memeorandum: Pulling a Clinton? — John Harris, the noted Clinton biographer … (Ben Smith/Ben Smith's Blog)

6:30 PM ET, November 4, 2010

Top Items:

Michele Bachmann bid adds drama to the GOP leadership race — House Republicans look like they've largely been spared any uncomfortable leadership races as they cruise into their robust new majority, except for one little speed bump: Michele Bachmann. — The often fiery and always …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, CNN, Political Correction RSS, Washington Monthly, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Daily Beast, NPR, ThinkProgress, The Moderate Voice, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, TRAIL BLAZERS, Daily Kos, Guardian, RedState, The Caucus, Outside the Beltway and Democratic Strategist

New York Times:

Democrats Outrun by a 2-Year G.O.P. Comeback Plan — The PowerPoint slides presented to House Republicans in January 2009 seemed incongruously optimistic at a time when the very word “hope” belonged to the newly ascendant Democrats and their incoming president, Barack Obama.

Discussion: The Politico, The Hill, Weigel, The New Republic, Washington Monthly, TPM LiveWire, New York Magazine, The Monkey Cage, No More Mister Nice Blog, Wake up America, Outside the Beltway, JustOneMinute, American Power, Prairie Weather, Mother Jones, The Maddow Blog and Wall Street Journal

George F. Will / Washington Post:

A recoil against liberalism — Unwilling to delay until tomorrow mistakes that could be made immediately, Democrats used 2010 to begin losing 2012. Trying to preemptively drain the election of its dangerous (to Democrats) meaning, all autumn Democrats described the electorate as suffering a brain cramp …

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, Balloon Juice, The New Republic, Achenblog, Betsy's Page, Commentary, The Glittering Eye and No Left Turns

Rasmussen Reports:

GOP Voters Like Three Candidates Best for 2012 — OK, the election's over, and the message from most voters was that they didn't care much for President Obama's agenda. Now the focus is on the race for the presidency in 2012. — On the Republican side, it's a dead heat between the ex-governors …

Discussion: Conservatives4Palin.com, The Daily Dish and GOP 12

Jsimoncnn / CNN:

CNN Poll: Obama vs. Palin in 2012? — Washington (CNN) - His party got its clock cleaned in Tuesday's midterm elections, but according to a new national poll President Obama remains competitive in hypothetical 2012 presidential election matchups, especially against Sarah Palin.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Real Clear Politics, GOP 12, Mediaite, ABCNEWS, AmSpecBlog and The Note

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:
Looking at the 2012 Presidential Field

Discussion: CNN and Outside the Beltway

The Politico:

Top Blue Dog calls for Pelosi to quit — An elder statesman of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition is calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to step down from party leadership after a historic election in which she presided over the loss of 60 seats and control of the House.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Gateway Pundit

Devin Dwyer / ABCNEWS:

Rep. John Boehner Says President Obama and Democrats in ‘Denial’ — Slurpee Summit? Future Speaker Boehner Says He'd Prefer Merlot — Republican Rep. John Boehner, the likely next speaker of the House of Representatives, says he believes President Obama does not fully comprehend the meaning …

Discussion: The Politico, The Note, Political Punch and The Page

Kathleen Hunter / Roll Call:

Shuler Threatens to Challenge Pelosi for Minority Leader — Rep. Heath Shuler predicted Thursday that Speaker Nancy Pelosi would act in the “best interest” of the Democratic Caucus and bow out of leadership, but said he would challenge the California Democrat for Minority Leader if she tried …

Discussion: TPMDC, NewsBusters.org blogs and AmSpecBlog

Mike Lillis / The Hill:

Harkin warns: No repealing or defunding healthcare reform on my committees — A well-placed Senate Democrat warned Thursday that efforts to scale back the new healthcare reform law will hit a brick wall in the upper chamber. — Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) — chairman of both the Senate Health Committee …

Discussion: CNN and JOSHUAPUNDIT

Patrick O'Connor / Washington Wire:
McConnell: No Mood for Compromise

Discussion: The Politico and Moe Lane

David Jackson / USA Today:
Obama, McConnell dispute the meaning of Tuesday's election

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, TPMDC and Fox Nation

J. Taylor Rushing / The Hill: Senate Dems warn GOP not to block legislation

Cubachi:

Governor Christie to cut 1,200 public sector jobs, saving NJ millions — When Governor Christie set his sights on reducing the size of government and the debt in the Garden State, he is keeping that promise. — The governor announced that beginning January, he'll cut 1,200 state jobs saving New Jersey taxpayers $8.8 million.

Discussion: Liberty Pundits Blog, Beltway Confidential and GayPatriot

Andy Barr / The Politico:
Chris Christie: ‘Zero chance’ for 2012 bid

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Chris Megerian / New Jersey Online: Gov. Christie says N.J. to shed at least 1,200 public employees by next year

Gail Collins / New York Times:

The Day After the Day After — O.K., you poor little Democrats. Stop sobbing. Lift up your little liberal heads and shout. There's gonna be. ... Umm. — Harry Reid! There's gonna be more Harry Reid! Nobody thought it could happen, but the charisma-challenged Senate majority …

Discussion: Vox Popoli and Cafe Hayek

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Defining “compromise” — Can we please bag this idea …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Booman Tribune

The Huffington Post:
Gibbs: Obama Will Listen To GOP Pitch On Extending Tax Cuts For Wealthy

Discussion: Washington Monthly, PERRspectives and The Plum Line

Joe Klein / Swampland:

