memeorandum: Obama Judges a Judge (George F. Will/Washington Post)

1:35 PM ET, August 12, 2007

Top Items:

Romney Wins Iowa's GOP Poll — Victory Highlights Strategy Difference With Giuliani — With a convincing victory in the Republican straw poll here Saturday, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney vaulted himself into the next phase of a presidential nomination battle pitting …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, Townhall.com, Dick Polman's American Debate, Outside The Beltway, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and New York Times

The New Republic:

VIVA HUCKABEE!: — Here's when I realized Mike Huckabee might be on the verge of something: Shortly after 1 o'clock, Laura Ingraham, our intrepid emcee, introduced each of the straw poll candidates. Because Romney was speaking immediately after the introductions, and because he'd clearly bused …

Discussion: The Debate Link

Kevin Freking / Associated Press:
Romney says straw poll win isn't hollow

Discussion: Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Brilliant at Breakfast and PoliBlog (TM)

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Ames results: Quick notes

Discussion: protein wisdom, Patrick Ruffini, The Atlantic Online, Charleston Daily Mail, The Fix, race42008.com and Hot Air

The Atlantic Online:
AMES: Romney WIns; Huckabee In Second

Jonathan Martin / The Politico: Romney wins big, Huckabee second

Des Moines Register:
Romney wins, Huckabee in 2nd

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Ames Poll Produces Winner — And It May Not Be Romney

Discussion: The Fix, Residual Forces and Redstate

Chase Martyn / Iowa Independent:
Romney Wins Straw Poll, Huckabee Takes Second

Discussion: Marc Cooper

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:
Help Me Uncle Sam!

Discussion: The American Street, Associated Press and Reason Magazine

Mark Steyn / Orange County Register:

Warm-mongers and cheeseburger imperialists — Something rather odd happened the other day. If you go to NASA's Web site and look at the "U.S. surface air temperature" rankings for the lower 48 states, you might notice that something has changed. — Then again, you might not.

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard and Althouse

Mark Steyn / The Corner:

The army is refusing to order him to speak to us — If this is true, Private Beauchamp has now reached the final phase of the Stephen Glass story - the stage where he's avoiding taking the editor's calls.Colonel Steve Boylan tells The Weekly Standard:

Bill Roggio / Weekly Standard:
The Army Responds — I recently emailed Col. Steve Boylan asking …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Take Our Country Back, A Blog For All, QandO, SWJ Blog, Jules Crittenden, Confederate Yankee, Wake up America and AMERICAN DIGEST

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

The truth behind the Pollack-O'Hanlon trip to Iraq — Last Wednesday, I interviewed Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution regarding the trip he recently took to Iraq and the highly publicized Op-Ed in the New York Times about his trip, co-written with his Brookings colleague, Ken Pollack.

Discussion: The American Street and Alternate Brain

Dore Gold / Opinion Journal:

The Dangers of 'Peace' Making — America's latest efforts merely entrenched al Qaeda in the Gaza Strip. — The U.S. and other Western powers are pushing for a new Israeli-Palestinian breakthrough, to help contain Iran and undercut the appeal of al Qaeda and radical Islam.

Discussion: Power Line and Israel Matzav

Gateway Pundit:
CHOPPER BLOGGING Over Gaza and the West Bank

Discussion: Power Line

Robert J. Samuelson / Newsweek:

Greenhouse Simplicities — We in the news business often enlist in moral crusades. Global warming is among the latest. Unfortunately, self-righteous indignation can undermine good journalism. Last week's NEWSWEEK cover story on global warming is a sobering reminder.

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard, Instapundit.com, NewsBusters.org, Sister Toldjah, Flopping Aces, INSTAPUTZ and The Glittering Eye

Monica Hesse / Washington Post:

Fred, Fred, Fred: Thompson's Challenge Has a Name — In the swampy soup of hopefuls for the 2008 presidential election, there is a man with a funny name. (No, not that one.) — We're thinking of the one named Fred (Thompson). — Say it out loud. Do it. Fred. Fred. In the South, Fray-ud.

Discussion: Riehl World View and Extreme Mortman

Bill O'Reilly / Boston Herald:

'Bourne' flick is ultimately un-American — When "The Simpsons Movie" turns out to be more realistic than "The Bourne Ultimatum," you know something is up. Nevertheless, the thriller is a big hit, proving once again that film audiences now want live-action cartoons rather than crisp …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Charles Levinson / Telegraph:

Hizbollah buys frontier land to attack Israel — Hizbollah is buying up large tracts of land owned by Christians and other non-Shias in southern Lebanon as the militant group rebuilds its defences in preparation for a new war with Israel, The Sunday Telegraph has been told.

Discussion: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Israel Matzav, Take Our Country Back and Blue Crab Boulevard

Washington Post:

How the Fight for Vast New Spying Powers Was Won — For three days, Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, had haggled with congressional leaders over amendments to a federal surveillance law, but now he was putting his foot down. "This is the issue," said the plain-spoken …

Discussion: Balkinization, Comments From Left Field, Unqualified Offerings, The Strata-Sphere, Prairie Weather, The Next Hurrah, Washington Monthly, The Anonymous Liberal and New York Times

Ynetnews:

Surveillance video of J'lem shooting — (Video) Tapes of Friday gunfire in Old City clearly show Arab-Israeli man grabbing guard's gun and firing it repeatedly, disproving claims that he had been innocent and was 'murdered for nothing' — VIDEO - Surveillance videos clearly show Ahmad Mahmoud Khatib …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Israel Matzav, Solomonia and A Blog For All

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Obama Judges a Judge — Sen. Barack Obama recently told some Iowa farmers that prices of their crops are not high enough, considering what grocers are charging for other stuff: "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?" Living near the University of Chicago …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Charlie Savage / Boston Globe:

US doles out millions for street cameras — Local efforts raise privacy alarms — WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is funneling millions of dollars to local governments nationwide for purchasing high-tech video camera networks, accelerating the rise of a "surveillance society" …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo