memeorandum: Diaz-Balarts back bill after donation (Dan Christensen/MiamiHerald.com)

12:40 PM ET, June 2, 2008

Top Items:

Clinton camp converging on New York Tuesday, and shedding staff — Members of Hillary Clinton's advance staff received calls and emails this evening from headquarters summoning them to New York City Tuesday night, and telling them their roles on the campaign are ending, two Clinton staffers tell my colleague Amie Parnes.

Discussion: Newsday, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Carpetbagger Report, Prairie Weather, TIME.com, The Field, Comments from Left Field and The Jed Report

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

Winning Again, Clinton Weighs Her Options — WASHINGTON — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won another overwhelming victory over Senator Barack Obama on Sunday — this time in Puerto Rico — even as many Democrats, including some of her supporters, suggested it would be best if she dropped …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Bloomberg, Washington Post, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, culturekitchen, AMERICAblog, TPM Election Central, Associated Press, Towleroad.com, MSNBC, The Political Carnival, Political Punch, On Deadline, marbury and New York Post

Jim Kuhnhenn / Associated Press:
Clinton seeks to go after Obama superdelegates

Discussion: PoliBlog (TM)

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
On past 2,118 — Clinton campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe tells …

Discussion: Washington Wire, MoJoBlog, MyDD and Oliver Willis

Marc Ambinder: Clinton Clues

Peter Wallsten / Los Angeles Times:
Clinton may lose key supporters soon

Discussion: Associated Press, New York Times, The Field, The Caucus, The Carpetbagger Report, Guardian and TIME.com

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:
FIRST THOUGHTS: THE END GAME

Discussion: The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Salon, marbury and DownWithTyranny!

Fafnir / Fafblog: The Audacity Of Hope

Larry Johnson / NO QUARTER:

Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan Take On Whitey — I learned over the weekend why the Republicans who have seen the tape of Michelle Obama ranting about “whitey” describe it as “STUNNING.” I have not seen it but I have heard from five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape.

Discussion: Wake up America, Comments from Left Field, Vox Popoli, The Strata-Sphere, Stop The ACLU, The Campaign Spot, PoliGazette, No More Mister Nice Blog and Flopping Aces

SusanUnPC / NO QUARTER:

[VIDEO UPDATE] BREAKING NEWS on “Whitey” Tape from Fox News: A TV Network HAS the Tape — Here's the text version at TVEyes.com: — FNC 06/01/2008 14:43:30: ...>>> welcome back to our special coverage live coverage from puerto rico. just before the break, roger stone the republican strategist …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, The American Mind, Gateway Pundit, Scared Monkeys, The Strata-Sphere and PoliGazette

Booman Tribune:

The Michelle Tape — My old friend, Larry Johnson, knows about manipulating elections from his training with the Central Intelligence Agency. He doesn't want Obama to win the nomination for whatever reason, and he's in full propaganda mode to do everything he can to frighten the superdelegates.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Reason Magazine, The Campaign Spot, Balloon Juice, protein wisdom, The Poor Man Institute, All Spin Zone, Riehl World View, Althouse, The Mahablog, Oliver Willis, Comments from Left Field, Bang the Drum, Unfogged, TBogg, NO QUARTER, Newshoggers.com and Corrente

Michael Abramowitz / Washington Post:

McClellan Recounts Administration's Missed Chances After '04 Election — Believe it or not, even after a week of wall-to-wall media coverage, there's still grist to mull over from the new Scott McClellan memoir, “What Happened.” — McClellan, the press-secretary-turned-administration critic …

Discussion: MoJoBlog, Hot Air, Political Punch and Booman Tribune

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
GO. FIGHT. WIN. — The Post's Michael Abramowitz has a good catch this morning:

Discussion: MyDD and Shakesville

Tom Engelhardt / TomDispatch:
Tomgram: Kill Them! We Are Going to Wipe Them Out!

