CNN's GUT CHECK for July 22, 2013

CNN's GUT CHECK | for July 22, 2013 | 5 p.m.
– n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

IT’S A BOY: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and husband Prince William on Monday welcomed their first child.

NO ‘CROWN JEWELS’ FOR SNOWDEN: U.S. intelligence now believes Edward Snowden did not gain access to the "crown jewels" of National Security Agency programs that secretly intercept and monitor conversations around the world, CNN has learned. – Barbara Starr

MARKET WATCH: U.S. stocks close slightly higher, as investors await a raft of earnings this week. Dow adds 2 points.

TRAIL TRIVIA
(Answer below)
Who said, “I’m not paranoid about a woman on the ticket”?

MARK (@PrestonCNN), MICHELLE (@mjaconiCNN) & DAN (@DanMericaCNN)
What caught our eye today in politics

Virginia’s governor race made the banter on ABC’s 'The View' today – offering a peek of how some women are driving the conversation in one of the most important political races of the year.

Take a moment to watch this clip.

Yes, the battle to lead the commonwealth has risen to the level of a nationally syndicated daytime TV talk show as the liberal leaning co-hosts rip into GOP nominee Ken Cuccinelli for his social conservative stand on sex.

“Whatever happened to the slogan Virginia is for lovers,” Barbara Walters joked.

Whoopi Goldberg vowed to try and help defeat Cuccinelli, who serves as Virginia’s attorney general.

“I don't remember God saying anything about you coming in my bedroom and telling me what to do,” Goldberg said. “So sir, you're not going to become the governor if you stay on this track. I'm going to make sure you're not going to become governor.”

Goldberg was not specific about what, if anything, she planned to do to try and defeat Cuccinelli who faces Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe in November.

Cuccinelli has remained consistent on his social conservative views, including his support of the Crimes Against Nature law. The statute outlaws oral and anal sex but was struck down by a federal appellate court earlier this year.

In supporting the law, Cuccinelli said that "same-sex acts are against nature and are harmful to society." In a gubernatorial debate over the weekend – in which Cuccinelli faced off against McAuliffe – the attorney general stood by that statement.

"My personal beliefs about the personal challenge of homosexuality haven’t changed,” he said.

On one hand, it may be easy for the Cuccinelli campaign to write off being ridiculed by a national talk show that just lost its conservative host (Elizabeth Hasselbeck left the show earlier this month for Fox News).

Still, ‘The View’ commands an audience – 3.3 million viewers per day, according to Nielsen – many of whom are women.

Why does that matter? Cuccinelli is struggling with that demographic.

In a Quinnipiac University poll released before this weekend’s debate, Cuccinelli was four points behind McAuliffe. A substantial driver of the four-point difference is the attorney general’s numbers with women. According to the poll, McAuliffe has a 16-point lead over Cuccinelli with women voters – 48% of women in Virginia supported McAuliffe according to the poll, while 32% supported Cuccinelli.

According to the 2009 Virginia exit poll, women made up the majority of the electorate, underscoring the importance of the tone and tenor of the conversations female voters are listening to.

the LEDE
Did you miss it?

Leading CNNPolitics: Potential McConnell challenger to announce Senate decision
After months of speculation, Republican Matt Bevin will announce Wednesday whether he'll take on the Senate's most powerful Republican in a GOP primary for next year's election. Bevin, a Louisville, Kentucky, businessman with tea party ties, has been considering a possible challenge to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. – Paul Steinhauser and Ashley Killough

Leading Drudge: It's A King!

Leading HuffPo: Blinded Justice: Deep Cuts Deal ‘Life Or Death’ Blow
The public defender system hasn't just been stripped bare by sequestration, its bones have been chiseled away as well. There has been a 9 percent reduction in the roughly $1 billion budget for federal public defender's offices, while federal defenders in more than 20 states are planning to close offices. – Sam Stein and Ryan J. Reilly

Leading Politico: Immigration faces critical weeks
When it comes to immigration, the House looks like a mess. Speaker John Boehner wanted to pass something by August, but that’s not happening. A bipartisan “gang” has missed every self-imposed deadline to unveil its bill. Rep. Paul Ryan is talking to everyone with an “R” next to their name — and a handful of Democrats, too — but his endgame is unclear. And House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he wants to help undocumented children gain legal status — but hasn’t said much beyond that. – Jake Sherman and Seung Min Kim

Leading The New York Times: Math Behind Leak Crackdown: 153 Cases, 4 Years, 0 Indictments
In the previous four years, the record showed, 153 cases had been referred to the Justice Department. Not one had led to an indictment. – Sharon LaFraniere

HOT SOTS
The political bites of the day

- Going For The Presidential Holy Grail -
PRESS SECRETARY JAY CARNEY AT THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFING: “We are working on a date for the parties to come to Washington in the coming weeks to move that process along and we commend Secretary Kerry and all the parties involved in making the progress that has been made. … As for our level of optimism, it is very cautious optimism because this is such a hard challenge.”

