POLITICO Playbook: 6 DAYS TO DEBATE: Rand practices with Trump stand-in

Good Friday morning. DEBATE DASHBOARD - 6 DAYS! The POLITICO Caucus: Poll of Iowa, N.H. insiders - "Insiders warn Jeb: Don't engage with Trump: 'The old maxim applies: Never wrestle with a pig,'" by Katie Glueck: "Many Republicans expect Trump will zero in on Bush ... and how Bush responds could go a long way toward shaping perceptions about his cool under fire. Bush has not tussled as frequently or as heatedly with Trump as other GOP candidates have ...

"[S]everal insiders advised that the longer the focus is on Trump's battles with the others, the better it is for Bush to quietly consolidate support while others struggle to break through." https://politi.co/1eFud2y

By Mike Allen (@mikeallen; [email protected]) and Daniel Lippman (@dlippman; [email protected])

SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: https://politi.co/1phAeAC

 --"Jeb crams, Donald scrams: Bush plans 'intense' debate prep, others study up, while Trump visits Scotland," by Eli Stokols and Katie Glueck: "Bush will hunker down with top advisers for what aides described as 'intense debate preparation' starting this weekend in Miami. ... The focus of this weekend's sessions, which will be led by former Mitt Romney aides Beth Myers and Peter Flaherty, will be helping Bush, who has already done dozens of town halls, adjust to the debate format - paring down his deep policy knowledge into sharper, cleaner responses ...

"Rand Paul ... will be sparring with a Trump stand-in, adviser Rex Elsass, who is playing the billionaire in a practice session this week." https://politi.co/1I67reE

MEDIAWATCH -- "MSNBC cancels three shows amid transition," by Dylan Byers: "MSNBC has formally decided to cancel three programs - 'The Cycle,' 'Now with Alex Wagner' and 'The Ed Show' -- as part of a larger effort to shift its daytime lineup away from opinion programming ... Alex Wagner and Ari Melber ... will remain with the network. Ed Schultz ... will leave the network, as will 'Cycle' co-hosts Abby Huntsman, Krystal Ball and Toure." https://politi.co/1H8NLmz

POWER PLAYERS -- "Barack Obama Foundation Announces New Additions [John Doerr, Thelma Golden and Julianna Smoot] to the Board of Directors" - Release: "Doerr, Golden and Smoot join current members Martin Nesbitt, J. Kevin Poorman, David Plouffe and Maya Soetoro-Ng." https://bit.ly/1eEMNHO

SNEAK PEEK - Hillary Clinton, in 11 a.m. Miami speech, urges Congress to lift the trade embargo on Cuba - From her prepared remarks: "Even many Republicans on Capitol Hill are starting to recognize the urgency of moving forward. It's time for their leaders to either get on board or get out of the way. The Cuba embargo needs to go, once and for all. We should replace it with a smarter approach that empowers the Cuban private sector, Cuban civil society, and the Cuban-American community to spur progress and keep pressure on the regime."

** A quick video presented by the National Retail Federation: Small stores can make a big impact. Find out why no entrepreneur should be afraid to start a small retail business, even in a rural state. 2-min. video: https://bit.ly/1emxgwm **

TOP TALKER - N.Y. Post Page Six, "Tory Burch is throwing a Hillary Clinton fundraiser," by Emily Smith: "Fashion designer Tory Burch ... has agreed for the fundraiser to be held at her 'sprawling, "Gatsby"-era Southampton manor,' as described by Vogue, on Aug. 30. ... Tickets start at $1,000, then rise to $2,700 for a photo with Clinton; those who raise $10,000 will be listed as a co-host, and others who raise $27,000 will be elevated to event host.

