BuzzFeed:
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told graduates during a commencement address in the late nineties that he believed the pyramids in Egypt were built by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain, and not, as most archeologists contend, as tombs for pharaohs.
At the 1998 commencement for Andrews University, a school associated with Seventh-day Adventist Church, Carson also dismissed the notion that aliens were somehow involved in the construction of the pyramids.
“My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain,” Carson said. “Now all the archeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big if you stop and think about it. And I don’t think it’d just disappear over the course of time to store that much grain.”
The Hill:
New GOP presidential front-runner Ben Carson had trouble Wednesday answering questions about U.S.-Cuba policies, a report Wednesday says.
Carson admitted during an interview that he was in the dark on policies toward those coming to the U.S. from the island nation, according to The Miami Herald.
“You’re going to have to explain to me exactly what you mean by that,” he said when quizzed by the Herald on the so-called wet-foot, dry-foot policy.
“I have to admit I don’t know a great deal about that, and I don’t really like to comment until I’ve had a chance to study the issue from both sides,” Carson said of the rule letting Cubans who reach U.S. soil stay here.
He then stumbled over the Cuban Adjustment Act, which permits Cubans to apply for legal residency after 366 days in the U.S.
“Again, I’ve not been briefed fully on what that is,” the retired neurosurgeon said.
It isn't that Carson is dumb (far from it). It's that he's not close to being qualified for president. That becomes clearer every time he's asked a substantive question (also known, to Carson, as a 'gotcha' question).
More politics and policy below the fold.
From HuffPost pollster, less smoothing.
It's not that the polls are infallible this early. But they do tell a story, especially side by side. Little has changed for Clinton-Sanders, with Hillary maintaining a lead. On the R side, frontrunners Trump and Carson have staying power, while each exhibits some major flaws preventing them form climbing any higher. Both, arguably, are slumping a bit.
Meanwhile Rubio and Cruz are inching up, but as yet have not escaped second tier status.
And, btw, Jeb still sucks. He's at 5% nationally (4% in the new Quinnipiac and Fox polls). it's hard to see how he or anyone else below the top four can win.
Dave Weigel:
The 2015 elections were rougher for Democrats in redder states, as they suffered a surprisingly large defeat in the Kentucky governor’s race, failed to win a majority in the Virginia Senate and saw voters thump an LGBT rights ordinance in Houston. But in blue states and cities, the party held or gained ground. As the parties head into a new presidential year, the country’s partisan divide has deepened.
Republicans walked away from Tuesday with the big wins. Democrats walked away with fresh confidence that their map can win a third presidential election in a row.
Guardian:
Marco Rubio on the defensive as his personal finances face renewed scrutiny
The presidential hopeful calls attacks over his use of a Republican party credit card ‘discredited’ but says he will release records within a few weeks
Yes, he's been attacked before on this, but never on the big stage, and never with the sharp knives.
Nate Cohn:
When Ted Cruz announced his run for the presidency, the big question was whether he had only a small chance to win or no chance at all. Since then, a lot has gone right for him.
Mr. Cruz still does not enjoy an easy road to the Republican nomination, not by any means. But it is a testament to just how strange this year has been that a candidate like him, who is despised by many of his own Republican colleagues in the Senate, now has a plausible path to the Republican nomination.
Some of his opportunity is the result of his own strength. He has succeeded in building a robust campaign organization, buoyed by fund-raising tallies of the sort we generally haven’t seen from anti-establishment, conservative candidates. Fund-raising isn’t everything, but it’s a big part of why candidates like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum have not been serious contenders this time.
A lot of Mr. Cruz’s opening, however, reflects the weakness of his rivals, not his strength.
Ain't that the truth. Every time someone says "Why not X? All the others are at least as awful," there's usually not a good answer. Well, at least we're not hearing the nonsense about a 'strong GOP bench' any more.
Molly Ball:
Liberals Are Losing the Culture Wars
Tuesday’s elections, which hinged on social issues such as gay rights and pot, call into question Democrats’ insistence that Republicans are out of step with the times.
Politico:
Matt Bevin won the Kentucky governorship on a vow to dismantle Obamacare, but the obstacles he faces rolling back a law that covers nearly one in 10 Kentuckians offers a preview of the struggles that a Republican president would face living up to a “repeal and replace” pledge in 2017.
Even before the votes were cast, Bevin had started hedging his repeal bet, saying he would not take coverage away from people who have it. He can give the health law in his state a more conservative veneer. But he can’t scrap it completely.
“Vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act in some cases has been used as an effective political strategy, but it’s not a terribly effective governing strategy,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday.
And that’s the reality facing the GOP contenders for the White House in 2016. A new president can undermine Obamacare by halting outreach and advocacy, rewriting the rules and starving it of funds. But that’s still a far cry from yanking the whole law up by its roots.
“Throwing 10 million people out of the marketplace and however many millions of people off of Medicaid is not going to be very easy politically,” said Tim Jost, an expert on the Affordable Care Act and a consumer advocate. “Somebody is going to have to answer for everybody who would lose coverage. I haven’t seen any Republican proposal that would come close to replacing the ACA in terms of the number of people it would cover.”
Salon on the gubernatorial race in LA:
This is the sort of campaign political observers expect from David Vitter. He has nothing of substance to run on, so his plan is to smear Obama in the hopes that voters won’t realize they’re being a hoodwinked by a candidate looking to avoid the issues.
The good news: Vitter’s cynicism is unlikely to pay off. After outgoing Gov. Bobby Jindal’s tenure, Louisiana is deep sunk in debt. The state has a higher education system in ruins, an eroding coastline, a bloated budget, and a public health crisis every bit as bad as Kentucky’s. Moreover, Vitter has much more ground to make up than Bevin ever did: While most polls showed the Kentucky race in a statistical tie, the latest surveys find Edwards with a double-digit lead over Vitter. A simple “not-Obama” strategy won’t work in Louisiana as easily as it did in Kentucky.