memeorandum: We won't always be the biggest (Ezra Klein)

3:50 PM ET, January 26, 2011

Top Items:

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Rep. Weiner: ‘I just needed a drink’ after GOP response — One Democratic congressman says he was ready to hit the bottle after hearing the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union Tuesday night. — Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.), who is known for his outspokenness …

Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, Weasel Zippers, TPMDC, Althouse and FrumForum

Ross Douthat:

The Politics of Evasion — If you were a visitor from Mars, watching tonight's State of the Union address and Paul Ryan's Republican response, you would have no reason to think that the looming insolvency of our entitlement system lies at the heart of the economic challenges facing the United States over the next two decades.

Discussion: Yglesias, The Note, The Plum Line, Outside the Beltway, PostPartisan, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Monthly, Connecting.the.Dots, National Review, TalkLeft and FrumForum

Lucy Madison / CBS News:

Poll: High Marks for Obama's State of the Union Speech — An overwhelming majority of Americans approved of President Obama's overall message in his State of the Union on Tuesday night, according to a CBS News Poll of speech watchers. — According to the poll, which was conducted online …

New York Times:
Obama's Second State of the Union (Text)

Discussion: Mother Jones, Slate, Newshoggers.com, The Foundry, Grist, democracyarsenal.org, Don Surber, The Caucus, Guardian, The Huffington Post, rubber hose, Left Coast Rebel, The Impolitic, Opinion L.A., Washington Post and Top of the Ticket

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
CNN Poll: More than half of speech watchers have very positive reaction

Discussion: greenbergresearch.com, Israpundit, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Mother Jones, Ideas Market, The Huffington Post, Politics Daily, Daily Kos, Guardian, The Politico, The Moderate Voice and American Power

Alexander Burns / The Politico:
Obama wins SOTU insta-polls …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Paul Krugman:
SOTU — So, I've read the text, and find it hard to extract any theme.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Guardian, Grist and The Daily Dish

Keach Hagey / The Politico:

Michele Bachmann's turn — Rep. Michele Bachmann may fall into that media-savvy cadre of politicians who, as the saying goes, has never met a camera she didn't like, but Tuesday night many Americans got the impression she was talking into the wrong camera. — Bachmann delivered …

Discussion: The Caucus, CNN, Little Green Footballs, Raw Story, Liberal Values, Mediaite, Media Matters for America, Gawker, AOL News, Taylor Marsh, Balloon Juice and FrumForum

The Note:

The Note: Obama's Speech Puts GOP In A Corner — President Obama put Republicans in something of a box last night. He oozed optimism, telling Americans in the last moments of his speech that, “From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream.

Discussion: msnbc.com, www2.timesdispatch.com and Roll Call

Erick Erickson / RedState:
The Bachmann Speech

Discussion: Riehl World View, Right Pundits and FrumForum

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Axelrod mocks Tea Party response: ‘Am I looking at the right camera?’

Discussion: CNN, TPMDC and Weasel Zippers

CNN:
Bachmann calls for full repeal of ‘Obamacare’

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Fix, The Nation, Guardian, The Informer, Swampland, Crooks and Liars, msnbc.com, AMERICAblog Elections, The Gateway Pundit, The Moderate Voice and Fox News

Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Davis says Tea Party's effect on GOP remains unclear

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog

CBO's Latest 10 Documents:

BUDGET AND ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: FISCAL YEARS 2011 THROUGH 2021 — Text-only. — The United States faces daunting economic and budgetary challenges. The economy has struggled to recover from the recent recession, which was triggered by a large decline in house prices and a financial crisis …

Discussion: Washington Wire, The Atlantic Online, Director's Blog, Hit & Run, Swampland, SFGate, National Review, James Pethokoukis, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, The Caucus, YID With LID, Raw Story and The Note

Gallup:
Americans Oppose Cuts in Education, Social Security, Defense

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Top of the Ticket, Daily Kos, The Plum Line, Politics Daily, The Hill and New York Times

Joan Walsh / Salon:
Why does the GOP hide its agenda?

Discussion: The Politico, AOL News, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Daily Kos

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
CBO: U.S. budget deficit to reach $1.5 trillion in 2011, highest ever

Discussion: Hot Air, Outside the Beltway and The Politico

Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:

Sen. Graham: We Need to Act Like U.S. Troops And Raise The Social Security Retirement Age — In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama called on lawmakers to “find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations” without cutting much-needed benefits or privatizing the program.

