memeorandum: New poll: Donald Trump still leads, but Ben Carson makes strong gains (CBS News)

2:00 PM ET, September 15, 2015

Top Items:

New poll: Donald Trump still leads, but Ben Carson makes strong gains — Shares - — At 27 percent nationally, Donald Trump maintains his frontrunner status among Republican primary voters, but Ben Carson is now close behind him, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.

Discussion: NBC News, BostonGlobe.com, Fox News, Business Insider, Hot Air, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Towleroad, Washington Times, OnPolitics, Political Wire and Politico

Mark Halperin / Bloomberg Business:

Can Donald Trump Be Stopped? — Like almost everyone I know who is working on, covering, or closely following the presidential election, I spend about 60 percent of my waking hours talking about Donald Trump. People want to know if he can win, if he will win, and what might possibly derail his candidacy.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog, Taylor Marsh, Business Insider, Daily Kos, Wall Street Journal and The Gateway Pundit

First Draft / New York Times:

Today in Politics: In New Poll, Ben Carson Pulls Up Alongside an Idling Donald Trump — Good Tuesday morning. The day before the second Republican debate, campaigns are honing their strategies, Twitter is looking at donations, and polls are rearranging the numbers and the leader board.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Outside the Beltway, FOX News Radio, Washington Post, Fox News, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Daily Kos, Guardian, The Daily Caller and ABC News

Ben White / Politico:

Wall Street's latest panic: Trump could win — With Bush and Clinton taking their lumps, financial executives face populist critics in both parties. — NEW YORK — Wall Street is growing increasingly terrified that Donald Trump — once viewed as an amusing summertime distraction …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Orlando Sentinel, New York Times, Washington Free Beacon, No More Mister Nice Blog, ABC News and Hot Air

Jonathan Allen / Vox:

This Carly Fiorina ad is the perfect comeback to Donald Trump's sexist insults — Hand it to Carly Fiorina's superPAC. It figured out how to do something none of the other Republicans vying for the party's nomination could: Make Donald Trump fall flat on his face.

Discussion: Morning Consult, Washington Free Beacon, Power Line, Fox News Insider, Wall Street Journal, Talking Points Memo and CNN

Tom Kludt / CNNMoney:

Conservative pundit Bill Kristol: If Trump wins, I'd support a third-party choice — Donald Trump has signed a pledge to support the Republican Party's presidential nominee — even if it isn't him. But one of the best-known pundits in conservative media isn't making the same promise.

Discussion: Mediaite, Hot Air and Mock Paper Scissors

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
If Trump Gets GOP Nod, Kristol Says He'll Back A Third-Party Candidate

Discussion: Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times, Washington Post, RedState and CNNMoney

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Halperin Gets His Thug On

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Business Insider

Kevin Cirilli / The Hill:
Trump: 'I'm not going anywhere'

Discussion: TIME, Politico and Washington Post

Summer Fields / ABC News:
The Note: A Clash Over Trump

Discussion: abc7ny.com and American Spectator

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Latinos see Trump as hurting GOP brand

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Daily Kos

Laura Meckler / Wall Street Journal:

Price Tag of Bernie Sanders's Proposals: $18 Trillion — Democratic presidential candidate's agenda would greatly expand government — WASHINGTON—Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose liberal call to action has propelled his long-shot presidential campaign, is proposing an array of new programs …

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, FOX News Radio, Bloomberg Business, MichelleMalkin.com, The Daily Caller, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Free Beacon, American Spectator and Fox News Insider

Annie Karni / Politico:

How Hillary Clinton is using old photographs to make herself more ‘relatable’ — In a bid to burnish her image with voters, the Clinton campaign is flooding the Internet with nostalgic pictures of the Democratic front-runner. — Splashed across social media and the airwaves, the photos are hard to miss.

Discussion: New York Times, The PJ Tatler, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, RedState and Political Wire

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Signs of Hillary Clinton's Troubles, in Charts — pts. — Source: The Huffington Post Pollster, Charles Franklin — Hillary Rodham Clinton was inevitably going to lose some of her aura once she started campaigning. The high favorability ratings she earned as Secretary of State simply weren't sustainable.

