memeorandum: Democrats Clinton and Sanders pounce on Flint water crisis — and each other (Anne Gearan/Washington Post)

12:40 AM ET, March 7, 2016

Top Items:

Some supporters of Rubio say bad strategy, poorly run campaign killing his chances … Sensing an opportunity for an upset victory, Marco Rubio spent most of Friday in Kansas, where he picked up a series of high-profile endorsements that he hoped could help thrust him into contention.

Discussion: Eschaton

Ros Krasny / Bloomberg Business:

Marco Rubio Coasts to Victory in Puerto Rico's Republican Primary — Marco Rubio is projected to post an easy victory in Puerto Rico's Republican presidential primary, the second nominating contest win for the Florida senator struggling to keep pace with billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Discussion: Politico

Leon H. Wolf / RedState:

Rubio Sacrificed His Campaign to Save America — Marco Rubio's campaign ended yesterday. He won't acknowledge it and neither will his hardcore supporters for some days, but he is done. It was one thing when he was running more or less even with Cruz across the South, like he did on Super Tuesday …

Discussion: Washington Post and JustOneMinute

Steven Shepard / Politico:
Rubio wins Puerto Rico primary

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Washington Monthly and The Week

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Marco Rubio wins Puerto Rico primary, CNN projects

Discussion: Vox, Towleroad and The Last Tradition

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

Fracas in Flint: Clinton, Sanders spar over trade, auto bailout — FLINT, Mich. — Hillary Clinton lashed out against Bernie Sanders' vote against the auto bailout for the first time on Sunday, charging at a debate here that “if everybody voted the way he did, I believe the auto industry …

Discussion: Washington Post, Yahoo Politics and Detroit Free Press

Anne Gearan / Washington Post:

Democrats Clinton and Sanders pounce on Flint water crisis — and each other … FLINT, Mich. — Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed fiercely Sunday over jobs, trade and Wall Street while agreeing that much more must be done to address a two-year-old water-contamination crisis that has paralyzed this majority-black city.

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Politico, Yahoo Politics, Guardian and Taylor Marsh

Amanda Terkel / The Huffington Post:
Hillary Clinton Calls For Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder To Resign Or Be Recalled

Discussion: ThinkProgressPage Array, Washington Post, Slantpoint and New York Magazine

Manuela Tobias / Politico:
Sanders wins Maine decisively

Discussion: Yahoo Politics, NBC News and Washington Post

Anne Gearan / Washington Post:
Democratic debate: Clinton, Sanders spar over fracking, gun control, trade and jobs

Discussion: Politico, Yahoo Politics, Mother Jones, Detroit Free Press, Political Wire and Taylor Marsh

Liz Goodwin / Yahoo Politics:
Hillary Clinton calls for Snyder to resign over Flint lead crisis

Discussion: Politico

Leonard Pitts Jr / Baltimore Sun:

Republicans have destroyed their party; will they take America with them? — “If he was for it, we had to be against it.” — The “he” is President Barack Obama. The “we” is the Republican Party. And it is not coincidental that as the former pushes toward the end of his second term, the latter is coming apart.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

S.A. Miller / Washington Times:
Mitt Romney won't rule out accepting GOP nomination at contested convention

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Douglas Rivers / YouGov US Opinion Center News: Civil War in the G.O.P.

Louis Nelson / Politico: Kasich: Contested convention would be ‘exciting’

Lou Cannon / New York Times:

Nancy Reagan, an Influential and Stylish First Lady, Dies at 94 — Nancy Reagan, the influential and stylish wife of the 40th president of the United States who unabashedly put Ronald Reagan at the center of her life but who became a political figure in her own right, died on Sunday at her home in Los Angeles.

Discussion: Vox, CANNONFIRE, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, Outside the Beltway, Crooked Timber and Washington Monthly

TMZ.com:
Nancy Reagan — Dead at 94

Discussion: Slantpoint, Mediaite, Patterico's Pontifications and Just Jared

Elisha Fieldstadt / NBC News:
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan Dead at 94

Discussion: Hit & Run, Associated Press, Hot Air, American Spectator, Fox News Insider and The Week

Lois Romano / Washington Post:
Nancy Reagan dies at 94; first lady was a defining figure of the 1980s

Discussion: Mediaite

Fox News:
Nancy Reagan, widow of Ronald Reagan, dead at 94

Discussion: The Last Tradition

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:

Cruz: Media is sitting on bombshells about Donald Trump — Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz — (Texas) said on Sunday that the media is sitting on explosive negative information about front-runner Donald Trump — with plans to run it later in the year to tear the candidate apart.

Discussion: Infowars and The Gateway Pundit

The Daily Caller:

Glenn Beck Warns That Trump Is Adolf Hitler [VIDEO] — Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler during an interview Sunday with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's “This Week.” — Beck said the GOP is “stirring things up because they are more afraid of Ted Cruz than they are of Donald Trump.”

Kevin Miller / The Portland Press Herald:

Heavy turnout, long delays reported at Maine's Democratic caucuses — Thousands wait in line for hours in Portland, and Senate Minority Leader Justin Alfond says he will submit a bill to establish presidential primaries in the state. — Thousands of people waited hours in line Sunday …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Guardian and Common Dreams

Yoni Appelbaum / The Atlantic:
A Glimpse of a Different Campaign

Discussion: ABC News, Associated Press, Hot Air, New York Magazine, RedState, Marco Rubio and FiveThirtyEight

CBS News:
Battleground Tracker poll: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton lead in Michigan

Discussion: news9.com KWTV, YouGov US Opinion Center News, Guardian, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, NBC News and Politico

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

Joe Biden just told a very good joke, at Ted Cruz's expense … The Gridiron Dinner is a Washington institution — politicians making fun of one another. — But few jokes at the expense of one's colleagues are this good. From Vice President Biden's appearance Saturday night, on Ted Cruz and his lack of likability:

Politico:
Excerpts from Biden's Gridiron Dinner speech

Discussion: BuzzFeed, addictinginfo.org and The Week

Michael Goodwin / New York Post:
Don't panic, GOP — Donald Trump can beat Hillary

Discussion: Infowars

Jesse Drucker / Bloomberg Business:

Trump Tower Funded by Rich Chinese Who Invest Cash for Visas — New Jersey building partly funded via controversial visa plan — Video to sell it to investors is subtitled in Chinese — Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has attacked China and warned about the dangers of deficient immigrant screening.

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:

Michigan Primary Puts Donald Trump's Rust Belt Strategy to a Test — WARREN, Mich. — Neil Mortensen remembers how neighbors lost factory jobs in this suburb north of Detroit, and then, inexorably and sadly, their homes. — “I'd see all these businesses that used to produce normal products …

Louis Nelson / Politico:

Trump: Waterboarding will make us stronger — Laws that keep the U.S. military from waterboarding and torturing Islamic State militants are making America weak, Donald Trump said Sunday, and he plans to change them. — Asked by CBS's “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson about his shifting statements …