Coming up Wednesday
PolitiFact.com Founder & Editor Bill Adair reveals the biggest fib from the 2012 campaign season
In any political campaign, both sides are bound to make extreme statements and when that happens, the fact checkers get to work, cutting through the talking points to find the truth. PolitiFact is one of the most prominent fact-checking websites out there and every year, their staff picks what they consider to be the most outlandish phony statement from the past year in politics. Bill Adair is the founder and editor of PolitiFact.com and this morning he joins “Starting Point” to announce 2012's official "Lie of the Year."
Adair says the 2012 campaign "Lie of the Year" is, “the claim by the Romney campaign that Jeep was going to move its production to China at the cost of American jobs.” He adds, “This was a last minute point in an ad made in Ohio but it really had ramifications far behind Ohio.”
Adair says the reason they chose the Chrysler ad is “because it was so brazen.” “They also put out a radio as that said the same thing and they continued to repeat it even after Chrysler fact checkers had said it was simply not true.”
Is GOP ready for a 'young, dynamic' future? Jeb Bush Jr. explains, weighs in on dad's prospects for 2016 presidential run
Sunpac co-founder and chairman Jeb Bush, Jr. on the future of the Republican Party after the 2012 election season. He also addresses rumors on if his dad, fmr. Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush, will make a run for the presidency in 2016.
Can GOP court Hispanic vote? New Yorker's Ryan Lizza on why Texas may be on the front lines in the struggle to attract voters
CNN Contributor and Washington Correspondent for "The New Yorker" Ryan Lizza on his latest piece looking at how Texas is on the front lines of the GOP's struggle to attract Hispanic voters.
Rep. LaTourette: Tea Party message on fiscal issues is right, but 'Tea Party is not the GOP'
Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) says Tea Party National Coordinator Keli Carender's message is right on fiscal issues.
VIDEO: Running from truth in the election? Howard Kurtz and Lauren Ashburn reflect on the post-election craziness
Howard Kurtz and Lauren Ashburn on the responses from Donald Trump and Karl Rove after President Obama's reelection.
VIDEO: What if the GOP had nominated Jon Huntsman? Abby Huntsman says there 'might have been a different outcome'
HuffPost Live Host Abby Huntsman argues there might have been a different outcome to the general election had her dad, fmr. U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, been nominated as the GOP candidate for president.
Tea Party Patriots's Carender: GOP 'sat on their hands' after 2008, Romney forced to leave Obamacare on table in election
Tea Party Patriots National Coordinator Keli Carender talks with Soledad O'Brien this morning on "Starting Point," arguing why GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was not a good candidate.
She says Republicans did not have a good ground game and "sat on their hands" after the 2009 election, and she argues that having Romney as a candidate meant they couldn't criticize Obamacare.
“In a nutshell, the Republicans sat on their hands for four years," Carender says. "After 2008, you had Barack Obama and the Democrats who left paid staffers in critical swing states and offices open, and they were working to identify new voters… that they managed to register in the four years between the two elections. And I don’t know what the Republicans were doing. The Tea Party was just getting started.”
"We had a candidate who was forcefully the biggest issue of this election, which was Obamacare, on the table because he had Romneycare to deal with. And if we had been able to so as the center right coalition, if the candidate had been able to take Barack Obama to task for one of the most unpopular laws this country has ever passed, then I believe that we could have been successful in ousting president Obama," she adds.
The lighter side of the 2012 race: Comedian David Alan Grier on why politics can occasionally be hilarious
The presidential election is finally behind us now. But with all its moments of contention, there were several laughs at the candidates’ expense. NBC's "Saturday Night Live" certainly highlighted those and made light of the serious instances throughout the campaign.
Comedian David Alan Grier comes to “Starting Point” to talk to amount the moments of humor throughout the 2012 race.
Soledad O’Brien asks if comedians ever consider an election by the funnier candidate. “Yeah,” Grier says. “Barack Obama is so cool and calm and reserved...he’s not gonna have that crazy moment,” Grier says. “I was of two minds. I voted for Barack Obama, but my comic funny bone was like, ‘Yeah, well Mitt Romney, that’s like two HBO specials.”
Goolsbee says progress on fiscal cliff possible if 'part of a grand bargain,' weighs in on possible Geithner successor
Now that the election is over, President Obama's next major issue to tackle is the fiscal cliff. But with as divided a Congress as before the election, it could take some time before Democrats and Republicans reach a deal.
Austan Goolsbee, professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and fmr. chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, joins Soledad on “Starting Point” to talk about the looming fiscal cliff.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner has statements indicating some willingness to compromise for the fiscal cliff, but mentioning that simply raising taxes will not solve it. Goolsbee agrees with Boehner’s statements to reporters. “It’s got to be part of a grand bargain, and hopefully they’ll be some room for compromise,” Goolsbie says. “But I fear there’s still one more celebrity death match left in that old kind of Tea Party viewpoint.”
Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas asks Gooslbee about tax reform creating revenue in regard to Boehner’s statements. “If by raising revenue through tax reform, it meant ‘lets go in and figure out how we broaden the base and get rid of deductions and exemptions,’ then I think there’s a chance,” he says. “But, if it meant, “We’re gonna rely on the Laffer curve if we could only raise revenues by cutting rates and counting on the tax cuts to pay for themselves,’ that will definitely not work.”
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said he will not remain in the position into President Obama’s second term. Gooslbee says he doesn’t blame Geithner, having had to tackle the financial crisis and debt crisis.
“It strikes me that the big issue of 2013 on the economic side is gonna be confronting the grand bargain,” Goolsbee says, “so whoever’s gonna be his replacement is gonna need to be totally up to speed on budget tax reform and those kinds of issues, because that’s gonna be what’s facing us.”
San Antonio Mayor Castro on importance of Latino voters, predicts it could change face of Texas politics
(CNN) – San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, a Democrat, predicted Thursday Latinos will play an expanding role in the political future of Texas, a reliably red state.
"I think when you have that ground work and when you have the right candidates to excite folks, then you're going to start to see progress and within the next six to eight years, I believe that Texas will at least be a purple state, if not a blue state," Castro said on CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien."
Castro, who gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in September, argued the GOP's "tone on issues like immigration" and Republican positions against the 2010 health care law have turned Latinos away from the party. The new law, he says, will cover nine million more Latinos, which he called a "big deal" for a demographic that largely relies on the emergency room as "their primary care physician."
Latinos represent a growing portion of the national electorate, including 10% in this year's election, according to CNN exit polls. Of those who voted, President Barack Obama won 71% of their support, while Mitt Romney carried 27%. This year marked the first time the Latino electorate reached a double digit figure; in 2008, they represented nine percent of the vote.
Castro said in order to gain more support from Latinos, Republicans have to become a bigger tent party. "They can't tow the line of the tea party and expect they're going to be able to appeal to Latinos and other groups."
While that may be the case on a national level, Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said the Lone Star State should be considered a model for the GOP in learning how to be more inclusive.
READ MORE: Julian Castro predicts big change in Texas
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