Discussion: Political Wire

Libby Nelson / Vox:

POLICY & POLITICS — DES MOINES, Iowa — People concerned about liberal political correctness on college campuses have a powerful ally: President Obama. — At a town hall here on college affordability on Monday afternoon, one student asked Obama to respond to Republican presidential …

Discussion: Mediaite, Shakesville, Joanne Jacobs, Hit & Run, The Daily Caller, BuzzFeed, New York Times, Washington Free Beacon, The Righteous Mind and Slate

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
Obama: College Students Shouldn't ‘Silence’ Conservative Speakers

Discussion: Jezebel

Washington Post:

Post-ABC poll: Most say Kim Davis should issue marriage licenses to gay couples — Sixty-three percent of Americans say Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis should be required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples regardless of her religious objections, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Discussion: Towleroad and Daily Kos

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Republicans think Donald Trump is trustworthy, empathetic, and well suited to presidency

Discussion: Hit & Run, Addicting Info, Prairie Weather, ABC News, Hot Air, abc7ny.com and Business Insider

Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:

Anti-Abortion Hardliners Not Budging In Shutdown Fight With GOP Leaders — The plan hatched by the GOP leadership in Congress to appease abortion hardliners and avoid a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding shows little sign of working so far.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, New York Times, Daily Kos, Live Action, Washington Post and Guardian

David Daleiden / The Center for Medical Progress:
Top Planned Parenthood Exec Agrees Baby Parts Sales “A Valid Exchange,” …

Discussion: LifeNews.com, The PJ Tatler and mrctv.org/videos

Ashley Lee / Hollywood Reporter:

Donald Trump for President? Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Sandra Bullock Sound Off at TIFF — Bryan Cranston, Naomi Watts, Ellen Page, Geoffrey Rush and Davis Guggenheim assess the starry political scene, while suggesting who from Hollywood should jump to the Hill.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Addicting Info

Kim Holland / KRQE-TV:

Court-ordered religious classes raise concerns — ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) — Holly Salzman was hoping to get some help co-parenting her 11-year-old twin boys with her ex-husband. Instead she says she got 10 court-ordered religious sessions that she did not want. — “It's very inappropriate,” Salzman said.

Discussion: Friendly Atheist and Raw Story

Ashley Parker / New York Times:

CNN Hopes to Capture Candidates' Combative Spirit in G.O.P. Debate — SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The leading Republican presidential hopefuls have spent the weeks since their first debate provoking each other, with distant taunts and tweeted insults. — And now CNN, which hosts …

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Political Wire

New York Times:

For Those Who Remain in Syria, Daily Life Is a Nightmare — BEIRUT, Lebanon — Every morning, at the dawn call to prayer, women and children move silently from the Damascus suburb of Douma to the surrounding farm fields, seeking safety from the day's bombardments by the Syrian government.

New York Times:
have died in shootings and mass killings.

Discussion: Big Think, The Verge, Reuters and Slantpoint

Caroline Fredrickson / The Atlantic:

There Is No Excuse for How Universities Treat Adjuncts — In early June, California labor regulators ruled that a driver for Uber, the app-based car service, was, in fact, an employee, not an independent contractor, and deserved back pay. The decision made national news, with experts predicting a coming flood of lawsuits.

Discussion: ACS Blog

Luqman Adeniyi / The Texas Tribune:

Nationalist Group Wants TX Secession on Primary Ballot … Texas already seceded once — in 1861, by popular vote in a statewide election. — But the Texas Nationalist Movement wants a repeat a century and a half later, and thinks the March GOP primary is the place to start.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Mock Paper Scissors

Daily Mail:

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke 'can't stand' sex scenes — As the star of the ‘sex and dragons’ drama Game Of Thrones, Emilia Clarke has disrobed in the name of her art numerous times, but she has now called for fewer explicit scenes on TV. — ‘Sex scenes should be more subtle,’ the 28-year-old tells me at a party in Mayfair.

Discussion: Mashable, The Daily Caller and UPROXX