Inside Politics

HRC IN ’16?

Given her own recent statements and the national political landscape, “it’s tempting for some Beltway players to presume [Secretary of State Hillary Rodham] Clinton’s greatest prospects are behind her,” writes David Paul Kuhn of RealClearPolitics.com. “Tempting, but hardly assured.”

Mrs. Clinton’s “coalition is the sleeping giant of American politics. No other national politician, save [President] Obama, has proven able to raise as much money. Much of her base was, like Obama, also loyal for deeper reasons than politics. This is doubly true for the Democratic women who were, and still are, personally invested in Clinton’s almost-historic presidency. It’s no coincidence that Clinton is on the cover of Parade magazine this week.

“Clinton remains the second most prominent Democrat in the country. Her approval rating is higher than her boss’s, according to Gallup. But to be fair, Obama is the one getting dirtied in domestic politics. If she still wants it, her chance is likely 2016.”

Unlike potential rivals Al Gore and John Kerry, Mr. Kuhn writes, Mrs. Clinton “never ran a general election campaign. Therefore she does not have to live down mistakes. In fact, Clinton’s profile appears stronger for her bid. She proved her endurance and capacity to win votes. Importantly, she still is seen as presidential. …

“More than half of the country, and even half of Democrats, view Clinton as the president’s equal or better,” Mr. Kuhn writes. “And Clinton likely agrees.”

ON THE RISE

In the category of players to watch, the National Republican Congressional Committee said Tuesday that nine challenger and open-seat candidates have impressed party leaders enough with their early efforts to be bumped up to the next rung of the recently retooled “Young Guns” program, CQ-Roll Call’s John McArdle reports.

“Young Guns is a fundraising and infrastructure system that ranks candidates on three tiers: ’On the Radar,’ ’Contender’ and ’Young Guns.’ No candidate has yet achieved the program’s highest ranking, but as of Tuesday nine GOP recruits will definitely be considered ’Contenders.’

“They are: Montgomery City Councilwoman Martha Roby in Alabama’s 2nd District; state Rep. Cory Gardner in Colorado’s 4th District; former state Rep. Dennis Ross in Florida’s 12th District; Marine Corps veteran Vaughn Ward in Idaho’s 1st District; state Sen. Andy Harris in Maryland’s 1st District; Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta in New Hampshire’s 1st District; former Rep. Steve Pearce in New Mexico’s 2nd District; former Rep. Steve Chabot in Ohio’s 1st District; and former state Sen. Steve Stivers in Ohio’s 15th District.

” ’The early progress of these candidates is a testament to the Young Guns program and a sign of the changing political environment that Democrats will face next year,’ NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas said Monday.”

BAY STATE DEBATE

“If anyone was waiting for some larger-than-life candidate to emerge from [Monday’s] Democratic Senate debate, well, they’re still waiting,” a distinctly underwhelmed Boston Herald said in an editorial reviewing the performances of the Democratic hopefuls looking to succeed the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in January’s special election

“It’s not that these four entirely capable contenders aren’t smart. They are. It’s just that they either suffer from an abundance of caution - that would be Attorney General Martha Coakley - or get stuck in the thicket of Washington-speak - that would be Rep. Michael Capuano.

“Coakley used her wrap-up statement last night to basically belabor the obvious, saying, ’I believe we need to get out of this economic recession’ and we need ’an energy policy that makes sense.’

“Well, OK. …

“What is clear is that all four - especially City Year founder Alan Khazei and, surprisingly, Boston Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca - are perfectly willing to increase our taxes to pay for all those government programs they insist we need.

“Khazei wants to repeal all of the ’Bush tax cuts’ to pay for yet another stimulus bill and Pagliuca would ’increase marginal tax rates for the wealthiest individuals.’ He added that in other countries, rates of over 40 percent are not uncommon. That ought to come as a real comfort to those looking for some tax relief.

“Yes, we know they are running for the U.S. Senate in what is among the bluest states in the nation. But does that really mean that they have to march in lockstep with a Democratic ideology that government always knows best and can’t keep its hands out of our back pockets?”

SPECIAL BLUES

With the Republican and the Conservative Party candidate at each other’s throat ahead of New York’s special House race Nov. 3, “the GOP could lose its fifth of five big special elections in two years - a development that has Republicans asking why the irregular races continue to bedevil their party, even as it rebounds in other ways,” according to the Hill’s Aaron Blake.

“Some say Republicans haven’t learned from their losses in three conservative districts last year, nor from an upstate New York special election in March,” Mr. Black noted.

“Now the party’s focus is on next Tuesday’s special election in New York, to see if it can hold former [Republican] Rep. John McHugh’s seat. Operatives with special-election experience blame a familiar problem that has reared its head: the ugly primary.

“There technically weren’t any primaries in the race, but Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman did seek the GOP nomination from party leaders before going the third-party route. He is now threatening to overtake [Republican nominee] Dede Scozzafava in the polls.

PRESS WARS

President Obama’s recent feud with Fox News barely rates as a skirmish compared with some of the great White House-Fourth Estate wars of the past, Slate.com press critic Jack Shafer writes.

Despite an early honeymoon, there was no love lost between President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the White House press corps of the day, and there was a positive blood feud between FDR and some of the conservative press barons who controlled the country’s major newspapers, Mr. Shafer notes.

“Roosevelt especially disliked ’interpretive reporting,’ which Time and Newsweek were popularizing, writes Betty Houchin Winfield in her 1990 book, ’FDR and the News Media.’ Roosevelt recoiled when a reporter asked him what interpretive angle the president would take if he were to write a piece about the Democratic Party’s 1934 landslide victory. ’I think it is a mistake for newspapers to go over into that field in the news stories,’ Roosevelt said. His prescription for what reporters should do for readers: ’Give them the facts and nothing else.’ (One can almost see [White House aides] Anita Dunn and David Axelrod giving Fox the same advice.)

“The president reserved his greatest disdain for press proprietors, whom he blamed for what he considered unfair and distorted coverage. ’It is not the reporter’ who is responsible for ’colored news stories and the failure on the part of some papers to print the news,’ Roosevelt said in December 1935. ’It goes back to the owner of the paper.’ ”

publisher Robert B. McCormick’s reporters from the Chicago Tribune asked Roosevelt at a press conference about the dangers implicit in the newspaper code, Roosevelt said, “Tell Bert McCormick he is seeing things under the bed.” According to ’FDR and the Press,’ McCormick’s Tribune maintained a ’virulent and raucous opposition’ to the New Deal thereafter, a sentiment that was reciprocated by the White House.”

•David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.