Morning Briefing: The Real Bush Problems

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The Bush Conundrum I went on a whirlwind tour of the DC press circuit on Monday and Tuesday and got asked by every media outlet about Jeb Bush bringing in Danny Diaz as his campaign manager. "Doesn't this mean there is chaos?" asked one reporter, reflecting the consensus opinion of the press. Heck no! Danny Diaz is awesome and Jeb is lucky to get him. I don't think putting Danny in as campaign manager reflects discord in Jeb's campaign so much as putting into place the final piece before his public announcement. Danny is sharp, competent, aggressive, and knows his business. It does a disservice to Jeb and Danny to claim Danny's appointment equals disarray when it actually equals a smart decision prior to launch. But there is a real problem for Bush that Danny Diaz is going to have to fix. Bush made several calculations early on that now appear to be miscalculations. Read More

John Kasich Is Not Running to be President One does not run for President in the Republican Party by hiring consultants who hate the Republican base to run the campaign of a Republican who says publicly Jesus wants him to expand government. One runs that way to destroy others within the primary process. The only thing John Weaver and Fred Davis have excelled at of late is making money off failures running for office. The only thing Kasich has excelled at in the press is attacking other Republicans claiming Jesus and St. Peter will send them all to hell unless they too embrace Obamacare. This isn't a Presidential campaign, it is John Wilkes Booth acting on a debate stage until he can take out another Republican. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Read More

GOP Sellout? As #ObamaTrade TPA Vote Nears, More Ugly Details Emerge — #StopFastTrack According to the press reports, the Republican-led House of Representatives [emphasis added...for emphasis] appears ready to vote on Friday over whether to aid and abet Barack Obama by giving him "fast-track" authority (aka Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA) on the free-trade monstrosity known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Read More Sponsored

Bum Fight!! New York Times and POLITICO duke it out over a bottle of Night Train The honeymoon is over. The bloom is off the rose. The cold light of dawn has arrived. The heady romance is now headed for divorce court. For a few weeks POLITICO, and in particular its correspondent Dylan Byers (@DylanByers), has been the go-to guy the mainstream media use to stomp on the stories the Washington Free Beacon has been breaking. Read More

American advisers to Viet… Iraq… expanded to 3,550 I don't know what's more aggravating: that President Barack Obama thinks that a nickel-and-dime re-insertion of troops in Iraq is the smart play here, or that he's had over a year to come out with a better idea and came up empty. I suppose that this can be one of those 'embrace the healing power of and' situations. It's not like we have much choice. Read More

Sponsored Ben Carson: Unfit to be President I'm not the first person to come across this story about Ben Carson, but the truth about Ben Carson's ties to the 'glyconutrient' Mannatech movement are troubling. Even if you listen to his entire defense of his ties to the snake oil Mannatech product line, it's clear he's been fooled, and I can't imagine considering anyone promoting this stuff being fit to be President of the United States. Read More

Follow the Money: Basic Rights Oregon Unless you live on the West Coast, Basic Rights Oregon may be an unfamiliar name to you. However, those paying attention to the national marriage debate and the ramifications of that debate on religious freedom have certainly heard of this group's efforts in recent days. Last week, The Daily Signal released a series of communications between Basic Rights Oregon and employees of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) pertaining to the proceedings against the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, Melissa and Aaron Klein, who have effectively lost their business and are facing a $135,000 fine stemming from their decision not to participate in a same-sex wedding. Read More

Dear Accidental Sen. Bennet: Actions speak louder than words "Accidental" Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) has a problem on his hands – his lefty actions as a Senator don't fit the centrist veneer he's attempting to paint over his record. Senator Bennet currently occupies a seat that is considered to be the seventh most likely in the nation to change parties, and in a western, libertarian-esque, independent state like Colorado, his far-left actions don't bode well for his 2016 reelection prospects. Read More

Does Obama's outburst against SCOTUS mean that the Obamacare decision has been leaked to the White House? It's been pretty much a universal article of faith in the country that Supreme Court decisions are absolutely secret until they are announced. No one knows the result, except for the justices, their clerks, and the few staff people who input the text of the decisions. And it needs to be that way, because advance knowledge of a particular decision can be a tremendous advantage to certain individuals. To cite one obvious example, a decision involving a corporation could allow for market manipulation if the outcome were known by some in advance. Read More Sponsored

Sincerely yours, Erick Erickson Editor-in-Chief, RedState