MORNING MESSAGE
As
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is being celebrated by
progressive Social Security advocates for posting a statement on Twitter late
Friday that “I won’t cut Social Security,” let’s not forget why it was important
to get Clinton to go on the record with those five words – and why it is
important to continue to press Clinton to underscore them as her campaign for
the presidency continues.
NH VOTES
Politico
lays out where the votes are for NH Dems: “About 30 percent of the potential
voters in the state are different people than in 2008,” … explained Andrew
Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center … Voter-rich
and filled with blue-collar Democrats, Manchester was the cornerstone of
Clinton’s 2008 win … ‘Clinton is going to have to win Manchester,’ Smith
explained … ‘The most liberal parts of the state are on the Connecticut River
Valley, starting in Keene and going up to Littleton,’ explained Smith. ‘Those
voters are very similar to Vermont voters: high-income, high-education
Democrats…'”
Sanders
confident. Burlington Free Press: “‘New Hampshire, we started 30 points
behind,’ Sanders said in Manchester, ‘and I think we’re going to do just fine
tomorrow.'”
Trump
and Sanders fight over NH independents. Bloomberg: “Advisers to both Sanders
and Trump say their field operations have identified a sizable number of voters
who are torn between the two candidates most loudly threatening a ‘fundamental
change to the system,’ as Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski puts it …
Lewandowski says the most persuasive argument against casting a vote for Sanders
is that it would be a waste given his persistent lead in polls over Clinton …
Sanders’s scripts, meanwhile, make no concession that a Trump victory should be
taken for granted.”
Sanders’
tax plan envisions effective top tax rate of 73 percent. NYT’s Josh Barro:
“It just so happens that in 2011, the economists Peter Diamond of M.I.T. and
Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley, drew attention with a
paper estimating that the revenue-maximizing income tax rate on high earners …
is 73 percent.”
Campaign
rhetoric hurting TPP. The Hill: “Lawmakers say harsh criticism leveled
against President Obama’s Pacific Rim trade agreement from presidential
candidates in both parties is further complicating its passage.”
Jeb
Bush opposes Citizens United. The Hill: “‘If I could do it all again I’d
eliminate the Supreme Court ruling’ Citizens United, the Republican presidential
candidate told CNN’s Dana Bash … ‘This is a ridiculous system we have now where
you have campaigns that struggle to raise money directly and they can’t be held
accountable for the spending of the super-PAC that’s their affiliate,’ … His
campaign pointed out that Bush has called for unlimited campaign contributions
with full transparency about donations.”
Michael
Bloomberg teases. Politico: “Bloomberg has set a March deadline to determine
whether he will run, and should he decide yes, he told the FT he would have to
begin getting his name on ballots next month. He has signaled he could spend at
least a billion dollars of his own money to sustain a campaign…”
CLINTON CAMPAIGN TURNS NEGATIVE
Clinton
allies prepare harsher attacks on Sanders. Time: “Frustrated Clinton aides
believe that Sanders is a politician like any other. Sanders has flip-flopped on
gun control, Wall Street donations and immigration reform, they say, changing
his views when it is politically expedient. It is a view of Sanders that has
become increasingly visible on the campaign trail. ‘The purity bubble is about
to burst,’ David Brock, the architect behind the pro-Clinton super PAC Correct
the Record, told TIME.”
Sanders
campaign fires back. W. Post: “Jeff Weaver, Sanders’s campaign manager, said
in a statement Monday that it was ‘very disturbing that as the Clinton campaign
struggles through Iowa and New Hampshire they have become increasingly negative
and dishonest.'”
“Clinton
attacks on Sanders make Dems nervous” reports The Hill: “The shift by the
Clinton team to a more aggressive footing evoked memories for some of her 2008
campaign against Barack Obama, when Bill Clinton and other surrogates mounted
attacks that were widely seen as counter-productive.”
Politico
investigates “what Clinton said in her paid speeches”: “…the descriptions of
Clinton’s remarks highlight the trap in which the Democratic presidential
front-runner now finds herself. In a previous election cycle, no one would much
care about the former secretary of state’s comments to Goldman. They represent
the kind of boilerplate, happy talk that highly paid speakers generally offer to
their hosts. Nobody pays nearly a quarter of a million dollars to have someone
criticize their alleged misdeeds. But 2016 is different.”
BREAKFAST SIDES
Speaker
Paul Ryan working with Congressional Black Caucus on poverty. The Hill:
“Ryan has told the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) he’s pressing GOP
appropriators to consider the CBC’s strategy of shifting more federal money to
parts of the country with persistent poverty.”
Republicans
snub Obama budget. Roll Call: “The Republican chairmen of both panels, Sen.
Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming and Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, have scrapped the
traditional testimonies this year – dismissing the Democratic president’s
blueprint (even before glancing at it) as so unserious as to be unworthy of a
couple of hours of anybody’s time.”
Progressive
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