Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Palin Considers Run for Senate in Alaska - Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said Tuesday that she's considering a run for U.S. Senate in Alaska.
 
The former half-term governor of Alaska said supporters have urged her to launch a challenge to Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) next year.

I’ve considered it because people have requested me considering it, but I’m still waiting to see what the lineup will be and hoping that, there again, there will be some new blood, new energy, not just kind of picking from the same old politicians in the state that come from political families that have sort of [unintelligible] up there for so many years because too many of them have been part of the problem,” Palin said during a radio interview with right-wing pundit Sean Hannity.  TPM.com has more here.

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Obama To Meet with Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Touts Economic Benefits of Immigration Reform - The White House ramped up efforts to convince the House to act on immigration reform with the release of a report Wednesday touting the economic benefits of the Senate bill.

The report was released ahead of a critical House Republican meeting Wednesday on immigration strategy, and it represented an opening move in the administration’s delicate bid to raise political pressure on the House without alienating persuadable Republican lawmakers.

“In the weeks ahead, the President and other senior members of the administration will publicly urge the House to follow in the Senate’s footsteps, in part by highlighting how immigration reform would strengthen the economy and reduce the deficit,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “We’ll also coordinate with the wide array of outside voices that are engaged in the effort to mobilize public support for reform.”

The 34-page report cites government reports and think tank data to argue that the Senate bill would increase economic growth, boost job creation and reduce the deficit. It marks the White House’s most explicit embrace yet of the Senate bill, although the report states that President Barack Obama urges the House “to move this bill or similar legislation forward.”

Obama will also discuss immigration Wednesday with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which is dominated by House members.  Politico.com has more here.

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Bush to Speak on Immigration - Former President George W. Bush speaks on Wednesday about immigration, but don't expect him to wade into the political battle over immigration reform.

Bush's comments at a naturalization ceremony at his presidential center in Dallas will come on the same day that House Republicans meet behind closed doors to discuss their next steps on immigration reform, following the passage late last month of a bipartisan bill in the Senate.

According to the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the former president will speak prior to the swearing in of 20 new American citizens.  CNN.com has more here.

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Americans Want Shorter Presidential Campaign, National Referenda on Key Issues - A Gallup poll found a majority of Americans back three political reform ideas, including 68% who favor national referenda on key issues if enough voters sign a petition to request a popular vote on the issue. Roughly six in 10 favor a shortened presidential campaign lasting five weeks in the fall of an election year and a nationwide primary election to select each party's candidates for president.  Gallup.com has more here.

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Majority View Snowden as Whistle Blower - A majority of U.S. registered voters consider Edward Snowden a whistle-blower, not a traitor, and a plurality says government anti-terrorism efforts have gone too far in restricting civil liberties, a poll released today shows.

Fifty-five percent said Snowden was a whistle-blower in leaking details about top-secret U.S. programs that collect telephone and Internet data, in the survey from Hamden, Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University. Thirty-four percent said he’s a traitor.

The poll also showed that by 45 percent to 40 percent, respondents said the government goes too far in restricting civil liberties as part of the war on terrorism. That was a reversal from January 2010, when in a similar survey 63 percent said anti-terrorism activities didn’t go far enough to protect the U.S. from attacks, compared with 25 percent who disagreed.

“The massive swing in public opinion about civil liberties and governmental anti-terrorism efforts, and the public view that Edward Snowden is more whistle-blower than traitor, are the public reaction and apparent shock at the extent to which the government has gone in trying to prevent future terrorist incidents,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s polling institute. Bloomberg.com has more here.

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