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Masters in Politics: Stuart Stevens Predicts Gingrich as Trump’s VP

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Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, the site of the RNC where Donald Trump will announce his VP pick

Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, the site of the RNC where Donald Trump will announce his VP pick

The hosts of Bloomberg Masters in Politics caught up with Stuart Stevens, author and top strategist on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign to discuss his new book The Innocent Have Nothing to Fear, a fictional depiction of a contested convention set in 2020, and get his thoughts on Donald Trump’s general election strategy, including making a prediction about his Vice Presidential pick.

According to Stevens, “If I had to bet, I would bet on Newt for all kinds of reasons. He’s been through this process and it’s something that’s unique to the process of running. He’s a known quantity. He can be a formidable debater and I think that the relationship between Trump and he would be a comfortable one.”

Stevens had some harsh words for the Republican presidential nominee saying, “I don’t think Donald Trump thinks, I think he feels. He just emotes. He literally is just incapable of expressing coherent thoughts unaided by a script. He can’t argue a case in 5 logical sentences. Everything is about him. He reacts to everything. It’s one of the reasons I thought he would be so easy to beat, and I think he’s going to go down to historic defeat. He responds to everything. If I was in a campaign against Donald Trump I’d have three or four teams of people who are competing with each other to get Donald Trump to react to whatever they do. Every weekend I’d take the group that won the most out to dinner.”

You can check out the full interview here.

VP Gore Launches Political Comeback

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As published in the Huffington Post:

Vice President Al Gore made a stunning, unexpected return to politics for the 2012 Iowa Caucus as a political analyst for his own cable channel, Current TV.

For those who migrated over to watch Keith Olbermann, there was a moment of shock and awe as the former vice president and 2000 presidential candidate gave his political views on the Republican candidates, Supreme Court decisions, Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and the perils of being called a “flip flopper.”

With hands pressed together, fingers intertwined, and wearing a sports coat with an open collar French blue shirt, VP Gore pointed out the “most significant endorsement of the day” occurred outside of Iowa: Rupert Murdoch electrified the Twitteratti with his tacit endorsement of candidate Rick Santorum as the “only candidate with genuine big vision” for the United States. Gore went on to point out the political impact for all the candidates of the Murdoch tweets saying, “Romney cannot be very happy.” With his analyst hat squarely on his head, Gore reminded the audience of Senator Santorum’s very big loss in his re-election bid in Pennsylvania: “For an incumbent to lose by 18 points…. the vulnerabilities in his record is responsible for the 18-point loss.”

Gore was angry when he talked about Ron Paul’s comments about race saying, “The messages were so shockingly racist, outright racist. It’s just not enough to let that stand there when there are things beyond the newsletters…. I think we are kidding ourselves.”

Surrounded by unidentified “Young Turks” and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, Gore reminded the audience of how his re-election campaign bloodied GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole “in 1996 because the Clinton Gore campaign ran a lot of ads in the heartland… against Dole.”

He compared it to the negative ads run by independent groups against Gingrich in Iowa saying, “that opened the proverbial flood gates… devastating on Newt Gingrich.”

The former vice president seemed to struggle to be measured about Gingrich, stating, “He has an interesting mind. I am trying to be charitable. I don’t think we have seen the last of him. Unlike the proverbial cat he probably only has three lives… he has a role to play in this unfolding drama.”

When asked by Current TV host Cenk Uygur if Gingrich will survive this, Gore replied, “He still has something to say,” and with a nod “the media on all sides has an interest in keeping this going. He will go to South Carolina and probably Florida.”

Gore spoke directly to Democrats saying that, “Should they count so much corporate money and special interest money trying to defeat president Obama we cannot lose sight of how it tilts the playing field,” with this final warning, “And nobody knows where it comes from.”

Like the veteran vote counter he is, Gore points out: “It’s no long winner take all before March 1 on the republican side. It stays that way… that is the delegates they will get and it still gives a slingshot effect. The person that wins, gets the prize. It’s still a significant thing to come in first.” No one in politics knows the pain and truth of these words more than Vice President Gore.

Welcome back to politics, Mr. Vice President.

Tammy Haddad, President, Haddad Media, co-founder, White House Correspondents Insider, and former MSNBC Vice President for Washington.


Meyers and McCurry Host Junior Statesman of America

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Dan Meyers and Jeff Harris host JSA Event

Junior Statesmen Foundation and Junior State of America alumni and friends gathered at the Arlington home of Dan Meyers and Kevin Latek last week to hear a presentation from the CEO of the Junior Statesmen Foundation, Jeff Harris. The event was held to raise awareness of the Junior Statesmen organization, which provides opportunities to educate high school students on the American political system throughout the DC area.

“Our challenge is getting high school students to be excited about their government, their chance to participate, their chance to make a difference,” said Harris. “JSA is all about giving high school students the skills, the knowledge that they need to become active, involved participants in our democracy for the rest of their lives.

Mike McCurry, the former Press Secretary to President Clinton and JSA alum, co-hosted the “friendraiser” along with fellow JSA veteran Dan Meyers, Rich Galen, Sarah Hoffman, Junelle Cavero, Andy Green and Tammy Haddad. He told the gathering that his first and only political campaign was through the Junior Statesmen of America Foundation while he was still in high school. McCurry ran for the position of Junior Governor of California, which he won.

“[JSA] is a program unlike some of the others that I think many [people] are familiar with… this one actually allows people to be involved, get involved, and really learn by doing,” said McCurry.

Dan Meyers joined the JSA when he was a student in Ohio. Today, he serves on the JSA board and sees it as his way of giving back to the foundation for the support it gave him throughout his high school years.

“The foundation is something that is very close to my heart,” Meyers said. “It’s something that inspired me to get involved in politics.

Guests included JS Board members Doug Bailey, Chris Dunn, JSA staff alum David Mark, Susan Sher, the former FLOTUS Chief of Staff, Jessica Stuart, Junelle Cavero, CEO of Blue Knot Strategies LLC; the divine Chris Edwards, wowed the crowd with the families fabulous Edward Marc Chocolates.

Check out photos from the event below:

Gingrich Attacks White House Correspondents

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A Preview of the 2012 Presidential Race?

Fox News analyst and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich trashed the White House press corps during a Friday appearance on Greta Van Sustern’s show, “On The Record.” Gingrich claimed the White House correspondents have “taken such a pathetic dive with this President that they ought to be part of his PR firm. I mean it’s embarrassing to watch.”

Republicans have often railed against a perceived left-wing bias among mainstream media reporters and it appears they’ll continue that refrain during the Obama administration, but will it be a major campaign theme for Republicans?

In the interview, conducted at Mount Vernon, Gingrich quipped: “If you didn’t know better, you’d think that he was practicing with his own public affairs people for the future press conferences. These look like practice sessions; they don’t look like real press conferences.”