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Special Editorial: Yikes — THE WEEKLY STANDARD's official reaction to last night's Republican presidential debate: Yikes. — Reading the reactions of thoughtful commentators after the stage emptied, talking with conservative policy types and GOP political operatives later last evening and this morning, we know we're not alone.
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Sister Toldjah, Salon, ProPublica, The Hill, Washington Post, Mother Jones, Politics, Campaign 2012, The Page, News Desk, JustOneMinute, Hit & Run, Connecting.the.Dots, Booman Tribune and Ballot Box
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Chris Christie Reconsidering 2012 Run, Will Decide in Days — More ways to share... Mixx — Stumbled — LinkedIn — Vine — Buzzflash — Newstrust — Technocrati — Forward Article — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is reconsidering his decision not to enter …
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Hot Air

Romney Wins In Orlando
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The Huffington Post, Weekly Standard, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, Marbury, Campaign 2012 and The Daily Dish

New Hampshire GOP Primary: Romney 39%, Perry 18%, Paul 13%
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Rick Perry 2012 Campaign …, The Daily Caller and Taegan Goddard's …

Perry: Don't elect ‘smoothest debater’
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The New Republic and CNN

Video: Perry's cringe-worthiest debate moment
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2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, National Review, Campaign 2012, Politics, The Huffington Post, Hot Air, WyBlog, Flower & Thistle, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mediaite, AmSpecBlog, The Daily Dish, American Spectator, Pundit & Pundette, The Other McCain, The Right Scoop, No More Mister Nice Blog, Conservatives4Palin, Riehl World View and Top of the Ticket


Texas toast? Perry worries GOP — ORLANDO - The first line of Rick Perry's campaign obituary may have been drafted Thursday night: He got in too late. — It's not quite time for his camp to panic but in his third debate in a month - nearly as many as he's done in the entire decade he's served …
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Washington Post, Rick Perry 2012 Campaign …, Washington Wire, Hair Balls and Lawyers, Guns & Money
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Reconsidering Romney's Chances — The Perry talking ... it is not so good. — Last night, I watched the debate and immediately concluded, contrary to nearly everybody else, that Rick Perry did himself more long-term good. Upon reflection, I think everybody else has a point.
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Washington Post, Campaign 2012 and Rick Perry 2012 Campaign …

TRANSCRIPT: Fox News-Google GOP Debate — This is a rush transcript from the Fox News-Google GOP Presidential debate on September 22, 2011 at the Orlando Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. — BRET BAIER, ANCHOR …
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ThinkProgress, AmSpecBlog, Campaign 2012, Whatever It Is …, Wall Street Journal, NPR, New York Times, Politics, FP Passport, Top of the Ticket, Left Coast Rebel, Outside the Beltway, Lawyers, Guns & Money, ImmigrationProf Blog, The New Republic, Don Surber, Ballot Box, The Daily Caller, PoliPundit.com, Wake up America, No More Mister Nice Blog, Rick Perry 2012 Campaign …, GOP 12, The Atlantic Online, Daily Kos, Runnin' Scared, CNN and Crooks and Liars


TPM2012 — Santorum: ‘I Condemn The People Who Booed That Gay Soldier’ (VIDEO) — In an appearance Friday afternoon on Fox News, Rick Santorum responded to one of the most controversial moments from Thursday night's debate: When a few audience members could be heard booing …
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The Anger Builds — I have become used to hearing gay people and our lives either ignored or stigmatized or demonized in Republican debates. It is a function of a political party becoming a religion. And so my skin is pretty thick at this point, and my outrage button eroded by two decades …
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The New Civil Rights Movement, PERRspectives, Democracy in America, Truth Wins Out, Attackerman, goproud.org and Daily Kos

No Thanking the Gay Soldier in Iraq for His Service? — Rereading the transcript of last night's debate, I am struck that Rick Santorum did not thank Stephen Hill, a gay soldier in the U.S. Army currently in Iraq, for his service. Nor did anyone else on that stage.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress and Truth Wins Out


The Power of Flat Out Lies — The level of crazy in last night's debate was too high to really keep track of, but Paul Waldman points to this statement from Herman Cain about why he'd be dead if healthcare reform had been the law of the land back when he was diagnosed with cancer: … Paul comments:
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Washington Monthly, The Crawdad Hole and Balloon Juice
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This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Affordable Care Act Edition
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Washington Monthly

