memeorandum: Death Blow to Defeatists (Pete Hegseth/National Review)

9:25 PM ET, January 14, 2008

Top Items:

Obama Damps Down Racial Controversy — ABC News' David Wright, Andy Fies, and Sunlen Miller Report: Sen. Barack Obama told ABC News Monday there is nothing in Sen. Hillary Clinton's record that would give him any cause for concern about her in terms of racial politics.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, ScrappleFace, protein wisdom, Ben Smith's Blogs, The Trail, Hullabaloo, Irish Trojan in Tennessee, Tom Watson, TalkLeft, TIME: Swampland, Booman Tribune, Gateway Pundit and Washington Post

Matt Bai / The Caucus:

The Clintons and History — WASHINGTON — There's an old joke people here in the capital like to tell about Charles E. Schumer, the New York senator, and over the years I'm sure it's been used to describe other politicians, as well: The most dangerous place to stand in Washington …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Right Wing Nut House, MSNBC, Blue Crab Boulevard, Stumper, God's Politics, Pandagon, Balloon Juice and Jack and Jill Politics

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

Obama, putting out the fire — Carrie Budoff Brown has some key quotes from an Obama avail this afternoon in Reno, where he tried to put to rest the racially-charged name-calling. … His surrogates and a spokeswoman have, it's worth noting, participated in the recent round of criticism of the Clintons …

Discussion: Marc Ambinder, Sisyphus Shrugged, The Democratic Daily, The Page and Buck Naked Politics

CNN:

Bill Clinton compiles ‘list’ of Obama attacks — (CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign came out swinging Monday against the latest complaints from her rival, with former President Clinton announcing he has “a list of 80 attacks on Hillary” by Senator Barack Obama's campaign.

Discussion: The Swamp, Horses Mouth and State of the Day

Christopher Hitchens / Slate:

The Case Against Hillary Clinton — WHY ON EARTH WOULD WE CHOOSE TO PUT THE CLINTON FAMILY DRAMA AT THE CENTER OF OUR POLITICS AGAIN. — Seeing the name Hillary in a headline last week—a headline about a life that had involved real achievement—I felt a mouse stirring in the attic of my memory.

Discussion: New York Times, Viking Pundit, Weekly Standard and Riehl World View

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:

Obama Tries to Stop the ‘Silliness’ — (Photo: Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times) — RENO, Nev. - As he campaigned in northern Nevada on Monday, Senator Barack Obama said he was concerned that a heated discussion of racial issues in the presidential campaign could divide the Democratic Party.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Sister Toldjah and The Huffington Post

Frank James / The Swamp:
Clinton camp fires up blacks but not how they hoped

Discussion: protein wisdom, CNN, Washington Post, The Hill and JustOneMinute

Earl Ofari Hutchinson / The Huffington Post:
Obama Needs a History Lesson about Hillary and King

Discussion: PoliGazette and Too Sense

Mike Allen / The Politico:
Obama camp slams Clintons over drugs talk

Discussion: Spin Cycle

Michael Duffy / Time:
Race Spells Trouble for the Dems

Discussion: Lance Mannion

Josh Gerstein / Latest Politics:
President Clinton Does More Damage Control on Black Radio

Discussion: Booman Tribune, NY Daily News, BitsBlog, The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, The Heretik and Hotline On Call

David Corn / MoJoBlog:
Clinton Smears Obama on Iraq — Again

Discussion: QandO, The Garlic, Comments from Left Field, Crooks and Liars, The Daily Dish, David Corn, Matthew Yglesias, Gawker, MyDD, TalkLeft and The Democratic Daily

Walter Shapiro / Salon:
The Clinton-Obama contest gets rougher

Discussion: Brilliant at Breakfast, Spin Cycle, Norwegianity and The Daily Background

Anjeanette Damon / Inside Nevada Politics:

New Poll: Democratic race in Nevada a dead heat — A new poll by the Reno Gazette-Journal shows a neck-and-neck three-way race among Democrats for Saturday's caucus. On the Republican side, U.S. Sen. John McCain has taken his first lead in Nevada of the election season, and Mitt Romney …

