As we've mentioned, we'll be taking a break -- beginning tomorrow -- for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. We'll return bright and early Monday, although we'll update the blog as news warrants.
Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
From NBC's Ali Weinberg Local pollster and analyst Floyd Ciruli tells Human Events that the state's Republican Party "has unified at a very early stage" of the 2010 campaigns. Two GOP gubernatorial contendors, Josh Penry and Tom Tancredo, declined to run and have endorsed former Rep. Scott McInnis. And yesterday, the state party unveiled "a conservative set of principles aimed at boosting the party's prospects in 2010 just as the Contract with America did for House Republicans in 1994." Connecticut's musical chairs game continues, the Hartford Courant says. The latest to switch races is Sam Caligiuri, who was until this afternoon running for the Republican Senate nomination. He'll now be campaigning for the state's 5th Congressional seat. In a statement, Caligiuri wrote: "I have been joined in that race by other Republican candidates for whom I have come to have a great deal of respect, and who I have concluded are in a better position than I am to defeat Senator Dodd." Chris Cilizza, another Connecticut Republican running for the Senate -- former Ambassador Tom Foley -- issued a statement "making clear" that he may switch from the Senate to the gubernatorial race. "I have had a number of conversations with people who are encouraging me to consider running for Governor because they believe I could better serve Connecticut today as Governor than as a Senator," he said, adding that he will make an announcement on his plans next week." KENTUCKY: Having "cleared the $2 million fundraising marker," Attorney General Jack Conway holds more than a two to one cash advantage over his primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, Conway's camp announced today.
From NBC's Mark Murray Nancy Pelosi , Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg , Sen. Chris Dodd , and Sen. Claire McCaskill .
Among the members of the media: NBC's Brian Williams, CBS's Katie Couric, the New York Times' Tom Friedman, CNN's Sanjay Gupta, and ABC's Robin Roberts.
Among the celebrities/moguls: David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Gayle King, M. Night Shyamalan, and Steven Spielberg.
Below is the entire list...
The President & First Lady Michelle Obama
From NBC's Mark Murray Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor for "standing up to the insurance industry" and voting to proceed on debating the Senate health-care bill.
But HCAN is also airing a TV ad in Nebraska blasting GOP Sen. Mike Johanns for voting to block debate on the bill. "Johanns voted to stop the debate on health insurance reform from even taking place," the ad's narrator says. "So who’s he really working for? The health insurance industry."
From NBC's Athena Jones President Obama said he would announce his troop decision soon and declared his intention to finish a job that began more than eight years ago.
The main goal in the region remains the same: to destroy and dismantle al Qaeda and prevent the group and its extremist allies from operating effectively. After Thanksgiving -- and likely as soon as Dec. 1 -- the president plans to explain the rationale behind his decision to send what it expected to be thousands more troops to Afghanistan.
"After eight years, some of those years in which we did not have I think either the resources or the strategy to get the job done, it is my intention to finish the job," Obama said today at a joint news conference with India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh . "And I feel very confident that when the American people hear a clear rationale for what we're doing there and how we intend to achieve our goals, that they will be supportive."
During the campaign, then-candidate Obama frequently painted Afghanistan as the good war, a war of necessity, arguing that too much focus on a war of choice in Iraq had robbed the effort in Afghanistan of vital resources. His troop announcement, which could come in the form of a primetime address, will include discussion of the obligations of the broader international community in defeating extremists in the region and about helping to make sure the Afghan people are ultimately able to provide for their own security.
Pakistan will play an important role in any strategy Obama announces, and the president acknowledged that the United States had focused too much in the past on military assistance to the country -- to the detriment of helping it develop the kind of civil society necessary for a country to thrive. Obama said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had made progress in helping to refocus energies in that area, and he talked about the important progress Pakistan has made in recognizing the threat of extremism.
"Pakistan has an enormously important role in the security of region by making sure that the extremist organizations that often operate out of territories are dealt with effectively," he said.
He added that recent efforts by Pakistan's military to combat extremists in the Swat Valley showed a realization that "extremism, even if initially directed to the outside, can ultimately also have an adverse impact on their security internally. So my hope is that, over time, what we're going to see is further clarity and further cooperation between all the parties and all people's of good will in the region to eradicate terrorist activity."
Before the brief Q&A with reporters at today's press conference, both President Obama and Prime Minister Singh made statements about the importance of the U.S.-India partnership on issues ranging from the global economic recovery and trade to climate change. Obama stressed the need for the two countries to work closely together on nuclear non-proliferation and counterterrorism.
