memeorandum: Senate Readies Bipartisan Bill to Deal With Housing Slump (New York Times)

9:15 PM ET, April 1, 2008

Top Items:

Harold Ickes Confirms That Wright Is Key Topic In Discussions With Super-Delegates — In an interview with me this morning, senior Hillary adviser Harold Ickes confirmed that Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a key topic in discussions with uncommitted super-delegates over whether Obama is electable in a general election.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Marc Ambinder, Wall Street Journal, Open Left, Fox News, Hot Air, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog and Wake up America

Beth Fouhy / Associated Press:

Clinton compares herself to ‘Rocky’ — PHILADELPHIA - Perhaps the analogy was inevitable: Hillary Rodham Clinton as Rocky Balboa, the scrappy underdog boxer from Philadelphia memorably depicted in the 1976 Oscar-winning film. Even if Rocky did lose his first big fight.

Discussion: MSNBC, FOX Embeds, PoliBlog (TM), American Street, Washington Wire, Wizbang, Don Surber, Sweetness & Light and PunditGuy

WCAU-TV:

Exclusive Poll: Clinton's Lead Shrinks In Pa. — Clinton Leads By 12 Points, Survey Finds — If the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania were held Tuesday, April 1, Hillary Clinton would defeat Barack Obama by 12 percentage points, according to a recent SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively …

Discussion: SurveyUSA, Gallup, Examining Presidential …, Barack Obama 2008, MyDD, Bloomberg, NPR Blogs, Political Machine, Taylor Marsh, Boston Globe, Newshoggers.com, TalkLeft, The Moderate Voice, Truthdig, Donklephant and Sister Toldjah

Devlin Barrett / Associated Press:

Obama casts race between him, McCain — WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Sen. Barack Obama is talking about the elephant in the room — Republican rival John McCain — and all but ignoring the Democrat who stands between him and his party's presidential nomination. — Even though Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton …

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs and Hot Air

Gallup:

Gallup Daily: Obama 49%, Clinton 45% — McCain has slight edge over both Democrats — PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update shows a closer Democratic nomination race than has been the case in recent days, with 49% of Democratic voters nationwide saying they are most likely …

Discussion: Pollster.com

Hillary Clinton / CNN:

Clinton backer: Obama will win — (CNN) — A key Hillary Clinton supporter appeared to be a bit off message during a recent interview with a Canadian radio station. — “If I had to make a prediction right now, I'd say Barack Obama is going to be the next president,” Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver …

Discussion: The Page

Associated Press:
Pelosi says Democratic race should go on

Discussion: Weekly Standard Blog, Neptunus Lex, The Sundries Shack, Taylor Marsh, Wonkette, NY Daily News, Jules Crittenden, Don Surber, PoliGazette and The Strata-Sphere

Ben Smith / The Politico:
Cleaver's bluntness — In an unusually frank interview …

Discussion: CBC.ca, The Swamp, skippy the bush kangaroo, Political Machine and Wonkette

Washington Post:
As Rivals Battle, McCain Builds November Machine

Discussion: Stumper, Marc Ambinder, Firedoglake, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, American Power and The Page

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Teachers Launch Radio Ads For Clinton in Pa.

Discussion: Salon, Daily Kos and The Page

Wonk Room:

Elizabeth Edwards Responds: Why Are People Like Me Left Out Of Your Health Care Proposal, Sen. McCain? — Our guest blogger is Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Presidential candidate John Edwards. — I freely admit that I am confused about the role of overnight funding in repurchase markets in the collapse of Bear Stearns.

Discussion: MyDD, D-Day, Macsmind, Reuters, The Trail, American Street and Shakesville

Think Progress:
Elizabeth Edwards: Americans Are 'Left Outside The Clinic Doors …

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs and The Page

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:

THE ADMIRAL WHO CAN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT — It doesn't take much to gain a reputation in Washington as a straight-shooter, and it takes a lot to lose it. — Adm. Mike McConnell came in as the Director of National Intelligence with a rep for being professional and non-partisan …

Discussion: TPMMuckraker, Balkinization and Eschaton

Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:
No Iraq Intelligence Update For You!

Discussion: TPMMuckraker

Gabriel Schoenfeld / Wall Street Journal:
The Real Bush Intelligence Failure

Discussion: The Belmont Club

Ali / Think Progress:

Student calls McCain out for political motivations of school appearance. — Today Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) stopped at his alma mater, Episcopal High School in Virginia, to lecture on the importance of teaching and the honor code. McCain's toughest question came from student Katelyn Halldorson …

Discussion: Weekly Standard Blog and Shakesville

Hotline On Call:
“I Hope Attendance Here Was Not Compulsory”

Discussion: Wonkette

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

Hillary fired for lies, unethical behavior from Congressional job: former boss — Dan Calabrese's new column on Hillary Clinton's past may bring the curtain down on her political future. Calabrese interviewed Jerry Zeifman, the man who served as chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during …

Discussion: Stop The ACLU, North Star Writers Group, NewsBusters.org and QandO

Marty Lederman / Balkinization:

The March 2003 Yoo Memo Emerges! (not an April Fool's Joke): The Torture Memo to Top All Torture Memos — Subhead: The Big Kahuna: The Torture Memo that Makes the August 2002 Memo Look Like Objective and Thoughtful Legal Analysis — On Friday, March 13, 2003, Jay Bybee left his office …

Discussion: Threat Level, Grasping Reality …, Emptywheel and American Street

Neil Midgley / Telegraph:

Flying penguins found by BBC programme — The BBC will today screen remarkable footage of penguins flying as part of its new natural history series, Miracles of Evolution. — Camera crews discovered a colony of Adélie penguins while filming on King George Island, some 750 miles south of the Falkland Islands.

Discussion: The Underwire, Achenblog, Guardian Unlimited and Guardian

The Politico:

Pentagon balked on gay partner travel — Prior to the Easter recess, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to intervene with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in order to get Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin's domestic partner on a military flight for a congressional fact-finding trip to Europe.

Discussion: The Swamp, New York Times, The Crypt's Blogs, Think Progress, TPMMuckraker, Pam's House Blend and Outside The Beltway

Dani Rodrik / Dani Rodrik's weblog:

American political economics in one picture — Look at the figure below, and then look at it again, and again, and again. It is the most telling picture about the U.S. political economy I have ever seen. — It comes from Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels' new book, soon to be released.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Comments from Left Field, Washington Monthly, Will Wilkinson, The G Spot, Angry Bear and Economist's View

Fafnir / Fafblog:

everything depends on the getaway — “Screw this dump!” says Giblets. “This universe is old and fat and smells like smelling and Giblets is busting out!” — “Should we go over the wall or take the tunnel?” says me. I been diggin a tunnel. — “Nuts to the tunnel!” says Giblets.

Michael Crowley / The New Republic:

The Hillary-Bosnia Mystery, Cont'd — Hitch does us a service by bringing the slapstick of Hillary's arrival in Tuzla back to something more important, which is the role she played in shaping her husband's Bosnia policy in the first place: … As I've noted before, this account conflicts …