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Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday said he was seriously considering a White House bid in 2016.

"I am definitely going to look at it," Graham said on Meet the Press.

Graham said he had established a "testing the waters" committee to probe his viability in a GOP primary. The revelation comes after Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush have in recent weeks aggresively maneuvered their way into the race.

Jeb Bush’s Common Core problems may just be getting started.

Karl Rove has already said the former Florida governor’s support for the set of nationalized education standards will be his biggest challenge in seeking the GOP presidential nomination. His likely rival, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), has predicted it will doom Bush in the primaries.

That starts in Iowa and South Carolina, where conservatives there say backlash against Common Core has become the hot-button issue among grassroots voters in their states.
"It's huge,” said Sam Clovis, an influential conservative activist in Iowa. “I think it's a disqualifier…we have pretty strong feelings out here about life and marriage, and Common Core is right up there as an issue that really energizes the base.”

Luke Byars, a South Carolina GOP strategist, called Common Core a “hornet’s nest” and “the defining issue” of the state-level elections in 2014 in the Palmetto State, predicting it will “boil over” into 2016.

Sen. Marco Rubio has begun taking concrete steps toward launching a presidential bid, asking his top advisors to prepare for a campaign, signing on a leading Republican fundraiser, and planning extensive travel to early-voting states in the coming weeks, ABC News has learned.

"He has told us to proceed as if he is running for president," a senior Rubio advisor tells ABC News.

Marco Rubio Insists Jeb Bush Won't Affect His 2016 Timetable
Leading the effort to raise the $50 million or more he’ll need to run in the Republican primaries will be Anna Rogers, currently the finance director for American Crossroads, the conservative group started by Karl Rove that raised more than $200 million to help elect Republicans over the past two elections.

Rogers will begin working at Rubio’s political action committee on February 1 and would become the finance director of Rubio’s presidential campaign.

Rubio, 43, will gather on Friday and Saturday at the Delano Hotel in Miami with 300 supporters and major donors to his Reclaim America PAC to discuss his political future.

Aides expect Rubio will make a final decision in the comings weeks, but his schedule for the next month already looks more like the schedule of a presidential candidate than a senator.

ABC News has learned Rubio plans to skip all votes in the Senate next week and instead take a campaign fundraising swing through California with events in Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Rancho Sante Fe and Costa Mesa. He also plans fundraising stops in Texas and Chicago.

Rubio has also scheduled a book tour that will take him to all the early primary states. A senior aide to the Florida senator tells ABC News Rubio’s book tour will include stops in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and Nevada. The first stop is tentatively scheduled for February 13 in Des Moines.

I hate Rubio the most out all these.

John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, may run for president. Yes, yes, he said that in 2011, and he ended up taking a pass, endorsing Mitt Romney, and sticking with his busy life of columns, Fox News appearances, and legal work in Washington. This year might be different.

"I did look at running in 2011," Bolton said in an interview before heading to Iowa for Saturdays' Citizens United-sponsored Iowa Freedom Summit. "Whatever bright idea I had 2011, I waited too long. This year, I think the summer is the outer limit for everybody, and I’m in a different position from the typical candidate in that I don't have some elective office to tend to."

Some people run for president to build a brand. Bolton, who has never won elective office, has an astoundingly durable brand already. He was just on TV this week, several times, denouncing the president for delivering the State of the Union from a "dream world." He's advised Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who may run for president (and will be on the Freedom Summit rostrum) on foreign policy. Years removed from his job in the George W. Bush administration, he launched a PAC and Super PAC in 2013 and raised an aggregated $7.5 million for Republican hawks running for office, most of whom won. That was probably helped by the fitful presidential race speculation, and Bolton insists that he may run if other Republican contenders prove unserious about foreign policy. He wouldn't, for example, say that Mitt Romney's foreign policy views had been vindicated after 2012, and that he deserved another shot at the White House.

“I don’t see myself as fulfilling the function of S&P index for other candidates,” said Bolton. “I’m concerned overall with our foreign policy. It’s a question not of a couple of grafs in a stump speech, but of a much broader and focused debate on the big picture.”

A year ago, Bolton's 2016 ambitions seemed to grow out of the Rand Paul boomlet, when the inward-looking libertarian was being called a "frontrunner." With Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney getting serious about 2016, the foreign policy landscape has changed considerably.

“I don’t think the neo-isolationism represented by Rand Paul is anything like a significant factor in the GOP as a whole," said Bolton. "But if you don’t have a debate on it, candidates who advocate that line might be better than you expect, because they’re not exposed. If they have an attractive domestic policy, people might look past their foreign policy. I think defeating this virus is important.”

Would Bolton vote for Paul if he won the nomination? "Anybody who thinks Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy is better than Obama's is dreaming. I’d grit my teeth and vote for Paul.”

Bolton's prepared remarks for Saturday's summit largely focus on foreign policy. In them he warns of Ebola as a "potential biological WMD," explaining that "Russian defectors have said it was part of Moscow’s biological weapons program." When he talks about the economy, it's in the context that "a strong economy depends on [a] strong international presence."

But when pressed on why he might not want to be president, or if there was anything he disliked about the idea, Bolton insisted that he would focus on more than foreign policy. "If I run it’ll be a 360 degree candidacy," he said. "If the press—you’ll forgive me—can say 'He’s a one issue candidate,' they can dismiss me."

...

Even Hillary is finally ready for Hillary, it seems.

Hillary Clinton will “100%” run for President in 2016 and has already approved a budget for the campaign and moved ahead with key hires, according to a new report.

Clinton, who has been at the center of campaign speculation since she left the State Department in 2013, has filled most of the top spots for her imminent campaign and is likely to announce her 2016 bid in April, Politico reported Monday.

An April launch, according to Politico, which cited multiple people in close contact with Clinton’s team, would place the campaign’s start right after the end of the year’s first quarter, allowing her first fundraising report to be “a blockbuster.”

Clinton has hired people for all major positions, with one exception — communications director. Her team is still considering candidates for the job, Politico reported.

In addition, the imminent campaign has already begun to closely involve former President Bill Clinton, who was able to solicit a “heads-up” from President George H.W. Bush regarding former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s announcement last month that he would “actively explore” running for President himself.

Bill Clinton, who has come to be friends with George H.W. Bush through the relief work they’ve done together since both leaving office, reportedly considers Jeb Bush a serious threat to his wife’s prospective candidacy.

And while the team is looking to avoid the sense of inevitability that haunted Clinton’s 2008 failed bid, some inside her camp are already floating potential vice presidential candidates.

People close to her advisers told Politico that Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, as well as Julian Castro, the current Housing and Urban Development Secretary, are all netting serious consideration as running mates, even at this early stage.

The report comes almost eight years to the day from Clinton’s January 2007 announcement that she would run for President in 2008.

I don't know what to make of Rubio.  He seems pretty smart but I'll never forget that time he looked like a total blundering idiot on CNN.   I think it was right after the POTUS State of the Union address about a year or so ago and Rubio got picked to give the Republican response.  He was constantly nervously grabbing for this water bottle and made absolutely no sense.  It was like he just walked 10 miles in the desert and was then told to give an impromptu rebuttal to the President's speech.

I'm willing to listen to what he may say but for now he has a lot to prove.  He just doesn't seem like a POTUS.

According to some Republicans, the Bush committees together are raking in daily sums in the mid-to-high six figures, an intake that should guarantee an impressive showing once the first fundraising quarter concludes in March.

“Other candidates aren’t doing that,” said one unaffiliated Republican in Washington who had been recently briefed on the fundraising.

Still, Bush backers vigorously deny a report from earlier this month that they are planning to haul in $100 million in the first quarter, a near impossible goal.

Much of the news about Bush’s financial activities is emerging from supportive donors leaking tidbits to reporters. On the staff side, it’s no-comment, all the time.

“It’s the Jeb Bush culture,” said one Florida Republican who knows the likely candidate. “It’s consistent with how he ran previous campaigns. Consistent with how he governed. Focus is execution, getting things done and lack of turmoil. That’s the goal anyway. You always fall short from time to time.”

David Kochel, a Republican strategist based in Iowa who worked on both of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns, is joining Jeb Bush’s political action committee as a senior strategist and is in line to serve as Mr. Bush’s national campaign manager.

“David is one of the most talented state-based operatives in the nation and brings a different focus and different set of priorities to our effort to communicate Governor Bush’s focus on economic and social mobility,” said Sally Bradshaw, Mr. Bush’s longtime strategist.

The move to tap Mr. Kochel, who advised Mr. Romney for over six years, represents a shot across the bow of the 2012 Republican nominee, who is now considering a third bid for the White House.

Mr. Kochel offered only praise for Mr. Romney, while also promoting Mr. Bush’s strengths.

“I really believe Governor Bush is the right person for the right time,” he said. “He has a successful conservative record in Florida, and I’d put that record up against anybody else.”

Closing in on a decision about whether to again run for president, Mitt Romney is finding that several past major fundraisers and donors in key states have defected to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

The donors, in interviews with The Associated Press, said they see in Bush what they liked about Romney in 2012, namely what they believe it takes to serve successfully as president, but also something Romney could not muster in his two previous campaigns: what it takes, both in personality as a candidate and in a supporting staff, to win the White House for the GOP.

Also, the donors said, they took the former Massachusetts governor at his word when he said he would not run for president a third time.

"I've got great respect for Gov. Romney, and I busted my buns for him," said Chicago investor Craig Duchossois, whose wife contributed $250,000 to a pro-Romney super PAC while he collected tens of thousands more for Romney's last campaign. "But I have turned the page."

And beyond donors, Romney lost one of his most trusted political advisers on Thursday when veteran Iowa operative David Kochel formally joined Bush's team.

Having backed both of Romney's previous campaigns, Kochel is in line to play a senior role in Bush's 2016 campaign should he run, said Bush spokesman Kristy Campbell, who described Kochel as "one of the most respected political strategists in the country."

The defections to Bush do not, as of yet, appear so definitive as to keep Romney from the race.

There are many free agents among the major GOP donors, each with the ability to contribute personally and collect from others the hundreds of millions needed to run a modern presidential campaign. They include Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets; Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate; and hedge fund investors Paul Singer and Robert Mercer.

A grand jury has indicted Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, saying he abused his power by trying to pressure a district attorney to resign.

The two felony counts against Perry, a Republican, stem from his threat to veto funding for a statewide public integrity unit run by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg unless she stepped down, the special prosecutor in the case, Michael McCrum, said.

Perry attorney David L. Botsford called the indictment a "political abuse of the court system." He said the action "violated the separation of powers" and "sets a dangerous precedent by allowing a grand jury to punish the exercise of a lawful and constitutional authority afforded to the Texas governor."

CNN affiliate KVUE reported that Perry will have to report to the Travis County Jail in the capital of Austin to be booked, fingerprinted and have his photo made for a mugshot.

Perry can continue to serve as governor while under indictment, KVUE reported. His attorneys could seek to have the charges thrown out, a motion that would delay the case, at the very least.

