MORNING MESSAGE
This
was undoubtedly the first presidential debate in history to include a mention of
Rosie O’Donnell. Even grading on a curve – something the press tends to do with
Donald Trump – the Republican fared poorly on Monday night. Democrat Hillary
Clinton took him down on issue after issue, from his tax returns to his business
practices. Unfortunately, that was not her most important mission. Clinton’s
fate rests on her ability to turn out key Democratic voters in large numbers,
especially young people and minorities. In her zeal to defeat her opponent,
which she clearly did, Clinton didn’t do enough to inspire and motivate her
base.
TRUMP TRUMPED
All
indicators suggest Clinton wins debate. Bloomberg: “Snap polls conducted
after the debate similarly favored Clinton, including 62 percent of respondents
in a CNN poll and 51 percent in a survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy
Polling. Even the Mexican peso, increasingly a barometer of Trump-related
anxiety, rallied. At the root of this emerging consensus was Clinton’s ability
to control the agenda.”
Trump
veers wide right in the debate. Time: “Clinton focused on constituencies she
needs if she is to reassemble the coalition that Barack Obama used to power his
way to victory twice. Trump seemed determined to intentionally anger them. She
was respectful about concerns of racism among African Americans; Trump called
for unconstitutional law-enforcement tactics in their neighborhoods. Clinton
discussed her plan to tax the ultra-wealthy to help pay for childcare and
college; Trump pushed tax cuts for billionaires like himself and boasted that
dodging taxes demonstrated he was ‘smart.'”
Trump
whiffs on taxes. The Atlantic: “During Monday’s first presidential debate,
Hillary Clinton offered her own theory: Trump is paying no taxes. And the
Republican nominee seemed in the moment to confirm it, interjecting to say it
would prove he was ‘smart.’ … [After the debate he said,] ‘Of course I pay
taxes.’ But when NBC’s Katy Tur asked him directly whether he currently pays
income tax, he declined to answe…”
Trump
team spins hard. Bloomberg: “‘Debates are fine, but I think what’s most
important is who is out there with people showing that they’re not hiding behind
a podium or in a fundraiser with donors or wherever they may be on many days
off,’ Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told reporters … Rudy Giuliani …
said that if he were Trump, ‘I wouldn’t participate in another debate unless I
was promised that the journalist would act like a journalist and not an
incorrect, ignorant fact checker,’…”
The
Hill assess the candidates’ manufacturing plans: “The former first lady’s
sweeping, five-year plan includes $250 billion in direct spending on new and
improved infrastructure. It also emphasizes cutting the regulatory red tape that
slows the construction of new projects and reauthorizes a Build America Bonds
program to stimulate billions of additional dollars in infrastructure
investments … Clinton’s plan would be paid for through business tax reform [but]
she has been vague on details … The real estate mogul has vowed to double
Clinton’s $275 billion proposal, bringing his plan to over a half-trillion
dollars … But Trump has yet to lay out a specific policy proposal. He has only
said that he would raise money for transportation projects through a fund, sold
as infrastructure bonds, and that ‘people, investors and citizens’ would put
money into the fund.”
CLEAN POWER PLAN IN COURT TODAY
Federal
appeals court hears case on Obama’s Clean Power Plan today. The Hill: “Clean
Air Act standards generally use the ‘best system of emission reduction,’ like
emissions control technology. But in the climate rule, the system for emissions
cuts applies to the entire grid, allowing electric generation to shift from more
polluting sources to less polluting ones, like wind power. The rule’s
challengers say that’s illegal … Opponents say the Clean Air Act forbids the EPA
from regulating carbon dioxide in the way that it did, since it used another
section of the act to regulate mercury and air toxics from power plants …
Supporters say that Congress only intended to prevent double regulation of the
same pollutants from the same plants.”
US
not yet on track to reach carbon emissions goal. The Hill: “The research,
published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, says that the country
will not hit the 26 to 28 percent emissions cut that Obama promised last year as
part of the Paris climate agreement. But the researchers at Lawrence Berkeley
National Lab said additional new policies to cut greenhouse gases could bring
the country in line with its pledge … if the Environmental Protection Agency’s
Clean Power Plan is struck down in the courts and cannot take effect, it would
be far more difficult to meet the Paris pledge.”
BREAKFAST SIDES
Speaker
Paul Ryan trying to push through sentencing reform. Politico: “The Wisconsin
Republican for weeks has repeated his personal desire to move a bipartisan
package that would include allowing well-behaved nonviolent prisoners to be
eligible for early release and easing some drug-related sentencing requirements
… [But with] Trump advocating for controversial policies like systematic ‘stop
and frisk’ … Ryan’s conference is not eager to vote on the matter … Ryan is now
eyeing the lame-duck session, by which time tensions might have eased.”
Justice
Dept. preparing VW fine. Bloomberg: “The U.S. Justice Department is
assessing how big a criminal fine it can extract from Volkswagen AG over
emissions-cheating without putting the German carmaker out of business … The
government and Volkswagen are trying to reach a settlement by
January…”
Progressive
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