BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Mike Shields, founder of Convergence Media and a CNN political commentator - POLITICO

Courtesy of Mike Shields

How/where are you celebrating your birthday and with whom? “I will be celebrating my birthday over the weekend with my wife Katie and son Aidan and we’ll be decorating a Christmas tree at our house in Alexandria. I think my wife also has dinner plans for us but you’ll have to ask her about that!”

How did you get your start in politics? “My first job in politics was being the ‘clips boy’ at the RNC -- getting to work at 4:30 a.m. every day to cut news clips out of papers by hand and photocopying them to be on Chairman Haley Barbour’s desk by 7:00 a.m. (I love explaining this to interns.) When I became RNC chief of staff it was surreal and humbling to return to where I started.”

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What’s an interesting book/article you’re reading now or finished? And why? “Book: ‘Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts,’ by Annie Duke. The description explains it well -- it’s a book about taking risks and making decisions, written by a professional poker player. It’s fascinating to me as someone who has been trying to drive the GOP to make decisions based on accurate data.”

What is a trend going on in the U.S. or abroad that doesn’t get enough attention? “Major League Soccer is 7th in the world for average attendance, and growing. It’s right behind Serie A, Italy’s premier league, in terms of number of people who go to games. America is so massive that it can sustain the big sports that everyone watches like football and basketball, and there is still room for a significant soccer league that doesn’t really compete with those other leagues for fans. It’s hard to explain to friends in other countries how large our culture is and how big our media markets are.”

How is the Trump presidency going? “If you listed the president’s accomplishments in his first 2 years without naming who did them -- economic growth, deregulation, conservative judiciary, increased military spending, tax cuts, job growth, peace through strength foreign policy -- most Republicans might assume it was the presidency of a Bush or Reagan. There is a lot to be happy about if you are a conservative and a Republican. There is a huge difference between what the press combats the President on every day, which tends to be rhetoric, tone, tweets; and what the President is accomplishing with his policy agenda.”

What’s a fun fact that people in Washington might not know about you? “I’m not sure how fun it is but I grew up in the north of England. I’m a U.S. citizen but I’m also half English. My father met my mother in England when he was in the Air Force in the 50s and returned to England when he was working for the NSA. I was 9 when Thatcher was elected and 10 when Reagan was elected and they are the transatlantic heroes who inspired me to get into politics to fight the evils of socialism. Sadly that seems to be just as relevant today as it was then.”

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/10/playbook-birthday-mike-shields-1054206