For the Record: Weed all about it
With Super Tuesday coming up on March 1, everyone's going back to their roots. Trump is bringing back the swagger, Jeb is bringing back his brother and Hillary is back on campus to woo college-age women. Will any of it work? We'll find out in two weeks!
The return of Chaos Trump
You guys remember front-runner Trump? Pre-second place finisher in Iowa Trump? The Trump who just said whatever? After the win in New Hampshire, he put the id back in charge and we're getting teleprompter-free mayhem once again. We noted yesterday how he bucked more than a decade of Republican orthodoxy by saying George W. Bush caused 9/11 and deliberately lied to start the Iraq war. Now he's speculating about suing Ted Cruz regarding his eligibility for the presidency, and threatening to run as an independent because he believes the Republican National Committee is packing the debates with anti-Trump audience members. More highlights from a freewheeling press conference Monday afternoon: Saddam Hussein wasn't all bad, Marco Rubio sweats like a racehorse, and the Trump administration will unify the country.
Jeb! calls in GWB!
For months, the Jeb Bush campaign kept his brother, former President George W. Bush, at arm's length. The short list of reasons: George's 34% approval rating upon leaving office, the rise of ISIS in the wake of the Iraq War, and Jeb's generally awkward attempts at defending his brother's legacy. Going into South Carolina, Nevada and Super Tuesday, GWB is suddenly a part of the Jeb machine, mainly because things can't get too much worse. Besides, absence apparently is making the heart grow fonder for Bush 43.
Toke the Vote 2016
"Legalize it," sang Peter Tosh in 1976, "and I will advertise it." Once Tosh recognized that the only thing holding back the legalization of recreational marijuana was the lack of a viable marketing plan, he offered to step up. Yet here we are, 40 years later, and only four states (Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington) and the District of Columbia have chosen to legalize pot.
Things could shift in a major way this November. Fourteen states have measures on the November ballot that would legalize recreational marijuana. Probability of success: mixed. Probability that these ballot measures could attract left-leaning voters to the voting booth: pretty much 100%. Included among those 14 states are three swing states — Florida, Ohio and Nevada — representing 53 electoral votes. Could pot measures swing the 2016 election in favor of the Democratic nominee? Chances are high.
More from the campaign trail
- So here's a fun thing: Nevada Republicans can participate in both the Republican and Democratic caucuses if they feel like it (Ralston Reports)
- Kasich under no illusions he'll be able to win in the South, but he's still campaigning there anyway. Bless his heart (Cincinnati Enquirer)
- Hillary on Nevada campuses: Remember me, young people? We used to hang out (Reno Gazette-Journal)
- Some candidates just want to watch the world Bern (Paste BN OnPolitics)
- Here we were having a nice normal election year and now things are starting to go all Godfather III (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
- In Iowa, they flip coins to break ties. In Nevada, they draw cards. In South Carolina, they have a rib-eating contest, or at least they should (Reno Gazette-Journal)
- Obama to Ellen: I don't miss the campaign trail. We'll take that to mean he always reads this particular section of For the Record (Paste BN OnPolitics)
We're not always fixated on the British Isles. Why, sometimes we elect someone with a Northern European name just to mix it up
Following up on yesterday's challenge: Were you able to come up with the six presidents with non-English, non-Irish surnames? Here's the full list of the surnames and their origins:
- Van Buren, Hoover and Roosevelt (both Teddy and FDR) are Dutch
- Eisenhower is German
- Obama is Kenyan
The surname, that is.
The surname "Obama" is Kenyan (more specifically, it's Luo).
Everyone calm down.