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POLITICS BRIEFING

By Chris Hannay (@channay) and Rob Gilroy (@rgilroy)

The Globe Politics is pleased to include a roundup of news and opinion on U.S. politics, through until this year's election in November. As always, let us know what you think of the newsletter. Sign up here to get it by e-mail each morning.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW IN OTTAWA

> The lobbying commissioner is investigating the Liberals' "cash for access" fundraisers, in which participants at small, private events pay up to $1,500 for access to a cabinet minister.

> A top American military official came to Ottawa to pitch the Liberals on the F-35 fighter jets.

> Veterans who had been deployed in Somalia in the 1990s say their lives were negatively affected by having to take the antimalarial drug mefloquine.

> A key organizer for Maxime Bernier's leadership bid has jumped ship to rival Andrew Scheer.

> And a Conservative MP says human-rights protections for trans Canadians aren't necessary because they aren't a large group, to which Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould replied: "Human rights are human rights and we need to ensure, whether it's a small group of people or a large group of people, that we need to provide the necessary protection for those individuals."

U.S. ELECTION 2016

> Curb your enthusiasm, America: In today's Globe and Mail, Sarah Kendzior takes on the so-called 'enthusiasm gap' of U.S. voters toward Hillary Clinton. "If this election has taught us anything, it is that enthusiasm for a political figure can be dangerous. It is a pathway to demagoguery, and the absence of enthusiasm is often a sign that the democratic process is working … As citizens, we are not meant to be cheerleaders for presidents; they are meant to serve us. Blind loyalty, in the end, is merely blindness."

> Cracks in the foundation: It may not be the big October surprise that WikiLeaks promised, but recent e-mails hacked and dumped by the organization show that potential conflicts between Hillary Clinton's work at the State Department and the Clinton Foundation are going to follow her into the Oval Office if she is elected on Nov. 8. The New Republic says "it's often hard to disentangle its philanthropic work from its fundraising activities, Bill's work on its behalf from Hillary's political ambitions, and some of its shadier figures from its noble ambitions."

> GOP's woman problem: S.E. Cupp writes in The New York Times on the lonely life of being a woman in the Republican party, particularly after Newt Gingrich's recent on-air tiff with Fox News' Megyn Kelly. "That Mr. Gingrich (with whom I once hosted a television show) thought the best way to deflect attention from Mr. Trump's awful behavior with women was to attack another woman tells you so much about the depths to which Mr. Trump has dragged the Republican Party."

> Democrats and demographics: Also in The Times, Thomas Edsall says the election is likely to show the Democrats winning a majority of upscale white voters for the first time in 60 years. And it's a trend, he says, that will continue. "The 2016 election will represent a complete inversion of the New Deal order among white voters. From the 1930s into the 1980s and early 1990s, majorities of downscale whites voted Democratic and upscale whites voted Republican. Now … the opposite is true."

> Wither the rule of law?: Linda Greenhouse writes about the importance of the rule of law, and how this corrosive election threatens to undermine it. "The rule of law isn't readily reduced to a definition; we know it when we see it. … it undergirds the resilience necessary to absorb the inevitable shocks any political system faces. Resilience takes a long time to grow. … In the United States, we have thought, smugly, that we have all the time in the world. Maybe we don't."

> Team 'deplorable': The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson says Donald Trump's election surrogates are clearly the true 'deplorables' of this election campaign. "If Donald Trump's presidential campaign were one of his beauty pageants, instead of a 'Miss Congeniality' consolation prize there would have to be a 'Mr. or Ms. Deplorable.' According to my score card, the winner is Rudy Giuliani."

> The cleansing of conservatism: David Brooks of The New York Times is appalled at the way conservatism was hijacked and twisted by today's Republican Party. But, he's optimistic for the future of the movement. "That's because of an observation the writer Yuval Levin once made: That while most of the crazy progressives are young, most of the crazy conservatives are old. Conservatism is now being led astray by its seniors, but its young people are pretty great."

WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT

Globe and Mail editorial board: "The 18th-century economist Adam Smith, and the 19th-century Anti-Corn-Law League – to permit imported grain – wanted free trade so that people could eat and live better, not to quarrel about arbitration or specialized commercial courts. Those old priorities should be the same as ever."

Gary Mason (Globe and Mail): "There are two fundamental views on playing host to international sporting competitions such as the Olympics: It's a colossal waste of money that has the potential to burden generations with massive debt or a great opportunity for a city to generate civic pride and stimulate the local economy. There are currently three such events being considered for Canada, all of which would happen in the same year: 2026. And given that each would rely heavily on an infusion of dollars from Ottawa, the Trudeau Liberals are hoping they don't have to play favourites and choose one over the others."

Don Martin (CTV): "This week, the Conservatives beat the Liberals at compassion and caring, no easy task for a gang of supposedly heartless Harper leftovers. Lead by unrelentingly combative Conservative MP Michelle Rempel, the Official Opposition browbeat the Liberals into doing something about providing refuge to a small persecuted and pacifist culture of Yazidi girls."

Paul Wells (Toronto Star): "Let's be clear here: here was a triumph of the party line, handed down by Prime Minister's Office and obeyed in these days by nearly 100 per cent of MPs nearly 100 per cent of the time, over the right of senators to think independently. And that's the way it should be. Prime ministers and their caucuses are elected and can be unelected. Even when they're annoying they should win these confrontations."

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