May 12, 2015 6 min read

Wake Up To Politics - May 12, 2015

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Tuesday, May 12, 2015
546 Days Until Election Day 2016It's Tuesday, May 12, 2015, I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
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White House Watch

Obama Presidential Center to Be Located in Chicago The Barack Obama Presidential Center, including his library and museum, will be built in Chicago, the Barack Obama Foundation announced Tuesday morning with a video featuring the Obamas.
The exact location of the library is unknown, although the Foundation announced it will be on Chicago’s South Side, on one of two park sites offered by the University of Chicago, where the president taught constitutional law.
New York and Hawaii also offered bids for the library, but ultimately, the Obamas chose his adopted hometown.
“All the strands of my life came together, and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago. That’s where I was able to apply that early idealism to try to work in the communities in public service,” the President says in the Foundation video. “That’s where I met my wife, that’s where my children were born, and the people there, the community, the lessons I learned, they’re all based right in this few square miles where we’ll be able to now give something back and bring the world back home after this incredible journey.”
The other bidders won’t walk away empty-handed, however. The Obama Foundation offices will be located in New York, on a West Harlem site offered by Columbia University. The Foundation will also have a presence in the proposed site of Obama’s birth state, the University of Hawaii, and at the University of Illinois – Chicago, which proposed placing the library in Chicago’s West Side.
The announcement, first made at 5 AM on the foundation website, will be discussed at a news conference at noon today in Chicago. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, and Martin Nesbitt, chairman of the foundation and a longtime Obama friend, will speak at the news conference.
“What kind of ex-president will Barack Obama be?” the Washington Post asks: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/what-kind-of-ex-president-will-barack-obama-be/2015/05/11/099f67b4-f7e9-11e4-a13c-193b1241d51a_story.html
The President’s Schedule At 11:30 AM, President Obama will participate in the Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit on Overcoming Poverty at Georgetown University. At the summit, Obama will take part in a discussion with Robert Putnam, a public policy professor at the Harvard JFK School of Government, and Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute; the discussion will be moderated by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr.
At 4:30 PM, the President will meet with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

Capitol Hill News

Senate: Schedule The Senate will hold a procedural vote today on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which would allow President Obama to fast-track his controversial 12-nation trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Support for the trade deal falls along party lines, but not the lines you may think: although the deal is supported by President Obama, it is opposed by most Democrats and supported by most Republicans. The vote today will serve as a test of the Obama White House’s lobbying prowess, as the president has gone all-out in support of the deal.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the rest of the Democratic leadership have split with their party chief, the President – but one senator, Ron Wyden, has the influence to push Democrats into the “yea” column. If Wyden, a co-author of TPA, votes “yea,” he will bring enough Senate Democrats along with him to advance the legislation. If he votes “no,” everyone returns to Square 1, and Senate Republicans will have to grant some concessions to progressives in hopes of getting them on their side.
Trade is one of the main issues contributing to the “Great Democratic Crack-Up of 2016,” as New York Times Magazine called it. That divide will be on full display today as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio unveils his “Progressive Agenda to Combat Income Inequality,” a progressive version of Newt Gingrich’s famed Contract with America, seen as a way to push Hillary Clinton left.
De Blasio will stand on the steps of the U.S. Capitol at 3 PM today to roll out the 13-paged agenda, joined by liberal lawmakers and labor leaders, including Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR); Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT); former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean; and others.
According to Politico, “Among the planks is a universal pre-kindergarten program, de Blasio’s signature policy…Other elements are aimed at helping working people ($15 minimum wage) and working parents (paid family leave), and proposals for “tax fairness” (increasing the tax on carried interest, a huge issue for private equity).
The rollout will have many implications on 2016. In fact, hours before the Capitol Hill rollout, de Blasio will appear at the National Press Club for an event with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. There are a number of groups pushing Warren to run for president, calls she has not asked to be ceased, and de Blasio has refused to endorse Hillary Clinton, despite managing her first Senate campaign.

Election Central

Race to 45: Rubio to Deliver Policy Speech Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will deliver his first policy speech since announcing a presidential campaign in New York City today.
Rubio’s address will be at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and will focus on “the international security challenges facing America in the 21st century, and the need for American leadership around the world,” according to the Rubio campaign. Afterwards, Charlie Rose, an achor at PBS and CBS, will join the Floridian for a discussion, and then Rubio will answer questions from CFR members.
Free-For-All Special Election in Mississippi Voters in Mississippi’s 1^st congressional district head to the polls today for the special election to succeed Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R), who died of a brain tumor at age 56 in February. The race is a free-for-all, with 13 candidates running in the blanket primary election, meaning all of them (regardless of party) run on the same ballot, and if no one reaches 50% (the expected outcome), the top two finishers advance to a June 2 runoff.
The district is very Republican, giving Mitt Romney 62% of the vote in 2012, and the runoff is expected to consist of two Republicans. Which ones? Mike Tagert, state Transportation Department Commissioner, and district attorney Trent Kelly were the early front-runners. But, now that 13 candidates have filed, the race is looking more like a free-for-all.
Tagert is supported by former Gov. Haley Barbour, who leads an influential Republican machine in the state, while Kelly has the backing of Nunnelee’s widow and staff. An added component to the race: physician Starner Jones, a Tea Partier with “the potential to take advantage of the split field and upend an otherwise sleepy special election,” the Cook Political Report writes.
Other candidates in the race: businessman Boyce Adams; former Jackson City councilman Quentin Whitwell; and attorney Walter Zinn, the only Democrat to file.

Question of the Day

Monday’s Answer The Wake Up To Politics trivia question from Monday was…what position did Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates once hold on Capitol Hill?
The answer is perhaps the lowers position on the congressional chain of command: House page – just another word for unpaid intern. Gates served as a page in 1972, and two years later co-founded Microsoft. At the company, Gates held the positions of chairman, CEO, and chief software architect, and is now the richest man in the world.
GREAT JOB…Joe Bookman!