"[T]he first ever nationally televised libertarian debate has been confirmed for April 1. The debate is set to air at 9pm EST on the Stossel Show on Fox Business."
Based on the photos, I'd say: Johnson for president, Petersen for vice president, and McAfee for head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Notice two messages we've been hearing a lot — often from the same people:
(1) When speaking about Islamic terrorists, it's considered appropriate to adopt this understanding tone — not that we're excusing the acts, but that we recognize that terrorism comes from being oppressed and disenfranchised, that people turn to terrorism as a last resort, etc. (I don't necessarily agree with those statements, but I've heard them countless times, from people who seem to feel very strongly about it.)
(2) We're told that the word "terrorist" is used too selectively, and especially that we should be more willing to apply it to white men and Christian men (e.g. the KKK, mass shooters, and those people who occupied the Oregon wildlife refuge).
Well, wait a minute . . . how oppressed and disenfranchised are white, Christian men?
Garry Shandling, the comedian, died yesterday at age 66.
The New York Times says:
Mr. Shandling’s Larry Sanders was the host of a fictional show within the show, interviewing real celebrities playing themselves in segments that were virtually indistinguishable from real talk shows like “The Tonight Show.” (Mr. Shandling had frequently substituted for Johnny Carson as the “Tonight Show” host.)
But the show was mostly concerned with what happened when the cameras were off, especially the interplay among Larry, his bumbling announcer and sidekick (Jeffrey Tambor) and his mercurial producer (Rip Torn).
“The Larry Sanders Show,” often cited as a groundbreaking precursor of shows like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “30 Rock,” was the second show by Mr. Shandling to take an unorthodox approach. The first, “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” seen on Showtime from 1986 to 1990, freely admitted that it was a show, with Mr. Shandling often breaking the fourth wall by speaking directly to the audience. . . .
Playing a talk-show host who was, as Jacques Steinberg wrote in The New York Times, “a too-close-for-comfort amalgam of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno and Jack Paar,” Mr. Shandling offered a jaundiced insider view of the television business. . . .
Mr. Shandling’s profile was never again as high as it was during the “Larry Sanders” years, but the show’s influence has been lasting. “30 Rock” borrowed its unblinking warts-and-all look at how television is made; “Curb Your Enthusiasm” embraced its use of real celebrities to play versions of themselves that were perhaps only slight exaggerations.
Its influence was also felt in less obvious ways. David Chase, the creator of “The Sopranos,” once said that “The Larry Sanders Show” “inspired me to want to do something really good for television.” . . .
Just a few months ago Mr. Shandling was a guest on Jerry Seinfeld’s popular web series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” in an episode eerily titled “It’s Great That Garry Shandling Is Still Alive.” Eighteen years earlier, Mr. Seinfeld had praised Mr. Shandling’s comedic instincts.
“Comedians all wait around to hear things that they can use,” Mr. Seinfeld said in 1998. “With Garry, it’s like being in a boat with a guy who’s constantly reeling in fish.”
In 2007, nine years after “The Larry Sanders Show” went off the air, Mr. Shandling spoke to The Times about his post-“Sanders” life.
“It’s very similar to — what is it? — the seven stages of grieving,” he said. “First there’s the shock. Now I’m going to head for something funny here. Then there’s denial, acceptance and” — he paused — “masturbation.”
Shandling: I was sitting there watching CNN anyway, and they broke in and said Robin Williams had killed himself. And I sat there and I was frozen. . . . Then Wolf Blitzer says: "63 is so young!" And then I looked up with a little hope, because I'm about the same age as Robin. And then I realized: "63 is so young" is a phrase you never hear relative to anything but death. "63 is so young to be playing in the NFL"? There's nothing!
Seinfeld: You have to die in your 60s for them to say: "Boy, he was young!"
1. Marco Rubio's loss of his home state by almost 20 points to Donald Trump wasn't just fatal to the Rubio campaign; it also dealt a devastating blow to the idea of Mitt Romney as an influential Republican elder statesman.
2. Tonight was also not a great night for the idea that betting odds are a better predictor than polls. For most of the time (since mid-October, which is the earliest time that website goes back to), betting odds have said Rubio is the most likely Republican nominee. (Full disclosure: Those links go to Election Betting Odds, which was co-created by my friend Maxim Lott.)
3. John Kasich is saying he might go to the Republican convention with more delegates than anyone else. And now, I'm afraid all the remaining Republican candidates might be mentally ill.
4. Losing Ohio could help Trump.
5. Alex Knepper explains why we should expect Trump to stay in the lead:
Presumably the only way to stop Trump at this point would be to look toward a Cruz-Kasich ticket, but the upcoming primaries are mostly friendly territory for Trump — Cruz will win Utah and Kasich might have a shot in Wisconsin, but Trump will likely sweep the Mid-Atlantic states on 4/19 and 4/26 — New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and so forth. Even without Ohio, Trump still has a perfectly viable path to a majority, and nobody else does.6. I find it interesting that Trump made a point, in his victory speech, to congratulate Rubio on running a "tough" campaign, called him "smart," and said he'll have a great future. I don't think Trump said a word about Jeb Bush when he dropped out on the night of South Carolina.
When the left stops Trump from speaking, Trump wins. He gets to tell his people that the forces of far-left activism and political correctness are trying to silence him. Implicitly, he is suggesting to his followers that when he becomes president, the tides will turn: see his promise to make it easier to sue newspapers for criticizing him. Trump supporters adore this shtick. Stop giving them ammunition.As Bill Scher said on Twitter in response to the primary results:
Speculation: The visual of Bernie supporters disrupting Trump rallies offered a dismal picture of a Sanders-Trump general, fueling [Clinton] . . .
Takeaway: spend more time knocking doors for your candidate than protesting the other party's candidate
John Dickerson asked this to Donald Trump on Face the Nation yesterday:
TRUMP: At the debate, you talked about H-1B visas. You said: "It's something I, frankly, use, and I shouldn't be allowed to use it." When you have talked about the bankruptcy laws, you talk about how you took advantage of them. When you and I talked about your taxes, you say you try and pay as little as possible. If you are president, why would anybody follow the laws that you put in place if they knew you were taking advantage of those laws when you were in the private sector?(That's from the transcript. You can see it in the middle of this video, starting at 5:18 — click the slider at the bottom of the video, a little more than half of the way through the interview.)
Trump claims that he followed the laws, and used them to his business advantage; he hasn't said he violated any laws. How is that inconsistent with the assumption that people will "follow the laws that [he] put[s] in place" when he's president? Presumably he'd to try to improve the laws, leading to better results when businesspeople followed them in a way that worked to their advantage (as businesspeople can always be expected to do).My mom, Ann Althouse, made the same point (and we hadn't discussed this with each other or seen each other's comments when we separately pointed this out):
What's Dickerson trying to say, that taxpayers should pay more than they owe? That businesspersons shouldn't understand the law, see what's to their advantage, and structure their transactions efficiently? Why wouldn't voters trust a businessperson who followed the law and figured out how to use it? Don't we want someone knowledgeable and competent? We're supposed to prefer someone who's so intimidated by law that he wastes money? Is Dickerson a fool or is he just trying to manipulate viewers into thinking ill of Trump?Here was Trump's response, with an odd interjection from Dickerson:
TRUMP: Because I know the game better than anybody, because I have been on the other side. I have built one of the greatest companies. I did a filing which shows one of the great companies, great assets, very little debt, tremendous cash flow, some of the greatest assets in the world. But let me just tell you, I use the bankruptcy laws just like other very successful people. I don't [want] to use their names, but I could name 10 people right now, the biggest people in all of business. We do it. It's the game we play. We use the laws of the land.My mom points out that Dickerson's follow-up was "weirdly obtuse":
DICKERSON: But why wouldn't people keep playing . . .
