President Obama will unveil details of his plan to rebuild America’s roads, bridges, airports and transit systems. It’s something we’ve been calling for here on “Hardball” for more than a year. But fleshing out the policy and winning the politics are two different things. How aggressively will the president push his plan? Will he force Republicans to say no to fixing the infrastructure problems in their own districts—to say no to jobs for their own constituents? The answers to these questions may be the difference between success and failure.
President Obama worked the phones to help calm tensions among Republicans on illegal immigration. He reached out to Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio to reiterate his support for a bipartisan plan.
Marco Rubio has been at the center of the Republican Party’s re-branding efforts since the election—as he prepares for a possible White House run in 2016—but he’s far from the center. So how conservative is he? Nate Silver of The New York Times crunched the numbers and found Rubio’s to the right of John McCain, Mitt Romney, George W. Bush and even Ronald Reagan. In fact, the only recent GOP nominee to the right of Rubio is Barry Goldwater. Wow.
Speaking of the GOP’s re-branding efforts—this can’t help: Don’t look now, but Alaska’s Joe Miller is back and the Republican establishment isn’t happy about it.
So who would win New Jersey if the 2016 election was between Hillary Clinton and NJ Governor Chris Christie?
Disgraceful: Republican Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada calls Gabby Giffords a “prop” for advocates of gun safety. Jon Ralston uncovered the audio.
Hardball staff