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:
FiveThirtyEight, Washington Wire, Left Coast Rebel, RedState, Ben Smith's Blog, The Lonely Conservative, Democratic Strategist, Below The Beltway, WILLisms.com, USA Today, Outside The Beltway, LewRockwell.com Blog, Liberty Maven, GOP 12, Vox Popoli, AmSpecBlog, HotAirPundit, Real Clear Politics and Hit & Run
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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.
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
GOP operatives crash the tea party — Just days after the first widespread tea party demonstrators hit the streets a year ago Thursday, Joe Wierzbicki, a Republican political consultant with the Sacramento firm Russo Marsh + Rogers, made a proposal to his colleagues that he said could …
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Palin throws Boston tea party — The Tea Party Express, headlined by former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin, descended on Boston Wednesday on the eve of tax day. — Palin - making her third high-profile appearance in the last week - rallied anti-tax activists not far from the docks …
Discussion:
Pundits Blog, Riehl World View, Below The Beltway, The Right Scoop, Liveshots, Gateway Pundit and Conservatives4Palin.com
Sean Higgins / Investor's Business Daily:
Hoyer Admits: Tea Party Spurs Members To Consider Retiring
Hoyer Admits: Tea Party Spurs Members To Consider Retiring
Discussion:
RedState
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 …
Discussion:
Prairie Weather, Bench Memos …, Law Blog, The Moderate Voice, Althouse, Balloon Juice, ACS Blog and Politics Daily
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Sam Youngman / The Hill:
McConnell: White House trying to ‘jam’ GOP on financial overhaul — Republican congressional leaders are criticizing President Barack Obama for bulldozing them on financial regulatory legislation. — Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) exited a White House meeting on the issue Wednesday …
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 …
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 …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Power Line, Sense of Events, Beltway Confidential, RedState, The Corner on National … and GayPatriot
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Peter Baker / New York Times:
Obama Puts His Own Mark on Foreign Policy Issues
Obama Puts His Own Mark on Foreign Policy Issues
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Laura Rozen's Blog, The Washington Note, Commentary, msnbc.com and Washington Post
John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
Joe Lieberman thanks “GOD” that Republicans have the momentum in the upcoming election — Good old Joe. He's doing what he does best. Throw as much dirt as he can on the left. While giving an interview with the conspiracy theory-wingnut site known as Newsmax, he says he's really happy …
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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 …
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Why FL-19 isn't a health care referendum — In the immediate wake of soon-to-be Rep. Ted Deutch's (D) victory in a special election in Florida's 19th district on Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee released a statement casting it as a rejection of Republican claims that health care …
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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 …
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Yeas & Nays:
Arianna huffs about overbooked celebs at WHCD — Like a Real Housewife of New Jersey, Arianna Huffington was flipping tables, well, at least metaphorically. — Because like most media organizations that placed a bid for White House Correspondents dinner tables, the Huffington Post founder didn't get her way.
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Sean Trende / Real Clear Politics:
How Bad Could 2010 Really Get For Democrats? — Though Election Day is still months away, pundits have already begun to speculate on possible outcomes for this year's midterms. There's a general consensus that Democrats will lose seats in November, but beyond that opinions vary widely on how big those losses might be.
Miriam Jordan / Wall Street Journal:
Arizona Clears Strict Immigration Bill — Arizona lawmakers on Tuesday passed one of the toughest pieces of immigration-enforcement legislation in the country, which would make it a violation of state law to be in the U.S. without proper documentation. — It would also grant police the power …
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The Note:
Mike Huckabee Blasts Student Newspaper for ‘Sensationalizing’ Comments on Gay Marriage — ABC News' Huma Khan reports: In an unusual battlefront, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is embroiled in a heated war of words with a college newspaper after telling a student reporter that it is …
Wall Street Journal:
Excerpts: George E. Pataki — The former Republican New York governor talked to The Wall Street Journal's Michael Howard Saul Tuesday about his new organization and health care. And for the first time, Mr. Pataki publicly revealed he would not challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand this fall.
Fox News:
Republicans Push Obama to ‘Pull the Trigger’ on Iran — As Iran gets closer to fulfilling its nuclear ambitions, Republican lawmakers are pushing the Obama administration to stop whistling past the graveyard and get tough with the Islamic Republic.