The Commentariat -- April 13, 2015

Internal links removed.

** Reality Chek. Paul Krugman: Pay no attention to the personalities of the presidential candidates. "The huge, substantive gulf between the parties will be reflected in the policy positions of whomever they nominate, and will almost surely be reflected in the actual policies adopted by whoever wins." CW: Read the whole column, especially the part near the end on how the media will treat the nominees of each party.

Second Most Annoying Campaign Launch Ever

Honestly, this beats Ted Cruz by a long shot & loses only to Ronald Reagan's outreach to racists:

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Ending two years of speculation and coy denials, Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on Sunday that she would seek the presidency for a second time, immediately establishing herself as the likely 2016 Democratic nominee. 'I'm running for president,' she said with a smile near the end of a two-minute video released just after 3 p.m." CW: I don't know what Juanito will do, but it couldn't be dumber unless he just held up a sign that read, "Yes, I'm a total phony. Send money." ...

... CW: For the first 30 seconds of the vid, I thought I was watching an ad for an unspecified something -- mortgage loans, home insurance maybe -- & was annoyed there was no Skip Ad arrow. Hillary must be using the same Mad Men as Goldman Sachs or CitiBank. ...

... Maggie Haberman & Patrick Healy of the New York Times discuss the video, making Krugman's point, & a few minor ones of mine.

Jaime Fuller of New York: "Her campaign's Facebook page is live too.... However, the news first broke -- the news of her announcement, not the obvious fact that she was going to run -- via emails that John Podesta, the chair of Clinton's campaign, sent to former Hillary '08 campaigners and potential donors." ... Which inspired James Poniewozik of Time to tweet, "Possibly the most stirring piece of American political rhetoric since Lincoln's Second Inaugural Message to Top Donors Through an Aide." Clinton's Facebook page is here.

Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "While Clinton sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2008 primarily on her record as a lawmaker, early moves indicate her campaign will work this time to reintroduce her by embracing her earlier history. Clinton's biography posted to her campaign website is written in an unusually personal tone, describing her father, Hugh, as a 'rock-ribbed Republican' and highlighting her own position on a girls softball team."

Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "When Hillary Clinton said she was going to hit the road, she meant it. The newly declared presidential candidate is on her way to Iowa, from New York, in a van after announcing her candidacy online Sunday afternoon." ...

... CW: She should have asked me. I would have suggested a used blue GM Silverado pick-up pulling a dented Airstream, with a couple of Hillary-for-America "Hospital This Way" signs slapped on the sides. And she definitely should do the driving. (For folks along the road actually looking for a hospital, Hillary's roadshow could be fatal, what with the sign on the left side of the vehicle facing north & the sign on the right facing left.) ...

(... BTW, the logo wasn't something some over-the-hill staffer knocked out at the last minute on MSPaint. Philip Rucker & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post, February 21, 2015: "In their mission to present voters with a winning picture of the likely candidate, no detail is too big or too small -- from her economic opportunity agenda to the design of the 'H' in her future campaign logo.")

Here's Amy Davidson's take on Hillary's rollout.

** Bill Curry, Salon, writing before the actual "launch": "For months Clinton has run a front-porch campaign -- if by porch you mean Boo Radley's. Getting her outdoors is hard enough; when she does get out it's often to give paid speeches to people who look just like her: educated, prosperous and privileged. Needing desperately to connect with the broader public, she opts for the virtual reality of a pre-taped video delivered via social media." Read the whole post.

Jonathan Chait: "Unless the economy goes into a recession over the next year and a half, Hillary Clinton is probably going to win the presidential election. The United States has polarized into stable voting blocs, and the Democratic bloc is a bit larger and growing at a faster rate."

Nate Silver: "The truth is that a general election win by Clinton -- she's very likely to become the Democratic nominee -- is roughly a 50/50 proposition. And we're not likely to learn a lot over the rest of 2015 to change that."