The grand jury in Travis County indicted the governor on charges of coercion of a public servant and abuse of his official capacity.

The charges have serious political implications, both in Texas and beyond. Perry is entering his final few months in office after a historic 14-year run in Austin.

The Republican running to replace Perry is state Attorney General Greg Abbott, who will have to answer questions about the legal drama. Abbott is facing off against Democratic star Wendy Davis, whose campaign is already making hay of Friday's news.

Perry's presidential prospects could be damaged. It's an open secret he's laying groundwork for a second presidential campaign after his disastrous 2012 effort.

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney said Friday that he would not seek the Republican nomination for president in 2016.

Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, shared his decision on a conference call with a small group of advisers.

In a second call to a larger group of supporters, Mr. Romney said, “After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I’ve decided it is best to give other leaders in the Party the opportunity to become our next nominee.”

By not pursuing a third White House bid, Mr. Romney frees up scores of donors and operatives who had been awaiting his decision, and creates space for other potential center-right candidates such as Jeb Bush.

Mr. Romney, 67, had expressed renewed interest in another presidential run to a group of donors earlier this month, roiling the nascent Republican race. Many of his loyal contributors, staff members and supporters had been reluctant to come out for one of his potential rivals until they knew Mr. Romney’s plans.

Sen. Marco Rubio wants Congress to permanently extend the authorities governing several of the National Security Agency's controversial spying programs, including its mass surveillance of domestic phone records.

The Florida Republican and likely 2016 presidential hopeful penned an op-ed on Tuesday condemning President Obama's counterterrorism policies and warning that the U.S. has not learned the "fundamental lessons of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

Rubio called on Congress to permanently reauthorize core provisions of the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act, which are due to sunset on June 1 of this year and provide the intelligence community with much of its surveillance power.

"This year, a new Republican majority in both houses of Congress will have to extend current authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and I urge my colleagues to consider a permanent extension of the counterterrorism tools our intelligence community relies on to keep the American people safe," Rubio wrote in a Fox News op-ed.

Rubio for years has positioned himself as a vocal defense hawk in Congress, and he has repeatedly defended the NSA's spy programs revealed to the public by former agency contractor Edward Snowden.

"Pro-Big Government Candidates for US President 2016"

What else is new?

It doesn't matter who you vote for, the result is the same. The same way a pyramid has a left and right side, both of these apparently opposing sides lead to the same point at the top. I honestly don't see how this hasn't become glaringly apparent to everyone when Barack Obama of the Democratic Party succeeded George W. Bush of the Republican Party, yet there was verily no change in government policies as was promised by Barack Obama's clever campaign slogan. If anything he stepped things up a notch, but you can't even call that change, since that's really just maintaining the status quo.

This is essentially why I'm not excited by the prospect of Rand Paul winning, as many people are in this forum. Because nothing will change, and he'll do all the things necessary to get re-elected and keep his party in power, not any of the things he's talking about right now.

Under a Paul admin, he'd be much more reserved in how the troops would be committed overseas and would actually have Congress declare war and make the people be united behind it rather than just the military industrial complex interests.

Domestically, he would slash govt spending across the board for starters, assuming his party still controlled both chambers of Congress. One of his other big things are economic freedom zones which would jumpstart local economies, provide lasting jobs that are worthwhile and the showcase this success and drive a stake in the heart of big govt/progressivism for the next hundred years. There's plenty that will go in a better direction with him at the helm. W/o him, you can bet your bottom dollar that the US will continue to break down in every category that matters and its imprint on the world won't change.

This is very optimistic. No president slashes spending. Ever. To believe they would is fantasy, imo. And as presidents don't really have the power to create jobs (short of big government programs that directly employ people) and have never been particularly successful at fostering economic environments that do with any certainty, expecting Paul to magically succeed where no one before him has reliably been able to do so is expecting a lot of magic from one man. (The failure of trickle down economics to deliver on the promises made for it is pretty convincing at this point.)

I've seen this level of hype before, and I've seen how disastrously that man delivered on his promises. I have no reason to expect Paul is different from every other politician. After all, he belongs to one of the two parties that run this country. These guys may have slightly different flavors here and there, but at the root, they're all the same.

King is working on something of a rope-a-dope strategy, letting the others tire themselves out in the hopes that he can be there in the end.

“My ideal situation is to be part of the debate and if I see that there is support building and others drop out, and there is a real opening and people who share my views come forward with funding,” he said.

King continued, “I go back to 2012 when you saw Herman Cain, Michelle Bachmann. They all had a chance to get to the top without much money, and they were leading in the polls. If I get into their position I am not going to make the mistakes they did.”

This is a key part of King’s argument. He carries the brawling bearing of his father, a New York City police officer, but it may surprise people who have actually seen him that he has a polish some of his fellow Republican contenders do not.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Sunday he is open to sending U.S. troops to the Middle East to defeat Islamic State fighters -- a bold foreign policy statement in contrast with the Obama administration’s position.

Walker told ABC’s “This Week” that he wouldn’t rule out sending troops, as Islamic State appears to grow and strengthen despite U.S.-led efforts to destroy the radical Islamic group.

“You can’t rule out anything,” Walker said. “Lives are at stake.”

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Sunday said being gay is akin to choosing to drink alcohol or use profanity - lifestyle choices he says are appealing to others but not to him.


The former Baptist pastor, who is weighing a second run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, also claimed that forcing people of faith to accept gay marriage as policy is on par with telling Jews that they must serve "bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli." That dish would run afoul of kosher rules in the same way Huckabee sees asking Christians to accept same-sex marriages.


"We're so sensitive to make sure we don't offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can't have the convictions that they have had for over 2,000 years," Huckabee said.

Huckabee has made cultural issues the cornerstone of his likely White House bid. The former Baptist pastor is counting on social conservatives and evangelicals who have great clout in early nominating Iowa to help him.


His comments about gays and lesbians seem targeted at the conservative corners of his party.

The difference here is there is no comparison between Obama and Paul. There's two diametrically opposed ideologies where one is to fundamentally change America and this is what we've come to see in terms of the expansion and powers of government and the other is a true to form libertarian populist mentality of paring back govt to reasonable levels at minimum. I agree that most republicans haven't been trustworthy in terms of being true fiscal conservatives but that's the difference between run of the mill republicans and those of the libertarian brand which we've come to see more of in different parts of the country and Reps like Amash and Massie. Over and above the fact that Rand is a Paul, his voting record pretty much speaks for itself in libertarian terms. I'm just trying to help him get the nomination and then let the people decide between their choices and then so be it. If he's the head of the party by being at the top of the ticket, all other republicans running will have to push for and defend the way Rand positions himself and the rest of the party, for that matter, on the issues. Note how Obama had his majority leader line up the votes to pass things he wanted when he had the chance. Anyways, I shot my own self in the foot for getting into Rand Paul in this thread when I already showcase him in my other thread.

This thread is reserved for candidates that are running (or might run) in the two major parties for the upcoming primaries on either side and I get to deem who fits here and who doesn't. Not trying to be a jerk but Rand Paul would be showcased in this thread if he didn't have the dynamics as a person that he has including his voting record and the issues he champions, all or most of which are pro-liberty.

Rand Paul has my vote for the primary, without question, because there's no one else worth voting for on either side. (I live in a state where you can only vote on one side, which is dumb.) But in the general election, I'll be back to someone who more closely represents libertarianism in Gary Johnson.

Gov. Scott Walker wants the American military to be everywhere on earth.

“I think anywhere and everywhere, we have to go beyond just aggressive air strikes,” Walker said during a live interview on ABC’s This Week. “We need to have an aggressive strategy anywhere around the world.”


Walker is Republican governor of Wisconsin and considering running for president in 2016. Walker said

“I think when you have the lives of Americans at stake and our freedom loving allies anywhere in the world, we have to be prepared to do things that don’t allow those measures, those attacks, those abuses to come to our shores.”

This is the Bush Doctrine, which is for the U.S. to attack threats that it perceives even before they are actual threats, that is, to attack threats of threats. To quote what Bush proposed in full:

“The security environment confronting the United States today is radically different from what we have faced before. Yet the first duty of the United States Government remains what it always has been: to protect the American people and American interests. It is an enduring American principle that this duty obligates the government to anticipate and counter threats, using all elements of national power, before the threats can do grave damage. The greater the threat, the greater is the risk of inaction – and the more compelling the case for taking anticipatory action to defend ourselves, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy’s attack. There are few greater threats than a terrorist attack with WMD.

On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) launched an exploratory committee for a 2016 presidential run, as Arlette Saenz of ABC News reported.
The committee, named "Security through Strength," will allow Graham to fundraise while he decides whether to officially launch a bid.
The committee's website implies that a Graham presidential bid will focus on foreign policy. It quotes Graham citing Ronald Reagan's "Peace Through Strength" policy for the Cold War, and adds that for "radical Islam," whose "followers are committed to destroying us and our way of life," Graham's own policy will be "Security through Strength."

What it means

Senator Lindsey Graham wants to put 10,000 "boots on the ground" to confront the Islamic State

The South Carolina Republican, who on Thursday premiered a political action committee aimed at exploring a run for president, told Face the Nation on Sunday that the terrorist organization could launch an attack on the U.S. that would be like "Paris on steroids" and that the group won't stop executing hostages aide workers and journalists until "they're degraded and destroyed."

"An aerial campaign will not destroy them," Graham said. "You're going to need boots on the ground, not only in Iraq, but in Syria."

Host Norah O'Donnell said the Islamic State effectively controls 20,000 square miles in those two countries, and the group released a video on Friday that appears to show the execution of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto. Graham called Iraq and Syria the "best platforms to launch an attack on [the] United States" since 9/11.

Graham said he thought aerial strikes, which have been ongoing against the group, have helped push it back but that "there's got to be some regional force formed with an American component, somewhere around 10,000" in order to stop the group.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is considering his own run for president in 2016, also said on Sunday that "ultimately, we have to be prepared to put boots on the ground," although he said that wasn't "an immediate plan."

Sending ground troops to Iraq and Syria may play well in the upcoming GOP primary. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans support the idea, according to a Pew poll released in October. Conversely, the issue could be a liability in the general election as 55 percent of respondents from both parties opposed sending in ground troops.

As Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey waited to depart on a trade mission to Israel in 2012, his entourage was delayed by a late arrival: Mr. Christie’s father, who had accidentally headed to the wrong airport.

A commercial flight might have left without him, but in this case, there was no rush. The private plane, on which Mr. Christie had his own bedroom, had been lent by Sheldon G. Adelson, the billionaire casino owner and supporter of Israel. At the time, he was opposing legislation then before the governor to legalize online gambling in New Jersey.

Mr. Christie loaded the plane with his wife, three of his four children, his mother-in-law, his father and stepmother, four staff members, his former law partner and a state trooper.

King Abdullah of Jordan picked up the tab for a Christie family weekend at the end of the trip. The governor and two staff members who accompanied him came back to New Jersey bubbling that they had celebrated with Bono, the lead singer of U2, at three parties, two at the king’s residence, the other a Champagne reception in the desert. But a small knot of aides fretted: The rooms in luxurious Kempinski hotels had cost about $30,000; what would happen if that became public?