TRUMP: We use it. And that's the way we play the game. Wait a minute. As far as the visas are concerned, I'm not doing anything wrong. I think the -- those visas shouldn't be allowed. But they are allowed. They are part of the fabric of what you do. So, I'll use it. I mean, I'm a businessman. Now that I have turned politician -- I hate to say that, almost, about myself -- but now that I'm running for office, I know the game better than anybody. I'm the one that can fix all of this stuff. But when you start talking about -- I never went bankrupt. I never went bankrupt. You understand I never went bankrupt. But you take a look at the business leaders. Every once in a while -- I have 500 companies. I have so many different companies. And a very few, I will take advantage of -- frankly, by using the laws of the land, as every other major businessperson does.
"But why wouldn't people keep playing?" There's nothing wrong with "playing." The key is to put the right rules and regulations in place and then to enforce them. If you don't like what people are doing when they are following the law, then something's wrong with the law, not with the people who are finding effective ways to compete.My mom notes that she's in the legal field and she found Dickerson's question "very weird." I'm also in the legal field and had the same reaction. If a journalist as prominent as Dickerson, the host of one of the Sunday morning political shows, saw fit to ask this on the air, how much similar confusion about law, policy, and business is out there among the general public?
I don't see Trump as fomenting disrespect for the law. It's more the opposite. The law matters. Get it right. People using the law to their selfish advantage may reveal what's wrong with the law, and Trump is offering his services, as an expert player, in seeing and fixing the flaws so that the game produces a result that is in the general interest of the American people. There may be reasons not to trust him (and there are surely reasons to mistrust those who've played the law game from positions in government), but his use of the law isn't a good reason.
Good question. What I was trying to get at is where is he on the question of gaming the laws and abiding by them. Does he think laws exist to be maneuvered around and taken advantage of? In the case of companies like Apple and others he makes a moral objection to their taking advantage of tax and trade laws. But in his own business he says he plays every game he can even when he acknowledges (as he did with H1B visas) that it's a bad thing to do. (He's under investigation both for his use H1B visas and his tax filings) So what I was trying to get at is whether he expects everyone to game the system when he's trying to make the system better or whether he expected a different standard than the one he uses once he's on the other side-- since his view of standards is a moving target. (For example, he campaigns against foreign workers taking jobs but hires them; campaigns against foreign made goods but makes them). So where's' the line? How does he draw it? How will he draw those lines when he's president. He offered a lot of that in his answer. The point is to excavate his reasoning. The reason I asked about his event with Dr. Carson is that it's part of the same inquiry: what guides your behavior? Is politics a system to be gamed? Seems like a lot of people are upset about politics being turned into a game this election cycle. As the candidate who has achieved a special status because voters think he tells unique truths, how can he say something seemingly true one minute and then say oh that wasn't true it was just politics the next minute. There's no law against doing that. He's just playing the game. But I keep hearing that people are tired of the game playing. Also, it seems like a pretty shifting set of standards-- and campaigns are about whether what you're saying will still be true once you're elected. So why, if his standards are shifting now, should people not think he'll shift his standards when he gets into office. Nothing will be there to bind him in many cases but his personal set of standards. Thanks for asking!As I said in reply to Dickerson on Facebook: He keeps referring to Trump "gaming the laws," "maneuver[ing]," "tak[ing] advantage of" the laws, etc. Those terms might sound vaguely nefarious, but the bottom line is that they all seem to refer to a businessperson following the law. If the consequences of businesspeople following the law are bad, then the law should be changed. So I fail to see a contradiction, or even a tension, between what Trump says about what he's done as a businessperson and his stance that he'd improve the laws and the economy as president. After all, his argument is not that he expects businesses to suddenly act in the country's best interests out of the goodness of their hearts. His argument is that he knows firsthand, from decades of experience, what it's like to do business under a lot of laws and regulations, and he has ideas for improving those laws to get better economic results. That's all under the assumption that people who run successful businesses, who are advised by lawyers and financial advisors, will always work hard to do whatever they think will advantage themselves under the existing law.
Harvard Professor Hilary Putnam died today at age 89. That website says:
Putnam was a tremendously influential philosopher, working across a broad range of fields, including philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, philosophy of language, philosophy of math, and moral philosophy.Wikipedia says:
He was known for his willingness to apply an equal degree of scrutiny to his own philosophical positions as to those of others, subjecting each position to rigorous analysis until he exposed its flaws. As a result, he acquired a reputation for frequently changing his own position.Wikipedia also notes that he was a computer scientist.
According to functionalism, the behaviour of, say, a computing machine is not explained by the physics and chemistry of the computer machine. It is explained by the machine's program. Of course, that program is realized in a particular physics and chemistry, and could, perhaps, be deduced from that physics and chemistry. But that does not make the program a physical or chemical property of the machine; it is an abstract property of the machine. Similarly, I believe that the psychological properties of human beings are not physical and chemical properties of human beings, although they may be realized by physical and chemical properties of human beings.(You can read that quote in context here.)
A.J. Ayer's Language, Truth and Logic spread the new message to the English-speaking philosophical world: untestable statements are cognitively meaningless. A statement must either be (a) analytical (logically true, or logically false . . .) or (b) empirically testable, or (c) nonsense, i.e. not a real statement at all, but only a pseudo-statement. . . . An obvious rejoinder was to say that the logical positivist criterion of significance was self-refuting: for the criterion itself is neither (a) analytic (unless, perhaps, it is analytically false!), nor (b) empirically testable. Strangely enough this criticism had very little impact on the logical positivists and did little to impede the growth of their movement.(You can read that quote in context here.) In fairness, A.J. Ayer himself later repudiated much of Language, Truth, and Logic.
.That's been happening on the obituary post for Hilary Putnam, but one commenter did a variation on that, writing this as a moment of silence:
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I'll be live-blogging the last scheduled Republican primary debate of 2016 — which is also the last scheduled debate of either major party. Keep reloading this post for updates.
As always, I'll be doing this without a pause/rewind button, so my quotations might not be word-for-word, but I'll try to keep them reasonably accurate, and I might or might not go back and correct some of them later.
For more live-blogging, check out National Review, TPM, or the New Republic.
8:56 — The candidates walk out and stand next to each other in this order: John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio. When Trump walks up to Cruz, they shake hands and Trump pats Cruz on the back. When Rubio walks up to Trump, those two have no eye contact or interaction of any kind.
8:57 — The moderator, Jake Tapper, leads a moment of silence in memory of Nancy Reagan. Most of the candidates do the usual looking down with their eyes closed — but Trump alternates between closing his eyes, and looking around the room.
8:58 — Finally, a nice subdued, soothing rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner" instead of the usual showy, virtuosic versions.
9:01 — In his opening statement, Cruz says the election isn't about "insults" or "attacks" — an obvious reference to Rubio and Trump.
9:02 — Trump says, in his opening statement: "One of the biggest political events anywhere in the world is going on with the Republican party" — massive turnout of people who are "voting out of love." "The whole world is talking about it — it's very exciting." He urges "the Republican establishment" to "embrace what's happening." Trump seems to be using his relatively measured, diplomatic tone so far in this debate.
9:03 — Surprisingly, Tapper asks the first question of Kasich. (Usually the first question goes to one of the frontrunners.) Tapper asks if Kasich's views on trade put "the board room" over the middle class. Kasich says: "When countries cheat and take advantage of us, we need to blow the whistle."
9:05 — Tapper asks Trump why we should believe he'll change the system when he's taken advantage of it in his businesses. "Because nobody knows the system better than me."
9:07 — Tapper asks Cruz about his flip-flop on the "Pacific trade deal." Cruz says Tapper is confusing the TPP with the TPA; what matters is the TPP, which Cruz has consistently opposed. Cruz says he'll protect workers with a tax plan that "will not tax exports and will tax imports."
9:11 — Rubio is asked about the H-1B visa program. Rubio focuses on cracking down on companies that abuse the program.
9:12 — Kasich: "I'd maybe be running for President of Croatia if we didn't have immigration."
