Top Items:
The Onion:
Bill Clinton: 'Screw It, I'm Running For President' — CHARLESTON, SC—After spending two months accompanying his wife, Hillary, on the campaign trail, former president Bill Clinton announced Monday that he is joining the 2008 presidential race, saying he “could no longer resist the urge.”
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Clinton Education — One of our favorite Bill Clinton anecdotes involves a confrontation he had with Bob Dole in the Oval Office after the 1996 election. Mr. Dole protested Mr. Clinton's attack ads claiming the Republican wanted to harm Medicare, but the President merely smiled …
Washington Post:
Clinton Now Looking Beyond S.C. — Focus on 4 Delegate-Rich States Is Considered Risky — The next Democratic presidential nominating contest will take place in South Carolina on Saturday, but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has already turned her full attention to places such as this …
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Now or Never for Obama — COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina has become a must-win state for Barack Obama. — Whatever the outcome of Saturday's Democratic presidential primary here, the Illinois senator has the money and the organization to compete in the nearly two dozen states voting on Feb. 5.
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Two Against One — GREENVILLE, S.C. — If Bill Clinton has to trash his legacy to protect his legacy, so be it. If he has to put a dagger through the heart of hope to give Hillary hope, so be it. — If he has to preside in this state as the former first black president stopping the would-be first black president, so be it.
Times of London:
Exclusive: Hamas ‘spent months cutting through Gaza wall in secret operation’ — James Hider of The Times at the Rafah border crossing — As tens of thousands of Palestinians clambered back and forth between the Gaza strip and Egypt today, details emerged of the audacious operation …
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, Agence France Presse, Ynetnews, Israel Matzav, Jihad Watch, A Blog For All and Power Line
RELATED:
Haaretz:
UN: Some 350,000 Gazans stream into Egypt as militants blast border wall — Some 350,000 Palestinians poured out of Gaza and into Egypt early Wednesday, the United Nations said, after masked gunmen blew dozens of holes in the wall delineating the border. — The Gazans rushed to purchase food …
Discussion:
Israel Matzav, Jerusalem Post, Yourish.com, Commentary, Gateway Pundit, American Footprints, Israellycool and Ynetnews
Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:
ABC News Badly Mischaracterizes Obama's Alleged “Testy Exchange” With Reporter — Okay, this is really a bad one. Late yesterday, ABC News posted a story called: “Is Bill Clinton getting in Obama's head?" — The piece reported that Obama had had a “testy exchange” with New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny …
Discussion:
TalkLeft, MoJoBlog, Political Radar, FOX Embeds, Jack and Jill Politics, Riehl World View, TPM Election Central and Spin Cycle
Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
George Soros Funded Study Says Bush Lied — The AP reports, and the New York Times expands, on a new study by a supposedly “independent” organization that claims to have assembled hundred of “false statements” by the Bush administration in the course of the Iraq war.
Discussion:
The Newshoggers, protein wisdom, michellemalkin.com, New York Times, Associated Press, Hot Air, The Swamp, Jules Crittenden, Flopping Aces, The Opinionator, A Blog For All, Big Lizards, Outside The Beltway, The Carpetbagger Report, Firedoglake, The Heretik, Gateway Pundit, On Deadline, skippy the bush kangaroo, Balloon Juice and Sister Toldjah
RELATED:
Frank James / The Swamp:
Obama's Rezko problem; it's about judgment — In Monday night's Democratic presidential slugfest, er, debate in South Carolina, Sen. Hillary Clinton hit Sen. Barack Obama with the charge that as a young lawyer he represented a now infamous Chicago “slumlord” named “Rezko.”
RELATED:
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
Worries That the Good Times Were Mostly a Mirage — So, how bad could this get? — Until a few months ago, it was accepted wisdom that the American economy functioned far more smoothly than in the past. Economic expansions lasted longer, and recessions were both shorter and milder.
RELATED:
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Sen. McCain starts urgent dash for cash — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has scheduled at least seven fundraisers in the week leading up to Tuesday's Florida primary, scrambling to raise enough money to compete with a rival who can loan his campaign tens of millions of dollars.
RELATED:
Marc Ambinder:
Thad Cochran Endorses Romney — Word from Romneyville is that Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) has endorsed Gov. Mitt Romney, bringing to six the number of John McCain's colleagues who've fallen behind the former Mass. governor. — Here's the statement that Cochran plans to release:
RELATED:
Ben Adler / The Politico:
Ron Paul continues to best Giuliani — Ron Paul, the Texas congressman frequently dismissed as a long shot candidate with no real chance at winning the Republican presidential nomination, has won nearly twice as many total votes to date as Rudy Giuliani, a candidate still widely viewed as a strong contender.
Michael Medved / Townhall.com:
Six Big Lies About John McCain — LIE #1: John McCain isn't a loyal Republican. — TRUTH: McCain has been a stalwart Reagan Republican since he first entered politics in 1981. — He has never backed Democratic candidates for president or lesser posts - other than supporting …
Discussion:
Firedoglake
Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
ECONOCORNER. — I'm the type of guy with “favorite economists,” and EPI's Jared Bernstein is one of them. So I'm glad he's doing a new podcast feature called “EconoCorner." What few folks know about Jared, however, is that before he was an economist, he was a jazz musician in New York.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Joseph E. Stiglitz / New York Times:
How to Stop the Downturn — AMERICA'S economy is headed for a major slowdown. Whether there is a recession (two quarters of negative growth) is less important than the fact that the economy will operate well below its potential, and unemployment will grow.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Glittering Eye, Norwegianity, Prairie Weather, Balloon Juice and Alterdestiny