memeorandum: How the Tea Party ‘hobbits’ won the debt fight (Marc A. Thiessen/Washington Post)

2:20 PM ET, August 1, 2011

Top Items:

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The President Surrenders — A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong. — For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party.

New York Times:

To Escape Chaos, a Terrible Deal — There is little to like about the tentative agreement between Congressional leaders and the White House except that it happened at all. The deal would avert a catastrophic government default, immediately and probably through the end of 2012.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, New York Times, The Politico, Hullabaloo, The Hill, USA Today, Washington Post, The New Republic, Guardian, TPMDC, Marbury, Reuters, Weasel Zippers, Towleroad News #gay, American Power, Truthdig, Suburban Guerrilla and Michelle Malkin

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Mitt Romney opposes compromise deal on the debt ceiling — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) broke his silence on the congressional debt-ceiling fight on Monday, emerging to say he couldn't back the final deal announced Sunday. — Romney, who had refused to weigh in during recent weeks …

Discussion: CNN, The Note, ThinkProgress, Ben Smith's Blog and Maggie's Farm

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

The myth of Obama's “blunders” and “weakness” — With the details of the pending debt deal now emerging (and for a very good explanation of the key terms, see this post by former Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein), a consensus is solidifying that (1) this is a virtually full-scale victory …

Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:

Did Obama Get Rolled? — The debt ceiling agreement is a horrible piece of legislation. It ratchets down already too-low domestic discretionary spending caps and imposes painful sacrifice on the middle class with little asked of the rich. Obviously, though, you can't assess any deal without asking “compared to what?”

Discussion: Mother Jones, Robert Reich, Washington Post, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Atlantic Online and ThinkProgress

Jay Newton-Small / Swampland:

Five Things for Liberals to Like in the Debt Ceiling Deal — As the broad strokes of the debt ceiling deal began to leak out over the weekend, progressive groups filled reporters' inboxes with outraged e-mails. “Seeing a Democratic President take taxing the rich off the table and instead push …

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Suburban Guerrilla

Elise Foley / The Huffington Post:
Durbin: Debt Deal Will Be The Death Of Keynesian Economics

Discussion: Power Line, ThinkProgress, GayPatriot, The Other McCain, Big Government, theblogprof, National Review, Connecting.the.Dots, CNNMoney.com, Taylor Marsh, Don Surber, Firedoglake, Scared Monkeys, Verum Serum and Crooks and Liars

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
The Fine Print on the Debt Deal

Discussion: Washington Times, nation.foxnews.com and Weasel Zippers

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
This Is Not Leadership — Late Saturday night, media outlets …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and Jared Bernstein

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:

How the Tea Party ‘hobbits’ won the debt fight — The Tea Party came under fire from all sides Friday after House conservatives nearly brought down Speaker John Boehner's debt-limit bill. John McCain went to the Senate floor to mock Tea Partyers as “hobbits,” and Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Big Journalism, Taylor Marsh, National Review, msnbc.com, sisu, The Politico, JustOneMinute, DISSENTING JUSTICE and CNN

Wall Street Journal:

A Tea Party Triumph — The debt deal is a rare bipartisan victory for the forces of smaller government. — If a good political compromise is one that has something for everyone to hate, then last night's bipartisan debt-ceiling deal is a triumph. The bargain is nonetheless better …

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative, The Politico, Shakesville, American Power, Ricochet Conversation Feed, The Future of Capitalism and Althouse

Peter Wallstenand David Nakamura / Washington Post:
Did Obama capitulate — or is this a cagey move?

Discussion: AMERICAblog News, No More Mister Nice Blog, FrumForum and The Daily Dish

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
The debt-ceiling deal: Winners and losers

Discussion: Don Surber, CNN, Hot Air, Left Coast Rebel, Pirate's Cove, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway, The Politico, Mediaite, The Moderate Voice, Bearing Drift and New York Times

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
More bad poll news for Obama as debt deal brings smiles to Capitol Hill

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Rasmussen Reports

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:

A deal that found the lowest-common denominator — (Alex Wong - VIA BLOOMBERG) Assuming no hiccups in the House — and that might be a big assumption — we've got a deal. The deficit-reduction side includes $1 trillion in cuts now, $1.5 trillion (or more) in deficit reduction later, and a vote on a balanced budget amendment.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Erick's blog, White House.gov Blog, Bloomberg, The Sundries Shack, YID With LID, Orlando Sentinel, Hit & Run, The Heritage Foundation, The Incidental Economist, CRFB.org, James Pethokoukis, TalkLeft, The Enterprise Blog, The Mahablog, ThinkProgress and The Reid Report

Josh Barro / National Review:
Debt Ceiling Deal—Less Than Meets the Eye

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The New Republic, Washington Post and FiveThirtyEight

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
Winners and losers: policy edition

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Rebuild the Dream and The Washington Current

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:
The Hostages Next Time — I remember last December sitting …

Discussion: Firedoglake

New York Times:
From Spending to Cuts, While the Economy Stalls

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Economix, Prairie Weather, The Atlantic Online, The Caucus, Hot Air, Reuters, Mock, Paper, Scissors and Daily Kos

