People in South Florida being told to prepare for a big storm. Tropical Storm Erika tearing through the Caribbean right now and Puerto Rico being flooded with rain. The storm could become a hurricane as it heads toward Florida.
We’re tracking the storm.. as ceremonies continue in New Orleans to mark the 10th anniversary of the deadly hurricane Katrina that destroyed the city. In a speech yesterday, President Obama said of New Orleans, “You’re also becoming a model for the nation when it comes to disaster response and resilience. We learned lessons from Katrina.” He praised the progress but also said much work remains to be done.
There’s new revelations about Hillary Clinton’s email controversies today though emails released from one of her top aides appear fairly banal. Still Hillary Clinton’s handling of the email controversy has been ham-handed to say the least.
The New York Times today has a good write up of the growing fears of some Democrats about the way the story has been handled. Maggie Haberman, Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin report, “Interviews with more than 75 Democratic governors, lawmakers, candidates and party members have laid bare a widespread bewilderment that Mrs. Clinton has allowed a cloud to settle over her candidacy — by using a private email server in the first place, since it was likely to raise questions about her judgment, and by not defusing those questions once and for all when the issue first emerged in March.”
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is mulling get into the race. In the Los Angeles Times today, Michael A. Memoli Evan Halper write, “As Vice President Joe Biden escalates what could be a prolonged deliberation over whether to run for president, the summer of 2015 is shaping up to be an unsettlingly endless one for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Biden is in no rush to decide, even at a time when a campaign typically would ramp up. The first Democratic presidential debate on Oct. 13 could come and go, and he still may be mulling it over. Nothing is stopping him from waiting until after the
Iowa caucuses in February. Or even the New Hampshire primary. Simply put, Biden could remain a nuisance for the Clinton campaign into next year without ever launching a bid.”
Donald Trump bringing back the phrase “silent majority” in campaign and press appearances suggesting his soaring popularity has much to do with political correctness run amok, and that he’s tapping into a large swath of America that is suffering in silence, is mad as hell, and is not going to take it anymore.(With thanks to the movie “Network”).
This comes as the Donald Trump versus Jeb Bush battle continues.
There’s also growing calls for CNN to allow Carly Fiorina on the main stage for their upcoming GOP debate. Fiorina has surged in the polls, but so far isn’t being considered as a top tier candidate.
We’ll get into all this with our political panels today.
We’re also keeping a close eye on the economy and the stock market. A dramatically revised upwards GDP Q2 report yesterday helped fuel a second day of big gains for U.S. stocks after several weeks of steep drops. The Dow up more than 1000 points in two days. So far futures headed down today, and the big fear over economies from Europe to South America to Asia continues to be a glaring red flag. We’ll be closely monitoring.