So how do you run your campaign in 2014 if you’re a Democrat and your president’s job approval numbers are not so good? That’s the question host Ken Rudin put to Democratic pollster and strategist Anna Greenberg in the latest installment of the Political Junkie. Greenberg acknowledges the weak numbers, the disappointing foreign policy and the history of the party of the president’s “six year itch.” But she also notes the poor numbers for Republicans in Congress and argues that issues such as pay equity and immigration overhaul are winning strategies for the Democrats in November.
April showers are bringing May primaries. And many of the primaries coming up this month — in North Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia, for example — illustrate the split in the GOP between tea party and establishment forces. Bloomberg News’ Derek Wallbank discusses the latest round of bad headlines for House Republicans — the indictment of Rep. Michael Grimm (N.Y.) and the decision by the unfaithful Rep. Vance McAllister (La.) not to resign — while the Raleigh News & Observer’s Renee Schoof and retired Boise State University professor Jim Weatherby discuss hot primaries in North Carolina and Idaho, respectively.
And this week in history goes back to May of 2009, when Supreme Court Justice David Souter announces his retirement. Heather Gerken, a professor at Yale Law School and a former Souter clerk, shares her thoughts and reflections of Souter, who was appointed by a conservative president but who became one of the court’s most liberal justices.
Additional credits:
Ken Rudin, Host and Executive Producer
A.D. Quig, Producer and Editor
Douglas Bell, Coordinating Producer and Webmaster
Kristen Sorensen, Consultant
Alex Drewenskus, Engineer