memeorandum: Poll: Republican Party Fractured As Hillary Clinton Maintains Solid Lead (NBC News)

12:40 PM ET, October 25, 2016

Top Items:

Jennifer Duffy / The Cook Political Report:

Senate Democrats Poised to Pick Up 5-7 Seats — Senate Republicans had been doing a pretty solid job of maintaining their distance from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump by running their own campaign that focused largely on more local issues or those issues that motivate their base.

Discussion: RedState, Talking Points Memo, Politico and Washington Post

Marc Caputo / Politico:

Florida spirals away from Trump — From polling to early voting trends to TV ad spending to ground game, Donald Trump's Florida fortunes are beginning to look so bleak that some Republicans are steeling themselves for what could be the equivalent of a “landslide” loss in the nation's biggest battleground state.

Discussion: McClatchy Washington Bureau, New York Magazine, Hullabaloo, The Week and Washington Post

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

Reid: ‘I have set the Senate’ for nuclear option — (D-Nev.) is predicting a Democratic-majority Senate next year could break out the “nuclear option” to change the rules on Supreme Court nominations. — The outgoing Democratic leader told Talking Points Memo that he's paved …

Discussion: neo-neocon, Constitution Daily, New York Magazine, Daily Kos and Instapundit

Marc Caputo / Politico:

Florida Democrats poised to overtake Republicans in early votes — MIAMI — Fueled by a strong first day of in-person early voting, more than 1.6 million Floridians have cast pre-Election Day ballots as Democrats threaten to overtake Republicans in the number of votes banked before Nov. 8.

Discussion: steveschale.squarespace.com and Guardian

Joseph Weber / Fox News:
Early voting suggests tight race in key states despite Clinton camp boast

Discussion: The Point and WND

NBC News:

Poll: Republican Party Fractured As Hillary Clinton Maintains Solid Lead — Hillary Clinton's 5-point lead over Donald Trump remains virtually unchanged since last week—but after prolonged in-fighting among GOP party leaders, a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters (57 percent) …

Discussion: The Hill, Hot Air, Rasmussen Reports, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Towleroad, Political Wire, AOL and CNBC

ABC News:

Stressed About the Election? If So, You've Got Company — For all their sharp differences, supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have one thing in common: election-related stress. Nearly half of all likely voters in the ABC News tracking poll, 46 percent, describe the election …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Associated Press and New York Magazine

Patrick Svitek / The Texas Tribune:
Top Hispanic Republican in Texas says he will vote for Clinton

Discussion: Politicus USA

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Breitbart coordinated with liberal activist and organizer who disrupted GOP primary campaign events — A liberal activist and organizer coordinated with reporters from the conservative news site Breitbart during the primaries to cover his disruptions of events for candidates such as Sen. Marco Rubio.

Discussion: The Resurgent, The Daily Caller, RedState, Breitbart, Mediaite, New York Magazine, The Week, The Right Scoop, Raw Story and Project Veritas Action, more at Mediagazer »

Warren Henry / The Federalist:
Liberals Adored Trump When He Was Winning The GOP Primary

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Salon and Washington Post

Michael Gross / The Daily Beast:

Inside Donald Trump's One-Stop Parties: Attendees Recall Cocaine and Very Young Models — The morals of Donald J. Trump, as a longtime model lover and then a modeling agency owner, were forged in another era, one in which young girls were used as a sort of currency between men doing business with one another.

Discussion: alan.com, Raw Story, Occupy Democrats, RedState, The Right Scoop and Little Green Footballs

Sarah Ferris / The Hill:

Feds: Most states to see steep ObamaCare rate hikes — The price of the most popular plan under ObamaCare will increase by an average of 25 percent on the federal marketplace next year, according to data released Monday. — This year's increase — which is more than triple that of last year's …

Discussion: The Daily Signal, Washington Free Beacon and dailycallernewsfoundation.org

Cynthia Cox / kff.org:
2017 Premium Changes and Insurer Participation in the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Marketplaces

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, The Daily Caller, Health Insurance Blog and ASPE

PRRI:

The Divide Over America's Future: 1950 or 2050? — Pessimism about the direction of the country is considerably higher today (74%) than it was at this time during the 2012 presidential race, when 57% of the public said the country was off on the wrong track.

Discussion: Raw Story and Gizmodo

Giovanni Russonello / New York Times: Voters Fear Their Ballot Won't Count, Poll Shows

Allegra Kirkland / Talking Points Memo:

Trump Spent $300K Of Donor Money On Books From ‘Art Of The Deal’ Publisher — It looks like Donald Trump's book sales got a boost from his own presidential campaign. — The Republican nominee directed $300,000 of small donors' money to the publisher of his bestselling business book …

Discussion: Daily Kos

The Huffington Post:
Trump's Donors Paid For His Jetliner, His Hotels And Now, His Books

Discussion: Politicus USA

Jamelle Bouie / Slate:

The Most Astute Analysis of American Politics in 2016? SNL's “Black Jeopardy!” Sketch. — It had more to say about class and race than a thousand tenderly crafted portraits of the white working class. — For the past year, political journalists across the ideological spectrum have worked …

Alexandra Jaffe / NBC News:

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey Still Won't Answer Trump Question — Democrats push hard for a win in Pennsylvania 6:33 — Sen. Pat Toomey again refused to say whether he would vote for Donald Trump, making him the only vulnerable Republican senator to keep his constituents in the dark on where he stands on the issue.