Jamelle Bouie sees Clinton as the Democrats' last hope. "The simple fact is that even if everything goes well for Democrats in 2016, even if they hold the presidency and pick up the Senate as well, their long-term prospects are dire. After eight years in the White House, the party has atrophied, and given the partisan and demographic trends that are driving American politics -- in particular, the demographic divergence in midterm and presidential elections -- it's not clear what Democrats can do to fix the problem. Here's where we are: Far more than its competitor, the Democratic Party is at a crossroads. At the moment, it's being held together by its president and his potential successor, Hillary Clinton. But this obscures intraparty conflict and the extent to which the party is in desperate need of rebuilding for the second and third decades of the 21^st century."

Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: The economic issues are monumental now. Hillary should throw caution to the wind & go big, something she is not accustomed to doing.

Elmo! Rebecca Traister of the New Republic: No, Hillary is not a dynastic heir.

Mark Hensch of the Hill: GOP candidates spent Sunday knocking Hillary Clinton.

Marco Rubio will announce something today. Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Hours after Hillary posted her elaborate campaign video, featuring a montage of almost every type of American who could conceivably vote Democrat, Rubio shared [a] ... grainy 9-second video shot on a windswept street behind the Freedom Tower does not scream 'professional campaign operation.' On the other hand, if the backdrop for tomorrow's speech is anything other than 'Miami traffic,' it will look great by comparison." Post includes grainy video with hurricane-like audio. CW: Sorry I couldn't get hold of the actual video, but this one is close enough: ...

(... Remember that Marco, who is not a scientist, man, is not qualified to be a local weatherman. ...)

... Tim Mak of the Daily Beast: Tea partiers "helped propel Marco Rubio into the Senate -- but many say they feel betrayed by him, and they won't support his presidential bid, expected to launch Monday." ...

... Here's one reason Marco doesn't know squat about foreign policy even though he's served on the Senate Foreign Relations & Intelligence Committees. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "In 2011, just months after joining the Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) missed three hearings called in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, according to a review of attendance records. Rubio has kept a busy political travel schedule since arriving in Washington -- and his activities off the Hill have made him the most-absent senator, according to a review of records by GovTrack, a nonpartisan group that catalogs government activity."

... AND in Other News

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The White House this week will make a messaging push on two key Democratic economic issues, income inequality and equal pay for women, as Hillary Clinton ramps up her presidential campaign. President Obama will travel to Charlotte, N.C. on Wednesday to meet with working women and plug his budget proposal, which would increase taxes on the wealthy while upping tax credits for middle-class and low-income families...."

Seung Min Kim & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senators return this week to a familiar fight over abortion and Loretta Lynch's long-stalled confirmation to be attorney general -- and the partisan gridlock shows no signs of easing. Both sides are confident they have the upper hand politically, and neither party wants to relent in a fight over abortion ahead of the 2016 election."

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "A cadre of wealthy liberal donors aims to pour tens of millions of dollars into rebuilding the left's political might in the states, racing to catch up with a decades-old conservative effort that has reshaped statehouses across the country."

Beyond the Beltway

Melissa Chan of the New York Daily News: "It was a mistake. That's the blasé explanation Oklahoma officials gave after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a white deputy who accidentally pulled his gun when he meant to use his Taser. The botched encounter was captured on a disturbing video released by police on Friday -- nine days after the fatal Tulsa shooting." ...

... See also this post by Judd Legum of Think Progress. ...

... "'Pay to Play' Cop. Kate Briquelet of the Daily Beast: "The volunteer cop in Tulsa, Okla., who killed an unarmed black man was forking over thousands in donations and equipment after becoming an unpaid sheriff's deputy. Robert Bates, a 73-year-old insurance executive-turned-deputy, accidentally fired his gun instead of a Taser -- costing Eric Harris, 44, his life and adding to the tally of deadly police shootings against minorities nationwide.... [Bates] also chaired Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz's reelection campaign in 2012."