(CNN)Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has hired several more key operatives to staff a new political committee that he recently established as he considers a run for the Republican presidential nomination, CNN has learned.

Kirsten Kukowski, deputy communications director/press secretary for the Republican National Committee, will serve as communications director for Walker's "Our American Revival" and several members of the Tarrance Group will conduct polling and provide strategic political advice to the governor.

READ: Jeb Bush adds veteran consultants to likely campaign team

Ed Goeas, president and CEO of Tarrance, will serve as a senior adviser, while partner Brian Tringali and senior vice president B.J. Martino will oversee polling. Tringali and Martino have worked for Walker in his previous gubernatorial campaigns.

In addition, Mark Stephenson, who worked on Joni Ernst's successful Iowa Senate campaign among others, has signed on as Walker's chief data officer.

Well, at least I'll give you props for helping out in the primary. I vote for lots of LP candidate each election but when there's a demonstrably proven libertarian-leaning republican running for federal office that maintains stances in favor of civil liberties and a restrained foreign policy then it's up to me as a Libertarian to lend that candidate (that has a way better chance of winning than the LP candidate) my vote, activism and maybe even my money. In a situation of practicality like this, the good is not the enemy of the perfect.

CONCORD - New Hampshire may have a new front-runner in the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

The first survey conducted in the first-in-the-nation primary state since Mitt Romney's exit from the 2016 White House race indicates that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leads the pack of potential Republican presidential contenders.

According to an NH1 Pulse Poll released Wednesday, Walker has the backing of 21.2% of those who say they're likely to vote in next year's GOP presidential primary. The automated survey indicates Jeb Bush in second place, with 14.4% saying they'd support the former two-term Florida governor if the Feb. 9, 2016 primary was held now.

The poll was conducted Monday and Tuesday, after Romney's announcement last Friday that he wouldn't make a third run for the White House. The 2012 GOP nominee and former Massachusetts governor, who owns a vacation home along Lake Winnipesaukee, is very well known in New Hampshire and would have been the front-runner in the primary if he had launched a campaign.

A NH1 Pulse Poll conducted two weeks ago put Romney at 29% support, far ahead of the rest of the field. Bush was at 11% and Walker was at 8% in that same survey.

In his announcement, Romney said "I believe that one of our next generation of Republican leaders, one who may not be as well-known as I am today, one who has not yet taken their message across the country, one who is just getting started, may well emerge as being better able to defeat the Democrat nominee. In fact, I expect and hope that to be the case."

The poll suggests that Walker may possibly be that Republican leader. First elected governor in 2010 in a state that leans towards the Democrats, Walker became a national hero to many conservatives thanks to his high profile 2011-2012 battle against state public sector unions over collective bargaining rights.

[Federal authorities have launched a criminal investigation into New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as well as members of his administration, a man at the center of the investigation told ABC News.

The U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey has interviewed former Hunterdon County Assistant Prosecutor Bennett Barlyn, who claims he was fired because he objected to Christie officials dismissing indictments against political allies of the governor. Barlyn confirmed the investigation to ABC News. It was first reported by the International Business Times.

“It is true,” Barlyn told ABC News, saying he was interviewed by federal authorities at his Pennsylvania home this week. “I also provided the investigators with names of people I thought could furnish firsthand information.”

Barlyn said he was not sure whether others have been questioned for the investigation.

Barlyn was dismissed from the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office in September 2010 and later brought a whistleblower case against the Christie administration that currently is in the discovery phase. He has consistently said he was fired for objecting to the quashing of indictments against the county’s sheriff and two subordinates -- all political supporters of Christie’s.

The governor’s office previously has dismissed the accusations as being “conspiratorial nonsense.”

State officials have repeatedly denied Barlyn’s accusations and, in court filings, they said that the decision to dismiss the indictment was within the discretion of New Jersey’s top law-enforcement officials. They have argued Barlyn has no case and doesn’t even have the right to sue under state law.

The federal prosecutor's probe centers on why Christie’s then-attorney general, Paula Dow, dismissed the indictments.

Dow has rejected Barlyn's accusations, saying the indictment was flawed and Barlyn was fired for “legitimate business reasons,” according to NJ.com.

In a February 2014 interview, Barlyn outlined some of his grievances. He told ABC News' Jim Avila that all the evidence his former office obtained during its “two-year investigation was suddenly shipped back to [the state capital] Trenton. ... physically taken out of our office and taken to the attorney general's office.”

He called it “highly unusual,” adding, “The head of our special investigations unit who was heading the investigation was very abruptly taken off the case two weeks before the dismissal.”

Barlyn called the relationships between those being investigated and Christie “compelling,” adding “there’s simply photographic evidence” showing Christie “associating with these individuals.”

In the interview, Barlyn claimed he was fired for “political reasons.” He said the state attorney general gave him no explanation for his dismissal.

“I asked for one and was told that I wasn't entitled to an explanation,” Barlyn said. “I gave up my access to the building. I returned home again completely in the dark although I had a feeling of what precipitated the dismissal. My Internet connection to the office was cut off. And three weeks later I received a one-page faxed dismissal letter from the director of the Division of Criminal Justice. Again, no reason was given of why I was terminated after 18 years of being ... a state and county prosecutor with a pretty good rep.”/quote]

More...http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jersey-gov-chris-christie-criminal-investigation/story?id=28753740 (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jersey-gov-chris-christie-criminal-investigation/story?id=28753740)

The Republican 2016 presidential field includes three politicians — George Pataki, Jim Gilmore and Bob Ehrlich — who last won election when the flip phone was hot technology. Also making moves to run are John Bolton, who is best remembered as an architect of George W. Bush’s WMD strategy and has never held elected office, and Peter King, the longtime Long Island congressman who’s made his biggest headlines hitting conservatives.

And don’t forget about former Hewlett-Packard CEO and failed California senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina — another accomplished figure who’s perceived to have next to no chance of becoming the Republican standard-bearer.
Story Continued Below

Welcome to 2016’s “Why not me?” primary: a low-stakes, little-covered tussle among below-the-radar Republicans who say they could be president. After seeing other presumed has-beens like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich become real factors in 2012, they see little downside in taking a shot.

But for the GOP, which is already wrestling with a large group of would-be contenders, the presence of these former governors and senators and prominent officials presents an extra complication. They’re trying to avoid the circus-like atmosphere, fueled by candidates desperate for attention, that tainted many of the 2012 primary debates.

Joe Biden, the vice president and an underdog for the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, is scheduled to be back in Iowa next week.

Biden will speak in Des Moines on Thursday, sources familiar with preparations for his trip told The Des Moines Register. His office later confirmed that he will deliver remarks at Drake University and do a roundtable at Des Moines Area Community College on college affordability.

The news comes in the wake of the release this past weekend of a new Iowa Poll that shows Biden trails both Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren in the horse race for most popular presidential pick among likely Democratic caucusgoers.

Biden's timing suggests he wants to keep his name in circulation as presidential material - any time top-shelf politicians make a trip here it reinforces the notion that they harbor aspirations for the top job. He is currently in Belgium, meeting with European leaders in part to talk about sanctions against Russia and security and aid to Ukraine. He'll also attend a security summit in Germany.

Democrats generally think the 2016 Democratic nomination is Clinton's if she wants it, although she has yet to announce an official candidacy. In September, Biden made headlines for chasing Clinton here just three days after she made her Iowa comeback after a seven-year absence; she spoke before an audience of 10,000 and a horde of media at the Harkin Steak Fry.

Biden's event Thursday, like the one in September, will be an official White House trip to talk about the Obama administration's economic policies. Biden remarks in September, with the Iowa Capitol in the background, had the air of a campaign stump speech, as he called for raising the minimum wage and making life better for the middle class.

AMES, Iowa — Thirteen Iowa Democrats wearily took their seats here this weekend and discussed among themselves the source of their angst: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“I’m utterly tired, tired of the Clintons and the whole establishment,” said Carole Brannon, 71, a retired nurse.

Anne Kinzel, 57, a former health-care attorney, nodded sympathetically.

“The hacks think Hillary is entitled to be president,” Kinzel said. “I think she is one of those people who has lost the sense of why they are in politics.”

As Clinton prepares to launch her all-but-certain 2016 campaign, the former secretary of state remains a favorite of a vast majority of Democrats and the front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination. Still, there is unease among progressives about her largely uncontested ascent.

Clinton may look inevitable, but some Iowa Democrats are ready for Warren
IA dems tiring of Hillary?

More...http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-may-look-inevitable-but-some-iowa-democrats-are-ready-for-warren/2015/02/09/1f0063fe-b083-11e4-854b-a38d13486ba1_story.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-may-look-inevitable-but-some-iowa-democrats-are-ready-for-warren/2015/02/09/1f0063fe-b083-11e4-854b-a38d13486ba1_story.html)

On Wednesday night, several dozen people with the means to attend an event so pricey its invitation doesn’t list an expected contribution will gather in the Park Avenue apartment of Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis to meet Jeb Bush and add to the quickly filling coffers of Right to Rise, the PAC set up to aid Mr. Bush’s presidential ambitions. The affair will be co-chaired by Mr. Kravis’ colleagues at KKR, including Ken Mehlman, who managed George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign and later became chairman of the Republican National Committee.

This is the second event Mr. Kravis, a coveted GOP donor who leads the storied leveraged buyout firm that bears his name, has hosted for Mr. Bush in a month. On the afternoon of January 8th, KKR hosted an event at its offices where the still undeclared candidate met with 80 supporters. The night before, Mr. Bush traveled to Greenwich, where an even larger crowd of 130 greeted the former Florida governor.

It’s no secret that Jeb Bush has been moving aggressively to vacuum up cash and secure support. These three events are part of that effort and the Observer’s cover story last week shared for the first time names of more than a dozen New Jersey and New York finance heavyweights who attended a fourth event – a January 8th dinner hosted by New Jersey lawyer and former RNC finance chief Larry Bathgate.

NEW YORK — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will raise money on Wall Street on Wednesday at an eye-popping $100,000 per-ticket Park Avenue event hosted by private equity mogul Henry Kravis and his wife.

The price of admission to the event, which will raise funds for Bush’s “Right to Rise” super PAC, surprised even Wall Street veterans used to high-dollar fundraisers.

The event comes as Bush continues a shock and awe approach to early 2016 fundraising that people close to the campaign say could eventually see the former governor reach a total of between $50 million and $100 million between the super PAC, a traditional political action committee and an eventual presidential campaign.

Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell declined to comment on the price of the Kravis fundraiser, the second event the private equity titan has held for Bush.

“We don’t detail info on private finance events,” she said in an email. But two people familiar with the event confirmed the $100,000 amount.

“I shook my head when I heard the number,” one senior Wall Street executive who is not attending the event said on Tuesday. Another said the event would likely draw a significant crowd and would put Bush well on a path to raise over $50 million for the super PAC alone.

