Look to the governors in 2016

Earlier this week, CNN asked me to write an op-ed on Ted Cruz, and whether he’s a realistic contender for the presidency.  My reaction: Of course he is — but probably not in 2016.  And for that matter, neither are the Republicans who seem to get the most mention for that position:

No one doubts that Cruz has a bright future in the Republican Party, but that doesn’t mean the future is now.

Cruz, like Rubio and Rand Paul, have only barely arrived on the national stage and are many years younger than their sell-by date. None of the three has held executive office yet. Both Paul and Cruz have only won one election in their career. All three have made an extraordinary impact as freshmen senators, but they are still mainly untested outside of a single electoral cycle.

Additionally, Republicans have more options: By the time 2015 rolls around and candidates have to commit to a run, a number of GOP governors will be staking out their ground as well.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will almost certainly use his considerable media presence and blunt style to launch the next phase of his career. Scott Walker has to win a re-election bid in Wisconsin in 2014; a win will re-establish his fighting credentials on budgets and reform.

Mike Pence got some attention early in the 2012 cycle as a potential presidential contender, but decided to go home to Indiana to add executive office to his already-impressive conservative credentials. Susana Martinez, who like Cruz was given a featured-speaker slot at the national GOP convention last year, should sail to a 2014 re-election in New Mexico, with approval ratings that have never dropped below 60%.

We can add a couple of other names to that list, too.  Nikki Haley might be a popular choice, and Rick Perry will almost certainly give it another go.  Don’t count out Bobby Jindal, either, who has built a great track record of reform in Louisiana, a state that has infamously resisted it.

Allahpundit posted Larry Sabato’s prediction that Walker would emerge as the front-runner, and I think that’s a relatively safe bet, although not even odds.  I’d guess it will be Walker and Martinez, assuming both win their re-election bids next year.  I very much doubt that the GOP are going to go for a Beltway figure in 2016, or for any Republican from the Northeast again, either.  With the plethora of executive-office holders outside of Washington ready to enter the mix, the Senate freshmen will need to get a little more seasoning before preparing for a presidential bid.

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/08/17/look-to-the-governors-in-2016/

In New Jersey, 44% Would Vote for Christie for President

It’s the time in the political cycle when just about any Republican could be considered a presidential candidate. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s name comes up often in those discussions, but New Jersey voters aren’t convinced he should make the run.

Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Garden State voters would like to see a Christie campaign in 2016. However, a Rasmussen Reports statewide poll shows that 41% disagree and do not want him to run. Twenty-two percent (22%) are undecided

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2013/new_jersey/in_new_jersey_44_would_vote_for_christie_for_president

NBC Gives More Time to Hillary Clinton Getting an Award Than to Benghazi Anniversary

In news briefs on Tuesday and Wednesday, NBC Today anchor Natalie Morales touted: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be given the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal for her years in public service and her work on human rights." The two segments totaled 36 seconds of air time. [Listen to the audio]

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the network morning show only managed to offer a couple mentions, totaling 10 seconds, to the anniversary of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans – a major security failure that occurred during Clinton's tenure at the State Department.

On Fox News's Special Report on Tuesday, anchor Bret Baier also noted Clinton receiving the award, but unlike NBC, he included criticism of her handling of Benghazi:

Tonight, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will receive the 2013 Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center. She is being honored for her, quote, "Lifelong career in public service and her ongoing advocacy efforts on behalf of women and girls."

Some conservative groups are not happy, to say the least. The Independence Hall Tea Party Association writes, quote, "As all of you undoubtedly know, much of the blame for the Obama administration's failure to contain the Benghazi attack and the scandalous handling of its aftermath can be traced directly to Mrs. Clinton." That group organized a prayer vigil for the Benghazi victims to coincide with the ceremony.

But Clinton is not the only one taking heat. The person who will present the award is another possible presidential candidate, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. The Gateway Pundit writes, quote, "Really Jeb, no one else came to mind?" And from the National Review's Jim Geraghty, quote, "If Jeb Bush didn't want to run for the Republican nomination, he could have just said so."

While all three network morning shows on Wednesday briefly noted the anniversary of the Benghazi attack, they all ignored current Secretary of State John Kerry refusing to allow survivors to testify before Congress.

