Thanks to the punishing blizzard, Washington parents learned that few things are quite so tortuous as having kids indoors for 72 hours straight with nothing but unspent energy and a hoverboard. President Obama has doubts about Bernie Sanders' presidential bid, because Hillary Clinton has a lot more experience and is also likable enough. And Donald Rumsfeld launched a smartphone app, a development almost as shocking as that time Henry Kissinger served as an angel investor for Yo. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Monday, January 25th, 2016:
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN THINKS TRUMP, MEDIA SUCK - Howard Fineman: "At a time when the media’s duty to vet candidates is more urgent than ever, journalism is giving Donald Trump a free pass, leading historian Doris Kearns Goodwin told The Huffington Post in an interview. Trump deploys fame for fame’s sake; taps into populist expressions of fear, hatred and resentment and shows a knack for picking fights and a braggart’s focus on the horse race. All of which allow him to play into -- and exploit -- every media weakness and bad habit in a chase for audience and numbers. As a result, said Goodwin, the 69-year-old Trump has preempted serious scrutiny of his past, character, record in business and suitability -- if any -- for the office of president…. 'We in the media are the key purveyors of the qualities of the candidates and of telling people who they are and what they stand for,' said Goodwin, a Pulitzer Prize winner whose best-selling books on Lincoln, the Roosevelts and Lyndon B. Johnson include studies of their dealings with the press. 'The responsibilities are pretty great.' Is the press carrying out those responsibilities in the case of Trump? 'No. I don’t think so,' she said." [HuffPost]
OBAMA GENTLY POOPS ON BERNIE SANDERS - Glenn Thrush: "[I]n a candid 40-minute interview for POLITICO’s Off Message podcast as the first flakes of the blizzard fell outside the Oval Office, he couldn’t hide his obvious affection for Clinton or his implicit feeling that she, not Sanders, best understands the unpalatably pragmatic demands of a presidency he likens to the world’s most challenging walk-and-chew-gum exercise. '[The] one thing everybody understands is that this job right here, you don’t have the luxury of just focusing on one thing,' a relaxed and reflective Obama told me in his most expansive discussion of the 2016 race to date…. 'Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete long shot and just letting loose,' he said. 'I think Hillary came in with the both privilege -- and burden -- of being perceived as the front-runner. … You’re always looking at the bright, shiny object that people haven’t seen before — that’s a disadvantage to her.'" [Politico]
Bernie Sanders doesn't have very good responses to Ta-Nehisi Coates on reparations.
Via @EmilyCadik
DELANEY DOWNER - Snow is no joke. "Authorities say a U.S. Capitol Police officer has died of a heart attack he suffered after shoveling snow at his Delaware home. Nicole Alston said her husband, 44-year-old Officer Vernon Alston, collapsed Saturday afternoon outside their Magnolia home after an hour of shoveling. She said he was dead within seconds. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine called Alston's death 'a tragic loss.' He was a 20-year veteran of the force. Officials also say a second man has died while shoveling snow in Maryland. The 49-year-old suffered cardiac arrest on Saturday. A man in Fort Washington had also been reported dead." [Associated Press]
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BUT IS IT GOOD FOR THE CRUZ? FLINT WATER CRISIS EDITION - Volunteers for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's Republican presidential campaign will be distributing water on Wednesday to residents of Flint, Michigan -- but apparently, only to anti-abortion groups. Wendy Lynn Day, the Michigan state director for the Cruz campaign, announced on Facebook last week that the water will be delivered to crisis pregnancy centers for 'expecting moms and moms of little ones.'" [HuffPost]
Rick Perry endorsed Cruz last night.
THE SIMPLE REASON FOR THE FLINT WATER CRISIS - Rick Snyder says the "crisis began in the spring of 2013, when the Flint City Council voted 7-1 to buy water from the Karegnondi Water Authority." It's simpler than that: Snyder's government gave Flint bad water treatment advice, and the city got bad water." [HuffPost]
TRUMP ON MIDDLE EAST PEACE - Doesn't even need four to six weeks for delivery. Andrew Kaczynski: "If Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry were to have won the election in 2004, Donald Trump was ready to negotiate his biggest deal yet: bringing peace to the Middle East. Trump, who in present day has called for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, was so confident in his deal-making abilities, he estimated it would take him two weeks to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. According to the Trump biography No Such Thing as Over-Exposure: Inside the Life and Celebrity of Donald Trump (which Trump is so fond of he sells in the lobby of Trump Tower), Kerry said to Trump: 'You know how to negotiate. You’d be the best person to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict.' Trump, volunteering his services, said, 'It would take me two weeks to get an agreement.'" [BuzzFeed]
MAN, PEOPLE ARE REALLY AFRAID OF CHRIS CHRISTIE - Phil Mattingly and Cassie Spodak: "But his surge brought a swift and relentless stream of attacks from rivals Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, John Kasich and their respective super PACs. They hit Christie on everything from his state's economic record to his positions on abortion and gun control. They even highlighted his perceived original sin: the embrace of Barack Obama after Superstorm Sandy in 2012, just before the Democrat beat Mitt Romney to win a second term...Dennehy described how he came home from work one evening to two campaign mailers attacking Chris Christie's record. He shrugged it off, walked inside and flipped on his Pandora. The first ad to interrupt his streaming music: an attack on Christie. He later grabbed his remote and flipped on the news. It was a matter of minutes before back-to-back ads targeting Christie were on the airwaves. Christie's favorability dropped from 53% in the December poll to 41% now to the CNN/WMUR poll released on Wednesday." [CNN]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a cute frog.
YEAH, WHY NOT - Alexander Smith: "Two-time defense secretary, White House chief of staff, pharmaceutical industry boss. But Donald Rumsfeld's resume now has a new, rather surprising addition: video-game app developer. The 83-year-old's late foray into the gaming world is called Churchill Solitaire and has chalked up an impressive 4.5/5 customer rating in the App Store. According to Rumsfeld, the app is a variation on solitaire that former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill devised and played with a young protege named Andre de Staercke during World War II. Staercke later became a NATO diplomat and taught the game to Rumsfeld in the 1970s." [NBC News]
COMFORT FOOD
- Pizza rat has new competition in snow rat.
- Cheetah befriends a yellow lab.
- Food delivery is so much better in Korea.
TWITTERAMA
@emmaroller: "Bernie's Yearning" sounds like the title of a political romance novel (cc @darth)
@LOLGOP: Either Donald Trump is really good at politics. Or every Republican candidate for president is piss awful. Or a little of both.
@MEPFuller: My impression of DC:
Try driving on our streets and get stuck in the snow? We're gonna ticket you.
Keep your car parked? We're gonna tic
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