The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “This wretched resource of turning interest into principal, is the most humiliating and disgraceful measure that a nation could take, and approximates with rapidity to absolute ruin.” —Gov. William Richardson Davie (1756-1820)

For the record: “[John] Boehner lost the ability to bully conservatives because outside conservative groups started making those guys heroes and household names for standing up to Boehner. Conservatives built themselves infrastructure to fundraise for themselves when Boehner shut off K Street spigots. And now Boehner had closed his doors not just to social conservatives, but fiscal conservatives and war hawks. All he had left were a small group of moderates and the assistance of the Democrats. He could not survive a motion to vacate the chair with that. He had to resign.” —Erick Erickson

Upright: “[Donald Trump] looked very bad in the last debate because he had no substance. There is only so much time in a presidential campaign when you can say, ‘My strategy is I’m smarter than everybody else, I cut great deals… I can’t tell you my foreign-policy plans because I don’t want to tip off the enemy.’” —Marc Thiessen on why Trump is, for the first time since his announcement, experiencing a marked decline in poll averages

Observations: “While we can all recognize and celebrate that Ahmed [Mohamed] won’t be going to jail, the treatment of Ahmed’s case by the president and the press ensure that next time a young Muslim student brings a suspicious object to school, administrators will ignore it for fear of career-ending consequences. And next time, that suspicious object may not be a disassembled clock.” —Ben Shapiro

Good question: “If you want moral credit for caring about the poor, when, oh when, do you ever have to take responsibility for what happens to the poor when leftists take over?” —Mona Charen

“I am always a little bit puzzled when any woman of whatever age, but particularly a young woman, says something like … ‘Well, I believe in equal rights, but I’m not a feminist.’” —Hillary Clinton

And last… “Reports of ISIS violence was secretly scaled down in White House intel reports. I didn’t know lowering intelligence around here was possible.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest