Today in Politics: The Republican Dance Card Fills Up in New Hampshire
Good Friday morning from Washington, where the relationship between Congress and the Obama administration continues its prickly course. But the primary focus moves from Iowa to New Hampshire, the state of derailed presidencies and second chances, which welcomes 19 Republican presidential hopefuls for a weekend of 30-minute pitches.
Its primaries derailed the presidencies of Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson and threw lifelines to Senator John McCain and, in 2008, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
On Friday, the state of New Hampshire will welcome a new crop of Republican presidential hopefuls looking to woo the Granite State and propel their campaigns.
The First in the Nation Republican Leadership Summit meeting kicks off in Nashua with 19 Republicans who have expressed interest in making White House bids. After weeks of campaign announcements and increasingly prickly sniping, they will mingle with activists and state party leaders and will share their messages in 30-minute sessions that will mix stump speeches with questions.
When it comes to entertainment in New Hampshire, this is as good as it gets.
“This is what we do,” said Jennifer Horn, the chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. “We grill presidential candidates.”
New Hampshire Republicans began the summit meeting this year in part to ensure that its status as first primary in the nation keeps pace in importance with Iowa’s caucuses. The event is sold out, and more than 600 people are expected to attend.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin will make prime-time dinner appearances on Friday and Saturday. Other highlights include former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida on Friday afternoon, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on Saturday morning, and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas that afternoon.
But Ms. Horn notes that slots are first come first served and are not based on name recognition or position in polls. It’s an opportunity for the unheralded to also be heard.
“You don’t have to raise $100 million to be heard in New Hampshire,” she said. “There are no front-runners here right now.”
— Alan Rappeport
Stay tuned throughout the day @NYTpolitics for First Draft updates.
What We’re Watching Today
In addition to the Republican summit meeting in New Hampshire, Mr. Rubio will conduct his first formal campaign visits in Manchester, a morning discussion about higher education with students at Manchester Community College, and an afternoon “house party” with voters.
President Obama will meet at the White House with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy.
The spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank begin in Washington.
Uphill Climb on a Trade Deal Runs Through the House
The debate over granting Mr. Obama new trade negotiating authority may start in the Senate, but the real fight will be in the House.
Support for the bill from House Democrats has been wavering for weeks as organized labor intensifies its campaign against a new trade pact, warning that Democrats who support it will face a backlash.
Top House Democrats say they can count only 15 or so colleagues who might — might — be enticed into backing a trade deal. Those numbers will make trade legislation a heavy lift for Speaker John A. Boehner, who badly wants new trading opportunities and had been hoping for at least 30 or more Democrats to join Republican support.
His problem is that, additionally, a segment of House Republicans remains leery of giving Mr. Obama the authority to do much of anything — even something Republicans overwhelmingly favor. Some in the party have been privately warning for months that optimism about delivering a trade bill was misplaced.
— Carl Hulse
Clinton Continues Subtle Criticism of Obama…
Publicly, Mrs. Clinton has had nothing but praise for Mr. Obama, arguing that a Republican in the White House would reverse the economic gains since the recovery from the financial crisis.
But in private, Mrs. Clinton has been trying out other messages that distance her from Mr. Obama, most recently on her swing through Iowa this week, when she told Democratic lawmakers she could do a better job working with Congress.
“One of her biggest messages was, ‘I know how hard it is to work with Congress; I’ve done it before, and I will continue to when I’m in the White House,’ ’’ said State Representative Mary Mascher of Iowa City, who was in the closed-door meeting.
Mrs. Clinton’s pledge to break congressional gridlock, an implicit criticism of Mr. Obama, was one of her best received lines, participants said.
“We all need to get along,’’ said Representative Nancy A. Dukel of Dubuque, who was on the fence about Mrs. Clinton but emerged from the meeting saying she had won her endorsement. “That’s what we care about: We can get to the table.’’
— Trip Gabriel
…and O’Malley Broadens Subtle Criticism of Clinton
Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland and a potential challenger to Mrs. Clinton for the Democratic nomination, told a group of students and educators on Thursday that he was glad she had finally “come around” on same-sex marriage and other important liberal issues.
During a speech on the economy at the Institute of Politics at Harvard, Mr. O’Malley hit a number of liberal talking points, including overhauling immigration, raising the minimum wage and expanding social security, without ever mentioning Mrs. Clinton’s name.
He didn’t have to. During a question-and-answer period afterward, the students did it for him.
He was asked about Mrs. Clinton’s shift in positions on same-sex marriage and on driver’s licenses for immigrants, two issues he has long supported.
He responded: “I’m glad Secretary Clinton has come around to the right positions on both these issues. I believe marriage is a human right, not a state right.”
He added: “I believe that we do our country a disservice when we make it harder for new American immigrants to abide by the rules of the road and obtain drivers licenses.”
It was, he said, a matter of leadership.
“Leadership is about making the right decision, and the best decision before sometimes it becomes entirely popular,” he said.
— Michael McElroy
Our Favorites From Today’s Times
Mrs. Clinton has hired some of the best brains from Mr. Obama‘s campaigns and seems to be mixing their creativity with her ideas — like driving to Iowa.
Real estate ventures and involvement with a pump manufacturer in his early career have caused difficulties and potential political liabilities for Mr. Bush.
In pursuit of his new career, Mr. Bush ate blueberry pie at an event in Concord, N.H., and took some positions that put him at odds with a number of other Republicans.
What We’re Reading Elsewhere
The New Yorker breaks down the “Clintonian theory of foreign money.”
Slate argues that the United States presidency is due for a good scandal.
Separately, Lincoln Chafee, the former Rhode Island governor, continues to consider joining Mr. O’Malley in the circle of Democrats considering a challenge to Mrs. Clinton.
The White House Snipes at Grassley Over Lynch
Want to get the attention of a senator? Accuse him of going back on his word.
Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, did just that on Thursday by saying that Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, a Republican and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had shown an “astounding display of duplicity” for repeatedly suggesting Democrats were to blame for delaying Loretta E. Lynch‘s nomination as attorney general. It was Mr. Grassley, he said, who, had asked Democrats to delay pushing the nomination until the new Congress.
(The nomination has also been delayed as political leverage in a fight over a human-trafficking bill.)
Mr. Grassley’s staff members quickly fired back and again laid the delay at the feet of Democrats. But the administration’s more combative stance seemed to have an impact. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said he hoped to finally get to the Lynch nomination next week. He practically gave his word on it.
— Carl Hulse
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