White House Correspondents Insider
Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.
At a Bloomberg Politics Breakfast Briefing in Des Moines this morning, Senator Bernie Sanders said he thinks he’ll win next week’s Iowa caucuses as long as people who’ve been attending his rallies actually show up to vote, though he stopped short of saying he expects a victory.
“We will win if the turnout is large,” the Vermont senator said. “If the turnout is not large, we’re going to be struggling.”
It looks like President Obama has gotten the podcast bug. Last fall he spoke with podcaster, Marc Maron and now Politico’s Glenn Thrush sat down with Barack Obama in the latest episode of his Off Message podcast. Obama spoke candidly for the first time about the coming presidential election, even weighing in on the fight between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, and reflected on his own experience campaigning in Iowa in 2008.
Thrush asked, “Do you see any elements of what you were able to accomplish in what Sanders is doing?”
Obama responded, “Well, there’s no doubt that Bernie has tapped into a running thread in Democratic politics that says: Why are we still constrained by the terms of the debate that were set by Ronald Reagan 30 years ago?”
He went on to suggest Sanders will be put under spotlight if he wins any of the early contests. “I think that if Bernie won Iowa or won New Hampshire, then you guys are going to do your jobs and, you know, you’re going to dig into his proposals and how much they cost and what does it mean, and, you know, how does his tax policy work and he’s subjected, then, to a rigor that hasn’t happened yet.” He went on to say, “Bernie is somebody who —although I don’t know as well because he wasn’t, obviously, in my administration, has the virtue of saying exactly what he believes, and great authenticity, great passion, and is fearless. His attitude is, ‘I got nothing to lose.’”
Speaking about the Democratic frontrunner Obama said, “I think Hillary came in with the — both privilege and burden of being perceived as the frontrunner. ”
“I’ve gotten to know Hillary really well, and she is a good, smart, tough person who cares deeply about this country, and she has been in the public eye for a long time and in a culture in which new is always better. And, you know, you’re always looking at the bright, shiny object that people don’t, haven’t seen before. That’s a disadvantage to her.”
Obama reflected on his days campaigning in Iowa. According to the President, “The caucus process in Iowa was, for me, the most satisfying political period of my career, just in terms of campaigning and politics. And the reason was that it vindicated — in my mind, at least — my view of what politics should be.”
You can listen to Glenn Thrush’s Off Message podcast here.
Rachel Greenberg of Volta Insider recently sat down with Jason Hanley, Director of Education at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, to discuss his work, the museum, and music’s role in the 2016 election.
Speaking about some of the ways in which American politics intersects with rock music Hanley said, “Rock and roll musicians have a voice, they have a microphone that lets them speak to potentially millions of people, the power of that is that they can give voice to different opinions.”
When asked about the possibility of rock music having an influence on this year’s election, Hanley pointed to the recent story of Neil Young protesting the use of his song at a Donald Trump event. According to Hanley, “The closer you get to the election a lot of musicians are going to start coming out and talking about what they’re interested in. You’re going to get a lot of musicians, particularly in their live performances talking about what’s happening.” Hanley also pointed to the Rock the Vote campaign of the 2004 election cycle, Bob Dylan’s music from the early 60’s, and the numerous works created by rock and roll artists in response to the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as examples of the music world colliding with American politics.
Hanley and Greenberg also discussed the museum’s youth outreach and educational programs. Hanley says, “We have live programming that we do in the theater where we teach about the history of music.” Among the other educational programs the museum provides are demonstrations, which are often taught by Hanley himself, screenings of classic performances, and a free online classroom. “We get to teach the history and the significance of rock and roll, it’s an American art form.”
Greenberg asked Hanley about the compatibility of the audio medium in the context of a museum which is seen traditionally as suiting visual arts. Hanley responded by suggesting that the museum utilizes visual components such as film in order to “see performance in context”. The museum also features key artifacts from music history such as Ringo Starr’s drum set and Jimi Hendrix’s guitar. According to Hanley, “The thing people really connect with are handwritten lyrics, for a lot of visitors that’s a glimpse into the creative process.”
The rock historian also discussed the future of music innovation and the recent advances in music technology and accessibility, “Instead of someone picking up a guitar they’re picking up an iphone”. When Greenberg pressed him on the ever-expanding tastes of music listeners, especially in the world of rap music Hanley said, “hip hop is part of what we honor here at the museum” though he makes a point that the museum has a waiting period of 25 years after an album is released before they consider any particular artist’s contributions to the greater community. On making music in the 21st century Hanley says, “it’s an amazing time and a daunting time” to have access to so much music and for unknown artists to make a name for themselves on platforms like SoundCloud and YouTube.
