Check out today’s newsletter!
August 19, 2015
Top Stories
Here’s Why Birthers Think These 4 GOP Candidates Can’t Be Prez
The Gist: The far-right fringe is challenging the candidacies of Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Bobby Jindal, and former Sen. Rick Santorum.
The Case Of The Disappearing Dubya
The Gist: George W. Bush’s “deafening silence” in the 2016 race “is indicative of not only his disastrous administration, but the GOP’s attempt to erase him from the country’s memory.”
O’Reilly Grills Trump On Immigration Plan: Mass Deportation Won’t Work
The Gist: O’Reilly told Trump that while he thinks a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border is “doable,” mass deportations are wildly unrealistic.
From The Reporter’s Notebook
Birthers are targeting four Republican presidential candidates this election cycle, but it may surprise you just how old birtherism really is. According to TPM reporter Catherine Thompson, the original “birther” controversy came when Chester Alan Arthur was elected President in 1881. Political opponents claimed Arthur wasn’t born in Vermont, as he said, but in Canada; the claim was never proven.
Agree or Disagree?
Ed Kilgore thinks that the three non-politicians in the 2016 GOP race—Fiorina, Carson, and Trump—are “benefiting from a climate of opinion” in which “the habitual anti-Washington sentiment has turned sharply against Republican office-holders.”
Say What?!
– A Texas official shared a meme suggesting the U.S. nuke the Muslim world.
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “Obviously, Jindal et al are appealing to the lowest impulses of their followers. However, there is a case to be made for an adjustment of this policy at some point, just as the Constitution could be changed to allow naturalized citizens to become President or Supreme Court Justices have mandatory retirement at 75. The Constitution has to bend to changing times and dispassionate non-election season discussion is possible about this and other traditions that may no longer fit the best interests of the country.”
Related: Bobby Jindal seconded Donald Trump on the need to end birthright citizenship.
Have something to add? Become a Prime member and join the discussion here.
What We’re Reading
How Katrina destroyed a town, and its mayor. ( Buzzfeed)
Stephen Colbert on who exactly he’ll be as the host of The Late Show. (GQ)
Carly Fiorina is a Trojan Horse in the GOP’s war on women. (The New Republic)
|
|
