Top Items:
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
Palin and Her Enemies — If Sarah Palin's political career ended last Friday, 10 tumultuous months after she was introduced as the Republican Party's vice-presidential nominee, those five words will be its epitaph. — Had she refused John McCain, Palin would still be a popular female governor …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The New Republic, The Monkey Cage, Matthew Yglesias, The Corner, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Agitator, The League of Ordinary …, Democracy in America, The BRAD BLOG, Feministe, The Mahablog, The Daily Dish, Bloomberg, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, American Power, THE DAILY BANTER.COM, marbury, The Reaction, MoJo Blog Posts, PoliGazette, Jack & Jill Politics, PoliBlog, The American Scene, Ideas Special Report, pandagon.net, National Review, Democratic Strategist, Fishersville Mike, The Huffington Post, skippy the bush kangaroo, alicublog, Blogs and Stories, NY Daily News, Riehl World View, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Washington Post, Balloon Juice, The World Newser, Reclusive Leftist, Wall Street Journal and 11D
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Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:
Sarah Palin's surprise — From my latest American Spectator column: … Please read the whole thing. Sunday morning, I was driving back from Lake Weiss — where we'd shot our fabulous annual Fourth of July fireworks show — when the editor called asking me to write the column.
Discussion:
New York Times, Hot Air, American Spectator, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Riehl World View, Taylor Marsh and Redhot
Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:
Palin's Prospects — She dashed her chances of winning the 2012 nomination, but a path to the presidency remains open to Sarah Palin. — Forget about Sarah Palin as the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 and probably ever. She may have no interest in seeking the GOP nomination.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Daily Dish, Macsmind, The Moderate Voice, Wake up America, msnbc.com and The New Republic
Ta-Nehisi Coates:
What The Right Means When They Say “America” — UPDATE: Several posters have pointed out the distinction between the meritocratic and democratic ideal. I have conflated the two, and thus portions of this are wrong. Having thought on that fact though, I still can't bring myself to see Palin is one or Obama as the other.
Discussion:
The American Scene
Jim Prevor / Weekly Standard:
Republicans Should Reexamine the Public Good of Private Citizens … In that phrase, “just being a private citizen,” Senator Grassley encapsulates both why Sarah Palin is so phenomenally appealing to the Republican base and how divorced the national Republican apparatus is from the core values of party members.
Discussion:
USA Today, Ben Smith's Blog, The Opinionator, The New Republic, Commentary and Spectator
Kevin Hassett / Bloomberg:
California's Nightmare Will Kill Obamanomics: Kevin Hassett — Last week, we discovered that the state of California will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. — With California mired in a budget crisis, largely the result of a political impasse that makes spending cuts …
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The Huffington Post:
Schumer: With Franken Seated No Need To Compromise On Public Option — One of the leading Senate Democrats in the health care reform battle said that the seating of Al Franken has given the party the purpose and direction it needs to ensure that a public option for insurance coverage remains in any bill.
Caitlin Taylor / The Note:
Dem Senator: Second Stimulus ‘Probably Needed’ — ABC News' Rick Klein reports: — As job losses mount, Democrats are growing impatient about the impact of the massive stimulus package passed earlier this year, with talk beginning on Capitol Hill about a possible second stimulus bill.
Discussion:
Glenn Thrush's Blog
Andy McCarthy / The Corner:
Obama: Student Radical — During the campaign, I wrote a piece called “Why Won't Obama Talk About Columbia? — The years he won't discuss may explain the Ayers tie he keeps lying about.” So now, nearly six months into the Obama presidency, the mainstream media has finally done a bit …
Discussion:
Atlas Shrugs, Townhall.com, The New Editor, Washington Monthly, Balloon Juice, The Anchoress, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Grandpa John's, Israel Matzav, Track-A-'Crat, Pundit & Pundette, Gateway Pundit, The Washington Independent, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Lonely Conservative and Weasel Zippers
Tim Weiner / New York Times:
Robert S. McNamara, Former Defense Secretary, Dies at 93 — Robert S. McNamara, perhaps the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century, who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of Vietnam and spent the rest of his life wrestling with the war's moral consequences …
Discussion:
Time, MoJo Blog Posts, Michael Calderone's Blog, CNN, Marginal Revolution, democracyarsenal.org, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Vanity Fair, FP Passport, Commentary, Taylor Marsh, Runnin' Scared, Jay Hancock's blog, RealClearWorld, ATTACKERMAN, Shakesville, Connecting.the.Dots, Townhall.com and The BLT
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Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Special Report: Ideologically, Where Is the U.S. Moving? — Nearly 4 in 10 Americans say their views have grown more conservative — PRINCETON, NJ — Despite the results of the 2008 presidential election, Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, say their political views in recent years have become …
Borzou Daragahi / Los Angeles Times:
Iran's Revolutionary Guard takes command — Calling the move “a new phase of the revolution,” leaders insist there is no room for compromise on Ahmadinejad's reelection. — Reporting from Beirut — The top leaders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard publicly acknowledged they had taken …
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Washington Post:
Former Lawmakers and Congressional Staffers Hired to Lobby on Health Care — Firms Are Enlisting Ex-Lawmakers, Aides — The nation's largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in hopes of influencing …
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Michelle Malkin:
Video: Sen. Cornyn gets an earful — From the very beginning of the Tea Party movement, I've reported that activists have directed their disgust at both parties over fiscal recklessness. — It's an inconvenient truth the Tea Party-bashers would rather ignore. — The anger at Republicans who voted for TARP hasn't gone away.