Discussion: Think Progress

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

Americans Favor President Meeting With U.S. Enemies — Public thinks it's a good idea to meet with leaders of enemy countries — PRINCETON, NJ — Large majorities of Democrats and independents, and even half of Republicans, believe the president of the United States should meet with the leaders …

Discussion: Marc Ambinder, The Caucus, The Daily Dish, The Swamp, The Carpetbagger Report, Donklephant, Hotline On Call and Eschaton

Gallup:
Gallup Daily: Obama Maintains 10-Point Lead Over Clinton

Discussion: Open Left and Donklephant

William Kristol / New York Times:

What Obama Left Out — Commencement speeches are hard. — I gave one at a college about seven years ago. I labored over it, consulting orations from years past, writing and rewriting drafts. I ended up with remarks that struck me — even while I delivered them — as banal and platitudinous.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Weekly Standard Blog, Power Line, The Campaign Spot, Swampland, Think Progress, Eschaton, Shakesville, Blue Girl, Red State, PoliGazette, Too Sense, Balloon Juice and TBogg

William Kristol / Weekly Standard Blog:

(Bumped) Kristol: So long (for a while) to Michael Goldfarb — Note to our readers: The online editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD and proprietor of this blog, Michael Goldfarb, has taken a leave of absence effective today to serve as deputy communications director of the McCain campaign.

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs and Reason Magazine

Glenn Greenwald / Salon: Newest McCain official: President has “near dictatorial powers”

Nate / FiveThirtyEight.com:

Popular Vote Scenario Tester, Online Version [UPDATED] — There are more ways to count the popular vote (by my count, 972) than there are to eat a Whopper. And now you can pick your favorite. — Note: I had originally used 200,000 as my estimate for Washington caucus turnout, which is a fairly widely reported figure.

Discussion: The Numbers and Pollster.com

Wall Street Journal:
Obama Poised to Claim Victory

Discussion: TalkLeft and Real Clear Politics

Max Blumenthal / The Huffington Post:

Pastor Hagee: The Antichrist Is Gay, “Partially Jewish, As Was Adolph Hitler” (Paging Joe Lieberman!) — On March 16, 2003, on the eve of the United States' invasion of Iraq, Pastor John Hagee took to the pulpit to warn of the coming Antichrist. In his sermon, “The Final Dictator,” …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Boston Globe, Attackerman, Talk To Action, Pam's House Blend and The Jawa Report

Guardian:

US accused of holding suspects on prison ships — The United States is operating “floating prisons” to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.

Discussion: Think Progress, The Raw Story, BuzzFlash.org, Washington Monthly, Jules Crittenden, Discourse.net, The Political Carnival and Patterico's Pontifications

Oliver Burkeman / Guardian:

Hillary: my part in her downfall — As Hillary Clinton's doomed presidential bid draws to a painful close, one man has been cast as the scapegoat. In his first interview, Mark Penn, the candidate's former chief strategist, talks to Oliver Burkeman about what went wrong

Discussion: TownHall Blog and The Debatable Land

Boston Globe:

Senator Kennedy to have brain surgery this morning — Senator Edward M. Kennedy is undergoing surgery for his malignant brain tumor at Duke University this morning, his office announced today. — The surgery is to begin about 9 a.m. and will last approximately six hours.

Discussion: Pam's House Blend, Truthdig and Shakesville

CNN:
Kennedy to have brain surgery Monday

Discussion: Washington Post and The Moderate Voice

Dan Christensen / MiamiHerald.com:

Diaz-Balarts back bill after donation — Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart co-sponsored a bill shortly after accepting $10,000 in campaign contributions from a company pushing the bill. They say the legislation is needed. — AIM — dchristensen@MiamiHerald.com

Discussion: TPMMuckraker and MiamiHerald.com

Bill Roggio / The Long War Journal:

Iraqi Army interdicting Iranian operations in the South — Click to view larger interactive map of southern Iraq. — Iraqi and Coalition forces press operations against the Mahdi Army in Baghdad and Basrah despite the cease-fire signed with the Mahdi Army in Sadr City.

Discussion: QandO, New York Times, abu muqawama and Washington Post