Discussion: ABCNEWS

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:
Why an Unexceptional Speech Got an Exceptional Response

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Cantor jabs at Reid on Social Security reform

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Washington Post, Daily Kos, Liberty Pundits Blog and The Politico

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Rep. Issa: Obama ‘feigns perfection’ without achieving it on lobbying rules

Discussion: Sunlight Foundation Blog

USA Today:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich files lawsuit over olive pit — Rep. Dennis Kucinich has filed a lawsuit over a sandwich he bought at a congressional cafeteria. — Kucinich, D-Ohio, bit into an olive pit in a sandwich wrap in April 2008, which he said led to “serious and permanent dental and oral injuries …

Discussion: Courthouse News Service, Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers and The Daily Caller

Sabrina Eaton / Plain Dealer:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich sues cafeteria over olive pit in sandwich — Rep. Dennis Kucinich has sued a U.S. House of Representatives cafeteria for selling him a sandwich wrap that caused dental damage when he bit into an olive pit, according to a Jan. 3 lawsuit filed in Superior Court for the District of Columbia.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Gawker:
Dennis Kucinich Sues Congressional Cafeteria Over Olive Pit

Discussion: CNN, Wonkette and FishbowlDC

Paul Krugman:

The Ryan Response — ... was as bad as you might expect. Lots of breast-beating about deficits; you'd never know that no leading Republican, Ryan very much included, has offered a serious proposal to cut the deficit. Some cooked statistics about federal spending. And then there was this curious assertion:

Discussion: Budget Committee, Firedoglake, The Mahablog, Crooks and Liars, Boehner, Wonk Room, The Huffington Post, The Gateway Pundit, Prairie Weather, PostPartisan, Guardian and Pundit Press

Paul Krugman:

Shiny Lazy People — A few further thoughts about the Ryan response to the SOTU, which was deeply revealing. — Again, let me focus first on this passage: … Imagine yourself in Ryan's position. You've been chosen by one of America's two great political parties to respond to the president of the United States.

Discussion: AMERICAblog News and Hot Air

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Against Obligatory Editorials — He still loves his wife. But after 25 years of marriage, he has lost his enthusiasm for sex with her. Still. It is Valentine's Day. And she has been hinting. So he takes her to a nice dinner, uncharactertistically orders an after-dinner drink …

Discussion: USA Today

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

THE MISSING DEPTH OF THOUGHT.... I've long considered Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) the Republican version of John Edwards. After one largely underwhelming term, in which he didn't tackle any noteworthy policy initiatives and failed to distinguished himself as an expert in an area …

Discussion: TPMDC

The Note:
Thune's “Big Opportunity” - Will He Run?

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, GOP 12 and AMERICAblog Elections

Ezra Klein:

We won't always be the biggest — This bugged me last night, and it's worth talking about today: One of the first big applause lines of the speech came when Barack Obama said, “For all the hits we've taken these last few years, for all the naysayers predicting our decline, America still has the largest …

Discussion: Yglesias

Myglesias / Yglesias: When America Is Number 2 — I don't begrudge a president making …

Times of India:

Egypt president's son, family flee to Britain — CAIRO: Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's son, who is considered as his successor, has fled to Britain along with his family, a US-based Arabic website reported. — The plane with Gamal Mubarak, his wife and daughter on board left …

Discussion: PERRspectives, Guardian, Informed Comment, Steven Cook's Blog, Washington Post, The Agonist, The Moderate Voice, The Atlantic Online, Israel Matzav and New York Times

Laura Rozen / The Politico:
Obama and unrest in the Arab world

Discussion: FP Passport, Pundits Blog, The Lede, Taylor Marsh and The Daily Dish

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Rep. Broun to Obama: ‘You believe in socialism’ — GOP Rep. Paul Broun (Ga.) rebuked President Obama using perhaps the sharpest language among his Republican colleagues following the State of the Union address Tuesday night. — Broun took to Twitter during the address, accusing the president of believing in socialism.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Salon, Weasel Zippers, ThinkProgress, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, TPMDC, FrumForum and Daily Kos

Bob Unruh / WorldNetDaily:

Game-changer! Arizona to pass 2012 eligibility law — Obama will have to produce birth certificate to run again — It could be a game-changer. — A plan in Arizona to require presidential candidates to prove their eligibility to occupy the Oval Office is approaching critical mass, even though it has just been introduced.

Discussion: TalkLeft, HillBuzz.org, Weasel Zippers and Vox Popoli

Sari Horwitz / Washington Post:

Loughner researched lethal injection before Tucson shooting, sources say — TUCSON — In the weeks and days before the shooting rampage in Tucson, suspect Jared Lee Loughner surfed the Internet on his computer in what investigators believe was an effort to prepare for his alleged assassination attempt …

Discussion: The Politico, TPMMuckraker and msnbc.com

Telegraph:

Moscow airport bomb: suicide bombers were part of squad trained in Pakistan — The two suicide bombers who carried out the Moscow attack were thought to be part of a suicide squad trained in Pakistan's al-Qaeda strongholds sent to the capital to target the city's transport system.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Jawa Report and FrumForum

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Dear commenters, Steve Doocy is reading — One of the themes of the Esquire profile of Roger Ailes, with which Ailes cooperated, is that Ailes reads ever word written about him. — You might think that was an exaggeration. But apparently he does, or someone over on Sixth Avenue does.

Discussion: Mediaite, Swampland, Balloon Juice and Esquire, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Good News From the Middle East (Really) — IT has lately become the accepted wisdom that the Middle East peace process is dead, finished, kaput. This belief has been reinforced by Al Jazeera's release this week of some 1,600 documents that are said to describe the inside workings of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2008.

Discussion: Commentary and Ben Smith's Blog