memeorandum: A Banker Speaks, With Regret (Nicholas D. Kristof/New York Times)

10:30 AM ET, December 1, 2011

Top Items:

James Hohmann / The Politico:

Gingrich meets with Trump Monday—Club for Growth hits Thompson—Romney gets 29 Missouri endorsements—Cain talking to wife Friday—Cuccinelli running for governor—Gingrich opens an Iowa office — EXCLUSIVE - GINGRICH TREKS TO TRUMP TOWER MONDAY: Donald Trump is scheduled to host Newt Gingrich at Trump Tower next Monday.

Discussion: New Hampshire Journal, msnbc.com, CNN and Washington Wire

Jonathan Bernstein / Washington Post:

Forget Newt's surge. Romney is still the favorite. — Does the Newt Gingrich polling surge mean that Mitt Romney is finished, or at least in serious trouble? No — in fact, Romney remains a heavy favorite in the race, regardless of what the current headlines lifted from those surveys might say.

Discussion: The Hill, The Politico, The New Republic, Prairie Weather and GOP 12

Kevinliptak / CNN:

Gingrich latest candidate to visit Trump — (CNN) - The parade of Republican 2012 hopefuls continues to march past reality television host Donald Trump, with the latest frontrunner, Newt Gingrich, slated to pay the mogul a visit Monday. — The meeting will take place at Trump Tower in New York …

Discussion: The Hill and GOP 12

Neil King Jr / Washington Wire:
Ron Paul Ad Blasts Newt Gingrich for ‘Serial Hypocrisy’

Discussion: Betsy's Page, The Enterprise Blog and The Daily Caller

Jim Geraghty / National Review:
Newt Gingrich Said What? — Recalling a speech where Newt …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The Lonely Conservative, The Daily Caller, American Spectator, Campaign 2012, Hot Air and RedState

Maeve Reston / Los Angeles Times:
In New Hampshire, Herman Cain vows 'it ain't over yet'

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The Other McCain, The Hill, The Page and Taegan Goddard's …

Thomas Beaumont / Associated Press:
Romney to air Iowa ad, signaling play for caucuses

Discussion: Boston Globe, The Page, msnbc.com, GOP 12 and Associated Press

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Gingrich up big in Florida and Montana

Discussion: Washington Post, americanthinker.com, Hot Air, msnbc.com, Sky Dancing, ThinkProgress, ABCNEWS, The Buzz Florida Politics Feed, American Glob, CBS Miami, The Politico, Campaign 2012 and New York Times

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

Islamists Claim Egypt's Mandate in Early Voting — CAIRO — Islamists claimed a decisive victory on Wednesday as early election results put them on track to win a dominant majority in Egypt's first Parliament since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, the most significant step yet …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Reuters, Guardian, White House Dossier, The Heritage Foundation, Weasel Zippers, Outside the Beltway, Questions and Observations, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and The New Republic

Wall Street Journal:
Islamists Hold Early Lead in Egypt Polls

Discussion: National Review and UN Dispatch

Molly Hunter / ABCNEWS:

US Embassy in Iran? Michele Bachmann's ‘Oops’ Moment — ABC News' Molly Hunter reports: — Did Michelle Bachmann have her “oops” moment? — In light of the British Foreign Ministry pulling all U.K. nationals out of the British embassy in Tehran after students stormed the building in protest …

Discussion: PolitickerNY, The Iowa Republican and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Thomas Lane / 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com:

TPM2012 — Bachmann: I Would Close Our (Non-Existent) Embassy In Iran — Michele Bachmann has had her fair share of foreign policy stumbles, but she just hit a whole new level. — According to a tweet from NBC News' Jamie Novogrod, Bachmann responded to the recent raiding of the British embassy …

Discussion: The Raw Story, Examiner, The Huffington Post and Daily Kos

Jason Noble / Iowa Caucuses:
Michele Bachmann debates same-sex rights with high-school students in Waverly

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Joe. My. God.

Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:

A Banker Speaks, With Regret — If you want to understand why the Occupy movement has found such traction, it helps to listen to a former banker like James Theckston. He fully acknowledges that he and other bankers are mostly responsible for the country's housing mess.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Business Insider, Prairie Weather, Booman Tribune, The Daily Caller and naked capitalism

Matt Flegenheimer / City Room:

Occupy Protesters Mobilize for Obama's Visit — Updated More than 100 Occupy Wall Street protesters marched to a Midtown hotel on Wednesday night to protest a fund-raising event for President Obama. — Escorted by police vehicles as they helped snarl traffic across the Times Square area …

Discussion: Gothamist, Weasel Zippers, Right Wing News, BizzyBlog, Jammie Wearing Fools and Reuters

Nick Schulz / Los Angeles Times:
Three inconvenient truths for Occupy Wall Street

Discussion: Balloon Juice and normblog

Ace / Ace of Spades HQ:

Shockingly, Morning Joe Transcript Actually Worth Five Minutes of Your Time — But only five minutes. — Down on Obama, and that includes the liberals, who are beginning to get as distracted and depressed as he is, over the burden of having to spin his failures. — Video at the link, but here's some good parts.

