memeorandum: Electability has a vital role in presidential primaries (Jason Steinhauer/Washington Post)

1:40 PM ET, July 31, 2019

Top Items:

Axelrod: “Large Numbers Of People” Oppose Medicare For All, Healthcare For Illegals, Decriminalizing Border — Former chief strategist for former President Obama's presidential campaign and advisor to the president David Axelrod said the agenda presented by Democratic presidential candidates …

Discussion: Townhall

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

Here's Who Won (and Lost) the Second Democratic Debate, Night One — Days after a heavily armed sociopath unleashed hell on yet another American community — and the president directed yet another racist tantrum at his nonwhite constituents — ten of the Democratic Party's top 2020 hopefuls gathered …

Katherine Miller / BuzzFeed News:

Why People Like Marianne Williamson — On some level, we all seem to know that Marianne Williamson shouldn't exactly be on the debate stage. Even she seems to know it, because she operates like she's performing a commentary on the rest of the stage, speaking from a different stage about the debate taking place.

Discussion: New York Times, Reason and Spectator USA

New York Times:

Sanders and Warren Battle Accusations of ‘Fairy Tale’ Promises as Intraparty Rift Flares — DETROIT — The leading liberals in the Democratic presidential primary, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, strenuously fought back on Tuesday against accusations of making fanciful promises …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, The Week, New Republic and Politico

James Hohmann / Washington Post:

The Daily 202: The realists attacked the revolutionaries, and the revolutionaries won, in the Democratic debate — THE BIG IDEA: CNN treated Bernie Sanders like a front-runner and took the senator's policy proposals seriously during Tuesday night's debate in Detroit.

Discussion: Mediaite

Jonathan Merritt / Washington Post:

I've worked for Marianne Williamson. She is no kook. — In a surprise twist on the first evening of the second Democratic debate, spiritual writer and presidential candidate Marianne Williamson received some of the night's largest applause lines. She ably argued for paying financial reparations …

Discussion: Mediaite and Quartz

John Podhoretz / New York Post:
New Age Marianne Williamson is breakout winner of Democratic debate

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Post, Fox News and Wall Street Journal

John F. Harris / Politico:
It's a center-left party after all

Discussion: Washington Post, Axios, NY State of Politics, The Hill and Breitbart

Eric Bradner / CNN:
7 takeaways from the Democratic debate's first night

Discussion: Splinter, The Wrap and ImmigrationProf Blog

Rachel Frazin / The Hill:
Marianne Williamson supporters organize ‘occult task force’

Discussion: The Guardian, Breitbart and The Stranger

Chris Cillizza / CNN:
Winners and losers from the first night of the CNN debate

Discussion: Mediaite, Splinter and Vox

Peter Suderman / Reason:
Medicare for All Is Defining the 2020 Democratic Race

Discussion: Boston Globe and twitchy.com

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Delaney says Warren's put-down of him on the debate stage was ‘dishonest’ and ‘lazy’

Discussion: Breitbart and The Hill

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
Elizabeth Warren's Big Night

Discussion: National Review, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos and The Guardian

Bhaskar Sunkara / The Guardian:
It's Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren v the 'No We Can't' Democrats

Discussion: KTLA and Washington Post

John Verhovek / ABC News:
5 key takeaways from the Democratic debate: The major battle lines of night 1

Discussion: Breitbart, Politico, The Daily Caller and PJ Media Home

Avi Selk / Washington Post:
Marianne Williamson's fans made her the ‘orb queen’ of the 2020 campaign

Discussion: Townhall, Breitbart, Political Wire, Washington Times and The Federalist

Axios:
A progressive win: Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders own the first Democratic debate

Discussion: Political Wire and Townhall

Olga Khazan / The Atlantic:
John Delaney Had One Good Point on Medicare for All

Discussion: Spectator USA and Quartz

Washington Post:
In contentious Democratic debate, deep divisions on health care separate liberals and moderates

Discussion: New York Times, Outside the Beltway and Politico, more at Mediagazer »

Eugene Scott / Washington Post:
Marianne Williamson makes the case for reparations in her breakout debate moment

Discussion: Breitbart, Althouse and The Federalist

Noah Berlatsky / NBC News:
Marianne Williamson's Democratic debate performance raised eyebrows. But she's no friend of the left.

Discussion: Grist, Vanity Fair and Quartz

Cary Aspinwall / Dallas Morning News:

'You're gonna kill me!': Dallas police body cam footage reveals the final minutes of Tony Timpa's life — Tony Timpa wailed and pleaded for help more than 30 times as Dallas police officers pinned his shoulders, knees and neck to the ground. — “You're gonna kill me! You're gonna kill me!