Bush is moving quickly to consolidate financial support in the wealthy enclaves of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, in many cases squeezing out New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. People familiar with the matter said the KKR event is likely to feature Kravis and other senior executives at the firm, including Ken Mehlman, who managed George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign, and Alexander Navab. Mehlman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry indicted on two felony charges


More...http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/15/politics/rick-perry-indictment/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/15/politics/rick-perry-indictment/index.html)

I missed this the first time around, thanks for the good news.
Rick Perry has shown once again, he doesn't have what it takes to build momentum.

http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/2011/1101110926_400.jpg

"They" made him a front-runner once, will that ever happen again?
 

A trove of 250,000 emails released by prospective 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush includes the sensitive personal information of several Florida residents, leaving them vulnerable to identity thieves.

A scan of the email dump by technology blogs The Verge and Gizmodo revealed names, emails and in some cases, Social Security numbers of Bush's correspondents. Many appear to be normal Florida residents unaware their messages to the then-governor would eventually become public.

The tech blogs redacted the personal information in their posts.

Bush was already in the spotlight Tuesday for acknowledging in an e-book that he spent "30 hours a week" answering email as governor, but tech blogs were taking far greater interest in the details of the email dump by the afternoon.

Many posts were critical of Bush, who is expected to be a major contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

"Even if most of these emails are subject to Sunshine Law disclosure, a public request for specific information is not the same as a huge, indiscriminate data dump being made for political reasons," wrote T.C. Sottek with The Verge, which first reported the presence of Social Security numbers in the trove.

"At minimum, it shows a serious ignorance of the volume of sensitive information in the records and a carelessness about their disclosure — not a good look for someone who may want to sit in the White House," Sottek wrote.

At the time of this post, the messages still included some Social Security numbers, leaving individuals vulnerable to identity theft. Some messages also included sensitive personal stories, and many explicitly ask that their contents do not become public. 

A note on Bush's site said he was posting the emails "in the spirit of transparency."

"Emails kept me connected to Floridians and focused on the mission of being their governor," Bush said in a statement on the site. "Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration. But they're all here so you can read them and make up your own mind."

A plan to bring one of the world's largest online gambling companies to Atlantic City has seemingly stalled, and some critics are pointing their fingers at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino mogul and one of the GOP's most influential donors.

Adelson has a reputation as a man whose money can make or break a presidential campaign, and Christie is widely seen as a likely 2016 hopeful. Their relationship made headlines last week after revelations showed Adelson had lent the governor his plane.

Christie's office told Business Insider it is "nonsensical" to say he interfered with the deal, which a local union leader claimed would bring about 1,000 desperately needed jobs to the troubled Garden State gambling destination. However, one influential Democratic lawmaker suggested the New Jersey Legislature should potentially consider investigating the issue.

'Christie put a stop to it'
The company in question is PokerStars, which runs one of the world's most popular online poker sites. In July 2013, PokerStars announced a partnership with Atlantic City's Resorts Casino Hotel. PokerStars planned to open a $10 million poker room at the casino. This would have allowed PokerStars to build its brand with live poker tournaments and other events. However, the company has been unable to obtain a gaming license in New Jersey. State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, a Democrat who sponsored the bill that legalized online gambling in the state, blamed the company's inability to get licensed on Christie.

"Christie put a stop to it," said Lesniak. "With a high degree of confidence it's apparent that's exactly what has happened."

The early dinner crowd near the Capitol on Thursday yielded at least one notable pairing, with overtones of the presidential election cycle to come: Sen. Ted Cruz and former Ambassador John Bolton.

Sharing a meal at Johnny’s Half Shell before Bolton was set to appear on Fox News, Cruz launched into a discussion of 2016 strategy audible to anyone within earshot, including a reporter for the Washington Examiner.

Bolton has himself flirted with the idea of running for president in 2016, but his conversation with Cruz suggested the Texas senator, at least, views Bolton as a source of valuable input, not as a potential challenger.

In a discussion spanning roughly one hour, Cruz appealed to Bolton for policy advice and gamed out the potential 2016 landscape with him, including sizing up other potential Republican candidates.

“It seems to me that Rand is running,” Cruz said of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has stepped eagerly toward the presidential campaign trail, although he has yet to announce his candidacy.

Cruz seemed unintimidated by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who last month ended his show on Fox News to weigh a presidential bid. Huckabee is viewed as having strong appeal among many of the same conservative Republicans Cruz would be courting — but Cruz predicted he would be able to take a bite out of Huckabee’s base.

And Cruz noted Mitt Romney’s assessment, reported in multiple press accounts as the former Massachusetts governor toyed with a third bid for the presidency, that the Republican field as it is developing is inherently flawed.

The stickiest point of strategy for Cruz seemed to be fundraising, which at this stage of the invisible primary is the focus among likely candidates. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has crisscrossed the country looking to lock up the Republican Party’s biggest donors, in hopes of posting a “shock and awe” first fundraising quarter for his Right To Rise political action committee.

Bush is perceived as a major fundraising threat to most other Republicans, but he will likely prove especially strong in Florida, his home state, and Texas, the power center of his family’s political network — eating in to fundraising by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Cruz.

In his conversation with Bolton, Cruz acknowledged the tough fundraising climb ahead.

“I view the Jeb operation as, they’re going to have all the money they need,” Cruz said, “whereas we need sufficient grassroots support to get the message out.”

Cruz has acknowledged he is looking at running for president, and he has said publicly that he will decide by June. In the meantime, he has acted unmistakably like a candidate: traveling to Iowa recently to speak at the Freedom Summit, with plans to return to New Hampshire next month. Cruz also joined Paul and Rubio last month for a forum hosted by the Koch brothers network of outside groups, which any Republican contender for the presidency would be wise to court.

Cruz’s political operation is also beginning to take shape. At the helm are Jason Johnson, who engineered Cruz’s unlikely Senate victory in 2012, and Jeff Roe, a Republican operative based in Kansas City. This week, former Newt Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler signed on with Cruz’s Jobs, Growth and Freedom PAC as a senior communications adviser.

Now, Cruz is looking to build a stable of policy advisers to help shape his campaign platform, he told Bolton.

“We are putting together policy advisers,” Cruz said, “and I would love your thoughts on that.”

Tyler, Cruz’s spokesman, characterized the meeting as a standard one for anyone looking at a bid for president, as Cruz is.

“Sen. Cruz is seriously considering a run in 2016, and he is actively seeking advice from other thoughtful leaders,” Tyler said Friday. “John Bolton would certainly qualify as someone you’d want to reach out to, particularly on national security issues.”

Lindsey Graham running means that the establishment/warmonger vote is divided.

A short two-mile drive northwest from the White House—encircled by the embassies of the United Kingdom, Bolivia, Brazil, Italy, Denmark, and New Zealand—Hillary Clinton invited Senator Elizabeth Warren to her home for a private, one-on-one meeting in December, reported the New York Times on Tuesday.

Clinton, who has all but announced her 2016 presidential candidacy, met with the Massachusetts senator at her brick, colonial-style home in Washington in an effort to “cultivate the increasingly influential senator and leader of the party’s economic populist movement,” according to the Times.

Clinton did not ask for an endorsement from Warren, but instead “solicited policy ideas and suggestions.” Though the two met without aides, the Times reported a Democrat briefed on the meeting called it “cordial and productive.”

Though the former secretary of state, U.S senator and First Lady is the current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president, many progressives have clamored for Warren to throw her hat in the 2016 ring, viewing Clinton as too hawkish on foreign policy and cozy with Wall Street.

Hillary Clinton allies say the former secretary of State and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have everything to gain and nothing to lose from their secret meeting in December.

Clinton needs to make sure liberals are fully on board with her candidacy ahead of a likely 2016 run for the White House. Win over Warren, who some Democrats believe could give Clinton a run for her money in a Democratic primary, and Clinton would win over the left.

“No question Sen. Warren taps into a wellspring of enthusiasm among a part of the party which will be important in both primary season and [get out the vote] time,” said one longtime Clinton ally, who called the meeting “smart and sensible.”
At the same time, Warren has much to gain as well.

By tapping into Clinton, the Massachusetts senator can make sure she influences the race for the White House, even if she chooses against being a candidate; she has repeatedly ruled out running for president.

Warren also wants to make sure the causes she champions, particularly financial reform, are not given short shrift by the likely Democratic nominee, who is seen as close to Wall Street.

That sets up a couple of challenges for Clinton, since, the ally said, there are cases where her ideas diverge with Warren’s.

“It’s a delicate balance, because going too far left risks losing the center. But it’s doable.”

Another ally of Clinton’s predicted Warren “won’t come cheap,” and that the senator inevitably will want something in return, a political maneuver others in Clintonland acknowledge as well. They predict Warren will ask for commitments on policies that the senator champions.

“It remains unclear what Warren really wants out of all of this,” another Clinton backer said. “But she wants something. I’m sure it’s a mix of commitments, including promises to look out for progressive issues and policies. She’s no dummy.”

Progressives who have criticized Clinton and clamored for Warren to enter the race embraced the meeting, calling it “positive news.”

“And it will be even more positive news if economic populist thinkers are appointed to her inner circle,” said Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) in a statement on Tuesday. “The way for Democrats to win the general election in 2016 is by actively campaigning on an Elizabeth Warren-style economic message — big ideas like expanding Social Security benefits, a national goal of debt-free college and stopping Wall Street banks from wrecking our economy again.”

Clinton and Warren met at the former first lady’s request in December at the Clintons’ home in Northwest Washington, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Clinton asked for policy ideas and suggestions from Warren, according to the Times, but did not seek an endorsement.

Top Democratic officials, bundlers and political strategists said they took the meeting as an indication Warren will not enter the Democratic presidential primary.

“I think this is Hillary Clinton reaching out to a major player in the Democratic Party, and I think this is something she needs to do if she’s going to run the campaign everyone hopes she’ll be running,” a third Clinton source said.

Democrats who have spoken to Warren say they haven’t been given any real indication that Warren would run. “I take her at her word,” one Democratic strategist said.

Clinton supporters are also confident Warren won’t run against their candidate.

“I don’t think there’s anyone who still thinks Warren is running for president, but a lot of people expect this to be an inclusive presidential campaign, and this is a huge part of that,” one Clinton ally said.

The first longtime ally to the former first lady said that, despite some differences, the two “probably agree on more issues than disagree.”

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is putting his weight behind controversial spying programs at the National Security Agency, setting up a battle within the Republican Party ahead of the 2016 presidential race.

In a major foreign policy address at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on Wednesday, the likely presidential candidate praised the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone data, which critics call a massive invasion of privacy.

“This is a hugely important program to use these technologies to keep us safe,” Bush said.

“For the life of me, I don’t understand [how] the debate has gotten off-track,” he added, while maintaining that program rules “do protect our civil liberties.”