Blue Dogs Dumped — Bill Galston has an elegant statistical analysis of what happened on Tuesday: it wasn't so much that Republican enthusiasm was up or Democratic fervor was down—there was a near symmetrical shift from blue to red among independents. This stands to reason …

Discussion: Yglesias, Brendan Nyhan, Balloon Juice and NewsBusters.org blogs

William Galston / The New Republic:
It's the Ideology, Stupid

Discussion: Hot Air, JustOneMinute, Patterico's Pontifications and Guardian

Jeremy P. Jacobs / Hotline On Call:

Devastation: GOP Picks Up 680 State Leg. Seats — While the Republican gains in the House and Senate are grabbing the most headlines, the most significant results on Tuesday came in state legislatures where Republicans wiped the floor with Democrats. — Republicans picked up 680 seats …

Discussion: Flopping Aces, Hot Air, Sister Toldjah, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic Online, Weasel Zippers and Raw Story

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Rep. Grayson: Dems lost because of ‘appeasement’ — House Democrats were swept out of power because party leaders tried to hard to “appease” Republicans on major issues, said a high-profile member Thursday who lost his seat. — Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said Democratic leaders …

Discussion: Hot Air

Meredith Shiner / The Politico:
Alan Grayson blames Dem ‘appeasement’

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

NDTV.com:

34 warships sent from US for Obama visit — New Delhi: The White House will, of course, stay in Washington but the heart of the famous building will move to India when President Barack Obama lands in Mumbai on Saturday. — Communications set-up, nuclear button, a fleet of limousines …

Discussion: Telegraph, AMERICAN DIGEST, NewsReal Blog, JammieWearingFool, Weasel Zippers, theblogprof, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Israel Matzav, Moonbattery, Pundit & Pundette and Don Surber

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Pulling a Clinton? — John Harris, the noted Clinton biographer, considers the notion of a 1994 repeat: — [T[he widespread speculation that what Obama needs to do now is simply “pull a Clinton”—replicating Bill Clinton's comeback after being trounced by Newt Gingrich in 1994 …

Discussion: CNN and TalkLeft

Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:
Mr. Obama, It's Time for Some Poetry

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Kos, Hit & Run and Dennis the Peasant

R. Jeffrey Smith / Washington Post:

In new memoir, Bush makes clear he approved use of waterboarding — Human rights experts have long pressed the administration of former president George W. Bush for details of who bore ultimate responsibility for approving the simulated drownings of CIA detainees, a practice …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, The Atlantic Online, Yahoo! News, Emptywheel, Washington Monthly, TPMMuckraker, democracyarsenal.org, The Maddow Blog, Raw Story, ThinkProgress, Zandar Versus The Stupid and Guardian

National Review:

The Midterms: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward — Have an intelligent message, and fight for your right to be heard. — Now that the dust has settled on the 2010 midterm elections, it's slowly becoming clear just how monumental the results really are. We saw an extreme left-wing agenda suffer a crushing defeat.

Discussion: CNN and Los Angeles Times

J. Taylor Rushing / The Hill:

You think '10 was tough? Check out '12 — For the first time in two cycles, Democrats will have more seats up for grabs than the Republicans, and the party could see its shrunken majority erased altogether. — Several of the senators up for reelection came in on the 2006 Democratic wave …

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, Donklephant, Hot Air, Riehl World View, Gateway Pundit and iOwnTheWorld.com

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Wire:

Fuzzy Math Dogs Obama's Asia Trip — As if Tuesday's shellacking wasn't enough, President Barack Obama is getting pilloried by the right on the cost of his 10-day trip to Asia, with outlandish hyperventilation going directly from suspect Indian media reports to conservative U.S. media outlets …

Discussion: Mediaite, MyFox Philadelphia, New Urban Legends and theblogprof

Ian Katz / Bloomberg:

Geithner Visited Jon Stewart in April, Though Not for Laughs — In the midst of debates on financial regulation and China's currency in April, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner sat down to discuss the U.S. economy — with comedian Jon Stewart. — Geithner and Stewart, host of Comedy Central's …

Discussion: Don Surber, Big Hollywood, Weasel Zippers and TPM LiveWire

truth-out.org:

Bill Moyers: “Welcome to the Plutocracy!” — Bill Moyers speech at Boston University on October 29, 2010, as a part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series. — I was honored when you asked me to join in celebrating Howard Zinn's life and legacy. I was also surprised. I am a journalist, not a historian.

Discussion: SpeakEasy and Shakesville

Keach Hagey / The Politico:

Kondracke: Palin's a ‘joke’ — At the Roll Call/CQ election analysis session at the Ronald Reagan Building this morning, Roll Call Executive Editor and Fox News contributor Mort Kondracke blamed Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint for Republicans' failure to capture the Senate.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs, Right Pundits and Mediaite

John Thune / CNN:

America to Democrats: Stop what you're doing — Editor's note: Sen. John Thune, a Republican, represents South Dakota and serves as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. — (CNN) — Two years ago, shortly after Barack Obama won his historic election and Democrats were in control …

Nicholas Stephanopoulos / The Huffington Post:

A Rare Progressive Success — What's Your Reaction: — Tuesday was a disaster for Democrats, of course, but it was perhaps the best day ever for a cause that many progressives hold dear: redistricting reform. In California, Proposition 20 passed with over 60 percent of the vote …

Clay Dillow / Popular Science:

Tired of Repetitive Arguing About Climate Change, Scientist Makes a Bot to Argue For Him — Getting into a climate change debate on Twitter could be even more exhausting than it sounds now that a software developer named Nigel Leck has automated the process.

Discussion: Watts Up With That? and Raw Story