Jeremy Herb / CNN:

Ratcliffe questioned intelligence community's role in Russia investigation — CNN security analyst sounds the alarm on Trump's pick 03:47 — (CNN) — President Donald Trump's pick to be the next director of national intelligence, which has oversight over the CIA, has pushed …

New York Times:

Trump's Pick for Top Intelligence Post Overstated Parts of His Biography — Aides revised old claims about Representative John Ratcliffe's role in prosecuting a prominent terrorism case. — WASHINGTON — Aides to the congressman chosen by President Trump to lead the nation's intelligence agencies …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Outside the Beltway, Salon, The Intercept and VICE

Garrett M. Graff / Wired:
The Danger of John Ratcliffe

Discussion: The American Conservative, CNN, emptywheel and Axios

Ramesh Ponnuru / Bloomberg:

How Long Can Real Conservatives Make Excuses for Trump? — Republicans who made the so-called transactional case for Trump didn't anticipate the full cost. — During each week of the Donald Trump presidency, but especially the last few, liberals and conservatives have been splitting further apart on race.

Courtney Kube / NBC News:

U.S. has intel that Osama bin Laden's son and heir Hamza is dead, say officials — The officials would not provide details of how Hamza bin Laden died, or if the U.S. played a role. It is unclear if the U.S. has confirmed his death. — WASHINGTON — The U.S. has obtained intelligence …

Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:

Nunes Ally Kash Patel Who Fought Russia Probe Gets Senior White House National Security Job — Patel was one of the leading staffers pushing back against FBI investigations of Trump-Russia. He's now senior director of the National Security Council's terrorism directorate.

Discussion: Politico

John Archibald / al.com:

George Wallace's daughter: 'I've never seen anything like it' — This is an opinion column. — Peggy Wallace Kennedy went to political rallies with her dad - George Wallace - as he ran for president in the '60s and '70s. — She saw hate and anger that a child should not have to see.

Discussion: Political Wire

San Francisco Chronicle:

Search of Gilroy gunman's home finds items suggesting massive attack, white supremacy materials — Investigators who searched the Nevada home of the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooter found the makings of a massive attack, including a gas mask, bulletproof vest and empty boxes of ammunition …

Discussion: UPI and American Greatness

Associated Press:

Trump ‘rodent’ tweets ring true at Kushner-owned apartments — BALTIMORE (AP) — Davon Jones doesn't have to look far to see the irony in President Donald Trump's tweets that Baltimore is a “rat and rodent infested mess.” His apartment owned by the president's son-in-law has been invaded by mice since he moved in a year ago.

Discussion: New York Times, The Resurgent, PJ Media Home, The Minnesota Sun and CNN

Washington Post:

White House races to come up with health-care wins for Trump's campaign — White House advisers, scrambling to create a health-care agenda for President Trump to promote on the campaign trail, are meeting at least daily with the aim of rolling out a measure every two to three weeks until the 2020 election.

Discussion: Mother Jones

Washington Post:

Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein partied together. Then an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion came between them. — For the better part of two decades starting in the late 1980s, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump swam in the same social pool. They were neighbors in Florida.

Yahoo:

Mario Lopez: It's ‘dangerous’ for parents to support transgender kids — Mario Lopez claims that parents who allow their children to live according to their — self-identified genders are setting a “dangerous” example. — Lopez, a father of three, shared his opinions during a June interview …

Discussion: RedState, National Review, Daily Wire, PinkNews, Louder With Crowder and The Wrap

Tim Naftali / The Atlantic:

Ronald Reagan's Long-Hidden Racist Conversation With Richard Nixon — The day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People's Republic of China, then-California Governor Ronald Reagan phoned President Richard Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States.

Discussion: RedState, Washington Post, Slate, CNN, VICE, The Independent, Washington Times, The Root, Mediaite, Splinter, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Boing Boing

Washington National Cathedral:

have we no decency? a response to president trump — The escalation of racialized rhetoric from the President of the United States has evoked responses from all sides of the political spectrum. On one side, African American leaders have led the way in rightfully expressing outrage.

Discussion: Washingtonian, Bloomberg, Axios and POLITICUSUSA

Wall Street Journal:

The 99% Get a Bigger Raise — New data show much faster growth in wages and incomes. — By The Editorial Board — Political discourse nowadays is enough to depress anyone, and the media don't help by ignoring good economic news. But buck up, Americans: Worker wages are growing much faster than previously reported.