Wiretap: With friends like these, who needs enemies?

The Washington Post writes that Republicans have reached a new level of panic over Donald Trump’s campaign. Here’s the money quote from Trump ally Newt Gingrich: “The current race is which of these two is the more unacceptable, because right now, neither of them is acceptable. Trump is helping her to win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is.” Or maybe it’s this quote from Newt: “He can’t learn what he doesn’t know because he doesn’t know he doesn’t know it.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-reaches-new-level-of-panic-over-trumps-candidacy/2016/08/03/de461880-5988-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_gop-120pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Hide the children, or at least cover their ears. The New York Times has released uncensored video – call it campaign porn – from Trump rallies. And if you think his supporters were angry before, wait until they see the latest polls.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/us/politics/donald-trump-supporters.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Trump wants to know why we can’t use our nuclear weapons. After all, he’s not taking anything off the table. Via Politico.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-226639

The news from Trump World isn’t all bad. Trump has gone full Bernie in fundraising, pulling in tens of millions from small donors. And now Trump is nearly matching the big-money Clinton haul. Via The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/us/politics/trump-fundraising.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

And, of course, the news isn’t all good either. It’s bad enough that Trump is down 10 points in the latest national poll from Fox News. Much worse is the polling out of Michigan, one of the rust belt states that Trump is hoping to flip from the Democratic column. According to a Detroit News poll, Clinton leads Trump by nine points in a four-way poll. Via The Detroit News.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/08/03/poll-clinton-leads-trump-michigan/88048440/

So, how big is Clinton’s convention bounce? Pretty big, writes Vox, but we should wait at least a week to see if the bounce is for real.

http://www.vox.com/2016/8/1/12340790/polls-trump-clinton-winning

From the right: Ross Douthat writes that Paul Ryan has built his career as the principled conservative legislator. Is there any way that career can survive Ryan’s enabling of the Donald? Via The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/opinion/campaign-stops/paul-ryans-long-hot-summer.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

Further right: George Will, who very publicly left the Republican Party after Trump won the nomination, writes: “Trump’s shallowness runs deep.” Via The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trumps-shallowness-runs-deep/2016/08/03/f7311b20-58d3-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

And then there’s Erick Erickson. Via The Resurgent.

http://theresurgent.com/donald-trump-can-go-to-hell-and-if-you-defend-this-so-can-you/

The stress-test election: Jeffrey Frank writes that all happy elections are alike and that no unhappy election has ever been anything like this one. Via The New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/a-stress-test-election?intcid=mod-latest

Flickr photo by DonkeyHotey