Obama said the fact that the first state visit of his presidency is from India's prime minister "reflects the high esteem" he and the American people place on Singh's leadership and the importance of the partnership between the world's two biggest democracies, a relationship he called one of the "defining partnership of the 21st century."
The president said he had discussed his Afghanistan review with Singh, and he thanked the prime minister for India's contributions to the Afghan people.
"It is important for the international community to sustain its engagement in Afghanistan to help its emergence as a modern state," Singh said during his opening statement. "The forces of terrorism in our region pose a grave threat to the entire civilized world and have to be defeated."
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro New York Times' Nagourney makes a good point about why that GOP purity test might be a bad idea -- for those who care about winning -- for the party.
He takes a look at how it would affect, for example, moderate congressman Mike Castle , who is Republicans' best chance at winning Vice President Joe Biden 's former Senate seat in Delaware:
Mr. Castle in many ways is a text-book example of why some Republicans think the party should avoid such purity tests. He appears to be, without dispute, the strongest candidate that the party could win to take back the seat.
But in the course of his career, he has taken positions on abortion, energy and gun control that could, at least in theory, lead Republicans to argue that he has failed the test laid out in the resolution. If that were the case, the Republican National Committee might have to sit-out a Castle-Biden race.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro AP , of what's happening in the Philippines:
Two southern provinces were placed under emergency rule Tuesday as Filipino security forces unearthed more bodies from one of the worst incidents of election violence in the nation's history, pushing the death toll to 46. Police and soldiers found 22 bodies in a hillside mass grave Tuesday, adding to the 24 bullet-riddled bodies recovered near the scene of Monday's massacre in Maguindanao province, said Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna of the Central Mindanao region.
This southern region of the Philippines is wracked by violent political rivalries, in addition to a long-running Islamic insurgency, but the killings have shocked this Southeast Asian nation. One adviser to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has described the massacre as the worst in the country's recent history. A media rights watchdog also says that it appears to be the world's worst mass killing of journalists, with as many as 23 feared dead. ... Dozens of gunmen abducted the group of journalists, supporters and relatives of a gubernatorial candidate as they traveled through Amputuan township Monday to file candidacy documents in the provincial capital for May 2010 elections.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Bloomberg News headlined one of their stories this way: "Harvard? Yale? No, Delaware School Is New Epicenter of Politics."
That's because both Steve Schmidt (who ran day-to-day operations for the McCain campaign), David Plouffe (Obama 's campaign manager), as well as Obama's vice presidential running mate Joe Biden all attended the University of Delaware, about an hour and a half north of the Beltway. (Biden's the only one of the three to graduate. Schmidt and Plouffe both left early. New Jersey's governor-elect, Republican Chris Christie , is also a Blue Hen.)
Now, Delaware is trying to capitalize on that momentum and has launched a new Center for Political Communication, which will include the Delaware Public Opinion Poll. Schmidt and Plouffe were both named fellows.
"The Center will involve undergrads, faculty and the public in a program of studying the role digital media are playing in political and public affairs campaigns and public opinion, with obvious spinoffs for the business world," writes Ralph Begleiter, a former CNN correspondent, who has been named the center's director. (Begleiter has been teaching journalism and political science at Delaware since 1999. Full disclosure: He was one of this reporter's professors.)
Former Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie is scheduled to speak at the school on Dec. 2nd.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro welcomed India's Prime Minister Singh to the White House this morning. He stressed the importance of the U.S.'s relationship with India, mentioning briefly climate change and only alluding to its regional significance as it relates to Pakistan in particular.
Pakistan and India are main rivals, clashing often over the disputed Kashmir region. India also wants more done by the Pakistanis to hold accountable those responsible for the deadly Mumbai bombings.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL VIDEO.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg Next week’s decision: On “TODAY,” NBC’s Savannah Guthrie reported that President Obama is set to announce his decision on Afghanistan-Pakistan next week (likely on Tuesday, Dec. 1), and he’ll likely do it via a primetime address (although it probably won’t be from the Oval Office). Guthrie’s reporting comes after Obama last night concluded his ninth meeting with his national security team on Afghanistan. "After completing a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision and he will announce that decision within days," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Guthrie adds that every adviser at the table gave their opinion, and that OMB Director Peter Orszag was present, underscoring how budget issues are a concern. (Also present -- in person -- was U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry.) As mentioned before, all the options Obama is considering would increase the number of U.S. troops (from 10,000 to 40,000). But Guthrie says the White House also wants to couple this increase with an exit strategy.
