Progressive Breakfast: The Democratic Choice: Change or Continuity

MORNING MESSAGE

Ten million people watched the Democratic debate on Sunday despite Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s best efforts to bury it ... Clinton, the favorite, made a calculated decision to wrap herself tightly to Barack Obama ... While Sanders praised President Obama, whom he supported in 2008 and 2012, he made it clear he had differences with him – and that this country needed transformative change ... Clinton’s great challenge is to establish clearly what she would do differently than the president to make the country work for working people. If the economy falters – as seems increasingly likely – running as Obama’s third term may have more costs than benefits.

Dem Primary May Not End Quickly

Clinton campaign needs to retool for extended campaign season. NYT: “Even though the Clinton team has sought to convey that it has built a national operation, the campaign has invested much of its resources in the Feb. 1 caucuses in Iowa, hoping that a victory there could marginalize Mr. Sanders … Mr. Sanders has campaign workers installed in all 11 of the states that vote on Super Tuesday. Mrs. Clinton does not, and is relying on union volunteers and members of supportive organizations such as Planned Parenthood to help her.”
7000 turn out for Bernie in Alabama. AL.com: “Sanders appealed to the crowd for their support and expressed confidence that he could overtake Clinton here. … ‘We have got to go out to our white working class friends … and we have got to go out to our brothers and sisters there and say, “Stop voting against your own best interest,”‘ he said.”
Sen. Dick Durbin raises expectations for Bernie win in Iowa. Politico: “‘I think that Bernie is going to have his troops show up there. And Hillary is going to do her best to beat him,’ Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told David Axelrod [in a podcast interview.] ‘But it could be close and he could end up winning that and maybe even his neighboring state of New Hampshire.'”
HRC snags HRC endorsement. Politico: “Hillary Clinton scored the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign on Tuesday, with the LGBT rights group hailing the Democratic candidate as the best choice to advance their message in November … The group endorsed Obama over Clinton in 2008…”

Cruz v. Trump

Sen. Ted Cruz elevates attack on Donald Trump. NYT: “‘I would suggest as voters,’ Mr. Cruz said, ‘you have reason to doubt the credibility of the promises of a political candidate who discovers the [immigration] issue after he announces for president.’ The comments began in the middle of an extended answer about the national debt. The questioner had not mentioned Mr. Trump.”
Sen. Marco Rubio clueless about Flint water crisis. Time quotes: “That’s not an issue that right now we’ve been focused on and for me to give you a deeply detailed answer on what the right approach should be on it, other than to tell you in general I believe that the federal government’s role in some of these things is largely limited unless it involves a federal jurisdictional issue.”
Anger at Wall Street transcending party. W. Post: “On the left, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is fending off the surprisingly potent populism of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the accusation that she is Wall Street’s candidate. On the right, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and New York developer Donald Trump have come to dominate the Republican field, and both have ties to Wall Street. Both are running as fast as their legs can carry them from the Wall Street brand.”

Breakfast Sides

WH planning “audacious” executive actions, reports The Hill: “A White House official was non-committal when asked about which specific executive actions the president might be considering … Business groups say they fear the worst … The president has indicated he is focused on equal pay, campaign finance reform, gun control and closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, among other things. But where he decides to take unilateral action is anyone’s guess.”
Ryan, McConnell divide over GOP agenda. The Hill: “House Republicans feel emboldened by last year’s election of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as Speaker to pursue ambitious goals, with none bigger than presenting a conservative alternative to [Obamacare] … Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), however, wants 2016 to be a referendum on Obama’s record. He prefers sticking to the basic blocking and tackling of government: passing the annual appropriations bills.”
Annual Oxfam report shows global inequality rising. NYT: “Just 62 people own as much wealth as the 3.5 billion people in the bottom half of the world’s income scale, the charity Oxfam reported on Monday in its annual study of inequality, which found that the gap between rich and poor has continued to widen at an alarming rate. As recently as five years ago, the fortunes of 388 billionaires were needed to reach that halfway mark.”
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