memeorandum: Obama Puts His Own Spin on Mix of Science With Politics (Sheryl Gay Stolberg/New York Times)

10:30 AM ET, March 10, 2009

Top Items:

Democrats Stung by Dissenters — Democratic leaders in Congress did not expect much Republican support as they pressed President Obama's ambitious legislative agenda. But the pushback they are receiving from some of their own has come as an unwelcome surprise.

Discussion: The Hill, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, theheretik.us, RedState, BuzzFlash.org and The Campaign Spot

Wall Street Journal:

Labor Bill Faces Threat in Senate — WASHINGTON — Key Senate Democrats are wavering in their support of legislation that would give more power to labor unions, dealing a setback to labor's top priority as businesses warn of the damage the bill would cause.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, Think Progress, Hot Air, Commentary and Cafe Hayek

Associated Press:

Obama: Improving schools is key to competitiveness — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says he wants the country to set higher education standards, including a quicker start for children in kindergarten and a much better high school graduation rate.

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Obama takes on teachers' unions

Discussion: CBS News, Bloomberg and MSNBC

Laura Meckler / Wall Street Journal: Obama to Push Merit Pay for Teachers

Christi Parsons / The Swamp:
Obama to unveil education plan

Discussion: NY Daily News

Mickey Kaus / Kausfiles:

Obama Buffetted — First Time The MSM Has Ever Ignored Warren Buffett: The press accounts I've read have wildly underplayed Obama supporter Warren Buffet's criticism of the President on CNBC today. It's fairly pointed, and Buffett comes back to it, suggesting he has a message he's trying to deliver.

Discussion: CNBC.com, Associated Press, The Atlantic Business Channel, Hot Air, The Huffington Post, Hullabaloo and TigerHawk

Julia A. Seymour / The Business & Media Institute:
CNBC's Kernen: ‘You Might Not Have Fixed Global Warming’ After D-Day

Discussion: The Foundry, The Campaign Spot and Reason

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

Rush whacks Newt: ‘He wishes they were running TV ads against him’ — Rush Limbaugh responded to Newt Gingrich's shot at him with a broadside at the former speaker on today's show. — “I'm frankly getting tired of talking about Newt. I mean, it's a pointless exercise,” …

Discussion: Buck Naked Politics, Firedoglake, Boston Globe, The Moderate Voice, The Gun Toting Liberal, Balloon Juice, Think Progress, Political Machine, The Huffington Post, DownWithTyranny!, Eunomia, The Democratic Daily, PoliticalBase.com Blog, kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com, Below The Beltway, Hot Air and Salon

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

LIMBAUGH VS. GINGRICH.... Rush Limbaugh insists he doesn't want to be the leader of the Republican Party. But somehow, he seems to keep engaging in high-profile fights with those who do want to be the GOP's leader. — The fissure between Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich seemed to begin in earnest about a week ago, at CPAC.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and Firedoglake

Dennis Overbye / New York Times:

They Tried to Outsmart Wall Street — Emanuel Derman expected to feel a letdown when he left particle physics for a job on Wall Street in 1985. — After all, for almost 20 years, as a graduate student at Columbia and a postdoctoral fellow at institutions like Oxford and the University of Colorado …

Discussion: The Corner, MoJo Blog Posts, Truthdig and Riehl World View

CNN:

Bomber kills 33 at Iraq peace conference — BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — At least 33 people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide car bombing targeting a national reconciliation conference in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official told CNN. — The attack — which occurred outside …

Discussion: Jihad Watch

BBC:
‘Dozens dead’ in Baghdad bombing

Discussion: Buck Naked Politics and PoliBlog

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:

Stem cell decision ignites right's ire — He called for reducing abortions and seeking common ground on one of the nation's most divisive issues — promises that led some on the right to think maybe, just maybe, Barack Obama was a different kind of Democrat. — But no more.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Matthew Cooper / TPMDC:
The Media's Meme: Obama's Too Distracted

Discussion: Washington Monthly

David Brooks / New York Times:

Taking a Depression Seriously — The Democratic response to the economic crisis has its problems, but let's face it, the current Republican response is totally misguided. The House minority leader, John Boehner, has called for a federal spending freeze for the rest of the year.