Listen the Volta Insider podcast here and watch it here. Rachel Greenberg is a junior at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland.
Photo by Matthew Staver, Bloomberg
In a new Quinnipiac University poll of likely Iowa Republican caucus participants, Ted Cruz has moved to second place with 23%, doubling his support from October. The Texas senator has now moved within the margin of error of frontrunner Donald Trump, who received 25% of support. Ben Carson’s numbers have fallen dramatically since October, down 10 points, from a high of to 18%, while Senator Marco Rubio’s support remains static at 13%. Jeb Bush received 4% of support, just one point above Senator Rand Paul.
Quinnipiac finds near-universal opposition from Iowa Republicans when it comes to accepting Syrian refugees into the US, with likely voters siding 5-1 in opposition. Iowans think Trump is best when it comes to economic issues (49%), and combating terrorism (30%), while 24% of likely caucus-goers say Cruz is best at tackling foreign policy.
Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll said of the race, “Last month, we said it was Dr. Ben Carson’s turn in the spotlight. Today, the spotlight turns to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. The Iowa Republican Caucus has become a two-tiered contest: Businessman Donald Trump and neurosurgeon Ben Carson lead on the outsider track, and Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio lead among party insiders.”
Bloomberg Politics reporter John McKormick says, “even after months of candidate visits and millions of dollars in campaign ads, many Iowa Republicans interviewed this week don’t seem anywhere close to making their final decision, even though the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses are less than two months away.”
With less than two months till the February 1st Iowa caucus, the air war in the Hawkeye State is ramping up. The months of October and November have seen the biggest number of campaign ads as the race tightens. In light of the shifting polls, expect even more ad spending in Iowa as the date of the caucus nears.
During an “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” appearance, Chrys Kefalas announced his candidacy to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate.
ICYMI: @CKefalas announced his U.S. Senate run ON THE RECORD tonight @FoxNews #mdsen
https://t.co/FvNVJnjwwY
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) December 2, 2015
The race is for retiring Senator Barbara Mikulski’s seat. Kefalas, a Republican, comes from a Greek-American Baltimore family of lifelong Democrats. He served as an aide and speech writer for former Attorney General Eric Holder and was legal counsel to former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich.
In 2011, Kefalas testified in support of a same-sex marriage bill that was before a Maryland Senate subcommittee. He would become the first openly gay Republican elected to either house of Congress if he were to win the 2016 general election.
Mark Blumenthal will leave his post as senior editor at The Huffington Post to join SurveyMonkey as its first head of election polling.
via politico.com:
“The move is a sign that, amid a period of intense change in the way pollsters collect data, SurveyMonkey — which began as a simple online survey tool — is beefing up its political polling.
“SurveyMonkey has spent the past few years trying to leverage the millions of people who participate in surveys on its website — with clients from Little League coaches to large corporations — into the political space. At the same time, as traditional telephone polling has faltered following the growth of cellphones and Americans’ increasing unwillingness to participate in polls, online surveys are more accepted now than they have been in past election cycles.”
“I’ve known Mark for a long time, and the opportunity came up to have him spearhead our efforts,” said Jon Cohen, vice president of survey research at SurveyMonkey. “Mark has been the foremost chronicler over the past decade of the changes in our industry.”
“We’re investing in elections by leveraging the unique data sources that we have, and how we can parlay that into changing survey research more broadly,” Cohen said.
Read more via politico.com: SurveyMonkey swipes HuffPost’s Blumenthal to expand election polling
Analytics platform, Zignal Labs, provided analysis of last night’s Democratic presidential debate hosted by CNN.
Tracking more than 2.2 million mentions during the two-hour event, following is Zignal’s breakdown of mentions by candidate.
The following chart reveals some of the highlights from the evening.
Republican candidates couldn’t resist adding their commentary to the online debate. Donald Trump earned the most attention of the GOP hopefuls with his live tweeting:
While #BlackLivesMatter was the most tweeted about issue of the night:
The following graph shows the most frequently mentioned foreign policy issues across social and traditional media among those writing about the debate through the first segment.
And the following map shows how Twitter exploded with Bernie Sanders mentions after he addressed the question of whether or not he was a socialist.
