Candidates converge on New Hampshire

The staff of The World and Everything in It has profiled 22 possible 2016 presidential candidates in its “White House Wednesday” series. Now they take a look at who’s ahead and who’s making moves as the big campaign gets closer.

Cruz on fire. We begin today in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, which has been a busy place on the political scene over this past week. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, grabbed headlines after his appearance in the Granite State, during which one of the younger members of his audience took the senator a bit too literally. Cruz told the crowd “the whole world’s on fire,” to which a little girl responded, “The world is on fire?”

“The world is on fire, yes,” Cruz said. “Your world is on fire. But you know what, your mommy’s here, and everyone’s here to make sure the world you grow up in is even better.”

Shortly after Cruz’s stop in New Hampshire, he appeared on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Myers. President Barack Obama is sometimes criticized for doing softball interviews on late night comedy shows, but it wasn’t such a softball interview for Cruz.

“Let’s talk about gay marriage for a second,” Myers said. “Fifty-nine percent of Americans think gay marriage should be legal—40 percent of Republicans. Yet you just passed a bill saying states should be allowed to decide on their own. Why take up that cause now when it seems inevitable that the tide of progress is going to turn that way?”

Unfazed, Cruz pointed to the Constitution: “For over 200 years, marriage has been a question for the states. Now personally, I believe in traditional marriage between one man and one woman. But if you want to change the marriage laws, the way to do it constitutionally, the way to do it is to convince your fellow citizens, go to the state legislature and change it. It shouldn’t be the federal government and unelected judges imposing their own definition of marriage.”

Walker takes heat. At Concord High School, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker explained his philosophy on tax policy by introducing a new term: The Kohl’s Curve. A company like Kohl’s makes money by lowering prices to sell more products to more people. Walker wants to do the same thing with taxes: lower the rate, broaden the base, and have more people participate in the economy. While Walker got a warm reception in New Hampshire, he’s still feeling the heat from his comments last week about ethanol. During a stop in Iowa, Walker appeared to have shifted his stance on a federal government ethanol mandate requiring all fuel to have a certain amount of biofuel, like ethanol. He claims he has not shifted his position on that subject, adding he said he wasn’t in favor of it in Wisconsin, where they don’t have it now. But that defense might not hold up very well. Walker has in the past denounced this sort of thing pretty uniformly, and he does appear to have changed his tune when campaigning in Iowa.

Bush on immigration. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also stopped in New Hampshire, where he attended a house party hosted by a former GOP official. He touted his support for vouchers and charter schools, just part of his education improvement resume. Those policy decisions might help him with voters, but his stance on immigration remains problematic. And it’s also not been consistent. In a 2012 interview with Charlie Rose, he said he would be in favor of a path to citizenship for those here illegally. But in a book he co-wrote since then, and in other interviews, he does not endorse a path to citizenship. Like Walker on his ethanol position, Bush can expect to be hit with what appears to be an inconsistency when the debates begin in the summer.

Untouchable? Although Hillary Clinton has been on the defensive for the last week over using a private email account while serving as secretary of state, it hasn’t dented her popularity much. Her favorability dropped 6 points in a recent CNN poll, but she’s still over 50 percent. A lot of people aren’t paying much attention to the email scandal. And that may be because it sounds kind of benign on the surface. If you hear the story mentioned in passing, it just sounds like a procedural infraction. But in fact, what it appears to be is a preemptive cover up. Clinton seems to have decided that just in case anything should occur that might be politically damaging, she would keep it all under her control. And to those who want government accountability and transparency, she said, you can see what I tell you you can see. But we’ll just have to wait and see to what degree voters really wrap their arms around this long-term. Right now, it’s hurting her but not nearly enough to jeopardize her status as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

Presidential power rankings. The presidential power rankings are a weekly snapshot of where the race for GOP presidential nominee stands right now. Polling is the main factor in the changes we see in the rankings from one week to the next. This week’s rankings are the same as last week’s, due to very little movement in the polls.

Listen to “White House Wednesday” on The World and Everything in It.