The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Short Cuts

For the record: “Donald Trump … has reoriented politics around himself. To some degree, every president manages to do that; it’s in the nature of the bully pulpit. But opinions on the president are usually proxies for positions on larger issues that matter, such as taxes or social welfare spending. With Trump, it often comes down to what you think of the man himself. He is the center of gravity around which politics orbits in 2018.” —Jay Cost

Observations: “[Andrew] McCabe defenders may argue that any other FBI official would have reached the same conclusions about the Clinton investigation that McCabe did. But if that really is the case, that just strengthens the argument that someone else should have handled it. … If you allow the FBI to cut corners or tread into gray areas when investigating political figures you don’t like, at some point, they’re going to cut corners or tread into gray areas when investigating political figures you do like.” —Jim Geraghty

Friendly fire blitz:

“I don’t think that’s the way you should talk about any voter, especially ones in my state.” —Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) on Hillary Clinton’s attack on women voters

“[Hillary] should go away. … She is not helping the Democratic Party.” —former Obama State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf

“Look, this was bad. I can’t sugarcoat it.” —Clinton’s 2008 campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle

“I have all the respect in the world for her, but … [the] rest of us are gonna focus on the future.” —Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager Robby Mook

And last… “In 1992, when Bill Clinton was running for president, he went on ‘60 Minutes’ to answer allegations of extramarital wrongdoing. His wife appeared with him and backed him up. ‘I’m not sitting here some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette,’ Hillary Clinton said that day. ‘I’m sitting here because I love him and I respect him.’ She resented the insinuation that she lacked the agency to make a political decision in her own best interest. Women who voted for Trump resent it when Clinton makes the same insinuation about them.” —Jeff Jacoby