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11:55 AM ET, September 8, 2011

Top Items:

Romney and Perry Clash, Drawing Lines in G.O.P. Sand — SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The fight for the Republican presidential nomination began narrowing into an intense and ideological battle at a debate here Wednesday night, with Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Mitt Romney sharply clashing over Social Security …

Discussion: The Politico, Washington Post, Online NewsHour, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The Atlantic Online, Questions and Observations, The Caucus, Michelle Malkin, Outside the Beltway, DownWithTyranny!, The Other McCain, Bark Bark Woof Woof, 2012 Election Central and The Page

Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:

How Rick Perry Won the Debate — The most intellectually interesting portion of tonight's Republican presidential debate occurred in its opening moments, when Rick Perry and Mitt Romney sparred over their states' record of job creation. Perry cited his states record of creating jobs.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Rod Dreher, The Mahablog and The Politico

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Fireworks between Perry and Romney erupt early in debate — Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) began sparring over their respective jobs records less than 10 minutes into Wednesday's Republican presidential debate. — The highly-anticipated fight between Romney …

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Electability a Primary Liability for Perry — I've developed a habit — it's probably a bad habit — of assigning letter grades to the Republican candidates based on my initial reaction to their performance in debates. After Wednesday night's debate in Simi Valley, I gave Rick Perry a B-minus, meaning an average performance.

Discussion: Washington Post, Pajamas Media, New York Times, The New Republic, Hot Air, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Saint Petersblog, The Daily Dish, The Atlantic Online, Iowa Caucuses, Infidel753, Minnesota Independent and The Nation

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

The Reagan Library Republican debate: Winners and Losers — Republican presidential candidates, from left, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas., stand together …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, The New Civil Rights Movement, Trail Blazers Blog, ThinkProgress, Austin American-Statesman and Prairie Weather

Z. Byron Wolf / Politics:

Rick Perry, Galileo and Global Warming — Texas Gov. Rick Perry clung to his skepticism of climate change science in Wednesday's Republican presidential debate when he was asked if he believes man-made climate change is happening. — “The science is not settled on this.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Indecision Forever, Swampland, Outside the Beltway, Guardian and PoliPundit.com

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Romney adviser: Perry ‘has lost’ — Mitt Romney's campaign leapt just now on Rick Perry's restatement of his view that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” and that promising to maintain it in its current form is a “monstrous lie.” — “PERRY DOES NOT BELIEVE SOCIAL SECURITY SHOULD EXIST,” read the headline of Romney's press release.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Feministing, Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, RedState, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Pajamas Media and Politics

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Fact checking the GOP debate at the Reagan library

Discussion: Verum Serum

Erick Erickson / RedState:
Perry vs. Romney

Discussion: Washington Post, Campaign 2012 and Outside the Beltway

Washington Examiner:
Perry comes out strong, but faces grave danger

Discussion: JustOneMinute and NewsBusters.org

Stanley Kurtz / National Review:
Perry Leads — This was a very successful debate debut for Rick Perry.

Discussion: Washington Post, RedState and Rick Perry for President 2012

New York Times:
Attacking the Democrats, but Not Always Getting It Right

Discussion: ThinkProgress, New York Times, The Caucus and Prairie Weather

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Live-Blogging The Third GOP Debate

Discussion: Althouse, A plain blog about politics, Taegan Goddard's … and The Atlantic Online

Reuters:

New jobless claims rise to 414,000 last week — A man and woman enter a job fair at the Phoenix Workforce Connection in Phoenix, Arizona August 30, 2011. REUTERS/Joshua Lott — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week, further evidence of a weak labor market …

Discussion: Instapundit, Scared Monkeys and americanthinker.com

Bob Willis / Bloomberg:
Jobless Claims in U.S. Unexpectedly Rose

Discussion: Don Surber, Weasel Zippers, Pajamas Media and The Lonely Conservative

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Why liberals fear the ‘Lochner’ decision — Liberal certitudes continue to dissolve, the most recent solvent being a robust new defense of a 1905 Supreme Court decision that liberals have long reviled — and misrepresented. To understand why the court correctly decided Lochner v. New York …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, alicublog and The Volokh Conspiracy

Josh Lederman / Ballot Box:

Bachmann fills vacuum, announces rebuttal to Obama jobs speech — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), struggling to maintain visibility as a Republican presidential candidate, will rebut President Obama's jobs speech to Congress on Thursday, her congressional office said.

