memeorandum: Rendell's clout could help put Clinton over top (John L. Micek/Morning Call)

12:20 PM ET, March 6, 2008

Top Items:

Sewell Chan / City Room:

Blast Damages Times Square Recruiting Station — The police have attributed the blast to an improvised explosive device, and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the device had been placed in an ammunition box like the kind that can be bought at a military supply store.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, Associated Press, Power Line, New York Post, Megan McArdle, On Deadline, Wake up America, Danger Room, Gawker, Atlas Shrugs, All Spin Zone, Media Blog, Buck Naked Politics, Unfogged, Balloon Juice, The Strata-Sphere, Sister Toldjah and Pirate's Cove

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

Breaking: Bombing at Big Apple military recruitment center Update: Kos diarist claims right-wing plot — Given the escalating protests over military recruitment, it seems inevitable that people would bomb those who seek to protect the nation and fight our enemies.

Discussion: TownHall Blog, michellemalkin.com and The Jawa Report

Confederate Yankee:
Homegrown IED Targets Manhattan Military Recruiting Station

Discussion: Flopping Aces and City Room

CNN:
‘Bang’ halts Times Square subways

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister, American Spectator and The Corner

MSNBC:
Feds probe Times Square blast

Discussion: Outside The Beltway and Alternate Brain

Washington Post:

Even in Victory, Clinton Team Is Battling Itself — For the bruised and bitter staff around Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tuesday's death-defying victories in the Democratic presidential primaries in Ohio and Texas proved sweet indeed. They savored their wins yesterday, plotted their next steps and indulged in a moment of optimism.

The Politico:

Superdelegates play hardball — Flexing their new power to determine the Democratic presidential nomination, a bloc of Ohio superdelegates is withholding endorsements from Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton until one or the other offers a concrete proposal to protect American jobs, two Ohio Democrats told Politico Wednesday.

Discussion: Buckeye State Blog, Ohio Daily Blog, Betsy's Page, MyDD and The New Editor

New York Times:
Lesson of Defeat: Obama Comes Out Punching

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, Below The Beltway and Real Clear Politics

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Clinton aide compares Obama to Ken Starr — Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson, taking the campaign a bit meta on a conference call today, attacked Obama for attacking Clinton, and compared him to a notorious Clinton foe. — “When Senator Obama was confronted with questions over whether …

Discussion: The Raw Story and AMERICAblog

John Aravosis / AMERICAblog:

Hillary called it “frankly disturbing” that her Senate opponent wouldn't release his tax returns, now she won't release hers — She called it “frankly disturbing” that he refused to release his returns, and now she won't release her own returns when Obama released his a year ago. — Hillary's right.

Discussion: The Campaign Spot and Spin Cycle

Mark Halperin / The Page:
Obama Memo on Clinton Tax Returns

Discussion: TPM Election Central, The Fact Hub, CNN and Ben Smith's Blogs

Charles Hurt / New York Post:

ONLY GORE CAN STOP A MELTDOWN — IF AL GORE can pull himself away from saving the planet long enough, he might want to consider rescuing the Demo cratic Party from the clutches of utter self-destruction. — Campaigning against an unpopular war in Iraq, a sputtering economy and a disappearing dollar …

Discussion: The Corner, Hot Air, CNN, Outside The Beltway, Don Surber and QandO

New York Times:

Clinton Success Alters Delegate Race's Dynamic — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's victories in the primaries on Tuesday barely dented Senator Barack Obama's lead in delegates, but they seemed to slow the Democratic Party establishment's move in his direction while giving her campaign time to try to turn the race in her favor.

Discussion: The Swamp, MiamiHerald.com and MSNBC

Bloomberg: Clinton's Primary Wins Halt Movement of Superdelegates to Obama

Michael Graham / Boston Herald:

An exercise in discrimination at Harvard … What can a 19-year-old guy in jogging shorts do at Harvard that a rich Saudi sheik who sponsors terrorism can't? — Get banned from the building. — Six times a week, Harvard kicks all the guys out of the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Power Line, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Clayton Cramer's BLOG and Instapundit.com

Mark Steyn / The Corner: Not Swimming but Drowning

Alexander Panetta / Canadian Press:

‘NAFTAgate’ began with remark from Harper's chief of staff — OTTAWA — If the Prime Minister is seeking the first link in the chain of events that has rocked the U.S. presidential race, he need look no further than his chief of staff, Ian Brodie, The Canadian Press has learned.

Campbell Clark / Globe and Mail:
PM's top aide set off storm with Obama NAFTA leak

Discussion: The New Republic, Salon, Megan McArdle, Marc Ambinder and Democracy in America

Paul Kiel / TPMMuckraker:

Today's Must Read — On February 1st of this year, National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) abruptly released a statement about recently discovered “irregularities in our financial audit process.” That was it: no details about whether money might have been stolen …

Philip Shenon / New York Times:
F.B.I. Investigates Missing G.O.P. Money

Discussion: AMERICAblog

Thomas E. Ricks / Washington Post:

Commander Rejects Article of Praise — The top U.S. commander in the Middle East is the subject of a glowing magazine article describing him as the only person who might stop the Bush administration from going to war against Iran. — Esquire magazine's forthcoming profile of Adm. William …

Discussion: Thomas P.M. Barnett

Thomas P.M. Barnett / Esquire:
The Man Between War and Peace

Discussion: Early Warning, Outside The Beltway, Corrente, DownWithTyranny!, The Newshoggers, Hullabaloo and Think Progress

Nick Timiraos / Wall Street Journal:

Next Big Primary, Pennsylvania, Plays Up Clinton's Advantages — Sen. Hillary Clinton has more good news to follow her election wins in Texas and Ohio: The next big contest comes in a state where she goes in with several advantages. — At stake in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary are 158 delegates and 29 superdelegates.

Discussion: MyDD, HillaryClinton.com and Open Left

USA Today:
It's now a marathon, with Pa. the big prize

Discussion: The Caucus

Newsweek:

Tainted Evidence — Canada tosses CIA terror testimony obtained through waterboarding. … The Canadian government is no longer using evidence gained from CIA interrogations of a top Al Qaeda detainee who was waterboarded. — According to documents obtained by NEWSWEEK …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:

Alive! — Tuesday's exciting presidential primaries were about momentum, delegates and second looks. — In the Republican contest, these factors gave victory to the Lazarus candidate. John McCain's campaign nearly collapsed eight months ago in a mass of debt and missteps.

Discussion: protein wisdom, TigerHawk and Connecting.the.Dots

Matthew Yglesias:

The Lost Opportunity — Ross explains the cost to progressive politics of Hillary Clinton's decision to unleash the kitchen sink in a likely-futile effort to overcome Barack Obama's delegate lead: … That's bad because it increases the chance of losing in November, it decreases the likelihood …

Discussion: TalkLeft and Spin Cycle

Charlotte Allen / Washington Post:

Charlotte Allen on Outlook Article, Reaction — Author, “We Scream, We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get?” — On Sunday, The Washington Post's Outlook section published a piece by Charlotte Allen under the headline “ We Scream, We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get?”

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and Firedoglake