memeorandum: What a president ‘looks like’ (Steve Benen/Washington Monthly)

1:10 AM ET, August 16, 2011

Top Items:

Bachmann skipped family reunion she cited — On her victory lap of Iowa yesterday, Straw Poll winner Rep. Michele Bachmann paid repeated tribute to her local roots, and repeatedly mentioned her family reunion that day, citing it as an excuse for her late arrival at a local party event in Waterloo.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Daily Kos, Hot Air, The Impolitic and Iowa Caucuses

Roger Simon / The Politico:

Ron Paul remains media poison — I admit I do not fully understand Ron Paul and his beliefs. But I do understand when a guy gets shafted, and Ron Paul just got shafted. — On Saturday, the Ames Straw Poll was conducted in Iowa amid huge media interest and scrutiny.

Discussion: Mediaite, Booman Tribune, The Raw Story, The Note, CNN, Truthdig, Swampland, Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway and New York Times

Michelle Goldberg / The Daily Beast:

A Christian Plot for Domination? — Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry aren't just devout—both have deep ties to a fringe fundamentalist movement known as Dominionism, which says Christians should rule the world. — With Tim Pawlenty out of the presidential race, it is now fairly clear …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, his vorpal sword, NewsBusters.org blogs, Sister Toldjah, Weasel Zippers, Wonkette, Crooks and Liars, Pirate's Cove, Off the Kuff, Suburban Guerrilla, Hullabaloo, The Daily Dish, ThinkProgress, Let Freedom Ring Blog, Firedoglake and CNN

Christian Heinze / GOP 12:

Rove warns GOP about electability — First, the Wall Street Journal was spooked about the Michele Bachmann/Rick Perry surge, and just now, Karl Rove issued a similar warning. … Earlier today, the WSJ wrote an op-ed that seemed to suggest that neither Michele Bachmann nor Rick Perry were particularly electable.

Discussion: Gawker, The Mahablog, Taylor Marsh, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Daily Kos and No More Mister Nice Blog

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:

Will no one rid the GOP of this troublesome congressman? — With Tim Pawlenty out of the race, only two active Presidential candidates scored more than 10 percent in Saturday's Iowa straw poll. Following the media coverage Sunday, you would never guess Congressman Ron Paul was one of them.

Discussion: Campaign 2012, Eunomia, National Review, Outside the Beltway, LewRockwell.com Blog and AmSpecBlog

Wall Street Journal:
Bachmann-Perry Overdrive — GOP voters are still searching for a unifying candidate.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Salon, The Moderate Voice, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice, Talking Points Memo, Online NewsHour, GOP 12, Booman Tribune, Don Surber and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Byron York / Campaign 2012:
Behind the Michele Bachmann ‘submissive’ question

Discussion: Salon, CNN, Right Wing Watch, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway and CBS News

Ross Douthat / New York Times:
Chris Christie's Cue

Discussion: Eunomia, msnbc.com, The Political Carnival and The New Republic

Azi Paybarah / PolitickerNY:

Bill Clinton: Rick Perry is a ‘Good-Looking Rascal,’ But His Platform ‘Is Crazy’ — Bill Clinton at the IAFF conference in Manahttan on August 15, 2011. (photo credit: azi paybarah / observer) — Bill Clinton said newly announced presidential candidate, Republican Governor Rick of Texas was a …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, TPMDC, The Hill, GOP 12, CNN, Pajamas Media, Gothamist, Althouse and Columbian

Josh Dorner / ThinkProgress:

Rick Perry Questions Obama's Patriotism — Speaking to reporters tonight following an event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Texas Governor Rick Perry appeared to question President Obama's patriotism. In response to a question from Danny Yadron of the Wall Street Journal, who asked Perry …

Discussion: Washington Wire and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

The Note:

Rick Perry On Ben Bernanke: It Would Be ‘Almost Treasonous’ To Print More Money Between Now And The Election — ABC's Michael Falcone and Arlette Saenz report: — CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Texas Gov. Rick Perry capped off his first full day of campaigning in Iowa on Monday by suggesting …

Discussion: Washington Wire, Hot Air and The Reality-Based Community

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Was Perry packing? — Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a leading advocate of gun rights who likes to boast of having dispatched a coyote on a recent jog, so I asked him during today's walking press conference at the Iowa State Fair whether he was armed. — “I never comment on whether I'm carrying a handgun or not,” he said.

