memeorandum: Chris Matthews Slams ‘300 Plus’ Pounds Chris Christie, Too Fat to be President (Scott Whitlock/NewsBusters.org blogs)

3:10 PM ET, December 11, 2010

Top Items:

Lights, camera, Clinton — If not a transfer of power, the whole show seemed at least a temporary handoff. An embattled president, fresh off an electoral shellacking and struggling to sell a controversial tax deal to members of his own party, turned to a former president who, exactly 16 years ago …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line and Sky Dancing

Jon Bershad / Mediaite:

President Obama Brings Bill Clinton In To Talk Tax Plan...And Then Leaves To Go To A Christmas Party! — “I've never seen anything like that,” said MSNBC's Cenk Uygur after cutting back following a press conference on the tax plan. It had begun with a surprise appearance by President Obama …

Discussion: Questions and Observations, American Power, Bookworm Room, Confederate Yankee, BizzyBlog, NewsBusters.org blogs, Michelle Malkin, Pundit & Pundette, The Daily Caller and Wake up America

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:

Bill Clinton Holds Forth on Tax Plan, for Starters — WASHINGTON — They have been foes and they have been, kind of, friends. And on Friday afternoon, President Obama and former President Bill Clinton walked unexpectedly into the White House briefing room for a news conference …

Discussion: Shot in the Dark, JustOneMinute, Althouse, American Power and Daily Kos

Steven Thomma / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Poll: Obama's losing support; Romney would beat him now

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, TalkLeft, Booman Tribune, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Plum Line and GOP 12

RealClearPolitics Video Log:
Obama Ditches Tax Cut Presser, Bill Clinton Takes Control

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
The Surprise Trip to the Briefing Room

Discussion: Swampland, Hot Air, Pajamas Media and Moe Lane

CNN:
Obama enlists Clinton to sell tax cut deal

Discussion: Say Anything and Parker Spitzer

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

In Tapes, Nixon Rails About Jews and Blacks — YORBA LINDA, Calif. — Richard M. Nixon made disparaging remarks about Jews, blacks, Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans in a series of extended conversations with top aides and his personal secretary, recorded in the Oval Office 16 months before he resigned as president.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Runnin' Scared, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Telegraph, Booman Tribune, Outside the Beltway, Althouse, Pajamas Media, Gawker, L.A. NOW, Harry's Place, Washington Wire, Balloon Juice and The New Republic

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:

Henry Kissinger to Soviet Jewry: Drop Dead — Okay, I don't usually blog on the Sabbath day (the Torah says Tweeting is okay, because it's so short), but I can't resist posting what I think might become Henry Kissinger's epitaph. This statement was captured on Richard's Nixon secret White …

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Outside the Beltway and Washington Wire

Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:

Palin-Hating Columbia Professor, Huffington Post Blogger, Busted for Incest — Let's begin with a flashback, shall we? In July 2009, when Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska, Columbia University professor David Epstein wrote at his Huffington Post blog: … Got that?

Discussion: Althouse, Instapundit, theblogprof, POWIP, Classical Values, American Power, Flopping Aces, Moonbattery, iOwnTheWorld.com, Pundit & Pundette, AmSpecBlog, NY Daily News and Gawker

Columbia Daily Spectator:
Professor David Epstein charged with incest with his daughter

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Confluence, Salon and Runnin' Scared

The Huffington Post: Palin Proves Voters Were Right in 2008

Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org blogs:
Huffington Post Blogger Charged With Incest

Discussion: Althouse, NewsReal Blog, Above the Law and American Power

New York Post:

Bernie Madoff's son, Mark, commits suicide — Tweet — Bernard Madoff's son Mark was found dead in the living room of his SoHo apartment this morning — hanging from a black dog leash on the two-year anniversary of his father's stunning downfall, officials said.

Discussion: TalkLeft and TMZ.com

New York Times:

Madoff's Elder Son Found Dead in Suicide — Mark Madoff, the older of Bernard L. Madoff's two sons, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Saturday, in an apparent suicide on the second anniversary of the day his father was arrested for running a gigantic Ponzi scheme that shattered thousands of lives around the world.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, DealBook, Associated Press, This Just In and Politics in the Zeros

Arshad Mohammed / Reuters:

Diplomat Holbrooke in critical condition — (Reuters) - Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was in critical condition on Saturday after doctors performed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta, the State Department said.

Discussion: The Washington Note and Discourse.net

Mark Landler / New York Times:

Holbrooke in Critical Condition Following Surgery — WASHINGTON — Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is in critical condition at a Washington hospital after emergency surgery to repair a tear in his aorta, the State Department said in a statement on Saturday.

Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:

Appointment Fight Divides Judges — Here is one for the “only in New Jersey” file: A state Supreme Court justice refuses to participate in any rulings because he objects to another jurist's serving temporarily on the court. — The dispute, aired in opinions released on Friday …

Discussion: Politics Daily and National Review

Wall Street Journal:
Justice Stymies New Jersey High Court

Discussion: RedState

Charlie Stross / Charlie's Diary:

Invaders from Mars — “Voting doesn't change anything — the politicians always win.” 'Twas not always so, but I'm hearing variations on that theme a lot these days, and not just in the UK. — Why do we feel so politically powerless? Why is the world so obviously going to hell in a handbasket?

Discussion: Prairie Weather, ProfessorBainbridge.com and Cafe Hayek

Paul Krugman:
Hive-minds and Kleptocrats — It's not often that I get a chance …

Discussion: ProfessorBainbridge.com

Tom Wrobleski / Staten Island Advance:

Baby Jesus ousted from St. George Ferry Terminal — STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Christ is out of Christmas at the St. George Ferry Terminal. — In what Catholics see as political correctness run amok, the city Department of Transportation (DOT) has removed a Nativity scene from the terminal …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Chicago Sun Times:

Emanuel's wife may have to fly to Chicago to testify in residency battle — Rahm Emanuel's wife may have to fly in from Washington, D.C., to testify Tuesday in the Election Board case about whether or not her husband is eligible to run for mayor of Chicago.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin

Darren Samuelsohn / The Politico:

Cancun ends with modest climate deal — Negotiators from about 190 countries reached a modest set of agreements early Saturday in Cancun on how to tackle global warming but punted some of the most controversial questions for a later date. — A year after U.N.-led talks all but collapsed in Copenhagen …

Discussion: Climate Progress