Highlighting that now you “can’t spell POTUS without pot”

The quote in the title of this post is drawn from the first line of this notable new Denver Post article headlined “Welcome to the marijuana election, where Colorado is the star: More than prior elections, pot is becoming a prime time topic in the 2016 presidential race.” Here are excerpts:

The 2016 campaign is spawning a new axiom in presidential politics: You can’t spell POTUS without pot. For the first time, marijuana is becoming a significant policy issue for Republican and Democratic candidates — thanks in part to softening public attitudes toward the drug and Colorado’s prominent place on the political map.

“(Marijuana) is a topic that 2016 presidential candidates will not be able to avoid or dismiss with a pithy talking point,” said John Hudak, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank whose research has focused on the legalization push. “It is one that candidates will have to think about and engage.”

In the Republican primary, the candidates are making marijuana an issue on their own. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he would enforce federal laws to crack down on pot use in states such as Colorado. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul became the first major candidate to attend a fundraiser with the weed industry in his recent Denver visit.

But pot politics hit prime time with an extended exchange in last week’s GOP debate on CNN, which drew an audience of 23 million. The focus on the topic is likely to intensify as the campaign trail leads to Colorado for the next GOP debate, in October.

“It’s a national debate that’s occurring, and Colorado has led the way,” said U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican who opposed legalization. On the GOP side, he said, “I don’t think you can talk about the states’ rights issue without talking about the biggest states’ rights issue of modern time.”…

“In years past, marijuana was being brought up as sort of a gotcha question,” Hudak said in an interview. The most recent debate “was really the first time in a presidential debate that marijuana was brought up as a public policy.”

For Republicans, the issue remains a challenge, perplexing a number of candidates who have taken contradictory positions on the issue at different times. Josh Penry, a Colorado adviser to Republican candidate Marco Rubio, said it’s an important issue that is here to stay.

“It becomes a proxy to argue, ‘Are you consistent or are you not consistent on these issues?’ ” he said. “I think it will continue to percolate in the national election, in part because of the importance of Colorado.”…

On the Democratic side, the legalization issue is a measure of liberalism, but so far the candidates are staking out middle ground. The Marijuana Policy Project recently issued a report card on the stances of the candidates and is watching the election closely as it seeks to educate and influence both parties, said Mason Tvert, the group’s communications director.

A day after the debate, Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley visited Denver to meet with pot industry supporters and learn more about Colorado’s system. “We should have this conversation and be informed by the true facts and the experience the people of Colorado are having on the ground here,” he said of marijuana legalization.

O’Malley and rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders support decriminalization moves and medical marijuana. But Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is more cautious. All say they are watching Colorado for guidance.

Eric Sondermann, a Denver-based political analyst, said this attention is “both good news and bad news.” “On the plus side, Colorado continues to be at the epicenter of the political world,” he said. “On the more problematic side, many leaders — starting with the governor and the economic development community — continue to be worried about pot being so increasingly central to the Colorado brand.”