Discussion: NBC News, alan.com and Political Wire

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Fearing Trump, Bar Association Stifles Report Calling Him a ‘Libel Bully’ — WASHINGTON — Alarmed by Donald J. Trump's record of filing lawsuits to punish and silence his critics, a committee of media lawyers at the American Bar Association commissioned a report on Mr. Trump's litigation history.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Times, BillMoyers.com, Hit & Run, New York Magazine, The Week, Mediaite and ThinkProgress

Jeet Heer / New Republic:

The Right Is Giving Up on Democracy — It's not just Donald Trump and his fans who think the system is rigged. — The single most ominous thing that Donald Trump said in all three presidential debates was a misguided attempt at a quip: “I'll keep you in suspense, okay?”

Discussion: Forbes

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:

Clarence Thomas's Twenty-Five Years Without Footprints — This month marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Clarence Thomas's confirmation to the Supreme Court. Conservatives like Thomas have dominated the Court throughout his tenure, and he has been in the majority in all of their victories.

Discussion: Althouse

Betta Stothart / Washington Post:

How angry does Donald Trump make me? Angry enough to steal 40 Trump signs. — How a middle-aged mom became a political vandal. … Donald Trump campaigns in Bangor, Maine, on Oct. 15. (Photo by Sarah Rice/Getty Images) — FALMOUTH, Maine — I committed a crime this month, along with two of my friends.

Discussion: Althouse and Central Maine

Danielle Keeton-Olsen / Talking Points Memo:

Clinton Leads By Eight Points In Siena/NYT Upshot North Carolina Poll — Hillary Clinton sits eight points ahead of Donald Trump in North Carolina following the final presidential debate, according to a new poll from Siena College/New York Times Upshot. — Clinton leads the poll …

Discussion: The New Civil Rights Movement

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:

James O'Keefe quietly employs convicted felon who tried to blackmail David Letterman — Former TV producer Robert “Joe” Halderman now helping Project Veritas with guerrilla filmmaking — With $10,000 in funding from Donald Trump's “charitable” foundation, guerrilla filmmaker James O'Keefe …

Discussion: Business Insider, Raw Story, electionlawblog.org and Washington Times

Kent Justice / WJXT-TV:

Trump quieter, but makes similar points in one-on-one interview — GOP presidential nominee gives interview, meets with first responders — ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - Speaking with Donald Trump before he took the stage at the St. Augustine Amphitheater Monday afternoon, the Republican nominee …

Discussion: CNBC and Business Insider

Brian Beutler / New Republic:

Obama Was Right About Republican Extremism All Along — They should've listened to his warnings about the dangers of right-wing rhetoric. Now they're going to pay for it. — It has been a long time since a popular, term-limited president has campaigned vigorously on behalf of his presumptive heir.

Discussion: Business Insider

Peter Van Voorhis / The College Fix:

Campus police to probe ‘offensive’ Halloween costumes, students told — Members of Tufts University's Greek system have been told they could face “serious disciplinary sanctions” — including a possible investigation by the campus police — for wearing Halloween costumes that offend peers …

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Daily Caller

Andrew Kaczynski / CNNMoney:

Donald Trump: ‘I have no interest in Trump TV’ — Donald Trump says he has no interest in setting up “Trump TV” when the election ends. — “No, I have no interest in Trump TV,” Trump said on Cincinnati radio station 700WLW on Tuesday. “I hear it all over the place.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

The lap dogs of democracy who didn't bark at Trump — Donald Trump's closing argument has been to blame his fall on the dishonest, corrupt, horrible, poisonous and biased media. — Trump is correct that there has been something wrong with the coverage. But the problem is the media …

Issie Lapowsky / Wired:

Trump's Campaign Is Launching a Nightly News Show on Facebook — Welcome to the Donald Trump show! — Tonight, the Trump campaign is kicking off a show that will air on the candidate's Facebook page every night at 6:30 pm ET via Facebook Live from the campaign war room at Trump Tower.

Discussion: CNNMoney, Donald J. Trump, Business Insider, AOL, New York Magazine, Media Matters for America, Engadget, RedState and Politicus USA, more at Mediagazer »

Kenneth Lipp / The Daily Beast:

AT&T Is Spying on Americans for Profit — On Nov. 11, 2013, Victorville, California, sheriff's deputies and a coroner responded to a motorcyclist's report of human remains outside of town. — They identified the partially bleached skull of a child, and later discovered the remains …

Melissa Leon / The Daily Beast:

‘The Walking Dead’ Just Isn't Fun Anymore — Torture porn is what most people call bloody, meaningless images of sadistic cruelty on a TV screen. The Walking Dead, unsurprisingly, calls it prime-time entertainment. Me, I call it exhausting. When real life already seems a few calamitous steps away …

Discussion: Shakesville and USA Today

Mark Hensch / The Hill:

Obama reads round two of ‘mean tweets’ on Kimmel — President Obama will appear on ABC's “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” late Monday night, reading a second batch of “mean tweets” about himself. — ...bro, do you even lift?" he read. “ Well, I lifted the ban on Cuban cigars. That's worth something.

Discussion: Vox, Politico, ABC News and Raw Story