memeorandum: Giffords is now aware of who died in massacre (Dan Nowicki/Arizona Republic)

1:00 PM ET, August 20, 2011

Top Items:

Reihan Salam / The Daily:

The left's labeling of conservatives as biased is flat-out wrong — The other day, Ed Schultz, host of MSNBC's “The Ed Show,” had a bit of fun at the expense of Rick Perry, the governor of Texas and newly minted Republican presidential candidate. He played a carefully edited clip …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, ThinkProgress, Grasping Reality …, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The New Republic

Howard Fineman / The Huffington Post:

Karl Rove Created Rick Perry — Now Can He Stop Him? … WASHINGTON — Karl Rove won't say it aloud, but he is afraid of Rick Perry: afraid that the smack-talking Texas governor will wreck the GOP's chances of winning the White House and the Senate in 2012. — The Perry-Rove story is shaping …

Discussion: Slate Magazine, The Mahablog and The Moderate Voice

Byron York / Campaign 2012:

Rove: Palin will run — Former Bush advisor Karl Rove says he believes former Alaska governor Sarah Palin will enter the Republican presidential race sometime around Labor Day. Appearing on Fox News Saturday morning, Rove said Palin “has a schedule next week that looks like that of a candidate, not a celebrity.”

Jess Bravin / Washington Wire:
Texas Secession Comes to Supreme Court, in a Way

Discussion: How Appealing and The Volokh Conspiracy

CNN:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry: Immigration is a ‘federal responsibility’

Discussion: The Politico, Hot Air, PERRspectives and Daily Kos

Christopher Baxter / New Jersey Online:

Gov. Christie admits climate change is a real problem, that human activity plays a role — TRENTON — In case anyone had any doubts on where Gov. Chris Christie stands on climate change, he made his position crystal clear this afternoon: It's real and it's a problem.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers and The Raw Story

Mark Steyn / National Review:

The Imperial Presidency — Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has only been in the presidential race for 20 minutes, but he's already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign: — “I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.”

Dan Nowicki / Arizona Republic:

Giffords is now aware of who died in massacre — For nearly seven months, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was intentionally kept in the dark about the six people who died in the Jan. 8 shooting spree near Tucson. — Although Giffords knew that she had been shot and that six people had died …

Discussion: The Hill

Keith Koffler / White House Dossier:

Obamas Share Sacrifice at Pricey Vineyard Restaurant — President and Mrs. Obama are sharing in the sacrifice tonight at the Beach Plum Restaurant on Martha's Vineyard, which features an array of overpriced selections for the first couple to choose from that could easily bring the bill within range of $200.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys and The Greenroom

Henry Blodget / The Business Insider:

MOODY'S ANALYST BREAKS SILENCE: Says Ratings Agency Rotten To Core With Conflicts — A former senior analyst at Moody's has gone public with his story of how one of the country's most important rating agencies is corrupted to the core. — The analyst, William J. Harrington …

Discussion: Washington Post and Balloon Juice

Colby Itkowitz / Morning Call:

Dismal poll numbers for Obama in PA — Economy drags down approval numbers in Pennsylvania, a state the president would likely need to win a second term. — U.S. President Obama holds a baby after landing in Buzzard's Bay before boarding Marine One to take him to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts (August 18, 2011)

Discussion: nation.foxnews.com and Hot Air

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Confidence in Obama, and in the Economy, Declines

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, The Huffington Post and Prairie Weather

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Obama's Base Problem

Discussion: Don Surber, AMERICAblog News, Hot Air, Taegan Goddard's … and Campaign 2012

Kurt Andersen / New York Times:

Our Politics Are Sick — We have a tendency to elect presidents who seem like the antitheses of their immediate predecessors — randy young Kennedy the un-Eisenhower, earnest truth-telling Carter the un-Nixon, charismatic Reagan the un-Carter, randy young Clinton the un-H.W. Bush, cool and cerebral Obama the un-W.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Prairie Weather and Daily Kos

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Republicans at home face Tea Party-style protests from liberal, labor groups — House Republicans are facing angry protests at home this month as liberal activists and labor organizers try to replicate the Tea-Party backlash that bit Democrats in August of 2009. — Liberal groups have been planning these protests for months.

Discussion: Prairie Weather, The Gateway Pundit and Connecting.the.Dots

Arthur Delaney / The Huffington Post:
Paul Ryan's Office Calls Cops On Jobless Protesters

Discussion: Dane101, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, Wisconsin Jobs Now! and Booman Tribune

Ben Farmer / Telegraph:

US troops may stay in Afghanistan until 2024 — America and Afghanistan are close to signing a strategic pact which would allow thousands of United States troops to remain in the country until at least 2024, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. — The agreement would allow not only military trainers …

Discussion: The Greenroom and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Reid J. Epstein / The Politico:
U.S. forces to stay in Iraq into 2012, says Leon Panetta

Discussion: Stars & Stripes, Outside the Beltway, Mudville Gazette, Hot Air, Alarabiya.net English, The Political Carnival and ThinkProgress

Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:

To Run or Not to Run — That is Paul Ryan's question. — For months the Republican presidential campaign has been a sleepy affair. The biggest news was that one supposedly top candidate had refused to criticize the frontrunner. Riveting. — The last week changed all of that.

KTAR.com:

Arpaio clarifies stand on Obama birth certificate — PHOENIX — Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has denied that he “promised” Tea Party leaders in Arizona to investigate the validity of Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate to determine the president's eligibility for the 2012 election ballot.

Discussion: Angry Black Lady Chronicles

WorldNetDaily:
Arizona sheriff promises Obama-eligibility probe

Discussion: Salon, Wonkette and Raw Replay

L. Brent Bozell / CNN:

O'Donnell's reaction to Piers Morgan was ‘downright bizarre’ — Editor's note: L. Brent Bozell is the president of the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog organization, and the founder of CNSNews.com, an online news service with an emphasis on investigative journalism.

Discussion: Mediaite and Hot Air