9:13 — Trump again distinguishes between what he's done in business and what he'd do as president, calling the H-1B visa program "something that I frankly use, and we shouldn't be allowed to use. . . . I'm a businessman, and it's sitting there waiting for you." He calls for pausing it for one or two years.
9:15 — Cruz seems to be trying to win over Trump supporters by talking tough on immigration: "We're going to build a wall; triple border control; end sanctuary cities; and end welfare for people who are here illegally."
9:16 — Rubio virtually admits that his immigration plan would not have allowed his parents to immigrate, but he says this is necessary because of how the economy has changed.
9:17 — Tapper asks Trump what exactly he objects to about Common Core. "Education through Washington, DC. I don't want that. I want local education." Trump slips in the news that former candidate Ben Carson is going to endorse him tomorrow.
9:18 — Kasich is asked about his previous statement that opposition to Common Core is "hysteria." Kasich sums up his position as: "Local control — high state standards."
9:20 — Cruz says in one of his first days in office, he'll issue an executive order saying: "Common Core ends that day." And he'll abolish the Department of Education.
9:23 — Now the topic is Social Security. Rubio calls for gradually raising the retirement age to 70 — otherwise, "we will have a debt crisis," in which the vast majority of the budget is spent on "Medicare, Medicaid, and interest on the debt."
9:25 — Trump, asked about Social Security, starts by talking about the Democrats: "I've been watching them very, very intensely, even though that's a very boring thing to watch." As for Social Security, he says he wants to "leave it the way it is, not raise the retirement." His plan to deal with the debt is just to grow the economy and cut "waste, fraud, and abuse." The moderator, Dana Bash, shoots back that Social Security abuse is only about $3 billion, yet we'd need to save $150 billion to make the program solvent. Trump says we'll "bring wealth back to our country" by making "deals" with other countries, e.g. about our military bases.
9:28 — Rubio joins in Bash's point that Trump's "numbers don't add up." "We'd better deal with it, or we're going to have to explain to our children how we allowed this disaster." Trump bears down: "We're going to bid out on virtually every facet of government — we're going to save a fortune!"
9:31 — Cruz says: "The answer can't just be: wave a magic wand and say: 'Problem, go away!'" He doesn't mention Trump — he says that's Hillary Clinton's plan. Dana Bash asks: "Did you just compare Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton?" Cruz won't answer, but he makes it clear he's ribbing Trump by dismissing the idea of "some fanciful 'waste, fraud, and abuse'" — Trump's favorite phrase when it comes to the debt. [VIDEO.]
9:34 — Trump says Cruz flip-flopped on ethanol, and then Cruz brings up his attack on Trump from the last couple debates: that Trump has been "funding" liberals. Trump doesn't take the bait to ramp up his attacks on Cruz. Instead, Trump tones it down: "We're going to come up with solutions. And so far, I cannot believe how civil it's been up here!" [VIDEO.]
9:36 — Kasich says on Social Security, we need to "innovate," not "cut."
9:40 — Cruz goes after Trump's proposal for tariffs: "A tariff is a tax on you, the American people." And that's just the direct effect of the tax; the indirect effect is that other countries would respond with their own tariffs, further increasing prices for Americans. Trump tries to allay those concerns by saying his proposal for a 45% tariff is just "a threat" of what we'd do if other countries "don't behave." Trump says it's "just the opposite" of what Cruz says: if we do impose those tariffs, we'll start manufacturing goods in the US, which will boost our economy.
9:47 — Trump is asked about his recent statement, "Islam hates us." Does he mean all 1.6 billion Muslims in the world? "I mean a lot of 'em! . . . There's something going on. . . . There's tremendous hatred, and I will stick with what I said." [VIDEO.] Rubio responds: "I know that people find a lot of appeal in what Donald says, because he says what people wish they could say. The problem is: presidents can't just say what they want." Rubio suggests that Trump's statements as a candidate may have already harmed America's image in the world. Trump stands his ground: "I don't like to be politically correct. I like to solve problems. . . . We'd better solve the problem before it's too late." Rubio: "I'm not interested in being politically correct; I'm interested in being correct!" [VIDEO.]
9:52 — Trump is asked about his statement that we should "take out the families of terrorists." Trump switches to talking about how we have a law against waterboarding, and we have to obey the laws, but ISIL doesn't obey any laws, so we should "expand our laws." That doesn't really answer the question about terrorists' families.
9:55 — Cruz dismisses Trump: "We've never targeted innocent civilians" (really? I want a fact check on that!) "and we're not going to start now." Cruz segues into emphasizing the foreign-policy areas where Trump has seemed less than conservative: saying he won't tear up the Iran deal, and saying he'd be "neutral" on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
9:57 — Trump insists that he's "very pro-Israel," and the crowd moans and boos. He points out: "I happen to have a daughter and a son-in-law that are Jewish." He uses the same argument he used in a recent debate: that he'd present himself as neutral in order to make a deal. If this issue didn't hurt him in past primaries, I don't think it's going to hurt him in the future.
9:59 — Cruz virtually devolves into baby talk when going after Trump: "The answer is not to yell: China bad! Muslims bad!" [VIDEO.]
10:03 — Now they're talking about ISIL. I'm not finding this very interesting, because they're just rehashing what they've said in many prior debates. They can't say anything other than that they'd do whatever is necessary to destroy ISIL. I don't think Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders would take issue with that.
10:07 — Rubio talks about a veteran who committed suicide after calling a VA suicide hotline and getting sent to voicemail. Rubio brings up his support for the VA Accountability Bill. In a rare moment for a Republican primary debate, Rubio says: "I'll give him credit, Bernie Sanders was a part of this!"
10:13 — Rubio and Trump go back and forth on Cuba, with Rubio taking a hard line and Trump focusing on making a "deal" with Cuba. The crowd cheers Rubio and grumbles in response to Trump. Cruz pounces on Trump's statements, saying Trump wants to be like President Obama but just make "a little bit better deals."
10:19 — Tapper asks Rubio if he'll "acknowledge the reality of the scientific consensus of climate change." Rubio says, yeah, "the climate is always 'changing'!" But "there's no such thing" as "a law we can pass in Washington to change the weather." The cost of climate-change legislation would be "rammed down the throat of the American consumer," and have "zero" effect on the environment. "America's not a planet — it's a country."
10:22 — Kasich admits that "we contribute to climate change." He seems to be trying to chart a complex middle path.
10:26 — Tapper insinuates that Trump tends to support authoritarianism, based on his comments about Vladimir Putin and Tiananmen Square. Trump clarifies that he said China was "strong" in Tiananmen Square, but that isn't an endorsement — it was "horrible." [VIDEO.] Kasich comes on strongly about Tiananmen Square, saying we should build a statue to the iconic but unknown man who stood in front of a Chinese tank. That's nice, though I don't think being on the right side of history about something that happened in 1989 is going to help Kasich get more delegates in 2016.
10:33 — Trump is asked if he's set a "tone" that encourages violence at his rallies. Trump says, "I hope not," then segues into talking about the "anger" that he's seen among the American people. Tapper quotes Trump's recent statements at rallies, like "I'd like to punch him in the face," and "Knock the crap out of him . . . I promise I'll pay for the legal fees!" Trump doesn't apologize, but focuses on how violent some of the protesters are and the fact that they're often dealt with by "the police." [VIDEO.]
10:35 — Cruz is asked what he thinks about Trump's rallies. Cruz seems to hesitate on this. "We need to show respect for the people." Cruz contrasts this with Obama, who sees himself as "an emperor." He finally comes back to Trump, criticizing him for having his audience raise their hands in a pledge of loyalty to Trump. "That is exactly backwards! We're in a job interview — we should pledging loyalty to you!" Trump lambastes the media for comparing his mass pledge to "Nazi Germany."
10:39 — Rubio takes the question about Trump's rallies as an opportunity to blandly express concern about "violence in general in our society." Rubio also adopts Obama's tack of invoking the moon landing as a symbol of how "anything's possible" in America.
