Oct 21, 2014 5 min read

Wake Up To Politics - October 21, 2014

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!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014
14 Days Until Election Day 2014
749 Days Until Election Day 2016
It's Tuesday, October 21, 2014, 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, visit the site: wakeuptopolitics.com, or read my tweets: twitter.com/Wakeup2Politics.
White House Watch

Obama “Votes Early and Often” in Chicago. Well, Early Right after speaking at a campaign rally for Gov. Pat Quinn and Sen. Dick Durbin’s re-election campaigns in Chicago, President Barack Obama headed to his polling place to cast a ballot, on the first day of early voting in Illinois.
“I'm so glad I can early vote…I love voting. Everybody in Illinois, early vote. It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Obama said upon entering the polling place. When the President went to vote, a poll worker asked him if he was really Barack Obama. “That’s me,” he replied.
No word on who Obama voted for, though.
--- LINK: Jeffery Toobin (author of great books such as The Nine and The Oath) interviews the President on his legal legacy for the New Yorker. Toobin writes about the diversity and legacy of Obama’s judicial nominees, Supreme Court cases and appointments during Obama’s tenure, the nuclear option, and asks the President if he plans to pull a William Howard Taft and join the Supreme Court after leaving office

Capitol Hill News

West Africa Travel Ban to be Introduced Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) announced Monday he will introduce a bill temporarily banning travel to three West African countries infected by Ebola when the Senate returns in November.
Rubio’s bill, the first to put in writing an idea endorsed by many congressional Republicans, will temporarily prohibit new visas from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, three countries hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak.
This idea has a lot of support both on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, with The Hill counting 87 lawmakers publicly in favor of a travel ban – 76 Republicans, and 11 Democrats. In addition, a Washington Post/ABC News found 67% of those polled supporting a ban such as the one in Rubio’s bill.
Many Democrats, however, are opposing the ban, led by President Obama and his top officials at the CDC. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained the President’s opposition Thursday: “…If we were to put in place a travel ban or a visa ban, it would provide a direct incentive for individuals seeking to travel to the United States to go underground and to seek to evade this screening and to not be candid about their travel history in order to enter the country. And that means it would be much harder for us to keep tabs on these individuals and make sure that they get the screening that's needed to protect them and to protect, more importantly, the American public.”
--- LINK: Friend of the Wake Up Stephen Hatch, an infectious disease doctor, writes in The New York Times, on his inspirational decision to work at an Ebola clinic in Liberia.

Election Central

NC Could Become $100 Million Race North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race is expected to become the first $100 million contest in American history.
The race, between Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan and Republican Thom Tillis, has seen millions of dollars in ads from outside groups funded by wealthy donors like the George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, and the Koch brothers.
According to the Charlotte Observer, “money spent or committed in the race is poised to top $103 million,” a record for U.S. Senate races.

Today's Tidbit
A rundown of what's happening today

At 10 AM, President Obama receives the Presidential Daily Briefing.
At 11:55 AM, President Obama meets with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
At 12:30 PM, President Obama has his weekly lunch with Vice President Joe Biden.
At 3 PM, former President Bill Clinton returns to Kentucky for another rally with Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes.
At 4:30, President Obama will sit down with another Cabinet secretary, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
At 7 PM, Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist Malala Yousafzai, 17, will receive the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Yousafzai joins Nelson Mandela, Shimon Peres, Sandra Day O’Connor, Bono, and other luminaries in receiving the NCC’s Liberty Medal.
At 8 PM, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) faces off in a debate with her opponent, former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R).
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at a Denver rally for Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), and other Democratic candidates on the ballot in November.
All times local (the time zone the event is occurring in)

Question of the Day

Today’s Question Famed fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, who passed away Monday, dressed every First Lady since Jackie Kennedy…but until recently, refused to design for which First Lady (current or former)???
Answer This answer is from last week, when I asked who President Dwight Eisenhower was referring to when worrying he would “be [which U.S. President] – one term, no war, no greatness.”

The answer was Martin Van Buren, America’s 8^th President, who certainly fits the one term/no war formula.

And courtesy of subscriber Deb Dubin, I even have a Martin Van Buren cookie now. But he was so unextraordinary…that I ate him. If anything, he tasted pretty great. (See PDF format for exclusive picture of the Van Buren cookie)
Great job…Madge Treeger and Dave Whisenant, who both answered the question correctly. And honorable mention to Marlee Millman, who guessed Franklin Pierce, who was not in the Eisenhower quote, but was too lacking in a second term, war, and greatness. Guess Ike was just a Van Buren kind of guy.

Wake Up To Politics Dictionary
Czar (n.): Russian monarch In American politics, someone appointed by the President to oversee a particular issue. In the case of Ebola, someone to work solely on the U.S. response to the disease. This use of the term was created by American media, and has been used in this way since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency.
Ex: Drug czar (head of the Office of National drug Control Policy),Terrorism czar (Assistant to the President on terrorism policy).