memeorandum: The Sad End of Jimmy Carter (Bernard-Henri Lévy/Wall Street Journal)

8:45 PM ET, April 25, 2008

Top Items:

Q&A: David Plouffe — Obama's Manager Discusses Clinton's Negatives & The Delegate Race — Fri. — National Journal's Linda Douglass sat down with David Plouffe, Barack Obama's campaign manager, for the April 25 edition of “National Journal On Air.” This is a transcript of their conversation.

Discussion: Hot Air, AMERICAblog, Gateway Pundit, The Page, Commentary and Political Punch

Geoff Garin / Washington Post:

Fair Is Fair — What's wrong with this picture? Our campaign runs a TV ad Monday saying that the presidency is the toughest job in the world and giving examples of challenges presidents have faced and challenges the next president will face — including terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Newshoggers.com, Political Punch, Donklephant, American Street, The Common Ills, Daily Kos, TalkLeft, Don Surber, HillaryClinton.com, The Page, The Campaign Spot and The Opinionator

See-Dubya / michellemalkin.com:

Hillary Clinton: Prayer Warrior. — Wow, it looks like we've seriously misunderstood the depth and importance of Hillary Clinton's religious faith: … As the “American Papist” site notes, she's very ecumenical, too: … Yet despite her sincere, abiding Metholic/Cathedist faith …

Discussion: Washington Times, Foreign and AmericanPapist

Ben Smith / The Politico:
Plouffe: McCain has the racist vote anyway

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

Jeralyn / TalkLeft:

Olbermann Comments on Hillary Causing Stir — Keith Olbermann's latest: A discussion with Howard Fineman about the need for a superdelegate to “take [Clinton] into a room and only he comes out."/p> — Bloggers say he called for Hillary's murder. Here's a different take by RiverDaughter at Confluence:

Discussion: Delilah Boyd, Anglachel's Journal, Redstate, Classical Values, The Confluence and Althouse

The Huffington Post:

Keith Olbermann's Idea For Beating Hillary: Literally Beating Hillary — There are two kinds of people in the world: People who think there's an ugly strain of misogyny running through Hillary Clinton's media coverage, and people who think she's just not very likable and deserves it for running …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Salon, TalkLeft, Gawker, MSNBC, NO QUARTER and Buck Naked Politics

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:

Keith Olbermann Apologizes For Crack About Hillary — As I've noted here before, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann has a bizarre tendency to listen to the substance of criticism against him. Even more strange, considering that he's a top-shelf media star, is the fact that he apologizes for his conduct when he's wrong.

Discussion: Think Progress

Saira Anees / Political Punch:

DNC Official: “You Know What You Call Someone Who Digs Up Dirt on John McCain? An Archeologist” — Call it the perils of Twitter. — Or a new Maginot Line in what Slate's John Dickerson has called “the Umbrage War.” — On his Facebook page, the Democratic National Committee's director of research …

Discussion: Hot Air, Hotline On Call and The Impolitic

Mark Halperin / The Page:

Obama-DNC Fundraising Deal — After a series of discussions, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have decided to file papers with the Federal Election Commission establishing a “joint fundraising agreement.” Under the law, such a committee can accept up to $28,500 from individuals …

Discussion: Marc Ambinder, Chicago Tribune, The Fix, The Caucus, Boston Globe, NO QUARTER, The Confluence, Prairie Weather, TPM Election Central, The Democratic Daily and Oliver Willis

Hugh Hewitt / Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog:
Audio Of John McCain's Demand That Obama Repudiate Ayers And Apologize …

Discussion: Hot Air, TownHall Blog and Media Blog

Gallup:

Gallup Daily: Obama and Clinton Tied at 48% to 47% — Clinton's increased support has mainly come from undecided voters — PRINCETON, NJ — The Democratic nomination race is now tied, with Barack Obama favored by 48% of national Democratic voters and Hillary Clinton by 47%.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Swamp, Top of the Ticket, Weekly Standard Blog, Marc Ambinder, The Washington Note, Donklephant, Real Clear Politics and Indianapolis Star

Ben / Think Progress:

