"Behind scenes, Mitt Romney aims GOP toward 2016; His fund-raising prowess noted in Utah gathering" by Nicholas Confessore | New York Times June 15, 2014
PARK CITY, Utah — The official topic of the conference, emblazoned on materials handed out to guests gathered here at a luxury Norwegian-inspired resort, was “The Future of American Leadership.”
But the unofficial theme was made clear not long into breakfast on Friday, when a guest asked Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky the question on everyone’s mind: Is Hillary beatable?
Leading lights of an anxious Republican establishment have journeyed to Utah’s Deer Valley this weekend for the third annual retreat organized by Mitt Romney, who has sought to transform the rump of his presidential campaign into a kingmaking force for his largely leaderless and divided party.
See: Romney Still Running Republican Party
Part right-leaning “ideas festival” and part Romney political family reunion, the event featured early-morning yoga sessions, late-night cocktails, and a lecture on teamwork and fortitude by Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.
Sounds like a great time.
With military tensions escalating abroad — and just days after the unseating of Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader — a mix of old Republican blood (former Secretary of State George P. Shultz) and new (Mia Love, a Utah congressional candidate) gathered to diagnose the party’s difficulties.
See: Cantoring Through Politics
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The weekend drew dozens of such men and women, most of them veterans of Romney’s formidable presidential finance team, which raised more money than any other in Republican history.
Also attending were many of the party’s potential nominees for 2016, appearing to relish the opportunity to mingle with leading fund-raisers.
There was Paul, who met privately with 20 or so donors Friday night, preaching the importance of broadening the party’s tent. (“Interesting because he’s different,” as one guest put it, although Paul’s foreign policy views leave the party’s more hawkish donors uneasy.)
Meaning he is going to get as far as his father did, although they might let his son in the door. Paul just came out for immigration amnesty, so in my mind he is just another fraud.
There was Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, Romney’s erstwhile running mate — some say his heir — leading a skeet-shooting outing.
The Globe's gun club is next.
Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, his political future now resting partly in the hands of a federal prosecutor, huddled with a handful of top Romney bundlers late Friday evening, and spoke Saturday morning about the need for Republicans to focus on their agreements, not their differences.
Asked about his home-state scandal involving the George Washington Bridge, Christie replied: “It’s over and it’s done with, and I’m moving on.”
Is it?
Spencer J. Zwick, who ran Romney’s fund-raising efforts in 2012, said, “I think there is a thing called a Romney Republican.” Zwick, whose private equity firm sponsored the conference (all his firm’s investors were invited to attend), added: “We are almost two years after the election. How many other people could bring all these people together?”
In a way, Romney should be president. He's the perfect corporate suit to be the face of a corporate government.
That was in many ways the point: With a year and half to go before the Republican primaries begin, the party has no unifying candidate or leader. Battles between mainstream Republicans and more conservative activists, which seemed to be on the wane, erupted anew last week with the defeat of Cantor, who is popular with big donors and who had tried to straddle the fault line between the Tea Party and business wings.
The remnants of Romney’s campaign apparatus are a trove of money and power for any contender capable of seizing them. During the 2012 race, a super PAC run by former Romney aides, the Republican National Committee, and the Romney campaign itself spent a combined $1 billion, much of it raised from Wall Street, the real estate world, and oil and gas companies.
Really, why bother doing this anymore?
“The continuing events happening in Republican politics right now have started to make people who care about 2016 a little more focused,” said Jack Oliver, a former aide to President George W. Bush and a Republican fund-raiser.
“This is both a highly enjoyable thing, a time to learn and discuss ideas, but it’s also a chance to be with some of the people who care about what happens next.”
On Friday afternoon, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee delivered a stump speech that was equal parts red meat and rueful political self-improvement. Republicans, he said, need to stand up for working-class voters, while Washington needs more compromise.
“The Rolling Stones were the greatest political philosophers of all time,” Huckabee told the crowd, “and they got it right: ‘You can’t always get what you want.’ ”
American people can't seem to ever get anything they want or need these days.
A case in point: Former governor Jeb Bush of Florida, who is increasingly the preferred candidate of Romney veterans, could not attend because the Utah event conflicted with a gala in Miami for his education foundation. So talk of another 2016 contender wafted through the knotty-pine interiors of the Stein Eriksen resort: Romney himself.
Why am I not surprised seeing as he had loads of Bush acolytes working on his campaign?
Btw, the thought of a Clinton-Bush rematch after 24 years sours the shit out of me. The secrets of criminal administrations must be covered up at all costs.
“Somebody here needs to start a ‘Draft Mitt’ movement,” Joe Scarborough, the MSNBC host, told guests Thursday, according to someone who was there. Another said Scarborough had compared Romney with Winston Churchill, who lost his seat in Parliament before returning to power at the outbreak of World War II, when his warnings about Nazi appeasement proved prescient.
WOW! That's quite an analogy, and just a bit scary!
Related: Will Mitt run again?
Only if we beg! What an ego!
If Bush and Christie do not run, Scarborough added, “this is the only person who can fill the stage.”
The next day, Romney — cheerful and tieless — talked down the idea of a third presidential bid.
“I think people make a lot of compliments to make us all feel good, and it’s very nice and heartening to have people say such generous things. But I am not running, and they know it,” Romney told reporters. He added that politics was a little like dating: “The unavailable is always the most attractive, right?”
Your wife said no way, huh?
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Related:
Bain Capital to pay $54 million in collusion case
Bain Capital raises $650 million venture fund
The fine should be easy to pay off for the money junkies.
So who came out of the conference looking good?
"Leading Republicans vow to fight ‘spiritual crisis’
WASHINGTON — Describing a nation ‘‘in a full-blown spiritual crisis,’’ leading Republicans on Friday vowed to fight against abortion rights and protect the role of faith in public life as they courted religious conservatives with an eye on the 2016 presidential contest.
‘‘I will stand up for unborn children as long as I’m privileged to be in office,’’ Kentucky Senator Rand Paul declared while addressing the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group led by longtime Christian activist Ralph Reed hosting its annual conference in Washington."
Fine.
Now about the wars, drone strikes, spying, torture....
Chris Christie stumps for ally in N.H.
He's sucking up by helping "Walt Havenstein, a Republican running for New Hampshire governor [who] has served in the Marines and as chief executive of two defense contracting companies."
Wis. governor accused of illegal fund-raising
So long, Scott Walker. We hardly knew ye.
And on the other side:
"Local names hard to find in Clinton’s book; New book drops many names, but not Patrick, Warren" by Matt Viser | Globe Staff June 10, 2014
WASHINGTON – In what has become a Washington ritual — the platform for the next presidential campaign — politicians and their consultants on Tuesday began at the end of the 635 pages [of] Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new book, “Hard Choices,” thumbing through the index for even the briefest mention of their name. But for those in the Hub of the Universe, there is no need: You’re almost certainly not in there.
Boston prides itself on two things: political relevance and parochialism. The book is another sign that provincialism is all we have left....
Speak for yourselves, Globe!
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It was not a hard choice to stop reading that.
Also see: Clinton defends her initial opposition to gay marriage
Apparently, she has few “dear friends’’ in Massachusetts.
I love elitist arrogance in my reporting, don't you?
Same with the candidate:
"Hillary Clinton defends comments on her cash woes" by Jonathan Allen and Annie Linskey | Bloomberg News June 11, 2014
WASHINGTON — Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton defended her remarks about the financial struggles she and Bill Clinton experienced, including mortgages they needed for ‘‘houses.’’
‘‘Let me just clarify that I fully appreciate how hard life is for so many Americans today,’’ Clinton said Tuesday in an interview on ABC Television’s ‘‘Good Morning America.’’
Interviewer Robin Roberts pressed the former first lady, asking if she could understand the negative reaction to her comment that ‘‘we struggled to piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea’s education,’’ which Clinton made in a separate interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer broadcast Monday.
‘‘I can,’’ said Clinton, who in 2000 agreed to an $8 million advance from Simon & Schuster for a memoir of her time as first lady. ‘‘Everything in life has to be put in context. As I recall, we were something like $12 million in debt’’ coming out of the White House in 2001. The Clintons purchased homes in Chappaqua, N.Y., and in Washington.
The stumble on personal wealth plays into concerns among some Democrats that Clinton, who is considering running for the presidency in 2016, is out of touch with Americans on the issue of income inequality. The comments inspired Twitter users to include #HillaryIsSoPoor on posts and provided fodder for morning talk shows.
She can't help but not be after spending so many decades in the stratified air of the one percent.
Related: This Is What ‘Dead Broke’ Actually Looks Like…
Not her.
‘‘We have been blessed,’’ Clinton said Tuesday morning. ‘‘I want to use the talents and resources I have to make sure other people get the same chances.’’
Clinton’s interview was part of the media rollout for the formal release Tuesday of her new memoir, ‘‘Hard Choices,’’ a book seen as laying the groundwork for a prospective presidential campaign.
Clinton will go on a promotional tour across the country. In the first week, she is scheduled to sign books in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, and Northern Virginia.
In the interview with Sawyer, Clinton said she will probably announce a decision on whether to seek the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination no earlier than next year but would not commit to that timeline.
‘‘I have to make the decision that’s right for me and the country,’’ she said.
Clinton also told Sawyer that she sees no problem with Bushes or Clintons running for the presidency almost every four years and that she is not the prohibitive favorite for the White House in 2016.
I do. We revolted against royalty. That's how this nation was founded.
‘‘This is a democracy,’’ she said when asked about possible voter fatigue with the two families. ‘‘People get to choose their leaders.’’
With the help of rigged voting machines.
Pressed on whether the presidency is hers to lose, Clinton said, ‘‘I don’t think so.’’ Her husband defeated President George H.W. Bush in the 1992 election, was reelected in 1996, and was succeeded by George W. Bush in 2001.
‘‘If I were to decide to pursue it, I would be working as hard as any underdog or any newcomer because I don’t want to take anything for granted if I decide to do it,’’ she said.
Like last time?
During the interview with Sawyer, Clinton touched on one of the lowest points of her tenure as the nation’s top diplomat and one that Republicans are sure to focus on if she runs for president: the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a US mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Clinton told Sawyer that the Benghazi outpost was one of many perilously situated US diplomatic facilities around the globe.
‘‘There’s a long list of countries where there are security threats,’’ she said. ‘‘It would be in the Top 25.’’
‘‘Not in the Top 10?’’ Sawyer asked.
‘‘Maybe in the top, upper 10,’’ Clinton said. ‘‘But there were places where we had much more concern.’’
Asked by Sawyer why Stevens was in Benghazi even though his own diary noted that there were ‘‘never-ending security threats’’ there, Clinton said he was there ‘‘of his own choosing.’’
What happened there rises to the level of impeachment, thus Hillary does not want to be associated with it, I don't care what patsy they claim to have caught, especially when he is being tortured at sea. It's obvious that it is one more attempt at public relations diversion, just like Bergdahl.
Also see: Libya U.S.'s Latest Coup
Globe has been awfully quite about that.
As for her health, which Republicans have sought to make an issue since she fell, hit her head, suffered a concussion, and was later diagnosed with a blood clot near her brain in late 2012, Clinton said she is doing fine.
‘‘No lingering effects,’’ she said.
But why take a chance?
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Also see:
Hillary Clinton ‘evolved’ on issues, but so did everyone else
Smithsonian honors Ralph Lauren for fashion, flag
National anthem marks 200 years
They don't explain why the song was written or what the war was about.
Ready for Hillary Clinton?
Nope.
Clinton draws a crowd, young and old
Book tour was a disaster.
The current guy is putting his stamp on the job:
"Senate moving faster to OK judges" by Alan Fram | Associated Press June 17, 2014
WASHINGTON — Seven months after curbing filibusters, Democrats are aggressively pushing President Obama’s judicial nominees through the Senate, speeding the pace of confirmations and shrinking vacancies on the federal bench to their lowest level since days after Obama took office.
The Democratic drive comes with the party facing difficult November elections that could turn over Senate control to Republicans and make it harder for Obama to win approval for judges during his final two years in office.
That also would threaten his chances for matching the number of circuit court of appeals and district court judges his immediate predecessors put on the federal bench in their eight-year terms....
The influx of Obama judges is likely to give the federal courts a more liberal tint than they’ve had in recent decades. Before he entered the White House, Republican presidents had been appointing judges for 20 of the previous 28 years.
‘‘A president in office eight years leaves a stamp on the judiciary,’’ said Nancy Zirkin, policy director for the Leadership Conference, a liberal coalition. ‘‘Obama will be able to leave a stamp.’’
Significantly, while 10 of the 13 federal circuit courts of appeals had majorities of GOP-named judges when Obama took office, nine are now dominated by Democratic appointees.