Discussion: The Note, Washington Monthly, Gawker, New York Magazine and Althouse

Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:

Perry on Bernanke: 'I dunno what y'all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas' — Texas Governor Rick Perry, who entered the presidential campaign on Saturday, appeared to suggest a violent response would be warranted should Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Gawker, RedState, TPMDC and Clusterstock

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:

The Ten Weirdest Ideas In Rick Perry's Fed Up — Rick Perry's November 2010 book Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington is not a typical “campaign book” from a political candidate. For starters, its forward is written by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, nominally one of Perry's rivals for the nomination.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Reality-Based Community, National Review, And So it Goes in Shreveport, The Caucus, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Gawker, Paul Krugman, Connecting.the.Dots, Questions and Observations, Balloon Juice and Shakesville

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress: Conservatives Whine About Unfairness Of Quoting Rick Perry Accurately

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Fact checking Rick Perry's announcement speech

Discussion: Indecision Forever, Daily Kos, Campaign 2012, Erica Grieder and Swampland

Clifford Krauss / New York Times:
In Texas Jobs Boom, Crediting a Leader, or Luck

Discussion: AlterNet and Pajamas Media

Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Texas Unmiracle — As expected, Rick Perry, the governor …

Discussion: Washington Post, The TrogloPundit, Campaign 2012, Felix Salmon, Outside the Beltway, Paul Krugman, dallasmorningviewsblog …, Salon, The Reality-Based Community, Washington Monthly, The Mahablog, Prairie Weather, ThinkProgress, National Review and Daily Kos

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

What a president ‘looks like’ — In advance of the 2008 presidential campaign, many high-profile figures in the media described Mitt Romney as someone who “looks like a president.” It was as if news outlets were thinking of central casting, and imagining who looked the part.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, The Atlantic Online, No More Mister Nice Blog, Paul Krugman and Booman Tribune

Glenn Thrush / The Politico:
President Obama blasts Republican presidential field

Discussion: CNN, Weasel Zippers, The Note and And So it Goes in Shreveport

Amanda Terkel / The Huffington Post:
Mitt Romney Mistakes New Hampshire For Iowa (VIDEO)

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Daily Kos

New York Post:
Romney mocks Obama ‘Magical Misery Tour’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Washington Times, Michelle Malkin and The Lonely Conservative

Byron York / Campaign 2012:

Obama: I reversed recession until ‘bad luck’ hit — At a town hall meeting on his campaign-style tour of the Midwest, President Obama claimed that his economic program “reversed the recession” until recovery was frustrated by events overseas. And then, Obama said, with the economy …

Discussion: Power Line, RedState, Wizbang, Weasel Zippers, The POH Diaries and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Obama: I'm Just Like Lincoln! — Byron York is chronicling the outrages committed by President Obama on his taxpayer-funded campaign swing through Iowa and the Midwest. I was in the midst of a post on Obama's whine that he is the victim of “bad luck,” as reported by Byron …

Discussion: Pajamas Media

Byron York / Campaign 2012:
Obama compares woes to Lincoln

Discussion: Hot Air, PERRspectives and Weasel Zippers

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

Obama to automakers: 'You can't just make money on SUVs and trucks' — The country's automakers should ditch their focus on SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, President Obama said Monday. — “You can't just make money on SUVs and trucks,” …

Discussion: The Sundries Shack, Weasel Zippers, Pajamas Media and The Lonely Conservative

Paul Krugman:

MMT, Again — In a way, I really should not spend time debating the Modern Monetary Theory guys. They're on my side in current policy debates, and it's unlikely that they'll ever have the kind of real — and really bad — influence that the Austrians have lately acquired.

Discussion: TheMoneyIllusion, PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM and naked capitalism

Karl Smith / Modeled Behavior:

Sticky Wages, Sticky Prices, Sticky Debt — Tyler Cowen calls sticky wages a weak and embarrassing paradigm … So growing up in the New Keynesian paradigm I learned that sticky wages don't make sense because the real wage is pro-cyclical. That is, in contrast to Keynes's suggestion labor …

Discussion: TheMoneyIllusion and Marginal Revolution

Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:
How are nominal wages sticky for the *unemployed*?

Discussion: Angry Bear, TheMoneyIllusion, Grasping Reality …, ThinkProgress and EconLog

Nouriel Roubini / Project Syndicate:

ROUBINI: Is Capitalism Doomed? Karl Marx was right, it seems, in arguing that globalization, financial intermediation run amok, and redistribution of income and wealth from labor to capital could lead capitalism to self-destruct. So what can be done to prevent that outcome?

Discussion: American Power and Truthdig

David Dayen / Firedoglake:

New Health Care Regulations Close Exchanges to Many Offered Unaffordable Employer Coverage — Not so simple that a child could understand it. (photo by Robert Huffstutter) — One of the major problems with the Affordable Care Act will come with the determination of what set of plans recipients can become eligible for.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Washington Post

Fox News:

North Carolina University Puts Out List of ‘Gay Friendly’ Churches — A North Carolina state university has put out a list of approved “gay friendly” churches for faculty and students raising concerns by at least one professor that taxpayers are inadvertently involved in “telling people where to go to church.”

Discussion: Townhall.com, ThinkProgress and Rhymes With Right

Marc Lacey / New York Times:

In Open Primary Plan for Arizona, a Call for Moderation — PHOENIX — The person who recently hurled a padlock out the window of a passing vehicle at a Republican candidate for the State Senate, who was jogging along the side of the road, may have had no political motive at all.

Mark Knoller / CBS News:

U.S. Secret Service gets 2 new buses ahead of Obama tour — The U.S. Secret Service has two new buses in its fleet for President Obama to use on his three-day, three-state Midwestern bus trip that kicked off Monday. — CBS News has learned the buses were purchased in recent months at a cost …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Weasel Zippers and White House Dossier