The defense of the program puts Bush at odds with the libertarian wing of the Republican Party, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

The confidence with which Bush is pursuing his strategy was evident last Wednesday in the Picasso-adorned Park Avenue home of private-equity titan Henry Kravis. It was Bush’s 62nd birthday, and he celebrated in Kravis’ 26-room penthouse with more than 40 of the richest people in New York. Among them were Bush’s cousin, George Walker IV, the chief executive of the investment management firm of Neuberger Berman, and real estate mogul Jerry Speyer, along with Ken Mehlman and Alex Navab of Kravis’ firm, KKR. The admission price: a minimum of $100,000, also the going rate for other Bush fundraisers.

Guests took an elevator straight to the foyer and noshed on salmon and other hors d’oeuvres while listening to Bush talk about strategy for the upcoming campaign.

“You don’t get the big job by tearing other people down and you don’t get it by trying to appeal to everyone,” a donor recalled Bush saying. “I’m going to play this thing my way and let the chips fall where they may.”

The donors understood, as Bush does, that he needs their sizable help to offset his shaky support from some of the party’s conservative activist base, miffed over his positions on immigration and the Common Core educational standards. The money he collected would pay for time later in the campaign that he could devote to grassroots campaigning.

As it turns out, Kravis’ $4 million haul has led to a donor arms race with Coral Gables billionaire Miguel “Mike” Fernandez, who wrote in an email obtained by POLITICO that he intends to raise $5 million at a fundraiser next week at his waterfront mansion. About $1 million of that haul would come from Fernandez himself.

All this money flows to Bush’s Right to Rise PAC and a separate super PAC that can take money in unlimited sums. The way that Bush set up the two committees — at the same time and with the same attorney, former Romney super PAC lawyer Charlie Spies — is “unique,” said elections law lawyer Kenneth Gross, a former attorney for the Federal Election Commission. Because Bush is not an announced candidate or a federal office holder, he is far freer than others to work with the super PAC to collect unlimited contributions. Once Bush announces his candidacy, he will be restricted from working directly with the super PAC. But, by then, the committee will have been thoroughly infused with Bush’s campaign DNA and operate almost automatically in accordance with his campaign vision.
In less than a month, Bush has attended and spoken at a dozen super PAC fundraisers — about as many as Romney did in the entire 2011-12 election cycle.

“What Bush has done will usher in two things with other candidates in the future: 1) the way to get big donors up front with a greater measure of coordination and 2) a way to delay your official candidacy,” Gross said.

So far, his fundraising efforts may have pushed one potential rival out of the race: Romney. Once the 2012 nominee realized the seriousness of Bush’s intentions, he began dialing donors. Many had already committed to Bush.

Bush also outmaneuvered Romney by getting to the 2012 nominee’s top Iowa consultant, David Kochel. Murphy made first contact in early fall just to feel Kochel out. Bradshaw followed up months later by phone.

As Right to Rise was being formed, the conversations turned more serious. Kochel met Bush on Jan. 21 in Washington. Nine days later, Bush offered him a top role in Right to Rise, with the implicit understanding he would be a leading player — not just an Iowa guy — if Bush ran for president.

“I felt like it was an important thing to do for my career and for where I thought I could be most helpful and useful in preparation for what could be a campaign in 2016,” Kochel said. He said he made the “difficult call” to a “gracious and generous” Romney.
The next week, Romney told supporters he would likely forgo a third run for the presidency. Bush then embarked on an effort to lock down the former governor’s New York-area supporters and keep them away from Christie and any other would-be 2016 contenders.
“Jeb was on the phone with me right away and he was very persuasive,” said one Wall Streeter who raised millions for Romney’s campaigns. “Jeb has done a very good job, and he’s a natural place where people will go who are Mitt supporters. And there has been a significant amount of outreach to all of Romney’s folks.”

This donor, who plans to hold a mega-fundraiser for Bush that he says will outstrip the Kravis affair, described his conversations with the former Florida governor as direct and convincing. “Nothing about him is overly flashy. But his plan is well thought-out. He’s just doing his thing and is not that into paying attention to what anyone else is doing.”

Another major bundler for Republicans, who backs a rival candidate, marveled at the aggressive nature of the Bush fundraising operation.

“Jeb has quickly come to dominate the New York-area money the way he dominates Florida money,” this person said. “The only place he doesn’t dominate yet is in California. But they could easily raise the $100 million they claim if not much more.”

Bush’s team is well aware that the huge dollar fundraisers, especially on Wall Street, open Bush up to attacks from both the left and the right that he is creature of the wealthy. And the frenzied vacuuming of cash plays directly into one Democratic line of attack, should Bush win the GOP nomination: portray him as another out-of-touch rich guy, as they successfully did with Romney.

But they say few voters are paying close attention now. And once they are, these people say, Bush will be fully funded and able to spend all of his time selling his message of economic growth coupled with immigration and education reform.

One sign of Bush’s preparations for hitting the campaign trail was visible at the Kravis affair. To celebrate Bush’s birthday, the hosts brought him a slice of chocolate cake. But Bush didn’t indulge. Since late last year, the somewhat portly former governor has gone on the “paleo” diet to slim down.

Handed a piece of birthday cake, he plucked only the blueberry off the top and ate it.

The relationship between the Kochs and Walker was cemented during Walker's bitter war against public unions that led to a recall election in 2012. During the tense weeks of standoff at the capitol in Madison, it was the Kochs' Tea Party troops who provided the main counterforce to the tens of thousands of union activists protesting the governor, in a battle Walker eventually won.

As the struggle raged, Walker’s alliance with his benefactors was embarrassingly satirized when a liberal blogger posing as David Koch (whom at that point Walker had never met) kept him on the line for 20 minutes, making the governor look like a lapdog to the powerful industrialist.

This year, the relationship may evolve in unpredictable ways. With three tough statewide election victories under his belt, Walker, 47, is poised to pursue the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. The Kochs have pledged to marshal some $900 million to spend on a fight for the presidency, and although they may not wade directly into the GOP primary muck, their ties to Walker appear stronger than to anyone else considering a run. While the older brother, Charles Koch, has a personal affection for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, the most libertarian-leaning potential candidate of the bunch, Paul doesn’t hold the same appeal for the Kochs' donor friends. Another high-profile contender, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, hasn't attended the high-profile donor summits the Kochs host near Palm Springs, Calif., though he was invited this year.

While Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, said that his group won’t endorse a candidate in the primaries, his praise for Walker is effusive. “The difference Scott Walker has made with his policy achievements is as transformative as any governor anywhere in a generation,” he said in an interview. “That's why his appeal flourishes for activists and for donors.”

The Kochs and Walker now share a donor pool—a moneyed set that isn't the establishment Bush is counting on. One Koch stalwart solidly in Walker's corner is Stanley Hubbard, a billionaire Minnesota broadcast executive.

Hubbard supplied a quick assessment of the center-right 2016 field: Bush may be a great guy, but his last name is Bush. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie “blew himself up” with, among other things, his preference for luxury travel. “I am actively encouraging Scott to run, and I know of many other people who are very positive about Walker running,” he said in an interview.

Walker and the Kochs saw their political fortunes supercharged by anger over President Barack Obama's health care law. Charles and David Koch founded Americans for Prosperity in 2003, and it has become the largest organization in a network of Koch-backed activist groups that, as nonprofits, aren't required to reveal donors or detail how they spend their money. The Wisconsin chapter has been around since 2005. The group's mission is to promote a government that collects fewer taxes and regulates less. As the Tea Party movement grew in the aftermath of Obama’s election, the Kochs positioned Americans for Prosperity as the Tea Party's staunchest ally.
[...]
“We're helping him, as we should,” David Koch told the Palm Beach Post in February 2012. “What Scott Walker is doing with the public unions in Wisconsin is critically important. He's an impressive guy, and he's very courageous.”

If reason and justice prevailed in this country, you’d think that the recent series of articles in the Washington Times concerning the U.S.-NATO attack on Libya in 2011 would torpedo Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects.

Clinton as U.S. Secretary of State at that time knew that Libya was no threat to the U.S. She knew that Muammar Gadhafi had been closely cooperating with the U.S. in combating Islamist extremism. She probably realized that Gadhafi had a certain social base due in part to what by Middle Eastern standards was the relatively equitable distribution of oil income in Libya.

But she wanted to topple Gadhafi. Over the objections of Secretary of “Defense” Robert Gates but responding to the urgings of British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicholas Sarkozy, she advocated war. Why? Not for the reason advertised at the time. (Does this sound familiar?) Not because Gadhafy was preparing a massacre of the innocents in Benghazi, as had occurred in Rwanda in 1994. (That episode, and the charge that the “international community” had failed to intervene, was repeatedly referenced by Clinton and other top officials, as a shameful precedent that must not be repeated. It had also been deployed by Bill Clinton in 1999, when he waged war on Serbia, grossly exaggerating the extent of carnage in Kosovo and positing the immanent prospect of “genocide” to whip up public support. Such uses of the Rwandan case reflect gross cynicism.)

No, genocide was not the issue, in Libya any more than in Kosovo. According to the Washington Times, high-ranking U.S. officials indeed questioned whether there was evidence for such a scenario in Libya. The Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that a mere 2,000 Libyan troops armed with 12 tanks were heading to Benghazi, and had killed about 400 rebels by the time the U.S. and NATO attacked. It found evidence for troops firing on unarmed protestors but no evidence of mass killing. It did not have a good estimate on the number of civilians in Benghazi but had strong evidence that most had fled. It had intelligence that Gadhafy had ordered that troops not fire on civilians but only on armed rebels.

The Pentagon doubted that Gadhafi would risk world outrage by ordering a massacre. One intelligence officer told the Washington Times that the decision to bomb was made on the basis of “light intelligence.” Which is to say, lies, cherry-picked information such as a single statement by Gadhafi (relentlessly repeated in the corporate press echoing State Department proclamations) that he would “sanitize Libya one inch at a time” to “clear [the country] of these rats.” (Similar language, it was said, had been used by Hutu leaders in Rwanda.) Now that the rats in their innumerable rival militias control practically every square inch of Libya, preventing the emergence of an effective pro-western government, many at the Pentagon must be thinking how stupid Hillary was.

No, the attack was not about preventing a Rwanda-like genocide. Rather, it was launched because the Arab Spring, beginning with the overthrow of the two dictators, President Ben Ali of Tunisia and President Mubarak of Egypt, had taken the west by surprise and presented it with a dilemma: to retain longstanding friendships (including that with Gadhafi, who’d been a partner since 2003) in the face of mass protests, or throw in its lot with the opposition movements, who seemed to be riding an inevitable historical trend, hoping to co-opt them?
[...]
The results of “Operation Unified Protector” have of course been absolutely disastrous. Just as the U,S. and some of its allies wrecked Iraq, producing a situation far worse than that under Saddam Hussein, so they have inflicted horrors on Libya unknown during the Gadhafi years. These include the persecution of black Africans and Tuaregs, the collapse of any semblance of central government, the division of the country between hundreds of warring militias, the destabilization of neighboring Mali producing French imperialist intervention, the emergence of Benghazi as an al-Qaeda stronghold, and the proliferation of looted arms among rebel groups. The “humanitarian intervention” was in fact a grotesque farce and huge war crime.