Here are the September 10 and 11 news briefs respectively from Today:

7:15AM ET

NATALIE MORALES: Well, today, two potential 2016 rivals will be face to face in Philadelphia.

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New Honor for Hillary Clinton; Liberty Medal Presented by Jeb Bush]

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be given the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal for her years in public service and her work on human rights. And she'll get the award from the group's chairman, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

7:11AM ET

NATALIE MORALES: Two potential rivals in the 2016 presidential race shared the stage Tuesday in Philadelphia.

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Sharing the Stage; Jeb Bush Honors Hillary Clinton]

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush honored former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her life-long career in public service. She was given the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal and said she was overwhelmed by the tribute.

http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/nbc-gives-more-time-hillary-clinton-getting-award-benghazi-anniversary

Pence and The Revolution: Five reasons he might be the 2016 dark horse to watch.

He’s more charismatic than Scott Walker, more conservative than Chris Christie and, unlike so many of the top-tier 2016 Republicans, he has actually run a state.

So why isn’t Indiana Gov. Mike Pence generating the kind of buzz worthy of a top-tier candidate?

Probably because while his opponents have been show horses, he’s been a work horse. And that makes him a dark horse.

Here are five reasons why we should take Pence’s chances very seriously:

1. The résumé’ - “[A]s a former congressman and now a governor, [Pence] has garnered that hard-won ‘two-fer’ status, thus giving him a very credible résumé,” says Cheri Jacobus, a GOP strategist.

Being a governor is important for a variety of reasons, both substantive and symbolic. Before becoming a governor, “Mike Pence’s policy bandwidth consisted of tax cuts,” said one strategist. “But…when you’re a governor, you’re actually in charge of running things.”

Of course, merely being a governor isn’t enough. You have to have governed effectively, and that’s just what he’s done. “Pence comes from a state that is a success story. It’s actually gaining industrial jobs. It’s a right-to-work state now,” added the strategist.

Aside from work experience, it also helps to have had life experience — and a compelling story to tell. Again, Pence has that. “He is an evangelical Midwestern conservative who has the compelling family story to tell of his grandfather being an Irish immigrant who drove a bus in Chicago,” says John Dunagan, a public affairs executive who worked on the Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign.

2. He looks and sounds the part – Résumé’s are good, but let’s be honest, modern-day presidents have to be attractive and charismatic. Check and check. Take a look at this picture and tell me he isn’t out of central casting.

Pence is also skilled on television, which makes sense when you consider his background. According to his biography on Politico, ”In 1992, Pence started a career in radio broadcasting and, two years later, Network Indiana syndicated his show statewide. The Mike Pence Show aired weekdays on 18 radio stations. Pence also hosted a Sunday morning political television show in Indianapolis from 1995 to 1999.”

3. He’s is widely respected as a full-spectrum conservative - Nobody mentions it, but as recently as 2011, conservatives tried to draft Mike Pence to run for president. That September, Pence won the 2012 presidential straw poll at the Value Voters Summit that was hosted by the The FamilyResearch Council, a social conservative group.

“If he were to run it would not be a Pawlenty-like candidacy but much more in the dark horse mold of the upstart Mike Huckabee from 2008,” says Gary Marx, executive director of the Faith & Freedom Coalition. “Also, like Huckabee he has many years of experience in talk radio that makes him a communicator of the highest caliber on the stump. He would connect with the grassroots conservative base.”

Pence has all the social conservative bona fides of a Mike Huckabee, but unlike Huckabee, he’s also beloved by fiscal conservatives. When all the buzz was about Sarah Palin a couple years ago, Chris Chocola, president of the powerful fiscally conservative Club for Growth (and a former Indiana congressman), told me that Pence’s “conservative credentials are really unquestionable” and that he “appeals to every group that Palin appeals to — and probably a little more.”

Regarding his record, former Majority Leader Dick Armey said of Pence, ”He’s been a rock-solid fiscal conservative, showing up not only for the high-profile TARP and Obamacare battles, but also championing issues that are maybe less glamorous politically but are critically important for our country, such as fundamental tax reform, specifically the flat tax.”

The bottom line is that the various wings of the conservative movement all seem to like him. David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) has even predicted that Pence will be the first “Teavangelical” president.