The ACA would not have killed Cain
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Political Correction RSS

Herman Cain Won the Debate
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The Daily Beast, BizzyBlog, US Politics, The Daily Dish and Taegan Goddard's …


‘Irvine 11’ jury finds all 10 students guilty — After more than two days of deliberation, an Orange County jury on Friday found 10 Muslim students guilty of two misdemeanors to conspire and then disrupt a February 2010 speech at UC Irvine last year by the Israeli ambassador to the United States.
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Outside the Beltway
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Jury: Muslim students guilty of disrupting speech — SANTA ANA, California (AP) — A California jury found 10 Muslim students guilty Friday of disrupting the Israeli ambassador's university speech about U.S.-Israel relations, a case that stoked a debate about free speech.
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Law Blog, The Volokh Conspiracy and Jihad Watch

The Dueling UN Speeches, or, This Is Getting Tiresome — I'm running around a bit doing some other journalism today (there are apparently other issues in the world besides the demand to create a 23rd Arab state), but I'll try to watch the Abbas speech, and the Netanyahu speech, later on.
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Attackerman
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Is This the Sanest Man Running for President? — If you're seeking the presidency but no one notices, are you still seeking the presidency? Gary Johnson was governor of New Mexico for eight years, balanced the hell out of his budgets, and climbed Mount Everest with a broken leg.
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The Atlantic Online, Democracy in America, Hit & Run, Slate Magazine and The Agitator

Ron Suskind's Larry Summers problem — Jacob Weisberg isn't a big fan of Ron Suskind's new book, nor, for that matter, of Ron Suskind. I've also been reading ‘The Confidence Men,’ and like Weisberg, I'm not impressed, but for a very different reason. Let's call it, as Suskind does, the Larry Summers problem.
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Mother Jones
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His book about Obama is as spurious as the ones he wrote about Bush.
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The Atlantic Online, ThinkProgress, Moe_Lane's blog, Flower & Thistle and Business Insider

Majority Rates Obama Same or Worse Compared With Bush — Half say Obama has been worse than Clinton — PRINCETON, NJ — Asked to compare Barack Obama with George W. Bush, Americans are more inclined to say Obama has been a better (43%) rather than a worse (34%) president, with 22% seeing no difference between the two.
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Politics, Don Surber, The Politico and Weasel Zippers


Cram It! Senate Dems And Republicans Reject Holding Disaster Aid Hostage — By a bipartisan vote of 59-36 Friday, Senate Democrats and several Republicans tabled (read: effectively killed) House-passed legislation to fund the federal government beyond September 30.
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Hullabaloo, Indecision Forever and Daily Kos
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The Social Contract — This week President Obama said the obvious: that wealthy Americans, many of whom pay remarkably little in taxes, should bear part of the cost of reducing the long-run budget deficit. And Republicans like Representative Paul Ryan responded with shrieks of “class warfare.”

Morgan Freeman: Tea party is racist — Morgan Freeman says that the Obama presidency has made racism in the U.S. more apparent. — During an interview that airs Friday, CNN's Piers Morgan asked the actor, “Has Obama helped the process of eradicating racism or has it, in a strange way, made it worse?”
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Little Green Footballs, The TrogloPundit, The Crawdad Hole and Weasel Zippers

John Mearsheimer Endorses a Hitler Apologist and Holocaust Revisionist — Gilad Atzmon is a jazz saxophonist who lives in London and who has a side gig disseminating the wildest sort of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. He is an ex-Israeli and a self-proclaimed “self-hater” …
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Adam Holland, Via Meadia, Pajamas Media and The Volokh Conspiracy

Obama Sold Israel Bunker-Buster Bombs — While Obama publicly pressured Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians over settlements, he secretly sold Jerusalem deep-penetrating bombs it had long sought. Eli Lake previews an exclusive story appearing in Monday's Newsweek.
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Israel Matzav, Danger Room, Pajamas Media, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Hot Air, Attackerman, The Politico, ThinkProgress and New York Magazine

Prince George's Del. Alston indicted on theft charges — A state lawmaker who was a central figure this year in the drama over whether Maryland would approve same-sex marriage was charged Friday with stealing campaign funds to pay for her wedding. — Charges brought by the Office …