Source: The Hill

Rick Perry’s top Iowa staffer has jumped ship to Rick Santorum’s campaign, leaving the former Texas governor with just one paid staffer in the first nominating state.

Santorum’s team confirmed that Karen Fesler, Perry’s former Iowa co-chair, has joined its effort in the state after she spent 2012 running Santorum’s Missouri effort. ... Fesler’s departure comes one week after Perry lost another top Iowa staffer, Sam Clovis, to the Trump campaign. Fesler had previously worked on Clovis’s brief 2014 Senate bid in Iowa.

It’s the latest in staffing woes for Perry, who reportedly stopped paying most of his campaign staff. The Des Moines Register reported on Monday that Perry now only has one paid staffer in Iowa.
...
Perry jumped into the field looking to build on his brief 2012 campaign, when he shot up to as high as 38 percent nationally in late August, 2011, in a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. But he crashed back down to Earth after a panned debate performance ... This cycle, he hasn’t eclipsed 5 percent at the polls nationally since October and is an essential lock to finish outside of the top 10 ahead of September’s CNN debate, polling between 1 and 2 percent.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/252346-perry-loses-another-iowa-staffer

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Na na na na na na na na hey hey hey goodbye!

Source: MSNBC (Maddow)

The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel reports today, for example, on Team Jeb tackling a story about, of all things, Donald Trump’s sister.

It started with a Bloomberg Politics interview in which Mark Halperin asked about the Supreme Court and brought up the fact that Trump’s sister is an appeals-court judge. The candidate sang his sister’s praises, but said he’d rule her out for a high court nomination. Weigel picks it up from there:

Trump’s quote ran on Aug. 26. One day later, National Review columnist Ramesh Ponnuru pointed out that Maryanne Trump Barry was reliably pro-choice, and once rejected a lawsuit to stop partial birth abortions for “semantic machinations” about when life began. Just 20 minutes after that article went up, Bush’s spokesman and campaign manager tweeted it out, sexing it up a bit to say that Trump actually wanted to put his sister on the bench.

Jeb’s campaign manager actually pushed the story twice, “paging all pro-lifers.”
...
There’s a legitimate question about whether Team Jeb, and in fact all campaigns, would be better off leaving candidates’ family members out of the debate altogether. Sure, Trump said nice things about his sister, and apparently conservatives have reason to disagree with her, but unless there’s a substantive reason to connect the judge’s views with the candidate’s, it’s a questionable line of attack.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/team-jeb-adds-trumps-sister-the-mix

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Can you smell the desperation?

Take note: when you have raised over $100,000,000 (the most money of any candidate) and have the most endorsements of any candidate in your party and -- despite being born on third base and getting every break -- you're nevertheless polling at single digits, this is what you resort to.

Source: Outside the Beltway

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker took the immigration debate inside the Republican Party to the next level ... It’s not just the southern border:Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says it’s “legitimate” to discuss building a wall separating the United States from Canada, as well.
...
Governor Walker isn’t the only one pandering to the anti-immigrant crowd that Trump has attracted, Chris Christie is now suggesting that the Federal Government track immigrants the way FedEx tracks packages:
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said on Saturday that if he were elected president he would combat illegal immigration by creating a system to track foreign visitors the way FedExtracks packages.
...
Like Walker, Christie’s idea here is less an serious proposal and more an effort to pander to the anti-immigrant sentiment that Trump has tapped into and which he whips up every chance he gets. If nothing else, this should tells us that the Trump phenomenon isn’t as much of an anomaly of Republican politics as the more establishment wing of the party would like to believe. When other candidates start making suggesting like this and endorsing Trump’s idea of ending birthright citizenship, it’s a sign that Trumpism is winning the debate in side the Republican Party, even if Trump himself doesn’t end up winning the nomination.