Those courts are just one step below the Supreme Court and have enormous regional clout, and include the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which holds sway over regulatory actions by the White House and federal agencies....
The stepped-up pace comes despite Republican efforts to slow Senate work by forcing procedural votes and other delays on nominations and bills.
Republicans say they’re protesting last November’s power play by Democrats, who unilaterally reduced the number of votes needed to end filibusters, or procedural roadblocks, from 60 to a simple majority, usually 51. As a result, the 53 Democrats plus two independents who generally side with them no longer need a handful of GOP votes to approve most nominations.
They will rue that rule when the chamber flips.
"Doctor gives president clean bill of health" by Darlene Superville | Associated Press June 13, 2014
WASHINGTON — His frequent burger runs aside, President Obama is in excellent health, the White House said Thursday in its first update on his well-being in nearly three years.
Obama eats a healthy diet, exercises daily, and remains tobacco free, according to a two-page memo from his doctor after an examination last month. Obama is a former smoker who is often seen chewing nicotine gum.
But with age, there often are aches and pains. Obama, who turns 53 in August, suffers from mild tenderness in the muscle beneath his right foot, a condition he treats by taking an occasional ibuprofen tablet.
He also takes a daily supplement to treat mild Vitamin D deficiency.
‘‘The president’s overall health is excellent,’’ Obama’s doctor, Ronny L. Jackson, said in the memo to White House press secretary Jay Carney. ‘‘All clinical data indicates that the president is currently healthy and that he will remain so for the duration of his presidency.’’
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Related: Chicago resident repairs potholes
See: Patching Up Potholes
Obama's War on Medical Marijuana Comes to Massachusetts
Also see: US oversight of Chicago hiring dropped
"President gets away for Father’s Day" Associated Press June 16, 2014
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — It is perhaps appropriate that President Obama is vacationing this weekend in California, where the state flag features a roaming grizzly.
The restless president, who has compared himself to a caged animal on recent wanderings by declaring the ‘‘bear is loose,’’ took a long Father’s Day weekend away with his wife and older daughter.
??????????
The visit to the desert resort area of Palm Springs is one of the ways Obama has been trying to escape during his sixth year cloistered in the White House.
!!!
He certainly travels around in his greenhouse-gassing plane and car caravans enough!
In California, Obama has worked out mornings at a gym near the Rancho Mirage home where the first family is staying with White House decorator Michael Smith and his partner, James Costos, the American ambassador to Spain.
Go down for more on them and that.
Despite temperatures above 100 degrees, Obama was able to golf at two nearby courses — Saturday at the Sunnylands estate and Sunday at the Porcupine Creek Estate owned by software billionaire Larry Ellison.
Obama interspersed his four-day weekend with official duties, including Democratic Party fund-raising, a speech on climate change, and calls to his national security adviser discussing military options to stop a violent insurgency in Iraq.
Honestly, folks, I'm tired of the fawning promotions and $hit-show fooley of politics in my shallow and superficial propaganda pre$$.
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At least Obama is pro-labor:
"Obama’s intervention ends Philadelphia rail strike" Associated Press June 16, 2014
PHILADELPHIA — Commuter rail service in the Philadelphia area was restored early Sunday, hours after workers returned to their jobs following a brief strike that was ended when President Obama intervened....
The strike began after negotiations between the transit authority and its engineers and electricians unions failed to reach a new contract deal Friday....
Obama on Saturday granted Governor Tom Corbett’s request to create a presidential emergency board to mediate the contract dispute, forcing the 400 union workers to go back....
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers president Terry Gallagher said Obama’s intervention was ‘‘what we were waiting for.’’ Workers are seeking raises....
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He's intervening everywhere:
"Obama to sign order on LGBT discrimination" by Zachary A. Goldfarb | Washington Post June 17, 2014
WASHINGTON — President Obama will sign an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against gays, lesbians, and others on the basis of their sexual orientation, an election-year move that follows years of pressure by gay rights organizations.
Obama’s decision to proceed with the executive order, announced Monday by the White House, immediately delighted gay rights groups, even as it signaled that Obama does not believe broader action by Congress is likely.
Obama is set to address a fund-raiser hosted by the Democratic National Committee’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender council Tuesday in New York....
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Related: Obama favors sick leave for gay couples
Obama's Land Mines
That is the end of this post.
