Top Items:
The Politico:
President Obama abruptly walks out of talks — President Barack Obama abruptly walked out of a stormy debt-limit meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday, a dramatic setback to the already shaky negotiations, according to GOP sources. — “He shoved back and said 'I'll see you tomorrow' and walked out …
Discussion:
CNN, Questions and Observations, Wonkette, Outside the Beltway, NewsBusters.org, James Pethokoukis, Hot Air, White House Dossier, Swampland, Michelle Malkin, Politics, Reuters, National Review, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Mediaite, The Raw Story, Raw Replay, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Lonely Conservative, Nice Deb, Weasel Zippers, Doug Ross, Weigel, Pajamas Media, Firedoglake, Confederate Yankee, Pirate's Cove, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Daily Pundit, The Huffington Post and The Page
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The Hill:
Obama warns Cantor: 'Don't call my bluff' in debt-ceiling talks — Republicans said tense negotiations over raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit at the White House ended when President Obama stormed out of the meeting with a stern warning to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.): “Don't call my bluff.”
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Washington Wire, The Reaction, Daily Kos, The Heritage Foundation, Althouse, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Patterico's Pontifications, Pirate's Cove, americanthinker.com, Outside the Beltway, GOP 12, The Politico, Don Surber, The Right Scoop, The New Editor, Pundit & Pundette, Balloon Juice, Reuters and Washington Post
Political Punch:
Obama: ‘This May Bring My Presidency Down, but I Will Not Yield’ on No Short-Term Extensions — ABC News' Jake Tapper and Ann Compton report: — It was, sources from both parties say, the most tense of the deficit reduction meetings yet. — After a period of what was described …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Firedoglake, The Moderate Voice, RedState, Verum Serum, Hot Air, The Note, Front Row Washington and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Wall Street Journal:
Raters Put U.S. on Notice — Moody's, S&P Sound Alarms on Debt; President Obama Walks Out of Talks — Credit rating agencies moved closer to an unprecedented downgrade of the U.S. government's debt amid deteriorating talks in Washington, with President Barack Obama abruptly walking …
Discussion:
Global Public Square, The Politico, National Review, The Caucus, Bloomberg, New York Magazine, The Page and The Lonely Conservative
Neil Irwin / Washington Post:
Top Democrats laud GOP debt-limit move; Fed chief warns of ‘calamity’ if U.S. defaults — Democratic congressional leaders responded positively Wednesday to a top Republican's “backup plan” for raising the federal debt ceiling amid a new warning from the nation's central banker that failure …
Bloomberg:
Moody's Downgrade Warning Pressures U.S. on Debt Deal
Moody's Downgrade Warning Pressures U.S. on Debt Deal
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Bloomberg, Open Congress, Wonkette and Pajamas Media
Jay Newton-Small / Swampland:
Obama vs. Cantor: Tempers Flare As Debt Ceiling Negotiations Take a Dramatic Turn
Obama vs. Cantor: Tempers Flare As Debt Ceiling Negotiations Take a Dramatic Turn
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller:
Rudy: I'll run for president if no other Republican can beat Obama
Rudy: I'll run for president if no other Republican can beat Obama
Discussion:
The Note, GOP 12 and New York Magazine
BooMan / Booman Tribune:
Real Professional Kabuki Theater
Real Professional Kabuki Theater
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Liberty Street, The Mahablog and Economist's View
Stuart Rothenberg / Roll Call:
Debt Ceiling Stalemate Not About Numbers — There is an old joke, attributed to both Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw. It goes something like this: — Churchill: Madam, would you sleep with me for 5 million pounds? — Woman: My goodness, Mr. Churchill ... Well, I suppose …
RELATED:
Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:
Obama Owns the Debt-Ceiling Fiasco — It doesn't help that he's declared high-speed rail and even unspent stimulus funds as untouchable. — President Barack Obama and Congress face a mess if the federal government hits the debt ceiling Aug. 2. The Bipartisan Policy Center …
Discussion:
Washington Post and The Atlantic Online
Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
McCaskill: GOP looks like ‘hot, sloppy mess’ — Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) slammed Republicans, claiming their internal divisions were impeding the ongoing debt-ceiling negotiations. — “I don't know what [House Speaker John] Boehner (R-Ohio) has going on in his caucus,” she said on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday.
Discussion:
Reuters, Washington Examiner, Weasel Zippers and New York Magazine
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
G.O.P.'s No-Tax Stance Is Outside Political Mainstream
G.O.P.'s No-Tax Stance Is Outside Political Mainstream
Discussion:
CNN, Washington Monthly, Paul Krugman, The Confluence, CBS News, Washington Post, Associated Press, msnbc.com, Reuters, Poll Watch Daily, Gallup, Balkinization, New York Times and Daily Kos
Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
Obama Still Wants To Cut A Terrible Deal
Obama Still Wants To Cut A Terrible Deal
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money
Tom Junod / Esquire:
The Debt Debate's Real Doomsday Scenario
The Debt Debate's Real Doomsday Scenario
Discussion:
Shakesville and Don Surber
Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:
Michele Bachmann's Weak Command Of Yiddish — The GOP continues its oft-troubled Jewish outreach efforts by having Michele Bachmann try and fail to pronounce “chutzpah.” — Meanwhile, her church says the Pope is the Antichrist, so she's sure to break out of the Evangelical bubble any day now.
