Hillary Clinton Will Not Close the Deal in the California Primary The Democrats are in trouble. Remember that fed-up feeling a few weeks ago, when you just felt exasperated, perpetually infuriated and besieged and just wanted to find people who dared disagree with your preferred candidate and punch them in the face? That's how most tuned-in Democrats feel today. No, really, the Hillary supporters can't stand the Sanders supporters, and the Sanders supporters are spitting hot fire at the suggestion they should just fall in line. With California voting Tuesday, there's no sign that Hillary Clinton is closing the deal. Hillary Clinton is clinging to a narrow two-point lead over Bernie Sanders in California ahead of the state's June 7 primary, according to results from a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll. Clinton gets support from 49 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in the state, while Sanders gets 47 percent, which is within the survey's statistical margin of error. And among a wider electorate of all potential Democratic voters in California, Sanders is actually ahead by one point, 48 percent to 47 percent. Clinton's campaign is hitting the panic button – and they should be! Faced with the prospect of what would be a demoralizing loss in California that would end the Democratic primary season on a low note for her, Hillary Clinton is launching a barnstorming tour of the state in an effort to stop her rival's momentum. She and former President Bill Clinton plan to hold more than 30 campaign events starting Thursday in a scramble to eke out victory in a state they once were projected to win handily. Richard Wolffe points out that nominating Hillary Clinton largely concedes the biggest advantage Democrats traditionally enjoy: The one weak measure that she has a shot of overcoming relates to empathy. When asked 'Which candidate understands people like you?' in the YouGov poll, Clinton trails Sanders by 44 to 56 points. This is a standard test where Democrats normally trounce Republicans: even John Kerry beat George W Bush on this question in 2004. Yet when translated to a contest against Trump, Clinton's weakness is still evident. In last week's ABC News/Washington Post poll, which placed Trump ahead nationally (albeit within the margin of error), Clinton beats Trump on experience, temperament and having realistic policies. But when it comes to understanding voters problems and representing their values, she has only a single digit lead, within the margin of error, among registered voters. Building a sense of empathy for voters – an emotional connection with working Americans – must be the Clinton campaign's biggest priority as it re-introduces her to a skeptical public in the general election. Her argument would be easier if she could point to any concrete, indisputable accomplishments in her time at the State Department. Bloomberg knocks over the "restored America's reputation and rebuilt trust" claim: "If these three polls are any indication, by the time Clinton left Foggy Bottom, global opinion about the U.S. had fallen to, or below, where it was when she got there." You Need to Know About Labor Secretary/Potential Hillary Pick Tom Perez… You're going to want to read my new profile of Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who could be one of Hillary's best options for unifying the party and reassuring hard-left progressives they'll get what they want in her administration: On the shortlist of potential Democratic running mates filled with senators and governors, one name stands out for its obscurity. Tom Perez? Who? Why on earth would Hillary Clinton consider the little-known Secretary of Labor for VP? How could USA Today's panel of Democratic insiders possibly rank him the third most likely choice? Though Perez lacks name recognition, he would bring a lot to Clinton's campaign. His Dominican heritage means he checks the box as a Latino, a key demographic in plenty of swing states that is likely to be even more important than usual in the Year of Trump. And he is a progressive warrior in the mold of Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, only without any of the anti-Clinton animus typical to members of that crowd. (He effusively endorsed her in December of last year.) Perez's liberal credentials are as impeccable as they come. Mother Jones called him "one of the administration's most stalwart progressives." Conservative policy experts who have followed his work in the Justice and Labor Departments consider him perhaps the Obama administration's most radical and relentless ideologue. Iain Murray, the Competitive Enterprise Institute's vice president of strategy, calls Perez "possibly the most dangerous person in the administration right now." Libertarian Veep Nominee William Weld Goes to Bat for Hillary Clinton From the William Weld profile, May 25: Three years later, he was hired to work on the U.S. House of Representatives Impeachment Inquiry into Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal. "If I was the first staffer, Hillary Rodham from Yale Law School was the second staffer," Weld told the Nixon Library Oral History Program. "She's just a very decent person, and if I recall correctly, on the occasion when I got in the middle and [special counsel to the Judiciary Committee] John Doar himself got frowny-faced with me — which he should not have, by the way, I was doing my duty — I think Hillary intervened and defended me on that and I've never forgotten that." (Weld isn't kidding: Earlier this year, he dismissed the scandal surrounding Clinton's private e-mail server as much ado about nothing. "I've never bought that e-mail thing," he told Boston Herald radio on February 29. "I don't think anything was classified when she did it, it got classified later. . . . I don't think she would lay a lot of stuff on the table that she thought would compromise our national security.") Here's newly-minted Libertarian veep nominee Weld in The New York Times, Wednesday: William Weld, the vice-presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, said Wednesday that he believed Hillary Clinton had done nothing "criminal" in using personal email as secretary of state. Mr. Weld spoke during a wide-ranging interview alongside Gary Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico and the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee. Both secured the Libertarian nomination Sunday at the party's contentious convention in Orlando… Mr. Weld gave a single-word response about whether Mrs. Clinton was a good secretary of state: "Yes." He was equally succinct when asked if her use of a private email server, now the subject of an F.B.I. investigation, was a legitimate issue. "No," said Mr. Weld, a former prosecutor, adding that he had read of no evidence that would clear the bar for criminality. "I think it's a nonstarter." It's a weird, weird year when the Libertarian vice-presidential nominee offers more praise of Hillary Clinton than the average Democrat. I wonder if at any point Gary Johnson will pull Weld aside and say, "look, Bill, I know you go way back with her, but for the sake of what we're doing, could you at least try to sound critical of her, at least until November?" ADDENDA: At this hour, I still have no word on whether my colleague and friend David French will choose to launch a long-shot independent bid for the presidency. He's the best of men, facing what is likely a just about impossible task. Not every good man is meant to be president, but if you want to know why the people who know David like him and trust him so much, Denny Burk offers a personal tale that give you a sense of my friend's values.  | 
Megyn Kelly -> Pete Hegseth responds to 2017 rape accusation. 🔥 vol. 3, issue 13 | December 6, 2024 Quick Hits All the news you need in...
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