But the political class and punditry in this country do not attack Hillary for war crimes, or for promoting lies to validate a war of aggression. Rather, they charge her and the State Department with failure to protect U.S. ambassador to Libya John Christopher Stevens and other U.S. nationals from the attack that occurred in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. And they fault her for promoting the State Department’s initial “talking point” that the attack had been a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Muslim YouTube film rather than a calculated terrorist attack. They pan her for sniping at a senator during a hearing, “What difference does it make (whether the attack had been launched by protestors spontaneously, or was a terrorist action planned by forces unleashed by the fall of the Gadhafi regime)”?

In other words: Hillary’s mainstream critics are less concerned with the bombing of Libya in 2011 that killed over 1100 civilians, and produced the power vacuum exploited by murderous jihadis, than by Hillary’s alleged concealment of evidence that might show the State Department inadequately protected U.S. diplomats from the consequences of the U.S.-orchestrated regime change itself. In their view, the former First Lady might have blood on her hands—but not that, mind you, of Libyan civilians, or Libyan military forces going about their normal business, or of Gadhafi who was sodomized with a knife while being murdered as Washington applauded.

I should hope so. After signing a separate resolution calling for a path to citizenship in 2002, how could he turn down a sequel?

Are we sure Jeb Bush is the most pro-amnesty candidate in the field? Remember, unlike some people, Jeb (supposedly) opposes a path to citizenship for adult illegals.

But the likely presidential candidate apparently stood on another side of that debate as the Milwaukee County Executive in 2006. That year, he signed a resolution calling on Congress to pass the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, a bill authored by John McCain and Teddy Kennedy that was denounced at the time by conservatives as “amnesty” — and remains anathema to party activists…

The 2006 resolution embracing the McCain-Kennedy bill was sent to Walker by the Milwaukee Board of Supervisors. He signed it despite returning or vetoing numerous other matters that year. The final version of the resolution signaled support for criminalizing federal immigration law violations and increased border fencing. But it also referred to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and “full labor rights.”

Good news for Walker: The guy who actually wrote that bill — with Ted Kennedy — ended up winning the GOP nomination in 2008, so it’s possible to be a much bigger amnesty shill and still end up as the “conservative” party’s choice for president. More good news: Although McCain faced a weaker field than Walker will, he also had to contend with people running to his right on this issue. Walker really doesn’t. Cruz will try, but when push comes to shove, he supports legalizing illegals. And still more good news: Judging from the reaction of some of our commenters in Headlines, plenty of grassroots righties are already greeting stories like this with “the media’s trying to take down our guy!” rather than “gee, the great conservative hope sure has a bad record on this issue.” That’s Walker’s strength in a nutshell. He’s impressed so many Republicans by winning his death match with labor in Wisconsin that his heresies on immigration are interpreted not so much as damaging liabilities as fodder for “they’ll tell you who they fear” hit pieces by a panicky drive-by media. He’s One of Us, so he’ll get a pass on offenses that constitute high crimes when committed by Jeb Bush or even Marco Rubio. (One commenter touted Walker’s immigration squishiness as a good thing insofar as it’ll help pull votes from the center of the party too. Walker/McCain 2016!) In that sense Walker really is Reaganesque. Sure, the Gipper may have signed off on a truly terrible amnesty bill, but if that’s all you see in his record, you’re missing the forest for the trees.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Four years ago, seven big-money donors and leading Republican activists from Iowa loaded into a private plane and headed to New Jersey for an urgent meeting with Chris Christie. Their message: Run, Chris, run.

The group from the lead-off caucus state failed in that mission to persuade the brash New Jersey governor to jump into the 2012 race for president. This time around, Christie's White House ambitions no longer appear to be an issue. But those once-eager Iowans aren't as keen to throw their support his way.

"It's a brand new ballgame," says donor Gary Kirke. "There's a lot more people in the race, and a lot has happened since then."

Of the seven who made the May 2011 trip to meet with Christie at the sprawling Drumthwacket governor's mansion, Kirke is the most outspoken. Three others are undecided about who they'll support in 2016, one doesn't plan to back any candidate, and two remain loyal Christie supporters.

The change in passions is a reflection of how the still-early race for the Republican nomination is dramatically different from four years ago, when eventual GOP pick Mitt Romney emerged from a large but relatively little-known field of candidates.

This time, Christie is competing for support against a list of potential candidates who include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and several members of the U.S. Senate, Florida's Marco Rubio and Kentucky's Rand Paul among them. The sense among some in Iowa is that Christie may have lost a unique opportunity in 2012, when the fight for dollars from establishment donors was far less intense.

"I think last time a lot of people looked at the field and saw holes in it," said Craig Robinson, the former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa. "I think the other governors in the race really give him a hard go."

Kirke said that four years ago, Christie looked to be a rising star, with bravado and personality backed by solid conservative credentials. Since then, Kirke's opinion has changed. He pointed to Christie's embrace of President Barack Obama in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and to the George Washington Bridge scandal, which continues to hang over Christie.

"People just question, you know, he's the CEO of the state," said Kirke. "It makes you wonder about his leadership."

19 out of 21 Jeb Bush forgeign policy advisors are hawks from previous GOP administrations

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/02/18/jeb-bushs-foreign-policy-team-is-eerily-familiar-in-1-venn-diagram/ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/02/18/jeb-bushs-foreign-policy-team-is-eerily-familiar-in-1-venn-diagram/)

http://i58.tinypic.com/2lcebr.jpg

That's really all you need to know to realize that this is just Bush 3.0

Wow, what a striking image.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is getting some 2016 encouragement from several of the GOP’s top donors, with Sheldon Adelson signing up as a co-chair for a March 3 fundraiser for the senator’s testing-the-waters political committee, Security Through Strength.

Graham’s “luncheon and policy discussion” at the Capitol Hill club will be held right after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress. Donors are invited to watch together, before being joined by Graham.

In addition to Adelson, other prominent donors among the 33 co-chairs include Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz, hedge fund manager Seth Klarman, real estate developer David Flaum and homebuilding magnate Larry Mizel. The invitation asks for a donation of $2,700 to be a co-chair and $1,000 to attend.

The discussion will be moderated by Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Joining Graham as guest speakers will be Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.).

A top Jeb Bush ally said that Jeb Bush will not back down on his support for comprehensive amnesty legislation and is willing to win or lose the GOP nomination based on the issue.

On Thursday, Clint Bolick, who co-wrote Immigration Wars with the former Florida governor, said Bush “is either going to win or lose with a mandate on immigration.”

“He’s not going to shift his position on this,”Bolick told MSNBC’s Jose Diaz Balart. “He believes in this with his absolute heart and soul.”

NPR Washington editor and Bush biographer S.V. Date also observed last year that “immigration, if anything, is less negotiable for Jeb” than Common Core because “while education standards are a matter of principle, immigration is personal.”

Bush continued to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform in Chicago on Wednesday, two days after a federal judge issued an injunction against President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty. He, as in previous speeches, contrasted America’s diversity to Europe’s multiculturalism.

He is balding and frankly – even his supporters would concede – a little bit boring. So how has Scott Walker, the governor of the Midwestern state of Wisconsin, suddenly pulled into the front rank of Republican candidates for president?
With neither an instantly recognisable name – like Jeb Bush – nor a balloon-sized ego that craves media attention – like Chris Christie – Mr Walker reached near-parity with Mr Bush in the polls this week in the electorally pacesetting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
In an era where politics has become increasingly intertwined with celebrity, Mr Walker, the 47-year-old son of a bookkeeper and a Baptist minister, has ploughed a very different furrow, earning his stripes in the bare-knuckled world of state-level politics, far away from a detached and deadlocked Washington.
While rivals like Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and Tea Party darling, were grandstanding around the capital shutting down the Federal government, Mr Walker's pitch is that he was workin' in Wisconsin, bashing the unions, balancing budgets and slashing nearly $2 billion-worth (£1.3 billion) of taxes.

There's a strain of thought in politics these days -- prominent among Democrats but shared by even some Republicans -- that it's going to be very hard to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Maybe.  Clinton does have many strengths including a long and deep resume and a knack for fundraising. (Not to mention the demographic and electoral college edges that any Democratic nominee will likely carry.)

But, her ascendance to the presidency is anything but a sure thing. There's lots of reasons for that but one of the big ones is that her time spent as Secretary of State for Obama will make it difficult for her to present herself as something new and different to voters almost certainly in the market for something, well, new and different.

A question asked by Quinnipiac University polls in Iowa, Colorado and Virginia this week illustrates that challenge. Asked "Would you like to see the next President generally; continue with Barack Obama's policies or change direction from Barack Obama's policies", just 34 percent of Iowans and Coloradans said they want the next president to move forward on Obama policies while just three in ten (31 percent) of Virginians said the same.

Is Hillary Rodham Clinton a McDonald’s Big Mac or a Chipotle burrito bowl? A can of Bud or a bottle of Blue Moon? JCPenney or J. Crew?

As she readies her second presidential campaign, Clinton has recruited consumer marketing specialists onto her team of trusted political advisers. Their job is to help imagine Hillary 5.0 — the rebranding of a first lady turned senator turned failed presidential candidate turned secretary of state turned likely 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

Clinton and her image-makers are sketching ways to refresh the well-established brand for tomorrow’s marketplace. In their mission to present voters with a winning picture of the likely candidate, no detail is too big or too small — from her economic opportunity agenda to the design of the “H” in her future campaign logo.

“It’s exactly the same as selling an iPhone or a soft drink or a cereal,” said Peter Sealey, a longtime corporate marketing strategist. “She needs to use everything a brand has: a dominant color, a logo, a symbol. . . . The symbol of a Mercedes is a three-pointed star. The symbol of Coca-Cola is the contour bottle. The symbol of McDonald’s is the golden arches. What is Clinton’s symbol?”

Clinton’s challenge is unique. Unlike potential Republican challengers of relatively middling fame who are introducing themselves to a national audience for the first time, Clinton is almost universally recognized. Love her or loathe her, potential voters know who she is after more than two decades in public life.

...
But as he attempted that balance, Bush's forceful outlook aligned him closely with his brother at the same time the likely 2016 Republican presidential candidate has surrounded himself with architects of his brother's policies, including former deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

The address sidestepped the deeply unpopular Iraq war begun by the second Bush president. Yet during a question-and-answer period the former Florida governor conceded "there were mistakes in Iraq, for sure," citing bad intelligence about weapons of mass destruction and insufficient security after the fall of Saddam Hussein. He quickly credited his brother for the troop surge, deeming it a "heroic act of courage."

"Weakness invites war," Bush said before a crowd of nearly 900 at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. "Strength encourages peace."

Though Obama has angered his liberal base with drone strikes and other uses of force, Republicans cast him as too cautious and not strong enough with Iran and Russia, and in other hot spots. Bush on Wednesday stepped firmly into that camp....
...

Phyllis Schlafly has long argued that the American conservative movement’s purpose is to influence, not echo, the Republican Party.

