memeorandum: Report: Clinton changed stance on trade deal after donations to foundation (Ben Kamisar/The Hill)

2:55 PM ET, April 9, 2015

Top Items:

Rand Paul's Petulance With Reporters Will Ruin Him — You wouldn't know it based on reputation, but Senator Rand Paul is the most charismatic presidential candidate in the Republican Party. Senator Marco Rubio generates the most buzz in this arena because he doesn't stumble under questioning …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Guardian, Salon, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The BRAD BLOG, Hullabaloo and The Moderate Voice

Dick Morris / The Hill:

Rand Paul can't win — In most presidential primaries, there is a candidate who cannot win. All the other candidates want him to finish second because they are sure that if they can get him one-on-one in a runoff, they will defeat him. The victim must have enough intense support to be able …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Weekly Standard, CNN, The National Interest, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Hot Air, New York Post and Politico

Olivia Nuzzi / The Daily Beast:
Does the NRA Think Rand Paul Is Too Extreme?

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Fox News, Hit & Run and Tennessean.com

Washington Post:
On first official day on the trail, Rand Paul turns in a prickly performance

Discussion: CNN, VodkaPundit, Vox, Wonk Wire, New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg Business, LifeNews.com and Daily Signal

Sean Cockerham / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Can Rand Paul stand for big military without losing libertarians?

Discussion: FOX News Radio

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

White House mocks Netanyahu on Twitter — The White House on Wednesday took a shot at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by using a cartoon bomb to defend its nuclear deal with Iran. — The bomb diagram attached to a White House tweet looked a lot like a chart used by Netanyahu during …

Discussion: Power Line, Balloon Juice, Washington Post, CBS DC, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Algemeiner.com and Associated Press

Adam Kredo / Washington Free Beacon:
Iran: New Nuke Deal Is ‘Not Acceptable’

Discussion: Jerusalem Post, VodkaPundit, Fars News Agency, Hot Air, BizPac Review, YouGov US Opinion Center News, The Gateway Pundit and American Spectator

Parisa Hafezi / Reuters:
Iran will only sign nuclear deal if sanctions lifted ‘same day’: Rouhani

Discussion: Reuters, Shakesville and Politico

Jane Onyanga-Omara / USA Today:
Iran: No final nuke deal if sanctions not lifted immediately

Discussion: CNN, Belmont Club, Liberaland and TheBlaze.com

NBC News:

Bystander Considered Erasing Footage of Cop Shooting — Feidin Santana said there was a struggle between the unarmed man and the officer, but the officer had control of the situation before opening fire.

NBC News:

Feidin Santana, Who Recorded Police Shooting Of Walter Scott, Speaks Out — Feidin Santana, a barber who immigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic, is at the center of a story that has transfixed the nation. It was Santana's cell phone video that resulted in Officer Michael Slager …

Discussion: Allen B. West, Siskind Susser PC, KFOR-TV, ImmigrationProf Blog and TODAY

Ilan Ben-Meir / BuzzFeed:
Ben Carson: South Carolina Shooting By Cop An “Execution... In The Street”

Discussion: Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and The Huffington Post

Scott Mackay / Rhode Island Public Radio:

Lincoln Chafee Considers Run For 2016 Democratic Presidential Nomination — Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee is announcing that he is considering a campaign for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president. — The 62-year old former U.S. Senator and governor said in an interview …

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire, Washington Post, Bloomberg View, Mediaite, FOX News Radio, Daily Kos, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway and OnPolitics

Ali Elkin / Bloomberg Business:
Lincoln Chafee Considering Presidential Bid

Discussion: Politico

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Clinton Library files show Hillary image polishing

Discussion: ABC News

Ben Kamisar / The Hill:

Report: Clinton changed stance on trade deal after donations to foundation — The Clinton Foundation reportedly accepted millions of dollars from a Colombian oil company head before then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to support a trade deal with Colombia despite worries of human rights violations.

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Matthew Cunningham-Cook / International Business Times:

As Colombian Oil Money Flowed To Clintons, State Department Took No Action To Prevent Labor Violations — For union organizers in Colombia, the dangers of their trade were intensifying. When workers at the country's largest independent oil company staged a strike in 2011 …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Common Dreams and Hot Air

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

The G.O.P. Presidential Field Looks Chaotic. It's Not. — The 2016 Republican candidates can already be sorted into roles that tell us a lot about their chances of winning the nomination. — The Republican primary battle has been called a wide-open contest — the “deepest” and “strongest” field in many cycles.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Sabato's Crystal Ball, Washington Post and Washington Times

Mark Mellman / The Hill: So many candidates, so little love

Fox News:

University of Michigan reverses decision, will show ‘American Sniper’ as scheduled — Bradley Cooper as former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in ‘American Sniper’ — The University of Michigan said late Wednesday that it will show the film “American Sniper” as originally scheduled after a protest …

Discussion: Hit & Run, The Gateway Pundit, Ed Driscoll, The Daily Caller and Mediaite

David Jesse / Detroit Free Press:
U-M reverses course, will show ‘American Sniper’

Discussion: Politicus Sports, Scared Monkeys, USA Today, SBNation.com, Patterico's Pontifications and The College Fix

Snejana Farberov For / Daily Mail:

‘America is the real terrorist and my boys are the best’: Boston Marathon bombers' defiant mother rails against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's guilty verdict in bizarre rant as he faces death penalty — Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was emotionless with his head bowed as the verdict was read out in U.S. District Court in Boston on Wednesday afternoon

Discussion: Allen B. West, The PJ Tatler, Washington Times, FOX News Radio and Liberaland

John Harwood / CNBC:

10 questions for Ted Cruz — Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas grew famous nationally through his zealous attacks on President Obama's health law. Shortly after entering the 2016 Republican presidential race, Cruz sat down with me at Ninfa's, one of his favorite Tex-Mex restaurants in Houston.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Daily Kos, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Jonathan Lintner / Courier-Journal:

Churchill bans re-entry, selfie sticks — In heightening security measures leading up to the 2015 Kentucky Derby and Oaks, Churchill Downs on Thursday announced it will no longer allow re-entry to ticketed guests on those days. — Additionally, Churchill added a pair of new technologies …

Discussion: SBNation.com and TMZ.com

Matt Rogers / Washington Post:

D.C. winter temperature extremes show colder trends for 2000s — The temperature in Washington, D.C., bottomed out at a frigid 5 degrees at Reagan National Airport this past winter — quite impressive, as it was the coldest temperature we've seen since the middle 1990s.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:

South Carolina to SCOTUS: We Can Discriminate Against Women, So Why Not Gays? — One key problem with originalism—the theory that the Constitution should be interpreted as its drafters understood it—is that the men who wrote our constitution had some pretty barbaric views about humanity.

Discussion: Raw Story

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Obama Comes Out Against Gay Conversion Therapy, Will Seek State Bans — The White House made it clear today that President Obama is officially coming out against gay conversion therapy and will seek state bans against the practice. — Back in December, a transgender teenager named Leelah …

Discussion: White House.gov Blog and FOX News Radio