Subject: Correct The Record Wednesday February 4, 2015 Afternoon Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 14:00:54 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Wednesday February 4, 2015 Afternoon Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> advocated for reexamining Cuban
embargo, which would boost Arkansas' agriculture:
http://deltafarmpress.com/government/arkansans-helped-change-tide-cuban-embargo
…
<http://t.co/AXyiSAHxaq> via @farmpress <https://twitter.com/farmpress>
 [2/4/15, 12:52 p.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/563032294550544384>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: Work by @HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> & others led to progress in Cuba &
increased opportunity, AR Sec of Ag Butch Calhoun says:
http://deltafarmpress.com/government/arkansans-helped-change-tide-cuban-embargo
…
<http://t.co/AXyiSAHxaq> [2/4/15, 12:16 p.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/563023239215984640>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> empowered girls through sports
worldwide #NGWSD <https://twitter.com/hashtag/NGWSD?src=hash> #HRC365
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash>
http://eca.state.gov/video/secretary-clinton-empowers-women-and-girls-through-sports/transcript
…
<http://t.co/INnzR3nfF8> [2/4/15, 11:45 a.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/563015446845075456>]

*Headlines:*

*Delta Farm Press opinion: Butch Calhoun, former Secretary of Agriculture
for the State of Arkansas: "Arkansans helped change tide on Cuban Embargo"
<http://deltafarmpress.com/government/arkansans-helped-change-tide-cuban-embargo>*

“Thanks to earlier advocacy by folks like Hillary Clinton, John Boozman,
Blanche Lincoln, Marion Berry, Rick Crawford, Vic Snyder, and Bill
Alexander, we are closer than ever to lifting the Cuban embargo so that
Arkansas can finally take advantage of this enormous economic opportunity.”

*MSNBC: “Justice Hillary? What could have been”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-supreme-court-what-could-have-been>*

“Obama ended up naming her secretary of state instead, but some Clinton
allies have long been warm to the idea of the Yale-educated lawyer being
named to the high court.”

*New York Daily News: “Chris Christie would get crushed by Hillary Clinton
in 2016 in New Jersey: poll”
<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/christie-crushed-clinton-2016-nj-poll-article-1.2103069>*

“Clinton topped Christie 58% to 32%, with the likely candidates leading
among members of their respective parties.”

*Articles:*

*Delta Farm Press opinion: Butch Calhoun, former Secretary of Agriculture
for the State of Arkansas: Arkansans helped change tide on Cuban Embargo
<http://deltafarmpress.com/government/arkansans-helped-change-tide-cuban-embargo>*

By Butch Calhoun

February 4, 2015

Since 1961, the United States has had a trade embargo against Cuba that
prevents widespread commerce with the country. The embargo’s original
purpose was to destabilize the communist Castro regime in hopes that the
country would eventually open up to democratic reforms. While I won’t argue
the original intent of the embargo, it is evident that more than half a
century later, the embargo has failed to reach its goal.

President Obama recently announced that the U.S. would restore diplomatic
ties with Cuba and begin to loosen some of the economic sanctions now in
place. I will give credit where credit is due and agree with the
president’s decision and actions. However, the Arkansas blood running
through my veins forces me to highlight a few hardworking Arkansans who
deserve a pat on the back as well. There have been many Arkansas politicos
who have supported lifting the embargo over the years and but for their
perseverance and efforts, we might not be as close as we are to stopping
that dog from barking up the embargo tree.

Former Arkansas Congressmen Marion Berry, Bill Alexander, and Vic Snyder,
and Sen. Blanche Lincoln traveled to Cuba to highlight a need for
rethinking the embargo during their tenure on Capitol Hill. And if memory
serves, they all caught a little flack for their efforts at the time. All
of them fervently believed that the best medicine for the Castro regime was
a healthy dose of U.S. capitalism. More recently, Sen. John Boozman and
Congressman Rick Crawford have also stated publicly that they support
increasing trade with Cuba, showing that this issue isn’t about politics,
its about helping Arkansas farmers.

And let’s not forget Hillary Clinton, our former First Lady of Arkansas who
advocated for reexamining the embargo during her tenure as Secretary of
State. One would have to believe that her position influenced our president
to move forward with this decision. Why does it matter to us Arkies, you
ask? Not only would lifting the embargo help promote democratic reforms in
Cuba, but it would help Arkansas’s economy by letting us sell more rice,
poultry, soybeans and wheat to our neighbors in the Caribbean.

Agriculture is our state’s largest industry. It employs one out of every
six Arkansans and accounts for approximately $20 billion in economic
activity every year. If Arkansas farmers could sell to Cuba, that number
would grow even higher. Estimates on potential rice sales to Cuba hover
between $225 million and $275 million in value annually  — and that is just
for rice.

Arkansas is a natural fit for trade with Cuba. A large portion of the Cuban
diet is rice. Cubans prefer high-quality long-grain rice, and Arkansas is
the largest producer of rice in the country. Arkansas farmers produce the
highest quality long-grain rice in the world. Right now Cuba imports rice
of lower quality than ours from Asia and South America. Wouldn’t it benefit
the Cuban consumer and the Arkansas economy to buy that rice from right
here in the Mid-South?

Poultry meat is also popular in Cuba, but they don’t have the production
capabilities to produce it on a large scale. Arkansas is the number two
state in the country in broiler production and our poultry industry is
growing. The American poultry industry is a natural fit for Cuban consumers.

