memeorandum: RNC Uses Legal Threat To Rebut New DNC Ad (Marc Ambinder)

12:30 AM ET, April 29, 2008

Top Items:

Wright's Voice Could Spell Doom for Obama — The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, explaining this morning why he had waited so long before breaking his silence about his incendiary sermons, offered a paraphrase from Proverbs: “It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Wright's Poison — I guess I am late to the party, am I not? I didn't watch Jeremiah Wright's National Press Club performance live this morning, as every other blogger seemed to. Wright is not on the ticket of any major party, he is not Barack Obama, and I'm not going to be baited …

Discussion: Ross Douthat, Ben Smith's Blogs, alicublog, The Moderate Voice, Salon, Viking Pundit, Daimnation! and Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:

Obama Addresses Ex-Pastor's Media Blitz — WILMINGTON, N.C. - If it was not clear before today, Senator Barack Obama said, it should be clear now: his presidential campaign has no control over what the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his former pastor, says or does.

Discussion: PunditGuy, The Page, New York Times, American Street, Connecting.the.Dots and The Nation

Joe Klein / Swampland:

The Reverend Wright — Oy. — And furthermore, I've been to dozens and dozens of African-American church services over the years, including the investiture of one of my friends as an AME minister two years ago, and I have very rarely, if ever, heard the kind of rants that are part of Reverend Wright's canon.

Mike Dorning / Chicago Tribune:

Obama: Judge my words, not Wright's — WILMINGTON, N.C.—Barack Obama this afternoon asked voters to judge him by his own words and deeds rather than his past associations, as his controversial former spiritual mentor re-emerged in the presidential campaign through a broadcast interview …

Discussion: Marc Ambinder, The Daily Dish, TalkLeft and The Volokh Conspiracy

Mike Allen / The Politico:

Wright to Obama: ‘Coming after you’ — The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Monday that he will try to change national policy by “coming after” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) if he is elected president. — The pastor also insisted Obama “didn't denounce” him and “didn't distance himself” …

Discussion: New York Times, The New Republic, The Strata-Sphere, NO QUARTER and Raw Story

Adam Green / The Huffington Post:

MoveOn: Obama Got Outfoxed — It's no secret that MoveOn.org members have been very supportive of Barack Obama's candidacy - endorsing him with a 70% vote, raising lots of small dollar donations for him, sending hundreds of thousands of personal endorsement emails to friends and family …

Discussion: Threat Level, The Nation, Brave New Films blog, Corrente, Daily Kos, Ben Smith's Blogs and MyDD

Nedra Pickler / Associated Press:

Analysis: Wright does Obama little good — WASHINGTON - The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is going after his critics on an incendiary tour that is doing his one-time congregant, Barack Obama, little good. — After weeks of staying out of the public eye while critics lambasted his sermons …

Discussion: Confederate Yankee

Alessandra Stanley / New York Times: Not Speaking for Obama, Pastor Speaks for Himself, at Length

New York Times:
Reverend Wright at the National Press Club

Discussion: The Caucus, Firedoglake, Pajamas Media, The Jawa Report, NewsBusters.org and Tales from the Trail

Josh Gerstein / newyorksun.com:
McCain Reverses Course on Obama's Pastor

Discussion: Power Line and The Corner

Marc Ambinder:
Wright And Obama — My best information is that Sen. Barack …

Discussion: The New Republic and Salon

Amy Sullivan / Time:
Jeremiah Wright Goes to War

Discussion: The Democratic Daily

John Holusha / New York Times:
Wright Says Criticism Is Attack on Black Church

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, The Confluence, The Reaction, The Swamp, American Street, Firedoglake, marbury, Althouse and Trailhead

Jonathan Weisman / The Trail:

With Bingaman Endorsement, Obama Takes Senate Support Lead — Sen. Barack Obama officially pulled ahead today in the scramble for endorsements from colleagues in the U.S. Senate, thanks to Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. — Never one of the Senate's most high-profile members …

Discussion: The Page, my.barackobama.com, Daily Kos, Comments from Left Field, Liberal Values, Donklephant and Wonkette

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

As North Carolina Primary Looms, Eyes on Edwards — WILMINGTON, N.C. — What will the Edwardses do? — As the Democratic candidates and their surrogates traipse through North Carolina in the final days before its primary, some people here are wondering: Why so quiet in Chapel Hill?

Discussion: TalkLeft

Associated Press:
AP: N.C. Governor Mike Easley To Endorse Clinton

Discussion: Wizbang

Gary D. Robertson / Associated Press: AP NewsBreak: Gov. Easley to endorse Clinton

The Hill:

Clinton: $2.3B in earmarks — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has requested nearly $2.3 billion in federal earmarks for 2009, almost three times the largest amount received by a single senator this year. — The Democratic presidential candidate's staggering request comes …

Discussion: TownHall Blog, Sister Toldjah and Hot Air

McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Is an Iranian general the most powerful man in Iraq? — BAGHDAD — One of the most powerful men in Iraq isn't an Iraqi government official, a militia leader, a senior cleric or a top U.S. military commander or diplomat, — He's an Iranian general, and at times he's more influential than all of them.

Discussion: Think Progress and Swampland

Slobodan Lekic / Associated Press: 4 US soldiers killed; militants shell Green Zone

Rebecca Carr / Austin American-Statesman:

NOOSE ALLEGEDLY FOUND AT SECRET SERVICE TRAINING CENTER — The U.S. Secret Service has placed a white agent on leave after an African American employee reported finding a noose hanging at the service's main training facility outside the nation's capital. — The service has acknowledged …

Discussion: AMERICAblog

Jeralyn / TalkLeft:

Karl Rove Gives Obama Six Pointers to Recover and Win — Karl Rove, writing in Newsweek, says Obama needs to recover from his recent fumbles. He offers six tips: — Get a new stump speech, the message in his current one has become old and tired. — When you're on the defense …

Discussion: Salon and Donklephant

Borzou / Babylon & Beyond:

SYRIA: More questions about alleged nuclear site — Professor William Beeman at the University of Minnesota passed along a note today from “a colleague with a U.S. security clearance” about the mysterious Syrian site targeted in a Sept. 6 Israeli airstrike.

Discussion: Danger Room and Hot Air

Pamela Hess / Associated Press: Hayden: Syrian site could have produced fuel for 2 weapons

Marc Ambinder:

The GOP Generational Time Bomb — It's no secret that Republicans have a brand problem; the gap between Dem and GOP party identification is greater today than at any point since the vanguard of the Reagan revolution, when Republicans held a double-digit advantage.

Discussion: Donklephant

HillaryClinton.com:

Hillary Clinton's Plan to Address Soaring Prices at the Pump — Americans are being squeezed at the pump like never before. The price of oil is approaching $120 a barrel. Gas is at a record high in North Carolina of $3.59, up from $3.26 a month ago and $2.90 a year ago, a 23 percent increase in just one year.

Discussion: TalkLeft

Jad Mouawad / New York Times:
Amid High Oil Prices, Danger Signs in Production

Discussion: Washington Monthly

madison.com:

Badger Poll: Presidential race up for grabs in Wisconsin — The latest poll of the presidential race shows that none of the three remaining candidates has a majority of support in Wisconsin. — The University of Wisconsin Survey Center's Badger Poll released Monday shows …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias