memeorandum: Poll gives former Bush official big lead in Ohio (John Whitesides/Reuters)

8:55 PM ET, September 28, 2010

Top Items:

Jann S. Wenner / Rolling Stone:

Obama in Command: The Rolling Stone Interview — In an Oval Office interview, the president discusses the Tea Party, the war, the economy and what's at stake this November — The following is an article from the October 15, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone. — We arrived at the southwest gate …

Alexander Mooney / CNN:

Obama: Fox News is ‘destructive’ to America — (CNN) - President Obama is pulling no punches when it comes to Fox News, declaring the cable news outlet to be “destructive to [America's] long-term growth.” — In a more than 8,000-word interview with Rolling Stone Magazine …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, PostPartisan, Doug Ross, Weasel Zippers, Washington Monthly, The Politico, Pajamas Media, Politics Daily, GayPatriot and Ben Smith's Blog

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

A PASSIONATE PLEA.... President Obama sat down with Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner and Eric Bates two weeks ago, chatting for an hour and a quarter for a new cover story. The discussion covered a lot of ground, and led to some fascinating exchanges on subjects ranging from Fox News to Tea Partiers, health care to global warming.

Discussion: Mediaite, Political Punch, Frank Chow: Asian, Wonk Room, Wonkette, MyDD, CNN, TalkLeft and Politics Daily

The FOX Nation:
President of the United States Loves Gangsta Rap

Discussion: alicublog, Althouse, Gawker, Swampland, The New Republic and Marbury

Matt Taibbi / Rolling Stone: Tea & Crackers — How corporate interests and Republican …

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
Obama's Defense — Jann Wenner reports in Rolling Stone today …

Discussion: New York Magazine and TalkLeft

Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:

Basic Religion Test Stumps Many Americans — Americans are by all measures a deeply religious people, but they are also deeply ignorant about religion. — Researchers from the independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life phoned more than 3,400 Americans and asked them 32 questions about the Bible …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, Online NewsHour, Tablet Magazine, CNN, Verum Serum, Pharyngula, Gawker, Prairie Weather and Mediaite

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:

U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey — Executive Summary — Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings …

Discussion: Rough Sketch, Matthew Yglesias, features.pewforum.org, Religion Dispatches, Democracy in America, Runnin' Scared, CNN, EconLog, The Volokh Conspiracy, The League of Ordinary …, Telegraph, Weasel Zippers, Shakesville, Politics Daily, Advocate, USA Today and Pam's House Blend

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:
Nonreligious Knowledge

Discussion: Top of the Ticket, The Political Carnival and msnbc.com

Jamelle Bouie / American Prospect: Nonbelievers, Privilege, and Religious Knowledge.

Manu Raju / The Politico:

DeMint vows roadblock — South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint warned Monday evening that he would block all legislation that has not been cleared by his office in the final days of the pre-election session. — Bret Bernhardt, DeMint's chief of staff, said in an e-mail to GOP aides that his boss …

Discussion: CNN, Ezra Klein, Oliver Willis, Opinion L.A., Open Congress, Firedoglake, Free exchange, Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Democrats to stuff 20 bills into post-election lame-duck session

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Hill, The Politico, AMERICAblog Gay, Right Wing News, Doug Ross, The Sundries Shack and Wake up America

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Jim DeMint Plans To Grind Senate To A Halt

Discussion: The New Republic, ACS Blog and The Political Carnival

Ezra Klein:
Did Jim DeMint just take control of the Senate?

Discussion: Weigel

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Another Christine O'Donnell embellishment: She misleadingly claims she studied at Oxford — In another move that will raise further questions about Christine O'Donnell's embellishment of her education record, she claims she studied at the University of Oxford — but a look at her actual record shows …

Discussion: Politics Daily, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, TPMDC, Think Progress, The Atlantic Online, Lez Get Real, Guardian, Mediaite, Outside the Beltway, Washington Monthly, Wonkette, Mock, Paper, Scissors, Daily Kos, New York Magazine and msnbc.com

Robert Weisman / Boston Globe:

Harvard Pilgrim cancels Medicare Advantage plan — Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has notified customers that it will drop its Medicare Advantage health insurance program at the end of the year, forcing 22,000 senior citizens in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine to seek alternative supplemental coverage.

Discussion: Questions and Observations, Weekly Standard, The Incidental Economist, The Apothecary, AmSpecBlog and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Political Correction RSS:
Anti-Government Crusader Sharron Angle Receives Government Health Care

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Political Carnival and Think Progress

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Some Good News from California, Assuming Arnold Goes Along

Discussion: Mercury News, Wall Street Journal, Wonk Room and Ezra Klein

Quinnipiac University:

Angry Voters Push McMahon Closer In Senate Race, Quinnipiac University Connecticut Poll Finds; But Most Voters Say Her Ads Are Annoying — Propelled by Connecticut likely voters who say they are “angry” with government, former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate …

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Hotline On Call, Pollster.com All Content, Hot Air, Politics Daily, Daily Kos, The Atlantic Online, Online NewsHour, Commentary, The Eye, TPMDC, Weigel, Washington Wire, National Review, CNN, Rick Green, Real Clear Politics and The Note