Discussion: Washington Wire, Pollster.com, Daily Kos, The Agonist, The Fix, The Huffington Post, Open Left, MSNBC, The Caucus, Boston Globe, MyDD and CANNONFIRE

USA Today:

USAT/Gallup Poll: McCain jumps to lead; Clinton regains advantage — Both winners in last week's New Hampshire primary now lead in the USA TODAY/Gallup national poll of the Republican and Democratic presidential nomination races. — Sen. John McCain has jumped ahead of the other Republican contenders.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, Quinnipiac University News …, Los Angeles Times, Pollster.com, TPM Election Central, Classical Values, The Moderate Voice, CBS News, ABCNEWS and TalkLeft

David Mark / The Politico:

Clinton holds solid lead in California — The poll of 384 likely Democratic primary voters, conducted by telephone Jan. 11-13, shows the New York senator at 47 percent, comfortably ahead of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's 31 percent and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards' 10 percent.

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Sean Hackbarth / Fred File:
Fred Thompson Surges in South Carolina

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Captain's Quarters, Right Wing Nut House and Wizbang

Peter Robinson / The Corner:
Fred Thompson: Liftoff?

Discussion: Stop The ACLU and Flopping Aces

Michelle Malkin:

McCain booed in Michigan...twice; Update: Video added — Update: Here's the vid of the booing at the Americans for Prosperity Summit event... Mr. Shamnesty-Short Fuse almost walked off the stage during a campaign event with the AFL-CIO in Michigan. Audience members didn't like his soft-on-illegal immigration blather.

Discussion: Hot Air and Riehl World View

Pete Winn / CNSNews:
Michigan Crowd Boos McCain on Illegal Immigration

Discussion: Stop The ACLU and PunditGuy

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
ROMNEY IN MICHIGAN....Kos is still pushing Democrats to cross …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and Comments from Left Field

Michael Hirsh / Newsweek:

Bothersome Intel on Iran — In public, President Bush has been careful to reassure Israel and other allies that he still sees Iran as a threat, while not disavowing his administration's recent National Intelligence Estimate. That NIE, made public Dec. 3, embarrassed the administration …

Discussion: Think Progress, Cliff Schecter, Wall Street Journal, Emptywheel, SteveAudio, Hullabaloo, The Newshoggers, THE CUNNING REALIST, Corrente, The Carpetbagger Report, Make Them Accountable and RADAMISTO

Spengler / Asia Times:

Indiana Jones meets the Da Vinci Code — Islam watchers blogged all weekend about news that a secret archive of ancient Islamic texts had surfaced after 60 years of suppression. Andrew Higgins' Wall Street Journal report that the photographic record of Koranic manuscripts …

Discussion: ShrinkWrapped, The Jawa Report, The Belmont Club, Fausta's blog and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Andrew Higgins / Wall Street Journal: Missing for a half century, a cache of photos spurs sensitive research …

Aaron Siegel / InvestmentNews.com Latest Headlines:

Financial advisers' No. 1 worry: A Democrat in the White House — Nothing worries financial advisers more than the prospect of a Democrat's being elected president in November, according to a quarterly poll by Brinker Capital Inc. — The fourth-quarter edition of the Brinker Barometer …

Discussion: bustardblog, The Newshoggers, WILLisms.com, Wake up America, Bookworm Room, TigerHawk, Wizbang, Macsmind and Don Surber

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: The Nightmare For Financial Advisers

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Judge To NBC: You Can't Control Your Own Content — A solution in search of a problem found a judge in search of some understanding of the concept of private property and free speech. Both converged in Las Vegas through the efforts of Dennis Kucinich to force his way into the NBC Democratic debate.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Newshoggers, Los Angeles Times and Political Machine

Newt Gingrich / The Corner:

Ronald Reagan, the GOP, and “Real Change” — On ABC's This Week yesterday to discuss my new book Real Change, I said “the era of Ronald Reagan is over." I want to explain my statement because it seems to have caused some confusion. — The fact is that if Governor Reagan was faced with the world of 2008 …