Sarah Binder over on The Monkey Cage:

The combination of circumstances, political importance of the position and very high polarization mean that an easy nomination process is highly unlikely.

Buckle up.

“We never thought that would happen to us.”

Joni Mitchell was wrong, David Brooks is already missing Barack Obama.

Come for the eulogy, stay for the back-handed compliment coded racism:

No, Obama has not been temperamentally perfect. Too often he’s been disdainful, aloof, resentful and insular.

I’m shocked (shocked) that a man whose origin and motives are questioned daily might ever be disdainful, aloof, resentful, or insular.

Jeb Bush said Monday that he would push to reverse the Supreme Court decision paving the way for super-PACs that spend big money backing candidates — including himself.

“If I could do it all again I’d eliminate the Supreme Court ruling” Citizens United, the Republican presidential candidate told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview published Monday afternoon, just a day before the New Hampshire primary.

“This is a ridiculous system we have now where you have campaigns that struggle to raise money directly and they can’t be held accountable for the spending of the super-PAC that’s their affiliate,” Bush added.

…

Bush has been supported in his White House bid by millions of dollars spent by the super-PAC Right to Rise, which pulled in $118 million last year.

Someone should really tell Jeb Bush that without Citizens United no one would care about his thoughts on Citizens United.

Kelefa Sanneh for The New Yorker on the immoral (perhaps criminal) pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, who testified before Congress yesterday:

Donald Trump can rightly be called polarizing, but Shkreli cannot: he seems to have precious few fans to balance out his innumerable detractors.

The rest of Sanneh’s argument is pretty bunk though. In particular, Elijah Cummings was great.

I’ll tell you what I tell every creator I’ve discussed this with, though, and that’s that late books will drain every last bit of momentum from any title, no matter how good it is. The notion that if you build it, they will come, no matter when the job is finished, is just plain wrong. Especially if you’re doing a long, involved story – drip-feeding that to readers over the course of years is not going to work. There is too much competition for people’s attention – and not just from comics. They will move on.

– Eric Stephenson, the Publisher of Image Comics

Emma Roller on heuristics in decision-making:

For example, I tend to distrust people who unironically use the word “synergy.” It just makes life easier.

Good rule.