October 24, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeb-bush-hunkers-down-with-family-to-assess-where-his-candidacy-stands/

Jeb Bush hunkers down with family to assess his candidacy
By MAJOR GARRETT CBS NEWS
October 23, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Trump, Bush spar over 9/11 comments


Jeb Bush will attend a finance meeting this weekend in Houston convened by former President George H. W. Bush and attended by Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush, CBS News has learned.

The session, designed to assess where Bush's candidacy stands in the face of large-scale staff cutbacks and underwhelming poll numbers, will also be attended by Bush's mother, Barbara Bush. The governor's campaign confirmed the meeting will be held Sunday and Monday.

CBS News has also learned George W. Bush will headline a fundraiser for Jeb Bush in Georgetown (Washington, DC) on Oct. 29. The fundraising email, which went out earlier this week, was sent by George W. Bush's two former chiefs of staff, Andy Card and Josh Bolten. Jeb Bush will not attend the fund-raiser.

The email, sent to Bush-Cheney alumni, praised Bush's "extraordinary record of accomplishment and conservative innovation" and said that George W. Bush "looks forward to seeing his old friends at this event and to sharing his enthusiasm for Jeb's candidacy." Bolten and Card suggested that for those who can't make the event, there would be "other opportunities around the country," and the email closed, "Your help today will help position Jeb for a successful outcome."

The event underscores the need for the former Florida governor to lean on his brother's fund-raising prowess to aid his struggling campaign.

Earlier this month, asked whether his brother would play a bigger role in his campaign, whether he'd come to the rescue, Bush told CBS News, "No, he doesn't have to rescue me....I'm on the path. I'm totally confident about where we are. This is a long haul."

Over that long haul, though, those who are funding his campaign may disagree. A GOP source who interacts regularly with the Bush campaign said there is a "donor revolt in progress," as early Bush backers have grown dismayed over the reversal of their candidate's fortunes.

Complaints are more frequent about the Bush inner circle and Bush's message, schedule and intensity. These anxieties are not new for Bush - they go back as far as the advent of Donald Trump's entry into the race. But they have grown more pronounced as Bush has continued to lag, while challengers like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have gained traction and outsiders Trump and Ben Carson continue to dominate the crowded GOP field.

During an appearance today in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Bush said this about campaign cost-cutting: "This means lean and mean and it means that I have the ability to adapt. The circumstances when we started the election were different. I have not met a person that thought Donald Trump would be the front running candidate at this point. I'm all in in the early primary states including Virginia. Every dollar that we can save in overhead is a dollar that goes on television, goes on radio, goes on media, goes on voter outreach."

Much of Bush's fundraising has come through the network built first by his father and expanded by his brother during their successful campaigns for presidency. This has proven to be a strength and weakness for the governor's campaign. Bush was able to raise money early in the process because the Bush family fund-raising machinery was relatively easy to kick into high gear.

But many of those donors have reached their legal limits for the primary campaign, and Bush's campaign has, according to those familiar with its operations, had a tougher time prospecting for new donors or attracting contributions from large numbers of grassroots conservatives, who tend to give in smaller amounts.

Third quarter fundraising for Bush was particularly dispiriting in that he had $10.3 million in cash on hand (less than Ben Carson and Cruz) but had spent nearly as much in that period of time - $11.5 million - as he had raised, $13.4 million. That underscored the difficulty Bush has had in finding new donors to sustain daily campaign operations, even allowing for the fact that the third quarter is a traditionally difficult time to raise campaign funds.

Bush on Friday announced sizable staff layoffs and costs savings (40 percent cut to payroll and cuts to headquarters staff and travel) before the previously scheduled finance meeting in Houston. The moves were carried out not only to reduce campaign overhead but to acknowledge management failures before a fresh assessment could be made by his father and brother of Bush's financial and tactical prospects. Many familiar with the campaign considered these moves vital before a key stretch of time before Thanksgiving dominated by field organizing, campaigning in the early primary and caucus states and two GOP presidential debates on Oct. 28 and Nov. 10.

While the news of Bush staff layoffs conveyed a sense of a dead-end campaign, experienced GOP activists cautioned that Bush retains solid field operations in all early primary and caucus states and cannot be dismissed.

"There are head winds," said one GOP operative familiar with party fund-raising and influential donors. "It's a really hard climate for Jeb. But his field operations in all the early states are really good. He is going to be in this for a while."

