memeorandum: Carly Fiorina makes her case to be the GOP frontrunner (John Podhoretz/New York Post)

2:35 PM ET, September 17, 2015

Top Items:

Matt Bai / Yahoo:

Jeb leaves a vacuum. Who fills it? — If you were in Washington watching the Republican debate last night, you might have felt a small tilt in the floor, or heard the plates rattling gently in their cupboards. — That was the sound of the Republican establishment shifting …

Discussion: CNN, US News, No More Mister Nice Blog, Politico, Washington Post, JustOneMinute and RedState

Sarah Kliff / Vox:

Carly Fiorina is wrong about the Planned Parenthood tapes. I know because I watched them. — Carly Fiorina gave a harrowing description of the Planned Parenthood sting videos at Wednesday's Republican debate. She challenged Barack Obama to watch “a fully formed fetus on the table …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, alicublog, Refinery29, Daily Kos, Hullabaloo, American Prospect, Washington Post, RH Reality Check, Business Insider, Mediaite and The Federalist

Ezra Klein / Vox:

Carly Fiorina won the GOP debate, but fact checkers will have a field day — At Wednesday's CNN debate, Carly Fiorina did what no other Republican has been able to do: she stopped Donald Trump cold. — CNN's Jake Tapper provided the opening. “In an interview last week in Rolling Stone magazine …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Los Angeles Times, Salon, Daily Kos, Slate, Lawyers, Guns & Money and US News

Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:

No, Jeb Bush, Your Brother Did Not Keep Us Safe — Jeb looked delusional, but he wasn't alone. — GETTY JUSTIN SULLIVAN — “There's one thing I'll tell you about my brother,” said Jeb (!) Bush. “He kept us safe.” — And everybody cheered. — I ran out of patience long ago with The Great Mulligan.

Discussion: Business Insider and Eschaton

Michael Grunwald / Politico:

The ‘Everything is Bad’ party — The debate made it official: For the GOP, Morning in America is now Darkness at Noon. — America's potential, said Carly Fiorina, is being “crushed.” America's military, said Marco Rubio, is being “eviscerated.” Working people, said Mike Huckabee, are “taking a gut punch.”

Discussion: Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality

Joe Klein / TIME:

How to Make Donald Trump Disappear — It's coming — We now know how to make Donald Trump disappear: talk policy. He simply has nothing useful to say. He'll deal with it when the time comes. He'll hash out Syria with Putin. He'll hire people. “Killers,” no doubt, as he likes to say.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Michael Warren / Weekly Standard:

Carly's Night — From the beginning of her campaign for president, Carly Fiorina has had to deal with lowered expectations, encapsulated in a frequent question: Aren't you just running for vice president? “People ask that because I'm a woman and I'm not a politician,” she told me earlier this year.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Real Clear Politics, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, BostonGlobe.com, Taylor Marsh, Horizons, No More Mister Nice Blog and CNN

Katie Glueck / Politico:
GOP insiders: Carly crushed it

Discussion: Washington Post and Mock Paper Scissors

Frank Bruni / New York Times:
An Overdose of Donald Trump at the G.O.P. Debate

Discussion: Vox Popoli

Dan Balz / Washington Post:
The rest of the field figured out how to make Trump not quite as dominant

Discussion: Politico, Vox, Wall Street Journal, Outside the Beltway, New York Times, NPR, US News, BuzzFeed, Fox News and Washington Post

Amanda Marcotte / Slate:
What Was Up With Carly Fiorina's Grisly Abortion Rant?

Discussion: msnbc.com, Daily Kos and Hullabaloo

NBC News:
Jeb Bush Walks Back Pitch for Thatcher on $10 Bill

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Washington Post

John Podhoretz / New York Post:
Carly Fiorina makes her case to be the GOP frontrunner

Discussion: Bloomberg View, Hot Air, New York Daily News, National Review, BizPac Review and Betsy's Page

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Sound and Fury Signifying Little

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Talking Points Memo

Ben Schreckinger / Politico:
Trumped: His 14 most memorable debate lines

Discussion: ABC News, The Hill, Weekly Standard, Scared Monkeys, Bloomberg.com news and Bloomberg Business

Kyle Kondik / Politico:
‘Donald Trump Met His Match in Carly Fiorina’

Discussion: International Business Times

Mollie Hemingway / The Federalist:
Watch The Video Planned Parenthood And Its Media Allies Deny Exists

Discussion: Hit & Run, Washington Post, Refinery29 and Weekly Standard

Brian Beutler / New Republic:
The Republican Hunger Games Have Only Just Begun

Discussion: Politico, CNN and BillMoyers.com

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
Who Won the Second Republican Presidential Debate?