Matthews: Whites are ‘willing’ to support Obama in the same way they ‘root for black athletes.’ — Last night on Hardball, host Chris Matthews sought to give Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) some “advice” on how to get white Americans to vote for him for president: … Watch it:

Discussion: Newshoggers.com and Shakesville

MSNBC:
‘Hardball with Chris Matthews’ for Thursday, April 24

Discussion: Stop The ACLU

Chuck Todd / MSNBC:

BIG HRC FUNDRAISER DEFECTS TO OBAMA — From NBC's Chuck Todd — One of the things that both Dem campaigns are always nervous about is defectors. In particular, Clinton is more vulnerable to this problem since she's the candidate that is trailing. Well, NBC News has learned …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Liberal Values, AMERICAblog and The Jed Report

Alan I. Abramowitz / The New Republic:

Cheer Up, Democrats! — Even if the primary stretches on, a long-term tectonic shift in the electorate means the party is in great shape for November. — It's all over but the shouting. Even though the Democratic Convention is still four months away and the presidential election …

Discussion: MyDD, The Daily Dish, protein wisdom, Democratic Strategist, Marc Ambinder, Prairie Weather and New York Times

Elizabeth Drew / The Politico:
Dems' suspense may be unnecessary

Discussion: Washington Post, mrsuper.org, New York Times, Prairie Weather, Spin Cycle and MSNBC

Bernard-Henri Lévy / Wall Street Journal:

The Sad End of Jimmy Carter — The problem is not that he is, or is not, talking to the Syrians - everyone does it to some degree. — It isn't that he went to Damascus to meet with the exiled head of Hamas - everyone, including the Israelis, will one day have to do that too …

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, Israel Matzav and TigerHawk

Associated Press:

ElBaradei slams Israel for attacking Syrian nuclear reactor — The head of the UN nuclear monitoring agency on Friday criticized the US for not giving his organization intelligence information sooner on what Washington says was a nuclear reactor in Syria being built secretly by North Korea.

Discussion: Ynetnews, Israel Matzav, Gateway Pundit, Infidels Are Cool and Associated Press

David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Government Releases Images of Syrian Reactor

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Brookings Institute, TPMCafe, Danger Room, ArmsControlWonk, Washington Post, FP Passport, Salon, Think Progress and Hullabaloo

Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard Blog:

McCain: “Clear Who Hamas Wants to be the Next President” — McCain spoke with bloggers this morning on a number of issues ranging from William Ayers to Rev. Wright to Tony Rezko. Jennifer Rubin noted that Hamas had endorsed Senator Obama and asked McCain whether Obama might have given “an unhelpful signal” to the terrorist group.

Discussion: Commentary, Matthew Yglesias, Boston Globe, The American Mind, TPM Election Central, The Carpetbagger Report, Spin Cycle, The Daily Dish, MyDD, MSNBC, Fausta's blog and Angry Bear

WCBS-TV:

COPS ACQUITTED IN 50-SHOT SEAN BELL SHOOTING DEATH — 3 NYPD Detectives Cleared Of All Charges In 2006 Incident — Sharpton: Verdict Was An ‘Abortion’ Of Justice — NEW YORK (CBS) ― In what marks the end of one of the most high-profile police-involved shooting trials in New York City …

Discussion: Vox Popoli

Tom Hays / Associated Press:
NYPD officers cleared in killing; rights leaders want probe

Discussion: Brilliant at Breakfast and LewRockwell.com Blog

Marc Ambinder:

DNC To Assess Challenges On 5/31 — The DNC will convene its rules and bylaws committee on the last day of May to consider two challenges, that, if successful, could change the delegate math just as the primary season is about to close. But the date of the meeting may be too late for Hillary Clinton …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, The Page and Wonkette

Rasmussen Reports:

Election 2008: Pennsylvania Presidential Election — Pennsylvania: McCain 44% Obama 43% — What a difference two weeks of intense campaigning can make. The final two weeks of campaigning in the Pennsylvania Primary may not have changed the outcome of the Democratic race, but it helped John McCain in the Keystone State.

Discussion: TalkLeft, FiveThirtyEight.com and Redstate