Nov 30, 2015 7 min read

Wake Up To Politics - November 30, 2015

To read today's edition of Wake Up To Politics in a PDF format, click here. Continue reading to find the text of the Wake Up in the body of the email!

Monday, November 30, 2015
63 Days until the Iowa Caucuses
344 Days Until Election Day 2016 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!!!
To send me questions, comments, tips, new subscribers, and more: email me at wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com. To learn more about WUTP and subscribe, visit the site: wakeuptopolitics.com, or like me on Twitter and Facebook. More ways to engage with WUTP at the bottom. White House Watch

The President’s Schedule President Barack Obama arrived in Paris late Sunday night, joining 146 other world leaders at the opening of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The goal of the conference, which opens today and lasts through December 11, is to produce a legally binding climate accord, agreed to by every nation in the world, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring the global temperature does not increase above 2°C. Many nations have been negotiating for months on such an agreement; over 40,000 negotiators from 196 nations have descended in Paris for this summit to discuss the 20-page draft agreement that has already been crafted.
President Obama has a lot in stake at Paris: he hopes to make the climate deal that emerges a key part of his legacy.
The first item on Obama’s Paris schedule this morning is a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “U.S. cooperation with China is absolutely essential to successful efforts to combat climate change,” a White House spokesman said last Tuesday. “The two leaders meeting at the beginning of this process, as the two largest emitters, sends a strong message to the world about their shared commitment to combat climate change and to achieve an ambitious agreement.”
Next, President Obama will attend the opening ceremony of the UN summit, where he will give a statement, as will Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China’s Xi, and other world leaders.
All the world leaders will then have lunch together, hosted by French President Francois Hollande.
The President is then scheduled to meet with India’s Modi, following up on U.S. “[engagements] with India throughout the year in determining how they can contribute constructively to a successful outcome in Paris,” according to the White House. The United States and India are #2 and #4, respectively, on the list of top CO₂ emission sources.
Finally, President Obama will have dinner with President Hollande to “review the progress being made in the climate discussions…[and] to continue the discussions…about the counter-ISIL campaign,” according to the White House. While the topic of today’s summit is climate change, the issue of terrorism is inescapable in light of the terrorist attacks that rocked Paris earlier this month. To pay respects to the victims of those attacks, President Obama visited Bataclan concert hall Sunday night, one of the sites of the Paris attacks, where 90 were killed.

2016 Central

Today on the Trail Your rundown on what the 2016 presidential candidates are doing today:
Jeb Bush will be the guest speaker at the Clinton County Republicans Annual Fall Event in Goose Lake, Iowa.
Chris Christie will hold a town hall meeting at the London Fire Department in London, New Hampshire; unveil his Law Enforcement Coalition in Concord, New Hampshire; and hold a business roundtable luncheon in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he will receive the coveted endorsements of real estate developer Renee Plummer, and her husband Dan, both key GOP activists in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
Hillary Clinton will attend a Women for Hillary fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The event will include remarks by 13 of the 14 Democratic women senators - all but Elizabeth Warren (MA), one of five Senate Democrats who has not endorsed Clinton, and the only female holdout. Warren has indicated plans to endorse in the Democratic presidential primary, meaning she could back Clinton, or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is supported by many progressive Democrats who urged the Massachusetts senator to run for President.
Ted Cruz will end his three-day tour of Iowa with town hall meetings in Clinton, Bettendorf, and Coralville. The Coralville event will also feature Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), one of the 11 members of Congress to endorse Cruz, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Mike Huckabee will hold an event at Tom and Tiff's Family Restaurant in Glenwood, Iowa and a town hall meeting with students, parents, and teachers at Sidney Community Schools in Sidney, Iowa, focused on “taking back our schools”.
John Kasich will speak at a forum co-hosted by ACT (the Iowa-based organization that produces the college preparedness test) and the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (IAICU). The forum will focus on "the most pressing education and workforce policies facing the nation," according to ACT, and is one of many such events being held by ACT and IAICU this election cycle. Every presidential candidate, from both parties, have been invited to address a ACT/IAICU at colleges and universities across Iowa; Ben Carson is the only other candidate who has accepted thus far. The forum featuring Kasich will be held at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and will include questions from the audience and Iowa Public Radio host Dean Borg. Later today, Kasich will hold a town hall meeting at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.
Martin O'Malley will end a two-day tour of New Hampshire with a Meet and Greet in Somersworth, a town hall in North Conway, and tour the U.S. headquarters of Velcro, Inc. in Manchester.
Rand Paul will mark his formal entry into the Kentucky caucus with a rally in Louisville. Republicans in the Bluegrass State normally hold a primary for its presidential preference vote, but Paul's campaign pushed the Kentucky GOP to instead hold a caucus, which allows Paul to run for President and for re-election to the U.S. Senate. The state Republican Party agreed on one condition: Paul is paying for all the costs of holding a caucus, already having put down $250,000 as part of the deal.
Marco Rubio will “share his vision for a New American Century” at a town hall meeting at a VFW post in Laconia, New Hampshire and attend an event hosted by former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, as part of his “No BS Backyard BBQ” series. After losing his bid for a full term in the U.S. Senate, Brown moved to New Hampshire and ran to represent the Granite State in the Senate in 2014, which he lost. Brown has since attempted to cement a role as a kingmaker in the 2016 presidential election, hosting seven Republican candidates for “No BS BBQ” house parties. Rubio will be the eighth GOP candidate to attend a Brown event, joining Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, and George Pataki.
Rick Santorum will visit two South Carolina business today, BaushLinnemann (a woodworking manufacturer in Myrtle Beach) and PTR Industries (a gun manufacture in Aynor), where he will take tours and visit with executives and employees; speak at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina; and deliver the keynote address at a Christians United for Israel (CUFI) event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. CUFI is the largest U.S. pro-Israel group.
Donald Trump will headline a rally in Macon, Georgia, at the Macon Centreplex Coliseum and Convention Center, which seats over 9,000.

Capitol Hill News

Senate: Today The Senate votes to confirm Gayle Smith to be Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ending a nine-month-long drought of leadership at USAID.
Smith, currently a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director at the National Security Council, was nominated to lead USAID in April of this year, following the previous Administrator’s February resignation. Her confirmation will be voted on today after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released his hold on the nomination, which he had previously blocked (along with all other State Department nominee) due to the Iran nuclear deal.
House: Today The House votes on nine different bills: including the Grassroots Rural and Small Community Water Systems Assistance Act, the Strengthening State and Local Cyber Crime Fighting Act, the Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act, the PRISM Act, the Billy Frank Jr. Tell Your Story Act, and the Breast Cancer Research Stamp Reauthorization Act of 2015, among other measures.