And still going strong at age 90, Mrs. Schlafly wants to influence the GOP anew by warning against letting the party’s “kingmakers” — the Wall Street elite and political consultant class — turn the 2016 presidential nomination contest into a coronation of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Mincing no words, Mrs. Schlafly makes her case in a 2015 update to her landmark book from a half-century ago titled “A Choice Not an Echo,” which, in 1964, became the motto of Barry Goldwater’s grass-roots movement.

In her update, Mrs. Schlafly — founder of the Eagle Forum — argues that her party too often picks losers as candidates because of a stranglehold by the political consultant-big business-Wall Street crowd, which she argues makes a bundle from championing moderates over conservatives.

She warns that may be happening again in 2016 in the persona of Jeb Bush.

She notes “closed-door events have been held for Republican megadonors to select who will get the big money that went last time to Mitt Romney” and that the mainstream media already are cheering on Mr. Bush.

As evidence, she cites a New York Times article about how “Jeb Bush is so smart, so intellectual and so well-read. We were told that he is a ‘top-drawer intellect’ and a voracious reader who maintains 25 books on his Kindle — books such as George Gilder’s ‘Knowledge and Power.’”

Mrs. Schlafly urges grass-roots conservatives to rise up and resist a coronation of Mr. Bush.

He comes off to me just as very untrustworthy.

Rubio tried to con the Tea Party.

The standard liberal narrative about how uncaring, racist and evil conservatives are usually begins with the welfare queen.

That would be the supposedly apocryphal tale of a Cadillac-driving women on welfare who was fraudulently collecting multiple government benefits. It was said to be the ultimate dog whistle.

Never mind that the story turned out to be substantially true, though some liberals had a hard time coming to terms with it. (Consider this NPR headline about “the truth behind the lies.”)

One liberal who understood why this story resonated with the American people more than hand-wringing about dog whistles: Bill Clinton. That’s why he campaigned on “ending welfare as we know it” by making it “a second chance, not a way of life.”
...
That’s why the latest example of the Clintons’ extensive corporate ties, The Wall Street Journal’s report on the family foundation pocketing money from big companies that did business with Hillary Clinton’s State Department, is such a bombshell.

Sixty companies that lobbied the State Department between 2009 and 2013, while Hillary was secretary of state, donated more than $26 million to the Clinton Foundation over that time period. At least 44 of the 60 participated in $3.2 billion worth of philanthropy projects by the Clinton Global Initiative, while at least 15 were part of Clinton-created public-private partnerships.

It’s not clear that any of this was illegal and it’s possible that some of this supported worthwhile projects. But it illustrates the nexus between crony capitalism and modern American liberalism as we know it.

This isn’t something unique to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Under Barack Obama, government-run health care has become a boon to big health insurers and pharmaceutical companies, who are rallying to save Obamacare from the Supreme Court.

...
William Temple, a member of the Golden Isle Tea Party, told The Washington Times that the party’s doesn’t need another Bush in office and said that the party should listen to the grassroots activists that helped fuel their gains in the 2014 election.

“A lot of peoples were not going to come here because they heard Jeb Bush was speaking,” Mr. Temple said, before laying out his plan at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“We are going to get up in mass, and we are going to walk out on him,” the 64-year-old said. “We are not going to interrupt anyone’s speech, but we are all going to exercise our right to the bathroom at the same time.”
...

Jeb to Booing CPAC Activists: ‘I’m Marking You Down As Neutral’

CPAC activists booed Jeb Bush when Sean Hannity broached the subject of immigration in a Q&A with the former Florida governor, but Bush stood by his perceived conservative heresies on the issue, winning applause as he argued that Americans shouldn’t feel deprived of jobs by incoming immigrants. “For those who made an ‘oo’ sound — is that what it was? — I’m marking you down as neutral and I want to be your second choice,” Bush said, grinning. Asked if he still supports providing drivers licenses and in-state tuition prices to illegal immigrants, Bush initially demurred. When Hannity circled back to those past stances, he stood by the policies — neither of which passed into law when he was in office — and noted that a conservative state legislature and governor signed an in-state tuition bill into Florida law just this year.

Laura Ingraham provided some snark for the second day of the CPAC conference in Maryland Friday morning.

Noting that Jeb Bush, the establishment Republican candidate, would be talking to the conservative gathering later in the day, she suggested that he could help the GOP with its persistent problem drawing women voters.

“I think Jeb could really explode the gender gap. And let me tell you how…I think women could actually turn out in droves. I mean, what woman doesn’t like a man who gives her a blank check at Tiffany’s?”

Ouch. The radio host and Fox News guest host was referring to the expensive tastes of Jeb’s wife, Columba, who apparently has a thing for bling.

In 1999 Columba Bush caused an embarrassing incident for her husband when she was caught trying to bring in about $19,000 of clothing and jewelry she’d bought on a Paris trip without declaring it at customs. Her excuse was that she didn’t want Jeb to know how much she’d spent.

But as embarrassing as that was, less than a year later, “she took out a loan to buy $42,311.70 worth of jewelry on a single day, according to records filed with the state of Florida,” the Washington Post reported.

Ingraham then sarcastically suggested that the presidential nomination process could be skipped altogether, and Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton could run on the same ticket.

“Go through the list of things they agree on: Common Core, amnesty, giving Obama fast-track trade authority — lot of new trade deals with China — the surveillance culture. So I’m designing the bumper sticker. ‘CLUSH 2016, What difference does it make?’”

Over the past few days at CPAC, Sean Hannity has asked various prospective Republican presidential candidates to list their “top five agenda items.” Former governor Jeb Bush’s list did not include repealing Obamacare.

Bush’s list included (1) undoing President Obama’s lawless executive actions, (2) regulatory reform, (3) tax reform, (4) encouraging economic growth, and (5) sending “a signal to the rest of the world that we’re going to be their partner for peace and security.” But it did not include repealing Obamacare or signing a conservative alternative to Obamacare into law.

Neither Governor Scott Walker nor Senator Marco Rubio listed repealing Obamacare as a stand-alone agenda item, but both did list it as a subcomponent of their first agenda item. Walker’s first agenda item was “growth,” which he said could be brought about through (in the order he listed them) tax reform, repealing Obamacare, and a pro-energy policy. Similarly, Rubio’s first agenda item was a “healthy economy,” which he said could be brought about through (again, in the order he listed them) tax reform, regulatory reform, repealing and replacing Obamacare, a pro-energy policy, and a balanced budget. (Walker listed only two other agenda items: devolving power to the states, and showing clarity and determination in our foreign policy. Rubio also listed only two others: giving “people the skills they need for the 21st century,” and ensuring a strong military.)

...
But while one could ascribe victory to the Florida republican in this latest scrimish, the real victor of this spat between the so-called "left" and "right" is the firm that stand to benefit no matter who wins: Goldman Sachs.

Why? Because both Bush and Clinton are desperate to be courted by the bank that made bloodsucking molluscs infamous, and to have the opportunity to return the favor in spades once either of the two moves to occupy the oval office.

As Politico reports in the "Goldman Sachs Primary", one can "forget the Democratic and Republican primaries: The two biggest names in the 2016 presidential race are competing directly against each other in an elite forum, the halls of Goldman Sachs."

...

She and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have both raised huge sums from Goldman and all across Wall Street for their campaigns and charitable foundation. But Blankfein has also made warm comments about some in the Republican field including Bush. Blankfein has indicated he would be fine with either a Bush or Clinton presidency.
...

An unusual request has gone out to wealthy donors writing large checks to support former Florida governor Jeb Bush: Please don’t give more than $1 million right away.

The requested limit, confirmed by multiple people familiar with the amount, may mark the first time that a presidential hopeful has sought to hold off supporters from contributing too much money.

The move reflects concerns among Bush advisers that accepting massive sums from a handful of uber-rich supporters could fuel a perception that the former governor is in their debt. The effort is also driven by a desire to build as broad a pool of donors as possible among wealthier contributors.

...
But while one could ascribe victory to the Florida republican in this latest scrimish, the real victor of this spat between the so-called "left" and "right" is the firm that stand to benefit no matter who wins: Goldman Sachs.

Why? Because both Bush and Clinton are desperate to be courted by the bank that made bloodsucking molluscs infamous, and to have the opportunity to return the favor in spades once either of the two moves to occupy the oval office.

As Politico reports in the "Goldman Sachs Primary", one can "forget the Democratic and Republican primaries: The two biggest names in the 2016 presidential race are competing directly against each other in an elite forum, the halls of Goldman Sachs."

...

She and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have both raised huge sums from Goldman and all across Wall Street for their campaigns and charitable foundation. But Blankfein has also made warm comments about some in the Republican field including Bush. Blankfein has indicated he would be fine with either a Bush or Clinton presidency.

Dr. Ben Carson, who recently formed an exploratory committee for a potential run for president, finds himself in a new controversy on the issue of gay marriage.

Debating with CNN Chris Cuomo on New Day, Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, said the fact that straight men have sex with other men while in prison proves being gay is a choice.

Cuomo asked if Carson thought being gay was a choice, to which he replied, “Absolutely.”

Carson said, “A lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight and when they come out they’re gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.”

Awash in cash, Bush asks donors not to give more than $1 million – for now ::)


More...http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/awash-in-cash-bush-asks-donors-to-limit-gifts-to-1-million--for-now/2015/03/04/0b8d3fc6-c1c8-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/awash-in-cash-bush-asks-donors-to-limit-gifts-to-1-million--for-now/2015/03/04/0b8d3fc6-c1c8-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html)

Good move, way to win over working class people, Jebby boy.

Have people forgotten how bad his brother was?
The amount of money he is raising is staggering.

...
Officially, O’Malley is still merely considering a bid. But his travel schedule suggests otherwise. Last weekend, he was in South Carolina; this weekend he’s headed to New Hampshire. He has also scheduled trips to Iowa this month and next.


If O’Malley does formally enter the race, he’ll be a heavy underdog, of course. Still, he’ll find some encouragement from Clinton’s ongoing troubles. On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that she maintained her own home-brew server for the private e-mail address that she has been revealed to have used for work correspondence as Secretary of State, rather than relying on an outside service, such as Google or Yahoo. “Operating her own server would have afforded Clinton additional legal opportunities to block government or private subpoenas in criminal, administrative or civil cases because her lawyers could object in court before being forced to turn over any emails,” the A.P. story said.
...

They're going to do to Rand Paul the same thing they did to Ron Paul, it's that simple, I hope someone like Rand Paul does get elected but I've given up on the idea, if someone like Ron Paul came along regardless of his personal views on some things I'd vote for him for sure.

With Bush faltering, Insider Buzz for Marco Grows
Are we on the cusp of a Rubio moment?

Everybody’s talking about Rubio.”  So says a top Republican operative who’s been in touch with nearly every potential presidential campaign, as well as with several top donors. 

Jeb Bush’s announcement in December launched both a fundraising juggernaut and an aggressive hiring spree, and Scott Walker’s speech in Iowa the following month lifted Walker to the top of national polls. But a little more than a month later, says the operative, “The Jeb boom is over and people are having second thoughts about Walker.” 