But Pence has an additional selling point: The mainstream media also respects his brand of conservatism. I’m not suggesting they like him or that he buddies up to them — and I’m not naive enough to suggest that he can win them over. But they respect him as a professional — as a serious leader — and as an honest broker. A lot of this comes down to Pence’s Reaganesque likeability — a quality that Mike Huckabee also taps into.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/10/pence-and-the-revolution-five-reasons-he-might-be-the-2016-dark-horse-to-watch/#ixzz2ebQBS1Ir

Hillary's List of Lies

Posted March 26, 2008

Morris, a former political adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton

The USA Today/Gallup survey clearly explains why Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is losing. Asked whether the candidates were "honest and trustworthy," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won with 67 percent, with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) right behind him at 63. Hillary scored only 44 percent, the lowest rating for any candidate for any attribute in the poll.

Hillary simply cannot tell the truth. Here's her scorecard:

Admitted Lies

• Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (She was in bed watching it on TV.)
• Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary. (She admitted she was wrong. He climbed Mt. Everest five years after her birth.)
• She was under sniper fire in Bosnia. (A girl presented her with flowers at the foot of the ramp.)
• She learned in The Wall Street Journal how to make a killing in the futures market. (It didn't cover the market back then.)

Whoppers She Won't Confess To

• She didn't know about the FALN pardons.
• She didn't know that her brothers were being paid to get pardons that Clinton granted.
• Taking the White House gifts was a clerical error.
• She didn't know that her staff would fire the travel office staff after she told them to do so.
• She didn't know that the Peter Paul fundraiser in Hollywood in 2000 cost $700,000 more than she reported it had.
• She opposed NAFTA at the time.
• She was instrumental in the Irish peace process.
• She urged Bill to intervene in Rwanda.
• She played a role in the '90s economic recovery.
• The billing records showed up on their own.
• She thought Bill was innocent when the Monica scandal broke.
• She was always a Yankees fan.
• She had nothing to do with the New Square Hasidic pardons (after they voted for her 1,400-12 and she attended a meeting at the White House about the pardons).
• She negotiated for the release of refugees in Macedonia (who were released the day before she got there).

With a record like that, is it any wonder that we suspect her of being less than honest and straightforward?

Why has McCain jumped out to a nine-point lead over Obama and a seven-point lead over Hillary in the latest Rasmussen poll? OK, Obama has had the Rev. Wright mess on his hands. And Hillary has come in for her share of negatives, like the Richardson endorsement of Obama and the denouement of her latest lie -- that she endured sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia. But why has McCain gained so much in so short a period of time? Most polls had the general election tied two weeks ago.

McCain's virtues require a contrast in order to stand out. His strength, integrity, solidity and dependability all are essentially passive virtues, which shine only by contrast with others. Now that Obama and Hillary are offering images that are much weaker, less honest, and less solid and dependable, good old John McCain looks that much better as he tours Iraq and Israel while the Democrats rip one another apart.

It took Nixon for us to appreciate Jimmy Carter's simple honesty. It took Clinton and Monica for us to value George W. Bush's personal character. And it takes the unseemly battle among the Democrats for us to give John McCain his due.

When Obama faces McCain in the general election (not if but when) the legacy of the Wright scandal will not be to question Obama's patriotism or love of America. It will be to ask if he has the right stuff (pardon the pun).

The largest gap between McCain and Obama in the most recent USA Today/Gallup Poll was on the trait of leadership. Asked if each man was a "strong, decisive leader," 69 percent felt that the description fit McCain while only 56 percent thought it would apply to Obama. (61 percent said it of Hillary.) Obama has looked weak handling the Rev. Wright controversy. His labored explanation of why he attacks the sin but loves the sinner comes across as elegant but, at the same time, feeble. Obama's reluctance to trade punches with his opponents makes us wonder if he could trade them with bin Laden or Ahmadinejad. We have no doubt that McCain would gladly come to blows and would represent us well, but about Obama we are not so sure.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/hillarys_list_of_lies.html

N.J. Politics Roundup: Christie angry over Buono's remark; Rand Paul to stump for Lonegan

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday criticized state Sen. Barbara Buono, his Democratic opponent in this year's gubernatorial race, for making allusions to his weight at a recent campaign event.

An online video of the events shows Buono joking that images of the governor "frolicking on the beach" in his "Stronger than the Storm" TV commercials do not make her want to go to the Jersey Shore.