10:40 — Hugh Hewitt asks Kasich about the fact that it seems like the only way he could be nominated would be through a contested convention, not by winning the majority of delegates. Shouldn't the nominee be whoever has the plurality? Kasich talks about how in school, if you got 86%, you got a B — you didn't get an A just because the people with 84% got a B!
10:42 — Trump: "I'm gonna have the delegates, OK?" He points out that two of them have some chance of getting a majority, and two of them don't. "That is not meant to be a criticism; that is just a mathematical fact."
10:43 — Cruz says it would be an "absolute disaster" to "parachute in" Washington's favorite nominee. Of course, he agrees with Trump that they're the only two who have a shot at earning the nomination outright. But he says: "If we nominate Donald Trump, Hillary wins!"
10:45 — Trump impersonates Cruz saying: "I'm the only one who beat Donald in 6 contests!" Trump points out: "I beat him in 13 contests — he never mentions that!"
10:45 — Rubio admits he's been disappointed with the primary results, but says he's inspired to keep going by a man who's supposed to stay indoors to recover from surgery, but keeps standing outside polling places with a sign saying "Marco Rubio."
10:46 — Trump is asked if he'll pledge not to take "outside contributions" throughout the whole election. He says he hasn't made that decision yet — he's only self-funding during the primaries. (He's only taking "small" donations.)
10:50 — Rubio is asked about how he mocked Trump in the last debate for being "flexible." Won't the next president need to be flexible to get things done with Congress? "You can be flexible about your ideas; you shouldn't be flexible about your principles." Boring!
10:58 — In what might be his last closing statement, Kasich says he's run "an unwavering positive campaign," which his kids can be proud of (unlike some people).
11:00 — Rubio, in his closing statement: "America is great because each generation before it did what needed to be done."
11:01 — Cruz talks about how great is it that "the son of a bartender [Rubio] and the son of a mailman [Kasich] and the son of a dishwasher [Cruz] and a successful businessman [Trump] can all stand on this stage and run for President of the United States." He previews his attack against Hillary Clinton in the general election: "Madam Secretary, you are asking for a third term of a failed administration."
11:02 — Trump uses his closing statement to tell us: "The next president could appoint 3, 4, maybe 5 Supreme Court Justices." If that's done by a Democratic president, "it could take centuries to recover." "Unify! Be smart and unify!" That's probably the smartest thing he could say at this point.
After his closing statement, Trump turns to his right, toward Cruz, and says: "Great job! Great job!" Trump shakes hands with Cruz and Kasich. Then, Trump turns to his left and shakes hands with Rubio in a more business-like way. Trump and Rubio don't make strong eye contact, but they do shake hands, and Trump pats Rubio on the back, as he did with Cruz at the beginning of the debate. Trump and Rubio walk away from the podiums together, both looking straight ahead, not at each other. They've spent the last couple weeks lodging blistering attacks against each other, but they both must know by now that there isn't much more they can do. This debate was far more civilized than the other recent Republican debates. After a primary season filled with many moments of indignity, these candidates are all walking off with dignity tonight.
The Washington Post takes a look at proposals to amend the US Constitution that never became law:
What if we selected the president by lottery?
Or changed the name of the country to the United States of the World?
Or limited how wealthy a person could be?
How about if we outlawed drunkenness, prohibited divorce, or forbade duelists from holding public office. What say we?
All these have been suggested amendments to the Constitution — some of the 11,000 proposals made over the years to adjust one of the nation’s founding documents. . . .
Some of those that were not ratified were unusual — such as the one in 1911 that would have given Congress the power to protect migratory birds.
Another failed proposal, in 1846, called for presidential election via a lottery system. It called for each state to select its own presidential candidate. Then the name of each state would be written on balls equal to the number of congressmen from that state. One ball would be picked at random, and the candidate from that state would become president. The vice president would be selected the same way.
Blackerby said the proposal came amid sectional strains over slavery. “This could have been a way to purposefully randomize the presidency,” she said. “There was lots of discussion over whether the next president would come from a slave state or a free state, and there were people who were talking about secession if the other side won.” ...
An 1860 proposal would have abolished the presidency outright and replaced it with an executive council. One in 1886 would have created the offices of first, second and third vice president.
An 1893 suggestion would have renamed the country the “United States of the World.” Another in 1866 would have changed the name to “America.”
On Feb. 24, 1838, Rep. William J. Graves, a Whig from Kentucky, shot and killed Rep. Jonathan Cilley, a Democrat from Maine, in a duel in Bladensburg, Md. Ten days later, an amendment was offered in the House that would let Congress ban anyone who had fought, or arranged, a duel from holding federal office. The proposal failed.
In 1978, Congress approved an amendment to give the citizens of Washington, D.C., full representation in Congress. But the states failed to ratify it.
Other failed suggestions were more disturbing.
Four years before the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, an amendment proposed in 1861 would have protected it. The Civil War intervened, and the amendment was never ratified.
An amendment proposed in 1912 would have banned blacks from marrying whites or people of other races.
The 1938 proposal to make drunkenness illegal came after prohibition had been repealed. It didn’t go anywhere, and the copy in the archives bears some anonymous commentary in pencil:
“Why not add . . . [']Congress and the several states shall have concurrent power to change human nature from time to time in its or their discretion.[']"
I'll be blogging the debate here. Keep reloading this post for live updates.
As always, I'll be writing down what the candidates say without a pause/rewind button, so quotations in this post might not be verbatim, but I'll try to keep them reasonably accurate, and I might correct some of them later.
This is a Univision debate, done partly in Spanish, and focusing on issues of particular concern to Hispanic Americans.
9:11 — Hillary Clinton is asked how she "failed" last night, when she lost Michigan. She doesn't answer the question. Instead, she points out that she got more total votes and delegates last night — in Michigan and Mississippi combined. When pressed to answer the question, she just says it was "close."
9:13 — Bernie Sanders is asked if he can "realistically catch up" to Clinton in delegates. He says last night in Michigan was "one of the major upsets in modern American political history." He says he'll continue to do "extremely well" — and convince super delegates to switch to him. [VIDEO.]
9:15 — Clinton is asked about her emails. She says her emails have been "retroactively classified" — and the same has been done to former Secretary of State Colin Powell's emails. Jorge Ramos, whose daughter works for the Clinton campaign, asks if she'll withdraw if she's indicted. "Oh, for goodness . . . ! It is not going to happen! I'm not even answering that question." [VIDEO.]
9:17 — Question to Clinton: "Is Donald Trump a racist?" She won't directly answer, but she takes credit for being the first candidate to say "¡Basta!" when Trump tarred illegal immigrants from Mexico as "rapists." "You don't make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great! . . . What he has promoted is not at all in keeping with American values."
9:20 — Bernie Sanders points out that his father immigrated to America from Poland, yet "nobody has ever asked me for my birth certificate." He points to his hand and says: "Maybe it has something to do with the color of my skin!"
9:25 — Clinton attacks Sanders for voting against the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, and for suggesting that it would lead to "modern-day slavery."
9:26 — Sanders claims that Clinton was against New York giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. I wonder how Clinton feels about this issue coming back to haunt her, after it played a pivotal role in leading to the downfall of her 2008 campaign.
9:34 — The moderator plays a clip of himself, earlier this year, asking Clinton if she'd promise not to deport immigrants without criminal records, particularly children. In the video, she didn't make that promise, and only said everyone should receive "due process." She says she disagrees with "the current administration" — "stop the raids, stop the roundups, stop the reporting of people who are living here, living their lives, doing their jobs." She finally does promise not to deport children or people without criminal records. "I do not want to see them deported; I want to see them on a path to citizenship."
9:39 — Sanders makes the same promises — but Clinton uses that as an opportunity to come back to Sanders's opposition to the 2007 bill. She says if the bill had passed, "a lot of discussions we're having today would be in the rear-view mirror."
