memeorandum: Ebay Blocks ‘Draw Mohammed’ Winning Cartoon from Auction (Dustin Stockton/Breitbart)

11:25 AM ET, May 5, 2016

Top Items:

NATE SILVER: ‘We basically got the Republican race wrong’ — In September 2015, writer and statistician Nate Silver urged people to “calm down” about the possibility of Donald Trump winning the Republican presidential nomination. — Two months later, he wrote that the media should …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, New York Times, Slate, Liberty Unyielding, Balloon Juice and The Intercept

Wall Street Journal:

Donald Trump Won't Self-Fund General-Election Campaign — Presumptive Republican nominee plans to create ‘world-class finance organization’ to back campaign — Donald Trump won't self-fund his general-election campaign, and will instead create a “world-class finance organization,” …

Michael A. Cohen / BostonGlobe.com:

RIP, GOP — On Tuesday night the Republican voters of Indiana delivered the final verdict on the Republican primary race, giving Donald Trump a crushing 15-point victory over Ted Cruz. Two hours after the polls closed, Cruz acknowledged the writing on the wall and dropped out of the race.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Foreign Desk, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Media Matters for America, Rush Limbaugh, Talking Points Memo, ABC News and New York Daily News

Jordan Rudner / The Texas Tribune:

Bush 41, 43 Have No Plans to Endorse Trump … For the first time since his own presidency, George H.W. Bush is planning to stay silent in the race for the Oval Office — and the younger former president Bush plans to stay silent as well. — Bush 41, who enthusiastically endorsed every Republican nominee …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post, Slantpoint, Mother Jones, Hot Air, CNN, The Week, Politico, Washington Post, Balloon Juice, AOL, Trail Blazers Blog, Political Wire, Mediaite and Outside the Beltway

Nick Gass / Politico:

Scarborough: I won't vote for Trump if he doesn't change — If Donald Trump maintains his hard-line stance on immigration and his call to bar Muslims from entering the United States in the general election against Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Republican nominee is in for a bruising defeat …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Hot Air, The Week, BuzzFeed and ThinkProgress

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Spoiler: They can't. — Suppose the Republican Party's elites could go a year back in time and act with perfect foresight and perfect coordination. (At the risk of making this hypothetical even more outlandish, let's also grant them functioning strategic brains.) What would they do to avoid their current predicament?

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Hot Air and Politico

BBC:
Rolling Stones tell Trump to stop using their music

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The New Civil Rights Movement and Politico

Brianne Pfannenstiel / Des Moines Register:
Grassley: Trump would nominate ‘right type’ to court

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Politico, Outside the Beltway, ThinkProgress, The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, The Week, Vox, Washington Post, NBC News, Media Matters for America, RedState and Althouse

New York Times:
Donald Trump Reaches Out, Quietly, to Republican Establishment

Discussion: Salon and Political Wire

Mark Hensch / The Hill:
Trump: I'm open to Cruz as VP

Discussion: Politico, Little Green Footballs, New York Times and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Seth Masket / Vox:
We are witnessing the most massive failure of a political party in generations

Discussion: Politico and Outside the Beltway

Jamelle Bouie / Slate:
Donald Trump Isn't Going to Be President

Discussion: Mother Jones, Washington Post, The San Diego Union … and CNBC

New York Times:
With Donald Trump in Charge, Republicans Have a Day of Reckoning

Discussion: Washington Post, Townhall.com, New York Post, Political Wire, The Daily Caller and Refinery29

Fox News:
Trump says he would consider Kasich, Rubio for VP choice, as Priebus stresses time for GOP ‘to heal’

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Complex, New York Post and FOX News Radio

E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
Please don't mainstream Trump

Discussion: Mother Jones

Associated Press:
Trump's open path to nomination causes agony for some in GOP

Discussion: Orlando Sentinel, The Week, Washington Post, Bloomberg View, National Review, Florida Politics, CNN, New York Times and USA Today

Nick Gass / Politico:
The 9 worst predictions about Trump's rise to the top

Discussion: Vox

Schuyler Kropf / Post and Courier:
Haley won't be Trump's running mate

Discussion: Political Wire, Talking Points Memo and Politico

Fox News:

Romanian hacker Guccifer: I breached Clinton server, ‘it was easy’ — Marcel Lazar Lehel, 40, is escorted by masked policemen in Bucharest, after being arrested in Arad, 337 miles west of Bucharest. (Reuters) (REUTERS/Mediafax/Silviu Matei) — EXCLUSIVE: The infamous Romanian hacker known as …

NBC News:

Hacker ‘Guccifer’: I Got Inside Hillary Clinton's Server — The Romanian hacker who first exposed Hillary Clinton's private email address is making a bombshell new claim — that he also gained access to the former Secretary of State's “completely unsecured” server.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Washington Post, Politico, Power Line and Washington Times

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Trump Blames Hillary for Birtherism, Wolf Blitzer Summarily Fact-Checks Him — Original birther Donald Trump today tried to push birtherism on Hillary Clinton, but Wolf Blitzer didn't go to commercial break without fact-checking that little claim. — Blitzer brought up a clip of Clinton bringing …

Discussion: Guardian and Raw Story

David Roberts / Vox:
Why the media will lift Trump up and tear Clinton down

Discussion: Washington Monthly, NPR, The Week, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and KFOR-TV

Rush Limbaugh:
My Gut: Trump Beats Hillary in Landslide

Discussion: The Federalist, Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit, Taylor Marsh, New York Post, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Last Tradition, Western Journalism and The Daily Caller

Ed Rogers / Washington Post:
Democrats don't know how to run against Trump

Discussion: Power Line and The Atlantic

Danielle Allen / Washington Post:
Hillary Clinton is walking into Donald Trump's trap

Discussion: Althouse and The Slot

Katie Van-Syckle / Variety:

MSNBC's Chris Matthews Caught on Hot Mic Ogling Melania Trump … ‘Hardball’ anchor has long history of sexist comments — During the network's coverage of Donald Trump's Indiana primary victory speech, MSNBC's Chris Matthews was caught on a live microphone commenting on the appearance of Melania Trump, the Republican nominee's wife.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast, Scared Monkeys, Althouse, The Week, Washington Free Beacon, ABC News, Politico and AOL

Dylan Byers / CNNMoney:
Chris Matthews' Melania Trump remarks caught on hot mic

Discussion: The Federalist, The Daily Caller, Hot Air and Mediaite

Ben Sasse / Facebook:

AN OPEN LETTER TO MAJORITY AMERICA — TO: Those who think both leading presidential candidates are dishonest and have little chance of leading America forward: — (...or, stated more simply) — TO: The majority of America: — Note: If you are one of those rare souls …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, RedState, Politico, Hot Air, JP Updates, Hit & Run, Mediaite and The Daily Caller

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:

Trump-loving tow truck driver says God told him to leave disabled Bernie Sanders supporter stranded — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — A South Carolina tow truck driver said God told him to leave a disabled Bernie Sanders supporter stranded along the interstate.

FOX Carolina 21:
Tow truck owner said he refused service to woman because she supports Bernie Sanders

Discussion: Slantpoint

Los Angeles Times:

San Andreas fault ‘locked, loaded and ready to roll’ with big earthquake, expert says — This simulation by the Southern California Earthquake Center shows the shaking that could be felt by Los Angeles during a possible magnitude 8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault.

Discussion: Fox News Insider, FiveThirtyEight, Daily Mail, ScienceAlert and LAist

Seung Min Kim / Politico:

McCain on tape: Trump damages my reelection hopes — Publicly, John McCain insists Donald Trump will have a negligible effect on his campaign for reelection. But behind closed doors at a fundraiser in Arizona last month, the Republican senator and two-time presidential hopeful offered a far more dire assessment to his supporters.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Salon and The Week

Jim Morrill / The Charlotte Observer:

US Justice Department: HB2 violates federal Civil Rights Act — Ruling could ultimately lead to the loss of millions in federal education money — RALEIGH — U.S. Justice Department officials Wednesday notified Gov. Pat McCrory that House Bill 2 violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act.

Associated Press:
North Carolina Leaders Denounce Federal Threat on LGBT Law

Discussion: Towleroad and ABC News

Austin Ramzy / New York Times:

KFC, With New Nail Polish, Redefines Chicken Fingers — HONG KONG — Assume, for the sake of argument, that KFC's fried chicken is, as advertised, “finger lickin' good.” — Would you really want it to remain on your fingers? Indefinitely? — These are just two of the salient questions raised …

Discussion: WNEP-TV and The Week

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

The Republican Horse Race Is Over, and Journalism Lost — Wrong, wrong, wrong — to the very end, we got it wrong. — Just a couple of weeks ago, political prognosticators in television and print media were describing Indiana as the “most important test” for Donald J. Trump and a “firewall” where Ted Cruz “should do well.”