Wake Up To Politics - September 29, 2015
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Wednesday, September 30, 2015
405 Days until Election Day 2016
124 Days until the Iowa Caucuses
28 Days until the Next Republican Debate
13 Days Until the 1st Democratic DebateIt's Wednesday, September 28, 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!!!
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.
Capitol Hill News
- Congress Plans to Avert Shutdown, Barely Government funding runs out at midnight tonight, and so far, neither house of Congress has passed a bill to avoid a government shutdown. That should change today.
- At 10 AM, the Senate passes H.R. 719, the clean "continuing resolution" (CR) that will fund the government through December 11. Then, the bill will be quickly taken over the House, which will have mere hours to pass the measure and send it to the President's desk for his signature.White House Watch
- The President's Schedule At 4:10 PM, President Obama will head to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building - the staff building in the White House complex - to speak to a group of Democratic state legislators from across the country.
2016 Central: Race to 1600
- Trail Talk: Quotes of the Day "Sorry - vice president. Well, could have been! Could be! Who knows? If you have some news to tell us here, please let us know." - Danish foreign minister Kristian Jensen to Vice President Joe Biden, after mistakenly referring to him as "Mr. President".
2016 Central: Race to Majority
- KY-1: Rep. Whitfield Announces Plans to Retire Rep. Edward Whitfield (R-KY) announced Monday that he plans to retire at the end of the current Congress, and will not run for a 12th term.
- Whitfield is one of five House Republicans who was first elected in the Republican Revolution of November 1994 and have served continuously since.
- Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer is expected to run to succeed Whitfield, and may announce as early as today. Comer ran for Kentucky governor last year, losing in the GOP primary by 83 votes.
- According to Roll Call, other potential candidates include state Sen. Max Wise, former Lt. Gov Robbie Rudolph, businessman Todd P'Pool, former Bush White House staffer Scott Jennings, and Whitfield's former chief of staff Cory Hicks. Whitfield's district director, Michael Pape, has already announced his campaign for the seat.
- Whitfield's seat, Kentucky's First Congressional District, is heavily Republican, and was won by John McCain with 62% of the vote in 2008, and by Mitt Romney with 66% of the vote in 2012.
- Many have speculated for months that Whitfield was on his way out, as the House Ethics Committee has been formally investigating since March his alleged coordination with his wife, a Humane Society lobbyist.
- The Kentucky congressman is the 9th member of the House to announce plans to retire at the end of the 114th Congress.Question of the Day
- Yesterday's Answer On Tuesday, the Wake Up To Politics trivia question was: Who was the last president of Cuba to visit the United States?
- The background for this question was that the current Cuban president, Raul Castro is currently in the U.S., which was just an infant organization when Prio Socarras visited in December 1948, the last time a President of Cuba stepped on U.S. soil. Socarras made stops in Annapolis, Maryland and New York City.
- Many of you answered with Fidel Castro's visits to the United States in 1959 or 1960, but...Castro was Prime Minister of Cuba during those visits, not President.
2016 Trends
- I've followed every presidential candidate on Twitter and Instagram, liked them all on Facebook, and subscribed to all of their mailing lists and YouTube pages. Here's what's trending among the presidential candidates:
- #DeadlineDay Midnight tonight is the deadline for donations to be counted by the FEC towards 3rd quarter fundraising reports, and the candidates do not want you to forget it. All of the 2016 candidates have sent a combined 7r emails just about the 3rd quarter fundraising deadline solely in the past few weeks (this is just a fraction of the emails they have sent in that time period, but I'm only counting ones that had the words "September 30th" or "fundraising deadline" or "FEC deadline" or some applicable variation in them). These emails have come from the candidates themselves, their mother (from Barbara Bush, mother of Jeb), and staffers, and include subject lines like "now is the time" (Jindal), "The *clock emoji* is ticking..." (Clinton), "I'm asking, Friend" (Bush), "Your time is important" (Christie), "Time is running out," then the next day, "48 hours left", and then the next day, "24 Hours" (Paul), "This is important" (O'Malley), "As real as it gets (Bush) . Many of these emails have featured offers from the candidates in exchange for a donation, such as Chris Christie's offer to meet face-to-face with a supporter over beer (subject line: "grab a beer?" which, in my case, is highly illegal). Martin O'Malley's campaign is auctioning off a chance to get a personalized song written and performed on guitar by the candidate. (subject line: *guitar emoji* He'll write you a song *guitar emoji*").