Read more: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/scott-walker-and-chris-christie-pander-to-donald-trumps-anti-immigrant-base/

Source: Des Moines Register

WHO'S UP?
Donald Trump
First choice: 23 percent
Rank in field: 1st
Change since May: Up 19 points
Favorability: 61 percent
Change since May: Up 34 points
Trump has pulled off a reversal in how caucusgoers view him. In May, his favorability was upside down: Just 27 percent viewed him favorably and 63 percent unfavorably. Now, it's 61 percent favorable, 35 percent unfavorable.
Business-oriented establishment types are going for Trump over Jeb Bush 30 percent to 16 percent, said J. Ann Selzer, pollster for the Iowa Poll.
Those who like what they see in Trump include first-time caucusgoers (69 percent favorable, 29 percent unfavorable), tea party Republicans (73 percent favorable, 24 percent unfavorable) and caucusgoers in Iowa's 1st Congressional District, in northeastern Iowa (70 percent favorable, 28 percent unfavorable).
By capturing 23 percent of the vote while 61 percent have favorable feelings toward him, "Trump definitely has upside potential," Selzer said. "All the talk about a ceiling was a little premature."

...

WHO'S DOWN?
Scott Walker
First choice: 8 percent
Rank in field: Tied for 3rd
Change since May: Down 9 points
Favorability: 71 percent
Change since May: Up 5 points
Caucusgoers still really like the Wisconsin governor, but he's no longer their first choice.
Walker gets half the vote he got in May (now 8 percent, down from 17 percent).
Even so, he is up a bit in favorability, trailing only Ben Carson in that measure.
He does best with tea party Republicans (85 percent favorable, 11 percent unfavorable).
Ketzner said: "Walker has had a rough summer. He made a great first impression but hasn't capitalized during the spring and summer months. Iowa is a must-win state for him, and he needs to reignite his campaign soon."
...
ABOUT THE SAME
...
Jeb Bush
First choice: 6 percent
Rank in field: Tied for 5th
Change since May: Down 3 points
Favorability: 45 percent
Change since May: Up 2 points
Iowa Republican likely caucusgoers are tepid toward Jeb Bush, with just 10 percent saying their feelings are very favorable, Selzer said.
He's upside down on overall favorability at 45 percent favorable, 50 percent unfavorable, including 19 percent very unfavorable.
Bush is right side up with moderates (60 percent favorable, 36 percent unfavorable), business-oriented establishment Republicans (64 percent/33 percent), those with household incomes of $100,000 or more (59 percent/38 percent), first-time caucus attendees (52 percent/41 percent), those with a college degree or higher (51 percent/44 percent) and those living in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, in southeastern Iowa (51 percent/44 percent).
Ketzner said: "Bush has the financial resources available that no other campaign will ever be able to match. The question they face is: Do they save those dollars for a long primary fight, or do they try to end the primary early by upping their investment in Iowa and finish better than expected?"

Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/08/29/iowa-poll-glance-how-each-gop-candidate-fares/71360766/

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It's shocking how badly Bush and Walker are doing.

link to article:

Remember when his mom said he shouldn't run? So far, at least, it looks like she was right, and that Bush is just an awful candidate.

Here's a thought experiment for you. Imagine you could find a person who didn't know 1) who Jeb Bush was or 2) what pursuit he was involved in. You showed the person a video clip of a Bush press conference or speech, but with the sound turned down, and you asked the person, just based on the expression on Bush's face and the hang of his shoulders and whatnot, where is this man, and what is he doing?

I think your person would say something like: "Well...he looks like he's at a funeral. Attending the funeral of a friend's mother. Or maybe not even a friend. Maybe a co-worker, or employee. He didn't know the woman. But he's there, because he needs to be, and he's paying his respects. ‘I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm sure she was a wonderful woman.' He's doing his duty, but he also looks like he'd really rather be somewhere else."