9:41 — Clinton accuses Sanders of "supporting the Minutemen and their ridiculous, absurd efforts to hunt down immigrants." Sanders denies it.
9:44 — Clinton reprises her attack on Sanders for voting against the auto bailout, from the last debate. Sanders it wasn't an "auto bailout" — it was a "Wall Street bailout."
9:47 — Clinton is asked: "What is the difference between the wall that you voted for, and Donald Trump's wall?" In a possible preview of the general election, Clinton mocks Trump for proposing "a very tall wall — a beautiful tall wall — better than the great wall of China — that he would somehow, magically get the Mexican government to pay for! And it's just fantasy!"
9:51 — A mother who brought her 5 children to the debate asks a question, in Spanish (translated by a moderator), about the fact that her husband has been deported and can't see his family. Of course, Sanders and Clinton both say they're committed to stopping that kind of thing from happening. But Sanders's answer is relatively vague. Clinton gives a stronger answer, not just because she gives more policy specifics, but also because she starts by connecting with the woman on a more emotional level, praising her for her bravery: "This is an incredible act of courage that I'm not sure many people really understand." Clinton seems to have sharply observed her husband in a famous moment in one of the general-election debates in 1992, when incumbent President Bush gave a weak answer to a woman who asked about the national debt, and then Bill Clinton connected with the questioner in a way Bush hadn't:
Ironically, a few minutes later, Clinton candidly admits: "I am not a natural politician, in case you haven't noticed, like my husband or President Obama. . . ." [VIDEO.]
10:05 — They play a video of one of the Benghazi victims' loved ones saying Clinton told her one thing about the nature of the attack while telling her family something very different. Clinton flatly says: "She's wrong." Sanders refuses to discuss Benghazi. [VIDEO.]
10:22 — This debate has been pretty dull for a while now.
10:23 — After Clinton explains her plan for student debt, Sanders snarks: "What Secretary Clinton said is absolutely right. I think I said it many months before she said it! But thanks for copying a very good idea!" [VIDEO.]
10:25 — Clinton says Sanders's health-care plan will be way more expensive than he says. "As my dad used to say, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
10:28 — The moderator says two dozen Florida mayors urged her to ask the candidates what they'd do about "the effects of rising sea levels and climate change in their communities," especially in Miami. Sanders calls out Trump and other Republicans for calling climate change "a hoax," which Sanders translates as: "We don't have the guts to stand up to the fossil-fuel industry." Clinton points out that she'll stick with Obama's executive actions in this area; a Republican president would undo them.
10:32 — Sanders keeps interrupting a lengthy answer by Clinton on climate change, while the moderator keeps telling Clinton, "Thank you!" (which is debate-speak for "Shut up!"). [VIDEO.] When Sanders finally gets to talk, he says: "You're looking at the Senator who introduced the most comprehensive climate-change legislation in the history of the United States Senate."
10:34 — Clinton says Sanders is "always criticizing" the two most recent Democratic presidents, and "that's fine," but he should criticize George W. Bush too. Sanders scoffs: "I gather Secretary Clinton hasn't listened to too many speeches, or followed my work in the Congress. . . . "
10:40 — The candidates are asked if they'd visit Cuba. Clinton makes a series of statements that are worded to sound strong without answering the question. Sanders calls for "normalized relations with Cuba."
10:43 — They show a video of Sanders, in 1985, saying Fidel Castro was being unfairly criticized, when he "educated their kids, gave them health care, totally transformed the society!" Sanders says this was about his opposition to invading Cuba or other Latin American countries. [VIDEO.]
10:47 — Clinton lambastes Sanders for saying, in another part of the 1985 video (which isn't shown), that Cuba brought about a "revolution of values." "When you disappear people, you imprison people, you even kill people, for expressing their opinions, for freedom of speech, that is not the kind of 'revolution of values' that I want to see anywhere!"
10:50 — When asked about the Supreme Court vacancy, Clinton reminds us of Bush v. Gore: "A court took away a presidency! Now we've got the Republican Congress trying to take away the Constitution!" As for what kind of Justice she'd like to see appointed, she says that Citizens United should be overruled and Roe v. Wade should remain "settled law." For some reason, Sanders doesn't get to address that issue.
And that's all for the Democratic primary debates in 2016.
I read the news today, oh boy . . . George Martin has died at 90.
It would be hard to overstate the effect George Martin had on the Beatles. And it would be hard to think of any human being in the world who wasn't an actual rock musician, yet had a bigger impact on rock music, than him.
George Martin wasn't just a great producer who happened to work with the greatest rock band of all time. There's a reason he's called the fifth Beatle, but even that honorific fails to capture what he really did. He didn't merely provide so many studio innovations that it's possible to pick out many Beatles songs where his effect on the finished product was at least as important as that of some of the actual Beatles. He radically challenged every preconception of what a rock band was supposed to be, in a way that didn't just change what the Beatles sounded like, but changed the next 50 years of music. George Martin allowed the band to encompass Western classical music ("Eleanor Rigby," "In My Life"), Indian classical music ("Without You Without You," "Love You To"), jazz ("When I'm 64," "Honey Pie"), and more.
There have been so many volumes written about what George Martin added to the Beatles' recordings. I'll just point to one small example, remembering that there are dozens and dozens of things like this in the Beatles' oeuvre. This is an analysis of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" by Ian MacDonald in his book Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties:
Lennon wandered into an antiques shop and picked up a Victorian circus poster advertising . . . a show put on by some travelling tumblers . . . in 1843. This appealed to his sense of the ridiculous and, when the new album [Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band] called for another composition from him, he hung the poster on the wall of his home studio and, playing his piano, sang phrases from it until he had a song. Taking it to Abbey Road, he asked George Martin for a 'fairground' production wherein one could smell the sawdust — which, while not in the narrowest sense a musical specification, was, by Lennon's standards, a clear and reasonable request. (He once asked Martin to make one of his songs sound like an orange.) While The Beatles' producer worked more naturally with the conventionally articulate McCartney, the challenges of catering to Lennon's intuitive approach generally spurred him to his more original arrangements, of which Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! is an outstanding example. Using harmonium, harmonicas, and a tape of Victorian steam organs and calliopes cut up and edited into a kaleidoscopic wash, he created a brilliantly whimsical impression of period burlesque, ideally complementing Lennon's dry nasal delivery. Few producers have displayed a tenth of the invention shown here.
George Martin, the urbane English record producer who signed the Beatles to a recording contract on the small Parlophone label after every other British record company had turned them down, and who guided them in their transformation from a regional dance band into the most inventive, influential and studio-savvy rock group of the 1960s, died Tuesday. . . .
When the Beatles played “Please Please Me” for him for the first time, for example, it was in a slow arrangement meant to evoke the style of Roy Orbison, one of their heroes. Mr. Martin told them the song sounded dreary, and insisted that they pick up the tempo and add a simple harmonica introduction. His suggestions transformed “Please Please Me,” which became their first big hit.
Always intent on expanding the Beatles’ horizons, Mr. Martin began chipping away at the group’s resistance to using orchestral musicians on its recordings in early 1965. While recording the “Help!” album that year, he brought in flutists for the simple adornment that enlivens Lennon’s “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” and he convinced Mr. McCartney, against his initial resistance, that “Yesterday” should be accompanied by a string quartet.
A year later, during the recording of the album “Revolver,” Mr. Martin no longer had to cajole: The Beatles prevailed on him to augment their recordings with arrangements for strings (on “Eleanor Rigby”), brass (on “Got to Get You Into My Life”), marching band (on “Yellow Submarine”) and solo French horn (on “For No One”), as well as a tabla player for Harrison’s Indian-influenced song “Love You To.”
It was also at least partly through Mr. Martin’s encouragement that the Beatles became increasingly interested in electronic sound. Noting their inquisitiveness about both the technical and musical sides of recording, Mr. Martin ignored the traditional barrier between performers and technicians and invited the group into the control room, where he showed them how the recording equipment at EMI’s Abbey Road studios worked. He also introduced them to unorthodox recording techniques, including toying with tape speeds and playing tapes backward.
Mr. Martin had used some of these techniques in his comedy and novelty recordings, long before he began working with the Beatles.
“When I joined EMI,” he told The New York Times in 2003, “the criterion by which recordings were judged was their faithfulness to the original. If you made a recording that was so good that you couldn’t tell the difference between the recording and the actual performance, that was the acme. And I questioned that. I thought, O.K., we’re all taking photographs of an existing event. But we don’t have to make a photograph; we can paint. And that prompted me to experiment.”
Soon the Beatles themselves became intent on searching for new sounds, and Mr. Martin created another that the group adopted in 1966 (followed by many others). During the sessions for “Rain,” Mr. Martin took part of Lennon’s lead vocal and overlaid it, running backward, over the song’s coda.
“From that moment,” Mr. Martin said, “they wanted to do everything backwards. They wanted guitars backwards and drums backwards, and everything backwards, and it became a bore.” The technique did, however, benefit “I’m Only Sleeping” (with backward guitars) and “Strawberry Fields Forever” (with backward drums).
Mr. Martin was never particularly trendy, and when the Beatles adopted the flowery fashions of psychedelia in 1966 and 1967 he continued to attend sessions in a white shirt and tie, his hair combed back in a schoolmasterly pre-Beatles style. Musically, though, he was fully in step with them. . . . His avant-garde orchestration and spacey production techniques made “A Day in the Life” into a monumental finale for the kaleidoscopic album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
I'll be live-blogging the Democratic debate here. Keep reloading this post for more updates.
This is the last debate before the Michigan primary.
For more live-blogging, check out the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and Variety.
As always, I'll be writing down quotes on the fly, so they might not be verbatim, but I'll try to keep them reasonably accurate. If you need an exact quote, check the transcript.
8:01 — Bernie Sanders says what he's heard and seen in talking to the people of Flint, where the water is tainted by lead, "literally shattered" him.
8:03 — Hillary Clinton says she's glad they're having the debate in Flint, as she requested. Both candidates call on Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to resign.
8:06 — A Flint resident in the audience describes how she and her children have had to drive long distances to wash their fruit, brush their teeth, and drink water. She asks how she'll ever regain the trust of her government. Clinton: "Everything that is done has to be triple-checked to regain your trust."
8:08 — Sanders calls for the federal government to get involved in Flint. "You are paying more for poisoned water than I am paying in Burlington, Vermont, for clean water! First thing [we should] do is say people are not paying for poisoned water."
8:10 — Sanders sarcastically says: "Maybe we should let Wall Street come in and run Flint, because we know their honesty and integrity has done so much for America!"
8:15 — Anderson Cooper tells us the next audience member to ask a question was one of the first Flint residents to report a problem with the water — after her son stopped growing and her daughter lost her hair. She wants to know about what should be done about lead pipes throughout the country. Clinton says this was a higher priority in the Clinton administration.
8:17 — Clinton calls for "absolute accountability" for whoever's responsible — including "civil" or "criminal" liability.
8:24 — The candidates are asked what they'll do to keep jobs in Michigan, or bring back jobs there. Clinton calls for taxing companies that move jobs overseas. Sanders: "I am very glad that Secretary Clinton has discovered religion on this issue. But it's a little late." Sanders attacks her for supporting trade agreements like NAFTA. Clinton comes back: Sanders was against Obama's auto bailout, which "ended up saving the auto industry." Sanders retorts that Clinton supported "the Wall Street bailout — where some of your friends destroyed the economy!" Clinton interrupts, but Sanders snaps: "Excuse me, I'm talking!" Clinton shoots back: "Well, tell the whole story!" Sanders: "Let me tell my story — you tell yours!" Clinton: "I will!" The initial Kumbaya atmosphere of this debate has dissipated. [VIDEO.]
8:29 — Clinton calls Sanders a "one-issue candidate." Clinton knows "you have to make hard choices!" Sanders embraces the "one-issue candidate" label: "My one issue is trying to rebuild a disappearing middle class! That's my one issue!"
8:33 — Clinton lists the ways she was tough on Wall Street in 2008, including proposing a moratorium on foreclosures.
8:34 — Anderson Cooper brings up Clinton's "Shakespearean" statement that she'll release the transcript of her Wall Street speeches if all the other candidates do. Sanders points out that he's her one Democratic opponent, and he'll release all his speeches to Wall Street. He does it right then and there: "Here it is! There's nothing!" (Sanders is right — in the Democratic primaries, there's no reason for Clinton to condition her release of records on the Republican candidates' agreement.)
8:38 — Clinton lays down the gauntlet on the Export/Import Bank — she's for it, Sanders is against it. Anderson Cooper explains that the Export/Import Bank is "the federal agency that gives loans to companies that import/export American products." Sanders calls the Export/Import Bank "the Bank of Boeing." He explains that 75% of that money "goes to large corporations" — and the remaining 25% is only as large as it is because of a law that Sanders got passed. Cooper points out that Sanders agrees with Ted Cruz on the Export/Import Bank, but Sanders doesn't try to disavow that association: "I hate to break the bad news — Democrats are not always right! . . . Democrats have supported corporate welfare." [VIDEO.] Politico calls this "That time Bernie Sanders agreed with the Koch brothers."
8:44 — Somehow, the debate over the Import/Export Bank meanders into Sanders calling for European-style universal health care; Clinton says we've already gotten closer to that goal with Obamacare.
8:53 — Anderson Cooper introduces a man in the audience by showing us a photo of his 14-year-old daughter, and telling us the heart-wrenching story of how she was shot in a mass shooting in Kalamazoo, Michigan, wasn't expected to survive, but is now recovering. The dad (who's leaning toward Sanders) says his daughter has been laughing, which is great — but, of course, this never should have happened. He asks what they'd do to stop this kind of thing from happening, and asks them not to mention background checks or mental health, since the person who shot his daughter had a clear background and no mental illness. Clinton says we need to have more liability for gun makers and sellers. Sanders calls for expanded background checks — exactly what the dad said would not have stopped his daughter from being shot.
8:58 — Sanders raises the concern that if the law holds gun manufacturers liable for anyone who uses a gun to do a mass shooting, even if the shooter bought the gun legally, this could mean "ending gun manufacturing in America," which he disagrees with.
9:03 — Clinton grapples with a question about how she supported her husband's 1994 crime bill, which led to more incarceration. Don Lemon notes that as a black man, he statistically has a 1 in 3 chance of being incarcerated. Clinton points out that she and Sanders both voted for it. She says parts of the law "were a mistake," as Bill Clinton admitted last year in a speech to the NAACP. Lemon reads a quote from Sanders from 1994, warning of the horrible things that could result from it — so why did he vote for it? Sanders says his words were those of "a Congressman who was torn." He cleverly points out that if he had voted against it, Clinton would be saying: "Bernie Sanders voted against the assault-weapons ban! Bernie Sanders voted against the Violence Against Women Act!"
9:07 — A member of the audience begins his question by pointing out that opportunities often go disproportionately to "older Caucasian men and women." Sanders interrupts him with a self-effacing joke: "You're not talking about me, are ya?!" On a more serious note, Sanders says: "Most candidates wouldn't put this on their resume, but . . . I was arrested by the Chicago police for trying to desegregate the Chicago school system." [VIDEO.]
9:12 — Sanders is asked about his "racial blind spots." He says he was surprised to hear a colleague in Washington say he wasn't going to take a cab because the drivers pass him by because he's black. (That's always struck me as a somewhat tricky example of white privilege, since cab drivers aren't a group that's likely to be white and privileged — many are immigrants, for instance.)
9:16 — Don Lemon asks Clinton if she was wrong and used racially coded language in the '90s when she talked about "super predators." She says it was a "poor choice of words" and she wouldn't say it again — which doesn't really answer the question.
