SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

THURSDAY'S DEBATE LINEUP – From Fox: Fox News has announced the line-up for the prime-time Republican presidential debate this Thursday, and here's who qualified:  Real estate magnate Donald Trump; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich...But former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and several others will not be on the prime-time, 9 p.m. ET stage. The seven who did not make the top 10 will be invited to a separate 5 p.m. ET debate. Aside from Perry and Santorum, this includes Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; former HP head Carly Fiorina; South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham; former New York Gov. George Pataki; and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. Some of the candidates who didn't make the top tier, based on polls, are much more interesting than some of those who did – especially Carly Fiorina and Bobby Jindal.  Maybe enough people will watch the "junior" debate to boost some of its participants into the top tier.

BERNIE STILL BURNING HILLARY – From The New York Times:   Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont continues to tighten the race with Hillary Rodham Clinton in New Hampshire, according to a poll released on Tuesday.  The WMUR Granite State poll found that 42 percent of likely Democratic primary voters said they would vote for Mrs. Clinton, while 36 percent said they supported Mr. Sanders. The survey considers that gap to be a statistical tie, but it shows that Mr. Sanders continues to show strength after months of negative publicity about Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.  Hillary is in serious trouble.  She is wounded.  But she still is the national Dem frontrunner by a large margin.  She may limp to the nomination, with little enthusiasm behind her, but the liberal press will then boost her in the general-election campaign.  She could rob a bank and the newsies will still support her.

THIS IS CRAZY – From Daily Caller:   The top U.S. immigration agency told a Senate subcommittee it’s working to blunt homegrown terrorism by marketing U.S. citizenship to immigrants.  “In furtherance of DHS’s mission to safeguard the homeland, [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services] is committed to fostering integration and community cohesion,” the agency recently told the Immigration and the National Interest Subcommittee in records obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.  Oh, come on.  People bent on terrorism aren't going to be inspired by Abraham Lincoln.  What the immigration people are trying to do is get more probable Democratic voters on the citizenship rolls.  An old game.

POLITICAL REALITY – From the Daily Beast:   For some wealthy donors, it doesn’t matter who takes the White House in 2016—as long as the president’s name is Clinton or Bush.  More than 60 ultra-rich Americans have contributed to both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton’s federal campaigns, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by Vocativ and The Daily Beast. Seventeen of those contributors have gone one step further and opened their wallets to fund both Bush and Clinton’s 2016 ambitions.  After all, why support just Hillary Clinton or just Jeb Bush when you can hedge your bets and donate to both? This seems to be the thinking of a group of powerful men and women—racetrack owners, bankers, media barons, chicken magnates, hedge funders (and their spouses). Some of them have net worths that can eclipse the GDPs of small countries.  Happens in every election.  Donald Trump, now leading in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, has been very generous to Democrats in the past, including Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.  It's not a pretty sight, though, as it's obvious influence buying.

August 4,  2015