Nate Silver, editor in chief:

The irony is that the media has exaggerated all sorts of threats to Clinton...but then you have the one thing that would be a tangibly bad sign for her campaign — the vice president of the United States running for the nomination against her! — and there are lots of “smart takes” about how it could help Clinton.... But the other big problem (as we and others have pointed out before) is that Biden doesn’t have much rationale to run other than if Clinton has “trust”/scandal problems. He might never come out and say it, but that would be the whole basis for his campaign. They don’t really differ in any meaningful way on policy....He’s a party guy. He’s the vice president. He’s not likely to run unless he thinks it’s in Democrats’ best interest....It’s possible that Biden assesses the problem and miscalculates. But running for president would be a calculated decision on his behalf. And, by the way, if you read the reporting on Biden carefully, it suggests that the decision is very, very calculated. ...If you want data, and Biden’s camp is looking at the same data, then they shouldn’t be running in the first place. Unless they think the scandal will be Clinton’s undoing.... White liberals might not like her as much as white moderates, Hispanics, or African-Americans, but as we’ve argued before, their support for Sanders is more an indication that they like him than that they dislike Clinton. Some of the reporting around what Biden’s coalition would be doesn’t make any sense. See, for example, from Politico:

Biden’s circle has identified what they see as their potential voting blocs: Reagan Democrats, Jews, an LGBT base that largely credits him with pushing President Barack Obama into supporting gay marriage, and Rust Belt voters. They believe he’ll benefit from better stump skills than any of the other candidates running.

There’s no evidence that any of these groups ... have very much in common....I saw some article that offhandedly asserted Biden was polling exceptionally well given that he wasn’t in the race yet. Polling at 12 percent or 15 percent or 18 percent among members of his own party doesn’t seem that great to me for a guy who is vice president of the United States.

Harry Enten, senior political writer:

... why would Biden run? Sure, he’s in his 70s and this is his last shot, but he also has a family to take care of. He’d likely only run if he concludes he has a better than nominal chance of winning. And that conclusion would be quite different from what the current metrics, such as endorsements, suggest. ...Remember when there was talk about whether Chris Christie would get into the 2012 race? Or whether Fred Thompson would get into the 2008 race? Or Wesley Clark into the 2004 race? Those guys were tied or leading in the primary polling at the time. Biden’s best percentage so far has been 18 percent. He’s down nearly 30 percentage points to Clinton. Clinton is still in a ridiculously strong position.

link to the whole enlightening discussion

Source: Talking Points Memo

Attendees at a Republican fundraiser in Colorado Wednesday say that House Speaker John Boehner called Sen. Ted Cruz a "jackass," the Daily Caller reported

Two of the attendees -- one going on record with his name -- told the Daily Caller that Boehner referred to the Texas Republican as a jackass during his remarks. In their accounts, Boehner said that the 2016 presidential race kept "that jackass" away from Washington.

The event was a fundraiser for Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO) in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Cruz has long had a reputation for being a thorn in Boehner's side, having led a government shutdown over Obamacare for 2013 and publicly causing leadership headaches on various occasions.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-boehner-ted-cruz-jackass

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I had assumed there was no topic on which I agreed with Boehner.

I stand corrected.

Walker + Kasich+ Huckabee + Paul + Christie+ Perry + Santorum + Jindal + Graham.

Democratic polling link

Republican polling link

The Republican establishment is DEAD.

Funny 538 graphic showing how Republicans attack Trump at their peril and those are are attacked by Trump should bask in the attention from the Golden Hair Mat.

Source: The Argo Journal

Hillary Clinton 50% ...
Bernie Sanders 24% ...
Lincoln Chafee 2%
Martin O'Malley 2% ...
Jim Webb 2% ...
Some other candidate 10% ...
Undecided 10% ...

Survey of 536 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted August 23-24, 2015. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points.

Read more: http://www.argojournal.com/

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Compare these numbers to the Republican field.

Sanders is doing better than ALL of the Republican candidates, including Trump.

Sanders is doing better than Bush, Walker, and Kasich COMBINED.

Clinton is doing better than Trump, Bush, Walker, Kasich, and Christie COMBINED.

Dear Vice President Biden:

Love you! Respect you! Appreciate everything you have done! But Clinton and Sanders have got this. They are having a very civilized policy debate between the centrist Clinton-Obama-Biden wing of the party and the more progressive Sanders-Warren wing of the party. Let's see how it plays out.