memeorandum: Report Assails Auditor for Work at Failed Home Lender (Vikas Bajaj/New York Times)

9:15 AM ET, March 27, 2008

Top Items:

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:

New NBC-WSJ poll — From NBC's Chuck Todd — As expected, one of the two major Democratic candidates saw a downturn in the latest NBC/WSJ poll, but it's not the candidate that you think. Hillary Clinton is sporting the lowest personal ratings of the campaign.

Jackie Calmes / Wall Street Journal:

Pastor Flap Hasn't Hurt Obama — WASHINGTON — The racially charged debate over Barack Obama's relationship with his longtime pastor hasn't much changed his close contest against Hillary Clinton, or hurt him against Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Hot Air, Talking Points Memo, Pollster.com, Examining Presidential …, Donklephant, Washington Wire and Poll Dancing

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:

CLINTON TACTICS TURN OFF SOME SUPERDELEGATES — From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger — At a time when Sen. Hillary Clinton is increasingly relying on superdelegates to vault her to the Democratic Party's nomination, a handful of undecided and pledged superdelegates are coming forward …

Discussion: Washington Wire, Liberal Values, American Street, Top of the Ticket and Hot Air

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
In Letter, Top Clinton Donors Chastise Pelosi For Statements About Super-Delegates

Fox News:
Clinton Insists Dems Race Is a ‘Long Way’ From Over, Looks Toward Convention

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, TalkLeft, The Democratic Daily and Liberal Values

Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:

US: Saddam Paid for Lawmakers' Iraq Trip — Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. — An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti …

Discussion: The Swamp, On Deadline, Capitol Briefing, The Strata-Sphere, Gateway Pundit, PoliGazette, Power Line, Atlas Shrugs, The News Buckit and Attytood

Debbie Schlussel:
BREAKING - Feds Indict Former CAIR Michigan Chief/Current Muslim …

Discussion: Power Line and A Blog For All

Paul Egan / Detroit News:
Feds: Southfield Muslim charity official worked as Iraqi spy

Discussion: Articles by the … and Detroit Free Press

Don Surber:
Saddam's Three Stooges

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Sister Toldjah, TigerHawk and GINA COBB

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On — Senator Barack Obama's videotaped response to President Bush's final State of the Union address — almost five minutes of Mr. Obama talking directly to the camera — elicited little attention from newspaper and television reporters in January.

Discussion: BuzzMachine and The Huffington Post

The Politico:

Welcome to the age of the sound blast — If 1960 was the year that TV displaced radio as the main platform for political persuasion, then the 2008 primary fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton may go down in history as the moment when the Internet ended the dominance of television.

Discussion: The Other McCain

Agence France Presse:

Pentagon says new Iraq fighting arises from surge's success — WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon on Wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern Iraq, where US-backed government forces were battling Shiite militias, was a “by-product of the success of the surge.”

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, Donklephant, The Reaction, PoliGazette, Balloon Juice and VetVoice

Patrick Cockburn / The Independent:
Iraq implodes as Shia fights Shia

Discussion: Donklephant

Leila Fadel / McClatchy Washington Bureau: U.S. airstrike in Iraq reportedly causes 60 casualties

Vikas Bajaj / New York Times:

Report Assails Auditor for Work at Failed Home Lender — In a sweeping accusation against one of the country's largest accounting firms, an investigator released a report on Wednesday that said “improper and imprudent practices” by a once high-flying mortgage company were condoned and enabled by its auditors.

Discussion: The Glittering Eye, TPMCafe, AMERICAblog and Calculated Risk

Vikas Bajaj / New York Times:
Inquiry Assails Accounting Firm in Lender's Fall

Discussion: Think Progress and Angry Bear

Jules Crittenden:

Blackwater Fever — It's new, it's so bad they named it after the hated American mercenaries, because it kills the innocent just like they do. Slamming Blackwater is always fun and really adds some zing to this story suggesting that an Iraqi malaria epidemic is being kept secret.

