If you didn’t see this, click and enjoy. It’s a brilliant campaign speech. No one else in our political life has the same reach or standing or sense of mass moods or oratorical skills as Obama does. He’s unique. And we are lucky he’s on our side and beating the drum democracy and democratic rule, while unmasking Trump for the autocrat that he is.

What Senate Republicans are doing is an example – and an outrageous one at that – of “court packing.” And with someone who seems, as more information comes out, more and more on the fringe. She isn’t a Pope Francis Catholic by any stretch.

The modern day Republican Party is more a rupture than a continuation of its earlier iterations in the middle part of the 20 century. Its commitment to uphold constitutional and democratic norms and institutions isn’t part of its playbook any longer.