Allan Hall / Telegraph:

First World War officially ends — The First World War will officially end on Sunday, 92 years after the guns fell silent, when Germany pays off the last chunk of reparations imposed on it by the Allies. — The final payment of £59.5 million, writes off the crippling debt …

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, Cato @ Liberty, Wonkette and Outside the Beltway

Andy Barr / The Politico:

Rep. Alan Grayson's ‘Taliban’ ad backfires — Rep. Alan Grayson's attempt to equate his Republican challenger with the Taliban is having a big impact — just not the one Grayson may have hoped. — In an ad, Grayson's campaign calls Republican Daniel Webster a “religious fanatic” …

Discussion: Religion Dispatches, iOwnTheWorld.com and Orlando Sentinel

Digby / Hullabaloo:
Disavowal Movement Resurgent

Discussion: Religion Dispatches, The Plum Line and FactCheck.org

Peggy O'Hare / Houston Chronicle:

Parents: Bullying drove Cy-Fair 8th-grader to suicide — They claim school district took no action — Asher Brown's worn-out tennis shoes still sit in the living room of his Cypress-area home while his student progress report — filled with straight A's — rests on the coffee table.

Discussion: Pam's House Blend, Lez Get Real, Joe. My. God. and Advocate

Ezra Klein:

CBO: Extending the Bush tax cuts will hurt the economy, reduce incomes — CBO Director Doug Elmendorf testified before the Senate Budget Committee today and dropped something of a bombshell. Extending the Bush tax cuts, he said, will “probably reduce income relative to what would otherwise occur in 2020.”

Discussion: National Review, TPMDC, Washington Monthly and New York Magazine

Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
The Economic Outlook and Fiscal Policy Choices

Discussion: Ezra Klein, National Review, The Washington Independent and Real Time Economics

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Dear White House: Here's how to handle the left's “whining” — I had planned to avoid the whole battle over Joe Biden's demand that the Democratic base “stop whining,” because it's impossible to wade into this topic without getting caught up in a food fight over whether Obama and Dems …

Discussion: Eschaton, Salon, Emptywheel, msnbc.com, Peter Daou, Ezra Klein, Pam's House Blend, Shakesville and The Agonist

Sky News:

Multi-Attack Terror Plot On European Cities — Alex Watts, Sky News Online — Intelligence agencies have intercepted a terror plot to launch Mumbai-style attacks on Britain and other European countries, according to Sky News sources. — Sky's foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall …

Discussion: Hot Air, The American Pundit, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Jawa Report and Weasel Zippers

John Whitesides / Reuters:

Poll gives former Bush official big lead in Ohio — (Reuters) - Republican Rob Portman, a senior official under former President George W. Bush, has opened a commanding 13-point lead over his Democratic rival in a Senate race in Ohio, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday said.

Discussion: Swing State Project and iOwnTheWorld.com

Annie Lowrey / The Washington Independent:

The Real Impact of Food Stamp Cuts — Congress is poised to cut food stamps, taking away an extended benefit created by the 2009 stimulus before its original expiry date and setting up an unprecedented “cliff” in food stamps, now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Thomas Beaumont / Des Moines Register:

Iowa Poll: Likely voters give Obama poor marks — President Barack Obama is scheduled to return today to Iowa, where a new Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows a solid majority of likely voters disapprove of his performance. — The first-term Democrat will not be campaigning …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, The Fix, CNN, The Page and Beltway Confidential

Chris Stirewalt / Fox News:

Fox News Polls: Democrats Face Tough Job Building Senate Firewall — When President Obama arrives in Wisconsin for a campus rally on Tuesday, he'll be visiting a state where his party and his policies are in big trouble with voters. — Democrats are hoping to build a firewall with cash infusions …

Discussion: HillBuzz, FoxNews.com, The Spot, TPMDC and Taegan Goddard's …

Josh Barro / RealClearMarkets:

What Cutting the Federal Budget Entails — The Center for American Progress released a report earlier this month on ways to shrink the federal budget deficit with spending cuts. A Thousand Cuts, by Michael Linden and Michael Ettinger, lays out specific program cuts of $255 billion per year by 2015 …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, National Review, Hit & Run and Wonk Room

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

Pity the Northeast Corridor — If the Boston-to-Washington megalopolis were its own country it would have over five times the population of Sweden and a population density higher than any European country. In other words, nobody woud say it was an area unsuited to intercity passenger rail.

Discussion: NBC Washington and Economix

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Pelosi: ‘I fully expect to be speaker of the House five weeks from now’ — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she still expects to have her job in five weeks after voters head to the polls. — Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House, whose job as speaker makes her third in line to the presidency …

Discussion: Media Decoder, CNN, Hot Air, JustOneMinute, The Politico, The Atlantic Online and Weasel Zippers

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs:

FOX Business: Hate Sponsor CAIR on Steroids, Waterboy Bob Beckel Squeal and the Ground Zero Mosque — I have been doing a lot of media, and Atlas readers are well aware of the campaign of destruction of freedom defenders by the leftist/Islamic machine. — Tonight's Ground Zero mosque segment …