memeorandum: Clinton camp converging on New York Tuesday, and shedding staff (Ben Smith/Ben Smith's Blogs)

11:00 AM ET, June 2, 2008

Top Items:

Winning Again, Clinton Weighs Her Options — Hillary Rodham Clinton won by 2 to 1 in Puerto Rico's primary, but some supporters suggested it would be best if she dropped her threat to battle on past Tuesday.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Washington Post, MSNBC, marbury and On Deadline

Fafnir / Fafblog:

The Audacity Of Hope — So now everybody's all “oh, Hillary Clinton can't win the nomination” and “oh, Hillary Clinton can't be president” and “oh, Hillary Clinton, haven't they sedated her yet.” Well that's just talking crazy talk! There's tons a stuff that can happen between …

Catherine Dodge / Bloomberg:
Clinton Puerto Rico Win Doesn't Revive Nomination Bid

Discussion: The Political Carnival

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

Wall Street Journal:
Obama Poised to Claim Victory

Discussion: TalkLeft and Real Clear Politics

Ed Kilgore / Democratic Strategist:
Puerto Rico and the Popular Vote

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Daily Kos, Prairie Weather, Jack and Jill Politics and Comments from Left Field

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

Discussion: The Caucus, The Carpetbagger Report, Guardian and TIME.com

Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Obama-Clinton marathon near the line

Discussion: Rough Sketch, Ben Smith's Blogs and New York Times

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, Gateway Pundit, PoliGazette, The American Mind, Scared Monkeys, The Strata-Sphere, No More Mister Nice Blog and Flopping Aces

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, protein wisdom, All Spin Zone, Riehl World View, The Strata-Sphere, Comments from Left Field, The Mahablog, The Campaign Spot, Althouse, Balloon Juice, Bang the Drum, Oliver Willis, Unfogged, Stop The ACLU, Newshoggers.com, Corrente and NO QUARTER

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: Hot Air

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

Discussion: Shakesville

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

Discussion: Think Progress

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

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: Marc Ambinder, Newsday, The Carpetbagger Report, TIME.com, Prairie Weather, The Field, Comments from Left Field and The Jed Report

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 Swamp and Eschaton

Jill Zuckman / The Swamp:
McCain calls for Iran divestment effort

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs

Stuart Silverstein / Top of the Ticket:
John McCain proposes squeezing Iran financially

Discussion: Israel Matzav

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, Shakesville and Truthdig

CNN: Kennedy to have brain surgery Monday

Mike Baker / Associated Press:
Kennedy to undergo surgery at Duke for brain tumor

Discussion: MyDD

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: Weekly Standard Blog, Think Progress, Power Line, Eschaton, Shakesville, Blue Girl, Red State, Balloon Juice and TBogg

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: The Debatable Land and TownHall Blog

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, Washington Monthly, Jules Crittenden, Discourse.net, The Political Carnival and Patterico's Pontifications

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: Boston Globe, Attackerman and Pam's House Blend

New York Times:

Mr. Rove Talks, but Doesn't Answer — In a recent appearance on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” Karl Rove was asked if he had a role in the Justice Department's decision to prosecute Don Siegelman. The former Democratic governor of Alabama was convicted and sentenced to more than seven years …

Discussion: At-Largely, AMERICAblog, DownWithTyranny! and Left In Alabama

Jaketapper / Political Punch:

Rev. Pfleger: “America is the Greatest Sin Against God” — In another excerpt from Rev. Michael Pfleger's sermon last Sunday, May 25, from the pulpit of Sen. Barack Obama's now former church, Trinity United Church of Christ on the South side of Chicago, the longtime Obama associate condemns America for racism in fairly harsh terms.