memeorandum: The Candidate We Love to Hate and Hate to Love (Alex Belth/Esquire)

12:16 AM ET, January 8, 2016

Top Items:

Randy Billings / The Portland Press Herald:

LePage makes racially charged comment at Bridgton meeting — A Republican critic of the governor calls the remark during a town hall meeting with residents Wednesday ‘one of the most offensive statements yet from this Governor.’ — Gov. Paul LePage made a racially charged comment in Bridgton …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, The Week, New York Times, addictinginfo.org, Raw Story, Mashable, No More Mister Nice Blog and Balloon Juice

Alan Pyke / ThinkProgress:
Governor Delivers Racist Rant At Public Meeting

Discussion: Guardian, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Mother Jones

Ldutson / Get Right:
LePage: “These types of guys” impregnating white women in Maine

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and WABI-TV

WRTV-TV:

Trooper prays with driver upset over his daughter's cancer diagnosis — BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — It can be stressful enough to see a police car behind you, but imagine getting pulled over after learning your child is dying from cancer. — Rodney Gibson was driving on SR 37 in Monroe County Monday …

Discussion: fox8.com, WTVR-TV and fox13now.com

Avianne Tan / ABC News:

Indiana Cop Brings Speeding Driver to Tears With Prayer Rather Than Ticket — A speeding truck driver was recently surprised by the kindness of an Indiana state police officer who chose to pray with him rather than ticket him. — Rodney Gibson said he was so upset this past Monday …

Discussion: The Last Tradition

Kendall Breitman / Bloomberg Business:

Cruz: McCain Questions Citizenship Because He Secretly Backs Rubio — The Texas senator's rebuttal comes hours after McCain said during a Phoenix radio interview that Cruz's birth abroad and his eligibility to become president is “worth looking into.” — Ted Cruz responded to John McCain questioning …

Discussion: Breitbart, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Hot Air, BuzzFeed, WORLD, RedState, Politico and The Daily Caller

Rich Lowry / Politico:

Ted Cruz Is Nixon, Not Goldwater — The lazy conventional wisdom is that Ted Cruz is the new Barry Goldwater doomed to suffer an electoral landslide defeat should he win the Republican nomination. — Not only is this wrong about Cruz's general-election chances, it may compare Cruz to the wrong 20th-century Republican forebear.

Discussion: The Hill, Bloomberg.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Rush Limbaugh, The Resurgent and New York Times

Jonah Goldberg / Townhall.com:

The Term ‘Neocon’ has Run its Course — In interviews and on the stump, Sen. Ted Cruz likes to attack President Obama, Hillary Clinton and “some of the more aggressive Washington neocons” for their support of regime change in the Middle East. — Every time we topple a dictator, Cruz argues …

Discussion: LewRockwell

Steven Nelson / Associated Press:
Congressman Readies Ted Cruz Eligibility Lawsuit With Eye on Mom

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Washington Post, Breitbart, Slate, U.S. News, BuzzFeed, Hot Air, US News, Mediaite, Power Line, Talking Points Memo, National Review and New York Times

David French / National Review:

It's a Bad Day for the Clintons When Vox Fairly Explains the Rape Allegation Against Bill — I must admit, when I clicked this morning on Vox's “explainer” of Juanita Broaddrick's rape allegation against Bill Clinton, I expected a whitewash. I was wrong. Not only did Dylan Matthews …

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, The Daily Caller, Vox and Talking Points Memo

The Hill:
Bill Clinton rape accuser: Hillary ‘tried to silence’ me

Discussion: ABC News, Politico, Progressives Today, The Daily Caller, American Spectator, Mashable, BizPac Review and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
From Whitewater to Benghazi: A Clinton Scandal Primer

Discussion: USA Today, RedState, Associated Press, Politico and Washington Post

Nathan McDermott / BuzzFeed:

Huckabee: Evangelical Leaders Won't Endorse Me Because I'll “Slay The Dragon” — Mike Huckabee said in an interview on Wednesday that evangelical groups won't support his presidential campaign out of fear they would no longer be able to fundraise if Christian policies were to actually be put in place.

Discussion: RedState and Hot Air

Kyle Mantyla / Right Wing Watch:
A Dejected Mike Huckabee Is Now Just Burning Bridges With The Religious Right

Discussion: Fox News and Joe.My.God.

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:
Bitter Mike Huckabee says Christian groups would rather rake in dough than see President Huckabee end abortion

Discussion: addictinginfo.org and Booman Tribune

Barack Obama / New York Times:

Guns Are Our Shared Responsibility — THE epidemic of gun violence in our country is a crisis. Gun deaths and injuries constitute one of the greatest threats to public health and to the safety of the American people. Every year, more than 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns.

Discussion: Power Line, Politico, NBC News, Hollywood Life, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, all, The Week, Moe Lane, Washington Post and Florida Politics

Mark Hensch / The Hill:

Planned Parenthood to give Clinton its first-ever primary endorsement — Planned Parenthood is throwing its support behind Hillary Clinton, delivering what will be the organization's first-ever endorsement in a presidential primary. — “Let's be clear — reproductive rights and health …

Discussion: Truth Revolt, ABC News, Progressives Today, RedState and Mashable

Daniel Strauss / Politico:
Rubio launches new lines of attack against Christie

Discussion: New York Times, Political Wire, CNN and The Resurgent

Amy Chozick / New York Times:
Planned Parenthood, In Its First Primary Endorsement, Backs Hillary Clinton

Discussion: LifeNews.com, CBS News, Towleroad, Mother Jones, The Week and The Daily Caller

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Donald Trump On Rubio's Boots: “Those Heels Were Really Up There” — “It helps to be tall.” — Donald Trump said Thursday that Marco Rubio might have been better off not rocking the shiny black boots with a heel that has had his opponents cracking jokes all week.

