Sources: Joe Biden Still Considering A Presidential Campaign

Vice President Joe Biden is still very much considering a bid for the White House, people close to Biden say, and will make a final decision at the end of the summer, targeted for September.

The Iowa caucuses are scheduled for early February, meaning Biden would have roughly four months to barnstorm the first-in-the-nation state before the contest turned to New Hampshire.

Front-runner Hillary Clinton has faced a surprisingly tough challenge from democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, who is within striking distance in Iowa despite not being registered as a Democrat and trailing far behind in establishment support. Sanders' surge suggests Clinton could be once again beatable in a Democratic primary.

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Republican White House contender Rubio to deliver economic speech

Republican presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) addresses a legislative luncheon held as part of the ''Road to Majority'' conference in Washington June 18, 2015.

REUTERS/CARLOS BARRIA

Presidential candidate Marco Rubio will deliver an economic speech in Chicago on Tuesday with the goal of separating himself from the packed field of Republican candidates and kick-starting his campaign into a more active, visible phase.

Rubio, a senator from Florida, has spent much of the last several weeks either bogged down in a U.S. Senate preoccupied with a Pacific Rim trade deal or out of the public eye raising money.

But after his Chicago speech, Rubio will visit Iowa and then Nevada, both of which hold key nominating contests early next year. His campaign says to expect further travel, likely to New Hampshire.

With his Cuban-American background, youth and compelling biography, Rubio, 44, has long been viewed by campaign analysts as one candidate in the ever-growing field of 14 who could break out from the pack.

As yet, however, there is little sign of that. State polls in early primary states, save for his home state of Florida, have typically shown Rubio struggling to crack double-digits. A Reuters Ipsos poll showed Rubio drawing support from 9.6 percent of likely Republican primary voters nationally - behind former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the nominal front-runner, and reality show star Donald Trump.

Rubio is expected to use his speech in Chicago to defend his tax-reform plan, which has been criticized in conservative circles, and touch upon themes that some economists say sound unusual coming from a Republican presidential hopeful.

Rubio has used previous campaign events to discuss the plight of working mothers, middle-class families and college students, wading into topics that Democrats often emphasize. He has questioned whether a traditional college education provides a good bargain for some students who he says would benefit more from skills-based training.

“Only through an innovative economy can we translate new technologies into new middle-class jobs,” Rubio will say Tuesday, according to excerpts of his speech released ahead of time, “and only through a revolutionized higher education system can we equip all our people to fill those jobs.”

James Pethokoukis, a scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said Rubio deserved credit for trying to develop an agenda that goes beyond criticizing President Barack Obama and the leading Democratic contender, Hillary Clinton.

But Pethokoukis, like several conservatives, was critical of Rubio’s tax plan, which would simplify the federal tax code and offer new tax credits to families with children. Unlike some plans floated by Rubio's rivals, his plan would not significantly lower the top-tier income tax rates, though it would cut the corporate tax rate.

Source: Reuters

Clinton struggled to fit in with Obama's White House, emails show

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Virginia Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson party fundraising dinner at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, June 26, 2015.

REUTERS/JOSHUA ROBERTS

Hillary Clinton struggled to fit into the government of President Barack Obama after being appointed Secretary of State in 2009, according to emails released by the State Department on Tuesday.

They showed Clinton turning up for meetings that had been canceled and worrying about how much time she had with her new boss, revealing growing pains in the relationship between her and former election rival Obama in the early months of her time as America's top diplomat.

In an email to two aides on June 8, 2009, Clinton was unsure if the White House had held a Cabinet meeting and whether she should attend.

"I heard on the radio that there is a Cabinet mtg this am. Is there? Can I go? If not, who are we sending?" Clinton wrote.

A State Department official wrote back that the government was holding a meeting, but not a full cabinet meeting that she needed to be at.

As Clinton sought to navigate her relationship with the Obama White House, she corresponded with several former aides and advisers to her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

They included Sidney Blumenthal, a former White House speech writer, Sandy Berger, the former National Security Adviser and Mark Penn, who served as a political adviser to both Bill Clinton and to Hillary Clinton's 2008 White House bid.

As the Obama administration was conducting a review of its policy in Afghanistan, for example, Penn emailed her and advised her not to ignore the threat posed by the Taliban.

While they were fierce competitors on the campaign trail Clinton and Obama eventually struck up a cordial working relationship in the four years she spent as secretary of state.

As she runs for the White House again at the November, 2016 election, Clinton's relationship with her fellow Democrat will come under further scrutiny.

While she has aligned herself with the Obama administration on issues that are popular with the base of Democratic supporters such as immigration reform, she has also tried to make her own mark by distancing herself from Obama on trade.

Back in 2009, there were a few misunderstandings, according to an email Clinton sent about what she thought was a meeting at the White House.

"I arrived for the 10:15 mtg and was told there was no mtg," she wrote to aides. "This is the second time this has happened. What's up???" she asked.

    The emails released on Tuesday are among some 30,000 work emails relating to Clinton that a judge has ordered to be released in batches after a controversy broke out earlier this year when she acknowledged using a personal email account rather than a government one for State Department business.

As she began her tenure, Clinton worried about perceptions that she was not meeting enough with the president, given that former President Richard Nixon used to see his secretary of state Henry Kissinger daily.

"In thinking about the Kissinger interview, the only issue I think that might be raised is that I see POTUS at least once a week while K saw Nixon everyday," she said in an email to a spokesman, using Washington shorthand for President of the United States.

"Do you see this as a problem?” she asked spokesman Philippe Reines.

OBAMA COMPARISONS

Informal adviser Blumenthal showed concern in an email that the former first lady would be compared unfavorably to Obama as a public speaker.

"This speech can't afford to be lackluster. It will then be held up in invidious comparison to Obama's glittering best efforts. Your speech must have, amid the policies, a distinctive and authoritative voice,” Blumenthal wrote to Clinton about an address she was going to give at a foreign policy think tank.

A controversial figure, Blumenthal has had ties to the Clinton family since Bill Clinton's White House years.

He gave Hillary Clinton detailed advice on issues ranging from British politics to Afghanistan and Iran even though he was not employed by the U.S. government.

Blumenthal seemed to act as a middle-man between Clinton and former British prime minister Gordon Brown on the Northern Ireland peace process, according to an email he sent in 2009.

Blumenthal was barred from a job at the State Department by aides to Obama because of lingering distrust over his role advising Clinton's run against Obama, according to The New York Times.

The adviser emailed Clinton on June 23 around 10 p.m. with the subject line, "Hillary: if you're up, give me a call. Sid." In the preceding days, he had sent her detailed memos on Iran's 2009 election crisis.

James Cole, a lawyer for Blumenthal, did not reply to an email requesting comment.

Blumenthal last month said he wrote to Clinton only as a friend and a private citizen.

Source: Reuters