The KKK Endorsed Ronald Reagan-Twice

From a column by the late great scoop reporter Jack Anderson in the Ellensburg Daily Record on Sept 15, 1980 (elsewhere one can confirm that the specific date of the KKK endorsement was on July 30, 1980

In 1984, it took the Reagan adminstration a full month before they would even comment on the KKK endorsement. From the Pittsburgh Press UPI feed in May, 1984

Of course, it's not surprising Ronald Reagan would have been endorsed by the Klan. After all, just days after that initial Ku Klan Klan endorsement, Reagan, in his first major appearance after the Republican convention, went to the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi to talk about his belief in "state's rights." (a well-known code word for letting states segregate and such). Philadelphia, Mississippi of course, was known for only one thing: the murder of 1 African-American and 2 Jews working on voter registration by, you guessed it, members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Trump Was the #1 Target of Super PAC Attack Ads in 3 of the First 4 States

An oft-repeated claim in the media is that the party went easy on Donald Trump in terms of attack ads in the early contests and until very recently. Based on SuperPAC spending data from the FEC, this appears to be false. 

Except in New Hampshire, Trump was the #1 target of SuperPAC attack ads. In New Hampshire, the biggest target was Chris Christie. The vast majority of that anti-Christie spending in New Hampshire was by the pro-Rubio super PAC, which may be part of the reason why Christie was particularly angry at Rubio and decided to go with Trump to dispel with the fiction that Rubio has a chance to win.

Rubio is actually the one who's had it relatively easy in terms of attack ads, and he's had tons of money spent on his behalf in pro-Rubio ads. Trump has had very little SuperPAC spending (I haven't managed to compute it out yet). Yet Trump's been winning.

The Party Hasn't Decided s