memeorandum: Brennan: U.S. ready for 9/11 anniversary (Alicia M. Cohn/The Hill)

1:15 PM 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: Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, Online NewsHour, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The Atlantic Online, The Politico, The Caucus, Questions and Observations, DownWithTyranny!, Michelle Malkin, Outside the Beltway, Bark Bark Woof Woof, The Other McCain, 2012 Election Central, The Page and ThinkProgress

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 and A plain blog about politics

New York Times:

Attacking the Democrats, but Not Always Getting It Right — During more than an hour and 45 minutes of intense debate on Wednesday night, the Republican presidential candidates did not shy away from exchanging blows with each other. But some of the toughest criticism …

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

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

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Romney adviser: Perry ‘has lost’

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

International Business Times:
Ron Paul Debate: Rick Perry Physically Grabs Him, Points at His Face

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Hit & Run and National Review

Z. Byron Wolf / Politics:
Rick Perry, Galileo and Global Warming

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

The Politico:
At Reagan debate, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry place big bets on GOP direction

Discussion: Politics, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Left Coast Rebel, nation.foxnews.com and Ben Smith's Blog

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
What Perry has ‘never struggled with at all’

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Rod Dreher, The Daily Dish and The Mahablog

Shikha Dalmia / Hit & Run:
Social Security is Not a Ponzi Scheme, Mr. Perry

Discussion: Pajamas Media, National Review and TheBlaze.com

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Fireworks between Perry and Romney erupt early in debate

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, The Moderate Voice, Big Government, Reuters, The Politico, Confederate Yankee, Althouse, The Other McCain, Datechguy's Blog, The Province, Christian Science Monitor, Riehl World View, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, USA Today, The Atlantic Online, The Reaction, Talking Points Memo and No More Mister Nice Blog

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
The Morning Plum — * Obama prepares to sell the “American jobs act” …

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, New York Times, Ben Smith's Blog, The Glittering Eye and Taegan Goddard's …

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

Discussion: Verum Serum

msnbc.com:
First thoughts: Slugfest in Simi

Discussion: Saint Petersblog

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

Discussion: JustOneMinute, NewsBusters.org and Pajamas Media

Erick Erickson / RedState:
Perry vs. Romney

Discussion: Washington Post, Erick's blog, Campaign 2012, Outside the Beltway, The Moderate Voice, Taegan Goddard's … and videocafe.crooksandliars.com

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

Discussion: Washington Post and Rick Perry for President 2012

RJ Middleton / NBC Bay Area:

FBI at Solyndra Headquarters — Part of a joint investigation with the Dept. of Energy — Solyndra — recently touted as an innovator by President Obama — is reportedly shutting its doors. Employees are being turned away this morning. — FBI agents armed with search warrants descended …

Discussion: Big Government, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air and The Daily Caller

Lisa Fernandez / Mercury News:

FBI agents executing search warrant at Solyndra — Just days after the company filed for bankruptcy protection, federal agents swarmed around the Solyndra facilities in Fremont to execute a search warrant. — FBI agents were joined by officials from the Department of Energy's Office …

Discussion: Business Insider, Weasel Zippers and Pajamas Media

Amanda Carey / The Daily Caller:
Solyndra officials made numerous trips to the White House, logs show

Discussion: The Politico, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, ABCNEWS, NO QUARTER, Betsy's Page, Big Government, Doug Ross and Business Insider

ABCNEWS: FBI agents executed search warrants on Thursday at the headquarters …

CNN:

Haley rules out Huntsman endorsement — Washington (CNN) - South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Thursday that she will not support Jon Huntsman's Republican presidential bid, a serious blow to the former Utah governor's chances in the key early primary state.

Discussion: GOP 12 and The Page

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill: Sen. DeMint to skip Obama's jobs speech

The Hill:
Senate votes force Vitter to skip football party, attend Obama speech

Discussion: CNN, Weasel Zippers, Wonkette and The Daily Caller

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: The Politico, CNN, Daily Kos and National Review

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: alicublog, The Jawa Report and The Volokh Conspiracy

Yahoo! News:

Longshoremen storm Wash. state port, damage RR — LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — Hundreds of Longshoremen stormed the Port of Longview early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Wall Street Journal, Weasel Zippers and Verum Serum

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, Daily Kos, Weasel Zippers, Pajamas Media and The Lonely Conservative

First Read / msnbc.com:

Who do you think won the Republican debate at the Reagan library? — {"contentId":"7658608","totalVotes":"14 5304"} — Who do you think won the GOP debate? — Results — Total of 145,304 votes — Ron Paul — 51.2% — (74,379 votes) — Mitt Romney — 16.8% — (24,462 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

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

Rising Fears of 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. When people are optimistic, they spend …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Marbury, The Big Picture 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: Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, NewsBusters.org, Hullabaloo, Raw Replay, Business Insider and Gawker

Marissa Mayer / The Official Google Blog:

Google just got ZAGAT Rated! — “Did you know there's a place in Menlo Park near the Safeway that has a 27 food rating?” one of my friends asked me that about two years ago, and I was struck because I immediately knew what it meant. Food rating... 30 point scale... Zagat. And the place... had to be good.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Felix Salmon, AllThingsD, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable!, TechCrunch, Washington Post and msnbc.com, more at Mediagazer »

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, Cafe Hayek and The Lonely Conservative

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, Pajamas Media and americanthinker.com