Too Many Candidates: Does Flood of GOP Hopefuls Mean Trouble in 2016?
A year before the first 2016 presidential primaries we #39;re already hearing that too many Republican candidates could cause a party split, while Democrats rally around Hillary Clinton. Guest...
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Too Many Candidates: Does Flood of GOP Hopefuls Mean Trouble in 2016? - Video
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has an explanation for the singular nature of her power.
Ill always be an outsider. Thats how I understand the world, the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview. Theres a real benefit to being clear about this. I know why Im here. I think about this every morning before I open my eyes, and Im still thinking about it every night when I go to sleep.
Being the target of that kind of focus can be an excruciating experience the freshest case in point being investment banker Antonio Weiss, whom President Obama put forward last year as his nominee for Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance.
Initially seen as a highly credentialed and noncontroversial pick for a low-profile post, Weiss found himself up against a storm of opposition, led by Warren, who said he was yet another example of Wall Street cronyism within the Obama administration.
On Monday, Weiss wrote a letter to the president asking that his name be taken out of consideration.
The tussle sent yet another signal, maybe the clearest yet, of how Warren intends to wield her growing clout. It showed that she and her brand of populism are forces to be reckoned with not only by Obama and his team, but also by the Democrats likely 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Its not about Antonio Weiss personally, said Simon Johnson, an outspoken Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and former International Monetary Fund chief economist who admires Warren and shares her views. What its really about is the presidential election.
No small amount of speculation has centered on whether Warren herself will run for the White House in 2016. She insists that she will not. But her advisers and longtime allies say that she intends to keep the pressure on Clinton, to make sure the former secretary of state pays more than lip service to the issues that matter to Warren.
She is training her heat vision not on the Oval Office, but two doors down the hall on the Cabinet Room. Warren wants to make sure that Wall Street-aligned figures who have shaped the Clinton and Obama brand of economic policy for the past quarter-century, going back to former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, are not the only ones at the oval mahogany table.
The worst case for us is that [Clinton] gives a feisty speech now and then, but surrounds herself with the same old economic gurus, said one longtime Warren ally, insisting upon anonymity to speak frankly.
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Elizabeth Warren keeps pressure on Hillary Clinton and Democrats ahead of 2016
Published January 17, 2015
Hillary Clinton appears to have scared away much of the competition should she seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. But her early and practically all-encompassing effort also presents the potential liability that she will sail through the primary season largely untested for the bare-knuckled general election.
And it could deny Democrats the chance to define themselves to Americans, strategists say.
It's not good for a party because the Democratic Party needs a real debate about what it's for, who it's for, what it's about and where we'll take the country, says Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic congressman, presidential candidate and a Fox News contributor.
The 67-year-old Clinton plans to make an official announcement in early 2015, leaving some doubt about whether she will indeed run. But her frontrunner status is unquestionable.
She has roughly 62 percent of the likely vote and leads all potential Democratic challengers by a numbing 49.5 percentage points.
And those numbers combined with an ambitious public-speaking schedule and the fundraising and cheerleading group Ready for Hillary are making it difficult for potential primary challengers to raise money.
In addition, Clintons most formidable, likely primary challenger now, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, insists shes not running, leaving the Democratic field so wide open that 73-year-old Bernie Sanders, an independent and junior senator from Vermont, is now fourth behind Clinton, Warren and Vice President Biden, according an averaging of polls by RealClearPolitics.com
I think you miss the chance to vet ideals, says Richard Fowler, a Democrat and host of the progressive-leaning Richard Fowler Talk Show. I think that's what elections are about.Elections are about ideals and how ideals would then turn into policy that will then turn into how we govern.
Clinton, a former first lady, secretary of State and New York senator, hasnt been in a campaign-style debate since 2008, when she lost the Democratic presidential primary to President Obama, then a freshman Illinois senator.
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BATTLE UNTESTED? Easy ride in '16 primary may weaken Clinton
Hillary Clinton doesnt routinely wade into live policy debates swirling in Washington, but she made an exception on Friday, sending out a tweet that took aim at congressional efforts to roll back some of the regulations imposed after the financial collapse in 2008.
In her tweet, Mrs. Clinton sounded a populist chord that will surely hearten supporters of liberal firebrand Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Attacking financial reform is risky and wrong, wrote Mrs. Clinton, who is expected to announce her presidential candidacy in the next few months. Better for Congress to focus on jobs and wages for middle class families.
This week, the House passed a bill that would loosen parts of the Dodd-Frank law passed in 2010 to prevent the sort of meltdown that had shaken the economy in 2008.
Should she run, Mrs. Clinton will face pressure from liberals to align herself with middle class interests and repudiate a Wall Street community that has been a lucrative source of donations to her familys political and non-profit pursuits over the years. In this tweet and in some recent speeches, she has introduced populist themes that seem meant to mollify the partys liberal wing.
After she tweeted, conservative critics were quick to pounce.
Tim Miller, a spokesman for a group called America Rising, sent out a tweet of his own: 1st @HillaryClinton tweet in over a month a stilted attempt to not alienate Warren fans or her big donors. Inspiring.
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Hillary Clinton Strikes Populist Note in Tweet on Financial Regulation
WASHINGTON Hillary Clinton is defending the Dodd-Frank Act as Republicans in Congress look for ways to water down the overhaul of financial regulation and some fellow Democrats accuse her of being too cozy with Wall Street.
"Attacking financial reform is risky and wrong," Clinton, a former U.S. Secretary of State who's considering a White House run in 2016, wrote Friday in a Twitter message. "Better for Congress to focus on jobs and wages for middle class families."
Clinton, who has been quietly building a campaign team in recent weeks, is expected to announce a second run for the presidency in the next few months. Her Twitter message ends a period of relative silence for Clinton, whose potential Republican rivals - including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, 2008 Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul - are jockeying for early position.
The tweet came two days after House Republicans made one of their first attempts in the new Congress to roll back Dodd-Frank constraints on Wall Street, in what's poised to become a recurring battle with Democrats who oppose changing the law. The House passed a bill that would delay aspects of the Volcker Rule restriction on banks making risky investments, a bill that President Barack Obama has promised to veto.
Clinton's message addresses a possible weakness she has that has been highlighted by the populist stands of Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who has said she won't challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Warren's opposition to Wall Street banker Antonio Weiss for a key Treasury Department post prompted him to withdraw his name from consideration this week.
Polls have shown that many of Clinton's fellow Democrats are worried that she favored Wall Street too much during her time as first lady, senator from New York, secretary of state and philanthropist.
Clinton has raised tens of millions of dollars from donors in the financial industry to support her political campaigns, initiatives of the State Department and the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
An earlier attempt by Clinton to show solidarity with the anti-Wall Street sentiments of some Democrats fizzled.
"Don't let anybody tell you that it's corporations and businesses that create jobs," she said in October at a rally for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley that was also attended by Warren.
Clinton later clarified to say that she meant that giving tax breaks to businesses that ship jobs overseas doesn't create jobs in the U.S.
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Clinton defends Dodd-Frank as Republicans move to change law