memeorandum: Meghan McCain on Palin's Trump endorsement: It was hard to watch (Nick Gass/Politico)

6:15 PM ET, January 20, 2016

Top Items:

Doug Stanglin / USA Today:

Sarah Palin: Arrested son was ‘hardened’ by war — Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin appeared to suggest Wednesday that her son's arrest this week on domestic violence charges stemmed from the effects of his experiences as a soldier in Iraq. — Track Palin, a 26-year-old Iraq veteran …

Discussion: Yahoo Politics, New York Daily News, Little Green Footballs, Right Wing Watch, Raw Story and The Daily Caller

Kyle Blaine / BuzzFeed:

So, Uh, Here's The Full Text Of Sarah Palin's Bizarre Trump Speech — “Thank you so much. It's so great to be here in Iowa. We're here just thawing out. Todd and I and a couple of our friends here from Alaska, lending our support for the next president of our great United States of America, Donald J. Trump.

Nick Gass / Politico:

Meghan McCain on Palin's Trump endorsement: It was hard to watch — For Meghan McCain, Sarah Palin's endorsement of Donald Trump was difficult to watch. — The daughter of Sen. John McCain, who picked Palin to be his running mate in 2008, said she was specifically pained because of Trump's past remarks …

Discussion: ABC News, The Hill, Talking Points Memo and FiveThirtyEight

Eun Kyung Kim / TODAY.com:
Donald Trump: Sarah Palin could ‘play a position’ in my administration

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite, RedState, addictinginfo.org, Politico, NBC News, KFOR-TV, Anchorage Daily News, CNN, Business Insider, AOL, Conservative Review, Doug Ross, Daily Kos and The Week

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:
Palin links son's domestic-violence arrest to Obama's neglect of veterans

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and addictinginfo.org

Shushannah Walshe / ABC News:
Sarah Palin Suggests Arrested Son Track Suffers From PTSD

Discussion: Politico and WCDC-TV

Michael Barbaro / New York Times:
The Most Mystifying Lines of Sarah Palin's Endorsement Speech

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Mediaite, Political Insider …, Washington Post, AMERICAblog NewsAMERICAblog … and US News

ABC News: The Note: The Palin Factor

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:

Bob Dole Warns of ‘Cataclysmic’ Losses With Ted Cruz, and Says Donald Trump Would Do Better — Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee, has never been fond of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. But in an interview Wednesday, Mr. Dole said that the party would suffer …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Resurgent, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, American Spectator and The Week

Adam C. Smith / Tampa Bay Times:

Florida poll: Trump 48%!!, Cruz 16%, Rubio 11%, Bush 10% — Florida's Republican primary would be a Donald Trump blowout if held today, according to a Jan. 15-18 poll by Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative. Trump leads with a whopping 47.6 percent support …

Discussion: Business Insider, Hot Air, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, No More Mister Nice Blog and FiveThirtyEight

Florida Atlantic University:

Polls — Donald Trump has surged nearly 12 points in the last two months and is closing on half of the GOP vote in Florida, where Hillary Clinton has improved in all head-to-head matchups against GOP frontrunners — Trump leads the GOP field with 47.6 percent, followed by Ted Cruz at 16.3 percent …

Discussion: The Last Refuge, RedState and Naked Politics

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg Business:
Cruz Works to Cut Rubio's Lifeline in New Hampshire

Discussion: Politico and Washington Post

Mark Murray / NBC News:
Bush, Rubio Have Spent $91M in Ads vs. Trump and Cruz's $8M

Discussion: Politico and Naked Politics

Kimm Fesenmaier / The California Institute …:

Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet — Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth …

Discussion: Mother Jones, EarthSky, Washington Post, Slantpoint and NBC News

iopscience.iop.org:

EVIDENCE FOR A DISTANT GIANT PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM — Konstantin Batygin1 and Michael E. Brown1 — • © 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. • The Astronomical Journal, Volume 151, Number 2 — Export citation and abstract … CiteULike

Discussion: Science, The Verge, Astronomy Now and Mashable

Joel Achenbach / Washington Post:
New evidence suggests a ninth planet lurking at the edge of the solar system

Discussion: KVUE-TV, Fusion, New York Times, NPR, Engadget and The Week

Katherine Krueger / Talking Points Memo:
Astronomers Find Evidence Of Ninth Planet At Edge Of Solar System

Discussion: BostonGlobe.com and Washington Post

Kirsten Powers / USA Today:

