Top Items:
Rasmussen Reports:
Election 2012: Barack Obama 42%, Ron Paul 41% — Pit maverick Republican Congressman Ron Paul against President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up, and the race is - virtually dead even. — A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds Obama with 42% support and Paul with 41% of the vote.
Discussion:
WILLisms.com, Below The Beltway, AmSpecBlog, HotAirPundit, GOP 12, LewRockwell.com Blog and Real Clear Politics
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Shawn Millerick / Now! Hampshire:
Source: State Dems scrambling to deploy tea party ‘crashers’ — New Hampshire Democrats are engaged in a statewide search for liberal activists willing to attend so-called tea parties on Thursday and carry signs expressing racist or fringe sentiments, a Democratic source with knowledge of the effort tells NowHampshire.com.
Sean Higgins / Investor's Business Daily:
Hoyer Admits: Tea Party Spurs Members To Consider Retiring — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters today that the Tea Party movement is making some members of Congress mull retirement. — “Do I think the negative atmosphere that has been created by the Tea Party …
Discussion:
RedState
Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:
President Ron Paul — Here's a shocker: pollster Scott Rasmussen reports that in a race between Barack Obama and Ron Paul, 42% of likely voters would vote for Obama and 41% would vote for Paul. This, despite the fact that Paul gets lower support from Republicans (66%) than Obama does from Democrats (79%).
Discussion:
The Lonely Conservative
Bernie Quigley / Pundits Blog:
The Tea Party one year on: Federalism and nationalism
Discussion:
The Politico
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
Yes, 47% of Households Owe No Taxes. Look Closer. — Forty-seven percent. — That's the portion of American households that owe no income tax for 2009. The number is up from 38 percent in 2007, and it has become a popular talking point on cable television and talk radio.
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Arthur C. Brooks / Wall Street Journal:
‘Spreading The Wealth’ Isn't Fair — Surveys show Americans think taxes are already too high, even for the rich. — Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the 17th-century French minister of finance, once remarked that “the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount …
Harold McGee / New York Times:
The Curious Cook: Why Cilantro Tastes Like Soap, for Some — FOOD partisanship doesn't usually reach the same heights of animosity as the political variety, except in the case of the anti-cilantro party. The green parts of the plant that gives us coriander seeds seem to inspire …
Geoffrey R. Stone / New York Times:
Our Fill-in-the-Blank Constitution — AS the Senate awaits the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, a frank discussion is needed on the proper role of judges in our constitutional system. For 30 years, conservative commentators have persuaded the public that conservative judges apply the law …
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Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Obama/Bush Nearly Divided — Americans are now pretty evenly divided about whether they would rather have Barack Obama or George W. Bush in the White House. 48% prefer Obama while 46% say they would rather have the old President back. — Bush had atrocious approval ratings for his final few years …
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Brian Skoloff / Associated Press:
Democrat wins Fla. US House special election — BOCA RATON, Fla. — Republican backlash over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul had little effect in the nation's first U.S. House race of 2010. — Florida Democratic state Sen. Ted Deutch handily won Tuesday's special election …
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msnbc.com:
First moonwalker blasts Obama's space plan — NBC News: Neil Armstrong says rocket cancellation is ‘devastating’ — The first man to walk on the moon blasted President Barack Obama's decision to cancel NASA's back-to-the-moon program on Tuesday, saying that the move is “devastating” to America's space effort.
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Jay Sorgi / 620WTMJ:
Thompson Denies Report He Will Not Run for US Senate — MILWAUKEE - According to a source who has spoken with TODAY'S TMJ4 HD's Charles Benson, former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson says he will not run for Senator Russ Feingold's seat. — Thompson is set to announce his future at a “tea party” rally in Madison on Thursday.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Hot Air, National Review Online, Ben Smith's Blog, TPMDC, The Eye and The Political Carnival
Wall Street Journal:
Crist Advisers Push Independent Bid — Florida Governor Insists Independent Bid Isn't in the Cards Despite Conservative Primary Opponent's Big Lead in Polls — Gov. Charlie Crist, right, listens to teacher Scott Whittle's views on a merit-pay bill Tuesday in Tallahassee.
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Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Obama's disregard for media reaches new heights at nuclear summit — World leaders arriving in Washington for President Obama's Nuclear Security Summit must have felt for a moment that they had instead been transported to Soviet-era Moscow. — They entered a capital that had become a military encampment …
Discussion:
McClatchy Washington Bureau, The Corner on National …, Questions and Observations, Taylor Marsh, Don Surber, USA Today, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Pundit & Pundette, Hot Air, NO QUARTER, PostPartisan, Political Punch, Pajamas Media, Mediaite, Wonkette, Sense of Events, Laura Rozen's Blog, Big Journalism, Neptunus Lex, JammieWearingFool, The Lonely Conservative, Zandar Versus The Stupid, The Daily Beast and Riehl World View
RELATED:
Matthew Continetti / Weekly Standard:
2012 Watch: The Gingrich Surge — The story from the new CNN poll is that Mike Huckabee remains a popular choice for the 2012 Republican nomination. Huckabee, Romney, and Palin continue to lead the pack — probably because they have the greatest name i.d.
Discussion:
GOP 12
Peter Elkind / Fortune:
Eliot Spitzer's flameout — (Fortune) — It was one of America's most shocking political sex scandals, instantly transforming New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer — who had terrified Wall Street during his political climb — into the infamous “Client 9.” — In Rough Justice, his new book out April 20 …
Robert Wright / Opinionator:
The Price of Assassination — I wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me 20 years ago that America would someday be routinely firing missiles into countries it's not at war with. For that matter, I wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me a few months ago that America would soon …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
House GOP coy on plans for unemployment extension — House Republicans wouldn't say on Wednesday whether they would join their Senate counterparts to demand that an unemployment extension be paid for. — House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said that while Republicans were concerned …
Discussion:
The Politico
Wall Street Journal:
U.S.: Syria Gave Scuds to Hezbollah — JERUSALEM—Syria has transferred long-range Scud missiles to the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials alleged, in a move that threatens to alter the Middle East's military balance and sets back a major diplomatic outreach effort …
Discussion:
The Enterprise Blog, The Foundry, Commentary, Power Line, Doug Ross, The Jawa Report, The Corner on National …, Atlas Shrugs, Israel Matzav and Haaretz
Michael Howard Saul / Wall Street Journal:
Pataki Declines to Join New York Senate Race — Former New York Republican Gov. George E. Pataki has decided not to mount an election challenge against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand this fall. — Instead, he said in an interview Tuesday that he would create a new national organization aimed …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Fix, TPMDC, msnbc.com, MyDD, The Lonely Conservative, Politics Nation, Open Left and Swing State Project
Mark Murray / msnbc.com:
Army to court martial ‘birther’ officer — From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and Mark MurrayU.S. military officials tell NBC News that the U.S. Army will court martial a lieutenant colonel who refuses to deploy to Afghanistan because he considers orders from President Obama to be “illegal.”
The Note:
Fight Lines: Scrambled politics, tricky paths on financial reform — By Rick Klein: — If you can get your mind out of outer space for long enough... There's a debate set to pick up that's very much here on earth. The terrain is tricky to navigate — but just might be hospitable with the right kind of politics.
The Politico:
Agitated McCain: Don't call me a maverick — John McCain — who built his political persona and his 2008 presidential campaign around the claim that he's a “maverick” — told Newsweek recently: “I never considered myself a maverick.” — When POLITICO asked McCain about the contradiction …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
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