Discussion: Fox News, Politico, Political Wire, Hot Air, Naked Politics, ABC News, Hullabaloo and New York Times

David Brody / The Brody File:
Brody File Exclusive: Marco Rubio's New ‘Faith’ Ad in Iowa

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, Friendly Atheist, ABC News, NBC News, New York Times and Florida Politics

Spiegel Online:

Police Report Outlines ‘Chaotic and Shameful’ New Year's Eve — An internal police protocol has revealed the full extent of the violence in Cologne on New Year's Eve. According to the report, which SPIEGEL has seen, officials were overwhelmed and powerless to help some people calling for help.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller, RT and Jihad Watch

Justin Huggler / Telegraph:
Suspects in Cologne sex attacks ‘claimed to be Syrian refugees’

Discussion: Washington Post, BBC, The Atlantic, Guardian, Breitbart, Vlad Tepes, RedState, neo-neocon, Hot Air, National Review, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Power Line, Instapundit, Spectator and Daily Mail

BBC:
Cologne sex attacks ‘require police rethink’

Discussion: Breitbart, Vlad Tepes, Mediaite, Above the Law, protein wisdom, Truth Revolt and The Daily Caller

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Exclusive: House Republicans recruited Carson for Speaker — House Republicans reached out to GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson in 2014 about replacing John Boehner as Speaker of the House, Carson told The Hill on Thursday. — “They were looking for an alternative …

Discussion: Raw Story

Des Moines Register:
Last Slide — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, addictinginfo.org, The Hill, Politico, Mediaite, Mashable, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Daily Kos, Joe.My.God. and Towleroad

Ben Schreckinger / Politico:

Trump disrupts Sanders' stronghold — Burlington, Vt. — Donald Trump's Thursday night rally has created the biggest political fracas here since 1981, when in the midst of the Cold War the city elected a socialist mayor named Bernard Sanders. — Ahead of Trump's visit …

Discussion: ABC News

Nik DeCosta-Klipa / Boston Globe:
Watch: Donald Trump supporters tear up 'America's Already Great' sign at Lowell rally

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story, Hartford Courant, addictinginfo.org and Joe.My.God.

Jason Hancock / Kansas City Star:

Missouri bill defines sex between lobbyists, lawmakers as a gift — Lobbyists would have to disclose sexual relations with a lawmaker or their staff to the Ethics Commission — The 2016 Legislative session began Wednesday … JEFFERSON CITY — Lobbyists who have sex with a Missouri lawmaker …

Discussion: Columbia Daily Tribune, addictinginfo.org, Nashville Scene, RedState, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire, The Daily Caller, The Week, Washington Free Beacon and Moe Lane

Tricia Bishop / Baltimore Sun:

Do you know the gun owners in your circle? … It's inevitable when my husband and I visit family these days that the subject of violence in Baltimore comes up. Often, I'm the one who raises it. But when it came up last week on a trip to see my parents in Georgia, I got my back up.

Discussion: New York Times, twitchy.com, Hot Air, Progressives Today and The Liberty Zone

Joshua Brustein / Bloomberg Business:

U.S. Marshals Raid Hoverboard Booth at CES — The maker of the Onewheel electric skateboard called in federal marshals to shut down the booth of a company making a similar product. — On Thursday afternoon, two U.S. federal marshals showed up at the Consumer Electronics Show to conduct a raid.

Discussion: Gizmodo, Engadget, Business Insider and The Verge

Wall Street Journal:

Missing U.S. Missile Shows Up in Cuba — Inert Hellfire missile sent to Europe for a training exercise makes mysterious trip, sparking concerns over loss of military technology — An inert U.S. Hellfire missile sent to Europe for training purposes was wrongly shipped from there to Cuba in 2014 …

Discussion: MichelleMalkin.com and Washington Times

CBC News:

Snowy owl spotted soaring by Montreal traffic camera — White and black-spotted bird spreads its wings against snowy backdrop — Spectacular images of a snowy owl in flight have been captured by Transport Quebec's traffic camera along Montreal's Highway 40.

Discussion: Mashable, WHNT-TV, WGN-TV and WCMH-TV

Molly Ball / The Atlantic:

The Pugnacious, Relentless Progressive Party That Wants to Remake America … At a recent private dinner in Manhattan, a small group of leftists plotted to take over America. — The group, a dozen community organizers and activists from all over the country, had convened at a sushi restaurant …

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Lindsay Gibbs / ThinkProgress:

After Horrific Rape Charges, Tennessee High School Cancels Basketball Season — Three basketball players at Ooltewah High School in Tennessee have been charged with the aggravated rape and assault of a 15-year-old freshman teammate on December 21. — Now, as the investigation …

Discussion: Shakesville, Raw Story, Chattanoogan.com, all and CBS News