While that is true, Bush must also concede his campaign remains mired in single digits in Iowa and New Hampshire and that most donors and bundlers of campaign contributions once aligned with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker have either gravitated to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or remained neutral. Either way, Bush has not inherited much of the available donor or bundler resources Walker left behind when he quit the race.




“Jeb Bush will attend a finance meeting this weekend in Houston convened by former President George H. W. Bush and attended by Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush, CBS News has learned. The session, designed to assess where Bush's candidacy stands in the face of large-scale staff cutbacks and underwhelming poll numbers, will also be attended by Bush's mother, Barbara Bush. The governor's campaign confirmed the meeting will be held Sunday and Monday. …. But many of those donors have reached their legal limits for the primary campaign, and Bush's campaign has, according to those familiar with its operations, had a tougher time prospecting for new donors or attracting contributions from large numbers of grassroots conservatives, who tend to give in smaller amounts. …. Bush on Friday announced sizable staff layoffs and costs savings (40 percent cut to payroll and cuts to headquarters staff and travel) before the previously scheduled finance meeting in Houston. The moves were carried out not only to reduce campaign overhead but to acknowledge management failures before a fresh assessment could be made by his father and brother of Bush's financial and tactical prospects.”

Bush is not a thoroughly repulsive individual like Donald Trump, and is a little more moderate in his leanings, it seems to me, but he is still a Republican overall. It disturbs me that the rank and file Republicans don’t seem to be supporting him, and they do love Trump. The verbal crassness of Trump is what appeals to them. I give up on the bunch of them.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jostling-for-support-at-the-jefferson-jackson-dinner/

Jostling for support at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner
By KYLIE ATWOOD CBS NEWS
October 24, 2015

Photograph -- ((L-R) Democratic presidential candidates Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley take part in a presidential debate in Las Vegas on October 13, 2015. JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
Play VIDEO -- Clinton testifies before Benghazi committee


The three remaining Democratic presidential contenders are getting ready for one of the key events of the Iowa campaign, the Jefferson-Jackson dinner.

Packed with over 6,000 people, the event on Saturday night is widely considered to mark the moment when Iowa Democrats really start paying attention to the candidates. It is loud, raucous, and it takes a certain talent for candidates to win the night, as supporters for each candidate roar their approval and disapproval.

The 2007 speech Barack Obama made there was masterful - inspiring his audience, while at the same time suggesting his main unnamed opponent, Hillary Clinton, was a poll-driven, triangulating, Washington insider.

[T]hat is why the same old Washington textbook campaigns just won't do in this election. That's why not answering questions 'cause we are afraid our answers won't be popular just won't do. That's why telling the American people what we think they want to hear, instead of telling the American people what they need to hear, just won't do. Triangulating and poll-driven positions because we're worried about what Mitt or Rudy might say about us just won't do. If we are really serious about winning this election, Democrats, we can't live in fear of losing it.

This party - the party of Jefferson and Jackson; of Roosevelt and Kennedy - has always made the biggest difference in the lives of the American people when we led, not by polls, but by principle; not by calculation, but by conviction; when we summoned the entire nation to a common purpose - a higher purpose. And I run for the Presidency of the United States of America because that's the party America needs us to be right now.

The Obama campaign had historic ground operations Iowa yet that speech was credited with fueling Mr. Obama's rise in the state before the 2008 caucuses. Candidates this cycle - including the target of his speech then, Hillary Clinton - hope for a similar impact this time around.

"This is probably the last big event before the caucus. The debates will mean something, but I don't think they will get the same activist Iowa scrutiny that we will see on Saturday night," explains Scott Brennan, former Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party.

Come Saturday, there will be exactly 100 days until the Iowa caucuses. While every day now is critical for campaign messaging, Iowa Democrats largely agree there is no other night like the Jefferson Jackson dinner -- candidates and their staffers know that they must leave a lasting impression to fuel their campaign over the next few months.

The campaigns are leaving little to chance, when it comes to creating an hyper-charged atmosphere that attracts voters.

"You are working to turn out thousands of folks," explains Brennan. Those folks won't come if they do not believe in a candidate or do not want to sit and "listen to politicians give speeches."

Candidates worked with the Iowa Democratic Party to buy tickets and get their supporters into the room. The Sanders campaign bought 1,950 tickets-- which will be distributed to their supporters for free -- meaning that almost one third of the room will definitely be cheering for Sanders. The other campaigns did not release the exact numbers of tickets they bought.

