memeorandum: APNewsBreak: 2012 dropout Pawlenty a no for Senate (Brian Bakst/Associated Press)

6:40 AM ET, August 18, 2011

Top Items:

Poll: Romney rocks, Perry pops, Bachmann doesn't bounce — Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney remains in a commanding position in the first-in-the-nation primary state while Texas Gov. Rick Perry makes a strong first showing in the latest NH Journal survey conducted by Magellan Strategies.

Discussion: Slate, USA Today, The Argo Journal, American Power, Texas on the Potomac, TPMDC, GOP 12, Politics in Minnesota, Politics and National Review

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:

Dean: Bush camp will ‘take Perry out’ — Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean predicted that prominent political supporters of former President George W. Bush will deal a critical blow to Texas Gov. Rick Perry's (R) presidential campaign.

Discussion: NO QUARTER, FiveThirtyEight, The Moderate Voice and The Hill

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Perry and Romney split on global warming

Discussion: Texas on the Potomac, Power Line, msnbc.com, Washington Monthly and The Politico

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Perry, Bachmann tied in Wisconsin

Discussion: GOP 12 and Daily Kos

Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPMDC:
Rick Perry: Climate Change Is A Hoax Drummed Up By Scientists Looking To Make Money

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Reality-Based Community, PoliTex, First Draft, ThinkProgress, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Weasel Zippers, Little Green Footballs, Hot Air and The Huffington Post

Jason McLure / Reuters:
Romney says he is “in sync” with Tea Party

Discussion: Hot Air, The Reality-Based Community, Indecision Forever, Daily Kos and New York Times

Amanda Terkel / The Huffington Post:

Obama Campaign Staffer Sends Out Email Bashing Paul Krugman And ‘Firebagger Lefty Blogosphere’ … WASHINGTON — The Obama campaign's point person in New Mexico recently sent an email to supporters defending the president's position on the debt deal and bashing the “Firebagger Lefty blogosphere …

Discussion: Political Punch, Weasel Zippers, The Other McCain, Doug Ross, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, AMERICAblog News, Balloon Juice and Ben Smith's Blog

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:

Score one for the professional left — Greg Sargent has a nice take on the e-mail an Obama campaign official sent mocking Paul Krugman and the “firebaggers.” But whenever I read these periodic eruptions about “the professional left,” my main thought is: if I were a member of the professional left, I would be stoked.

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Eschaton

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Does Obama camp see upside in pissing off the left?

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Firedoglake and Daily Kos

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
OFA Director Attacks “Firebagger Lefty Blogosphere,” says “Paul Krugman is a Political Rookie”

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

New Low of 26% Approve of Obama on the Economy — Ratings on Afghanistan and foreign affairs have also declined — PRINCETON, NJ — A new low of 26% of Americans approve of President Barack Obama's handling of the economy, down 11 percentage points since Gallup last measured it in mid …

Louise Story / New York Times:

U.S. Inquiry Eyes S.&P. Ratings of Mortgages — The Justice Department is investigating whether the nation's largest credit ratings agency, Standard & Poor's, improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis, according to two people interviewed …

Discussion: The Other McCain, Gretawire, naked capitalism, The Reid Report, Guardian, Politics and Calculated Risk

CBS News:

Presidential vacations: How does Obama compare? — President Obama and his family will be staying at the 28-acre Blue Heron Farm in Martha's Vineyard. (Ivy Ashe for the Vineyard Gazette) — Following his three-day bus tour to promote his economic agenda — and not to mention …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Political Carnival

Garance Franke-Ruta / The Atlantic Online:

Bachmann Staffer Arrested for Terrorism in Uganda in 2006 — The charges were dropped after he spent more than a month in prison. Now he's rallying Bachmann's faith-based support and prepping for a movie about his ordeal. — Updated 6:35 p.m. — The evangelical organizer …

Discussion: Addicting Info, The Raw Story, Politics, Joe. My. God., Jesus' General and Mediaite

The Politico:

Supercommittee runs risk of turf war — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich last week called the supercommittee “about as a dumb an idea as Washington has come up with in my lifetime.” — “The idea that 523 senators and congressmen are going to sit around for four months while 12 brilliant people …

Discussion: Pajamas Media

Danny Yadron / Washington Wire:
Gingrich Takes Campaign, Wife to Hawaii

Discussion: msnbc.com

The Politico:

Bachmann: I'll get gas under $2 — Americans will save at the pump if Michele Bachmann is elected president, the Minnesota Republican said Tuesday. — “The day that the president became president gasoline was $1.79 a gallon. Look at what it is today,” she said at an event in Greenville …

Discussion: CNN, USA Today, Outside the Beltway and The Atlantic Online

The Hill:
Bachmann: If elected, gas prices would fall to less than $2 per gallon

Discussion: Daily Kos, National Review and The Politico

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:

Meghan McCain wants Palin to stop ‘flirting’ with presidential decision — Meghan McCain, daughter of former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), wants her father's former running mate Sarah Palin to “stop flirting” with possible presidential candidacy.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Rhymes With Right

Rick Perry / The Daily Beast: Sarah Palin Is a Tease!

