Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► How’s this for a change? The House Freedom Caucus may actually be trying to prevent a government shutdown.

► As we told you on Thursday, the Republican candidate for State House in HD-12 (Louisville/Longmont) is absolutely, positively bananas. Later in the day David Reid Ross decided to withdraw from the race altogether.

► Confirmation hearings for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee have included a heavy discussion of abortion rights and where Brett Kavanaugh may (or may not) stand on repealing Roe v. Wade. These conversations mean that state decisions could be more important for preserving pro-choice rights; Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton won’t say where he stands on abortion other than a generic “I will be a pro-life Governor” statement.

► Former President Barack Obama delivered a rare public speech on Friday at the University of Illinois in which he wondered aloud about how the Republican Party had devolved into its current state. As Politico reports:

Laying out a brief history of America — starting with George Washington’s decision to step out of public life after leaving the presidency — Obama framed the 2018 elections as more significant than ever before.

And for the first time since leaving office, he said Trump’s name.

“It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause,” Obama said, to applause. “He’s just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years.”

It’s not just about Trump, he said. It’s about Republicans “who know better in Congress … bending over backwards to shield” Trump. They’re hypocrites, he said, and they’re just as dangerous to America. At times mocking them and at times laying into them, Obama said they’ve abandoned all that they’re supposed to stand for as Republicans, and as citizens of this country.

► If House Republicans are somehow able to maintain their majority after November, there will be a significant battle over who gets to lead the GOP.

► Business owners from across the Western United States are heading to Washington D.C. to advocate for full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

► Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) is being targeted in a new TV ad over his long history of accepting large sums of money from corporate contributors.

► The campaign of Republican Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) is trying to question Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s support of fellow Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in CO-3.

► Democrats are generally outperforming Republicans in fundraising for state legislative seats, but as the Colorado Independent notes, the GOP is counting on big money from outside interests to bail them out.

► “War games, election style.”