Dan Mitchell / International Liberty:
Deconstructing the Revenue Side of the Debt-Ceiling Deal: Yes, There's a Real Threat of Higher Taxes

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Jared Bernstein, Sister Toldjah, James Pethokoukis, RedState and ThinkProgress

The Hill:

WHIP COUNT: House leaders in both parties seek votes to pass debt-limit deal — The debt-limit deal announced on Sunday night is expected to attract more than 60 votes in the Senate, but its outlook in the House is much more cloudy. — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will need Democratic votes …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Guardian, The Right Scoop and Daily Kos

David Dayen / Firedoglake:
No Guarantee Debt Limit Deal Gets Through the House

Discussion: Associated Press, Congressman Raul Grijalva, The Hill and Eschaton

Washington Post:
White House, congressional leaders reach debt-limit deal

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, Wall Street Journal, Cato @ Liberty, The Hill, Washington Monthly, Bearing Drift, New York Times, The BLT, The Politico, Bankrupting America and The Reid Report

Nicholas Schmidle / New Yorker:

GETTING BIN LADEN … - POLITICS - PROFILES - THE TALK OF THE TOWN - COMMENT - THIS WEEK'S ISSUE - THE FINANCIAL PAGE - NEWS DESK - THE POLITICAL SCENE

Discussion: Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Ben Smith's Blog, Politics and SWJ Blog

Benjy Sarlin / TPMDC:

Romney Breaks Debt Ceiling Silence: ‘Cannot Support This Deal’ — After a week of attacks from left and right alike over his failure to take a position on the latest round of Republican debt ceiling proposals, Mitt Romney has made up his mind on the final deal: he's against it.

Discussion: Washington Post, Fox News, Weasel Zippers and Daily Kos

Rasmussen Reports:
Romney, Perry, Bachmann Run Close Among GOP Primary Voters

Discussion: GOP 12, Pajamas Media and National Review

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
Mitt Romney Opposes Debt Compromise

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hit & Run, Indecision Forever, Swampland and Crooks and Liars

Rick Manning / Pundits Blog:

No deal better than a bad deal — When it takes about five minutes for President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to sign on to a new debt deal, perhaps Republicans should look for the trapdoors. — Based upon press reports, here are just four.

Discussion: The Note

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Gene Sperling: Obama 'didn't give one inch'

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Questions and Observations, The Hill and Washington Post

New York Post:
Floundering Obama aims for '12 miracle

Discussion: National Review

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:

Sen. McCain credits the Tea Party for deficit agreement — Days after comparing its members to hobbits, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Monday credited the Tea Party for its role in pushing for a deficit deal. — “I don't think without the Tea Party we would have had an agreement,” McCain said.

Discussion: The Politico, The Gateway Pundit and Weasel Zippers

Peter Beinart / Yahoo! News:
How the Tea Party Won the Deal

Discussion: americanthinker.com and The Gateway Pundit

Lee Fang / ThinkProgress:

Pam Geller Justifies Breivik's Terror: Youth Camp Had More ‘Middle Eastern or Mixed’ Races Than ‘Pure Norwegian’ — Pam Geller with House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) — Popular hate blogger Pam Geller has received scrutiny in recent days as the public became aware …

Discussion: The Daily Dish and Jesus' General

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs:
Summer Camp? Antisemitic Indoctrination Training Center

Discussion: YID With LID, Right Wing Watch, Jesus' General, Little Green Footballs and Maggie's Notebook

CBO's Latest 10 Documents:

CBO ANALYSIS OF AUGUST 1 BUDGET CONTROL ACT — Letter to the Honorable John Boehner and the Honorable Harry Reid — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated the impact on the deficit of the Budget Control Act of 2011, as posted on the Web site of the House Committee on Rules on August 1, 2011.

Discussion: USA Today, Speaker and The Daily Caller

The Politico:

Debt ceiling agreement a fair compromise? — David Mark — Moderator : — Facing the imminent prospect of default, the White House and Senate Republicans worked through Sunday to close a debt ceiling deal that gives President Barack Obama greater certainty in managing the Treasury's borrowing needs …

Discussion: Salon

Matthew Dickinson / Presidential Power:
Did Obama Cave? — In his first public comments since …

Discussion: A plain blog about politics, Alas, a Blog and The New Republic

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

U.S. Political Ideology Stable With Conservatives Leading — Most Republicans are conservative, but one in five is “very conservative” — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' political ideology at the midyear point of 2011 looks similar to 2009 and 2010, with 41% self-identifying as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 21% as liberal.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, No More Mister Nice Blog and Via Meadia

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Memo to Congress: With deficit deal done, time for that pivot to jobs — I'll forgive you in advance for being skeptical of what I'm about to tell you. But there's finally a glimmer evidence that officials are beginning to talk about that long-promised pivot to jobs that seemed to get snuffed …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Angry Bear

Rep. Ron Paul / Economy & Budget:

When a cut is not a cut — One might think that the recent drama over the debt ceiling involves one side wanting to increase or maintain spending with the other side wanting to drastically cut spending, but that is far from the truth. In spite of the rhetoric being thrown around …

Discussion: nation.foxnews.com