- Cohen on ‘daughter:’ ‘She was first in everything I did’ -
DEMOCRATIC REP. STEVE COHEN OF TENNESSEE IN AN INTERVIEW WITH CNN: “She was first in everything I did for the last three years. Whenever I went any place, she was a person I thought about. I tweeted her from everywhere I went and try to explain the consequences of visits I made to Holocaust locations, places in the world to get a perspective, and sent her gifts from everywhere because I wanted her to be a part of – she was my daughter. She was my family. She was my only family.”

- Rand Paul staffer resigns -
JACK HUNTER, FORMER RADIO HOST KNOWN AS THE SOUTHERN AVENGER, IN AN E-MAIL TO THE DAILY CALLER: “I’ve long been a conservative and years ago, a much more politically incorrect (and campy) one. But there’s a significant difference between being politically incorrect and racist. I’ve also become far more libertarian over the years, a philosophy that encourages a more tolerant worldview, through the lens of which I now look back on some of my older comments with embarrassment.”

- ‘Anger in the community is not going to subside’ -
MARC MORIAL, PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE, IN AN INTERVIEW WITH CNN: “The palpable anger in the community is not going to subside. When you take what happened along with the Supreme Court’s decision on voting rights, combined with the efforts to eliminate food stamps, combined with the cutbacks in investment in human programs like education and work force, a message is being sent. That message is being responded to by I think how people are responding to this case. This case in effect ignited that feeling.”

TOP TWEETS
What stopped us in 140 characters or less

Mark Knoller (@markknoller)
Celebs including Jennifer Hudson, Kal Penn & Amy Poehler were at WH today for meeting on encouraging young people to sign up for ObamaCare.

Michael Barbaro (@mikiebarb)
Senator Gillibrand endorsing Scott Stringer today. Symbolic on few levels, including gender, in contest against divisive figure for women.

David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt)
The odds of climbing the economic ladder are much higher in Northeast, Great Plains & West than South or Midwest. http://nyti.ms/13XBWDr

Jacqueline Sahlberg (@j_sahlberg)
A fun read: "Mr. Cuomo declined to comment on any alleged aquatic activity." NY politicians white-water rafting race. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323309404578613910137877052.html?mod=WSJ_article_comments#articleTabs%3Darticle

Kate Sheppard (@kate_sheppard)
Judge Says North Dakota's Abortion Ban Is "Clearly Unconstitutional" http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/07/judge-north-dakota-abortion-ban-clearly-unconstitutional …

Jonathan Wald (@jonathanwald)
Like Twitter, w/pictures & sound RT @AntDeRosa I'm fascinated by ability of cable talking abt same thing for hours w/no new information.

Michael Luo (@michaelluo)
Apocalypse: NYT chief foreign correspondent, veteran war reporter, John F. Burns, is blogging abt royal birth http://nyti.ms/13YK9XT

Alex Burns (@aburnspolitico)
Laugh all you want at the royal baby, Americans who will one day vote for Sens. Liz Cheney, Beau Biden, Chelsea Clinton and George P. Bush

TRIVIA ANSWER from @DanMericaCNN

Bob Dole knows a thing or two about strong, political women: he married one.

So in 1984, when he was asked about the late Geraldine Ferraro, who became the first woman vice presidential candidate that year when Walter Mondale selected her to run with him on the Democratic ticket, Dole commended the "liberal choice."

"I’m not paranoid about a woman on the ticket," Dole said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” "I think it’s long overdue."

He continued: "I don't think it is tokenism. … I commend Walter Mondale for it."

At the time, Dole's wife - Elizabeth Dole - was President Ronald Reagan's secretary of transportation. She would go on to serve as President George H.W. Bush's secretary of labor and later in the Senate form North Carolina.

Bob Dole celebrates his 90th birthday today. He told CNN in a rare interview that he believes the tone in Washington is not helping the country.

"There were a lot of differences in the days I was in the Senate," Dole, the former Senate majority leader, said. "But in every case we were able to work the out the differences."

GUT CHECK WINNER’S CIRCLE
(why aren’t you in it)

No correct answer to today’s trivia. Not a good way to start the week, folks.

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