"Other Hillary for America Hamptons events will be on Aug. 22 at the Water Mill home of Selma and Artie Rabin, followed by a 'pancake breakfast with Hillary' at the East Hampton home of Susan and Alan Patricof on Aug. 30. Hillary and Bill Clinton are expected to vacation in the Hamptons in the final two weeks of August." https://pge.sx/1ItYybQ

--"Clinton Foundation says donations on the rise," by Tarini Parti: "Among the donors who contributed to the foundation this year, with an overall donation of at least $1 million each, were The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Cheryl and Haim Saban & The Saban Family Foundation; J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation; billionaire Theodore Waitt; The Rockefeller Foundation; American Federation of Teachers, which recently endorsed Clinton for president; Barclays PLC; Cheniere Energy; Cisco; Duke Energy; Goldman Sachs Group Inc.; and HSBC Holdings." https://politi.co/1M0FTLY

--"Clinton campaign complains of 'egregious' New York Times reporting errors," by Dylan Byers: "The ... campaign sent a nearly 2,000-word letter to ... executive editor [Dean Baquet] ... expressing 'grave concern' with a recent ... report relating to the former Secretary of State's private email account. 'We remain perplexed by ... some of the shaky justifications that Times' editors have made,' communications director Jennifer Palmieri wrote." https://politi.co/1JAaQEW Palmieri's full letter: https://bit.ly/1OSvccG

ADDING IT UP - "Democrats far behind GOP in raising money for '16 super PACs," by AP's Julie Bykowicz: Super PACs aligned with specific candidates "account for roughly $2 of every $3 given in the 2016 presidential race ... Less than 9 percent of the money given to candidate-specific super PACs so far will benefit Clinton and her rivals for the Democratic nomination ... The main pro-Clinton group, Priorities USA Action, raised $15.6 million in the first half of this year. That puts it behind super PACs pledged to support five contenders for the Republican nomination ...

"[S]ome of the top donors in Democratic politics have given massive checks to Priorities, including entertainment executive Haim Saban, whose $2 million gift makes him the largest donor to the super PAC so far, and hedge fund billionaire George Soros at $1 million. ... [GOP super PACs:] Jeb Bush ... $103 million ... $38 million for ... Cruz ... $26 million for ... Walker ... $16 million for ... Rubio and $16.8 million for ... Perry." https://yhoo.it/1fOgqr9

DRIVING THE WEEKEND - N.Y. Times A1, above fold, "Koch Brothers Brave Spotlight To Alter Image," by Nick Confessore: "After two elections in which Democrats and liberals sought to cast them as the secretive, benighted face of the Republican Party, the Kochs are seeking to remake public perceptions of their family, their business and their politics ... This fall, Charles Koch will publish 'Good Profit,' a new book about his management philosophy and worldview ...

"The makeover attempt has even included the Kochs' twice-yearly 'seminars' for donors to their political operation, events previously shrouded in ... secrecy ... At this year's summer seminar, which begins Saturday in Dana Point, Calif., invited reporters will be allowed to attend some sessions, including those featuring [five] of the Republican Party's presidential candidates." https://nyti.ms/1DdXFIF

SUNDAY SO FAR:

--Jake Tapper's "State of the Union": Chris Christie ... Reince Priebus ... Panel: Brianna Keilar, Jennifer Jacobs, Van Jones, Haley Barbour

--"Fox News Sunday": Gov. John Kasich ... Rick Perry ... Panel: Karl Rove, Susan Page, Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham, Juan Williams

--CBS's "Face the Nation": Mike Huckabee ... Panel on campaign money: Steven Law of American Crossroads, former FEC commissioner Trevor Potter, CBS News correspondent Julianna Goldman, WashPost's Matea Gold ... Political panel: Dan Balz, Reihan Salam of National Review, Ron Fournier, Molly Ball

--ABC's "This Week": Panel: Kristen Soltis Anderson, Maria Cardona, Newt Gingrich, Cokie Roberts

--"Meet the Press": Debbie Wasserman Schultz ... Reince Priebus ... Ben Carson ... Panel: Jerry Seib, Kathleen Parker, Helene Cooper, Chris Matthews

FIRST LOOK: "Planned Parenthood has gone on-air with a 30-second spot, in the DC metro area, called 'Brandi,' about a ... breast cancer survivor ... whose breast cancer was caught at her local Planned Parenthood." Video https://bit.ly/1SQ9wyk

YOU'RE INVITED ... PLAYBOOK BREAKFAST next week: Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald joins us Thursday at the Newseum. Doors open at 7:30 a.m. RSVP: https://bit.ly/1Ita37W

COMING IN LATE AUGUST: Massachusetts Playbook! LAUREN DEZENSKI (@LaurenDezenski) joins Politico as a reporter, and maestro of Massachusetts Playbook. Lauren has been covering Boston's colorful politics at the Dorchester Reporter, where she created and wrote The Relay, a newsletter that became the go-to source for news on the Boston Olympic bid. The Minnesota native has become a millennial master of the Bay State: At "Boston University, Lauren quickly got involved in BU's independent student newspaper The Daily Free Press. ...