Discussion: INSTAPUTZ, Instapundit.com and Democracy Project

IPS Inter Press Service:
IRAQ: Fever Named After Blackwater

Discussion: The Impolitic

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Public Believes Americans Have Right to Own Guns — Nearly three in four say Second Amendment guarantees this right — PRINCETON, NJ — A solid majority of the U.S. public, 73%, believes the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the rights of Americans to own guns.

Discussion: Convictions

Marcia Gelbart / Philly.com:

Phila. Democrats might not endorse Clinton or Obama — Reflecting the divisiveness nationwide in the Democratic race for president, many Philadelphia ward leaders are disinterested in formally backing either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama for fear of further splintering the city's Democratic Party.

Discussion: Washington Post and The Caucus

The Trail:
Clinton Donors Warn Pelosi on Superdelegates

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Taylor Marsh, Wonkette and Booman Tribune

Martin Peretz / The New Republic:

Standing By His Man — Why Obama was right in not repudiating his pastor. — The power of the preacher is an unmeasured force in American life. Of course, now that it has become an issue in a political campaign, we are focusing on the one minister and the one candidate whose lives …

Discussion: Spiritual Politics and The Daily Dish

Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard Blog:
The Company Obama Keeps

Discussion: Soccer Dad and Commentary

Washington Post:

Further Debunking the ‘War Zone’ Myth — The Clinton campaign has cited newspaper accounts, including one in The Washington Post, to bolster the senator's claim that her now-famous March 1996 trip to Bosnia was the first visit to a “war zone” by a first lady since World War II.

Discussion: The Jed Report and The New Nixon Blog

Sandy Quinn / The New Nixon Blog:
Duck, Mrs. Clin— Uh, Mrs. Nixon

Discussion: Power Line, Ed Driscoll.com and Stop The ACLU

C. J. Chivers / New York Times:

Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans — Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. — But to arm the Afghan forces …

Discussion: Blue Girl, Red State, On Deadline, Hog On Ice and abu muqawama

This Is London:

MARRIAGE HITS LOWEST RATE SINCE RECORDS BEGAN ALMOST 150 YEARS AGO — The number of Britons tying the knot has collapsed to a record low, it has emerged. — The proportion of men and women getting married is below any level found since figures were first kept nearly 150 years ago.

Duncan Currie / Weekly Standard:

Family Ties — Any serious discussion of race must address out-of-wedlock births. — SAY THIS FOR Barack Obama's big speech: It is still being analyzed this week, and it will be analyzed more in the weeks and months ahead. Senator Obama went beyond the controversy over his former pastor …

Discussion: RIGHTWINGSPARKLE

Alec MacGillis / The Trail:

Gravel Joins the Libertarians — Mike Gravel is headed to the convention in Denver. No, not that one. The septuagenarian former Alaska senator, who, depending on your viewpoint, was an amusing or aggravating presence in the early Democratic presidential debates, has announced that he is joining …

Discussion: CNN, The Caucus, The Moderate Voice and Wonkette

Frank Newport / Gallup:
If McCain vs. Obama, 28% of Clinton Backers Go for McCain

Discussion: Washington Wire, Firedoglake, Right Wing News and TalkLeft

David Paul Kuhn / The Politico:

GOP Looks to ‘McCain Democrats’ — A new analysis of March polling data suggests that John McCain's cross-party support surpasses that of either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. — According to data provided by the Gallup Organization at Politico's request, in a hypothetical contest between McCain …

Discussion: Pennsyltucky Politics

Laura Litvan / Bloomberg:

Pennsylvania's Superdelegates Measure Clinton, Obama — The prospect of a Hillary Clinton victory in Pennsylvania's April 22 Democratic primary isn't swaying some of the state's superdelegates, who are hanging back while they calculate whether rival Barack Obama might prove a stronger draw at the top of the ticket in November.

Discussion: Hot Air