memeorandum: Number of Troubled Companies Nears 2009 Peak (Matt Jarzemsky/Wall Street Journal)

6:25 AM ET, March 4, 2016

Top Items:

CNN:

First on CNN: Team Romney explores blocking Trump at RNC — Washington (CNN)Mitt Romney has instructed his closest advisers to explore the possibility of stopping Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention, a source close to Romney's inner circle says.

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Business Insider, Hot Air, The Right Scoop, BuzzFeed and The Daily Caller

Donald Trump / ABC News:

Best Lines of the Republican Debate in Michigan

Discussion: Associated Press, Yahoo Politics, Politico and The Right Scoop

Eli Stokols / Politico:

GOP freakout goes from bad to worse — DETROIT — The high-speed unraveling of the Republican Party somehow accelerated further on Thursday, as the party's last two presidential nominees joined the chorus of establishment voices warning voters not to allow Donald Trump to become the GOP's standard-bearer.

Discussion: Hot Air, Yahoo Politics and National Review

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Rivals pile on Trump in Republican candidates' debate — The GOP debate, in less than 3 minutes — DETROIT — The calamity brought upon the Republican Party by Donald Trump was laid bare Thursday by its two most recent presidential nominees, who delivered unprecedented denunciations …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Daily Beast, Politico and The Atlantic

Jenna Johnson / Washington Post:

Blistering attacks upend Trump's pivot to statesman mode — First, Donald Trump attacked former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for being a “failed candidate.” Then he turned to “little” Marco Rubio. He angrily listed his recent wins and poll standings.

Discussion: Politico

mccain.senate.gov:

STATEMENT BY SASC CHAIRMAN JOHN McCAIN ON STATE OF THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY CAMPAIGN — Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement today on the state of the Republican presidential primary campaign:

Discussion: Star Tribune, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air and New York's PIX11

Robert F. Bukaty / Los Angeles Times:

GOP elites have a new strategy to stop Donald Trump, but it carries a big risk — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump waves to supporters after a campaign stop Thursday in Portland, Maine. — Now it's the establishment that wants to blow up the Republican Party.

Alex Pareene / Gawker:

Donald Trump Was Set Up — The word came in from our best-sourced Fox News Kremlinologists: Fox News had settled for Donald Trump. Roger Ailes had given up on the hapless Marco Rubio. Megyn Kelly was sounding conciliatory, granting that Trump appeared more and more presidential.

Discussion: New York Magazine

Danny Vinik / Politico:
The Trump platform that Mitt Romney just attacked looks a lot like Mitt Romney's

Discussion: Hinckley Institute

Eliza Collins / Politico: Graham: A brokered convention wouldn't be fair to Trump

Eliza Collins / Politico:
Priebus: There will be no ‘shell games’ with GOP nomination

Discussion: Yahoo Politics

Sara Jerde / Talking Points Memo:
Trump Hits Back At Romney: He Would've Dropped To His Knees For Me In '12

Discussion: Balloon Juice and The Bob and Chez Show

Shane Goldmacher / Politico:
Romney speech shows why Trump is winning

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post and New York Magazine

TIME:
Read Mitt Romney's Speech About Donald Trump

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Washington Post, TheStreet.com, Townhall.com, neo-neocon, AMERICAblog NewsAMERICAblog …, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, Instapundit and New York Times

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Mitt Romney is doing Donald Trump a BIG favor by attacking him

Discussion: National Review, New York Times, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times, RedState, Reuters, ThinkProgressPage Array and Mother Jones

Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:

Trump Brags About His Penis Size: ‘I Guarantee You There Is No Problem’ — Donald Trump responded to a jab Marcio Rubio has made about the size of Trump's hands — a line widely interpreted to be a reference to Trump's manhood — by promising that when it comes to the size of “something else,” he guarantees “there is no problem.”

