Ugh, dreamed about the Voters First Presidential Forum a good part of the night. ‘Twas even more boring the third time around.

Here are some wide-awake midday news/views treats:

* Trump leaps onto the “shut down the government to defund Planned Parenthood bandwagon, which will buy him a lot of good will among Christian Right types.

* Josh Marshall notes Trump’s favorability ratings among Republicans pretty much the same as Jeb’s. Whoa!

* Jonathan Bernstein examines the seedy motives of the people hyping a Biden presidential run.

* At the Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf notes that antichoicers aren’t being moved by the dramatic results of a Colorado experiment in encouraging use of IUDs and contraceptive implants.

* At the Plum Line, Paul Waldman suggests the debate over fetal tissue “sales” may wind up taking same prochoice trajectory as earlier debate over stem cell research.

And in non-political news:

* Seven-foot gator found playing in the surf at Pawleys Island, SC.

As we break for lunch, here’s Louis Armstrong performing “A Kiss To Build A Dream On” with Sy Oliver’s Orchestra in 1951.

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.