Headlines

‘It’s something we’re looking at’: Pompeo floats ban on TIKTOK

Cuts to basic services loom as coronavirus sends states into fiscal crisis

North Carolina Dem. took $1-2 million from PPP program after publically criticizing it

Virus: Daily deaths plummet despite record cases

Huntsman loses GOP primary in Utah

Coronavirus live updates: Brazil’s Bolsonaro tested after feeling unwell, Novavax gets U.S. funds for vaccine

Georgia governor authorizes National Guard

Chinese media: America ‘helpless underdeveloped country’

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tests positive for COVID-19

Herd immunity strategies called into question after coronavirus antibody studies in Spain

Journos waste entire briefing asking McEnany about Confederate flag

Report: Nearly all NYC June shooting victims were minorities

Headlines

Peter Strzok sues [FBI] over firing for anti-Trump texts

China’s exit from US agriculture is devastating blow to an already struggling sector

China blinks?  Stocks bounce ...

Twitter account allegedly linked to Ohio shooter anti-ICE

Poll: Biden maintains lead over Sanders in New Hampshire

House Democrats ask National Archives for Brett Kavanaugh’s White House records

Uruguay issues travel warning for USA ...

Beto O’Rourke tells Trump: Stay out of El Paso

Huntsman to step down as ambassador to Russia

Bulletproof backpacks have become another back-to-school special

Palin wins appeal reviving defamation lawsuit against NYT ...

Cory Booker campaign demands Trump cancel New Hampshire rally

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which ones from Politico?

Update: Google releasing 20 million lab grown mosquitoes ...

Trump targeting corporate tax rates in the 20s

Democrats refuse to condemn Women's March support of a cop killer

Peru: Two ex-president convicts meet over sandwich in prison

Foreigners snap up record number of American homes ...

GOP plan to repeal Obamacare meets fatal opposition

GOP senators who voted for clean Obamacare repeal in 2915 won't vote for it now

Trump warns Venezuela of further sanctions

Update:  'Pecurlar' radio signals emerge from space ...

Trump to nominate Huntsman as Russia ambassador

UK Advertising Standards Authority bans gender stereotyping in ads

FBI warns Internet-connected toys can be hacked

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

White House: Don't call it Trumpcare

Ivanka clothing line record sales ...

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden says it's impossible Trump was wiretapped by Obama

Droids diagnose more accurately than almost any doctor ...

Brain activity recorded 10 minutes after death ...

Ryan disappoints his friends with Obamacare replacement bill

Sorry Ben Carson critics: Obama also called slaves immigrants

Pelosi: Trump created nothing except chaos

Palestinian Authority names youth camp after terrorist who killed 38 Israelis

Update: Statue of Liberty mysteriously goes dark ...

Tim Kaine son arrested after disrupting Trump rally ...

Huntsman offered Russia ambassadorship

Burning Up Ants

For me, the analogy that best fits the Republican presidential-primary race is one of a small child burning up ants on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass.  The child is the national media who seem to be taking a sadistic puerile pleasure in incinerating the candidates one by one with opposition research, innuendo, gotcha debate questions, and sneering asides.  And it has worked beautifully.  Tim Pawlenty, pffft!  Michelle Bachmann, pffft!  Herman Cain, pffft!  Rick Perry, pffft!  Jon Huntsman, pffft!

Who's next? 

Mitt Romney barely escaped the searing magnifying-glass flash when George Stephanopoulos, as a debate moderator, asked him in early January if a state could ban contraception (see: Contraception Question).  This out-of-left-field question was so bizarre that Romney deftly batted it away.  But it clearly presaged the current White House tactic to eliminate a GOP candidate or two by swinging the focus away from the economy and onto social issues.  Does Stephanopoulos's then-silly question seem staged to you now?

Unfortunately, poor Rick Santorum has taken this media bait on the White House's "social issue strategy" and is slowly frying under the ensuing media magnification.  And the Democratic machine is now taking the unusual tactic of spending part of its huge war chest to run opposition ads against Romney in the Michigan primary ... since the convenient media narrative is that he must win there to have a chance at the nomination.  And I think the Democrat strategy with Newt Gingrich seems to be that his ego is so big that he will seek out the seering sunlight focused beam all by himself ... thinking it is the spotlight.

And, looking back on things, I can see that the decisions that were made by Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, and Sarah Palin to stay out of this nomination melee were quite perceptive.  I think that they must have seen that big magnifying glass in the sky ...