October 23, 2015 11:16 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (Oct. 23)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Daylight Saving Time doesn’t happen until next Saturday — you’ll set your clock back an hour — but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with a coworker and convince them it’s actually this weekend. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► If you have not yet received a mail ballot for the 2015 election, you should contact your County Clerk and Recorder’s office. Go to GoVoteColorado.com to check your voter registration status or to print out a sample ballot. You can also check out JustVoteColorado.org for more information. For more details on local school board elections, check out ProgressNow Colorado’s voter guide.

► Maybe it’s really time to shut the door on Benghazi, eh? Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent 11 hours — 11 freakin’ hours — in front of another House committee investigating the 2012 attacks on the embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton emerged last evening as the clear political winner on a matter that an increasing percentage of Americans view as pure partisan politics.

This headline from the Washington Post is not what Republicans were hoping to get out of Clinton’s testimony: “Eight reasons Hillary Clinton won the Benghazi hearings.” Reason #1 says more than enough about Thursday’s testimony:

The GOP landed no solid punches. In a striking moment after the hearing adjourned at 9 p.m., Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the committee chairman, told reporters he learned nothing new from Clinton’s testimony. “I don’t know that she testified that much differently today than she has in the previous times she’s testified,” he said. [Pols emphasis] Outside the cloakroom late Thursday, many Republicans were subdued. Our colleague Bob Costa relays that there was no celebrating and, privately, many admitted Clinton was formidable.

South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, the leader of the three-year Benghazi witch hunt, is increasingly looking damaged from this whole affair. Did you expect that you would get different answers from Clinton if you just kept asking the same questions? Enough already.

Oh, and here’s another feather that won’t go in Gowdy’s cap: Clinton’s Presidential campaign raised a substantial amount of money yesterday because of the Benghazi committee’s never-ending “investigation.”

► A spokesperson for Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) tried chiding journalist and media critic Jason Salzman for not having a complete picture of Coffman’s immigration policy…which, of course, is an impossible task:

Sandberg is walking a thin line here by indicating that prior statements from Coffman are equivalent to actual positions on issues; you can see from the “comprehensive reform” switcheroo  that Coffman’s statements don’t often have a very long shelf life of support from the man himself. Mike Coffman owes it to his constituents to present a clear platform on big issues such as illegal immigration — not the other way around. Even if you were aware of every comment that Coffman has ever made on potential immigration policy, you still couldn’t put together a workable platform; there are too many examples of Coffman flat-out contradicting himself.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► ProgressNow Colorado delivered its final petition to the University of Colorado as part of a long campaign to try to persuade organizers of the Oct. 28 Republican Presidential debate to make more seats available to CU students.

► CBS4 Denver has more coverage on anticipated protests in Boulder next week prior to the big debate.

► Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul plans to hold a rally in Denver on Tuesday for his fledgling Presidential campaign. It might be worth attending for historical purposes; it’s possible that Paul will soon end his Presidential campaign if he can’t come up with a big moment in Wednesday’s debate.

► Will someone please do something about this Jeb! Bush situation? You know — the situation where a terrible candidate for President continues to say stupid things week after week? As Joey Bunch reports for the Denver Post:

Jeb Bush appears to have made a super gaffe about Supergirl, picking her as one of his favorite superheroes, because he thinks she’s “pretty hot.”

The actress playing the role (and her alter ego, Kara) in the new CBS television show “Supergirl,” Melissa Benoist, is from Littleton, and Colorado promises to be a swing state in next year’s presidential race, so it remains to be seen if the remark proves to be Bush’s political Kryptonite.

Bush was asked a question in Las Vegas about his favorite superhero, and instead of moving on to the next question after initially answering, “Batman,” ol’ Jeb! just couldn’t help himself:

But he kept going, saying that he saw a commercial for the new CBS show “Supergirl” while he was working out that morning. It apparently got his blood pumping.

“She looked kinda — she looked pretty hot,” he said. “I don’t know which channel it’s on, but I’m looking forward to that.”

► Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith considered making a bid for U.S. Senate in 2016, but the Ft. Collins Republican says he has decided not to enter the field to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. Somewhere, someone is probably disappointed.

► Governor John Hickenlooper reflected on his recent trade trip that whisked a Colorado delegation to Japan, China, Turkey, and Israel in the last two weeks.

► A new commercial rail line connecting Denver’s Union Station with Denver International Airport will open on April 22, 2016, according to RTD officials.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► According to a new survey of Republican politicos conducted by Politico, 81% of GOP insiders believe it is increasingly likely that famous rich person Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination for President in 2016.

► Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee is dropping out of the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination — assuming you ever really considered him a serious candidate in the first place.

ICYMI

► Have you ever wondered who might be buying so many copies of books written by the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) or retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson? Apparently, many of those copies are purchased by….Ted Cruz and Ben Carson.

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