Rolling Stone:

Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes? — A whistleblower claims that over the past two decades, the agency has destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation's worst financial criminals. — Imagine a world in which a man …

Discussion: NO QUARTER, New York Times, FT Alphaville and naked capitalism

Joe Vardon / The Columbus Dispatch:

Kasich, fellow Republicans propose SB 5 deal to unions — Gov. John Kasich pleaded with organized labor leaders today to compromise on Senate Bill 5 and cancel a fall referendum on the controversial bill that peels back public employee collective bargaining rights.

Discussion: Liberty Street, Daily Kos and TPMDC

Amanda Terkel / The Huffington Post:

Christine O'Donnell Memoir's E-Version Called ‘Work Of Fiction’ By E-Publisher … WASHINGTON — Failed U.S. Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell is out with her new book “Troublemaker,” which she describes in the introduction as “a political memoir slash campaign diary slash position paper slash rallying cry …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Byron York / Campaign 2012:

Black caucus: Tired of making excuses for Obama — During a sometimes-raucous session of what's being called the “For the People” Jobs Initiative tour, a key member of the Congressional Black Caucus told an audience in Detroit Tuesday that the CBC doesn't put pressure on President Obama because he is loved by black voters.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, theGrio, Wizbang, Big Government, Pajamas Media, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite and Politics

Brian Bakst / Associated Press:

APNewsBreak: 2012 dropout Pawlenty a no for Senate — ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Wednesday definitively ruled out a 2012 campaign for the U.S. Senate after ending his Republican bid for the White House a few days ago. — Some Republicans …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Red Dog Report, The Politico and The Hill

Ana Campoy / Wall Street Journal:

Hispanic Democrats Set Sights on New Texas Seat — DALLAS—A newly drawn Central Texas congressional district is creating tensions about who best can serve its mostly Hispanic residents—one of their own, or a long-time congressman who happens to be white. — As a result of redistricting led …

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Karl Rove: It's ‘Offensive’ To Say We Are A Christian Nation — Social conservatives often insist the U.S. was founded to be a “Christian nation,” and they accuse progressives and President Obama of undermining these supposedly core values. But leading conservative strategist Karl Rove called …

Discussion: Shakesville

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:

The Civil War: Kind Of Tragic — Ta-Nehisi Coates has been doing a series of posts arguing that the American Civil War is not a tragedy. And I agree with the spirit of what I take him to be arguing. There's a view out there — an entirely white-centric view — that regrets that the two sides …

Discussion: Master Feed

Rick Pearson / Chicago Tribune:

GOP attacks Obama bus, but Bush did same — President Barack Obama walks to his bus after visiting the Whiteside County Fair in Morrison, Illinois on Wednesday. Obama has been on a Midwest bus trip through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. (Jason Reed, Reuters / August 17, 2011) — Clout Street

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, NewsBusters.org blogs, No More Mister Nice Blog, Los Angeles Times and New York Post

Martin Kady II / The Politico:

The Biden ‘terrorist’ story: How it came together — Vice President Joe Biden's comparison of tea party negotiators to terrorists during the debt limit crisis is still causing headaches for the White House — and on the campaign trail — more than two weeks after POLITICO reported Biden's comments …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, The Gateway Pundit and Associated Press

The Note:

Rick Perry Accuses The White House Of Lecturing Him On Bernanke Comments: ‘I Got In Trouble’ — ABC News' Michael Falcone (@michaelpfalcone) and Arlette Saenz (@ArletteSaenz) report: — BEDFORD, N.H. — On his first stop as a presidential candidate in the state that holds …

Discussion: CNN, The Daily Dish, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, The Politico, Washington Wire, Wall Street Journal, Washington Monthly, New York Post, New York Times and WMUR Political Scoop

Digby / Hullabaloo:

Metaphorically Deaf — I heard this the other day and wasn't going to say anything because, well, there's no point in jumping on everything. But it turns out that this is part of the stump speech — he said it again today — and that's a problem: … Where to begin.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars