OBAMA AGENDA: Polling the looming court rulings
From our latest NBC/WSJ poll - from one of us(!): "Views on President Barack Obama's federal health-care law remain unchanged ahead of an upcoming Supreme Court decision that could potentially gut the law, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Just 8 percent of Americans say the law is working well, while a plurality - 40 percent - believes it needs only minor modifications to improve it. Those numbers are identical to the results from an April 2014 NBC/WSJ poll on the same question."
As a court ruling looms, the New York Times looks at whether federal health insurance subsidies have been successful.
The Washington Post on Obama's trade win: "It represents a hard-won payoff for a president who was willing to partner with his Republican rivals and defy a majority of his party in pursuit of an accord that aides have said will ensure that the United States maintains an economic edge over a rising China."
The Wall Street Journal goes behind the scenes on the trade deal, writing that the agreement was based not on horse-trading but on "shared interests."
Five former members of Obama's Iran team "have written an open letter expressing concern that a pending accord to stem Iran’s nuclear program “may fall short of meeting the administration’s own standard of a ‘good’ agreement” and laying out a series of minimum requirements that Iran must agree to in coming days for them to support a final deal," writes the New York Times.
CONGRESS: Boehner’s crackdownPOLITICO delves deep into John Boehner's crackdown on conservative dissenters in his party.
OFF TO THE RACES: Jindal makes it No. 13
A Miami archbishop who is friends with both Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush says that Pope Francis's words on climate change have softened both candidates' rhetoric.
Msnbc.com's Benjy Sarlin writes on just how much the Supreme Court's Obamacare ruling could turn the 2016 GOP race on its head.
A memo from the DNC: “We are confident that the Supreme Court will preserve access to affordable care for millions of Americans. But should the court rule in favor of King, Republican 2016ers should expect to be subjected to the public’s ire.”
BUSH: His super PAC is up with its first ad in New Hampshire, NH1.com reports.
CLINTON:National Journal's Ben Pershing writes on why Hillary Clinton still needs Terry McAuliffe.
CRUZ: He says in his new book that he was the target of "venom" during the debt ceiling fight, writes the Washington Post.
HUCKABEE: He said in Iowa that the government should get out of the business of providing health care for veterans, instead proposing that vets should be given a health care card that allows them to use medical services anywhere.
JINDAL: Here's our file on Jindal's announcement yesterday in Louisiana.
The Washington Post ed board, not a fan: "Mr. Jindal’s record, however, is less of an achievement to advertise than a cautionary tale of how political ambition can triumph over pragmatism."
RUBIO: The Democratic research group Correct the Respond responds to Rubio's town hall today in New Hampshire: “Today, Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio will be headlining a veterans and military town hall in Exeter, New Hampshire, for the Concerned Veterans for America, a right-wing group backed by the Koch brothers. Rubio’s record on veterans issues is of great concern for our nation’s servicemen and women, so he’s lucky he is in friendly territory – addressing a group directly affiliated to the Koch brothers, whose funding he is courting.”
SANDERS: In an interview with NPR, he said "I think guns and gun control is an issue that needs to be discussed ... Let me add to that, I think that urban America has got to respect what rural America is about, where 99 percent of the people in my state who hunt are law abiding people."
And a good catch from NPR’s Jessica Taylor: “Due to a quirky New Hampshire filing process — and Sanders' status as an independent rather than a registered Democrat — there are lingering questions about how easy it will be for him to file for the primary next year.”
He's cutting into Clinton's lead in Iowa and New Hampshire, Bloomberg reports.
WEBB: He became the only Democratic presidential candidate to get close to defending the Confederate flag, writes one of us.
AND AROUND THE COUNTRY...
FLORIDA: Rep. Jeff Miller will run for the state's open Senate seat, Roll Call reports.
PROGRAMMING NOTES.
*** Thursday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: Tamron Hall speaks with USA Today’s Entertainment reporter Arienne Thompson regarding PBS halting production on their show: Finding Your Roots, MSNBC News Correspondent Adam Reiss about latest on the manhunt for two fugitives who escaped the Clinton Correction facility in NY, and hip-hop artist Akon on his new initiative to bring solar power to over 600 million Africans
*** Thursday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell will interview Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Sen. Chris Coons and the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and the AP’s Julie Pace.
