memeorandum: Obama, GOP unveil competing plans for job growth (Zachary A. Goldfarb/Washington Post)

2:30 PM ET, May 27, 2011

Top Items:

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Medicare and Mediscares — Yes, Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, is a sore loser. Why do you ask? — To be sure, Mr. Ryan had reason to be upset after Tuesday's special election in New York's 26th Congressional District. It's a very conservative district …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, The Confluence, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Prairie Weather and Washington Monthly

The Hill:

McConnell: Saying Medicare is off the table is ‘silly talk’ and ‘nonsense’ — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that Medicare reform must be part of an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, despite indications that changing the entitlement will be politically unpopular.

Discussion: The Note and FrumForum

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:

McConnell: I Won't Agree To Raise The Debt Limit Without Medicare Cuts — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says substantial Medicare cuts must be part of a spending and deficit cut package to get his support to raise the debt limit. — In a Capitol briefing with reporters Friday …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Raw Story and Balloon Juice

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

McConnell puts Medicare in the ransom note — The Republican debt-ceiling strategy hasn't been subtle: GOP officials are threatening to cause a recession, on purpose, unless Democrats give them the spending cuts they want. It's Hostage Taking 101. — The trick has been identifying the ransom.

David Brooks / New York Times:
Medicare Survival Guide

Discussion: The New Republic, No More Mister Nice Blog and DailyHowler.com

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
A swing and a miss from Boehner on Medicare

Discussion: Daily Kos, Political Correction RSS and Balloon Juice

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:

CNN Poll: GOP 2012 field still up in the air — Washington (CNN) - Call it a sign of how unsettled the GOP presidential field remains: Two of the three people at the top of new national poll in the battle for the Republican nomination may not even run for the White House.

Discussion: Mediaite, Outside the Beltway and Taegan Goddard's …

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Palin creates buzz but rivals bet she won't run — Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork — “The bottom line is Sarah Palin is not going to run for president,” says a Republican adviser close to front-runner Mitt Romney. “She's making money, she's moved on, she's kind of an entertainer rather than a politician.

Discussion: Conservatives4Palin, The Note, Althouse, The Daily Caller and Pundit & Pundette

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Pawlenty was ‘open to’ mandate, a ‘worthy goal,’ in '06 speech — Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said in a 2006 speech that mandated health insurance was a “potentially helpful” — but incomplete — solution to the problem of the uninsured. — Pawlenty described a Massachusetts-style mandate …

Discussion: The New Republic

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
State of Uncertainty for Romney Camp as It Looks to Iowa

Discussion: The Politico, Iowa Caucuses, msnbc.com, CNN, USA Today, Daily Kos, TPMDC, Washington Post and Ben Smith's Blog

Aharding / CNN:
Pawlenty spins low poll numbers

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Other McCain and The Last Tradition

Jason Embry / Austin American-Statesman:

Perry says he will consider White House run — Gov. Rick Perry today gave his strongest indication yet that he may run for president. — “I'm going to think about it” after the legislative session ends Monday, Perry said. — For years, Perry has said that he would not run for president and that he had no interest.

Discussion: CNN, The Politico, Ben Smith's Blog, Pajamas Media, Wake up America, Hot Air, Big Government, Swampland and The Gateway Pundit

Daniel Strauss / Ballot Box:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he's considering a run for the White House

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Wayne Slater / Trail Blazers Blog:
Rick Perry says he will “think about” running for president

Discussion: FrumForum

The Note:

Obama Won't Personally Sign Patriot Act Extension — ABC News' Matthew Jaffe (@jaffematt) and Devin Dwyer (@devindwyer) report: Congress officially passed an extension of the Patriot Act tonight, just hours before key provisions of the national security law were due to lapse at midnight.

Discussion: The Hill, The Politico, Top of the Ticket, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, Boing Boing, Los Angeles Times, The Volokh Conspiracy, Outside the Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, Michelle Malkin, Odd Clauses Watch, The Moderate Voice, Josh Blackman's Blog, rubber hose and New York Magazine

Political Punch:

ROBAMA: Is It OK for a President to Autopen a Bill Into Law? — With the Patriot Act set to expire last night, President Obama signed legislation extending it — from France — as first reported by ABC News. — How did he do that? Using an autopen, of course. — Is that allowed?

