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11:35 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, The Atlantic Online, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Questions and Observations, Michelle Malkin, The Caucus, Outside the Beltway, DownWithTyranny!, 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: Pajamas Media, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Saint Petersblog, The Daily Dish, The Atlantic Online, Washington Post, Iowa Caucuses, Infidel753, Minnesota Independent and The Nation

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, Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, RedState, The New Republic, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, The Other McCain, Pajamas Media and Politics

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, Outside the Beltway, Guardian, PoliPundit.com and The Atlantic Online

Erick Erickson / RedState:
Perry vs. Romney

Discussion: Washington Post, Campaign 2012 and Outside the Beltway

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

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

Discussion: Verum Serum

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

Discussion: Althouse, A plain blog about politics, Taegan Goddard's … and Pajamas Media

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 — Claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week, a sign the labor market is struggling to gain traction more than two years after the recession ended. — Jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 414,000 in the week ended Sept. 3, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington.

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

First Read / msnbc.com:

Who do you think won the Republican debate at the Reagan library? — {"contentId":"7658608","totalVotes":"13 4764"} — Who do you think won the GOP debate? — Results — Total of 134,764 votes — Ron Paul — 50.4% — (67,880 votes) — Mitt Romney — 17.1% — (23,111 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

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

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: Citizens for Legitimate … and Teamster Nation

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

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

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

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, Taegan Goddard's … and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Robert Pear / New York Times:

Doctor Fees Major Factor in Health Costs, Study Says — WASHINGTON — Doctors are paid higher fees in the United States than in several other countries, and this is a major factor in the nation's higher overall cost of health care, says a new study by two Columbia University professors …

Daniel Newhauser / Roll Call:

Road Closures for Speech Will Hit Rush-Hour Traffic — The Capitol Police has an unusual obstacle to contend with Thursday as the department secures the grounds for President Barack Obama's jobs speech: traffic. — A joint session of Congress will be held at 7 p.m. for the speech.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

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 and Business Insider

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.

New York Times:

The Republican Debate at the Reagan Library — The following is a transcript of the 2012 Republican presidential debate on Sept. 7, 2011, in Simi Valley, Calif., as transcribed by Roll Call. — SPEAKERS: REP. RON PAUL, R-TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE — GOV. RICK PERRY, R-TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

Discussion: Althouse, democracyarsenal.org, Hit & Run, Post on Politics and The Lonely Conservative

Sheri Jennings / Associated Press:

‘4:44’ Film Billed as Wake-up Call to Humanity — Abel Ferrara made his new film “4:44 Last Day on Earth” to serve as a wake-up call to humanity over impending ecological disasters. — The movie, by the director of 1992's “Bad Lieutenant,” focuses largely on one couple …

Discussion: Right Wing News

Rasmussen Reports:

24% Consider Al Gore An Expert On Global Warming — Despite winning a Nobel Prize and an Oscar for his work in the global warming area, most voters don't consider former Vice President Al Gore an expert on the subject. — The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

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