Read More:
Bernie Sanders got more online buzz than any other candidate in Democratic debate
The Daily 202: Hillary Clinton won the debate (and six other takeaways from Las Vegas)
James Carville threw his support behind Hillary Clinton with a fundraising email sent to supporters in advance of tonight’s CNN debate featuring Democratic presidential candidates.
The number one thing us Hillary supporters need to do to get ready for the first debate is let her know we’re with her.
Donate $1 or whatever you can to become a Debate Donor and join the group of folks who pledge to stand with Hillary during this important moment in the campaign. No flash cards or policy prep-work required.
An article in the New York Times reports on the recent decline of media attention for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump:
“When Donald J. Trump responded in July to criticism from one of his Republican rivals, Senator Lindsey Graham, by publicly releasing the South Carolina lawmaker’s cellphone number, the public and the press could not get enough of the jaw-dropping stunt.
“But on Monday, when Mr. Trump sent a case of Trump brand bottled water to Senator Marco Rubio’s campaign office — poking fun at the Florida senator’s sweaty debate performance and penchant for chugging water — the prank fell notably flat.”
According to San Francisco-based media analytics company, Zignal Labs, the water prank generated only 7,500 mentions in print, broadcast and social media compared to 34,000 mentions garnered by the previous cellphone gag.
“It’s kind of a like a season of TV shows — eventually people burn out on them,” said Erick Erickson, a conservative commentator who runs RedState.com. “We’ve had a season of Trump and the plot hasn’t changed, there’s no new twist, and people are starting to move on to other TV shows.”
Zignal Labs also found that “as Mr. Trump’s share of media attention declined, both Mr. Carson and Mrs. Fiorina saw their shares increase.”
“It’s an interesting question of who is losing who,” said Josh Ginsberg, chief executive of Zignal Labs. “Are voters reacting off of conservative media, or is conservative media reacting off of voters?”
Read the article on nytimes.com: Donald Trump’s Bombast Seems to Be Wearing Out Its Welcome
The top eleven GOP presidential hopefuls met again Thursday night for a 180 minute long debate performance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
Before the debate even began, CNN helped set a new tone through their decision to alter their criteria for determining which candidates were included in the primary and secondary debates. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO, Carly Fiorina, benefited from this rule change, which made her the only female candidate on the stage and a fresh addition for audiences watching around the country.
Unlike the first debate, where the moderators themselves ended up in headline news, CNN moderators Jake Tapper, Hugh Hewitt and Dana Bash kept the fiery exchanges between the candidates themselves. Many questions were formatted to include criticisms candidates had previously made about each other, which provided ample opportunity for the politicians to bicker and spar.
Some of the evening’s biggest topics included foreign policy, tax hikes and drug policy. Senator Marco Rubio spoke with ease about foreign policy issues, along with Carly Fiorina, who as a Washington “outsider” contrasted herself against Donald Trump, whose blunder earlier this summer some thought showed his lack of foreign policy knowledge.
Donald Trump found himself in the crossfire for much of the first portion of the debate and refused to falter one his one-liner punches and bickering with fellow candidates. After Senator Rand Paul accused him of relying on personal attacks, The Donald responded, “I never attacked him on his look, and believe me, there’s plenty of subject matter right there.” He also told former Governor Jeb Bush he showed “more energy” during the debate, which followed his popular critique of the Florida politician that stole headlines much of the summer.
Despite his common, unpredictably remarks, Trump’s overall performance review is mixed. The Washington Post reports that while Fiorina stood out on the crowded debate, Trump nonetheless remains the center of attention. However, Buzzfeed writes that “Donald Trump did not appear fully in control.”
However, Trump did grab 18 minutes of talk-time during the evening. Bush closely followed with 17 minutes, trailed by Ben Carson and Fiorina with approximately 13 minutes. Scott Walker, who was an expected front-runner, spoke the least amount of time with 8 and a half minutes. Governor John Kasich allotted about 9 minutes for himself, however attempted to separate himself from the bickering pack by stating early on, “If I were sitting at home and watch thing back and forth, I’d be inclined to turn it off.”
CNN’s live stream of the debate attracted a record number of nearly one million viewers and the live television broadcast is expected to bring CNN its largest cable audience ever.
To read more about last night’s debate, read Politico’s six important takeaways and The New York Times’ opinion on the most significant moments.
The next primary debate will belong to the Democrats. Tune in to CNN on Tuesday, October 3rd when candidates will take the stage in Las Vegas.
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