memeorandum: In LD8, Delany derailed by wife's email to Lewis (Max Pizarro/Politicker NJ)

12:00 PM ET, August 23, 2011

Top Items:

Conservative elites pine for 2012 hero — It's a tough time to be a conservative intellectual. — From the Weekly Standard to the Wall Street Journal, on the pages of policy periodicals and opinion sections, the egghead right's longing for a presidential candidate of ideas …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Weekly Standard, TheBlaze.com, Online NewsHour, Booman Tribune, A plain blog about politics, Erick's blog, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice and Politics

National Review:

Five Reasons Ryan Bowed Out — Sources close to Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin tell National Review Online that the Budget Committee chairman considered a variety of factors this summer as he mulled a late-entry presidential campaign. This afternoon, he closed the door on a 2012 bid, choosing to remain in the House.

Discussion: Man Are We Screwed, Patterico's Pontifications and Hot Air

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Spending, not entitlements, created huge deficit — It's conventional wisdom in Washington to blame the federal government's dire financial outlook on runaway entitlement spending. Unless we rein in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the conventional wisdom goes, the federal government is headed for disaster.

Discussion: Campaign 2012, UrbanGrounds and The Lonely Conservative

David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:
Rick Perry's views on the Constitution get closer scrutiny

Discussion: Man Are We Screwed and Washington Monthly

Steve Bainbridge / ProfessorBainbridge.com:
If the trial lawyers hate Rick Perry, maybe I should reconsider him

Discussion: Ricochet Conversation Feed, PointOfLaw Forum, Law Blog, Mother Jones and Pajamas Media

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Does Rick Perry still favor repeal of 16th Amendment?

Discussion: Washington Monthly, TPMDC, Indecision Forever, Swampland, The Raw Story, Wonkette, The New Republic and Talking Points Memo

Mark Knoller / CBS News:

National debt has increased $4 trillion under Obama — The latest posting by the Treasury Department shows the national debt has now increased $4 trillion on President Obama's watch. — The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office. The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Scared Monkeys, Questions and Observations, Outside the Beltway, Clusterstock, Doug Ross, The Lonely Conservative, Weasel Zippers and National Review

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
New national debt data: It's growing about $3 million a minute, even during his vacation

Discussion: Althouse, BizzyBlog and Weasel Zippers

The White House:

Statement by the President on Libya Blue Heron Farm, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts — THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. I just completed a call with my National Security Council on the situation in Libya. And earlier today I spoke to Prime Minister Cameron about the extraordinary events taking place there.

Discussion: Man Are We Screwed, News Desk, Osborne Ink, Political Punch, ThinkProgress, Taylor Marsh, The Huffington Post, White House.gov Blog, CNN, The Daily Dish, Connecting.the.Dots and Washington Monthly

New York Times:
New Clashes Erupt Around Qaddafi Site

Discussion: New York Magazine, FP Passport, Towleroad News #gay and St. Louis Beacon, more at Mediagazer »

Ben Smith / Reuters:
Libya a victory for ‘leading from behind’?

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, Boston Globe, msnbc.com, New York Times, Right Wing News, White House Dossier, The Politico and The Hill

SarahPAC:

Setting The Record Straight: Wrong & Misleading — Three years ago DC pundits predicted with glee the demise of Sarah Palin's political career. This past weekend their tune changed, citing false information that she has made a decision and set a date regarding a future campaign.

Discussion: Ballot Box, CNN, Don Surber, RedState, Politics and Hot Air

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus: Fresh Palin Tea Leaves Seem to Predict a Late September Decision

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
Will Palin be in by Labor Day? ‘I doubt it’

Discussion: GOP 12, The Other McCain, Conservatives4Palin, Iowa Caucuses, The Gateway Pundit, Fox News, Man Are We Screwed, RedState and American Spectator

Joe Nocera / New York Times:

How Democrats Hurt Jobs — The airplane's aft section arrived early Monday morning. That's what they'd been waiting for at the final assembly plant in North Charleston, S.C. They already had the wings, the nose, the tail — all the other major sections of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Business Insider and Betsy's Page

Jeannette Neumann / Wall Street Journal:

Head of S&P to Resign — Ratings Firm Says Sharma Exit, for Year-End, in Works Before U.S. Downgrade — Standard & Poor's President Deven Sharma is leaving the credit-rating firm at the end of the year, the company said Monday night. — Mr. Sharma will step down as president on Sept. 12 …

Financial Times:
Sharma to step down as S&P president

Discussion: Wizbang and Pajamas Media

DealBook:
Standard & Poor's President to Step Down

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Vox Popoli and New York Magazine

Max Pizarro / Politicker NJ:

In LD8, Delany derailed by wife's email to Lewis — Former Assemblyman Pat Delany abruptly resigned last month from his post representing the 8th district after his wife sent a racially tinged email to senate challenger Carl Lewis, the former Olympic Gold medalist.

Discussion: New Jersey Online, Wonkette, The Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, iOwnTheWorld.com, TPM LiveWire and Dependable Renegade

Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:

Debbie's Very Bad Day in Iowa — During my Iowa trip, I got lots of photos and videos I wasn't able to upload at the time due to connectivity issues and the very hectic schedule. One of the items that never made it to the blog was an incident at the Iowa State Fair where DNC Chairwoman …

Paul A. Gigot / Wall Street Journal:

Huntsman's Anti-GOP Strategy — The former Utah governor tries to save his GOP presidential bid by using global warming as a wedge issue. — When Joe Manchin wanted to save his U.S. Senate campaign, the West Virginia Democrat loaded a rifle and put a bullet through a sheet of paper labeled …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Power Line, Politics, Althouse and YID With LID

Gregory Simmons / ABCNEWS:

Gov. Sanford on Emerging From Seclusion — A scandal-plagued former governor who was once considered a potential presidential contender for 2012 is instead standing on the periphery, reflecting on what might have been and watching as the Republican primary field continues to take shape.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Taegan Goddard's …, The Hill, CNN and The Note

Jeff Reinitz / Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier:

NEW DETAILS: Witnesses said they heard beating victim taunted — A brutal fight that claimed the life of a Waterloo teen started with taunting, witnesses said. — Police confirmed that 19-year-old Marcellus Richard Andrews was officially pronounced dead at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Box Turtle Bulletin

Michael O'Brien / Ballot Box:

Warren's criticism of Wall Street poses fundraising dilemma — Elizabeth Warren's combative history with Wall Street could create a fundraising dilemma for her burgeoning Senate campaign. — Her ardent grassroots following on the left — forged during stints as TARP watchdog and as mastermind …

Discussion: msnbc.com, Shakesville and Prairie Weather

Gautham Nagesh / The Hill:

FCC officially kills Fairness Doctrine, wiping it from rules — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the elimination of 83 outdated and obsolete agency rules on Monday, including the controversial Fairness Doctrine. — “The elimination of the obsolete …

Discussion: The Heritage Foundation, RedState, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Don Surber, more at Mediagazer »

Hoover Institution:

How Is Warren Buffett Like the Pope? — by Richard A. Epstein (Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow and member of the Property Rights, Freedom, and Prosperity Task Force) — They are both dead wrong on economic policy. — The terrible economic news from both Europe and the United States …

Discussion: National Review, MuniLand, The Reality-Based Community, Wonkette and The Huffington Post

Julia Preston / New York Times:

U.S. Issues New Deportation Policy's First Reprieves — The call came in the morning to the lawyer representing Manuel Guerra, an illegal immigrant from Mexico living in Florida who had been caught in a tortuous and seemingly failing five-year court fight against deportation.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Michelle Malkin, Washington Monthly, TalkLeft and Rasmussen Reports

DealBook:

Milken's Gift Stirs Dispute at U.C.L.A. Law School — When the U.C.L.A. School of Law announced a $10 million gift from Lowell Milken to establish a business law institute in his name earlier this month, the university described him as a “pioneer in education reform” and a “leading philanthropist.”

Discussion: ProfessorBainbridge.com and Truth on the Market

David Tuller / New York Times:

No Surprise for Bisexual Men: Report Indicates They Exist — In an unusual scientific about-face, researchers at Northwestern University have found evidence that at least some men who identify themselves as bisexual are, in fact, sexually aroused by both women and men.

Discussion: Shakesville, Gawker, AMERICAblog Gay and Towleroad News #gay

Bradley Keoun / Bloomberg:

Morgan Stanley at Brink Got $107B From Fed — As markets convulsed in September 2008, Morgan Stanley (MS) Treasurer David Wong briefed the Federal Reserve on a “dark” scenario in which the U.S. firm would need at least $10 billion of emergency loans from the central bank. — It got 10 times darker by month's end.

Discussion: Clusterstock, Man Are We Screwed, Firedoglake and Hot Air

Pete Griffin / Fox News:

Federal Stimulus Funds for Nevada's Green-Industry Grows Trees, But Few Jobs — A federal stimulus grant of nearly $500,000 to grow trees and stimulate the economy in Nevada yielded a whopping 1.72 jobs, according to government statistics. — In 2009, the U.S. Forest Service awarded $490,000 …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Clayton Cramer's Blog and The Lonely Conservative

New York Times:

It's a Flawed Settlement — The Obama administration has turned up the heat on Eric Schneiderman, New York's attorney general, to go along with a proposed settlement with the nation's largest banks over dubious foreclosure practices. Mr. Schneiderman should stand his ground in not supporting the deal.

Discussion: naked capitalism, AMERICAblog News, DownWithTyranny!, Gothamist, Felix Salmon, Salon and The Big Picture

Richard A. Posner / The New Republic:

Let's Be Honest: We're in a Depression, Not a Recession, And There's No End In Sight — This article is a contribution to ‘Is There Anything That Can Be Done? A TNR Symposium On The Economy.’ Click here to read other contributions to the series. — If the notion that we are merely living through …

New York Times:

Cut Medicare, Help Patients — MEDICARE is going to be cut. That is inevitable. There is no way to solve the nation's long-term debt problem without reducing the growth rate of federal health care spending. The only question is whether the cuts will be smart ones.

Discussion: The New Republic and ThinkProgress