memeorandum: Romney's Win — If a debate more than four months … (Fred Barnes/Weekly Standard)

12:10 PM ET, September 13, 2011

Top Items:

The frontrunner has no clothes — The applause identified Rick Perry as the crowd favorite when he took the stage in Tampa for Monday night's Tea Party debate, greeting his lesser rivals as “fellas.” — But two hours later, those fellas - and a gal from Minnesota - had made some serious …

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Examiner, Booman Tribune, msnbc.com, The Mahablog, Mother Jones, Prairie Weather and Daily Kos

Maggie Haberman / The Politico:

Bachmann: 'I'm offended' — Within 90 minutes of the end of the GOP debate, Michele Bachmann's camp emailed on the HPV vaccine dust-up with Rick Perry, highlighting her status as a mom as she questioned his conservative credentials. — It's also the first time I can remember Bachmann …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Moderate Voice, The Other McCain, The Huffington Post, American Spectator and National Review

Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:

Romney's Win — If a debate more than four months before the first vote is cast can influence the outcome of a presidential nomination race, the debate last night among eight Republicans should aid Mitt Romney's candidacy. Seldom has there been as clear a winner.

Discussion: Hot Air, National Review, Campaign 2012 and americanthinker.com

New York Times:

Perry Wears a Bull's-Eye at G.O.P. Debate — TAMPA, Fla. — The Republican presidential candidates aggressively confronted Gov. Rick Perry at a debate here on Monday night and pressed him to expound upon his views on Social Security and a controversial vaccination program for teenage girls that he signed into law in Texas.

Discussion: CNN, ThinkProgress, The Caucus, The Politico, Washington Monthly, FrumForum, New York Times, Outside the Beltway, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, WorldNetDaily and tboblogs.com

Alexander Burns / The Politico:

Bachmann: ‘Crying’ mother shared HPV story — Michele Bachmann again accused Rick Perry of practicing “crony capitalism” Tuesday morning, appearing on NBC's “Today” show to criticize Perry for seeking to force “innocent little 12-year-old girls or 11-year-old girls” to take a “potentially dangerous” vaccine injection.

Discussion: Hot Air, Ben Smith's Blog, Slate, National Review, RedState and Outside the Beltway

Wall Street Journal:

Perry's the Man in the Middle — Fellow Republican Presidential Candidates Take Aim at Front-Runner in Debate — Texas Gov. Rick Perry's status as front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination animated a candidates' debate in Florida Monday, as rivals attacked his rhetoric on Social Security …

Discussion: Washington Wire, JustOneMinute, Washington Post, Big Government, GOP 12, The Caucus and Connecting.the.Dots

Jonah Goldberg / National Review:

The Gardasil Flap — I can't make up my mind over this whole controversy. I think I'm torn because both sides are making good and bad arguments. I think the charge of crony capitalism against Perry is valid generally and looks on target in this case in particular. The issue isn't just that he got $5,000 from Merck.

Discussion: Campaign 2012

CNN: Did Bachmann's drug lobbyist claims ring true?

The Politico: At GOP presidential debate, field takes aim at Perry

Paulburka / Burkablog:
Not Rick Perry's night

Discussion: The Politico, Taylor Marsh, New York Magazine and Ben Smith's Blog

Rachel Streitfeld / CNN:
Perry takes heat over immigration

Discussion: Mediaite

Walter Shapiro / The New Republic:
The Debate in Tampa: How Perry's Rivals Are Perfecting Their Attacks on the Frontrunner

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Dish, Politics, The Washington Independent, The Moderate Voice and The Daily Beast

CNN:
New CNN Poll: Social Security needs changes, but it's not a failure

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, alicublog and Maggie's Farm

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:

Axelrod: 'We're not in a negotiation' on Obama $447B jobs package — Obama's top political adviser David Axelrod said Tuesday that the administration was unwilling to break up the president's $447 billion jobs plan if Republicans were only receptive to passing certain elements.

Discussion: Simply Left BehindThe …

Andrew Taylor / Associated Press:
Republicans block Senate disaster aid bill

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Mock, Paper, Scissors

David Rogers / The Politico:
Boehner plan cuts 2012 spending

Discussion: Washington Monthly, A plain blog about politics, TPMDC, CNN and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

David Nakamura / Washington Post:
Obama to push jobs plan in Boehner's home state of Ohio

Discussion: Politics Extra, The Gateway Pundit and The Lonely Conservative

Jennifer Gould Keil / New York Post:

Weiner flees amid Dem panic over vote today — Disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner did his fellow Democrats no favors yesterday — moving out of his district just as his panicking party struggled to hold on to his endangered congressional seat. — Winer took the last ramining items …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Campaign 2012

Cameron Joseph / The Hill:

Dems' peril in New York special election sparks fear for Nov. '12 — A looming Democratic loss in New York's special election Tuesday would be seen as a sign of big political and policy problems for President Obama and his party heading into next year's election.

