The Morning Consult survey polled 504 registered voters who said they watched the Republican primary debate and that they plan to participate in their state’s Republican presidential nominating contest. Of those voters, 69 percent identified themselves as Republicans, and 28 percent called themselves independents.  The poll carried a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent (link):

The four consecutive days of attacks on Donald Trump, leading up to the CNN debate, appear to have hurt Rand Paul, Scott Walker significantly; both appear to be in trouble.  Also, worth noting – candidates Pataki, Graham and Jindal see no benefit from their attack efforts.  Fiorina, Rubio, and Christie gained supporters.  Carson, Bush and Kasich stayed essentially the same. (more…)

Anyone who doesn’t think that Karl Rove is intertwined with the current “Trump-Muslim-Obama-Birther” controversy exploding amid the headlines today doesn’t know Rove.
Remember 2010 and Delaware Senate race Christine O’Donnell and the “witch/wiccan” religion controversy?  Yeah, Rove was Mike Castle’s campaign guy.  After Castle lost, Rove torpedoed O’Donnell -via media- on behalf of the GOPe.
Remember 2014 Matt Bevin Kentucky Senate race against Mitch McConnell and the “Chicken fight” speech.  Yup, Rovian again.  Here’s Rove today feeding the narrative:

The “Twofer” – The group that should really be watching Rove work his current magic are the Ted Cruz supporters. (more…)

NPR has received some preliminary examples of the type of analyst intelligence that was skewed to create a more favorable opinion of President Obama’s foreign policy approach toward ISIS.
In one example the following is noted:

[…]  A military source described the evolution of one report that came out of CENTCOM’s intelligence shop. It was a dispatch on an ISIS attack in Iraq near the Syrian border. The initial CENTCOM report read, “Iraqi forces retreated.” It was sent back for reworking, the source said. Eventually that report came to read that the Iraqi forces had not retreated, but instead had reinforced another Iraqi position. The final draft suggested a strategic decision had been made. But that was not what happened, the source said — the Iraqi forces ran. A second source confirmed the account of the change in wording to put the Iraqi forces in a more positive light. (read more)

In what appears to be a profound sense of professional obfuscation, the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Lloyd Austin, told congress that despite the revisions and/or manipulations currently being investigated by the inspector general, the intelligence did not go directly to President Obama. (more…)

As many people thoroughly anticipated the back-story to the 14-year-old briefcase clockmaker reflects his father is actually a rather controversial Muslim activist.  This lends further credence toward a reasonable belief that his taking a briefcase clock to school was not as innocent as the media would lead everyone to believe.
UPDATE:  In his own words Ahmed Mohamed, 14, an Irving MacArthur High student essentially states he knew taking the device to school was controversial.  Listen at 1:26 video:

“I closed it with a cable, so… because, I didn’t want to lock it to make it seem like a threat so I just used simple cable…. so it won’t look that much suspicious”.

That’s what you call an admission of premeditation and intent.  In his own words, with forethought, he knew the briefcase with wires and “a countdown clock” would be “suspicious”; especially around 9/11.
Update#2 – We are not the only people to pick up on the admitted “intent”. Follow THIS LINK – To see exactly how it was engineered and the kids’ story gets even more sketchy. (more…)

Candidate Rick Perry Super-PACs collected over $17 million; the campaign itself raised less than $2 million.  With Perry dropping out, Super-PAC head Austin Barbour and the finance chair Brint Ryan are now issuing refunds.

TEXAS – A group of super PACs backing former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s now-defunct presidential bid has refunded to donors most of the millions of dollars they collected, the groups’ finance chairman said.
“We’re still settling up with a few vendors … but we had a pretty good estimate of what those were so we were able to hold back a little bit of the reserve and refund the rest,” Brint Ryan, the super PACs’ finance chairman who runs a Dallas-based tax services company, told the Center for Public Integrity.
The pro-Perry super PACs, all named variations on Opportunity and Freedom PAC, are legally allowed to accept unlimited contributions.
They collectively reported raising $12.8 million during the first half of the year. Austin Barbour, the senior adviser, said they had received another $4 million contribution from a single donor after the reporting deadline, bringing the total to nearly $17 million. (more…)

Donald Trump holds a Town Hall last night including a lengthy Q&A session.   The first question coming in at 09:45 of the video below is from a guy claiming that President Obama is Muslim – the media immediately jumped on it and are criticizing Trump for not pushing back against the question:

Anticipate the MSM news cycle to continue making a big deal of this today.

…. the Rovian onslaught continues.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

You might disagree with this, I do not.  If you remove Donald Trump it is a guaranteed outcome. Hence here’s what the 43 members of the professional political class are predicting for the outcome of the 2015/16 primary race:
They can be so confident because the entire construct of elections are decided upon by Wall Street and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce  (Here’s The Analysis Link)

OAN/GRAVIS have published an exclusive poll based entirely on the results from last night’s CNN debate (full pdf below).  The poll shows the majority of those questioned viewed Carly Fiorina won the debate and reflects a predictable surge:

According to this result, both Fiorina and Rubio gained status and favorable opinion amid those Republicans polled. (more…)