memeorandum: The Reagan Evolution (Deborah Solomon/New York Times)

4:25 PM ET, February 4, 2011

Top Items:

Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:

We Are All Egyptians — Inside Tahrir Square on Thursday, I met a carpenter named Mahmood whose left arm was in a sling, whose leg was in a cast and whose head was being bandaged in a small field hospital set up by the democracy movement. This was the seventh time in 24 hours …

Discussion: Aljazeera, Firedoglake, The Other McCain, Prairie Weather, Eunomia, Newshoggers.com, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Confluence, Jay Bookman and Daily Kos

New York Times:

Egyptian Government Figures Join Protesters — CAIRO — With signs of fracturing within Egypt's ruling elite, hundreds of thousands of people packed Cairo's central Tahrir Square on Friday, chanting slogans, bowing in prayer and waving Egyptian flags to press a largely peaceful campaign for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak.

Discussion: mb.com.ph, The Daily Dish, Little Green Footballs, Spiegel Online, EA WorldView, The Atlantic Online, Gawker, The Maddow Blog, AOL News, World Blog, Sky Dancing and FrumForum, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

White House and Egypt Discuss Plan for Mubarak's Exit — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman …

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Toward a soft landing in Egypt

Discussion: Power Line, Wonk Room, Betsy's Page, RubinReports, Guardian, PostPartisan and The Daily Dish

Ben Dimiero / Media Matters for America:

Attention Fox Nation: There Is More Than One Version Of The Bible — Conservatives have spent the last several years trying to cast doubt on President Obama's Christianity, often by suggesting he is a secret Muslim or claiming that he is a non-believer pretending to be Christian for political benefit.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, Religion Dispatches and Ben Smith's Blog

Romalley / Fox Nation:

Obama Botches Bible Verse at Prayer Breakfast — President Obama misquoted a familiar Bible verse during a faith-based address at the National Prayer Breakfast. — “Those who wait on the Lord will soar on wings like eagles, and they will run and not be weary, and they will walk and not faint …

Discussion: The White House, No More Mister Nice Blog, Weasel Zippers, The Mahablog, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Grim's Hall, The Gateway Pundit and CNN

Julia A. Seymour / Media Research Center:

Santelli Slams CNBC Panelists for Spinning Jobs Report — CNBC's floor reporter criticizes ‘kool-aid drinkers’ for trying to find good news in the ‘disappointing.’ — Jobs are heading up and down at the same time. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the morning of Feb. 4 …

Discussion: Yglesias, FT Alphaville, Instapundit and AMERICAblog News

Laura Conaway / The Maddow Blog:
Republicans totally, totally focused on jobs

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Politico

Calculated Risk:
January Employment Report: 36,000 Jobs, 9.0% Unemployment Rate

Discussion: Free exchange, Hot Air, The Atlantic Online, Firedoglake, Brookings Institute, Daily Kos, Weasel Zippers and Economist's View

Christopher S. Rugaber / Associated Press:
Unemployment falls to 9.0 pct., only 36K new jobs

Discussion: Instapundit, JustOneMinute, Don Surber, The Gateway Pundit and Scared Monkeys

Motoko Rich / New York Times:
In a Snowy January, Job Numbers Fail to Take Off

Discussion: Economix, Los Angeles Times, Calculated Risk, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Felix Salmon, Washington Monthly, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Awl and Gawker

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Obama's Approval Ratings More Polarized in Year 2 Than Year 1 — Ranks as fourth-most-polarized year for a president since 1953 — PRINCETON, NJ — President Barack Obama's job approval ratings were even more polarized during his second year in office than during his first …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Pajamas Media, Moonbattery, Hotline On Call, Raw Story, Ballot Box, Cubachi, Conservatives4Palin, Commentary, HillBuzz.org and Instapundit

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Poll reveals striking divide on Obama

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Scared Monkeys

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:

Rand Paul: End ‘welfare’ to Israel — Tea party-backed Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) isn't sure that congressional Republicans have the guts to make the big budget cuts they've promised and, he said, members of the movement are becoming frustrated. — “There's a disconnect between Republicans …

Discussion: Commentary, Outside the Beltway, alicublog, FrumForum and Ben Smith's Blog

Shira Toeplitz / The Politico:
Rand Paul sole GOP holdout on laser pointer bill

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Jonathan Karl / ABCNEWS:
Rand Paul: GOP Not ‘Brave Enough’ to Hit Deficit

Discussion: The Politico, Hot Air, Washington Wire, The Hill, The Plum Line and Raw Story

Joan Vennochi / Boston Globe:

Kerry's sharp eye on the secretary spot — AS EGYPT battles over its future, Senator John Kerry is negotiating his own. — The Bay State's senior senator is running an unofficial campaign to become the next secretary of state. For once, he looks artful, as well as ambitious.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Liberal Values, Sister Toldjah, Swampland and The Gateway Pundit

The Politico:

Finger-pointing begins on Egypt — The debate over who “lost” Egypt seems to have begun. — Critics are openly questioning the quality of information and analysis given to President Barack Obama by U.S. intelligence agencies in the days leading up to the dramatic uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Discussion: UrbanGrounds, Right Wing News and The Gateway Pundit

Associated Press:
Obama “Disappointed” by Intel on Arab Unrest

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway and SpyTalk

Chris Bowers / Open Left:

Open Left is closing — I have some sad news. After nearly four years in operation, today will be the final day Open Left publishes new content. — The site will not disappear, and all published content will remain online, but after today we will cease producing new content.

Discussion: Donklephant and Ben Smith's Blog

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Justice Scalia, Not Kennedy, Eyed As Key Vote In Support Of Health Care … WASHINGTON — Observers of the legal drama surrounding President Obama's health care reform legislation have reached two broad conclusions: that it will ultimately be ruled on by the Supreme Court, and that Justice Anthony Kennedy will be the deciding vote.

Discussion: The Plum Line, The New Republic, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and FrumForum

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Obama Administration Scores Legal Victory On Health Care

Discussion: ACS Blog, Raw Story, ThinkProgress and Daily Kos

New York Observer:

Elizabeth Spiers Taking Over As Editor In Chief of The New York Observer — Elizabeth Spiers is taking over as Editor-in-Chief of The Observer today, overseeing both the print and digital content. — “I am very excited to be working with Elizabeth to further build on the great progress we have made over the past few years.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, Mediaite, Media Decoder, The Wire and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

Reuters:

Special report: Jamie Dimon wants some R-E-S-P-E-C-T — Jamie Dimon, CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co, answers a question during an interview in his office in New York December 22, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson — NEW YORK (Reuters) - What's eating Jamie Dimon?

Discussion: Yglesias

Paul Krugman: Another Kind of Financial Fragility

Bruce Siceloff / Raleigh News & Observer:

Citizen activist grates on state over traffic signals — RALEIGH — David N. Cox says he was merely exercising his right to petition the government, but a state Department of Transportation official has raised allegations that Cox committed a misdemeanor: practicing engineering without a license.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Right Wing News, Yglesias and Instapundit

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

A Graphical Overview of the 2012 Republican Field — There is almost exactly one year to go until the Iowa caucuses, which are tentatively scheduled to take place on Feb. 6, 2012. No mainstream Republican candidate has yet declared for the presidency, but that is sure to change soon …

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

McConnell: No deals with Obama on healthcare reform — Republicans aren't likely to bury the hatchet with President Obama over the healthcare reform act, their Senate leader said Friday. — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), fresh off an unsuccessful vote on Wednesday …

Discussion: FrumForum

The Politico:

Justice Thomas's wife Virginia Thomas now a lobbyist — She started as a congressional aide in the 1980s, became a midlevel Republican operative, then briefly left politics, reemerging in 2009 as founder of a tea party group, before stepping down amid 'continued questions about whether …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, Mother Jones and FrumForum

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:

The Bad Faith of Mandate Critics, Part 2 — Read part 1 of this argument here. — The conservative legal brief against the Affordable Care Act rests heavily on a simple proposition. Government can't make us obtain private insurance because, as the argument goes, that would be forcing us to buy a private product.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Enterprise Blog, A plain blog about politics, The Incidental Economist and AmSpecBlog

Wall Street Journal:

ObamaCare's Repeal Has Begun — This week's Senate vote to scrap an IRS reporting requirement is the start of a piece by piece approach. — Mark this date: On Feb. 2, 2011, a Democratic Senate killed the first piece of the health-care law it passed less than a year ago.

Discussion: Betsy's Page and The New Republic

John Sexton / Hot Air:

Report: Political Correctness Prevented FBI, DoD from Stopping Maj. Hasan — Today the Senate Homeland Security Committee released an independent report on the Ft. Hood shootings. The 91 page report is titled A Ticking Time Bomb: Counterterrorism Lessons from the US Government's Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack.

Discussion: Houston Chronicle, The Daily Caller, Scared Monkeys, Five Feet of Fury, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and The Note

ABCNEWS:

Senators Issue Lobbyist ‘Call to Arms’ — The Senate Appropriations Labor, Health & Human Services subcommittee organized a meeting last month for lobbyists so they combine efforts to bring money into the committee.

Discussion: Hot Air, National Review, Weasel Zippers and The Daily Caller