Discussion: NY Daily News, YID With LID, Weasel Zippers and JammieWearingFool

New York Times:

Militants Launch Attack on U.S. Embassy in Kabul — KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents launched a complex assault against the American Embassy and the nearby NATO headquarters on Tuesday, pelting the heavily guarded compounds with rockets in an attack that raised new questions about the security …

Discussion: The Jawa Report

Telegraph:
Kabul US embassy attack: live

Discussion: The Long War Journal, Guardian, Reuters, BBC and This Just In

Evan McMorris-Santoro / 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com:

TPM2012 — Tea Party Debate Audience Cheers Idea Of Letting Sick Man Without Insurance Die (VIDEO) — The last two Republican presidential debates have been some of the most macabre on record. Last time around, at the Reagan Library, the crowd gave the biggest applause of the night …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Mother Jones, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo and Zandar Versus The Stupid

Robert Hendin / CBS News:
Debate exchange offers window into larger question about role of health care

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Indecision Forever, The Agonist and Hullabaloo

Lally Weymouth / Washington Post:

Iran's president says he intends to release, ‘pardon’ U.S. hikers — View Photo Gallery — Laura Fattal kisses son Josh after a news conference in Tehran in May, 2010. Josh Fattal and fellow hiker Shane Bauer will be released this week after more than two years in detention, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday.

Discussion: The Politico, Alarabiya.net English and americanthinker.com

Fox News:
Columbia Students to Dine With Ahmadinejad

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

U.S. Census Bureau News:

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010 — Summary of Key Findings — The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that in 2010, median household income declined, the poverty rate increased and the percentage without health insurance coverage was not statistically different from the previous year.

Discussion: The Politico, emptywheel and AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

Shebshi / the Heartland:

Some real Shock and Awe: Racially profiled and cuffed in Detroit — Silly me. I thought flying on 9/11 would be easy. I figured most people would choose not to fly that day so lines would be short, planes would be lightly filled and though security might be ratcheted up …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Gawker, Business Insider and Hit & Run

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Rep. Issa hit with ethics allegations — A liberal advocacy group is filing an ethics complaint against Rep. Darrell Issa, alleging that the California Republican has repeatedly used his public office for personal gain. — The group, American Family Voices, is planning to file the complaint …

Discussion: The Greenroom, The Crawdad Hole, JammieWearingFool and National Confidential

John Lyons / Wall Street Journal:

Dark Side of Brazil's Rise — SÃO PAULO—Brazil is booming amid a tectonic shift in global investing toward the developing world that has lifted its stock market, strengthened its currency and provided financing for new ports and World Cup soccer stadiums.

Gallup:

Upper-Income Americans' Economic Confidence Shaken — Gallup's Economic Confidence measure is at -52, down sharply from -42 in July — PRINCETON, NJ — Upper-income Americans' economic confidence was badly shaken in August, with 80% saying the economy is “getting worse,” up from 66% in July.

Discussion: Don Surber

Laura Bassett / The Huffington Post:

Mississippi ‘Personhood’ Law Could Ban Abortions And Birth Control … Mississippi voters will be allowed to decide on a ballot measure that defines “personhood” from the moment of fertilization, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled last week. The measure could potentially outlaw abortions …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Suburban Guerrilla and The Crawdad Hole

CNN:

CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL — Full Transcript of CNN-Tea Party Republican Debate, 20:00- 22:00 — THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. — ANNOUNCER: Tonight, eight Republicans, one goal: to win the White House and kick Barack Obama out.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Hit & Run, FrumForum and Mother Jones

Jamie Stengle / Associated Press:

Ruling: Recalculate court costs for cheerleader — DALLAS (AP) — An appeals court on Monday ordered a lower court to recalculate how much a former Texas high school cheerleader should pay in legal fees to the school district that punished for refusing to root for an athlete she said raped her.

Discussion: Law Blog

Abigail Moses / Bloomberg:

Greek Default Probability Is 98% as Papandreou Fails to Reassure Investors — Greece has a 98 percent chance of defaulting on its debt in the next five years as Prime Minister George Papandreou fails to reassure investors his country can survive the euro-region crisis.

Discussion: Firedoglake and Los Angeles Times