memeorandum: Aboard Flights, Conflicts Over Seat Assignments and Religion (Michael Paulson/New York Times)

5:45 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, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Salon, The BRAD BLOG and Hullabaloo

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

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

Discussion: Mediaite, The Hill, Fox News, Hit & Run and Tennessean.com

Ashley Killough / CNN:
Rand Paul admits to ‘short temper’

Discussion: TheBlaze.com, Rhode Island Public Radio, RedState, Patterico's Pontifications, Bloomberg Business, Althouse and Today

Chris Good / ABC News:
Rand Paul Edges Away From His Father's Foreign Policies

Discussion: Bloomberg Business

David Weigel / Bloomberg Business:
Rand Paul: NRA Was ‘Petty’ in Not Inviting Him to Conference

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

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

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

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

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

Discussion: Reuters, Bloomberg View, Politico and Shakesville

Jerusalem Post:
Khamenei: US fact sheet on Iran nuclear deal shows ‘devilish’ American intentions

Discussion: RedState, Hot Air, Fars News Agency and American Spectator

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

Discussion: Agence France-Presse, Washington Free Beacon, CNN, Belmont Club, VodkaPundit and Liberaland

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

Peter Beinart / The Atlantic Online:
Where Are the Anti-War Democrats on Iran?

Discussion: Common Dreams and Politico

Jose A. DelReal / Washington Post:
Lincoln Chafee exploring bid for Democratic presidential nod in 2016

Discussion: Moe Lane

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, Washington Post, KFOR-TV, Siskind Susser PC and ImmigrationProf Blog

Associated Press:
Michael Slager, Cop Who Killed Unarmed Black Man Walter Scott, Had Prior Excessive Force Complaint

Discussion: Liberaland, CANNONFIRE, Gawker and Mediaite

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

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

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Warren: Boston bomber should ‘die in prison’

Discussion: Raw Story, ThinkProgress, Scared Monkeys, newstalkflorida.com and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

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

Michael Barbaro / New York Times: Expected Presidential Bid Puts Marco Rubio at Odds With a Mentor, Jeb Bush

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:

‘Draft Biden’ movement imagines vice president in Corvette — Those hoping to draw Joe Biden into launching the 2016 presidential race are looking to rev up support by getting others to imagine the 72-year-old former senator driving a Corvette. — Organizers behind the Draft Biden 2016 super-PAC …

Discussion: Bloomberg Business and protein wisdom

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: Liberal Values and 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

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mediaite, Common Dreams, Hot Air and neo-neocon

Russell Berman / The Atlantic Online:

Kansas's Failed Experiment — Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas (Orlin Wagner/AP) — Surviving a tough reelection race, as Sam Brownback did in Kansas last year, can often be a cleansing experience for a governor. It should certainly bring relief. After all, Brownback managed to earn …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and CNN

Vanity Fair:

Get a Rare Glimpse of Dinesh D'Souza's Life After Conviction — D'Souza, who spends his nights in a confinement center, reflects on his sense of humor, his conservative bona fides, and what he sees as Obama's wrath. — Vanity Fair contributing editor Evgenia Peretz profiles conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza in the May 2015 issue.

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and Mediaite

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 PJ Tatler, The Gateway Pundit, Ed Driscoll, The Daily Caller and Mediaite

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

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

Michael Paulson / New York Times:

Aboard Flights, Conflicts Over Seat Assignments and Religion — Francesca Hogi, 40, had settled into her aisle seat for the flight from New York to London when the man assigned to the adjoining window seat arrived and refused to sit down. He said his religion prevented him from sitting beside a woman who was not his wife.

Discussion: Unfogged

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: Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

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

Elizabeth R. Varon / New York Times:

Lee Surrendered, But His Lieutenants Kept Fighting — “If the programme which our people saw set on foot at Appomattox Court-House had been carried out ... we would have no disturbance in the South,” testified the former Confederate general (and future senator) John Brown Gordon in 1871.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Mahablog and Horizons