Discussion: LewRockwell.com Blog, Wall Street Journal and Economist's View

Reid Wilson / The Hill:

RNCdispute over $4 million — Republican infighting escalated Monday with allegations and denials over $4 million once destined for the party's congressional campaign committees. — Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele sought to placate critics by giving $1 million …

Sean Quinn / FiveThirtyEight.com:
Steele's Fate Likely Hinges on NY-20

Discussion: Balloon Juice, TPMMuckraker, DownWithTyranny!, The Campaign Spot, Talking Points Memo, The Washington Independent, Democratic Strategist and The Next Right

Yuval Levin / Washington Post:

Science Over All? — The Temptation in Obama's Stem Cell Policy — In announcing his policy on federal funding of stem cell research, President Obama inadvertently cast a bright light on a dangerous temptation in science policy that ought to give Americans pause.

Discussion: Religion Clause, The Huffington Post, The Volokh Conspiracy, it is NOT junk and Crunchy Con

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Obama Puts His Own Spin on Mix of Science With Politics

Discussion: Daily Kos and marbury

Bob McCarty Writes:

Heroic Name Given to Photo of President Obama — Soon after President Barack Obama signed an executive order lifting the ban on the use federal funding of embryonic stem cells in medical research, the wizards behind the White House web site posted the photo above.

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, Gateway Pundit and Doug Ross

Jennifer Rubin / Commentary:

How Long? — Jake Tapper appears to be one of the few (only?) mainstream reporters keeping current on the Chas Freeman story. You would think it would be hard to ignore the growing tidal wave of protest and controversy. The latest is a letter signed by the Republican members …

Discussion: Washington Post, Yourish.com, Political Punch, Power Line, JustOneMinute, Taylor Marsh, JammieWearingFool, Weekly Standard, Ben Smith's Blogs and The Daily Dish

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Freeman allies begin ‘outreach effort,’ no converts so far

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, Blogs and Stories, ATTACKERMAN, TPMCafe, The Washington Independent, CQ Politics and Commentary

Eli Lake / Washington Times:
GOP senators vow scrutiny over Freeman

Discussion: Washington Wire, Israel Matzav and Weekly Standard

David M. Smick / Washington Post:

Tim Geithner's Black Hole — Pity Barack Obama's economic advisers. The blogs are now demanding their scalps, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and his colleagues face a nasty dilemma: There are no solutions to the banking crisis without extraordinary political and financial risks.

Discussion: The Opinionator, The Politico, The Strata-Sphere, The Note and Don Surber

William Glaberson / New York Times:

Detainees Say They Planned Sept. 11 — The five detainees at Guantánamo Bay charged with planning the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have filed a document with the military commission at the United States naval base there expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting full responsibility …

Discussion: the talking dog, Stop The ACLU and On Deadline

NY Daily News:

Possible conflict of interest surfaces for President Obama's new urban czar Adolfo Carrion — President Obama's new urban czar renovated his Bronx home with help from the architect on a major development that needed his approval, a Daily News investigation has found.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and JammieWearingFool

David Rogers / The Politico:

McCain: 'I don't want him to fail' — After a losing presidential campaign in 2000, John McCain came back to the Senate and established himself as a force no White House could ignore. Eight years later, he's home from defeat again, facing a very different landscape dominated by President Barack Obama …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, MSNBC, Third Base Politics, Associated Press and Gothamist

Anthony Faiola / Washington Post:

U.S. to Toughen Its Stance On Trade — New Policy Reflects Growing Dissatisfaction With Global Markets — The Obama administration is aggressively reworking U.S. trade policy to more strongly emphasize domestic and social issues, from the displacement of American workers to climate change.

Discussion: AMERICAblog News