The Patriot Post® · Monday Short Cuts

The Gipper: “The themes of a sound foreign policy should be no mystery, nor the result of endless agonizing reappraisals. They are rooted in our past — in our very beginning as a nation.”

Observations: “[A]fter months of Trump leading the polls, fatalism about him has set in. Nothing can be done to stop him, and the sophisticated play is to pre-emptively accept him. Perhaps Trump will sweep all before him. But no one has voted yet, and there are still vastly preferable, more conservative candidates in the field, including Cruz and Marco Rubio. When it comes to Trump, the pungent phrase Cruz used about the establishment during the government shutdown fight is apt. It is indeed the ‘surrender caucus.’” —Rich Lowry

The BIG lie: “What … some officials over [at the Justice Department] have said is that [Hillary Clinton] is not a target of the [email] investigation. So [an indictment] does not seem to be the direction that it’s trending.” —Josh Earnest

Braying Jenny: “This [email debate] is very much like Benghazi. … The Republicans are going to continue to use it, beat up on me. I understand that. That’s the way they are. But after 11 hours of testimony, answering every single question, in public, which I had requested for many months, I think it’s pretty clear that they’re grasping at straws and this will turn out the same way.” —Hillary Clinton

Nope. There’s a reason our rights are codified: “The [gun control] actions we can and should take can certainly be done consistent with the Constitution and the rights of gun owners. That has never been in doubt, unless you’re a paid lobbyist for the gun lobby. There is no doubt about that.” —Hillary Clinton

Braying Jackass: “When Republicans talk about family values, what they are saying is that no women in this room, in this state, in this country should have the right to control her own body.” —Bernie Sanders

And last… “Surely it means something that Mr. Obama spent eight years insisting he was not a socialist, and Bernie Sanders is rising while saying he is one.” —Peggy Noonan