memeorandum: Obama speaks to the stars; Tom Hanks suggests ‘five and a half more years’ (Jordan Fabian/The Hill)

12:05 PM ET, April 22, 2011

Top Items:

Nation's Mood at Lowest Level in Two Years, Poll Shows — Americans are more pessimistic about the nation's economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama's first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession …

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

Poll: Most Americans oppose raising debt limit — CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto. — Despite Obama administration warnings that failing to do so would devastate the economy, a clear majority of Americans …

Discussion: Hot Air, Slate, Patterico's Pontifications, Scared Monkeys, Gothamist, RedState, Washington Post, Hotline On Call, The Atlantic Online and CBS News

New York Times:
New York Times/CBS News Poll: 2012 Republicans, Obama and the Economy

Discussion: CNN

Stephanie Condon / CBS News:
Poll: One in four Americans think Obama was not born in U.S.

Discussion: The Reaction, The Daily Dish, Top of the Ticket and The Atlantic Online

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

The Electoral Implications of Ensign's Resignation — Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada is expected to appoint Dean Heller, currently the Republican incumbent in the state's Second Congressional District, to replace Senator John Ensign, who is resigning. — Mr. Heller was already expected …

Discussion: USA Today and Booman Tribune

Eric Lipton / New York Times:
Senator Ensign to Resign Amid Inquiry

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, USA Today, Prairie Weather and Balloon Juice

Jennifer Cooper / John Ensign …:
ENSIGN TO RESIGN FROM OFFICE

Discussion: Ballot Box, ABCNEWS, Hot Air, Slate, Las Vegas Sun, Roll Call, The Note, New York Times, Gawker, Swampland, Mediaite and The Lonely Conservative

Michael McAuliff / The Huffington Post:

9/11 Responders To Be Warned They Will Be Screened By FBI's Terrorism Watch List (EXCLUSIVE) … WASHINGTON — A provision in the new 9/11 health bill may be adding insult to injury for people who fell sick after their service in the aftermath of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks, The Huffington Post has learned.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, The Mahablog, Atlas Shrugs and FrumForum

Attaturk / Firedoglake:

A trio of self-proclaimed GOP heroes — Let's have a good solid Bronx Cheer for these three survivors of the burger wars: — Cliff Stearns (R-Florida) who added a provision to the 9/11 Responders health care bill last May that requires the tens of thousands of police, firefighters …

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Obama speaks to the stars; Tom Hanks suggests ‘five and a half more years’ — President Obama asked for support Thursday from a small Los Angeles audience dotted with Hollywood stars. — Speaking in a tiny room of the Italian restaurant Tavern to a an audience of 60 who included Steven Spielberg …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and FrumForum

The Politico:

Birtherism: Where it all began — Just when it appeared that public interest was fading, celebrity developer Donald Trump has revived the theory that President Barack Obama was born overseas and helped expose the depth to which the notion has taken root—a New York Times poll Thursday found that a plurality of Republicans believe it.

Discussion: Right Wing News and White House Dossier

Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Likability Gap

Discussion: UrbanGrounds and Right Wing News

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Obama makes ‘birther’ joke at fundraiser — President Obama on Thursday lightened up talk of high gas prices and the budget deficit on his West Coast swing with a joke about those who question his citizenship. — “A lot of you got involved when the prospect of electing Barack Hussein Obama to the Oval Office was slim.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Wake up America

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama suggests low poll numbers due to high gas prices

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, FrumForum and The Hill

Washington Examiner:
There is a ‘magic’ formula for lower gas prices

Discussion: Hot Air, Right Wing News, Associated Press, The Lonely Conservative, JammieWearingFool, POWIP and Outside the Beltway

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Patients Are Not Consumers — Earlier this week, The Times reported on Congressional backlash against the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a key part of efforts to rein in health care costs. This backlash was predictable; it is also profoundly irresponsible, as I'll explain in a minute.