"Lauren took off her second semester of junior year to work at The Boston Globe. ... She was a member of the Globe's Pulitzer-winning breaking news team covering the Boston Marathon bombing, contributing to 28 stories during the week of the bombing ... Before graduating, ... she covered the Massachusetts Legislature for the Cape Cod Times and the New Bedford Standard-Times." Bio https://bit.ly/1De1Moa

BREAKING -- "Beijing awarded 2022 Winter Olympics," by Reuters' Julian Linden: "[It became] the first city to be awarded both summer and winter Games. The Chinese capital beat Almaty, Kazakhstan in a secret ballot of 85 IOC members, held at a convention center in downtown Kuala Lumpur." https://reut.rs/1gsWJGj

MOOD MUSIC - WSJ 1-col. lead, "Economy Picks Up But Stays In Its Rut," by Kate Davidson: "[E]conomic growth so far this year has been even slower than during last year's tepid first half and well below the pace of the overall recovery. Still, the modest growth figures are likely strong enough to keep the Fed on track to begin raising short-term interest rates as early as September for the first time in nearly a decade." https://on.wsj.com/1KEP7ug

GET SMART FAST - DAVID BROOKS, "Two Cheers for Capitalism": "Hillary Clinton's new tax plan is based on the assumption that government officials are smart enough to tell investors how they should time their investments. Her corporate governance proposals are based on the idea that federal officials know better than executives how they should run their own companies. ... This strikes me as a departure from recent progressivism. ...

"[T]he next wave of thinking implies that it is not enough to simply give people access to capitalism and provide them with a safety net. The underlying system has to be reconfigured. This is a bigger debate. People like me will argue that it's a wrong turn. ... This will be fun." https://nyti.ms/1eFrypk

--"The World If Hillary Clinton is President: The first 100 days" - The Economist: "She won the election by leaning right on national security and left on the economy. Now comes the fallout." https://bit.ly/1Iw6Vbj

WHERE THEY CAME FROM - "How Debt Tamed the Donald: The brash GOP insurgent wants to make America's 'brand' great again. What he doesn't talk about is how much his own brand has changed," by Politico's Michael Hirsh: "Even when his acumen hasn't been sufficient to stave off massive financial reversals-his companies have gone into bankruptcy a nearly unprecedented four times-he has boasted that those near-death experiences were just another way of doing business: 'Stop saying I went bankrupt,' he tweeted on June 15. 'I never went bankrupt but like many great business people have used the laws to corporate advantage-smart!'" https://politi.co/1Mxz3wA

--WashPost A1, "Rubio's rise from the small time: Videos offer glimpse of future GOP star as he was just beginning," by Robert Samuels in West Miami, Fla.: "Rubio ... began his political career with a brief, frustrating tenure in the smallest of small-time jobs. From April 1998 [two years out of University of Miami law school] until his February 2000 debut in the Florida legislature, Rubio endured hours of monotonous debates [as] the junior-most member of a five-person city commission in West Miami ... This article is based on ... 63 hours of recorded ... meetings." https://wapo.st/1IcxAGx

SOCIAL 2016 - "How This Hashtag Is Helping to Grow Bernie Sanders' Powerful Grassroots Movement," by Mic's Gregory Krieg: "The ubiquity of #FeelTheBern has become an emblem of Sanders' immense social media popularity and an increasingly useful tool for people ... who lack access to more traditional and costly tools of engagement. ... #FeelTheBern, meanwhile, rounded out July with 236,304 mentions on Twitter according to Topsy, significantly ahead of #Hillary2016, which showed up 90,157 times." https://bit.ly/1JzBfCU