The president made the right decision, and I give him credit. Thanks to
earlier advocacy by folks like Hillary Clinton, John Boozman, Blanche
Lincoln, Marion Berry, Rick Crawford, Vic Snyder, and Bill Alexander, we
are closer than ever to lifting the Cuban embargo so that Arkansas can
finally take advantage of this enormous economic opportunity. Because the
more our farmers sell their crops, the more Arkansans will reap the
benefits.

*Butch Calhoun is the former Secretary of Agriculture for the State of
Arkansas. Prior to his appointment in 2012, he served as the director of
the Department of Rural Services, Prairie County Judge and an Arkansas
State Representative. Calhoun has farmland in Prairie County that he farmed
for over 30 years.*

*MSNBC: “Justice Hillary? What could have been”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-supreme-court-what-could-have-been>*

By Alex Seitz-Wald

February 4, 2015, 10:55 a.m. EST

In his new book, longtime advisor David Axelrod reveals that President
Barack Obama briefly considered appointing Hillary Clinton to the Supreme
Court after she withdrew from the 2008 presidential race.

Obama ended up naming her secretary of state instead, but some Clinton
allies have long been warm to the idea of the Yale-educated lawyer being
named to the high court.

In an October 2008 interview with Fox News, Clinton flatly ruled out any
interest in the job. She said there was “zero” chance she would be named to
the court. “I have no interest in doing that,” she added.

But in the same interview, she also came close to slamming the door shut on
running for president again. The chance of another White House bid was
“probably close to zero,” she said.

When Justice John Paul Stevens stepped down in 2011, speculation grew that
the then-secretary of state might be on Obama’s short list to replace
Stevens. Even GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch, a former chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, was open to the idea.

But the White House quashed the notion, “The President thinks Secretary
Clinton is doing an excellent job as secretary of state and wants her to
remain in that position,” said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor, who,
incidentally, would go on to help Clinton in 2014 around the rollout of her
memoir.

And the chatter grew again in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential
election. As Clinton prepared to step down as secretary of state, some
Democrats floated the idea of Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden
switching jobs. Others suggested she replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
whom some Democrats wanted to resign from the bench ahead of the election
to ensure Obama would choose her replacement, in case a Republican won that
year.

Last year, former Clinton White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry
provocatively suggested the idea again, writing in op-ed for Real Clear
Politics that “Hillary is probably the one person Barack Obama could
nominate who would be confirmed in a nanosecond.”

Of course, an appointment on the high court would have made it very
difficult – if not impossible – for Clinton to run for president in 2016.

Already, some Democrats have privately speculated, if somewhat factiously,
that a President Clinton could appoint Obama, a constitutional law
professor by trade, to the court.

*New York Daily News: “Chris Christie would get crushed by Hillary Clinton
in 2016 in New Jersey: poll”
<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/christie-crushed-clinton-2016-nj-poll-article-1.2103069>*

By Celeste Katz

February 4, 2015, 12:25 p.m. EST

[Subtitle:] A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday showed that
Clinton would beat the Garden State governor in his own state 58% to 32%.
The poll also showed that Jersey residents weren’t supportive of Christie’s
trip to London this week.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's trip across the pond this week didn't make
a splash with Garden State voters, according to a new poll that also shows
him trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton and barely leading fellow Republican
Jeb Bush in hypothetical 2016 matchups.

Christie's contention that parents deserve a "measure of choice" in which
vaccinations their kids receive quickly overshadowed his three-day trade
mission to the U.K., scoring him derision from both sides of the aisle.

The trip "was seen by 65% of New Jerseyans as mainly designed to boost his
presidential prospects," reported the new Monmouth University Poll, while
"only 17% said the trip's main purpose was to build trade relations between
New Jersey and Britain."

Asked who would make the better president, New Jerseyans put Christie ahead
of Bush, the former governor of Florida, by a mere four points.

Clinton topped Christie 58% to 32%, with the likely candidates leading
among members of their respective parties.

"Clinton leading Christie in 'Blue Jersey' isn't too much of a shock, but
Jeb Bush's competitiveness among Garden State Republicans should give the
governor pause," said Monmouth pollster Patrick Murray in a release.

Nearly 80% of New Jerseyans believe Christie plans to make a 2016 run --
and two-thirds feel he's more interested in his political future than in
governing his state.

Notably, "The shift in public opinion about Christie's priorities is due
mainly to increased skepticism among his fellow Republicans," Monmouth said
in a release.

"In September, a majority (54%) of Garden State Republicans said that
Christie was more focused on the state than his own political future
(33%)," pollsters reported. "The GOP constituency's view has now flipped,
with 54% saying Christie's ambitions are his paramount concern and only 33%
saying his state duties are more important to him."

Just under half of those surveyed say Christie's potential plan to seek the
GOP presidential berth hasn't affected his execution of his day job,
Monmouth found -- but a sizable 40% say those ambitions have indeed made
him less effective as governor.

Christie, whose trajectory has been weighed down by the lingering effects
of the Bridgegate political scandal, breaks nearly even on New Jerseyans'
approval of the job he's doing.

"Christie's ratings stabilized last spring after a big Bridgegate-related
drop. But as his travel schedule increased and presidential speculation
grew during last fall's campaign, state voter opinion started to erode
again, slowly but steadily," Murray said.

Monmouth polled 805 New Jerseyans, including 712 registered voters, from Jan.
30 to Feb. 2. The registered voter sample has an error margin of plus or
minus 3.7 percentage points.