Discussion: TalkLeft, The New Republic, Hit & Run, The Incidental Economist, Daily Kos, Paul Krugman, Jay Bookman and Modeled Behavior

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Huckabee, Trump, Romney Set Pace for 2012 GOP Field — Trump leads among liberal and moderate Republicans — PRINCETON, NJ — Donald Trump debuts in a first-place tie in Gallup's latest update of Republicans' preferences for the party's 2012 presidential nomination among potential contenders.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Ballot Box, GOP 12, USA Today, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Political Carnival and RedState

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Media's Spotlight Shines Less Brightly on Palin — One of the few pieces of statistical evidence that we can look toward at this early stage of the presidential campaign is the number of media hits that each candidate is receiving. Apart from being interesting unto itself, it's plausible that this metric has some predictive power.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Political Carnival, TPMDC, Shot in the Dark, Public Policy Polling, Opinionator, Hot Air, Washington Wire, Guardian, GOP 12, Swampland, The Daily Dish, CNN and Mediaite

Maggie Haberman / The Politico:

Krauthammer: Trump is running — Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer says Donald Trump reached out to him after a piece he wrote that laced into the developer's potential 2012 bid — a phone call he said convinced him The Donald is running for president.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, FrumForum, Outside the Beltway and Don Surber

Mary Grabar / Originals:

Writing Teachers: Still Crazy After All These Years — After spending four depressing days this month at a meeting of 3,000 writing teachers in Atlanta, I can tell you that their parent group, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, is not really interested in teaching students to write and communicate clearly.

Discussion: TigerHawk and protein wisdom

Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:

More Republican Congressmen Face Town Hall Backlash Over Tax Breaks For Wealthy And Medicare Privatization — Earlier this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) held town halls across his district to defend his budget's plan to end Medicare and extend tax cuts for the wealthy.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Yglesias, The Nation, The Huffington Post, Pennsylvania Ave., ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Booman Tribune, Swampland and Wonk Room

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Wire:
Gingrich Steps Away From Ryan Budget

Discussion: Wonk Room and msnbc.com

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:

Ayn Rand's adult-onset adolescence — The movie “Atlas Shrugged,” adapted from Ayn Rand's 1957 novel by the same name, is a triumph of cinematic irony. A work that lectures us endlessly on the moral superiority of heroic achievement is itself a model of mediocrity.

Discussion: Hit & Run and The Daily Caller

Washington Examiner:

Federal labor board seeks to ground Boeing — Can federal bureaucrats tell a private company where to build a factory? — Members of President Obama's National Labor Relations Board think they can. In a decision that even the New York Times is describing as “highly unusual for the federal government …

Discussion: Sweetness & Light and RedState

New York Times:

Bright, Careful and Sadistic: Profiling Long Island's Mystery Serial Killer — He is most likely a white male in his mid-20s to mid-40s. He is married or has a girlfriend. He is well educated and well spoken. He is financially secure, has a job and owns an expensive car or truck.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, American Prospect, Gizmodo and Gothamist

Deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: MEL GIBSON FINALLY TALKS — EXCLUSIVE: On May 6th, Mel Gibson's much-delayed comeback picture, The Beaver, will open in limited release. It's directed by his longtime friend and co-star Jodie Foster. The movie has already garnered reviews praising Gibson's performance as …

Discussion: This Just In, Guardian and PopEater

Henry / Crooked Timber:

The Anniversary — And so the year rolls around yet again to Krauthammer Day, the day on which we all celebrate Charles Krauthammer's confident assertion eight years ago that: … Or nearly all of us celebrate it anyway. Charles Krauthammer himself seems to prefer to mark the occasion …

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Democrats fundraise off ‘birthers’ — The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) is fundraising off efforts by some of President Obama's opponents to question his place of birth. — The DGA sent out a fundraising appeal to supporters on Friday, referencing so-called “birthers” bills being considered by some state legislatures.

Discussion: CNN

Wall Street Journal:

Iraq Troop Talks Falter — Allies Want U.S. to Stay Past Withdrawal Date but Baghdad Fears Unrest — WASHINGTON—Senior U.S. and Iraqi military officials have been in negotiations about keeping some 10,000 American troops in Iraq beyond the scheduled withdrawal of all U.S. forces at year's end …

Discussion: Connecting.the.Dots, Global Public Square, Wonkette and FrumForum

Remy Melina / msnbc.com:

Earth Day co-founder killed, composted girlfriend — Ira Einhorn preached against Vietnam War and violence, but had dark side — Below: — Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970.

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

Obama: Think about ditching those gas-guzzling SUVs — President Obama urged the public Thursday to think about trading in their SUVs for more fuel-efficient vehicles, arguing that gas-guzzlers keep the country dependent on foreign oil. — “When you do decide to buy a new car …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Lonely Conservative