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When Marco Rubio speaks, young women swoon, old women faint, and toilets flush themselves.
— Florida Rep. Dan Gelber (D), quoted by the New Yorker, warning his colleagues of Sen. Marco Rubio’s “innate political skill.”
This is the pattern, isn’t it? The pattern is — he says something insulting, offensive and outrageous; the media pays attention; then he claims we all misunderstood him.
— Carly Fiorina, quoted by the Washington Post, on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Gov. Christie is right for these dangerous times. He has prosecuted terrorists and dealt admirably with major disasters. But the one reason he may be best-suited to lead during these times is because he tells it like it is and isn’t shy about it.
— Fro the editorial endorsing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie from New Hampshire’s Union Leader, traditionally the most respected newspaper voice in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
It is fun to be here. Even the reporters, to whose perfidy Trump devotes a substantial chunk of his speech, are having fun — you never know what Trump is going to say, and you get a lot of airtime … Despite all the negativity and fear, the energy in this room does not feel dark and aggressive and threatening. It doesn’t feel like a powder keg about to blow, a lynch mob about to rampage. It feels joyous.
— Molly Ball in the Atlantic
This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal. If we truly care about this — if we’re going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough.
— President Obama, quoted by Politico, after yet another mass shooting.
When Hillary Clinton lies, she generally does so with legalistic care. You get the sense that she knows what the exact truth is. But you also get the sense that she knows she’ll suffer if she provides the whole truth, so she shades the facts with interpretations and embellishments that flatter or favor her. … Trump’s and Carson’s lies, on the other hand, come from the land of bullshit, that wonderful place where loose facts and wishful thinking mate to produce a quotable soundbite. They’re not trying to deceive you in a Clintonian fashion. They’re indifferent to the truth, content to say the first things that pop into their brains.
Politicians are quickly learning that they can say just about anything and get away with it. Along with vindication, apology and suffering, there now exists a fourth way forward for the politician spewing whoppers: Blame the backlash on media bias and walk away a hero.
21%
A new Reuters poll finds Ted Cruz surging with 21% of the vote in second place behind Donald Trump, who leads the GOP presidential race nationally with 33%, followed by Ben Carson at 12%, Marco Rubio at 11% and Jeb Bush at 8%.