It's Starting to Suck to be Donald J. Trump

So now the 2016 presidential campaign begins in earnest, with the next big events--the debates--starting in September. Alexander Burns in the NY Times identifies the essence of the Democratic Party case, which is essentially the democratic case:

Democrats marked a decisive turn in their campaign against Donald J. Trump this week, moving to recast the 2016 race not as a conventional battle between left and right but as a national emergency that requires voters of all stripes to band together against a singularly menacing candidate.

Later: David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said Democrats had picked up on an unsettling theme in Mr. Trump’s campaign. He said the attacks this week on Mr. Trump as an autocrat had the potential to resonate outside the Democratic base.  “I really don’t think that’s too over the top,” Mr. Boaz said. “We have one candidate who’s not even pretending — he is promising to be a one-man ruler.”

Meanwhile, Trump's prominence and his boast about his businesses are bringing renewed attention to them, and not the good kind.  A Florida court just ordered Trump to pay $300,000 in legal fees--as well as unpaid bills-- to a paint store that Trump tried to stiff.  Trump hotel workers in North Carolina are organizing a union--Trump officially questioned the union vote and was slapped down by the National Labor Relations Board.  My guess is this is only the beginning.

And even better, Republican efforts to prevent citizens from voting, especially if they are poor and of color, are getting cancelled by the courts.  The latest is the Federal Appeals Court decision in North Carolina that strikes down its voter ID law.  Also a new decision striking down voter ID in Wisconsin. A similar decision was handed down in Texas last week, and a different sort of restriction was denied in Michigan.  Update: And Kansas!

Receiving a lot of attention today is an appearance at the DNC yesterday--of the father of a Muslim US soldier killed in battle, who brandished the US Constitution essentially in Trump's face.

Also, a few notable new pieces about the Clinton speech: the WPost's The Plum Line summarized the cross-party appeal noted in other pieces, while adding details about Trump's responses Friday, and calling him "a dangerous lunatic" and "dangerously insane."  Okay Greg, but what do you really think?

 New York has a terrific piece on the mothers and daughters connections uniquely expressed on Hillary's big night.  Xeni Jardin at the Guardian was moved, and wrote movingly about hearing a speech from the first woman candidate:"Hillary’s speech was like watching the moon landing. I don’t remember anyone ever telling me that a woman could never be president. But that’s how deeply sexism and “less-than” are woven into American culture. My culture...And suddenly last night, right there on our screens: we breathed new air."

Also at the Guardian, Jill Abramson, Lucia Graves and Richard Wolffe made pertinent points about Clinton's speech.