Top Items:
George Stephanopoulos / George's Bottom Line:
President Obama to Pastor Jones: ‘Stunt’ Endangers Troops - Full Transcript of Exclusive Interview — I covered a lot of ground with the president in Cleveland yesterday: His decision to make John Boehner the midterm punching bag. Will he veto a sanction of Bush tax cuts for the wealthy?
RELATED:
Mike Allen / The Politico:
What Speaker Boehner would do first — Matt Bai thinks Obama may have missed his Mt. Rushmore moment - Kinsley and Scarborough to write columns for POLITICO — Ceci Connolly to McKinsey — “THE PRESIDENT TAKES ON THE PASTOR” — PRESIDENT OBAMA on “Good Morning America,” …
Sarah Palin / Facebook:
Koran Burning Is Insensitive, Unnecessary; Pastor Jones, Please Stand Down — Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation - much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.
Discussion:
New York Times, JustOneMinute, Washington Post, The Confluence, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Wake up America, Taylor Marsh, TPMMuckraker, Guardian, National Review, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Outside the Beltway, TPMDC, Christian Science Monitor, Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog, Gawker, Orlando Sentinel, Liberty Pundits Blog and The Politico
ABCNEWS:
Exclusive: President Obama Says Terry Jones' Plan to Burn Korans Is ‘A Destructive Act’ — President: Pastor's ‘Stunt’ Could Endanger Lives Here and Abroad — A Florida pastor's plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 could result in “serious violence” …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Weekly Standard, Firedoglake, The Lede, Politics Daily, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and msnbc.com
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Opposition to ‘mosque’ directly linked to anti-Islam sentiment, poll shows — We now have clear evidence that there's a direct link between public anti-Islam sentiment and public opposition to the construction of Cordoba House, a.k.a. the “Ground Zero mosque.”
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs and Oliver Willis
RELATED:
CNN:
Imam: Handling of Islamic center plan a matter of national security — (CNN) — The religious leader behind plans to erect an Islamic center and mosque a few blocks from New York's ground zero said Wednesday night that America's national security depends on how it handles the controversy.
Discussion:
National Review, ABCNEWS, Left Coast Rebel, Right Wing News, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, RedState, Neptunus Lex and New York Times
Jay Newton-Small / Time:
Whatever Happened to Obama's Army? — What happened to Barack Obama's once vaunted political machine? The outfit that put upwards of 8 million volunteers on the street in 2008 — known as Organizing for America — is a ghost of its former self. Its staff has shrunk from 6,000 to 300 …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Tammy Bruce, Hot Air and Swampland
Kenric Ward / sunshinestatenews.com:
Marco Rubio Holds Double-Digit Lead in Senate Race — GOP candidate even beats Crist among independent voters, poll finds — Republican Marco Rubio, garnering surprising strength among independent voters, holds a double-digit lead over his two chief rivals in Florida's U.S. Senate race, a new Sunshine State News Poll reports.
Discussion:
Washington Wire, Weekly Standard, Ballot Box, The Buzz, National Review and NRSC
Janet Adamy / Wall Street Journal:
Health Outlays Still Seen Rising — The health-care overhaul enacted last spring won't significantly change national health spending over the next decade compared with projections before the law was passed, according to government figures set to be released Thursday.
Discussion:
NRSC, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Taegan Goddard's …
RELATED:
Robert Pear / New York Times:
Health Plan Won't Fuel Big Spending, Report Says
Health Plan Won't Fuel Big Spending, Report Says
Discussion:
Wonk Room, Right Wing News and Democracy in America
John Stanton / Roll Call:
Murkowski Likely to Lose Leadership Spot if Campaign Continues — Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will likely be forced out of her party leadership position should she decide to launch a write-in or third-party candidacy, a Senate Republican said Wednesday. — Murkowski, who conceded …
Discussion:
Fox News, Firedoglake and Guardian
RELATED:
Christina Wilkie / The Hill:
Biden: Bush deserves ‘a lot of credit’ — Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday night said that former President George W. Bush deserves ‘a lot of credit’ for his handling of the initial Iraq war drawdown. — Speaking to Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, who conducted a rare …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, CNN and Wake up America
Sean J. Miller / Ballot Box:
Emanuel moves event for Rep. Halvorson, prompting speculation — Illinois Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D) was planning to get some fundraising help from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Sunday. But the event has been rescheduled amid growing speculation Emanuel is planning to run for mayor of Chicago.
Discussion:
The Politico, CNN, NBC Chicago and The Hill
RELATED:
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Court Dismisses a Case Asserting Torture by C.I.A. — WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that former prisoners of the C.I.A. could not sue over their alleged torture in overseas prisons because such a lawsuit might expose secret government information.