- The best deal, by far: That if you donate, that campaign wouldn't send any more emails for the rest of the month. The Jindal, Bush, and Rubio campaigns all sent these offers. These messages, with subject lines including "Too many political emails?" and "No more emails?", recognized that all the candidates were sending multiple fundraising requests, with the Bush campaign writing, "I’m guessing you have 15 other emails sitting in your inbox today from other Presidential candidates.Here’s why you should listen to this one," before launching into a pretty standard ask for money. Their estimate of 15 political emails in a day was actually pretty low.
- These offers of ending the seemingly-endless political email chain may have been tempting for some, until one realizes that a) the offer only goes to the end of the month, which was a week (or less) away from when all of these emails were sent and b) there is a "Unsubscribe" button at the bottom of every email campaigns sent, where you can end the emails yourself...for free
- #PlannedParenthood The fight to defund Planned Parenthood extends into the presidential race:
A video posted by Hillary Clinton (@hillaryclinton) on Sep 29, 2015 at 4:49pm PDT
A photo posted by Martin O'Malley (@martinomalley) on Sep 29, 2015 at 7:37am PDT
GOP should set up screens in DC playing Planned Parenthood videos so the left can’t deny they exist. https://t.co/mvtpJpXTpB
— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) September 29, 2015
Harvesting human organs to be sold like brake pads for a Buick is beyond barbaric, it's immoral, grotesque, & evil. #PlannedParenthood
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) September 29, 2015
#PlannedParenthood isn’t a "healthcare provider" any more than #Benghazi was a "spontaneous protest". pic.twitter.com/KrmyZsAY2B
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) September 29, 2015
- #Snowden Edward Snowden joined Twitter yesterday. Here's what two candidates had to say:
- #Snowden Edward Snowden joined Twitter yesterday. Here's what two candidates had to say:
.@Twitter is a great American company that should not give a platform to terrorists or traitors - @Jack shutdown @Snowden today.
— George E. Pataki (@GovernorPataki) September 29, 2015
Mr. @Snowden-Fed court ruled you're right! I'm the only presidential candidate who has vowed to bring you home, charges dropped. #chafee2016
— Lincoln Chafee (@LincolnChafee) September 29, 2015
- #DCEstablishment In the wake of Speaker Boehner's resignation, candidates rail against the DC establishment and the federal government:
It's time we #MakeDCListen! #DefundPlannedParenthood: https://t.co/LErUGUiI2I pic.twitter.com/zhpCQogxBG
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 29, 2015
### Are they a bunch of cowards? ###Enough is enough. President Obama thinks he can bully everyone around him and...
Posted by Rand Paul on Monday, September 28, 2015
Add your voice and tell Congress they need to do their job! https://t.co/yR8kGuz4Li #DearDC pic.twitter.com/EU0Pl4LrUh
— Chris Christie (@ChrisChristie) September 29, 2015
As governor, I experienced federal overreach firsthand. We need to shift power back to the states. http://t.co/QuFCaXTrZq
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) September 29, 2015
The American people are sick and tired with establishment politics, with establishment economics and with establishment media.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 29, 2015
- #NationalCoffeeDay Candidates mark the most important holiday of the year:
A photo posted by Hillary Clinton (@hillaryclinton) on Sep 29, 2015 at 12:18pm PDT
For #NationalCoffeeDay - Chip in $35+ today & get a complimentary #Kasich4Us coffee mug! http://t.co/G9Wnp2br4Z pic.twitter.com/TBONd9WFOK
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) September 29, 2015
- #Food Candidates post pics eating breakfast on the road, a Chicago-style hot dog, while Jeb Bush reminds us all about his diet:
Stopped by Portillo's/Barnelli's in Chicago. No ketchup ✅ Chicago style ✅ -John
Posted by John Kasich on Tuesday, September 29, 2015
A photo posted by Bobby Jindal (@bobbyjindal) on Sep 29, 2015 at 9:05am PDT
@chriswelch the bread is not paleo
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) September 29, 2015
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For more on Wake Up To Politics, listen to Gabe on NPR's "Talk of the Nation, the Political Junkie podcast, and St. Louis Public Radio; watch Gabe on MSNBC's "Up with Steve Kornacki, and read about Gabe in Politico, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Globe, and the St. Louis Jewish Light