News Lede

New York Times: "Günter Grass, the German novelist, social critic and Nobel Prize winner whom many called his country's moral conscience but who stunned Europe when he revealed in 2006 that he had been a member of the Waffen-SS during World War II, died on Monday. He was 87."

The Commentariat -- April 12, 2015

Internal links removed.

Wherein President Obama decisively whacks John McCain & most U.S. Senators & urges them to STFU (about 13:45 min. in):

... Nahal Toosi of Politico on remarks McCain has made about Kerry. ...

... McCain's Twitter response to President Obama's remarks: "So Pres Obama goes to #Panama, meets with Castro and attacks me -- I'm sure Raúl is pleased" in a statement which Toosi cites, McCain made a more measured response.

... Julie Davis & Randal Archibold of the New York Times: "President Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba met [in Panama] Saturday, in the first face-to-face discussion between the leaders of the two countries in a half century. Seated beside Mr. Castro in a small room in the convention center downtown where the summit was being held, Mr. Obama called the event 'an historic meeting.' The president cast his decision to seek normalized relations with Cuba after 50 years of estrangement in a bid to reverse a failed policy":

... The Washington Post story, by Karen DeYoung & Nick Miroff, is here. ...

... Joshua Goodman & Josh Lederman of the AP: "President Barack Obama met privately with his Venezuelan counterpart Saturday amid a bitter dispute between the two nations over recent U.S. sanctions on seven senior Venezuelan officials. The meeting between Obama and President Nicolas Maduro took place on the sidelines of the Summit of Americas and lasted only a few minutes, according to a White House official, who wasn't authorized to comment by name. The encounter comes after the Obama administration declared the economic and political crisis in Venezuela a national security threat for the U.S. and froze the U.S. assets of seven officials accused of human rights abuses tied to anti-government protests last year in Venezuela."

** The New York Times editors condemn Republican attacks on President Obama: "If this insurrection is driven by something other than a blend of ideological extremism and personal animosity, it is not clear what that might be. But it is ugly, it deepens mistrust of government and it harms the office of the president, not just Mr. Obama."

Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Kimberly Kindy & Kimbriell Kelly of the Washington Post: "Among the thousands of fatal shootings at the hands of police since 2005, only 54 officers have been charged, a Post analysis found. Most were cleared or acquitted in the cases that have been resolved." This is a long piece. ...

... Here's a breakdown of the 54 cases. "In three-quarters of the reviewed cases, the race of the charged officer was white. Of those, two-thirds shot and killed a black person. In none of the cases did a black officer fatally shoot a white person."

... Frank Serpico in Politico: "I've been saying this for a long time, ever since I spoke before the Knapp Commission investigating corruption in the NYPD more than 40 years ago: Unless we create an atmosphere where the crooked cop fears the honest cop, and not the other way around, the system will never change. Unless honesty is rewarded more often than corruption, the police will lose credibility altogether."

AG Eric Holder has to remind DOJ personnel "that they are prohibited from soliciting, procuring, or accepting commercial sex. This rule applies at all times during an individual's employment, including while off duty or on personal leave, and applies regardless of whether the activity is legal or tolerated in a particular jurisdiction, foreign or domestic." ...

... Jaime Fuller of New York: "This may seem like an obvious rule, but the DOJ also had to release a report last month detailing the cartel-funded sex parties Drug Enforcement Administration agents were hosting."

... ** Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Garry Trudeau, in the Atlantic, on "The Abuse of Satire."

God News. Henry Samuel of the Telegraph: "Pope Francis has reportedly barred the nomination of a close aide of President Francois Hollande as new French ambassador to the Vatican because he is gay. The apparent rejection calls into question the pope's reputation as holding more liberal views on homosexuality. Laurent Stefanini, 54, a senior diplomat and Mr Hollande's chief of protocol, was nominated in early January but the Vatican has maintained a stony silence over whether it accepts his credentials, officials in Paris said."

Presidential Race

Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "The political world's worst-kept secret will officially escape out into the wild shortly before noon Eastern time with the launch of Clinton's campaign website." ...