Fueling the fire is starting before the dinner this year, too, as the campaigns bring musical entertainment to the state. Sanders has a #FeelTheBern concert on Friday in Davenport Iowa, Clinton has a Katy Perry concert on Saturday in Des Moines and O'Malley will do some of his own serenading in Des Moines on Saturday.

Katy Perry is big, but it is quite possible that for this audience, it's Bill Clinton - who's also rallying with wife Hillary earlier on Saturday - who may be the bigger draw. He remains one of the most popular Democrats in the party.

"I just want to see Bill," exclaimed one Iowa voter on Thursday afternoon as her friends talked about how excited they were to see Katy Perry perform.

And the Clinton campaign is fully aware of the Bill Clinton effect.

"You're not going to find a more compelling advocate generally in politics, let alone for her and the kind of president she'd be. He's a tremendous resource. He's an enormous asset," explains Jen Palmieri.

Creating an aura of excitement is something other candidates have tried before. In 2003, Howard Dean was leading in the polls and his campaign bused supporters to the dinner.

"If you put on a real show and it looks like you got your act together that helps," Dean explains. "In Iowa they really want someone who is going to win the presidency. They are very pragmatic."

The visual demonstration of support with energized voters, Dean says, is important. It makes a candidate look more presidential because Iowans know that more people means more voters.

In 2003, Dean attracted attention more for the buses of his supporters descending on Des Moines than for his speech. That year, the night belonged to Kerry. He took veiled swipes at Dean's angry speechifying and overtook him in the Iowa polls within weeks.

Yet ultimately it is the speech that will light up the room draw in new support. Candidates have to step it up, explains Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. Miller, who supported Obama in 2008 and is now a Clinton supporter, remembers Obama calling himself a fourth quarter player and that quality came to fruition at the dinner. "He had the confidence, had the energy and had enormous support in the crowd that reinforced him," Miller says. "It was amazing."

With Vice President Biden's decision not to get into the race, connecting to the crowd is even more important for the candidates this weekend, as they fight to win over his supporters.

"I do think it has made some people now free if they were waiting for Biden," explains Andy McGuire, Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party.

While many Biden supporters say they are "still in mourning," they are beginning to consider their options. This dinner will be the first time they see all of those options in front of them in their home state. Some say they are keeping their eyes on O'Malley -- a candidate they had not previously considered.

The Iowa Democratic party maintains that the night is anyone's to win. McGuire knows Iowans who walked into the 2007 Jefferson Jackson dinner supporting one candidate and left supporting another, and she expects the same thing to happen this year. She said, "It could be a night for a candidate to really take off and convince voters."




“Packed with over 6,000 people, the event on Saturday night is widely considered to mark the moment when Iowa Democrats really start paying attention to the candidates. It is loud, raucous, and it takes a certain talent for candidates to win the night, as supporters for each candidate roar their approval and disapproval. …. "If you put on a real show and it looks like you got your act together that helps," Dean explains. "In Iowa they really want someone who is going to win the presidency. They are very pragmatic." …. The Iowa Democratic party maintains that the night is anyone's to win. McGuire knows Iowans who walked into the 2007 Jefferson Jackson dinner supporting one candidate and left supporting another, and she expects the same thing to happen this year. She said, "It could be a night for a candidate to really take off and convince voters."

The campaigns are getting warmed up now in seriousness. “In Iowa they really want someone who is going to win the presidency. They are very pragmatic.” I personally feel the same way. There is nothing to stop the rightwingers like Democratic victories. Sanders has a great plan for the country, but Trump recently called him “a communist.” I wish he had not declared himself a “Socialist,” because this country hasn’t really gotten over the “Red Scare,” of the 1950s and 60s, so many will believe Trumps characterization of him and more. I strongly believe that we need certain elements of socialism, such as the social safety net, plenty of jobs for the less well-educated people and the labor union activity to keep them in jobs. Hillary, doesn’t things like very often, and Bill didn’t either. Bill was such a strong candidate because he had a great deal of “personality plus,” unfortunately more than Hillary has. Some of the matter comes from a candidate’s actual policy stances and the rest is the ability to persuade voters.

About socialism, however, see the interesting Washington Post article below. It’s long, and many of you will know already the various distinctions that the writer is making, so you will probably skim it. It’s very interesting, however, and informative. This is from a high school teacher.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/24/a-high-school-teacher-helps-clarify-socialism-for-donald-trump-and-you/?tid=pm_pop_b

A high school teacher helps clarify ‘socialism’ for Donald Trump (and you!)
By Philip Bump
October 24, 2015

Video -- The day after the first Democratic presidential debate, Donald Trump called Bernie Sanders a maniac at a rally in Virginia. (AP).