Rand Paul to stump for Lonegan next week, but Christie won't be there

TRENTON — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, who has publicly feuded with Gov. Chris Christie over national security and Hurricane Sandy relief, will be in New Jersey next week to campaign for Republican U.S. Senate nominee Steve Lonegan.

Lonegan’s campaign announced today that Paul (R-Ky.) will endorse Lonegan at a rally in Clark on Friday, Sept. 13.

Lonegan is running against the Democratic Newark Mayor Cory Booker in an Oct. 16 special election to fill the seat held by the late Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).

But expect the governor to be a no-show for the event. Christie told reporters during an unrelated press conference he has a getaway planned for his wife's 50th birthday.

I had to choose — it was a very tough choice ... but I had to choose between my wife and Rand Paul," Christie said. "And it’s Mary Pat’s 50th birthday that weekend and I’m taking her away, just the two of us for her 50th birthday. We’re leaving Friday morning, we won’t get back until Sunday night. And in a choice between Mary Pat Christie and Rand Paul, it’s no choice for me. So, I’ll be with Mary Pat."
 

Christie and Paul — both considered potential contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 — spent part of July sniping at each other through statements to the press.

The spat began when Christie, talking about national security, criticized a “strain of Libertarianism” in both parties. Paul then criticized Christie and other leaders of having a “gimme gimme gimme” attitude over Sandy aid, which caused Christie to accuse Paul of “pork barrel spending” in his own state. Paul then called Christie the “king of Bacon.”

Christie also spurned a peace offering from Paul to have a beer together.

Since Lonegan won the Republican nomination to succeed Lautenberg, Christie has endorsed him and campaigned for him. But the two have a tense history, having run against each other in the sometimes nasty 2009 GOP gubernatorial primary. And Lonegan often criticized Christie as governor.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/09/rand_paul_to_stump_for_lonegan_friday.html#incart_river

Sources: Christie invited to join Rand Paul at campaign event.

Will New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul finally bury the hatchet after their apparent feud?

The Daily Caller has learned that Christie has been invited to join Paul when the libertarian-leaning Republican travels to New Jersey for a campaign appearance next month.

Paul is heading to Clark, N.J., on Sept. 13 to campaign for Steve Lonegan, the Republican nominee in the state for the U.S. Senate. Lonegan, a former mayor, is running against Booker, the Democratic mayor of Newark.

A spokesman for Lonegan confirmed to TheDC on Monday that Paul will attend the ”Victory and Liberty Rally.” The campaign event is being organized by Lonegan’s Senate campaign, which has invited Christie to the event.

“Governor Christie has been invited, and we hope that his schedule will permit him to attend,” said spokesman Will Gattenby.

It’s not clear yet whether Christie will accept the invitation. Representatives for Christie didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from TheDC over the Labor Day weekend.

Paul’s trip to New Jersey comes after the two Republicans have gone back and forth recently on matters of foreign policy and national security. Within the party, Paul is viewed as non-interventionist. Christie is seen as hawkish.

Last month, Paul extended an olive branch of sorts — an invitation to Christie for a brew in D.C.

“I’m inviting him to a beer — anytime he would like to come down and sit down at the pub right around the corner from the Senate,” Paul said on Fox News.

But Christie appeared to decline Paul’s offer, at least for the moment, saying on the radio that he’s too busy running for re-election.

“I’m running for re-election in New Jersey, I don’t really have time for that at the moment,” Christie told a local radio host. “If I find myself down in Washington I’ll certainly look him up, but I don’t suspect I’ll be there anytime soon, I’ve got work to do here.”

Both Christie and Paul are thought of as potential candidates for president in 2016.

UPDATE: A spokesman for Christie says the governor will not be able to campaign with Paul due to a scheduling conflict. “The Governor and Mrs. Christie have longstanding plans to celebrate her 50th birthday over that weekend, so he will not be in attendance,” Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts told TheDC.

UPDATE II: Christie was also asked about Paul during an availability on Tuesday. “In a choice between Mary Pat Christie and Rand Paul, it’s no choice for me. So, I’ll be with Mary Pat.”

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Tags: Chris Christie, Cory Booker, Elections 2014, Elections 2016, New Jersey, Rand Paul, Steve Lonegan

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/02/sources-christie-invited-to-join-rand-paul-at-campaign-event/#ixzz2dqn7GgIw