... CW Update: It's after noon ET, and if Hillary Clinton's team has launched her Website, I'll be darned if I can find it. ...

... UPDATE 2: The Guardian is actually liveblogging Clinton's activities: "Clinton has now delayed her announcement; the plan changed over the weekend after the Guardian reported on it and multiple news outlets began detailed preparations for the announcement." CW: Please, Democrats, find another candidate. ...

... UPDATE 3, via the Guardian: Looks like Hillary left it to John Podesta to make the announcement. This is downright silly.

Annie Karni of Politico: "Hillary Clinton's campaign-in-waiting held its final pre-game briefing Saturday at its Brooklyn Heights headquarters, just ahead of her expected official entry into the race on Sunday. During an hour-long meeting..., Robby Mook, who will serve as campaign manager, distributed a mission statement to all aides in which he detailed the core values the campaign organization will be based on: diversity, discipline and humbleness, according to a Democratic operative who attended the meeting."

Grandma Hillary. Maureen Dowd: "Instead of a chilly, scripted, entitled policy wonk, as in 2008, Hillary plans to be a warm, spontaneous, scrappy fighter for average Americans. Instead of a woman campaigning like a man, as in 2008, she will try to stir crowds with the idea of being the first woman president. Instead of haughtily blowing off the press, as in 2008, she will make an effort to play nice."

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "The deluge of derision this weekend from Republicans responding to Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential launch is the start of a highly coordinated effort by national GOP leaders and conservative groups to effectively begin the general-election campaign against the likely Democratic nominee."

Benghaaazi! Secretary Clinton's decision to seek the presidency of the United States does not and will not impact the work of the committee. The Committee needs to and expects to talk with Secretary Clinton twice, as ensuring the committee has all relevant material is a condition precedent to asking specifically about Libya and Benghazi. -- Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi

Ari Melber of MSNBC: "Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley says if he runs for president, he will try to pull the Democratic Party back to its populist roots."

Not Satire. Andy Borowitz: "The two major political parties' unconscionable waste of money officially commences this weekend, as Democrats and Republicans will soon begin spending an estimated five billion dollars of their corporate puppet masters' assets in an unquenchable pursuit of power."

Other Candidates

Maximum Crazy. Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "The National Rifle Association's Annual Meetings and Exhibits continued in Nashville, Tennessee this weekend.... Most of the leading Republican hopefuls were scheduled to speak, and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, was a particular target, 24 hours before she was scheduled to officially launch her bid for the White House.... [Ted] Cruz called Clinton a 'gun-grabber' for her support for gun control legislation, while [Bobby] Jindal said she was part of a 'vast leftwing conspiracy' and called the NRA 'the most effective civil rights organisation' in the US."

Juanito Arbusto Now Claiming to Be Plain Ole White Guy. Andrew Kaczynski & Megan Apper of BuzzFeed: "Florida Gov. Jeb Bush updated his voter registration the day a New York Times story revealed he listed himself as Hispanic on the form in 2009."

When Randy was Doogie. Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "When he was a surgical resident in Atlanta, his friends called him 'Doogie Howser' because he still looked like a teenager. Unlike his four siblings, he made a life for himself far from Texas. Rand and his wife, Kelley -- who originally became interested in him at a party in 1989 when she overheard him discussing Dostoevsky...."

... Here's Li'l Randy, ca. 2010, on Ayn Rand & Fyodor Dostoyevsky:

Beyond the Beltway

I feel Walter's death was motivated by racial prejudice. -- The Rev. George Hamilton, at the funeral of Walter Scott

Frances Robles & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday for the funeral of Walter L. Scott, the black man whose killing by a white police officer was captured on video.... The pastor at WORD Ministries Christian Center, where Mr. Scott worshiped, minced no words, telling the standing-room-only crowd that Mr. Scott had died because he was black. The pastor, the Rev. George D. Hamilton, stressed that most law enforcement officers serve honorably, but he urged the members of South Carolina's congressional delegation who attended the funeral to take up the issue of police killings in Washington so that African-Americans 'don't have to be scared every time they get pulled over.'" ...

