After Kanye West, noted political activist and part-time Grammy-winning artist, announced his intention to run for president in 2020, many people remembered that there is actually a presidential race going on right now and started looking for a place to catch up on the race.
The DTH will post a weekly roundup of happenings on the campaign trail from now until the Illuminati have enacted the New World Order.
Top News:
- Vice president Joe Biden continued to extend feelers and backchannel signals to influential segments of the Democratic Party, potentially weighing his chances if he were to enter the race as an alternative to Hillary Clinton.
Many insiders doubt he will enter because of his very late start, propensity for high-profile gaffes, ideological similarity to Clinton and his son’s recent death. Though he polls favorably with African-Americans, his long-standing support for War on Drugs-era policies would likely hurt his standing with black voters who have become increasingly vocal about the disparate impact on the criminal justice system of these laws. For now he remains a break-in-case-of-emergency candidate if Clinton suffers a crippling scandal along the campaign trail.
- The recent shooting of two Virginia journalists on live TV by a former colleague has renewed calls for increased gun control by progressive activists, prompting comments from candidates across the ideological spectrum.
- Medical spending accounts, a politically popular way for Americans to save money tax-free to spend for various medical expenses, may fall under the Affordable Care Act’s “Cadillac Tax.” The tax was designed to curb the use of extravagant plans in favor of more modest insurance plans in order to curb rising health care costs. Spending accounts have support from both Democrats and Republicans and the Cadillac Tax is one of the least popular aspects of Obamacare.
Democratic candidates:
Hillary Clinton: The email scandal continues as the State Department deemed 150 more classified emails on the private server that Clinton used while Secretary of State.
Bernie Sanders: The socialist pseudo-Democrat’s campaign revealed that Sanders applied for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War. The senator’s anti-war activism while in college was well known, but a recent column in the Des Moines Register by a Clinton supporter and Vietnam veteran questioned his fitness as potential commander in chief because Sanders avoided the draft.
Much of Sanders’ early support has been driven by white liberals — a key demographic in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary — and a strong showing in Iowa is key to his continued existence as a viable liberal alternative to Clinton.
Other candidates: Maybe there is an alternate universe where Lincoln Chaffee or Martin O’Malley are competitive candidates, but in this universe they’re not. Democrats can continue to dream about Mass. Sen. Elizabeth Warren entering the race.
Republicans:
Jeb Bush: Three high-profile fundraisers left the Bush campaign Friday, raising concerns that the former Florida governor is struggling despite high name recognition and an enormous Super PAC war chest. Fundraising for his campaign has lagged far behind his Right to Rise Super PAC and has had to cut expenses because it was burning money at an unsustainable rate.
Donald Trump: The Republican front runner taunted Bush on Twitter for comments about Asian immigrants as well as a campaign photo that poorly photoshopped Jeb on a stock image of a black man.
Trump’s recent tweets inspired Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight website to collect a list of who has drawn the Donald’s ire and which Republican candidates fire back. At least Trump knows the key to any flame war: Never beef down. Nice try George Pataki.
Scott Walker: The Wisconsin governor had a busy week as he took China’s recent economic downturn as an opportunity to criticize the Chinese government’s influence on its currency. Many criticized it as a strange jumble of long-time talking points that didn’t really address the issues with China’s economy.
He also drew heat for his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” where he said building a wall along the U.S.-Canada border was a “legitimate concern” and would not rule it building one.
Walker’s campaign denied that he was entertaining such an idea.
Other candidates: Tangential to Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign, but while in Iowa he sported an apron with a pro-pork slogan.
Politico reported about how controversial the government’s efforts to promote pork amount to a $60 million kickback to a trade group that many farmers believe has been too cozy with the government.
Quote of the week:
“Some people have asked us about that in New Hampshire. They raised some very legitimate concerns, including some law enforcement folks that brought that up to me at one of our town hall meetings about a week and a half ago. So that is a legitimate issue for us to look at.”
— Scott Walker
To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.