Discussion:
Reuters, Hullabaloo, Infowars, Guardian, Weekly Standard, The Talking Dog, Hot Air, Prairie Weather, Politics Daily, American Power and BLACKFIVE
RELATED:
Jim Hoft / Gateway Pundit:
Florida College Shuts Down Conservative Event After Seeing Anti-Obama Literature (Video) — It begins... School officials at Palm Beach State College kicked members of the Young America's for Freedom off campus after they saw anti-Obama literature at their table. — It was offensive.
Discussion:
theblogprof and Power Line
Matt Lewis / Politics Daily:
Christine O'Donnell, running for U.S. Senate in Delaware, has a new TV ad bashing her Republican primary opponent, Rep. Mike Castle. — But O'Donnell's ad looks eerily similar to one recently produced by Intrepid Media for Americans for New Leadership, in support of Nevada candidate Sharron Angle …
Discussion:
National Review and Riehl World View
Bloomberg:
Super PACs Flourish to Influence U.S. Vote After Companies Freed to Give — At least 25 “super PACS,” including one linked to Karl Rove, are fueling a surge in money for this year's elections following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down limits on corporate campaign spending.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Donklephant and The Political Carnival
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
NOT MUCH OF A ‘COMPROMISE’.... Our discourse can be awfully frustrating sometimes. … Boehner's Senate counterpart is offering a similar pitch. … So, let's be clear about what kind of “compromise” is on the table. Going into the dispute, Republicans want to keep all the Bush-era tax rates for everyone …
Discussion:
Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, The Huffington Post and TalkLeft
The Hill:
Wall Street fills coffers of top GOP candidates — Wall Street and financial interests are putting their money behind a handful of top-tier Senate Republican candidates as the GOP looks to win back power in the midterm elections. — The industry's contributions, which favored Democrats …
Discussion:
Ballot Box, Wake up America, The Politico and Zandar Versus The Stupid
Chris McGreal / Guardian:
US soldiers in Afghan ‘kill team’ case — Soldiers face charges over secret ‘kill team’ which allegedly murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war — Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret “kill team” that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, democracyarsenal.org and Balloon Juice
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
CRISIS ON THE COURTS.... Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy recently noted the problems with the Senate's inability to confirm judicial nominees. “It's important for the public to understand that the excellence of the federal judiciary is at risk,” Kennedy said.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Patterico's Pontifications
Quinnipiac University:
U.S. Voters Say Afghanistan Is No Vietnam, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; President Gets Better Grades For War Than Economy — Despite increased casualties, American voters say 58 - 33 percent that eliminating the threat of terrorists operating from Afghanistan is a goal …
Discussion:
Politics Daily and The Page
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Blue-Dog leader grades Obama ‘in the C range’ — President Obama gets average marks from the co-chairwoman of the Blue-Dog Democrats, the bloc of House Democratic centrists. — Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (D-S.D.) said the president deserves a grade in the “C range” for his tenure to date in the White House.
Discussion:
The Note
Tom Hamburger / Los Angeles Times:
U.S. Chamber of Commerce launches ad attack on Boxer — The powerful business group spends millions on advertisements against the Democratic U.S. senator from California, saying she is ‘hostile to the business community.’ — Reporting from Washington — The nation's largest business organization launched …
Discussion:
The Politico, NRSC, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Pajamas Media
Christina Wilkie / The Hill:
DNC Chair: Gibbs ‘had a bad day’ — Democratic National Committee chairman and former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine on Wednesday said that White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was having “a bad day” when he lambasted the “professional left” in an interview with The Hill last month.
Ezra Klein:
The Keynesian experiment — It's become common to hear Republicans saying that Democrats' “Keynesian experiment,” or in Paul Ryan's case, their “Neo-Keynesian economic experiment,” has failed. You'd think that Keynesian economics was a big divide between the parties. But it wasn't and it's not.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online
Bloomberg:
SEC Says Prince, Rubin Knew of Losses on Assets at Suit's Focus — Charles O. “Chuck” Prince and Robert Rubin were among Citigroup Inc. officials who knew 2007 losses were mounting on mortgage assets that U.S. regulators have faulted the bank for not disclosing, a court filing shows.
Discussion:
Felix Salmon and The Huffington Post
Larry O'Connor / Breitbart.tv:
Jerry Brown: 'I Have a Plan, I'll Tell You After the Election' — While speaking to business leaders in Silicon Valley, California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown announces that he has a plan for the State's fiscal crisis, but he won't reveal it until after the election.
Discussion:
theblogprof, protein wisdom, Pajamas Media and The Other McCain
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Hatch: History will judge Clinton a better president than Obama — History will judge President Clinton more favorably than President Obama, a senior Republican senator charged Wednesday evening. — Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a 34-year veteran of the Senate, suggested that Clinton …
First Read / msnbc.com:
First Thoughts: Obama vs. Boehner — Obama and Boehner's verbal attacks of the past two days could continue for the next two years if the GOP reclaims Congress. — Obama vs. Boehner — a preview of things to come and why the White House is trying to elevate the House minority leader …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice and Taegan Goddard's …