--JON WARD on Yahoo, "Donald Trump offered access to the Republican National Committee's voter file":"The RNC reached out soon after [Trump announced] to offer its voter file - which has the names, voting history and consumer data on roughly 250 million Americans - to the Trump campaign. The Trump campaign responded just this week, six weeks late." https://yhoo.it/1MWQg0g

--"Critics besiege presidential debate commission," by Daniel Lippman: "Critics of the debate commission - who include many presidential campaign veterans - complain that the commission is autocratic, captive to TV networks, and hasn't modernized debate formats much since it started holding them in 1988. The group charges that the commission's inaction has led to staid, boring debates that become more about the moderator than what the candidates have to say and don't actually help the American voter decide." https://politi.co/1MAJa4H

TRAILER OF THE DAY - "Johnny Depp's Whitey Bulger Keeps His Enemies Close in New 'Black Mass' Trailer": https://bit.ly/1MAJMXY

LATE-NIGHT BEST - "[Jon] Stewart: Trump Is 'Living Embodiment of Everything Republicans Were Trying to Exorcise'" - Video: https://bit.ly/1VQH03W

BACKSTORY -- "In confession to historian, George McGovern revealed he had a secret child," by WashPost's Justin Wm. Moyer: "McGovern, as an 18-year-old freshman at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, S.D., lost his virginity to the girlfriend of a friend during a trip to Lake Mitchell in December of 1940 or January of 1941, and immediately got her pregnant.'" https://wapo.st/1JUPHRJ

THE NEW GILDED AGE -- "How America's truck, the Ford F-150, became a plaything for the rich," by WashPost's Drew Harwell: "Ford's first F-Series trucks were no-frills workhorses built for no-frills workers ... Its new Limited model, Ford's most 'luxurious truck ever,' comes with ... heated-and-cooled massaging Mojave leather seats and 'unique scuff plates with ice blue backlighting.' Starting price: About $60,000, an F-150 all-time high." https://wapo.st/1fNpRXK

PLAYBOOK TRAVEL SECTION -- "Airfares could drop to record lows this fall," by Christopher Elliott: "A Justice Department investigation into airline collusion, sinking fuel costs and softer demand could push domestic airfares to record lows next month. The price of an average round-trip airline ticket will slip to $244 next month, about 5 percent lower than the same time last year." https://bit.ly/1KEaqMo

CLICKER - "Are You a Gentrifier? Find out with this calculator," by Slate's Chris Kirk: "Have you ever found yourself eating a maple bacon donut on a Citi Bike en route to Whole Foods after an exhausting yoga session and wondering: Am I a gentrifier?

No, you don't need to love wine bars, dog parks, and bike lanes to be a gentrifier. ... To the people who study gentrification, it's more about where you live and how much you earn." https://slate.me/1Ub3cE7

VALLEY TALK -- "Apple Will Debut New Apple TV In September," by BuzzFeed's John Paczkowski: "Expect a refreshed and slimmer chassis and new innards; Apple's A8 system on chip; a new remote that sources say has been 'drastically improved' by a touch-pad input; an increase in on-board storage; and an improved operating system that will support Siri voice control. Crucially, the new Apple TV will debut alongside a long-awaited App Store and the software development kit developers need to populate it." https://bzfd.it/1VQFxL1

SPORTS BLINK - COLLEGE FOOTBALL - USA TODAY's Amway Coaches Poll Preseason Top 25: "1. Ohio State ... 2. TCU ... 3. Alabama ... 4. Baylor ... 5. Oregon ... 6. Michigan State ... 7. Auburn ... 8. Florida State ... 9. Georgia ... 10. Southern California ... 11. Notre Dame ... 12. Clemson ... 13. LSU ... 14. UCLA ... 15. Mississippi ... 16. Arizona State ... 17. Georgia Tech ... 18. Wisconsin ... 19. Oklahoma ... 20. Arkansas ... 21. Stanford ... 22. Arizona ... 23. Missouri ... 24. Boise State ... 25. Tennessee." Chart https://usat.ly/1IcuQcg 1-sentence narrativeshttps://usat.ly/1I6Iv6P

