memeorandum: How Trump Can Be Stopped — With Donald Trump's defeat in Ohio … (John McCormack/Weekly Standard)

9:40 AM ET, March 17, 2016

Top Items:

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 …

Associated Press:

Analysis: Obama Dares GOP to Let Clinton, Trump Pick Justice — By nominating an uncontroversial 63-year-old judge, President Barack Obama handed Republicans an unwelcome election-year proposition: Give in or risk letting Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump pick a Supreme Court justice the GOP might like even less.

Discussion: Politico, abc13.com and ABC News

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

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, CNN, Yahoo Politics, Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, Keen News Service, Slate, Reuters, Althouse, hatch.senate.gov, ABC News, NBC News, New York Times, Vox and Western Journalism

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

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

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

Jordain Carney / The Hill:
GOP senators split with leadership on SCOTUS

Discussion: Breitbart, Wall Street Journal, Hot Air, Washington Post, The Right Scoop and Politico

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

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

Garrett Epps / The Atlantic:
Merrick Garland Is a Great Pick; That May Not Matter

Discussion: Washington Post, Prairie Weather, New York Times, Slate, The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgressPage Array, CNN, SCOTUSblog, Talking Points Memo and The White House

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 …

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.

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

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

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Mark Hensch / The Hill:
Trump taps campaign manager as GOP convention delegate: report

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Talking Points Memo and NY State of Politics

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

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Donald Trump Warns of ‘Riots’ if Party Blocks Him at Convention

Discussion: AOL and American Prospect

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 …

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: RedState

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

Discussion: Political Wire, Politico, Washington Post, CNN and New York Magazine

Jonathan V. Last / Weekly Standard:
Why Rubio Lost

Discussion: RedState, Washington Post, New York Post, Power Line and The Atlantic

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

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

Nick Gass / Politico:
Nikki Haley backs Ted Cruz

Discussion: The Right Scoop

New York Times:
Rubio's Exit Leaves Trump With an Open Path to 1,237 Delegates

Discussion: Political Wire, The Last Tradition, CNN and The San Diego Union …

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

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, Right Wing Watch, Western Journalism, The Daily Caller, The Bob and Chez Show and Real Clear Politics

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.

Daniel Lippman / Politico:

The Economist rates Trump presidency among its top 10 global risks — A Donald Trump presidency poses a top-10 risk event that could disrupt the world economy, lead to political chaos in the U.S. and heighten security risks for the United States, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Discussion: Sputnik International, Mashable, Guardian, The Week, Al Jazeera English, Daily Kos, Hullabaloo, The New Civil Rights Movement and NBC News

Annie Karni / Politico:
Hillary slams the door on Bernie

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Post and New York Times

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, Mother Jones, CNN, New York Times, NBC News, Mashable, WCMH-TV and The Week

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

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

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 …

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.