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
Obama Uses Autopen to Sign Patriot Act Extension Remotely

Discussion: Cato @ Liberty, New York Times, Gawker and Danger Room

Emptywheel:
“Robo-signing” the PATRIOT Act

Discussion: Cato @ Liberty, OpEdNews and Danger Room

Stogie / Saberpoint:

Soquel High School Students Suspended for Wearing White T Shirts (They're Signs of “White Supremacy") — Soquel, California — on the Central Coast: — Several high school seniors wore white t shirts to their class's group picture last Wednesday and were suspended for doing so.

Discussion: Five Feet of Fury

Azenith Smith / kionrightnow.com:
Soquel Students Suspended for White Supremacy Claims

Discussion: Moonbattery and The Daily Caller

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:

Judge strikes down corporate donations ban — A federal court in Alexandria, Va. on Thursday struck down a federal ban on corporate campaign contributions, in a case with potentially dramatic ramifications for a campaign finance regulatory system under siege by legal and regulatory attacks.

Discussion: Moe Lane and Gawker

Aaron Gould Sheinin / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Federal judge strikes down ban on corporate giving to candidates

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Election Law Blog and Sunlight Foundation Blog

Kevin Hall / The Iowa Republican:

Bachmann's Debacle — “This is a disaster,” said one prominent Polk County Republican. An elected official called it “an embarrassment”. The embarrassing disaster was the result of Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann's last minute cancellation of her appearance at the Polk County GOP's Robb Kelley Dinner.

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

When a party declares intellectual bankruptcy — The good news is, House Republicans unveiled a plan yesterday that's intended to create jobs. The bad news is, the plan can charitably be described as a bad joke. — As we discussed yesterday, the jobs agenda, such as it is …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Mother Jones, Daily Kos and Wall Street Journal

Paul Krugman:
No Ideas — Ezra Klein points us to the House GOP's rather pitiful jobs manifesto.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Daily Kos

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

What Obama did to Israel — Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs make promises, which are ephemeral. The long-standing American solution has been to nonetheless urge Israel to take risks for peace …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Swampland, Wonk Room, Israel Matzav, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Betsy's Page, The Huffington Post, Mondoweiss, AlterNet, TomDispatch, OpEdNews and Pajamas Media

Mike Lillis / The Hill:

Frank bashes GOP ‘thugs’ over possible Warren appointment — Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Senate Republicans have “acted like thugs” in threatening to prevent a prominent consumer advocate - or anyone else - from heading a new consumer-protection agency.

Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:
BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL — No recess appointments for Obama over Memorial Day break

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and Moe Lane

Fernanda Echavarri / Arizona Daily Star:

Complex drug probe triggered SWAT raid — The man shot and killed by SWAT officers, as well as his brother and another man, were listed as suspects in a complex drug investigation being conducted by the Sheriff's Department, according to documents released Thursday.

Discussion: The Agitator and Pajamas Media

Radley Balko / The Agitator:
Video of the Pima County SWAT Raid

Discussion: Hit & Run, The Daily Caller and The Daily Dish

Brendan Greeley / Business Week:

Tyler Cowen, America's Hottest Economist — The George Mason University professor has written a bestseller, The Great Stagnation, keeps an influential blog, and reads way too many books — Tyler Cowen sits with a cranberry juice and a pile of books he no longer intends to read.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Outside the Beltway and The Moderate Voice

Associated Press:

Herman Cain: Federal Reserve Chairman, Tea Party Champion — The businessman's tenure with the Kansas City Fed should make for interesting debates with anti-Fed stalwart Ron Paul — There's no question that Herman Cain is the big winner in the the latest national Gallup poll …

Discussion: AmSpecBlog, The Atlantic Online and Outside the Beltway

The Note:

Mitt Romney Sends Leftover Pizza to Obama Chicago HQ — ABC's Emily Friedman (@abcemily) reports: After spending the day in Chicago fundraising, Mitt Romney sat down with small business owners at Gino's East, a pizza joint famous for their deep-dish pizza. — Not wanting any of the leftover slices …

Discussion: REPUBLICAN REDEFINED, Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway, Gawker, TPMDC, CNN, CBS News and New York Magazine

Rick Perlstein / New York Times:

America's Forgotten Liberal — JANUARY was the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth, and the planet nearly stopped turning on its axis to recognize the occasion. Today is the 100th anniversary of Hubert H. Humphrey's birth, and no one besides me seems to have noticed.

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Daily Kos

Ed Treleven / host.madison.com:

Marshfield man charged with coming to Madison to kill abortion provider — IMAGE (2) — The Marshfield man who drove to Madison to kill an abortion doctor will appear in federal court Friday around 10:30 a.m. — Ralph Lang, 63, faces federal charges after he was arrested Wednesday night …

Discussion: Shakesville, Pharyngula, Feministing and Althouse