memeorandum: Michelle Obama Solidifies Her Role in the Election (Monica Langley/Wall Street Journal)

10:35 AM ET, February 11, 2008

Top Items:

WE BEEN ROBBED — Here's a press release just put out by the Huckabee campaign ...

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, Comments from Left Field, Matthew Yglesias, American Street, MSNBC, You Decide 08! and wsrp.org

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

WTF? — As you know, here at TPM we've been really curious what happened in the Republican caucus in Washington state. For probably the first time in all the primaries and elections I've ever watched, the folks running the election decided to stop counting the votes with 13% of the votes uncounted.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Underground, CBS News, Postman on Politics, PrestoPundit, The BRAD BLOG and Stop The ACLU

Janet I. Tu / Seattle Times:
Huckabee won't concede state; GOP resuming delegate count

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Political Machine, Mike Huckabee for President, Talking Points Memo, About.com US Politics, The Reaction, MSNBC and Daily Kos

New York Times:
Losses Signal Challenges for McCain

Discussion: American Power, MSNBC, FOX Embeds and No More Mister Nice Blog

Team Huckabee / Mike Huckabee for President:
WASHINGTON CAUCUS VOTE UPDATE

Discussion: Slog, Stop The ACLU, Political Punch, michellemalkin.com, HorsesAss.Org, Donklephant and Talking Points Memo

Theodore B. Olson / Wall Street Journal:

Clinton v. Obama: The Lawsuit — What splendid theater the Democratic Party presidential nominating process is shaping up to be. And they are just getting started. The real fun would be a convention deadlock denouement a few months from now, the prospect of which is already quickening …

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard, American Thinker, Connecting.the.Dots, Don Surber and Althouse

The Politico:

Clinton badly needs Virginia victory — Tuesday's Chesapeake primary seems likely to continue propelling Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in opposite directions. — Obama has hearty leads and distinct demographic advantages in each of the three contests: Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

Washington Post:

Clinton Replaces Top Aide Amid Losses — Campaign Manager Doyle Steps Down As Obama Wins Maine — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton shook up her presidential campaign yesterday, replacing campaign manager and longtime aide Patti Solis Doyle with Maggie Williams, her former White House chief of staff …

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, Associated Press, New York Times and The Democratic Daily

Washington Post:
As Crunchtime Arrives, All-Out Appeal in Region

Discussion: TIME, NY Daily News and New York Daily News Blogs

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Hate Springs Eternal — In 1956 Adlai Stevenson, running against Dwight Eisenhower, tried to make the political style of his opponent's vice president, a man by the name of Richard Nixon, an issue. The nation, he warned, was in danger of becoming “a land of slander and scare …

Discussion: Neptunus Lex, culturekitchen, Outside The Beltway, THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, MSNBC, Althouse, American Street, New York Daily News Blogs and Hoffmania!

Monica Langley / Wall Street Journal:

Michelle Obama Solidifies Her Role in the Election — On a conference call to prepare for a recent debate, Barack Obama brainstormed with his top advisers on the fine points of his positions. Michelle Obama had dialed in to listen, but finally couldn't stay silent any longer.

Discussion: Debbie Schlussel, Confederate Yankee, The Caucus and Shakespeare's Sister

Dave Kehr / New York Times:

Roy Scheider, Actor in ‘Jaws,’ Dies at 75 — Roy Scheider, a stage actor with a background in the classics who became one of the leading figures in the American film renaissance of the 1970s, died on Sunday afternoon in Little Rock, Ark. He was 75 and lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Captain's Quarters, Althouse and Blue Crab Boulevard

Robert Burns / Associated Press:

Gates: Iraq drawdown may be paused — FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday endorsed, for the first time, the idea of pausing the drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq this summer. — “A brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway and KnoxViews

Mike Allen / The Politico:
Pelosi calls Iraq a ‘failure’

Discussion: Flopping Aces, Hot Air, UrbanGrounds and Instapundit.com

Thom Shanker / New York Times:
Gates Endorses Pause in Iraq Troop Withdrawals

Discussion: Think Progress

Ian Traynor / Guardian:

Bush orders security clampdown on flights to US — EU officials furious as Washington says it wants extra data on all air passengers — The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel …

Discussion: The Raw Story, Rachel Lucas, AMERICAblog and Truthdig

Erica Werner / Associated Press:

Calif. Rep. Tom Lantos dies — WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, has died. He was 80. — Spokeswoman Lynne Weil said Lantos died early Monday at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in suburban Maryland.

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, Captain's Quarters and Think Progress

Wall Street Journal:

Wiretap Showdown — The Senate takes up wiretapping of foreign terrorists this week, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Not only for the ability of our spooks to eavesdrop on al Qaeda, but also regarding Congressional and judicial intrusion into Presidential war powers.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report and The Corner

Michael R. Gordon / New York Times:

Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning — WASHINGTON — The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the planning for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret. — That is what happened to a detailed study …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Norwegianity, cab drollery, Hullabaloo, RADAMISTO, The RBC, abu muqawama and democracyarsenal.org

William Kristol / New York Times:

Obama's Path to Victory — Last summer, George W. Bush told The Washington Examiner's Bill Sammon that Hillary Clinton would probably be the 2008 Democratic nominee. “She's got a national presence and this is becoming a national primary,” he said. “And therefore the person …

Discussion: Prairie Weather, democracyarsenal.org and NY Daily News

Kristen Wyatt / Associated Press:

GOP's Wayne Gilchrest Faces Tough Test — ELKTON, Md. (AP) — Yellow ribbons and American flags cover store windows and car bumpers in this Eastern Shore town, which recently bid farewell to its largest deployment of National Guard members since World War II.

Discussion: The Huffington Post