9:18 — Sanders criticizes Bill Clinton's welfare reform of 1996. Clinton responds: "If we're going to argue about the '90s, let's try to get the facts straight." She says she disagrees with how the law has been "applied." Sanders uses Clinton's reference to "the '90s" as a segue into railing against the financial deregulation of the '90s.
9:27 — An audience member asks about deteriorating public schools in Michigan. Sanders strikes a Rawlsian note: "A great nation is judged not by how many millionaires and billionaires it has, but how it treats the most vulnerable among us. . . . We should be ashamed of how we treat our kids and our senior citizens."
9:32 — Anderson Cooper asks Clinton if teachers' unions protect bad teachers, and the audience boos. Clinton says the problem is "scapegoating teachers" instead of increasing funding to schools. When Cooper follows up by asking if she agrees about unions protecting bad teachers, she gives an answer that's carefully worded to sound like she's unafraid to get tough on unions — without quite agreeing with Cooper's statement: she says we need to "look at this" and "eliminate that criticism."
9:37 — Clinton is asked about whether she supports fracking. She lists several requirements she would impose on any fracking, and concludes: "By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there are many places in America where fracking will take place." Sanders mocks Clinton's triangulating answer: "My answer is a lot shorter: No, I do not support fracking." (While Clinton's position is more complex, it also sounds more pragmatic and achievable.)
9:41 — Sanders says Clinton's Super PAC is "raising a huge amount of money — well, I hesitate to say 'YUGE'! . . . A lot of money from fossil-fuel companies." (Clinton seems to be trying not to laugh.) [VIDEO.]
9:50 — Anderson Cooper asks Clinton, if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, how she'll respond when he brings up her emails (as he's often done already, even in the primaries). Clinton seems a little coy and hesitant in responding. She starts by pointing out that Trump has won over 3 million votes — the most of any candidate except her. She talks about Trump's "bigotry and bluster," and repeats the line from her Super Tuesday speech: "We don't need to make America great again — America never stopped being great! We need to make America whole again." She doesn't address her emails. So I guess the answer is . . . that she'll have no answer to Trump. Maybe she just hasn't thought enough about her general-election strategy yet. Or maybe she does have a plan — and she doesn't want to tip her hand. (Thanks to a commenter for pointing out I had missed the crucial part about her emails — I went back and revised this.)
9:52 — Cooper points out that Trump has called Sanders "a Communist." "That was one of the nice things he said about me!" (Sanders, who has a pretty sharp sense of humor, has been on a roll in this debate — you could imagine Woody Allen saying that line.) Sanders says he almost always does better than Clinton in match-ups against Trump.
9:55 — Cooper asks Sanders about those who say he keeps his Judaism "in the background," to a fault. Sanders shakes his head. "I am very proud of being Jewish, and that is an essential part of who I am as a human being." "My father's family was wiped out by Hitler in the Holocaust." [VIDEO.]
9:57 — Clinton is asked about her faith. She quips: "I am a praying person — and if I hadn't been, by the time I was in the White House, I would have become one!"
10:00 — They're doing the closing statements. Sanders: "It is too late for establishment politics and establishment economics."
10:01 — Clinton uses her closing statement to anticipate the general election (with the obvious subtext that she's the likely nominee): "I don't intend to get into the gutter with whoever they nominate, but instead to lift our sights, set big goals, and make it clear that America's best days are still ahead of us."
Nancy Reagan, who was born Anne Francis Robbins but went by the stage name Nancy Davis, has died at age 94. From the New York Times obituary:
Mrs. Reagan was a fierce guardian of her husband’s image, sometimes at the expense of her own, and during Mr. Reagan’s improbable climb from a Hollywood acting career to the governorship of California and ultimately the White House, she was a trusted adviser.
“Without Nancy, there would have been no Governor Reagan, no President Reagan,” said Michael K. Deaver, the longtime aide and close friend of the Reagans who died in 2007.
Mrs. Reagan helped hire and fire the political consultants who ran her husband’s near-miss campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976 and his successful campaign for the presidency in 1980. She played a seminal role in the 1987 ouster of the White House chief of staff, Donald T. Regan, whom Mrs. Reagan blamed for ineptness after it was disclosed that Mr. Reagan had secretly approved arms sales to Iran.
Behind the scenes, Mrs. Reagan was the prime mover in Mr. Reagan’s efforts to recover from the scandal, which was known as Iran-contra because some of the proceeds from the sale had been diverted to the contras opposing the leftist government of Nicaragua. While trying to persuade her stubborn husband to apologize for the arms deal, Mrs. Reagan brought political figures into the White House, among them the Democratic power broker Robert S. Strauss, to argue her case to the president.
Mr. Reagan eventually conceded that she was right. On March 4, 1987, the president made a distanced apology for the arms sale in a nationally televised address that dramatically improved his slumping public approval ratings.
His wife, typically, neither sought nor received credit for the turnaround. Mrs. Reagan did not wish to detract from her husband’s luster by appearing to be a power behind the presidential throne.
In public, she gazed at him adoringly and portrayed herself as a contented wife who had willingly given up a Hollywood acting career of her own to devote herself to her husband’s career. “He was all I had ever wanted in a man, and more,” she wrote in “My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan,” published in 1989.
He reciprocated in kind. “How do you describe coming into a warm room from out of the cold?” he once said. “Never waking up bored? The only thing wrong is, she’s made a coward out of me. Whenever she’s out of sight, I’m a worrier about her.”"
In truth, she was the worrier. Mrs. Reagan wrote in her memoirs that she sometimes became angry with her husband because of his relentless optimism. He didn’t worry at all, she wrote, “and I seem to do the worrying for both of us.”
I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease. . . .
At the moment I feel just fine. I intend to live the remainder of the years God gives me on this earth doing the things I have always done. I will continue to share life's journey with my beloved Nancy and my family. I plan to enjoy the great outdoors and stay in touch with my friends and supporters.
Unfortunately, as Alzheimer's disease progresses, the family often bears a heavy burden. I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience. . . .
I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.
I'll be live-blogging the Fox News debate here. Keep reloading this post for more updates.
This is the first debate since Super Tuesday, and the first since Ben Carson dropped out. This debate will also be overshadowed by Mitt Romney's searing indictment of Donald Trump earlier today.
For more live-blogging, check out National Review, TPM, the New Republic, and Althouse (my mom).
As always, I'll be writing down quotes on the fly, without a rewind button, so they might not be word-for-word, but I'll try to keep them reasonably accurate (and I might or might not go back and correct some of them later).
9:02 — Donald Trump is asked about Romney's diatribe against him; the moderator quotes: "the bullying, the greed, the misogyny. . . ." Trump focuses on trade — an issue on which Romney used to praise Trump!
9:05 — Trump, when asked about the KKK and David Duke: "I totally disavow the Ku Klux Klan. I totally disavow David Duke. . . . You're about the 18th person to ask me that question."
9:06 — Marco Rubio is asked about the fact that he used to say he wouldn't stoop to personal attacks, but in the past week he's been making some very low blows, including "vulgar" ones, against Trump. Rubio says the media gives "an incredible amount of coverage" to Trump's attacks, and he "deserves" to be attacked the same way. Trump reminds us about Rubio's joke about Trump's supposedly small hands. Trump holds up his hands to show that they're not small. And then: "He also said: If they're small, something else must be small. I guarantee you, there's no problem!"
9:10 — Rubio to Trump: "Two-thirds of the people who have voted, have voted against you." Rubio says Trump is "not a conservative," and he "believes the nuclear triad is a rock band from the 1980s."
9:13 — John Kasich is asked whether he'd join Romney in encouraging voters to vote for Rubio in Florida, to try to lead to a brokered convention — and Kasich has recently admitted a brokered convention is the only way he could get the nomination. Kasich doesn't answer the question, brushing it off as being about "process," which "bores" him!
