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1.) Joe-mentum? — Is America ready for Biden’s America? TheDC’s Patrick Howley reports:
“Vice President Joe Biden reminisced about his losing 2008 presidential run while speaking at Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin’s steak-fry fundraiser in Indianola, Iowa Sunday. ‘I have great respect for everyone with whom I ran in 2007. If you go back and look at those 13 debates, the only two people who never disagreed on any single, solitary subject in those debates were Barack Obama and Joe Biden,’ Biden said in his remarks, stoking speculation that he might make another run for president in 2016. … Biden, whose 2016 candidacy against presumptive front-runner Hillary Clinton would probably see a groundswell of Republican support, already has two losing presidential campaigns under his belt, having first dropped out of the 1988 Democratic primary following a health scare and accusations that he plagiarized part of a speech from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock.”
While there are divisions in the Republican Party, there is almost certainly consensus that Biden would make a fantastic Democratic presidential nominee, if only because he would make a Republican win more likely. And TheDC Morning doesn’t know a single journalist who thinks a Biden candidacy would be anything other than awesome to cover.
2.)Recovery Summers? — Larry Summers isn’t coming back to government. Considering his track record, that’s probably not such a bad thing. TheDC’s Tim Cavanaugh reports:
“Lawrence Summers, the former Harvard University president whose reputation as an economic genius proved useless when his work for the first Obama economic team produced the longest period of stagnation in the postwar era, has quit his campaign to become Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. Summers was ostensibly a favorite of the right, and his withdrawal clears the way for Janet Yellen, vice chairwoman of the Fed’s Board of Governors. Yellen is an open inflationist whose candidacy is supported by loose monetarists convinced that increased inflation will result in the creation of more jobs. Summers and Yellen have been the most discussed candidates for the Fed chair throughout the summer.”
3.) Obama’s America — Speaking of Larry Summers’ track record, over four years into the Obama presidency, the economy is not exactly roaring. TheDC’s Neil Munro reports:
“Less than half of Americans’ per-capita wealth that was lost in the government-boosted property bubble has been recovered by mid-2013, says a new White House report that is intended to help President Barack Obama trumpet his economic accomplishments. ‘Adjusted for inflation and population growth, only 45 percent of wealth lost during the recession has been recovered, and many of the hardest hit households did not benefit as much from the rebound in [Wall Street] financial assets prices,’ the report admits. The 49-page report cherry-picks favorable economic data to justify its claim that ‘America has fought our way back … thanks to the grit and resilience of the American people.'”
4.) When Vladimir met Dana — A love story for the ages. TheDC’s Patrick Howley reports:
“Republican California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher admitted Friday to once losing an arm-wrestling match to Russian president Vladimir Putin. ‘We started arguing about who won the Cold War,’ Rohrabacher told a local radio station about the vaguely symbolic dustup. ‘We decided to settle it the way men do when they had too much to drink in the pub. So we got down to these arm-wrestling matches.’ Though America clearly won the Cold War, Rohrabacher did not fare as well in the arm-wrestling match, held in the early 1990s at the Irish Times pub in Washington, D.C. before Putin became Russian president/dictator/king or whatever he is.”
Frankly, it’s just an awesome story.
5.) Tweet of Yesterday — James Pethokoukis: Bashar al-Assad’s regime is alive, and the Larry Summers nomination is dead
6.) Today in North Korean News — BREAKING: “Kim Jong Un Receives Greetings from Namibian President”
VIDEO: David Brooks warns of ‘the rise of Ted Cruz-ism,’ takeover of Republican Party