memeorandum: Obama's Finance Ploy (Wall Street Journal)

8:45 AM ET, February 26, 2008

Top Items:

Clinton Campaign Starts 5-Point Attack on Obama — After struggling for months to dent Senator Barack Obama's candidacy, the campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now unleashing what one Clinton aide called a “kitchen sink” fusillade against Mr. Obama, pursuing five lines …

Discussion: The Politico, protein wisdom, Comments from Left Field, Real Clear Politics, Brilliant at Breakfast, Betsy's Page, Below The Beltway, BuzzFlash.org, Open Left, Connecting.the.Dots, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, AMERICAblog, USS Neverdock and Doug Ross

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Team Clinton: Down, and Out of Touch — They are in the last throes, if you will. As Vice President Cheney knows, such predictions can be perilous. Still, there was no mistaking a certain flailing, a lashing-out, as two Clinton advisers sat down for a bacon-and-eggs session yesterday at the St. Regis Hotel.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Blue Crab Boulevard, Donklephant and Prairie Weather

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

Rendell: ‘The Media Does Not Like the Clintons’ — Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) said Monday that the media's pro-Obama (or anti-Clinton) bias explains in part why Barack Obama is portrayed as running away with the Democratic presidential nomination (instead of being locked in a close fight with Hillary Rodham Clinton).

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Buck Naked Politics, The Democratic Daily, QandO, Betsy's Page and driftglass

Las Vegas Review-Journal:

FLOWERS PUTTING CLINTON PHONE CONVERSATIONS UP FOR BID — Gennifer Flowers is putting the tapes of her recorded conversations with Bill Clinton during their 12-year affair on the auction block, Vegas Confidential learned Monday. — Flowers, who came forward during Clinton's 1992 Presidential …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Wonkette

CBS News:

CBS Poll: Obama Surges Ahead Nationally — CBS News/NY Times Survey Finds Obama Opens Up 16-Point Lead; Also Leads In Head-To-Head Match Up With McCain — (CBS) A new CBS News/New York Times poll finds Barack Obama with a 16-point lead over rival Hillary Clinton among Democratic primary voters nationwide.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Marc Ambinder, Comments from Left Field, The Moderate Voice and Cliff Schecter

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:

Poll: It's all tied up for Dems in Texas — CNN Deputy Political Director — (CNN) — Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are in a statistical dead heat in Texas, according to a poll released eight days before the state's crucial presidential primary.

Discussion: SurveyUSA, Open Left, Politics Plus, Daily Kos, The New Republic, MyDD, Comments from Left Field, Left in the West, IntoxiNation, Donklephant, Washington Wire, Below The Beltway, Wonkette, Hot Air, THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, The Seminal and Quinnipiac University

New York Times:

Poll Shows Obama Is Seen as More Likely to Beat McCain — WASHINGTON — In the past two months, Senator Barack Obama has built a commanding coalition among Democratic voters, with especially strong support among men, and is now viewed by most Democrats as the candidate best able …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money

USA Today:
Poll respondents: Obama will be nominee

Discussion: PSoTD, Pollster.com, MyDD, Gallup, Liberal Values and Hotline On Call

Hilzoy / Obsidian Wings:

Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead! — From the DoD, via TPMMuckraker: … Pardon me while I dance about my study, cackling with glee. That's some of the best news I've had since, well, since the announcement of the ceasefire in Northern Uganda. (Hard to top that.)

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Crooked Timber

DefenseLINK:
IMMEDIATE RELEASE — General Counsel Returns To Private Life

Discussion: Daily Kos, Muckraker, Politics Plus, Emptywheel, TalkLeft and Think Progress

Times of London:

Mansion ‘mistake’ piles the pressure on Barack Obama — James Bone in New York and Dominic Kennedy in London — A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Right Wing Nut House, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The Moderate Voice, The Jawa Report and Atlas Shrugs

David Brooks / New York Times:

Op-Ed Columnist: The Real McCain — Any decent person who looks at John McCain's record sees that while he has faltered at times, he has also battled concentrated power more doggedly than any other legislator.

Discussion: Washington Wire, Firedoglake, The Campaign Spot, Sister Toldjah and The RBC

Breitbart.tv:

Bill Slips While Stumping for Hillary? ‘If You Elect Me...’ — Was he speaking “as” his wife or was it a slip? (see related link) “If you elect me, I'll repeal those subsidies and put them into a strategic energy fund that will create American jobs for America's future with clean energy.”

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:

Obama responds to CNN's smear: Join In against ‘right wing hack attacks’ — Obama responds to the new smear campaign against him quite deftly. CNN and the AP should be ashamed of themselves. I didn't know lapel pins were so important to national security.

Discussion: Pirate's Cove, Bang the Drum, Firedoglake, skippy the bush kangaroo, American Street and Daily Kos

Michael Tomasky / The New Republic:

Jackboots and Whole Foods — Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning — In graduate school I had a professor, a famous Marxist, who devoted a significant portion of a lecture to the subject of artifacts.

Discussion: Orcinus and Whiskey Fire

Anne Flaherty / Associated Press:

Anti-war Democrats ponder next step — WASHINGTON - Democrats facing rejection of a proposal to cut off money for the Iraq war are deliberating their next step in trying to rebuild anti-war momentum. — In recent months, violence in Iraq has declined and the Baghdad government …

Discussion: Don Surber, Washington Wire and Think Progress