9:18 — After Rubio attacks Trump over his business record, Trump says: "This little guy has lied so much about my record!" Trump says his siblings heard Rubio in the last debate claiming Trump had inherited $200 million, and told their brother: "We didn't know dad left you $200 million!" Rubio objects to Trump calling him a "little guy" instead of talking about "policy," which is a bit rich after Rubio has been going around implying that Trump has a small penis and that he wets his pants.
9:23 — Trump is asked how he could have said in the last debate that he'd balance the budget by abolishing the Department of Education and the EPA, whose combined budgets are far less than the deficit. Trump says he'd allowed pharmaceutical companies to "bid properly," which would reduce "hundreds of billions of dollars" of waste. Chris Wallace flatly denies that, along the lines of this fact check. Trump seems to suggest that Wallace isn't fully grasping how Trump would allow more negotiation in a way that would broadly affect the economy.
9:26 — Ted Cruz says he understands the anger of Trump supporters — but "for 40 years, Donald has been part of the corruption in Washington that you're talking about." Trump says that's because he "wasn't a politician" and "owed it to [his] company to get along" with Democrats and Republicans.
9:27 — Kasich is asked about his supposed support for raising the minimum wage, unlike Trump, who's against raising it. Kasich says he's not in favor of raising the federal minimum wage — he was just describing Ohio's increase, but states are free to set their own policies. The moderators should be better prepared! [Added later: You can judge for yourself whether Kasich really supported raising the federal minimum wage in this video from September.]
9:31 — Cruz rebuts Trump's argument that he's supported Democratic politicians just as "the cost of doing business." Cruz says that could be understandable, even if it would be "corrupt." But Trump supported Carter against Reagan, and wrote multiple checks to Hillary Clinton — not just for her Senate campaign since she was the Senator from his state, but also for her presidential campaign. Trump admits he contributed to her presidential campaign — but says that was still just the cost of doing business (which does seem to make sense).
9:37 — Trump is asked if the tape of his off-the-record discussion with the New York Times, in which he supposedly expressed a willingness to be flexible on his immigration stance, should be released, and he says no. Rubio points out that the Times would release the tape if only Trump asked, but Trump still refuses. I'm not that interested in that issue, since Trump has already admitted on the record that he might be flexible on immigration. What I find more interesting about this interchange is that after Rubio defends his record on immigration, Trump strikes a conciliatory tone. Trump seems to express appreciation for Rubio's position, and he minimizes the differences between them on immigration. That might have been understandable if this had been the first debate, but in this debate, it's a jarring juxtaposition with the raucous hostility between those two that's been going on lately. I wonder if Trump has thoughts of trying to reconcile with Rubio and use him in some way.
9:41 — Megyn Kelly asks Trump about a conflict between his statements on visas for highly skilled workers — his website seems to be against them, but his own statements seem to be favorable to them. Trump candidly admits: "I'm changing it, and I'm softening the position."
9:51 — Brett Baier asks Trump about his suggestions that he might use torture and also kill terrorists' families. Baier says some in the military would refuse an order to do so, since they've been trained to refuse illegal orders. Trump says it's not illegal, but Baier says it would be. Predictably, Trump denies that they'd refuse: "If I say do it, they'll do it." Trump goes on: "They're chopping off the heads of Christians and anybody else who happens to be in the way . . . and now we're talking about waterboarding?!"
9:56 — Without being asked a question, Kasich chimes in to say that in a survey of about 700 foreign-policy experts, 55% said he would be the strongest on foreign policy. Kasich reminds us of his experience in Congress (before his current position as Governor), and alludes to one of the most famous debate moments in American history: "I knew Ronald Reagan! And I'll leave it right there as to what comes after that."
10:01 — Megyn Kelly plays a clip show of Trump flip-flopping on 3 issues: whether we should have invaded Afghanistan (no, then yes), whether to allow refugees from Syria (yes, then no), and whether George W. Bush lied us into the Iraq war (yes, then unsure). On the first one, Trump says he simply meant Iraq, not Afghanistan (although he admits that he once told Howard Stern, "meekly," that he'd support invading Iraq). On Syrian refugees, he says he changed his mind because he originally imagined very few refugees, and then heard larger numbers ("thousands and thousands"). Kelly tries to make a larger point out of all this: "You change your tune on so many things, and that has many people saying: What is your core?" "I've never seen a successful person who didn't have a degree of flexibility." That was a pretty tough series of questions, which Trump handled pretty adeptly.
10:07 — Rubio rebuffs Trump: "There's a difference between flexibility, and telling people whatever you think you need to say to get them to do what you want them to do."
Out of an abundance of caution, I'm refraining from saying anything about some legal issues being discussed in the debate, due to my professional situation.
10:14 — Cruz points to Trump and Rubio, who've been going after each other for a while, and says: "Is this the debate you want playing out in the general election?" When Trump interrupts, Cruz suggests Trump has a temper problem: "Count to 10, Donald! Count to 10!"
10:17 — Trump and Cruz argue about their poll numbers.
10:23 — Brett Baier asks Rubio: "Why haven't GOP candidates done more or talked more" about lead poisoning in the water of Flint, Michigan? Rubio says he has been talking about it; the Governor of Michigan "has taken responsibility" for it; and "Democrats" have been wrongly trying to "turn this into a partisan issue." He says there's "a proper role" for the federal government in dealing with this problem. [VIDEO.]
10:25 — Kelly asks Kasich about schools in Detroit that are "infested with rodents and insects." (The debate is happening in Detroit.)
10:28 — Cruz gives a paean to the Detroit of yesteryear, which was squandered by decades of Democratic rule. "That is a story that the media ought to be telling over and over again" — "the millions who have been hurt by" "left-wing policies."
10:30 — Kasich is asked about his comments in the last debate on same-sex marriage and religious liberty. He says if you're a same-sex couple who's turned down by a wedding photographer, "find another photographer! Don't go to court!" [VIDEO.]
10:32 — Cruz is asked if gay couples should be able to adopt children. Cruz says that's for the states to decide, citing the 10th Amendment. He pivots to saying the Supreme Court was wrong to say there's a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
10:34 — Baier asks Rubio if he agrees with the late Justice Scalia that the 2nd Amendment "leaves room to regulate guns." Rubio says he'd leave "as little room as possible" to regulate guns. Rubio says a law-abiding "gun-owner like myself" will follow the law, but "criminals" don't care about the law.
10:36 — Trump says not as many people would have died in the Paris terrorist attacks if bullets had been flying "in the other direction."
10:39 — When Trump interrupts Cruz's answer, Cruz condescends to him: "Donald, I know it's hard for you . . ." Trump interjects again: "Lyin' Ted!" Cruz tries to calm Trump down: "Breathe, breathe, breathe . . ." Rubio: "When they're done with the yoga, can I answer the question?" Cruz: "I really hope that we don't see yoga on this stage." Rubio, pointing to Trump: "Well, he's very flexible, so you never know." [VIDEO.]
10:44 — Rubio says Trump isn't "serious" on foreign policy. He brings up Trump's answer that the military will do anything he tells them to do. "Now, that's just not true." Trump bears down: "When I say they'll do as I tell them . . . they'll do as I tell them!"
10:46 — Rubio is trying to present a more serious and sober version of himself than he did in the last debate. After Trump says Rubio isn't a "leader," Rubio says: "He's pressed on a policy issue, and his answer is just to attack somebody else with a name. . . . Will you give a detailed answer on foreign policy any time you're asked about it?"
10:50 — Wallace plays a Kasich campaign ad suggesting that Trump will name Russian President Vladimir Putin as his running mate. Wallace asks Kasich if he thinks Trump is "naive" on foreign policy. Kasich won't answer: "I'm not biting!"
10:56 — Baier asks all the candidates if they'll stand by their pledge to support the nominee. Rubio goes first: "I'll support the Republican nominee. I'll support Donald if he's the nominee." Cruz says: "Yes, because I gave my word that I would." Kasich says yes . . . but "sometimes he makes it a little bit hard!" Trump: "Yes, I will."
That's all.
