memeorandum: Perry: Don't elect ‘smoothest debater’ (Cameron Joseph/Ballot Box)

3:15 PM ET, September 23, 2011

Top Items:

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 …

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

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.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, News Desk, Connecting.the.Dots, Mother Jones, The Page and Hit & Run

Michelle Malkin:

Video: Perry's cringe-worthiest debate moment — This is a gimme. Seriously. — I mentioned Rick Perry's DREAM Act debate blunder in my round-up post. — It gets second place. — The cringe-worthiest moment, by a hair, was when Perry botched what should have been his most potent attack on Mitt Romney's chronic flip-flopping.

Paul Waldman / TAPPED:
This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Affordable Care Act Edition

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Perry: Don't elect ‘smoothest debater’

Discussion: CNN

Joshua Altman / The Hill:
Perry: DREAM Act detractors have no heart

Discussion: Washington Post and Right Wing Watch

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Fact checking the GOP debate in Orlando

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politics, ThinkProgress and Rick Perry 2012 Campaign …

Philip Klein / Campaign 2012:
Why I doubt Romney would repeal Obamacare

Discussion: Washington Post, Left Coast Rebel, Cold Fury, National Review and Hot Air

Evan McMorris-Santoro / 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com:

TPM2012 — Audience Members At Fox News Debate Boo Gay Soldier (VIDEO) — ORLANDO, FL — Members of the crowd gathered for the Fox News/YouTube debate booed a video of a gay soldier in Iraq who asked if the nine presidential candidates on stage would work to “circumvent” the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Discussion: Althouse, democracyarsenal.org, Booman Tribune, Business Insider, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Harry's Place

goproud.org:

Rick Santorum Owes Gay Soldier an Apology — For Immediate Release — Joint Statement of Christopher R. Barron, Chairman of the Board and Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director — (Washington, D.C.) - “Tonight, Rick Santorum disrespected our brave men and women in uniform, and he owes Stephen Hill …

Discussion: Democracy in America, The Daily Dish, ThinkProgress, Firedoglake, The Western Experience, Outside the Beltway, The Mahablog, Runnin' Scared, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, Raw Replay, Good As You, American Power, Towleroad News #gay, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, alicublog and Joe. My. God.

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Gay soldier booed at GOP debate, candidates stay mum

Discussion: NPR, Big Journalism, The Atlantic Online, The Politico and Gay Politics

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:
Audience Members Of GOP Debate Boo Steven Hill, Gay Soldier Serving In Iraq

Discussion: Opinion L.A., ThinkProgress, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air and No More Mister Nice Blog

Jim Geraghty / National Review: No Thanking the Gay Soldier in Iraq for His Service?

Russell Berman / The Hill:

House approves stopgap funding but Reid says Senate will block measure — The House early Friday narrowly approved a stopgap spending measure to keep the federal government running through Nov. 18, as Republican leaders secured the votes of conservatives who had rejected a similar bill a day earlier.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Reuters, Don Surber, ThinkProgress, Ballot Box and americanthinker.com

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Cram It! Senate Dems And Republicans Reject Holding Disaster Aid Hostage

Discussion: Indecision Forever and Hullabaloo

Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:
Senate likely to reject House-passed spending bill; shutdown still possible

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Monthly and msnbc.com

Russell Berman / The Hill:
House lawmakers to leave town Friday

Discussion: Washington Monthly and National Review

Pat Garofalo / ThinkProgress:
Tea Party House Republicans Sell Their Principles For Gimmicky $100 Million Cut

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Politico, US Politics and The Huffington Post

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Rush Limbaugh On Gary Johnson Joke: 'Guess I've Become Show Prep For The GOP Debates' … NEW YORK — Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson brought down the house at Thursday night's Fox News/ Google debate when he joked about how his “next-door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration.”

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Hill, Crooks and Liars, The Politico, Politics Blog, The Hill, Hit & Run, New York Magazine, Brains and Eggs, Dependable Renegade, National Review, Rick Perry 2012 Campaign … and USA Today

Rush Limbaugh:
“Mr. Boehner, Tear Down This Bridge”

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Politics, BizzyBlog, ThinkProgress, New York Magazine, iOwnTheWorld.com, Washington Post and The Daily Caller

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:

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.

Discussion: Mother Jones

Jacob Weisberg / Slate Magazine:

His book about Obama is as spurious as the ones he wrote about Bush. — As an editor, you develop a B.S. meter—an internal warning system that signals caution about journalism that doesn't feel trustworthy. Sometimes it's a quote or incident that's too perfect —a feeling I always …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Flower & Thistle, Politics, Moe_Lane's blog and Business Insider

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

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.”

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Questions and Observations, Boing Boing, The Other McCain, Prairie Weather, Northern Reflections, Daily Kos, FrumForum, Booman Tribune, Washington Post and The Daily Caller

The Politico:

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 …

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Wire, New York Magazine, Hair Balls, Rick Perry 2012 Campaign … and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Lisa Depaulo / GQ:

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.

Discussion: Hit & Run and The Agitator

The Daily Beast:

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.

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Attackerman, Danger Room, Hot Air, The Politico, ThinkProgress and New York Magazine

Geneva Sands-Sadowitz / The Hill:

Gov. Mitch Daniels: Obama ‘inhabits a different planet’ on economic issues — Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) said President Obama “inhabits a different planet” when it comes to the understanding of job creation and the economy. — “I do believe the president, his life has been so far removed …

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Mitch Daniels: Obama not a socialist

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Darren Samuelsohn / The Politico:

Solyndra executives repeatedly invoke the Fifth — Solyndra executives repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment this morning as House lawmakers pressed them to answer questions about the company's financial collapse and any hopes of repaying their $535 million federal loan guarantee.

Discussion: The Western Experience and Weasel Zippers

New York Times:
In Rush to Assist Solyndra, U.S. Missed Warning Signs

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, USA Today, MuniLand, Politics Blog, JONATHAN TURLEY, NewsBusters.org, Campaign 2012, The Crawdad Hole and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Lymari Morales / Gallup:

Majority in U.S. Continues to Distrust the Media, Perceive Bias — More perceive liberal bias than conservative bias — WASHINGTON, D.C. — The majority of Americans still do not have confidence in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly.

Discussion: Big Journalism, Questions and Observations, NewsBusters.org and Weasel Zippers

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
Press Widely Criticized, But Trusted More than Other Information Sources

Discussion: Mediaite, NewsBusters.org and The Politico, more at Mediagazer »

Erick Erickson / RedState:

Herman Cain Won the Debate — Good Lord this was the worst debate I think I've ever watched. — The audio was terrible. When the audience clapped the sound of the candidates faded away. The charts and polling was silly. Too many bells and whistles and too damn many candidates on the stage.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Daily Dish, The Daily Caller, US Politics and Taegan Goddard's …

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
The ACA would not have killed Cain

Discussion: The Incidental Economist, The Maddow Blog and Political Correction RSS

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:

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” …

Discussion: Adam Holland, Via Meadia, The Volokh Conspiracy and Pajamas Media

Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:

Dead federal retirees are paid $120 million annually, report says — The federal government pays out millions of dollars to dead people each year — including deceased retired federal workers, according to a new report. — In the past five years, the Office of Personnel Management …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Politico, Gretawire and americanthinker.com

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:

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.

Discussion: Attackerman