memeorandum: Republicans Enter a Shadow Campaign to Sew Up Delegates (Trip Gabriel/New York Times)

10:30 AM ET, March 17, 2016

Top Items:

David Montgomery / Twin Cities:

Candid Marco Rubio blasts Trump and media, calls Cruz ‘only conservative left in the race’ — Former presidential candidate Marco Rubio told a group of Minnesota supporters Wednesday he is hoping one of the remaining candidates for president will stop Donald Trump from winning the Republican nomination.

Discussion: Politico, RedState and The Daily Caller

Zach Carter / The Huffington Post:

Donald Trump Got More Votes In Ohio Than Hillary Clinton — Democrats still have a turnout problem. — Tuesday was a very good day for Hillary Clinton. She swept primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in five states, effectively ending his chances of securing the Democratic presidential nomination.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Slantpoint

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

Democrats sound alarm against Trump — PHOENIX — Leading liberals and progressive groups are turning their gaze away from the Democratic primary and toward efforts to unite the left against Donald Trump, framing him as a dangerous and unprecedented candidate who poses an existential threat to the progressive movement and the nation.

Amanda Marcotte / Salon:

Stop “helping” Hillary: Sorry, guys, but Clinton doesn't need to smile, whisper, or have John Kasich as her running mate — Instructions to Clinton to smile more or pick Kasich as her VP are just sexism disguised as advice — Tuesday night, those who were lucky enough to be watching …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Daily Kos and addictinginfo.org

New York Times:
With Marco Rubio Out, Ted Cruz Confronts a New Foe in John Kasich

Discussion: Political Wire, Politico, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Post, CNN, New York Magazine, The Last Tradition and The San Diego Union …

Matt Bai / Yahoo Politics:
How Kasich became National Republican Grownup

Discussion: Philadelphia Magazine, CBS News and Bloomberg Politics

Tré Goins-Phillips / TheBlaze.com:
‘You Son of a B***h’: Glenn Beck Slams ‘Delusional’ Kasich for Staying in the Race

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, The Gateway Pundit, Western Journalism, Right Wing Watch, The Daily Caller, The Bob and Chez Show and Real Clear Politics

Gavin Jackson / Post and Courier:
Gov. Nikki Haley siding with Ted Cruz in GOP race

Discussion: NBC News, Hot Air, RedState and Western Journalism

Brian Beutler / New Republic:

Why Would Obama Nominate an Old White Guy to the Supreme Court? — There are a few reasons. Political calculation isn't one of them. — President Barack Obama's decision to nominate Merrick Garland, a 63-year-old white moderate and perennial short-lister, to the Supreme Court …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

New York Times:
A Supreme Court With Merrick Garland Would Be the Most Liberal in Decades

Discussion: Hot Air, Balloon Juice, Washington Free Beacon, Politico and The Daily Signal

Associated Press:
Analysis: Obama Dares GOP to Let Clinton, Trump Pick Justice

Discussion: Politico, abc13.com and ABC News

Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:
How Obama Threw A Curveball With The Safest SCOTUS Pick Imaginable

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Raw Story and Fox News Insider

Harper Neidig / The Hill:
No hearing for Obama's Supreme Court nominee, McConnell says

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, CNN, Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, Yahoo Politics, Slate, Keen News Service, Reuters, The Atlantic, Althouse, hatch.senate.gov, Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Vox and Western Journalism

Sarah Almukhtar / New York Times:
Why Obama Nominated Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court

Chuck Grassley:
Grassley Statement on the President's Nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court

Rose Garden / The White House:
Remarks by the President Announcing Judge Merrick Garland as his Nominee to the Supreme Court

Discussion: The Atlantic, Hot Air and Washington Post

Paul Watson / Infowars:

How the GOP Elite Plan To Rob Donald Trump — Cleveland, ladies and gentlemen, won't be for the faint of heart — Shhhh. I've just come from a meeting of the Republican Establishment. You know, those guys who want to replace what the voters want with what they want. That Republican Establishment.

