Friday Open Thread [7.31.15]

Jason puts great stock in this, pun intended: the political betting markets give Donald Trump 8-1 odds of winning the Republican presidential nomination, behind only Jeb Bush (8-5), Marco Rubio (7-2) and Scott Walker (4-1). Why is Rubio so high. He’s running for VP and not President.

Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said they have specific policy positions ready for release at a time and method of the campaign’s choosing, BuzzFeed reports.

Said Lewandowski: “Candidly? They’re all done. They’re done and we’re waiting for our schedule and we won’t be dictated to by the mainstream media to tell us what we should or shouldn’t be doing and how these positions should be put out front.”

KENTUCKY–GOVERNOR–SurveyUSA: Jack Conway (D) 45, Matt Bevin (R) 42.

“The State Department is set Friday to post online its next batch of e-mails that Hillary Clinton sent and received on a personal account while she was secretary of state,” Bloomberg reports.

“None is anticipated to contain material directly tied to the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Instead, these e-mails are anticipated to date from an earlier period in Clinton’s tenure as secretary—late 2009 to early 2010. Even so, they will likely draw intense scrutiny from the media, Republicans and others seeking any new political ammunition or gossipy tidbits about the 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner.”

Charlie Cook: “For Bush and Rubio (and Kasich if he makes the cut), the best advice would probably be to stay out of Trump’s way. Focus on making a positive impression on—and hopefully connecting with—Republican primary voters and caucus attendees. Each of them should have a game plan for achieving those goals and stick to it, almost no matter what Trump does.”

“But for Sen. Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Rand Paul, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and, if he makes the cut, former Sen. Rick Santorum—all of whom are running from a distinctly more ideological wing of the party—a wise strategy would be not only to follow the aforementioned advice but also to demonstrate enough anger that they plausibly stand to inherit Trump’s supporters if he does start to drop in the polls.”

“I think that I would be a great uniter. I think that I would have great diplomatic skills. I think that I would be able to get along with people very well. I’ve had a great success in my life. I think the world would unite if I were the leader of the United States.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by The Hill.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says he “will not run for president as an Independent if he falls short in his bid to secure the Democratic 2016 nomination,” The Hill reports.

Said Sanders: “I would not want to be responsible for electing some right-wing Republican president.”