RELATED:
Joshua Green / The Atlantic Online:
Michele Bachmann's Church Says the Pope Is the Antichrist — The Iowa front-runner for the GOP nomination was a longstanding member of a strict Lutheran synod with controversial views of Catholicism — Michele Bachmann is practically synonymous with political controversy …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, National Review, The Raw Story, Crooks and Liars, The Daily Dish, TPMDC, New York Magazine, TigerHawk and Right Wing News
The Note:
Michele Bachmann Gains Momentum, Surges in Polls — ABC News' Jonathan Karl and Amy Bingham report: — Michele Bachmann is proving to be a force to be reckoned with as she picks up momentum in early caucus states and surges in the polls. — A national Quinnipac University poll released …
Discussion:
The Politico, The Moderate Voice and CNN
RELATED:
Dan Hirschhorn / The Politico:
Ron Paul ads hitting airwaves in Iowa, N.H. — Ron Paul is hitting the airwaves for the first time in Iowa and New Hampshire with a spot that warns ominously against raising the federal debt limit, POLITICO has learned. — The 60-second spot, made with all the flare of a Hollywood movie preview …
Discussion:
CNN, The Atlantic Online, The Note, The Hill, msnbc.com, GOP 12, Ben Smith's Blog, National Review and Hotline On Call
RELATED:
Agustino Fontevecchia / Moral Hazard:
Bernanke Fights Ron Paul In Congress: Gold Isn't Money
Bernanke Fights Ron Paul In Congress: Gold Isn't Money
Discussion:
ProfessorBainbridge.com and New York Sun
Scott Wong / The Politico:
Graham: GOP has no one ‘to blame but ourselves’ — South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham conceded Wednesday that he and his fellow Republicans are now eating their own words as they try to convince the country they are working to stave off a federal default. — “Our problem is we made a big deal about this for three months.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice
Alexander Burns / The Politico:
The Bain of Mitt Romney's campaign — A company that laid off hundreds of employees. A federal “bailout” to rescue a failing bank. Mitt Romney, at the center of it all. — It's a story line from a tough Democratic ad that was teed up for use against Romney in his 1994 Senate campaign in Massachusetts.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, GOP 12 and Daily Kos
Kevin Sack / New York Times:
Book Challenges Obama on Mother's Deathbed Fight — The White House on Wednesday declined to challenge an account in a new book that suggests that President Obama, in his campaign to overhaul American health care, mischaracterized a central anecdote about his mother's deathbed dispute with her insurance company.
Discussion:
Althouse, The Politico, New York Magazine and Riehl World View
Thom Shanker / New York Times:
To Track Militants, U.S. Has System That Never Forgets a Face — WASHINGTON — When the Taliban dug an elaborate tunnel system beneath the largest prison in southern Afghanistan this spring, they set off a scramble to catch the 475 inmates who escaped. — One thing made it easier.
Discussion:
Battleland, ThinkProgress and thomaspmbarnett.com
Jess Bravin / Wall Street Journal:
A Gun Activist Takes Aim at U.S. Regulatory Power — MISSOULA, Mont.—With a homemade .22-caliber rifle he calls the Montana Buckaroo, Gary Marbut dreams of taking down the federal regulatory state. — He's not planning to fire his gun. Instead, he wants to sell it …
Wayne Cole / Reuters:
Dollar in full retreat, NZD storms 30-year peak — (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar was on the run in Asia on Thursday after a ratings warning from Moody's and a hint of further policy easing from the Federal Reserve unleashed a wave of panic selling, much to the relief of the hard-pressed euro.
Discussion:
Hot Air and americanthinker.com
New York Times:
Cuomo Says Curbing Public Pension Benefits Will Be His Top Goal in '12 — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, basking in the afterglow of a legislative session that he described as “unusually successful,” said Wednesday that his top priority next year would be limiting retirement benefits for new state and city workers.
Discussion:
Runnin' Scared, PolitickerNY and Verum Serum
blogs.telegraph.co.uk:
Bush trumps Barack in the Arab world: President Obama is proving an embarrassing flop in the Middle East — Today's eye-opening Zogby poll for the Arab American Institute Foundation should be a wake-up call to the White House on its failing foreign policy. After two and a half years of bashing Israel …
Peter Orszag / Bloomberg:
About Peter R Orszag — Hard Slog — the Real Future of the U.S. Economy: Peter Orszag — The continuing weakness in the labor market and the saga of the debt limit highlight the dual problems we face: low economic growth right now and an unsustainable amount of debt for the future.
Discussion:
Daily Pundit and Via Meadia
New York Post:
The comedian-in-chief — Here's a joke for you: President Obama nearly bankrupts the country with his out-of-control deficit spending — then demands responsible fiscal leadership from the Republicans. — OK, this is no time for humor: The country faces a deadline of Aug. 2 to either raise …
Discussion:
National Review
Jaya Narain / Daily Mail:
Breast-feeding mother ‘told to leave council headquarters because she would offend Muslim visitors’ — A mother was ordered not to breastfeed her baby in public because she was in a ‘multicultural building’. — Emma Mitchell, 32, was about to feed 19-week-old son Aaron when a receptionist at a town hall warned her to stop.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Atlas Shrugs and iOwnTheWorld.com