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 Monkey Cage, Matthew Yglesias, The Corner, Firedoglake, Democracy in America, The League of Ordinary …, No More Mister Nice Blog, Jack & Jill Politics, The Agitator, Feministe, The Reaction, Washington Monthly, The Daily Dish, Ideas Special Report, Reclusive Leftist, THE DAILY BANTER.COM, marbury, MoJo Blog Posts, PoliGazette, PoliBlog, The American Scene, pandagon.net, The Huffington Post, alicublog, skippy the bush kangaroo, Blogs and Stories, Washington Post, Riehl World View, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Balloon Juice, Wall Street Journal, 11D, Runnin' Scared and The Anonymous Liberal
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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:
The New Republic, The Moderate Voice, Wake up America, Macsmind and Politico Live's Blog
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:
Riehl World View, Hot Air, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Taylor Marsh, American Spectator and Redhot
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.
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:
The Opinionator, USA Today, The New Republic, Ben Smith's Blog, Spectator and Commentary
New York Times:
Legal Bills Swayed Palin, Official Says
Legal Bills Swayed Palin, Official Says
Discussion:
The Mudflats, The Mahablog, American Power, The BRAD BLOG, rubber hose, The New Ledger, Say Anything, Raw Story and Atlantic Correspondents
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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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
HELP Is on the Way — The Congressional Budget Office has looked at the future of American health insurance, and it works. — A few weeks ago there was a furor when the budget office “scored” two incomplete Senate health reform proposals — that is, estimated their costs and likely impacts over the next 10 years.
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, Michael Calderone's Blog, CNN, Marginal Revolution, Vanity Fair, democracyarsenal.org, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Commentary, FP Passport, MoJo Blog Posts, Taylor Marsh, Runnin' Scared, Jay Hancock's blog, Townhall.com, RealClearWorld, Shakesville, Connecting.the.Dots and The BLT
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Thomas W. Lippman / Washington Post:
Robert McNamara, Architect of Vietnam War, Dies at 93 — Robert Strange McNamara, the former secretary of defense whose record as a leading executive of industry and a chieftain of foreign financial aid was all but erased from public memory by his reputation as the primary architect …
David Mark / The Politico:
Memories of McNamara — Birch Bayh, an Indiana Democrat …
Memories of McNamara — Birch Bayh, an Indiana Democrat …
Discussion:
The Swamp
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:
Washington Monthly, Townhall.com, The New Editor, Atlas Shrugs, Balloon Juice, Track-A-'Crat, The Anchoress, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Grandpa John's, Israel Matzav, Pundit & Pundette, Gateway Pundit, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Washington Independent, The Lonely Conservative and Weasel Zippers
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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David M. Drucker / Roll Call:
Senate's Health Timeline May Slip
Senate's Health Timeline May Slip
Discussion:
Washington Post, AmSpecBlog, Open Congress, Associated Press, The Plum Line, The Washington Independent, Think Progress, TPMDC and The Hill
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 …
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, Shakesville, Gateway Pundit, QandO, Barcepundit and And So it Goes in Shreveport
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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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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 Jawa Report, The Lonely Conservative and Burnt Orange Report
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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 …
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.
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 …
Rachel Slajda / Talking Points Memo:
Palin's Attorney: Her Resignation Is “Self-Sacrifice” — Thomas Van Flein, Sarah Palin's attorney — Sarah Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein (the one who threatened to sue several news organizations for allegedly defaming his client) just spoke with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
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 …