*** The GOP’s Reagan obsession: To us, the most striking feature of the resolution that the Republican National Committee might consider at its winter meeting in January wasn’t its insistence that GOP politicians and candidates must adhere to at least eight of 10 conservative purity tests. Nor was its labeling of President Obama’s agenda as “socialist.” Instead, the most revealing thing about the draft resolution was its obsession with Ronald Reagan. “WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan believed that the Republican Party should support and espouse conservative principles and public policies,” the resolution reads. “WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan also believed the Republican Party should welcome those with diverse views; and WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan believed, as a result, that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent…”
*** Does Reagan apply in a non-Reagan world? We’ve asked this question before and we’ll ask it again: Why are Republicans still so fixated on Reagan? The Cold War ended some 20 years ago… Income-tax rates are at historically low levels… And does anyone remember what a “Contra” is? It’s a lot like how it took Democrats generations to kick their Kennedy and FDR habits. Can the GOP keep playing the Reagan card in a world that’s changed so much since his presidency? Did you know that the youngest person to have cast a ballot for Reagan in 1984 is now 43 years old? And that, by 2012, that person will be 46?
*** Rallying around Reagan -- but not the Bushes: It's amazing what everyone in the conservative movement now applies to Reagan. As we and others have pointed out, Reagan himself might not have passed this purity test when he was governor of California or even president (remember his tax increases, the deficits he racked up, and his amnesty for illegal immigrants?). A Bush has run for president FOUR of the last SIX presidential elections, and yet that name apparently is now a four-letter word with GOP activists. They need someone else to rally around. So in the absence of someone currently, the gravitation is Reagan. We get it on one level. But the nostalgia doomed the Democrats for years because the hardest thing to do in politics is look favorable against a ghost. It can't be done.
*** Today’s state visit: At 9:15 am ET, the president and the first lady welcome India’s prime minister and his wife to the White House. At 11:35 am, President Obama and Prime Minister Singh hold a joint press conference. And this evening, the Obamas host a state dinner for their guests. While much of the focus is on tonight’s big state dinner, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reminds us that the dinner is just the end of VERY IMPORTANT diplomatic talks during the day. Remember that India and the U.S. have much to discuss: Pakistan, Afghanistan, nuclear weapons, global warming, and the global recession. (Turning back to the dinner, however, NBC’s Norah O’Donnell reports that Jennifer Hudson will perform at the event…)
*** 'Fundamentals' vs. 'Core Strengths': Yesterday, in his comments on the economy, President Obama said, "There are core strengths to the American economy that will put us in good stead over the long term.” While realizing that our economy has come a LONG way since Sept. 15, 2008 and that a campaign is MUCH different than a presidency, people who worked on the McCain campaign might argue that Obama’s “core strengths” wasn’t all that dissimilar from McCain’s “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” Discuss. Remember, as a candidate, Obama was able to run against an economic philosophy. Now, he has to reassure that his is the right one.
*** Dems get their man in Texas? The last time a Democrat was governor of Texas, Bill Clinton was in his second year in office, grunge music was still all the rage, Troy Aikman was quarterback for the Cowboys, and the Texas A&M Aggies were the dominant college football team in the state. My, how things change… But after yesterday's chain of events -- Tom Schieffer (D) exiting the gubernatorial contest and Houston Mayor Bill White (D) apparently turning his focus from the Senate contest to the gubernatorial one -- Democrats now seem to have a path to win the governor's mansion. This could be especially true if Rick Perry defeats Kay Bailey Hutchison in their increasingly bitter GOP primary, which could alienate female voters and independents. Perhaps this is why RGA Chairman Haley Barbour told reporters last week he preferred for Hutchison to remain in the Senate…
*** It’s easier for a Texas Dem to win state office than federal office: The entrance of White is also a tacit acknowledgement on his part that it's A LOT easier to be a Democrat in Texas running for state office than federal office. Perhaps he's learning the lesson of another big city Texas Democratic mayor whom many in the business community loved: Ron Kirk. What if Kirk had run for governor in 2002 rather than Senate? Would the Dallas business community have rallied around him? It's a “what-if” plenty of Texas Democrats have played over the years. Also, White's likely move to the governor's race also means two Democrats won't beat each other up in a Senate contest, as longtime Democratic lawmaker John Sharp is raising money as well.
*** Happy Thanksgiving: Finally, we won’t be publishing our morning and afternoon notes Wednesday through Friday, although we’ll update the blog as news warrants. Our notes will return on Monday. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.
Countdown to MA Special Primary: 14 days
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