memeorandum: What Other Jefferson Scholars Have to Say (Blanksslate/Free the Jefferson 1!)

8:55 AM ET, April 17, 2008

Top Items:

The Debate: A Shameful Night for the U.S. Media — In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia.

Discussion: Deadline USA, Hot Air, Liberal Values, Rox Populi, The Moderate Voice, Guardian Unlimited, Wonkette, KIKO'S HOUSE, The Other McCain and Swing State Project

The Huffington Post:

ABC Hosts Heckled After Debate: “The Crowd Is Turning On Me” — Reflecting what seemed to be the main consensus of the night - that ABC botched this debate, big time - Charlie Gibson tells the crowd there will be one more, superfluous commercial break of the night and is subsequently jeered.

Discussion: Top of the Ticket, Middle Earth Journal and Comments from Left Field

Marc Ambinder:

The Score Card — Keeping the score card, there's no way Obama could fared worse. Nearly 45 minutes of relentless political scrutiny from the ABC anchors and from Hillary Clinton, followed by an issues-and-answers session in which his anger carried over and sort of neutered him.

Discussion: MSNBC, Don Surber, AMERICAblog, The Fix, National Review, Althouse, A NEWT ONE, GINA COBB, PunditGuy, Weekly Standard Blog, Spin Cycle and JustOneMinute

Senator Hillary Clinton / New York Times:

Democratic Debate in Philadelphia — The following is a transcript of the Democratic debate in Philadelphia, as provided by the Federal News Service. — PARTICIPANTS: — SENATOR BARACK OBAMA — MODERATORS: — LOCATION: THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER, PHILADELPHIA

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Carpetbagger Report, No More Mister Nice Blog, Lonewacko and BatesLine

Greg Mitchell / Editor and Publisher:

Clinton-Obama Debate: ABC Decides Top Issues Facing Americans Are Gaffes, Flag Pins and '60s Radicals — NEW YORK In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, AMERICAblog and Daily Kos

Will Bunch / Philly.com:

An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos — Dear Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, — It's hard to know where to begin with this, less than an hour after you signed off from your Democratic presidential debate here in my hometown of Philadelphia …

Discussion: Salon, TalkLeft, The Strata-Sphere, Multi Medium and Cliff Schecter …

New York Times:

Clinton Uses Sharp Attacks in Tense Debate — PHILADELPHIA — Senator Barack Obama found himself consistently on the defensive as he and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton met Wednesday night in a tense debate that left him parrying questions and criticism on issues including values …

Discussion: The Politico, Hot Air, Gawker, USA Today, Boston Globe, American Street, ScrappleFace and Jules Crittenden

ABCNEWS:

Clinton, Obama Find ‘Brotherly Love’ at Philly Debate — For Clinton, Obama Last Chance to Settle Scores Before Pennsylvania Primary — Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama opened Wednesday's presidential debate on a point of accord: neither would answer head-on whether they'd be willing to name the other as vice president.

Discussion: Buck Naked Politics, Political Machine, MyDD, Pandagon, The RBC and The Daily Dish

Washington Post:

Obama Pressed in Pa. Debate — Gaffes Are a Focus as He Spars With Clinton — Sen. Barack Obama repeatedly found himself on the defensive here Wednesday night as he sought to bat away criticism of his remarks about small-town values, questions about his patriotism and the incendiary sermons …

Discussion: TownHall Blog, Open Left, BuzzFlash.org, Below The Beltway, ABCNEWS and Washington Post

Sam Boyd / American Prospect:

THESE QUESTIONS ARE A DISGRACE. — A woman asks if Obama “believes in the American flag” because he doesn't wear a flag pin. — Charlie Gibson says that questions about the flag are “all over the internet” — along with Pamela Anderson's sex tape, cats with bad grammar, and Rick Astley.

Discussion: michellemalkin.com and Daily Kos

The Big Trunk / Power Line:

BARACK OBAMA'S SONG OF HIMSELF — I watched last night's candidate forum in Philadelphia with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on ABC. The New York Times has posted a good transcript of the debate. Although the focus was not on policy questions, I thought it was nevertheless a useful and revealing discussion.

Discussion: Pajamas Media

Nicole Belle / Crooks and Liars:

Attention ABC: You're HURTING America! UPDATED with VIDEO! — Well, it worked for Jon Stewart and Crossfire... An hour into the latest Democratic Debate and overwhelmingly, the consensus is that ABC is doing a fine job... of completely ignoring the issues that concern Americans and focusing …

Discussion: Newshoggers.com and Macsmind

The Huffington Post:
Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: “Screw 'Em”

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Below The Beltway, Top of the Ticket, Guardian Unlimited, MoJoBlog, The Reaction, NewsBusters.org, Deadline USA, Classical Values, Bang the Drum, Spin Cycle, The Carpetbagger Report, The New Republic, Political Machine, Hot Air, Indecision 2008, AMERICAblog and Swampland

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Fall-Out — I agree largely with Ambers:

Discussion: The Glittering Eye, The Caucus, Boston Globe, FiveThirtyEight.com, Commentary, Below The Beltway and TigerHawk

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Sorry, Charlie: You're Wrong on the Cap Gains Tax

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Comments from Left Field and Wonk Room

Katrina Vanden Heuvel / The Nation:
The ‘Gotcha’ Debate

Discussion: The New Republic and Betsy's Page

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
GIBSON — I guess I'm not enough of a Gibsonologist.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and Firedoglake

Mark Hemingway / The Corner:
And the winner is... ...McCain by a landslide! A reader writes in:

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Live-Blogging Pennsylvania — 9.51 pm. The big winner is John McCain.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Perfunction, Marc Ambinder, protein wisdom, Viking Pundit and Commentary

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:
Tactics Uber Alles

Discussion: Comments from Left Field and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The ABC News “Freak Show”

Discussion: Wonkette and The Anonymous Liberal

The New Republic: What Did Hillary Say? — Alan Wolfe, a professor of political science …

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
After The Freak Show … Josh Marshall: … Dave Weigel:

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Reason Magazine and Publius Endures

David Brooks / Campaign Stops:

No Whining About the Media — Three quick points on the Democratic debate last night: — First, Democrats, and especially Obama supporters, are going to jump all over ABC for the choice of topics: too many gaffe questions, not enough policy questions. — I understand the complaints, but I thought the questions were excellent.

Discussion: PSoTD, No More Mister Nice Blog, marbury and LiberalOasis

Hindrocket / Power Line:

HAMAS ENDORSES OBAMA — On Sunday, Aaron Klein and John Batchelor interviewed Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Prime Minister of Hamas, on WABC radio. The interview produced a scoop which, for some reason, has not been widely publicized: Hamas has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Discussion: Hot Air, Fausta's blog, Dartblog and Israel Matzav

Mosheh Oinounou / Cameron's Corner:
A Hamas problem for Obama?

Discussion: Associated Press, Dr. Sanity, Hot Air, A NEWT ONE, Jules Crittenden, Jihad Watch, Commentary and Redstate

Laurie Kellman / Associated Press:

Abortion-rights lawmakers to receive Communion … WASHINGTON (AP) - Catholic members of Congress who publicly support the right to abortion will trek to Nationals Park Thursday for a Mass celebrated by a pope who has said such lawmakers should not receive Communion.

Discussion: The Corner and Gateway Pundit