Melissa Boughton of the Charleston Post & Courier: "The National Bar Association, made up of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges, is calling for the immediate arrest and indictment of North Charleston police officer Clarence Habersham, the second officer shown in the Walter Scott shooting video. According to a statement the organization released Friday, members are also demanding Habersham and any other North Charleston police officer who allegedly filed a false police report be terminated. The organization claims Habersham 'deliberately left material facts out of his report' after officer Michael Slager shot and killed Scott, and made false statements about the incident."

Peter Holley of the Washington Post: "A California sheriff has suspended 10 deputies involved in a brutal beating of a suspect on Thursday that was caught on camera by a news helicopter.... [The suspect Francis] Pusok was treated at a local hospital for abrasions and bruises, then booked on multiple criminal charges, including felony evasion, theft of a horse, possession of stolen property. He also has an active warrant for reckless driving."

News Lede

New York Times: "Stanley I. Kutler, a historian who fought for the release of President Richard M. Nixon's White House tapes and concluded that they proved Nixon was 'deeply and intimately involved in sometimes criminal abuses of power, both before and after the Watergate break-in,' died on Tuesday in Fitchburg, Wis., a suburb of Madison. He was 80." CW: Prof. Kutler also had the distinct privilege of teaching me.

The Commentariat -- April 11, 2015

Internal links removed.

** Tim Egan: "The great, nation-shaping accomplishments of Lincoln's day happened only because the South, always with an eye on protecting slavery and an estate-owning aristocracy, had left the union -- ridding Congress of the naysayers.... What unites the Republican Party, on this 150th anniversary of the murder of Lincoln, is that they are against the type of progressive legislation that gave rise to their party." ...

... CW: Wars are always mistakes, albeit sometimes unavoidable. The American Civil War was avoidable. It was Lincoln's Big Mistake. He should have let those people go.

"Karen DeYoung & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro will hold a bilateral meeting Saturday on the margins of the Summit of the Americas here, the first such encounter between leaders of the two nations in more than 50 years, White House officials said. Planning for an Obama-Castro meeting has been a slow diplomatic choreography since December, when the two leaders announced that Cuba and the United States would restore diplomatic relations, including three rounds of lower-level negotiations over the mechanics of normalization." ...

     ... The New York Times story, by Julie Davis & Randal Archibold, is here. ...

... Josh Lederman of the AP: "The presidents of the United States and Cuba have spoken by phone for only the second time in more than 50 years, setting the stage for a historic encounter between the two leaders at a regional summit starting Friday in Panama. The call between President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro came on Wednesday, shortly before Obama departed Washington on his trip to Latin America and the Caribbean, the White House said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is planning to impose a major new regulation on offshore oil and gas drilling to try to prevent the kind of explosions that caused the catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, administration officials said Friday. The announcement of the Interior Department regulation, which could be made as soon as Monday, is timed to coincide with the five-year anniversary of the disaster, which killed 11 men and sent millions of barrels of oil spewing into the gulf. The regulation is being introduced as the Obama administration is taking steps to open up vast new areas of federal waters off the southeast Atlantic Coast to drilling, a decision that has infuriated environmentalists."

** Tim Egan: "The great, nation-shaping accomplishments of Lincoln's day happened only because the South, always with an eye on protecting slavery and an estate-owning aristocracy, had left the union -- ridding Congress of the naysayers.... What unites the Republican Party, on this 150th anniversary of the murder of Lincoln, is that they are against the type of progressive legislation that gave rise to their party." ...

... CW: Wars are always mistakes, albeit sometimes unavoidable. The American Civil War was avoidable. It was Lincoln's Big Mistake. He should have let those people go.

Emily Badger & Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "In case you are still skeptical that many of the non-poor -- and, in fact, a lot of the rich -- receive benefits from government, too (for which we don't make them pee in a cup or promise not to buy luxuries), we've rounded up some more examples below." CW: Tax week is upon us. Don't forget to take your yacht deduction. ...