POLITICO STATE VISITS: Former Politico reporter Daniel Libit and current Chicago freelance writer visited Rosslyn HQ yesterday to get a tour of the new digs - Pic of him and us: https://bit.ly/1KCUw7J ... Bush alum Blain Rethmeier and Tim Burger also swung by. Pic https://bit.ly/1Iw6rlB

OUT AND ABOUT - Ben and Ashley Chang hosted friends and colleagues last night for a farewell to DC happy hour at The Marvin on 14th Street since they're moving to LA where Ben, currently at SBA and an NSC, State and Albright Stonebridge alum and also a DJ, will become VP and editor of events for the L.A. Times, reuniting with Johanna Maska. Pic of the party poster with Ben and Ashley https://bit.ly/1JzJSgF

--SPOTTED : Marcus Brauchli, Carol Lee, Jeff Mason, Rob Hendin, Anne Schroeder, Garance Franke-Ruta, Polson Kanneth, Melissa Giaimo, Alexis Weiss, Nick Johnston, Nicole Gaouette, Stephanie Green, Anna Mulrine, Emily Cadei, Nate Tibbits, Shin Inouye, Mark Tavlarides, Riley Moore, Alexis Keslinke, Stephanie Benedict,

Jacob Freedman, Liza Romanow, Eric Pelofsky, Andrew Weiss, Heather Hurlburt,

Moira Whelan, Simon Limage, Sophia Kim, Adam Blickstein, Alexia Latortue, Dean Lieberman, Sarah Arkin, Mikey Hoare, Kim Ghattas, Meagan Murphy, Ben Droz.

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Mark Beatty, a founding partner at 270 Strategies and Obama 2012's deputy battleground states director (h/t Andrew Godinich) ... Ben Marter, great friend, dad, and comms. director for Sen. Durbin (h/t Kaylie Hanson)

BIRTHDAYS: Bill Bennett ... William Weld ... J.K. Rowling is 5-0 ... Mark Cuban is 57 ... former Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick is 59 ... Audrey Sheppard, women's health consultant and former director at FDA Office of Women's Health ... Bob Tai of Meiwah ... Politico's Bill Duryea and Walter Dantzlerward ... Nelson Garcia, president at Washington Intergovernmental Professional Group ... Katie Longo, senior director of gov't affairs comms for American Hotel and Lodging Association and a Manchin alum ... John Parks ... Association of Alternative Newsmedia's Tiffany Shackleford ... Micah Levi Spangler, the UN Foundation's deputy director of legislative affairs and travel guru ... Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC ... Nelson Garcia, director of government relations at U.S. English ...

Sam Frizell, staff writer for Time magazine covering the Democratic presidential race, is 2-5 ... Dale Emmons ... Jay Dunn ... Margi Weiss ... Sean Eldridge ... Elizabeth Wurtzel ... Sara Steele, gov't affairs manager at Dow Chemical and a Bush WH alum ... David Goldenberg ... G.W. colonial John Weber, an "aspiring flack," per his Twitter, is 20 ... Maryam Rashid ... CJ Pearson, director of youth engagement at Black Conservatives Fund ... Michael Gerard Nixon ... Kevin Latek ... Cara 'Stein' Rinkoff ... Denis Dison, SVP at Victory Fund and Institute ... Anne Dimmette Bell ... Marjorie Clifton ... Zoé Reyners ... actor Don Murray is 86 ... former movie studio executive Sherry Lansing is 71 ... International Tennis Hall of Famer Evonne Goolagong Cawley is 64 ... actor Barry Van Dyke is 64 ... Wesley Snipes is 53 ... Fatboy Slim is 52 ... Zac Brown is 37 ... actor Rico Rodriguez is 17 (h/ts AP)

** A message from the National Retail Federation: The retail industry impacts everyone, everywhere, every day. As the nation's largest private-sector employer, decisions made every day in Washington have a profound impact on retailers' ability to do business and serve their customers. View retail's impact in your state: https://bit.ly/1LCzXZe #retailadvocates **

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