memeorandum: Harassment Incentives (Matthew Yglesias/Yglesias)

12:20 PM ET, May 22, 2011

Top Items:

Maggie Haberman / The Politico:

Mitch Daniels won't run in 2012 — Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels told supporters in a midnight email early Sunday that he is opting against a 2012 presidential run, a decision that he said ultimately came down to family concerns. — The decision by the former political operative and favorite …

Discussion: Hot Air, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Scared Monkeys, The Other McCain, Betsy's Page and FrumForum

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

Mitch Daniels won't run for president in 2012 — Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels won't run for president in 2012. (AP Photo/South Bend Tribune, Greg Swiercz)Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels won't seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, a decision that could well throw the field open to other late entrants.

Discussion: Power Line, The Moderate Voice, Booman Tribune, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Outside the Beltway and Althouse

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:

Daniels Decides Against Republican Presidential Bid — Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana has decided not to seek the Republican presidential nomination, telling supporters in an e-mail message early Sunday that he decided against entering the race because of family considerations.

Discussion: Yglesias, Hit & Run, A plain blog about politics, RedState, Connecting.the.Dots and Freedom's Lighthouse

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Mitch-slapped GOP looks for new option — Mitch Daniels's overnight decision against a presidential bid will immediately raise the volume on the low-hum grumbling among Republican insiders that they're gearing up to face President Obama with the weakest primary field in recent memory.

Discussion: The Page

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly: Daniels bows out, will skip 2012 race

Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
Horton's ghost haunts GOP field

Discussion: Right Wing News, The Caucus and Booman Tribune

Associated Press:
Indiana's Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels rules out run for the White House

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Taylor Marsh, Pundit & Pundette and Vox Popoli

The Note:
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels Chooses NOT to Run

Discussion: Indianapolis Star, Ben Smith's Blog and Democracy in America

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Obama elaborates on '67 lines — President Obama is telling AIPAC at the moment that he expected the controversy over his comments Thursday on the 1967 lines, and elaborates: … The tension here is that while Obama advanced the new framework out of “urgency” — and while perhaps …

Daniel Leblanc / Globe and Mail:

Ottawa won't back Obama's Mideast peace proposal — The Harper government is refusing to join the United States in calling for a return to 1967 borders as a starting point for Mideast peace, a position that has drawn sharp criticism from Canada's staunch ally Israel.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Weasel Zippers, Maggie's Farm, HotAirPundit, Israel Matzav and FrumForum

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

Mitchell: Obama's stance on 1967 border does not threaten Israel — George Mitchell, who stepped down as the Obama administration's special envoy to the Middle East last week, insisted Sunday that President Obama's call to base Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on pre-1967 borders is not a threat to Israel.

The Note:

Sarah Palin Slams Obama on Israel, Wants ‘Redneck Woman’ to Be Her Ringtone — ABC News' Sheila Marikar reports: In a Fox News appearance Saturday night, Sarah Palin slammed President Barack Obama's Middle East speech and revealed that she'd like to change her cell phone ringtone to Gretchen Wilson's “Redneck Woman.”

Eric Johnson / Reuters:
Top Jewish Americans ponder support for Obama

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit and Israel Matzav

Guardian:
Obama wants Cameron to back Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and HotAirPundit

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Bibi-Barack Chess Game

Discussion: The only adult in the room, Taylor Marsh and Washington Post

Rummelj / CNN:
State of the Union Early Bird for May 22, 2011

Discussion: BBC and Reuters

Dore Gold / Wall Street Journal:
Israel's 1967 Borders Aren't Defensible

Discussion: Israel Matzav and New York Times

Matthew Yglesias / Yglesias:

Harassment Incentives — Penelope Trunk: … On the other hand, Steven Greenhouse reports that various kinds of harassment and assault of hotel maids are extremely common. Is it true, after all, that a maid has “nothing to lose”? Perhaps that would be true if the economy operated at a permanent full-employment state.

Discussion: Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality … and New York Times

Penelope Trunk: Sexual harassment is going high-end

Jacob Weisberg / Slate Magazine:

Fantasy Island — Are Republicans losing their grip on reality? — At a press conference last week, someone asked Chris Christie for his views on evolution vs. creationism. “That's none of your business,” the New Jersey governor barked in response. — This minor incident …

Discussion: Crooked Timber, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Mahablog, The Reality-Based Community, Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality … and Yglesias

Frank R. Lindh / New York Times:

Bin Laden's Gone. Can My Son Come Home? — ON the evening of May 1, we learned that Osama bin Laden had been killed. The following dawn, I left my house in the Bay Area to catch a bus to Oakland International Airport. I flew to Indianapolis for a scheduled visit with my son …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Garrett Epps / The Atlantic Online:

America's 10 Biggest Constitutional Myths — Constitutional argumentation is a means Americans employ to keep from killing each other. Ridiculous claims about the Constitution, then, may often be a sign of political health rather than sickness. — So it's not surprising that …

Discussion: Prairie Weather and Hullabaloo