The beneficiary in terms of buzz is Marco Rubio, who now has many of the party’s top donors looking at him in a way they weren’t even a month ago. Though Rubio hasn’t made as much noise as his competitors as the 2016 campaign has gotten underway in earnest, his knowledgeable presentations and obvious political talent are nonetheless turning heads or, at least, enough of them. Rubio hasn’t made a big splash, neither building a “shock and awe” campaign like Bush nor delivering a marquee speech like Walker (who afterward seemed almost to be caught off guard by his rapid ascent). Instead, Rubio appears to be gambling on the idea that, in what is sure to be a long primary with a crowded field, a slow-and-steady approach will prevail.

Morehttp://www.nationalreview.com/article/415280/insider-buzz-grows-marco-rubio-eliana-johnson (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/415280/insider-buzz-grows-marco-rubio-eliana-johnson)

It's sad to see Ron Paul never make it into the presidency. I hope Rand can make it but im starting to believe the elections are rigged against anything that ends in Paul.

Rubio is such a phony, I hope he has another embarrassing moment on live TV, like a couple years ago.
I wasn't aware that Bush III had "faded", his fundraising is still really strong.

But the latest NBC News/WSJ poll gives some indication: More Republicans say they could see themselves supporting Rubio — a full 56 percent — than anybody else. Forty-nine percent said they could see themselves backing Bush. By the same token, the resistance to a Rubio candidacy is also lower than to a Bush candidacy: While 26 percent said they couldn’t see themselves supporting Rubio, 42 percent said so of Bush.

Hillary Clinton: ‘We Really Need Camps for Adults’

As I have gotten older, I have decided we really need camps for adults. And we need adults camps that you all run. Really. None of the serious stuff. None of the life-challenging stuff… more fun. I think we have a huge fun deficit in America. And we need to figure out how to fill that fun deficit, certainly for our kids but also for the rest of us. We need some [garbled] from time to time, maybe some enrichment, certainly some time outdoors. Maybe actually spending time with people that we didn’t know before.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/03/19/hillary-clinton-proposes-we-really-need-camps-for-adults/ (http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/03/19/hillary-clinton-proposes-we-really-need-camps-for-adults/)

LOL, state sponsored "fun camps" for adults of all things. Once again she knows what's best for people and stands there lecturing the numb nuts that adore her. Back in the 90s when Bill was president she came out with this mantra that it ''takes a village to raise a child" insinuating that the collective should have a say in one's parenting and now fast forward to this.

Camps for adults are the next big thing!
Will there be special camps for Libertarians?
I am thinking "the greater good" will be enhanced if I get some re-education.

Could Another Democrat Beat Hillary Clinton? Strategists Offer a Blueprint


She has been called inevitable. The can’t-be-stopped candidate. Hillary Rodham Clinton is such an overwhelming favorite in presidential primary polls that most prominent Democrats are taking a pass on challenging her.

But politics can be an unpredictable business, and those of us covering the campaign have been wondering: Is there any way a Democratic challenger could beat Hillary Rodham Clinton?

We asked three of the smartest Democratic strategists we know to imagine this situation: You are running the campaign of a liberal Democrat against Mrs. Clinton. You have $50 million to spend. What is your message? How do you run against her?

The strategists agreed to sketch out a blueprint anonymously, so as not to anger Mrs. Clinton. Some common themes immediately emerged.

More...http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/politics/could-another-democrat-beat-hillary-clinton-strategists-offer-a-blueprint.html (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/politics/could-another-democrat-beat-hillary-clinton-strategists-offer-a-blueprint.html)

Jeb compares the Bush political dynasty to the Adams family and acknowledges that he still needs to 'prove' himself to voters

Jeb Bush is his 'own man' and swears his polices aren't a carbon copy of his brother's or his father's  - but don't you dare speak ill of his family, or he'll take you out back and tell you what's what.

The son and brother of former presidents, the former Florida governor tried to tamp down uncertainty about his expected candidacy stemming from his family tree at a New Hampshire event tonight with humor as he again faced questions about the Bush political dynasty.

'I have enough self awareness to know that that is a oddity,' he said before telling the audience he realizes that if he moves forward with a presidential campaign he'll have to prove he isn't 'trying to break the tie between the Adams family and the Bush family.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3042920/Jeb-Bush-acknowledges-needs-prove-voters.html#ixzz3Xgc2qM6P (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3042920/Jeb-Bush-acknowledges-needs-prove-voters.html#ixzz3Xgc2qM6P)

 <On topic>
Jeb who?
Are we really going to have a serious shot at Bush III... ...vs Hillary?
How much does it cost to get into "Libertarian Island" with Roger Ver?

Clinton Cash author going after Jeb next

That landed Schweizer squarely in the crosshairs of the Clinton team and allied liberal groups, which have launched a campaign to discredit Schweizer as “disreputable” and blinded by partisan animosity. Anyone familiar with Schweizer’s work knows better: he wrote a well-regarded book about the Bush dynasty and another, detailing insider trading in Congress, that led to a new law, the bipartisan STOCK Act of 2012, which aims to curb these abuses.

That hasn’t quieted the left-wing clamor that Schweizer is simply out to get Hillary Clinton. But maybe this will: Schweizer is working on a similar investigation of Jeb Bush’s finances that he expects to publish this summer.

More...http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-23/clinton-cash-author-is-targeting-jeb-bush-next (http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-23/clinton-cash-author-is-targeting-jeb-bush-next)

Carly Fiorina 'picking up speed' in Iowa, GOP activists say

So far, all the GOP presidential contenders who have tested the waters in Iowa have found the temperature toasty.
Republican Carly Fiorina is the latest long shot to get a hero's welcome from conservative activists here.


Last Wednesday, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO attracted the second-biggest crowd that Urbandale's Westside Conservative Club has seen in two presidential election cycles — this one and the previous one.


Nearly 300 came to the Clinton County GOP's spring dinner Thursday night for Fiorina's keynote speech. At the spaghetti dinner Friday night for the Johnson County GOP, more tables had to be brought out to handle a bigger-than-anticipated audience of 260.


About 110 Iowans showed up Saturday morning for a Webster County Republican Women event.


"Everyone I spoke to left inspired by what Ms. Fiorina had to say," Karen Glaser, co-chair of the Webster County GOP, told The Des Moines Register. "I feel that she is picking up speed, and the more people that hear her, the better it will get."


What's clear is that Fiorina, a 60-year-old California native who has barely clocked 1 percent in recent polling, is now on Iowa activists' radar. Where did this wellspring of admiration and affection come from?

Chef, all of candidates of the two major parties will work for more centralization and more state. Idealism is misplaced here, every president these days is under immense pressure by both lobbyists paying his campaign and ever increasing administrative apparatus. One person wont stop it, if (s)he really tried.

Chef, all of candidates of the two major parties will work for more centralization and more state. Idealism is misplaced here, every president these days is under immense pressure by both lobbyists paying his campaign and ever increasing administrative apparatus. One person wont stop it, if (s)he really tried.

Rubio Demands More Foreign Workers

Rubio’s “I-squared” bill would triple the number of temporary guest workers businesses could bring into the country every year, and allow for a virtually unlimited number of university-based green cards.
....
The big businesses backing this bill and clamoring for more guest workers insist they can’t find enough Americans willing or able to fill certain “high-skilled” jobs. Rubio obviously agrees, and has argued more guest workers and immigration generally will result in more jobs for Americans.
....
“Its only purpose is to please the corporate interests that are very heavy campaign contributors,” he added. “That is literally the bottom line.”
....
Nearly 75 percent of Americans with STEM degrees are not working in STEM Fields, according to Census data, and only 3.8 million Americans with STEM degrees actually hold STEM jobs.

More...http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/19/as-floridians-are-displaced-rubio-demands-more-foreign-workers/ (http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/19/as-floridians-are-displaced-rubio-demands-more-foreign-workers/)

Scott Walker: I Don’t Stand With Rand

Likely 2016 presidential candidate Scott Walker said on Wednesday that if he were in the Senate, he would not have supported Rand Paul’s protest against the reauthorization of the Patriot Act and the the NSA’s domestic surveillance programs.

Paul held the Senate floor for almost eleven hours earlier this week to object to the ongoing collection of Americans’ telephone records.

Speaking to talk radio host Michael Medved, Walker said it was “incredibly important” for national security that the government retain the legal authority to collect Americans’ metadata en masse.
...

More...http://www.buzzfeed.com/ilanbenmeir/scott-walker-i-dont-stand-with-rand (http://www.buzzfeed.com/ilanbenmeir/scott-walker-i-dont-stand-with-rand)

The more people who DON'T 'Stand with Rand', the more I, as a reformed Liberal, hold out some hope for him as a potentially worthwhile candidate.  This is especially the case for mainstream bottom feeders like Scott Walker and his (many) counterparts on the so-called 'progressive' side of the equation.

And people will vote for this type of warmongers. Unless Rand Paul wins the GOP nomination, both the main candidates this time will be war-crazy psychopaths (Hillary on one side and Jeb Bush or Carson (?) on the other side). If the Americans want warfare, suffering and the economic collapse resulting from it, then so be it.

In all reality that is what is most likely to happen bush v Clinton.

Show me the money: Corporate media set to win election cycle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jMejvSdUNY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jMejvSdUNY)

As the 2016 election cycle gets underway, many in the mainstream media are preparing for the barrage of (and money for) political advertisements thanks to SuperPACs and similar institutions. “Lionel” of LionelMedia joins Anya Parampil and takes a look at how the mainstream media takes advantage of the political season.

Chef, great thread idea! I look forward to reading this one.


As for Lindsey Graham, this guy made a really dumb comment in his "coming out" speech for the 2016 presidential bid. He said he had or foreign policy experience than the US' current Secretary of State! He cites his many trips to Afghanistan and Iraq to visit US troops as "foreign policy experience"...what a naive statement.

This should guy campaign on his real experience rather than trying to claim something he cannot support.

Jesse 'The Body' Ventura Endorses Bernie Sanders

Ventura has sized up the candidates and is throwing his support to Sanders. Ventura went into further detail in a July 13 blog post on Ora.TV.

"Bernie believes in power to the people and the people controlling the government," Ventura wrote, saying "I think what Bernie Sanders is doing is extremely healthy." Ventura has said in the past that he refuses to back a Republican or Democrat, claiming they are too similar and bought off my special interests. Though Sanders is hoping to win the Democratic nomination, he's still an Independent.

"Hats off to Bernie Sanders," Ventura said, before noting "I’ll help him anyway I can." Ventura was once known as a conservative libertarian, but over the years has become more liberal and progressive in his political views. Knowing he has an uphill battle in front him, Ventura was optimistic about Sanders' chances, but concluded that if he fails, "maybe next year Jesse Ventura will pick up the gauntlet."

http://www.examiner.com/article/jesse-ventura-endorses-bernie-sanders-i-ll-help-him-anyway-i-can

Slappy Statist Candidates for US President 2016