memeorandum: College affirmative action back on Supreme Court's horizon (Robert Barnes/Washington Post)

12:45 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 New Republic, The Hill, Hullabaloo, Washington Post, TPMDC, USA Today, Guardian, The Politico, Marbury, Weasel Zippers, Towleroad News #gay, American Power, Truthdig, Michelle Malkin and Suburban Guerrilla

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, Ricochet Conversation Feed, Shakesville, American Power, The Future of Capitalism and Althouse

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, The Politico, sisu, msnbc.com, JustOneMinute, DISSENTING JUSTICE and CNN

Elise Foley / The Huffington Post:

Durbin: Debt Deal Will Be The Death Of Keynesian Economics … WASHINGTON — The Republicans are killing Keynesian economics with their attempt to cut spending as the economy rebounds from a recession, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a floor speech on Sunday.

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

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

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

The debt-ceiling deal: Winners and losers — The debt ceiling fight is over. The White House and congressional leaders have settled on a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling, enact immediate spending cuts and, our favorite part, create a super-commission designed to trim the federal budget further by the end of the year.

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

Glenn Greenwald / Salon: The myth of Obama's “blunders” and “weakness”

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

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

Mickey Kaus / The Daily Caller:
1) Exactly why is it important that the “sequester"-the across …

Discussion: The Future of Capitalism

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: The Note

New York Post:
Floundering Obama aims for '12 miracle

Discussion: National Review

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

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

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

A.Killough / CNN:
Romney comes out against debt ceiling agreement

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog

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, The Right Scoop and Daily Kos

David Dayen / Firedoglake:

No Guarantee Debt Limit Deal Gets Through the House — US House of Representatives Entrance (photo: deltaMike) — I talked about the debt limit deal in the past tense in my initial thoughts, but I should have put it in the present tense. Because there's no real guarantee that this thing gets through the House.

Discussion: Associated Press, Congressman Raul Grijalva, Reuters and Eschaton

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

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

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, The Heritage Foundation, White House.gov Blog, RedState, TalkLeft, The Sundries Shack, YID With LID, CRFB.org, The Incidental Economist, The Enterprise Blog, James Pethokoukis, The Mahablog and The Reid Report

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

Discussion: The New Republic and Washington Post

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, Jared Bernstein, RedState and ThinkProgress

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

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 and Weasel Zippers

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

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and americanthinker.com

Julian Pecquet / Healthwatch:

New health insurance plans will be required to cover birth control — The Obama administration on Monday announced that new health plans will be required to cover contraceptive drugs and counseling without co-pays starting next year. — The Health and Human Services guidelines, however …

Discussion: The Politico and Shakesville

Kevin Sack / New York Times:
Opposing the Health Law, Florida Refuses Millions

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Balloon Juice, The Politico and Washington Post

Peter Wallstenand David Nakamura / Washington Post:

Did Obama capitulate — or is this a cagey move? — It was President Obama's bottom line, a position he repeated in every recent public utterance on his debt-ceiling talks with Congress: Any deal must be “balanced” with spending cuts and tax increases. — But in his eleventh-hour stare …

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

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Al Jazeera English Arrives on N.Y. Cable — Every cable news channel has its moment. — CNN had the gulf war. Fox News had the war on terror. And Al Jazeera English had the Arab Spring. — But six months after widespread protests erupted in the Middle East, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post, NewsBusters.org, The Wire and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

David E. Sanger / New York Times:
In World's Eyes, Much Damage Is Already Done

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk

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: No More Mister Nice Blog and Via Meadia

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:

Ads tout Rick Perry as ‘better option’ for president — A new so-called super PAC supporting a prospective Rick Perry presidential campaign is going up Monday in Iowa with a statewide television buy touting the Texas governor as “a better option” for president.

Discussion: The Note, Taegan Goddard's …, Iowa Caucuses, USA Today, msnbc.com, Don Surber 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: Presidential Power, Salon, The New Republic and A plain blog about politics

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:

College affirmative action back on Supreme Court's horizon — When the Supreme Court in 2003 narrowly approved the consideration of race in public university admission decisions, it came with loads of restrictions and a sort of expiration date. — “We expect that 25 years from now …

Discussion: SCOTUSblog

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: Suburban Guerrilla

Christian Heinze / GOP 12:

Palin film disappears at box office — The pro-Sarah Palin documentary, The Undefeated, suffered another huge drop in ticket sales over the weekend, earning just over $5,000. — Its weekend grosses: — July 29-31: $5,200 in 4 theatres. — July 22-24: $24,664 in 14 theatres.

Discussion: msnbc.com