A.B. Stoddard / The Hill:

GOP reality check: Trump or convention fight — In a crushing rout in the Florida primary Tuesday, Donald Trump — , the candidate who once symbolized the future of the GOP. Trump notched wins in five of six states voting that night, securing a more direct path to the nomination …

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:

Republicans Enter a Shadow Campaign to Sew Up Delegates — COLUMBUS, Ohio — With more than half the states having now held their nominating contests, Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz are quietly directing their attention to a second, shadow election campaign — one that is out of sight …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and AOL

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:

Wild card for Trump: Who gets to be a convention delegate? — Why Trump isn't a sure bet to win the nomination … With the increasingly loud talk of a contested Republican convention, the obscure process of picking who actually gets to be a delegate is about to get underway in states across the country …

Discussion: Betsy's Page and New York Times

Harper Neidig / The Hill: GOP official: The party chooses the nominee, not the voters

Joel Manby / Los Angeles Times:

Op-Ed SeaWorld CEO: We're ending our orca breeding program. Here's why. — A killer whale raises its head out of the water during the first show since an orca killed a trainer at the SeaWorld theme park in Orlando, Fla. on Feb. 27, 2010. — Americans' attitudes about orcas have changed dramatically.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, USA Today, Mother Jones, CNN, The San Diego Union …, Fusion, New York Times, NBC News, Mashable, WCMH-TV and The Week

Greg Allen / NPR:
SeaWorld Agrees To End Captive Breeding Of Killer Whales

Discussion: ThinkProgressPage Array, Humane Society … and New York Magazine

Danielle Kreutter / KKTV-TV:

Facebook Post Leads To Police Ticket — An important lesson to be careful about what you post on Facebook and other public sites. One local man ended up getting a ticket after a video he posted on Facebook was viewed by police. — Michael Dalton told 11 News he loves making Facebook videos in his free time.

Discussion: WNEP-TV

Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller:

Trump Appears To Have Heavily Plagiarized Op-Ed From Carson — An op-ed penned this month by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and published online appears to be blatantly plagiarized from an article written days earlier under former rival Ben Carson's name, The Daily Caller has determined.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, Yahoo! News, Politico, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, New York Magazine, RedState, Raw Story, Mediaite and Mother Jones

Kristin Salaky / Talking Points Memo:
Carson: You Have To Admit Trump Calling Me A Child Molester ‘Did Work’

Discussion: Scared Monkeys and Daily Kos

news.nike.com:

NIKE HYPERADAPT 1.0 MANIFESTS THE UNIMAGINABLE — “Innovation at Nike is not about dreaming of tomorrow. It's about accelerating toward it,” says Tinker Hatfield. “We're able to anticipate the needs of athletes because we know them better than anybody. Sometimes, we deliver a reality before others have even begun to imagine it.”

Discussion: The Next Web, Refinery29, Slantpoint, Investor's Business Daily, Racked, Engadget, VentureBeat, The Verge, Mashable and Mediaite

Michael Grunwald / Politico:

What We Missed About Rubio — In February 2013, Senator Marco Rubio let me sit in on the politics course he taught part time at Florida International University. He knew I was writing a cover story about him for Time magazine, but he still gave his students a master class in self-promotion in my presence …

Eli Lake / BloombergView.com:

Cruz Assembles an Unlikely Team of Foreign-Policy Rivals — In a year when the Republican Party is breaking apart because of Donald Trump, the only man left with a chance to beat him is trying to build a big tent — by GOP standards — when it comes to foreign affairs.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Politico

Michael R. Bloomberg / BloombergView.com:

Canada's New Hope — The value of the Canadian dollar and the price of oil, one of the nation's top exports, have both tumbled to near record lows. But those details — and the apparent demise of the Keystone XL pipeline — don't begin to tell the story of what lies ahead for the economy of Canada …

John Bresnahan / Politico:

Schock in limbo as feds still loom — One year after resigning in disgrace, Aaron Schock — the high-flying GOP congressman whose penchant for drawing publicity to himself was nearly unrivaled in the House of Representatives — has largely disappeared from view. But federal prosecutors still have their sights on him.

Jordan Sargent / Gawker:

PBS News Story on First-Time Trump Voters Prominently Displays Longtime White Power Tattoos — Last night, PBS NewsHour ran a story on the Tilly family of Fayetteville, North Carolina. The Tillys do not have a history of being active in politics, but various members of the family …

Discussion: Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and Joe.My.God.

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:

Sean Hannity: If GOP Elites Steal Nomination from Trump or Cruz, “I'm Walking” (VIDEO) — Conservative Sean Hannity announced Wednesday that if Republican Party elites try to steal the nomination from Donald Trump or Ted Cruz at the convention. … The post Sean Hannity …

Discussion: TPNN