Top Items:
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Obama's Michael Dukakis moment — Barack Obama got ABC to move their news division into the White House in order to make the big pitch for his egalitarian, everyone-gets-treated-equally ObamaCare push. Instead, Obama fumbled into a Michael Dukakis moment that exposed him as a hypocrite.
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Hollywoodreporter / The Live Feed:
ABC's White House special struggled for viewers — President Obama's town hall meeting on health care delivered a sickly rating Wednesday evening. — The one-hour ABC News special “Primetime: Questions for the President: Prescription for America” (4.7 million viewers …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, Riehl World View, Politics Nation and Weasel Zippers
Peter Nicholas / Los Angeles Times:
Obama discusses deathbed measures — At a healthcare town hall, he says stopping futile procedures for the terminally ill can lower costs. — Reporting from Washington — President Obama suggested at a town hall event Wednesday night that one way to shave medical costs is to stop expensive …
Jeff Poor / The Business & Media Institute:
ABC ObamaCare Special Turns Into Presidential Filibuster — President Obama uses network primetime special and overtime ‘Nightline’ coverage to talk for more than 45 minutes of combined 75-minute programs, revealing nothing new. — Business & Media Institute
John Dickerson / Slate:
The disturbing glee at Mark Sanford's downfall. — Mark Sanford is no longer missing, but he's obviously lost. The South Carolina governor's press conference was excruciating: apology, followed by self-flagellation, followed by apology. It was like watching a man light himself on fire.
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John O'Connor / The State:
Exclusive: E-mails between Sanford, woman — Woman in affair declines interview — Below are excerpts of e-mails, obtained by The State newspaper in December, between Gov. Mark Sanford's personal e-mail account and Maria, a woman in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Discussion:
New York Times, theblogprof, The Fix, Newsweek, The Charlotte Observer, Guardian, MoJo Blog Posts, Ezra Klein, Emptywheel, Right Wing News, Newsweek Blogs, Pundit & Pundette, The Palmetto Scoop, Indecision Forever, The Caucus, Gawker, Top of the Ticket, The Opinionator, News Desk, Blogs and Stories, Achenblog, Washington Monthly, Hotline On Call, Washington Post, Firedoglake, Hot Air, American Street, DemConWatch, TigerHawk, TPMMuckraker, The Politico, The Anchoress, At-Largely, The Skepticrats, Associated Press, The New Republic, The Gun Toting Liberal, Politics Daily, Conservatives4Palin.com, The Anonymous Liberal and FITSNews
Fox News:
Sanford's Mistress Identified as Professional, Passionate and Beautiful Brunette — Details are emerging about South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's mistress, whom he visited in Argentina last week after his wife told him to leave. — FOXNews.com — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's mistress …
S.A. Miller / Washington Times:
Social conservatives fall from moral high ground — Republicans retreat from values claims — Social conservatives, the once-powerful force that focused the Republican agenda on moral virtue and family values, have suffered a diminished brand on the national political landscape …
Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:
Sanford Case a New Dose of Bad News for Republicans — WASHINGTON — Republicans were just starting to breathe a little easier. — The news that Senator John Ensign had had an affair with a former aide who was married to another former aide was fading. Polls showed some voter impatience …
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Conservatives Write Off Sanford as a National Leader
Conservatives Write Off Sanford as a National Leader
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, The Bilerico Project, Erick's blog, The New Republic, Mark Sanford 2012, Sadly, No! and Salon
Borzou Daragahi / Los Angeles Times:
Iran opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi lashes out; 70 professors arrested — Mousavi blasts Iran's supreme leader and state media. He says the ongoing government crackdown on post-election protests puts the nation at risk. Meanwhile, teachers who met with Mousavi are arrested.
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BBC:
MPs ‘snub’ Ahmadinejad party — More than 100 MPs appear to have snubbed an invitation to celebrate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election win, local press reports say. — All 290 MPs were invited to the victory party on Wednesday night but 105 did not turn up, the reports say.
Discussion:
Aljazeera, Hot Air, Telegraph, Wake up America, A Blog For All, The Strata-Sphere, PoliBlog and Taylor Marsh
David Stout / New York Times:
Supreme Court Says Child's Rights Violated by Strip Search — WASHINGTON — In a ruling of interest to educators, parents and students across the country, the Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, on Thursday that the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl by school officials who were looking …
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Wall Street Journal:
The Cap and Tax Fiction — Democrats off-loading economics to pass climate change bill. — Printer — Friendly — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put cap-and-trade legislation on a forced march through the House, and the bill may get a full vote as early as Friday.
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Rhetorican, FiveThirtyEight, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Gateway Pundit, Commentary and Maggie's Farm
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Gina Smith / The State:
Hunch leads to airport and tired, troubled Sanford — It was about 6:15 a.m. Wednesday as I stood in the waiting area at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, squinting my eyes to see whether Gov. Mark Sanford was part of a crowd exiting the plane from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Eddie Wrenn / Daily Mail:
Stunning pictures of the volcano that blew a hole in the sky as astronauts witness eruption from International Space Station — Framed by a circle of clouds, this is a stunning illustration of Nature's powerful force. — A plume of smoke, ash and steam soars five miles into the sky from an erupting volcano.
Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Palin hits back at ‘malicious’ photo — (CNN) - A week after a high-profile uproar with comedian David Letterman over the late-night host's joke about her daughter, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is again sharply responding to the appearance of her children in the public sphere.
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Elliott Abrams / Wall Street Journal:
Hillary Is Wrong About the Settlements — The U.S. and Israel reached a clear understanding about natural growth. — Printer — Friendly — Despite fervent denials by Obama administration officials, there were indeed agreements between Israel and the United States regarding the growth of Israeli settlements on the West Bank.
Discussion:
Commentary
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Patrick Gavin / The Politico:
Emanuel: Sanford needed a cigarette — Perhaps no one knows how to butter up reporters better than White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. — The longtime Washington insider is known for personally reaching out to reporters and always being cognizant of the media landscape.
Murray Waas / The Hill:
Bush administration leaks bolstered Rick Renzi's reelection bid — In the fall of 2006, one day after the Justice Department granted permission to a U.S. attorney to place a wiretap on a Republican congressman suspected of corruption, existence of the investigation was leaked to the press …
James Hibberd / Hollywood Reporter:
Fox News set for best year yet — Viewership solid as rivals take post-election hits — Fox News is on track to have its most-watched year ever, showing significant ratings growth despite having just come off a highflying election year. — With the second quarter coming to a close …