memeorandum: The Cases for Public Investment (Paul Krugman/New York Times)

1:00 PM ET, February 27, 2016

Top Items:

Inside the Republican Party's Desperate Mission to Stop Donald Trump — The scenario Karl Rove outlined was bleak. — Addressing a luncheon of Republican governors and donors in Washington on Feb. 19, he warned that Donald J. Trump's increasingly likely nomination would be catastrophic, dooming the party in November.

Discussion: Hot Air, Reuters, JustOneMinute, Downtrend, Althouse, The Last Tradition, Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, CNN and New Jersey News …

Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:

Rubio and Trump now at war for the GOP's future — Marco Rubio and Donald Trump emerged Friday as the principal antagonists in an all-out brawl for the future of the Republican Party, as establishment opposition to the front-runner's candidacy started to crumble with a high-profile endorsement by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Discussion: Politico, Los Angeles Times, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, New York Times and Balloon Juice

Lindsey Ellefson / Mediaite:

The ‘Stump for Trump’ Girls Just Said on CNN That Marco Rubio Had ‘A Gay Lifestyle’ — You know those “Stump for Trump Girls, Lynette “Diamond” Hardaway and Rochelle “Silk” Richardson? Well, in case you don't follow them on Twitter and didn't get the memo, they were on CNN this morning.

Discussion: Marco Rubio, New York Times, CBS Miami, TheStreet.com, ABC News, The Gateway Pundit, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, CNN, addictinginfo.org, Raw Story, WBUR, Business Insider, Politico, Telegraph, Fox News Insider, Vox and The Week

New York Times:

Donald Trump and Chris Christie Start a Bully Bromance — Those who have witnessed Gov. Chris Christie's performance both in New Jersey and in the national arena over the past couple of years almost could have seen Friday's sweaty embrace of Donald Trump coming. Almost.

Discussion: Politico, Da Tech Guy Blog, Boston Globe, Taylor Marsh, Associated Press, Hit & Run, The Moderate Voice, New York Magazine, Towleroad, his vorpal sword, Power Line, Althouse, Daily Kos, The Week and Joe.My.God.

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg Business:
Chris Christie Delivers Major Blow to Party Elites Resisting Trump

Discussion: WMTW-TV

New York Daily News:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorses Donald Trump for president

Discussion: The Week and Mediaite

Kenneth P. Vogel / Politico:
Trump faces wave of big-money attacks

Discussion: Washington Post, The Hill, Wall Street Journal and NBC News

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Donald Trump Might Not Keep Paying for His Campaign Himself, Chris Christie Suggests

Discussion: CNN

Brian Beutler / New Republic: Marco Rubio's Trump Attacks Expose Uncomfortable Truths for the Right

Adam Edelman / New York Daily News:
Donald Trump supported by former KKK leader David Duke: ‘I hope he does everything we hope he will do’

Discussion: CNN

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:
8 times Chris Christie suggested Donald Trump shouldn't be president

Discussion: Salon, Althouse, Washington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog, Mediaite, Hot Air, ABC News, Hit & Run, BuzzFeed, The Federalist, Jezebel, Downtrend, MichelleMalkin.com, TODAY.com, Fusion, The Resurgent and The Week

Olaf Ekberg / The American Mirror:

VIDEO: Bill Clinton snaps at veteran during speech: ‘Shut up and listen to my answer’ — The long hours and grueling pace of the presidential campaign may be finally catching up with a rapidly aging Bill Clinton. — During an appearance in Bluffton, South Carolina on Friday …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The Last Tradition

Ian Tuttle / National Review:

Yes, Trump University Was a Massive Scam — Many people believe that higher education is a de facto scam. Trump University, Donald Trump's real-estate institution, was a de jure one. — First thing first, Trump University was never a university. When the “school” was established in 2005 …

Discussion: Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Patterico's Pontifications, Yahoo Politics, LawNewz and RedState

Alexander Burns / New York Times:
Group to Air Ads Featuring Ex-Students Saying Trump University Deceived Them

Discussion: Newsmax, RedState, Hot Air and Instapundit

Jonathan Bernstein / BloombergView.com:
Trump's Debate Was a Disaster. If Voters Notice.

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Shadowproof, The Federalist, Diane Ravitch's blog, Mashable and New York Magazine

Anne Gearan / Washington Post:

S.C. Democrats head to the polls; Clinton, Sanders head out of state — COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Democratic presidential contest has moved to South Carolina, where voters began casting their ballots Saturday in a primary that serves as two starkly different milestones for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Discussion: Politico, Outside the Beltway, Political Wire and Common Dreams

Anne Gearan / Washington Post:
What happens when Hillary Clinton crashes a bachelor party? She's in the photos.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Los Angeles Times, CBS News, BizPac Review, Politico, PAPERMAG and Tennessean.com

John Koblin / New York Times:

Melissa Harris-Perry Walks Off Her MSNBC Show After Pre-emptions — In an unusually public flare-up, one of MSNBC's television personalities clashed with the network on Friday in a dispute about airtime and editorial freedom and said she was refusing to host the show that bears her name this weekend.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Fusion, BizPac Review, Mediaite, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, addictinginfo.org, Jezebel, Talking Points Memo, The Last Tradition, TVNewser and theGrio, more at Mediagazer »

Jamil Smith:
Melissa Harris-Perry's Email to Her #nerdland Staff

Discussion: Downtrend, Independent Journal Review, Daily Kos, Mashable, Politicus USA, Business Insider, Mediaite and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

A 16-Year-Old Solves Britain's Immigration Problem — The United Kingdom suffers from immigration issues similar to those that afflict the United States. As a member of the European Union, it is obliged to accept large numbers of unskilled immigrants who find not only Britain's wages …

Justin Fox / BloombergView.com:

Stuff Keeps Getting Cheaper — Since 1995, durable goods (cars, televisions, computers and the like) have been getting cheaper in the U.S. That's even as the prices of services and nondurables have mostly kept rising. — In the chart above, prices are viewed using 2009 as the base year.

Discussion: Equitable Growth

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Governing Cancer of Our Time — We live in a big, diverse society. There are essentially two ways to maintain order and get things done in such a society — politics or some form of dictatorship. Either through compromise or brute force. Our founding fathers chose politics.

Discussion: Salon, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos and Common Dreams

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Cases for Public Investment — One of the annoying aspects of the Sanders/Friedman flap was the assumption of many Sanders supporters that anyone who doesn't accept extravagant economic projections is against a big program of public investment. Actually, it was destructive as well as annoying …

Discussion: Equitable Growth

Avi Selk / The Scoop Blog:

Ahmed Mohamed's ex-school district sues state to keep civil rights investigation secret — Ahmed Mohamed, 14, appears with U.S. representatives in Washington last October. His ex school district is suing to keep secret the details of a federal investigation related to his arrest. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Discussion: Fox17

cbp.gov:

Cocaine Vaginally Inserted Seized by CBP at JFK — JAMAICA, N.Y. — U. S. Customs and Border Protection officers in New York are always discovering interesting concealment methods. Vaginally inserting cocaine is another way that one would-be smuggler attempted to transport illegal drugs into the United States.

Discussion: KTLA

Ashley Young / CNN:

Ex-Mexican President Fox: Donald Trump reminds me of Hitler — Former Mexican President Vicente Fox on Friday kept up his withering criticism of Donald Trump, saying the GOP front-runner reminds him of Adolf Hitler — “He has offended Mexico, Mexicans, [and] immigrants. He has offended the Pope.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Infowars, The Gateway Pundit, The San Diego Union … and AMERICAblog NewsAMERICAblog …