Discussion: Hot Air, Don Surber, NewsBusters.org blogs, The Lonely Conservative and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Mark Finkelstein / NewsBusters.org blogs:
Tina Brown: Obama 'Doesn't Like His Job'

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, iOwnTheWorld.com and Moe Lane

Gautham Nagesh / The Hill:

Google rips Senate's online piracy bill: ‘This is what is wrong with Washington’ — Google is exhorting senators to oppose an online piracy bill, arguing it would threaten national security, shackle the Internet with regulations and imperil free speech, according to a document obtained by The Hill.

Jill / Return The Democratic Majority …:

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA — In response to this letter, written by former general partner of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and current Investment Fund Manager at Omega Advisors …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Dealbreaker

Phil Stewart / Reuters:

U.S. uncertain Israel would advise before Iran strike — (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer told Reuters on Wednesday he did not know whether Israel would alert the United States ahead of time if it decided to take military action against Iran. — General Martin Dempsey …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Associated Press and Weasel Zippers

TheAustralian:
A second Iranian nuclear facility has exploded, as diplomatic tensions rise between the West and Tehran

Discussion: americanthinker.com, National Review, Michael Totten, Yourish.com, Global Guerrillas and Israel Matzav

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:

Barack Obama and blue-collar Pennsylvania voters : Take 2 — SCRANTON, Pa. — They were never a natural fit. — President Barack Obama lost white working-class voters in this Rust Belt state during the 2008 Democratic primary, after describing them as bitter people who “cling” to God and guns.

Discussion: Pirate's Cove

Steve Marble / L.A. NOW:

Occupy L.A.: 30 tons of debris left behind at City Hall tent city — Sanitation officials said Wednesday that they expect to haul away 30 tons of debris from the Occupy L.A. encampment — everything from clothing to heaps of garbage to oddball curiosities left behind by the protesters …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Gawker, Scared Monkeys, The Gateway Pundit, The Informer, Right Wing News and The Lonely Conservative

Stephanie Simon / Wall Street Journal:

Richardson Feels New Heat — Grand Jury Looks at Whether Former Governor Arranged Payments to Woman — A federal grand jury is investigating former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson over possible campaign-finance violations stemming from his 2008 presidential run, including allegations …

Discussion: MyFox Boston and Hotline On Call

Jesse Helfrich / The Hill:

Schumer: Democrats can gain Senate seats in 2012 election — Sen. Charles Schumer says the political landscape has shifted dramatically from the 2010 election and predicts that Senate Democrats will hold their majority and might even expand it next year. — In an interview with The Hill …

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Guardian:

Warning over incomes as Britain goes on strike — Families with children will be worse off in 2016 than 14 years earlier, analysis of George Osborne's autumn statement finds — High inflation, cuts and the longest period of wage stagnation on record will see the spending power …

Discussion: americanthinker.com, News Desk and US Politics

Andy Stern / Wall Street Journal:

China's Superior Economic Model — The free-market fundamentalist economic model is being thrown onto the trash heap of history. — Andy Grove, the founder and chairman of Intel, provocatively wrote in Businessweek last year that, “Our fundamental economic beliefs, which we have elevated …

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative

Holly Bailey / Yahoo! News:

Mike Huckabee won't endorse before Iowa-and maybe not at all — With Iowa's Republican presidential caucus up for grabs, all eyes have been on Mike Huckabee, the contest's 2008 GOP winner whose potential endorsement in the race would surely be a game changer for any of the aspiring presidential hopefuls.

Discussion: Bloomberg, ABCNEWS, GOP 12 and Taegan Goddard's …

Scott Horton / Harper's:

A Club of Liars, Demagogues, and Fools — The German newsweekly Spiegel takes the latest disclosures concerning Herman Cain and the rise of Newt Gingrich as an opportunity to offer a foreign bird's-eye view of the current Republican Party and the American media froth around it. My translation:

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Barney the bully: Congressman Frank's other legacy — The morning after his retirement announcement, Rep. Barney Frank scored an interview on NBC's “Today” show, gaining the opportunity to act as an elder statesman in front of a TV audience of millions. Instead, the Massachusetts Democrat chose to quarrel with the interviewer.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, American Prospect, National Review, The Huffington Post and Hullabaloo

Linda Greenhouse / Opinionator:

Sins of the Parents — In the current race to the bottom to see which state can provide the most degraded and dehumanizing environment for undocumented immigrants, Arizona and Alabama have grabbed the headlines. But largely unnoticed, it is Florida, home to nearly one million Cuban refugees …

Discussion: Daily Kos and ImmigrationProf Blog

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

Obama, Congress restore horse-slaughter industry — President Obama last month quietly signed into law a spending bill that restores the American horse-slaughter industry, just a few months after a government investigation said the ban on slaughtering was backfiring.