... CW: Finally, a "welfare" benefit that I, too, find outrageous. Josh Hicks of the Washington Post: "Hundreds of Puerto Rico's residents qualified for federal disability benefits in recent years because they lacked fluency in English, according to government auditors. The Social Security Administration's inspector general questioned the policy this month in light of the fact that Spanish is the predominant language in the U.S. territory." ...

     ... Update: See today's Comments.

White House: "In this week's address, the Vice President laid out his and the President's plan to make two years of community college free for responsible students":

"The Laffer Swerve." Paul Krugman: "The question you should ask ... is why [Arthur Laffer's] always-wrong economic doctrine now has a stronger grip on the GOP than ever before.... And of course it's not just economic policy. What do we do in the face of a major party gone mad?" ...

... Steve Benen: "... the economic plan Laffer created for Kansas has resulted in debt downgrades, weak growth, and state finances in shambles.... Many Republican presidential hopefuls -- including the entire current top tier -- are eager to bring their economic plans in line with Laffer's discredited thinking. Or put another way, a wide variety of national GOP candidates are looking at recent developments in Kansas and thinking, 'How can I impose this model on the entire United States?'"

Manny Otiko of Salon: Lawrence Wilkerson, a Republican & former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff on GOP warmongering & racism.

Keith Alexander & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: 'An off-duty member of the Secret Service's uniformed division was arrested Friday morning and charged with trying to kick in the front door of his ex-girlfriend's apartment. Arthur E. Baldwin, 29, was charged with first-degree burglary and destruction of property."

Charles Pierce on how police racism makes us all less safe.

Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "The White House released the Obamas' 2014 tax returns Friday.... The Obamas paid an effective federal tax rate of 18.8 percent ($93,362 on total income of $495,964). That's around normal for a household at their income level, per this chart, and is lower than the effective rates paid in many developed countries. It's also more than the 14.1 percent Mitt Romney famously paid in 2011." The President's & Vice President's tax returns are here.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Hadas Gold of Politico: "Bloomberg Politics published a report about Nancy Reagan based off of fake news site NationalReport.net . The piece, headlined 'Nancy Reagan gives her endorsement to... Hillary Clinton,' quoted a supposed 'Drudge Report' saying that the former first lady told the History Channel series 'First Ladies In Their Own Words' that it's time for a female president.... The piece, which was published just before 5 p.m. on Friday, was deleted within minutes.... Bloomberg has reposted the article with a note that the piece has been retracted. 'This story has been retracted. We fell for a hoax. Apologies,' the note states." ...

     ... CW: Not anymore. The page has been 404'd as of 8:45 pm ET Friday.

Presidential Race
All Hillary, All Weekend!

Anne Gearan & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Instead of a splashy launch event, Clinton's plan is a calculated understatement. She is scheduling a series of small roundtables and other give-and-take sessions with voters, first in Iowa and later in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada -- the states holding the first presidential primaries and caucuses early next year. The idea is to showcase Clinton's abilities as a problem-solver and crusader for the rights of those struggling to climb into or stay in the middle class.... Clinton's human-scale approach is modeled on the listening tour she conducted across New York state at the start of her successful 2000 Senate race." ...

... CW: The approach also is a concession to two factors: (1) Clinton can't give the stem-winding, ideologically-winger types of speeches that Ted Cruz & Rand Paul did. (2) She might find it tough to fill a hall with wildly-cheering enthusiasts (even going the Cruz route of assembling a crowd of the conscripted wouldn't work for her, as the detractors wouldn't just be a few fellows in Rand Paul T-shirts).

Brian Beutler of the National Journal: Hillary Clinton's run for the Democratic nomination, which may go virtually unchallenged, is "the source of genuine anxiety among liberals, who worry she'll enter the general election rusty and untested unless someone formidable dares to challenge her in the primary.... It may even be the case that some of these Democrats with rattled nerves are less anxious about Clinton's prowess against Republicans than about the fact that all of the party's hopes now rest on her shoulders. Her campaign has become a single point of failure for Democratic politics.... If she loses, it will be absolutely devastating for liberalism."

