delve into the response to the
terror attacks in Paris.

Asked about finger-pointing at Islam after the attacks, Clinton said "I
agree that Muslim leaders have to do more to combat the extremists but I
don’t think that you can blame the religion."

"These people are politicians, guerrillas, stone cold killers, they just
are throwing the religion out to try to lure more and more converts in and
legitimizing cold blooded murder," he added.

He pointed to the response to last month's Taliban killings at a school in
Pakistan as an example.

"Finally you had people in the society saying, 'We’ve got to go after these
people and we’ve got to stop letting them pretend that they’re speaking in
the name of religion,'" Clinton said.

"It’ll only be heard by the people who are the targets of the recruitment
if they are Muslim leaders," he said.

Speaking of Islamic extremism, he said, "I think it can be rooted out if
and only if the modernizing Muslims, the Arab Emirates for example, Oman,
which has tried to be a force in moving away from this, will do what they
should do."

He praised the presence of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the march in Paris in
response to the attacks.

"I think the fact that the Palestinian President, Mr. Abbas, came and
marched in that parade was a big deal and was willing to do it with the
Israeli Prime Minister with all their deep political differences," he said.

After reports of a massacre by Boko Haram, Clinton said he is "hopeful" for
an "ongoing, consistent response about Boko Haram."

*Huffington Post: “Proud Grandpa Bill Thinks Baby Clinton Is 'The Greatest
Thing Since Sliced Bread'”
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/bill-clinton-granddaughter-baby-clinton_n_6479472.html>*

By Yagana Shah

January 15, 2015, 12:25 p.m. EST

While we're used to seeing Bill Clinton talking hardball politics and
diplomacy, we've seen a softer side of Grandpa B since the arrive of his
first grandchild Charlotte Clinton-Mezvinsky. The former president was on
Late Night with Seth Meyers Wednesday and when the topic turned to Baby
Clinton, the proud grandpa just couldn't stop gushing.

"I love it," Clinton said. "Like every other grandparent, I think my
granddaughter's the greatest thing since sliced bread."

He also raved about daughter Chelsea and son-in-law Marc Mezvinsky's
parenting skills, calling them "impressive." The first-time parents
welcomed Charlotte in September , announcing the birth on social media.

Grandma Hillary Clinton has also professed the joys of grandparenthood,
calling it "one of the happiest moments of our life."

And Chelsea and Marc don't have to look far for a babysitter. Bill also
said that he and Hillary get to spend plenty of time with the newborn, as
they live close by. We have no doubts they're fantastic grandparents. But
just to be sure, another former president, George W. Bush, offered Bill
advice on being a grandparent, from his own experiences: "Be prepared to
fall completely in love again. It’s going to be an awesome period," Bush
told Clinton at an engagement last year. "Get ready to be, like, the lowest
person in the pecking order.”