For the Record: Let's be unfriends
It’s National UnFriend Day (thanks, Jimmy Kimmel), the one day a year where we purge our social media friends list because dammit, we don’t need any more invitations to play Lucky Slots, all right? We’re going to make a plea that you don’t unfriend everyone with different political opinions because the last thing we need in this country is less discourse. Instead, you should waste several hours at work debating them online until they unfriend you first. Trust us, it's better that way.
If you want to buck the trend of UnFriend Day, you can follow the For the Record crew on Twitter (@jmestepa, @joannaallhands, @RGJBrettMcG), and invite your friends (and foes) to sign up for For the Record six days a week.
A WEEK AGO, NO CANDIDATE WAS TALKING ABOUT SYRIA (OK, FINE … LINDSEY GRAHAM WAS)
After Friday’s Paris attacks, what was a mid-level issue in the 2016 race now has become THE issue. On Monday, more than 20 governors (including Republican presidential candidates Bobby Jindal and John Kasich, spoke out against Syrian refugee resettlement on news that one of the Paris attackers had passed through Greece as a refugee in early October. Donald Trump proposed shutting down mosques (and apparently the First Amendment) as a solution to the crisis unless the Second Amendment takes care of things first. Paste BN’S Rem Rieder says this may be the moment that the outsiders in the GOP field start to fall away, even though “This May Be the End of Trump” has been the official catchphrase of the political media for the past six months.
THEIR LEFT TURN SIGNAL HAS BEEN ON FOR THE LAST SEVERAL MILES NOW
In the last 11 presidential elections, the Republican candidate has been younger than the Democrat exactly once (2004, George W. Bush vs. John Kerry). But in 2016, the GOP has a rare chance to mock the party of youth for being so, so old. The average Inauguration Day age of the three Democratic candidates is 66; the average for the Republican field is 59 ½. Hillary’s “I come from the ‘60s” line during Saturday night’s Democratic debate was gift-wrapped for 44-year-old Marco Rubio to make this ad proclaiming “If I’m our nominee, (Republicans) will be the party of the future.” Despite the on-stage demographics, however, ideology still doesn’t swing in the GOP’s favor, and the current front-runners are 69 (Donald Trump) and 64 (Ben Carson).
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders played up his “get off my lawn” personality with a tongue-in-cheek launch of his Snapchat account, asking “What is this Snapshot thing and why do I only get ten seconds?” Now we just need a “going to bed after Wheel of Fortune” emoji.
MORE FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
- O’Malley continues to torpedo his own chances to be Hillary’s VP (The Des Moines Register)
- Pheasant-hunting trip pays off for Ted Cruz (The Des Moines Register, Paste BN OnPolitics)
- Video: 12th-place Pataki complains about polls, says campaign should be about “letting the people choose.” He may not know what polls are, which actually explains a lot (Paste BN)
LIFESTYLES OF THE TWITTER FAMOUS
Here's further proof that we’re all just one snarky tweet away from being the next big thing in the presidential campaign. Let your snark flag fly, kids.