“socialist-slash-communist," Trump said to raucous cheers. "I call him a socialist-slash-communist, because that's what he is."

Well, no. The terms "socialist" and "communist" are often confused, thanks in large part to the Cold War. Layer on top of that the nuance of the term "democratic socialist," which is how Sanders describes himself, and it's easy to see why people might generally be confused. (Even if they aren't intentionally blurring that line, as it's safe to assume Mr. Trump might have been doing.) As our Dave Weigel and David Farenthold reported this week, voters are not clear on the difference, either.

To offer America a bit of a primer, I reached out to Dr. Lawrence Quill, chairman and professor of political science at San Jose State University, over e-mail. He explained the difference between communism, socialism, capitalism and democratic socialism -- in very professorial terms.

Capitalism — or really the concept of "liberalism" — arose in the 17th century, and centers on the right to private property. In Adam Smith's foundational "Wealth of Nations," Quill notes, "is recognition that capitalism is going to make the lives of a good majority of the population miserable, and that there will be a need for government intervention in society and the economy to offset the worse effects."

Socialism was in part a response to capitalism, largely through the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Socialism focuses on the inequalities that arise within capitalism through a number of possible responses. Quill outlined some possibilities: "[T]he state might 'wither away' or collapse altogether, in others it would regulate the production of goods and services, in yet others it would become thoroughly democratic" -- all with the aim of reducing that inequality.

You can see that's where democratic socialism arises. That philosophy, Quill writes, seeks "democratic control of sectors of society and economy in order to avoid the pitfalls of an unregulated market and -- this is most important -- the kind of terrible authoritarian government that emerged in the Soviet Union."

What you need to know about socialism

Play Video1:55

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been making waves as the only democratic socialist running for president. Here's what you need to know about being a democratic socialist and how it's different from socialism. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)

Communism "was the endpoint of Marx's ideas," Quill writes, though Marx didn't delineate what it would look like, exactly. "We find hints in works like 'The German Ideology" (1846) where there is a description of working life that is unalienated, i.e. creative and various -- we hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and become opera critics in the evening." During the Cold War, though, the idea came to be inextricably and pejoratively associated with the Soviet Union and with the elimination of private property. The term, in Quill's words, "served as a shorthand for all things un-American" -- which was the way that Trump used it.

Quill's most important point is that "all of these terms are 'umbrella concepts'; in other words, they are host to a family of related ideas, not all of them compatible with one another." We tend to use the terms concretely, which necessarily introduces inaccuracies. Or, as Quill put it, "they [can] serve as excuses not to think, as belief systems that discourage explorations of the mismatch between theory and practice and the inconsistencies of any grand theory."

So that's the college-level curriculum. Next, I scaled it back a bit and talked to Tori Waite, who teaches high school history at Del Mar High School in San Jose. After all, since most of us were first introduced to these ideas in high school, perhaps we just need a refresher.

"When we teach about the different types of economies," Waite said, "the first thing we do is we talk about economic questions. How is it made? Who makes it? Who gets to buy it? Based on the economy, different people answer those questions."

Simplifying Quill's explanation: "In a communist country, the government answers those questions. There's no private business. There's no private property. The government decides."

"In a capitalist society, the people make those decisions. The businesses, the market decides how much products will cost, how many there are, where it will be made."

"In the socialist system, there's a mix of both. The government operates the system to help all, but there is opportunity for private property and private wealth. That's generally how we talk about it." Back to Quill's point: A socialist government could control all of the means of production -- or it could, for example, use taxes to redistribute resources among the population.

Both Quill and Waite note that the United States is not a purely capitalist society. There are and have long been socialist aspects to how the government makes decisions and applies its power, while still striving to keep the marketplace as free as possible. And, of course, while allowing democratic decisions to guide what it does.

The example of the United States serves as a reminder that these ideas exist on a three-dimensional scale, in which differentiation is often tricky. Which brings us to our quiz, in which you will be asked to concretely differentiate between systems. Given the example at hand, can you identify which economic system we're talking about?

(Waite generously provided both the feedback and overall grades that you will receive for doing so. And as a reminder, you will probably disagree with some of the answers. That's the nature of thing, and why college students spend so much time at coffee houses arguing over nonsense.)