Discussion:
Postcards, The Huffington Post, The Lonely Conservative, Burnt Orange Report and The Jawa Report
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Tyler Durden / Zero Hedge:
Is A Case Of Quant Trading Sabotage About To Destroy Goldman Sachs? — Major developing story: Matt Goldstein over at Reuters may have just broken a story that could spell doom for if not the entire Goldman Sachs program trading group, then at least those who deal with “low latency …
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BBC:
Coffee 'may reverse Alzheimer's' — Drinking five cups of coffee a day could reverse memory problems seen in Alzheimer's disease, US scientists say. — The Florida research, carried out on mice, also suggested caffeine hampered the production of the protein plaques which are the hallmark of the disease.
Matt Corley / Think Progress:
Huckabee: Obama Needs To Stop Blaming Bush Because Bush Didn't Complain About Inheriting Clinton's Economy — On Fox and Friends this morning, host Gretchen Carlson asked former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) about Vice President Biden's comment that the Obama administration …
Peter Hamby / CNN:
Sanford rejects call for resignation — COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) - After spending the holiday weekend with his family in Florida, Mark Sanford is apparently intent on fighting off calls for his resignation and staying in office, according to one South Carolina Republican who spoke with the governor on Monday.
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
BEWARE POST-DATED RESIGNATIONS? — Let me start by saying I don't think this is likely. But given our experience with Larry Craig, I do think it's worth considering. Remember, former Sen. Larry Craig came out and announced he was resigning his office. But folks who listened closely noticed …
Amol Sharma / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Opens Review of Telecoms — The Department of Justice has begun an initial review to determine whether large U.S. telecom companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. have abused the market power they've amassed in recent years, according to people familiar with the matter.
Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
Ousted Honduran president expected in Washington — WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to meet with deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this week as the Obama administration weighs responses to his ouster. — The talks planned for Tuesday …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Don Surber, Pajamas Media, Babalú Blog, Grandpa John's, Nice Deb and QandO
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
The Atlantic And Salon Dinners: Thoughts From The Boss — The first reaction of every journalist to the story of the Washington Post's advertiser-cum-salon dinner proposal was probably one of disgust and moral superiority. The second reaction: we've all kinda been involved in situations …
Discussion:
FishBowlDC
Richard Berner / Morgan Stanley:
America's Fiscal Train Wreck — America's long-awaited fiscal train wreck is now underway. Depending on policy actions taken now and over the next few years, federal deficits will likely average as much as 6% of GDP through 2019, contributing to a jump in debt held by the public to as high …
Wall Street Journal:
Scores Reported Dead After Unrest in China — SHANGHAI — The death toll in riots in China's northwestern Xinjiang region rose sharply Monday, with state media saying that 156 people had been killed in what appears to be one of the deadliest episodes of unrest in China in decades.
Discussion:
RealClearWorld, Hot Air, Clusterstock, Gateway Pundit, QandO, Shakesville and And So it Goes in Shreveport
Spiegel Online:
‘Obama Is Like a Chess Player’ — Part 2: 'A Unique Chance To Conduct Peaceful American Foreign Policy" — SPIEGEL: So you are calling for a kind of realistic idealism? — Kissinger: Exactly. There is no realism without an element of idealism. The idea of abstract power only exists for academics, not in real life.