Discussion: CNN and National Review

First Read / msnbc.com:

Who do you think won the Republican debate at the Reagan library? — {"contentId":"7658608","totalVotes":"14 1607"} — Who do you think won the GOP debate? — Results — Total of 141,607 votes — Ron Paul — 50.8% — (71,960 votes) — Mitt Romney — 17% — (24,061 votes)

Discussion: HillBuzz.org, Don Surber and Towleroad News #gay

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:
REPUBLICANS CHEER DEATH PENALTY at Reagan Library Debate (Video)

Discussion: Freedom's Lighthouse

Rasmussen Reports:

44% Say Obama's Views Are Mainstream, 44% Say Extreme — As President Obama prepares to address the nation on creating jobs, voters are divided on whether his views are best described as being mainstream or extreme. Voters also give mixed opinions about the Republicans vying for his job.

Discussion: GOP 12 and Weasel Zippers

Rasmussen Reports:
24% Consider Al Gore An Expert On Global Warming

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

The Politico:

At Reagan debate, Jon Huntsman wins a prize nobody wants — There is, of course, no formal political equivalent of the Lady Byng Trophy. Instead, every four years, the press corps dubs one candidate the exemplar of tough, honest, truth-telling, willing to confront his or her party's orthodoxies with a cold blast of reality.

Tim Mak / Reuters:

Dick Cheney: Hillary Clinton should challenge Barack Obama — Go for it, Hillary! — That was former Vice President Dick Cheney's advice to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - take on Barack Obama in 2012. — “I think it would be good for the country [for Clinton to run for president] …

Discussion: Hot Air, Outside the Beltway and americanthinker.com

USA Today:

Obama plans to take his jobs program on the road — WASHINGTON - President Obama's high-stakes economic address to Congress tonight will be just the opening salvo in a partisan debate likely to last through the fall and into the 2012 presidential campaign. — Some of his proposals …

Discussion: The Politico, CNN, Politics Extra and Pirate's Cove

Fox News:
Obama to Unveil $400 Billion Jobs Plan; Republicans Predict ‘Political Speech’

Discussion: AmSpecBlog, Washington Times and The Lonely Conservative

Brad Friedman / MoJo Articles:

Audio: Chris Christie Lets Loose at Secret Koch Brothers Confab — In our exclusive recordings, David Koch introduces the New Jersey governor as “my kind of guy” and “a true political hero.” — Post Comment … On the morning of June 26, Chris Christie, New Jersey's flamboyant …

Discussion: The Washington Independent, The BRAD BLOG, Philly.com, Raw Replay, PoliticusUSA, EconomicPolicyJournal.com and AlterNet

Beth DeFalco / Associated Press:
NJ gov met with oil exec before gas pact pullout

Discussion: AmSpecBlog, Teamster Nation and Citizens for Legitimate …

Mike Levine / Fox News:

Holder Denies Prior Knowledge of ‘Fast and Furious’ — The head of the U.S. Justice Department launched his strongest personal defense yet in the growing furor over Operation Fast and Furious, the controversial sting targeting Mexican drug cartels and American gunrunners.

Discussion: The Politico, Weasel Zippers, The Heritage Foundation and John Lott's Website

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

News Analysis: On the Verge of a Double Dip Recession — If history is a guide, the odds that the American economy is falling into a double-dip recession have risen sharply in recent weeks and may even have reached 50 percent. — Economies have a strong self-reinforcing nature.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Saint Petersblog, Taegan Goddard's … and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Paul Needham / The Huffington Post:

‘Reason To Believe’: Joe Scarborough Releases Powerful Antiwar Song … For all the similarities between America's war in Vietnam and those in Iraq and Afghanistan, this past decade's wars have not yielded the singular pop-cultural response that the earlier quagmire did.

Discussion: Mediaite, NewsBusters.org, Raw Replay and Business Insider

Michael J. Boskin / Wall Street Journal:

The Obama Presidency by the Numbers — The president constantly reminds us that he was dealt a difficult hand. But the evidence is overwhelming that he played it poorly. — When it comes to the economy, presidents, like quarterbacks, often get more credit or blame than they deserve.

Discussion: Don Surber and The Lonely Conservative

Raymond Hernandez / New York Times:

Mogul Plans Another Run, to Succeed Lieberman — WASHINGTON — Linda E. McMahon, the wrestling mogul who spent $50 million of her own money in an aggressive but failed Senate run in Connecticut last year, will announce in the coming week that she will try again, according to two Republicans who are close to her.

Discussion: Ballot Box, Business Insider and National Review