Ivy League academic: Stumble Vid Is Hillary’s Blue Dress

What do the video of Hillary Clinton stumbling and Monica Lewinsky’s notorious DNA-stained blue dress have in common? Each, says Princeton Professor of Jurisprudence Robert P. George in National Review, fatally undermined a Clinton’s credibility. The dress silenced defenders who had insisted there was no proof of President Bill’s infidelity and perjury. As a result, “even his supporters knew that they could no longer believe, or ask others to believe, anything he said.” Same with rumors of Hillary’s ill health: Her campaign blamed a “right-wing conspiracy.” But the video proved “they had been lying to the public.” From now own, “Mrs. Clinton’s word, and the word of her campaign spokesmen, is not good enough.”

From the right: Planned Parenthood’s Big Win Over Zika

Having taken “a pasting from the mainstream media,” congressional Republicans reportedly “will soon bow to the demands of President Obama” and the Democrats and pass an appropriations bill on the Zika virus that doesn’t limit funding for Planned Parenthood. Proving yet again, writes Jonathan Tobin at Commentary, that “Democrats will stand by their loyalty to the abortion rights lobby . . . even if it means stalling Zika funding indefinitely and risking a government shutdown.” Republicans want to fight, but are “too scared of the fallout from the consequences of such a standoff to risk it.” Which is “something to remember the next time you hear or read . . . about who the extremists in Washington are.”

Alum’s lament: How Yale Betrayed Itself By Backing Bullies

Last fall, Yale effectively forced the resignations — after a student uproar — of husband-wife faculty members who’d defended free-speech rights while criticizing an official campus directive against wearing Halloween costumes that “threaten our sense of community.” James Kirchick writes in Tablet that “Yale has gone out of its way to avoid addressing the nub of the matter: how so many of its charges have been conditioned into thinking that a retort to administrative busybodies constitutes racism.” Posting extensive new video of the protests, he warns: “Because Yale was never willing to treat its students like adults and read them the riot act, it sent the message that their alleged grievances . . . were valid.” A year later, he writes, “it’s impossible not feel a sense of shame at how my alma mater betrayed not only Erika and Nicholas Christakis, but itself.”

Marine vet: Does Free College Threaten Volunteer Army?

Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders proposed plans that would make college tuition-free for most in order to alleviate the student-debt problem. At Warontherocks.com, Marine Corps veteran and college grad Benjamin Luxenberg says he sympathizes, but points to a critical overlooked factor: “the impact on military recruiting.” He notes, “Many of those who join the military” — 75 percent according to a 2011 Pew poll — “do so, at least in part, to obtain access to the GI Bill and the financial means to obtain a degree.” Without that inducement, he warns, “the military is likely to experience substantially more difficulty in recruiting new personnel,” which will make it harder to “sustain the qualitative edge of our superb military.”



Liberal cartoonist: US Electoral Map Starting To Look Like Syria

Washington Post political cartoonist Tom Toles, resorting to words rather than drawings, says the US is starting to look a lot like Syria: A territory “all chopped up into factions and each at war with each. Nobody can win and nobody will quit.” Says Toles: “The two sides in the political split in the US simply no longer understand English the same way. The same words are used, but they have completely different meanings.” Indeed, he asks, “Have you tried to have a conversation recently with someone supporting the opposing candidate? Words are exchanged, without mutual comprehension. The only thing mutual now is animosity.”

— Compiled by Eric Fettmann