SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

ENDORSEMENT – Chris Christie endorsed Donald Trump today, which is like Bonnie endorsing Clyde.  These are two professional tough guys who don't exactly enhance the level of political rhetoric.  I suppose Christie can get something out of this, like a cabinet post, but if Trump loses he is vulnerable to the charge of opportunism and helping to cost the GOP a presidential election.  The fact is that most Republicans are not for Donald Trump, and he's got to push over that 50% mark to show that he's truly in control.  Trump is expected to sweep most of the Super Tuesday states this coming Tuesday, but I think predictions of anything beyond that are foolish.  This is a very unusual election year, and most predictions have fallen flat.  Let's just watch the actual returns.

HIGH CONTROVERSY – From the College Fix:   The notion of requiring students to take two courses in Western Civilization to earn a diploma is so controversial at Stanford University that a recently launched petition that calls for as much has propelled the school into a heated debate complete with name-calling, intimidation tactics and more.  On one side is the editorial board of the conservative-leaning Stanford Review, which introduced the petition Sunday asking peers to sign on, saying “Stanford University, an institution purportedly at the pinnacle of higher education, fails its students.”  But the requirement, if approved, would help change that, as “students would immerse themselves in the writings of Homer, Plato, Locke, Douglass, and de Beauvoir,” states a manifesto that accompanies the petition. “The scientific revolutions hundreds of Stanford students use would gain historical context. We would lament the horrors of slavery and oppression – and applaud those who fought for freedom.”  As it stands, Stanford students are only required to take a one-quarter “Thinking Matters” humanities class that is so broad in scope it can be met with courses such as “Breaking Codes, Finding Patterns” and “Food Talks: The Language of Food,” according to the manifesto, titled “The Case for a Western Civilization Requirement at Stanford.”  It probably will never happen.  Stanford, like the others, has gone PC.   

IRAN VOTE – From ABC News:   Reformists and moderate conservatives were leading in parliamentary elections according to early results Saturday, an indication President Hassan Rouhani may face a more friendly house to pursue his domestic agenda.  Early returns from Friday's polls show that none of the three competing political factions will win a majority in the 290-seat parliament. But reformists seeking greater democratic changes are heading toward their strongest presence since 2004 at the expense of hard-liners. Officials are yet to release early results but reports in the semiofficial Fars and Mehr news agencies and a  count conducted by The Associated Press show that hard-liners are the main losers of the vote.  Friday's election for Iran's parliament and a powerful clerical body known as the Assembly of Experts was the first since Iran's landmark nuclear deal with world powers last year.  Read stories like this with two eyes.  "Moderate" in Iran isn't like "moderate" in the U.S.  An Iranian moderate is just a little less fascist than the hardliners.

February 26, 2016