John McCormick of Bloomberg: "... nearly three-quarters of Democrats and independents in [a Bloomberg] survey said it would be a good thing for the Democratic Party if she were to face a 'serious' challenger for the nomination. Democrats and independents hold the same view, with 72 percent of both groups saying her party would be best served by a robust primary."

David Freedlander of the Daily Beast: "After [announcing her presidential run, Hillary Clinton's] nascent campaign will embark on a fundraising push that the Clinton camp says will dwarf anything seen in the history of presidential politics. 'They are going to raise in one week what some Republican presidential candidates are going to raise the entire cycle,' said one Clinton aide." CW: Great! I feel much better about the future of democracy now.

Stephen Koff of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Wasting no time, the Republican Party says it will launch Web ads critical of Hillary Clinton on Sunday, when she is expected to announce what the world has long expected: She is, in fact, running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016."

CW: As the news of Hillary's campaign washed me in a bath of ennui, I began wishing for a third Obama term. Now I learn there is hope! (Not that I'm all that thrilled about the "nuclear destruction" part, mind you.) ...

... Apocalypse Soon! Hitler! Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "In a WorldNetDaily column titled 'Is Iran Deal Part Of Obama-3rd-Term Scheme?,' conservative activist Alan Keyes writes today that President Obama has made a secret deal with Iran that allows the country to 'unleash nuclear destruction' since it would give him the justification to launch a Nazi-style 'coup d’état' here at home. Keyes, who was Obama's GOP challenger in the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois, alleges that Obama is aiding both ISIS and Iran in order to create an excuse to illegally remain in power after his second term in office." CW: Thank you, Alan Keyes; I'm feeling better already.

Some Other Candidates

Li'l Randy Walks out on Guardian Reporter. Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "The Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul walked out of a live interview with the Guardian on Friday, in his third testy exchange with a journalist since launching his campaign for president three days ago. The Kentucky senator abruptly ended the interview when he was pressed over whether his campaign focus on the racial imbalances of criminal justice reform would win him support among Republicans." CW: Again, Randy lectured the reporter, in this instance Paul Lewis. With video. Maybe reporters will now quit writing Hillary-hates-the-press stories. So far, she hasn't shushed any reporters or talked over them to lecture them on talking over her. ...

... Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "... it's the boring details of the organization that Paul is building that provide the best reason to take him seriously. If Paul's views are unusually idealistic, the ground game that his team is planning is pure realpolitik."

Charles Pierce on Scott Walker's serial mendacity & Politico's penchant for sugar-coating it.

New York Times Editors: "The use of [tax-exempt,] nonprofit groups for partisan politics has been growing in recent elections as the Internal Revenue Service has failed to draw firm lines against blatant politicking. The creation of a pro-Bush group floated by secret donors can only advance the nonprofit guise further, and rivals can be expected to match the deviousness with little to fear from the I.R.S. or the F.E.C."

Beyond the Beltway

Paloma Esquivel of the Los Angeles Times: "Ten San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies were placed on paid administrative leave Friday after TV news video showed them beating and kicking a suspect.... Also on Friday, the FBI opened a civil rights investigation into the incident....."

News Ledes

Reuters: "A man shot himself dead in front of the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, police said, sparking a temporary security lockdown at the complex on one of the busiest days for tourists in Washington."

Washington Post: "An Egyptian American citizen has been sentenced to life in prison for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of a military coup that ousted the group from power in 2013. A Cairo criminal court issued the verdict against Ohio native Mohamed Soltan, 27, and 37 other defendants in a televised session Saturday. The judge also confirmed death sentences previously handed down to Soltan's father, Salah Soltan, and 13 others for 'inciting chaos' and planning anti-government demonstrations after the military takeover in July 2013."