Discussion: Mother Jones and Washington Free Beacon

Gregory Krieg / CNN:

Donald Trump defends size of his penis — (CNN)Donald Trump assured American voters Thursday night that despite what Marco Rubio had suggested, there was “no problem” with the size of his hands — or anything else. — “Look at those hands, are they small hands?” the front-runner …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Guardian, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Yahoo Politics and Mediaite

Frank Bruni / New York Times:
Five Big Questions After a Vulgar Republican Debate

Discussion: Weekly Standard, TIME, RedState, The Atlantic, National Review, Moon of Alabama and The Moderate Voice

Alyssa Bereznak / Yahoo Politics:
In sign of apocalypse, Donald Trump defends the size of his ... hands

Discussion: Vox, The Week, Politico and Mother Jones

Dawn Ennis / Advocate:

She Is Cait, and I Am Not: Face to Face with Jenner — Winding my way 'round deadman's curves at unsafe speeds all the way up a Malibu mountaintop to meet Caitlyn Jenner, I asked myself: who would live here except a recluse? Cut off from the rest of the world, high above it all …

Discussion: USA Today, ThinkProgressPage Array, The Daily Caller, The Huffington Post, LAist, Mediaite, Towleroad, NBC News, Mashable, The Week, Trail Blazers Blog and CBS New York

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:

Donald Trump Gets AIDS In A New Movie, And That Has Studio Execs In A Panic — Afraid of Trump's reaction, they're “subtly trying to make it disappear,” says an industry source. — Washington bureau chief for The Huffington Post — Audiences at screenings around the world …

Discussion: addictinginfo.org, Mediaite, Refinery29 and Jezebel

Shane Goldmacher / Politico:

Rubio's path to an outright win has vanished — Marco Rubio's path to the Republican nomination short of a contested convention has narrowed to nearly nothing as his campaign and allies reboot their strategy to prepare for months of guerrilla warfare to deny Donald Trump a clean, pre-convention victory.

Discussion: Hot Air and New York Times

Randy Barnett / National Review:
How Ted and Marco Can Save the GOP and the Country

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Hot Air, Delve In and 2016 Election Central

Matt Jarzemsky / Wall Street Journal:

Number of Troubled Companies Nears 2009 Peak — Financially strapped companies' ranks are swelling. — A Moody's Investors Service tally of the least-creditworthy companies rose by 10 to 274 this month, pushing it nearer to April 2009's record 291. The list comprises companies rated …

Breitbart:

Mittens: GOP Establishment Chooses Mount Romney as Hill to Die on — After , , , , , and , the Republican establishment is now turning once again to the Adlai Stevenson of the GOP - Willard Mitt Romney. — Perhaps nothing is more symptomatic of the GOP establishment's death drive …

Dan Tuohy / UnionLeader.com:

DeLemus supporters sing ‘God Bless America’ at court appearance — New Hampshire Union Leader — Federal agents have arrested Jerry DeLemus, a local Tea Party leader who stood with Cliven Bundy's armed resistance at his ranch in Nevada in 2014, in connection with the standoff and alleged assault.

Discussion: NBC News, Talking Points Memo, Infowars, Portsmouth, NH Patch and Hit & Run

U.S. Department of Justice:
Fourteen Additional Defendants Charged For Felony Crimes Related To 2014 Standoff In Nevada

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Talking Points Memo

Meghan Keneally / ABC News:

The Controversy Surrounding Trump University

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Greg Jaffe / Washington Post:

Sasha Obama's high school classes will keep first family in Washington for a while — MILWAUKEE — President Obama can issue sweeping directives and deploy troops to faraway corners of the world. But it became clear Thursday that the leader of the free world sometimes takes orders from his 14-year-old daughter.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Associated Press:

Romanians Make Fun of Bernie Sanders Over Internet Tweet — From across the ocean, Bernie Sanders has managed to offend a good number of Romanians. — A Romanian travel agency on Thursday offered Sanders airline tickets to visit the country as residents alternately mocked or felt hurt …

Discussion: JustOneMinute

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg Business:

Trump Softens Immigrant Visa Stance After Cementing Front-Runner Status — And he made no apologies for it. — Two days after cementing his front-runner status for the Republican nomination, Donald Trump softened his position on legal immigration in Thursday's debate, and made no apologies for it.

Discussion: ParaPundit and Business Insider

Andy Sullivan / Reuters:

Republican governors mostly steer clear of presidential race — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Republican party insiders mount a desperate effort to derail the presidential campaign of billionaire Donald Trump, many of the party's 31 state governors are staying out of the fray.

Discussion: Truth Revolt

Sebastian Smith / Agence France-Presse:

Brazil on course for worst recession in century — Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Brazil's economy shrank by 3.8 percent in 2015, the government said Thursday, with the biggest contraction in 25 years set to push the Latin American giant into its worst recession for more than a century.

Discussion: Infowars