National

Trump has made a mistake in accurately blaming Bush for 9/11. Byron York: “This weekend was an inflection point in the Republican presidential race — a moment in which some significant part of the GOP establishment came out of denial and realized Donald Trump might well become their party’s nominee. That doesn’t mean Republicans have made their peace with a Trump victory. On the contrary — some are preparing to do whatever it takes to bring him down. Which could lead to an extraordinary scenario in which GOP stalwarts go to war to destroy their own party’s likely nominee.” To take Trump down, you have to destroy the Republican base. The racist arrogant know nothing base of the GOP will have to be surgically removed from the party. That will lead to a collapse in the party's electoral fortunes, but it is necessary. You cut cancer out. You don't try to change cancer. You kill it.

The evidence from Canada suggests that the Democratic Party's strategy of taking such good care of the 1% (in the guise of being hard nosed austerity hawks) might be an electoral loser in the long run. From Robert Reich's FB:

Tonight, Canadian politics veered left. Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party captured a majority in Canada’s 338 seat-Parliament -- thereby putting an abrupt end to nearly a decade of Conservative governance under Stephen Harper. Harper’s Conservatives went into the campaign pledging balanced budgets. In sharp contrast, Trudeau promised three years of deficits in order to more than double spending on infrastructure. The Liberals also promised to raise taxes on Canada's "wealthiest one per cent" — earning more than $200,000 — so taxes on middle-class families could be lowered. Trudeau and the Liberals argued now is the time for Canada to invest in its future rather than embrace austerity economics, and that Canada’s rich should pay their fair share. Evidently most Canadians agree.

Politico reports that House Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy released the name of a CIA source during a back-and-forth exchange with Democrats about how sensitive the information was and whether…

Gabriel Sherman at the Daily Intelligencer says we are already months into the Biden campaign:

Joe Biden is running for president — a fact that has been obvious, and true, for weeks. He spent the week continuing to phone key Democrats in early voting states and huddle with his kitchen cabinet, which includes his chief of staff, Steve Ricchetti; message man Mike Donilon; longtime adviser Ted Kaufman; and sister Valerie Biden Owens. He spoke with Harold Schaitberger, the general president of the powerful firefighters union, and won his endorsement, should he declare. According to a source, he told Schaitberger that “all the political pieces are in place.” In effect, Biden has been running since Maureen Dowd published a Times column reporting how Biden’s 46-year-old son Beau implored his father to challenge Clinton for the nomination shortly before Beau died of brain cancer. The campaign picked up steam the following day when Alcorn, who had been a top strategist for Beau’s gubernatorial run in Delaware, joined the super-PAC. His arrival transformed what had been the fledgling brainchild of a 27-year-old former Obama volunteer into a serious campaign-in-waiting. Alcorn says they are “well on their way” to raising $3 million and have grown to 20 paid staffers that include veteran field operatives in Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida and a digital-data team. In September, it hired Mark Putnam, a veteran of Obama’s 2012 media team, to produce television ads. Of course, what the Draft Biden PAC hasn’t had is Biden himself, and many Democrats believe that the vice-president has missed his window — that the debate went so well for Clinton she has effectively boxed him out. But this analysis assumes that Biden has been deciding whether he should enter. In reality, Biden is choosing what kind of campaign to run: an active one, in which he positions himself as a Clinton alternative, or a passive one that presents him as an alternative to Bernie Sanders or any of the other three non-­candidates who were onstage in Las Vegas.

Jeb Bush is about to walk into a haymaker. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump stated the fact that that George W. Bush was the President when we were attacked by Islamic extremists.

“He was President,” Trump said. “Blame him, or don’t blame him, but he was President. The World Trade Center came down during his reign.” “I think I’m much more competent than all of them,” Trump said. “Say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time,” Trump told Bloomberg.

Jeb Bush's responded with the threadbare lie that his brother “kept us safe.” I don't see how this isn't terrible news for the faltering Bush campaign. The more Trump reminds the GOP base of Bush;s incompetence, and the more Jed tries to respond to those attacks by sticking his fingers in his ear holes and chanting "He kept us safe" the more Bush looks like a complete buffoon.