| Ask and ye shall receive! |
| Team FTR is giddy that you, fair readers, trusted us enough to answer your election questions. You made us puzzle 'til our puzzler was sore. Fingers crossed that we didn't let you down: |
| QUESTION 1: THE VP SITCH |
| Christopher Jones asks: (Have) either Clinton or Trump publicly selected a vice president yet? Is Christie in play for VP? |
| FTR answers: Nope, the VP contest is still up in the air. It's doubtful we'll know who either candidate chooses until after the summer conventions. (This also is assuming Trump and Clinton clinch the nominations without some sort of crazy brokered convention mess, which could delay the whole VP nominating process even more.) But there is already a ton of speculation on who each might choose. Nikki Haley seems to be showing up on a lot of the short lists for Republicans. As for Chris Christie? It was widely speculated that he endorsed Trump to clinch the VP nomination. But after #FreeChristie, few people seem to be taking that idea seriously. |
| QUESTION 2: WALL STREET CORRUPTION |
| Tom Kasarek asks: Is it true that Wall Street fraud is back to nearly as bad as before the housing bubble burst, as said in the recent movie "The Big Short"? |
| FTR answers: Depends on whether you consider Wall Street reforms successful. On one hand, banks have paid billions of dollars for mortgage-related violations. And though subprime loans are back , the qualifications to get one are now much harder. But Dodd-Frank, the bill that aimed to fix Wall Street, had plenty of Achilles heels that lobbyists have worked hard to exploit in hopes of neutering any regulations. |
| Admittedly, this is boring, inside-baseball kind of stuff. But it's become a huge talking point in the Democratic primary with the story line that big, greedy banks are continuing to prey on poor folks, drag down the economy and hurt democracy. The problem is there is no consensus on what (or which candidate) is most qualified to fix it. |
| If your eyes haven't totally glazed over yet, here's a decent explanation of the differences between what Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have proposed. Oh, and if you're wondering why no Republican candidates are talking about this issue - well, let's just be blunt. They don't think it's an issue. |
| QUESTION 3: CRUZ'S CITIZENSHIP |
| Tom Price asks: I would like to know more about Sen. Cruz's parents. Why was she in Canada? How long was she in Canada? Did she renounce her American citizenship and apply to be a citizen of Canada? Did his parents ever file a birth certificate with the US State Department? I am just curious. |
| FTR answers: There's been a lot written about Ted Cruz's dad, the fiery preacher whose comments often generate headlines, but less about his mom. And, as we hinted in Monday's newsletter, there are all sorts of conspiracy theories about Cruz's eligibility to run for president, given that he was born in Canada. Cruz says his parents moved to Alberta to continue their work at the time, which was searching for new oil reserves. They lived in Canada for less than a decade before moving back to the U.S., and as far as we can tell, Cruz's mom never applied to become a Canadian citizen (though some conspiracy theorists think otherwise). You can see a copy of the senator's Canadian birth certificate, but was it ever filed with the State Department? Hmm, dunno. Couldn't find an authoritative answer to that. |
| MORE FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL |
| • | Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's campaign manager, is charged with assaulting a now-former Breitbart reporter. Here are five unsettling things to know about the guy (USA TODAY On Politics) | | • | Cruz admits a bromance, blushes and gushes over winning Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's endorsement (USA TODAY On Politics) | | • | Curious who might be contemplating a 2020 (or later) run for president? Start with the list of people who stumped for 2016 candidates in Iowa (Des Moines Register) | | • | Real stone tombstones aren't cheap. So whoever put up the one for Donald Trump in Central Park must have money to burn (Twitter) | |
| #TONEDOWNFORWHAT |
| Hillary Clinton is getting raked over the Twitterverse for refusing to debate Bernie Sanders in her home state of New York. Her campaign folks say Sanders' debate challenge is simply a stunt to get attention and that they won't meet on stage until he changes the "tone of his campaign" - spawning the new hashtag of the moment, #ToneDownForWhat. Comical as the responses are, we're going to side with Hillary on this one because, well, it's self-preservation. Don't. Make. Us. Watch. Another. Debate. |
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