Discussion: Business Insider, Fox News Insider, New York Times, CBS New York and BizPac Review

Anna Palmer / Politico:

McCarthy, Ryan call for end to Boehner drama — <p>The only two viable potential replacements for John Boehner as speaker of the House say they back the Ohio Republican and will oppose any effort to remove him from power. But other high-ranking Republicans are testing the waters …

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Washington Post, NPR and Outside the Beltway

Alan Fram / Associated Press:
GOP leaders hope Right to Life can help head off shutdown

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Erick on the Radio

Sarah Ferris / The Hill:
CBO: Defunding Planned Parenthood means ‘several thousand’ more births

Discussion: Politico and LifeNews.com

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

Dems block amendment linking Iran deal to Israel — Democrats on Thursday blocked a last-ditch effort from Republicans to stop the Iran nuclear deal by linking the agreement to Israel and American prisoners. — Senators voted 53-45 on an amendment from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell …

Discussion: Politico and Hot Air

Burgess Everett / Politico: GOP senator breaks with McConnell strategy

TIME:

Transcript: Read the Full Text of the Second Republican Debate — Eleven Republican presidential candidates met at the Reagan Library for a primetime debate on CNN. — At the debate were real estate mogul Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Hit & Run, New York Times, Right Wing Watch, NO QUARTER USA NET, National Review, Informed Comment and Hot Air

Washington Post:
Wednesday's GOP debate transcript, annotated

Discussion: The Pulse 2016, Yahoo, Daily Kos, Common Dreams, Hit & Run, The Daily Caller, Shakesville, Mashable and CNBC

Brent Budowsky / The Hill:

Biden-Warren in 2016? — Until now, my position regarding the 2016 campaign has been to support Hillary Clinton for president and to be extravagantly friendly toward Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his supporters, who embody the heart, soul and idealism of the Democratic Party at its best.

Discussion: Politico

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Hillary Clinton Is Stuck In A Poll-Deflating Feedback Loop

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Hill, Hot Air, NewsBusters, Bloomberg View and Instapundit

Wall Street Journal:

More Wisconsin Emails — How investigators targeted conservative Supreme Court justices — Our liberal friends in Wisconsin are unhappy. They think someone is leaking emails that make the state's partisan campaign regulators look bad. We'll plead guilty to having sources, but the emails are news and they sure are revealing.

Discussion: Instapundit

Russell Moore / New York Times:

Have Evangelicals Who Support Trump Lost Their Values? — IN 2006, the television comedy “The Office” aired an episode in which one of the characters, Dwight Schrute, nervously faces the prospect of delivering a speech after winning the title of top salesman of the year for his company, Dunder Mifflin.

Discussion: RedState and Eschaton

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

GOP debate ratings appear to set new CNN record — Wednesday's GOP debate appears to be the highest-rated event in CNN's history, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings. — The prime time debate averaged a 14.7 household rating, indicating that 1 in 7 American homes with TVs tuned in.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Bloomberg Business, UPROXX, Mediaite, National Review and The Daily Caller

Fred Imbert / CNBC:

FAA: Widespread ground stop for American Airlines flights — CNBC's Sue Herera reports on a ground stop in place until 2:30pm EST for American Airlines. — The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday American Airlines flights experienced widespread ground stops amid computer issues.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, WSLS-TV and NPR

Washington Post:

Scott Walker donors anxious for change in campaign leadership — There is mounting anxiety among Scott Walker donors about the direction of his campaign and increasing fears that it is running low on cash, leading to a growing consensus among some of the Wisconsin governor's biggest financial backers …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Hot Air, The Federalist, RedState, National Review and Bloomberg View