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

2:50 PM ET, November 4, 2010

Top Items:

GOP senators fight over failure — Long-simmering tensions within the Republican Party spilled into public view Wednesday as the pragmatic and conservative wings of the GOP blamed each other in blunt terms for the party's failure to capture the Senate. — With tea party-backed candidates …

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Note, Yahoo! News, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Right Pundits, New York Times, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Left Coast Rebel, The Plum Line, Online NewsHour, Taylor Marsh, NewsBusters.org, Washington Monthly, The Washington Independent, Wonkette, Firedoglake, New York Magazine and CNN

Manu Raju / The Politico:

Mitch McConnell doubles down against President Obama — An emboldened Sen. Mitch McConnell on Thursday will declare that President Barack Obama must be defeated in 2012 because Republicans “can't plan” on the White House to listen to voters and cooperate on some of his party's top political priorities.

Discussion: CNN, Washington Monthly, Jay Bookman, Ben Smith's Blog, Outside the Beltway, SpeakEasy, The Hill and TPMMuckraker

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

Discussion: Moe Lane

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

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

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Plum Line

Wall Street Journal:
The Boehner Evolution — House Republicans and the challenge of divided government.

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Booman Tribune

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
McConnell: GOP's ‘only’ option is to defeat Obama in 2012

Discussion: The Politico and Booman Tribune

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:
The First War of the Next Congress: The Debt Ceiling

Discussion: TPMDC

Alexander Mooney / CNN:
McConnell doubling down on Obama attack

Discussion: Firedoglake

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: JustOneMinute, Washington Monthly, New York Magazine, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Monkey Cage, Mother Jones, Prairie Weather, TPM LiveWire, The Politico, Outside the Beltway, The Maddow Blog and Wall Street Journal

The Politico:

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: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgress, TRAIL BLAZERS, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway, RedState and New York Times

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

The Politico:
Michele Bachmann bid adds drama to the GOP leadership race

Discussion: Politics Daily and The Note

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: Israel Matzav, JOSHUAPUNDIT, theblogprof, Weasel Zippers, JammieWearingFool, The Jawa Report, Pundit & Pundette and Don Surber

Telegraph:
Coconuts removed from trees in preparation for Barack Obama's India trip

Discussion: theblogprof and Moonbattery

Prachi Pinglay / BBC:
Coconuts removed in India ahead of Obama visit

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, Weasel Zippers and NPR Topics

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

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: The Atlantic Online, Los Angeles Times, Raw Story, Weasel Zippers and Right Pundits

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: Emptywheel, Washington Monthly, TPMMuckraker, ThinkProgress, Little Green Footballs, Raw Story and Guardian

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: Beltway Confidential and Liberty Pundits Blog

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

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

Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:

Mr. Obama, It's Time for Some Poetry — On my blog, a Times reader named Eddie asked about President Obama: “Where is the man I voted for?” — “Does he ever sweat?” Eddie continued. “We're in desperate times and I don't see a man who is really affected by it.”

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

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

Anchorage Daily News:

Write-ins to be counted sooner than expected — LAWYERS LINE UP: Murkowski, Miller camps gird for tally tussle. — Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Wednesday she's confident that she's won Alaska's contentious Senate race but is starting a legal fund and bringing up election lawyers to fight an expected battle over the results.

Discussion: The Page

Andy Barr / The Politico:
Sarah Palin takes victory lap

Discussion: CNN, New York Magazine and The Awl

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, Taegan Goddard's …, Real Clear Politics, Outside the Beltway, The Note, ABCNEWS, AmSpecBlog and Mediaite

Ben S. Bernanke / Washington Post:

What the Fed did and why: supporting the recovery and sustaining price stability — Two years have passed since the worst financial crisis since the 1930s dealt a body blow to the world economy. Working with policymakers at home and abroad, the Federal Reserve responded with strong …

Discussion: Grasping Reality …, New York Times, Daniel W. Drezner, Economist's View, Outside the Beltway, YID With LID, naked capitalism, Paul Krugman, Macro and Other Market Musings, The Big Picture, Wall Street Journal and Guardian

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: Latest Open Salon Blog

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.

A. G. Sulzberger / New York Times:

Ouster of Iowa Judges Sends Signal to Bench — DES MOINES — An unprecedented vote to remove three Iowa Supreme Court justices who were part of the unanimous decision that legalized same-sex marriage in the state was celebrated by conservatives as a popular rebuke of judicial overreach …

Discussion: Politics Daily, The Snitch, National Review, Law Blog, GayPatriot and Election Law

The Politico:

In 2012, could Dean beat Obama? — While today it looks impossible that anyone would challenge Obama, in politics you have to prepare for the impossible. Russ Feingold, the Wisconsin senator who lost his reelection bid Tuesday, has been mentioned but denies interest.

Discussion: The Huffington Post