Can Hillary take ‘13 Hours’ of truth? — Audiences can decide who to believe about Benghazi — self-serving bureaucrats or the men who lived through it. — Democratic partisans have seized on the new movie 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which portrays the fateful night …

Discussion: Power Line and The Hill

Ted Nugent / Facebook:
Our unholy rotten soulless criminal America destroying government …

Discussion: Salon and CBS DetroitCBS Detroit

Sara Jerde / Talking Points Memo:
Nugent Calls For Obama, Clinton To Be ‘Hung’ Over Benghazi ‘Treason’

Discussion: Mediaite

Amy Chozick / New York Times:

'90s Scandals Threaten to Erode Hillary Clinton's Strength With Women — This month, Lena Dunham, wearing a red, white and blue sweater dress with the word “Hillary” emblazoned across the chest, told voters how Hillary Clinton had overcome sexism in her political career.

Discussion: RedState, New York Times, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, Power Line, Breitbart, JustOneMinute, The Daily Caller, Daily Wire, Truth Revolt, Washington Free Beacon, Althouse, The Week and CNN

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

Alarmed Clinton Supporters Begin Focusing on Sanders's Socialist Edge — Democrats backing Hillary Clinton, nervously eyeing Senator Bernie Sanders's growing strength in the early nominating states, are turning to a new strategy to raise doubts about his candidacy, highlighting his socialist beliefs …

CNN:
CNN/WMUR poll full results: New Hampshire Democrats - CNNPolitics.com

Discussion: USA Today, Daily Wire, YouGov US Opinion Center News, Scared Monkeys, Washington Monthly, Raw Story, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Vox, Liberal Values, Taylor Marsh, New Jersey News …, The Right Scoop, Hot Air, PoliticusUSA and Business Insider

Harold Meyerson / American Prospect: Can Democrats Channel America's Discontent?

William La Jeunesse / Fox News:

Rifle capable of taking down helicopter found at ‘El Chapo’ hideout purchased through Fast and Furious program — A .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman's hideout in Mexico was funneled through the gun-smuggling investigation known as Fast and Furious, sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News.

Discussion: USA Today, Crime and Consequences Blog, Townhall.com, RedState, Daily Wire, Weasel Zippers, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, The Resurgent, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon, Jammie Wearing Fools, The Right Scoop, Patterico's Pontifications, BizPac Review and Politico

Justin Gillis / New York Times:

2015 Was Hottest Year in Recorded History, Scientists Say — Scientists reported Wednesday that 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history by far, breaking a record set only the year before — a burst of heat that has continued into the new year and is roiling weather patterns all over the world.

Discussion: CNN, Little Green Footballs, Washington Post, The Verge, Gothamist, addictinginfo.org, Common Dreams, ThinkProgress, The Week and Mother Jones

Damian Carrington / Guardian:
2015 smashes record for hottest year, final figures confirm

Discussion: Vox, US News, France 24, Mother Jones, Washington Post, 350.org, NBC News, NPR and Common Dreams

Anita Kumar / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Clinton campaign accuses Obama appointee of trying to smear Clinton — Inspector General says dozens of Clinton emails contained classified information — Campaign spokesman Brian Fallon calls the information part of a “coordinated leak” — Inspector General was nominated by Obama, unanimously confirmed by Senate

Discussion: RedState, Washington Free Beacon, Allen B. West, Politico, American Spectator, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hot Air, NBC News, Townhall.com and Liberal Values

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
Hillary Clinton Email Said to Include Material Exceeding ‘Top Secret’

Discussion: Mediaite, The Week, Outside the Beltway and Fox News

GQ:

The Confessions of R. Kelly — Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (effective 1/4/2014) and Privacy Policy (effective 1/4/2014).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with prior written permission of Condé Nast.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Guardian, Mediaite, AOL, Mashable, Slantpoint and The Week

Zachary Mider / Bloomberg Politics:

What Kind of Man Spends Millions to Elect Ted Cruz? — In 2010, Arthur Robinson, a research chemist, decided to run for Congress in southern Oregon. Robinson, now 73, was not your average candidate. In a lab on a sheep ranch in the Siskiyou Mountains, he's spent the last couple of years collecting thousands of vials of human urine.

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Dealbreaker

James Fallows / The Atlantic:

Why Twitter Doesn't Work with Sarcasm, Chap. 823 — Here's an illustration of something I understood in principle but have been reminded of in specific. — In the wee hours of last Friday night, I finally finally finally said adieu to a long story that will be in the March issue of the magazine.

Discussion: Althouse