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Ted Barrett / CNN:
Dems propose cutting Obama budget by billions — CNN Congressional Producer — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Hours before President Obama was to hold a prime-time news conference — in part to boost his $3.6 trillion budget plan — a key Democratic senator Tuesday unveiled a scaled-down budget proposal.
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Peter Baker / New York Times:
Obama Tries to Rally Nation to His Agenda — WASHINGTON — President Obama tried to rally the nation behind his ambitious agenda Tuesday night, hoping to channel outrage at Wall Street excess into support for changes in tax, health care and energy policy that face skepticism even within his own party in Congress.
Discussion:
A Blog For All
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
Obama: Budget, recovery ‘inseparable’ — President Barack Obama used a prime-time news conference Tuesday to try to convince Americans that his budget and policy prescriptions are exactly what's needed to get nation's economy back on track, despite criticism from both parties in Congress.
Michael Calderone / The Politico:
Obama skips major papers — During President Obama's second East Room news conference, he took questions from 13 reporters over about an hour — that's the same as during his first presser on Feb. 9. — But in quite a departure from the first presser — and White House protocol — Obama skipped over the nation's top newspapers.
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Frank James / The Swamp:
Obama's 2nd press conference live-blog — 9:05 pm — The press conference is over, not having gone the full hour. Obama didn't make any news either way. There won't be any new controversies coming out of this press conference, which is the first way of measuring the success or failure of these staged events.
Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:
Specter delivers death blow to labor union bill — Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced Tuesday he will oppose card check, giving an apparent death blow to the most important congressional issue to organized labor. — Specter made the dramatic announcement in a floor speech.
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New York Times, The Swamp, Political Machine, TPMDC, CBS News, Commentary, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Blue Crab Boulevard and Shopfloor
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The Huffington Post:
Specter Will Vote Against Employee Free Choice Act — UPDATE: Senator Specter ended speculation on where he would come down on the Employee Free Choice Act by declaring, on the Senate floor, that he would oppose the legislation until the economy improves. — “The problems of a recession …
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National Journal Online, Hullabaloo, The Gun Toting Liberal, Firedoglake, The Plum Line, The Politico, The Fix, The Washington Independent, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Townhall.com, Daily Kos, Right Wing News, QandO, AMERICAblog News, Think Progress, Taegan Goddard's …, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Washington Monthly, PoliticalBase.com Blog, Wizbang and D-Day
Blue Texan / Firedoglake:
K-Lo & Crew: Only Republicans Should be Honored at Catholic Colleges — Right-wing Catholics are furious that President Obama is [defiling the sanctity of] delivering the commencement address at Notre Dame. — K-Lo called it “disgraceful,” grunting, “They took a giant step away …
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Associated Press, Salon, PERRspectives, Washington Monthly, RedState and National Review
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Jamison Foser / Media Matters for America:
Newt Gingrich, guardian of Catholic values — FOX contributor Newt Gingrich is upset: — To which Matt Cooper replies: — That isn't really fair to Newt, though. Gingrich has only been divorced twice so far. There was Jackie, his former high school math teacher …
Thomas Ferraro / Reuters:
U.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.
Discussion:
Political Machine, PoliGazette, Riehl World View, A Blog For All, RedState, Right Pundits, Vox Popoli, Pajamas Media and Maggie's Farm
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Glenn Harlan Reynolds / Forbes:
Money For Nothing — Jilted Wall Street donors should rethink future political donations. — An honest politician, as an old saw has it, is one who stays bought. If this is true, then we have the most dishonest bunch of officeholders ever, and it may lead Wall Street to reconsider its donations in the future.
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Christopher D. Carroll / The Economists' Forum:
Treasury rewards waiting — Maybe it was worth the wait. — Judging from preliminary details, the US Treasury's plan to rescue the financial system is a lot savvier about the relationship between financial markets and the macroeconomy than are the usual-suspects: critics from both left …
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MoJo Blog Posts
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Ehud Barak to Join Netanyahu Cabinet — Kadima Leader Tzipi Livni has spent weeks resisting Benjamin Netanyahu's pleas that she enter his cabinet, citing the fact that she has no desire to be moderate window-dressing for a hard-right administration that's overtly opposed to a two-state resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Discussion:
ATTACKERMAN
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Dems Hammer GOP's New “Too Many Ideas” Strategy — Dems are opening fire on the GOP in response to our story below, which quotes Mitch McConnell's spokesperson saying that the GOP will start attacking the Obama administration for throwing out too many ideas on the economy, with not enough cohesion.
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The White House:
Open for Questions: President Obama to Answer Your Questions on Thursday — Today, the President invited everyone to use a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov called “Open for Questions” to ask a question about the economy and rate other questions up or down. Then, on Thursday morning …
Charles Homans / Washington Monthly:
Culture Shock — What happened when one conservative Web site ventured outside the movement bubble. — Last May, Conor Friedersdorf, a twenty-eight-year-old recent graduate of NYU's Journalism School, decided he was going to save conservative journalism.
Discussion:
American Power, pw, Eunomia, Lean Left, RedState, Riehl World View, Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Corner, The Washington Independent, The Agitator and The Daily Dish
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The GOP's Cheney Problem — The least popular vice-president in memory is not helping the Republicans regroup - according to this piece from the Hill. But Cheney is not giving these disgraceful and classless interviews to help the GOP. He's giving them because it is beginning to dawn …
Jeffrey A. Miron / CNN:
Commentary: Legalize drugs to stop violence — Editor's note: Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University. — CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) — Over the past two years, drug violence in Mexico has become a fixture of the daily news.
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
A major difference between conservatives and progressives — (updated below - Update II) — One of the linchpins of the Bush presidency, especially during the first term (and well into the second, until he became a major political liability), was the lock-step uncritical reverence …
Ron Fournier / Associated Press:
Analysis: Teleprompter telegraphs Obama caution — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - What kind of politician brings a teleprompter to a news conference? — A careful one. — President Barack Obama took no chances in his second prime-time news conference …
Khaled Abu Toameh / Hudson New York:
On Campus: The Pro-Palestinians' Real Agenda — During a recent visit to several university campuses in the U.S., I discovered that there is more sympathy for Hamas there than there is in Ramallah. — Listening to some students and professors on these campuses, for a moment I thought …
Jeffrey Lord / American Spectator:
The 1966 Election's Warning to Obama — It was a historic tidal wave of rejection. Symbolized by, of all things, housewives boycotting supermarkets. And the active participation of seven future presidents of the United States. — The 1966 “off year” or congressional elections …
Manu Raju / The Politico:
Coleman won't rule out federal appeal — Former Sen. Norm Coleman is still considering taking his election lawsuit to the federal court if he's unsuccessful in reversing Al Franken's 225-vote lead in the Minnesota Senate recount. — Speaking to reporters at the Capitol …
Irene Jay Liu / Capitol Confidential:
Possible delay for 20th CD race? — The AP is reporting that a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit could delay next week's special election in the 20th CD. — Here's the story: — ALBANY — A U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit could delay next week's special election in the 20th Congressional District …