America

A few moments on a New Hampshire debate stage last Saturday will likely go down as an historic moment in American politics. For the previous week there had been a palpable sense that the GOP establishment, desperate to coalesce behind someone to stop Donald Trump, was going to break very quickly towards Marco Rubio. Immediately after Iowa, Rubio began began scooping up endorsements from senators. There were many press reports that key players in Jeb Bush’s financial team were ready to jump—and pull their funds, and their friends, from Jeb’s flailing candidacy to Rubio.

With Iowa in the rearview mirror, New Hampshire dead ahead, and miles and miles of nominating contests to go, the Brookings Institution’s Elaine Kamarck has performed a valuable service by getting into the weeds, describing the mechanics of how America picks its presidential nominees, and explaining how we got here. Primary Politics leads the reader to conclude that process is policy.

Daniel DePetris said last week that Paul’s exit from the race would hurt the quality of the foreign policy debate in the primaries:

Over 25,000 people are now confirmed as being infected with the Zika virus in Colombia, with 3,100 of them being pregnant women, President Juan Manuel announced over the weekend.  As the disease continues to ravage the America’s Brazil is investigating the link between Zika and microcephaly, a birth defect marked by an unusually small head size. Alarabiya.net reports: Researchers have identified evidence of Zika infection in 17 of these cases, either in the baby or in the mother, but have not confirmed that Zika can cause microcephaly.

America has changed a lot since Super Bowl 1 in 1967 but, as the cost of tickets, airfare, commercials, and beer have soared, real median incomes have risen just 9%... is it any wonder the 'people' are revolting.. towards Bernie and The Donald? However, the economics of Super Bowl 50 are every bit as cloudy as the general American economy... which looks set to be re-named "The Unicorn Bowl."

Distraction - Nearly 1 in 4 are watching just for the commercials...