memeorandum: With Candidates Like This ... David Brooks: Gail … (Opinionator)

8:50 PM ET, December 14, 2011

Top Items:

Romney Warns of Nominating ‘Zany’ Gingrich — Mitt Romney is sharpening his warning to Republicans about the consequences of nominating Newt Gingrich as the party's presidential candidate, declaring in an interview on Wednesday: “Zany is not what we need in a president.” — “Zany is great in a campaign.

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Newt Gingrich commits a capital crime — Newt Gingrich — the friend of his detractors, to whom he offers serial vindications — provided on Monday redundant evidence for the proposition that he is the least conservative candidate seeking the Republican presidential nomination: He faulted Mitt Romney for committing acts of capitalism.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Booman Tribune, Taylor Marsh, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Ricochet Conversations Feed, The Daily Dish, Business Insider, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Riehl World View, The New Republic, National Review and Telegraph

Mj Lee / The Politico:

Christine O'Donnell: I like Mitt Romney's flip — Talk about a backhanded compliment. — Christine O'Donnell, who has endorsed Mitt Romney, appeared on CNN Wednesday and inadvertently drew attention to one of the charges against the former Massachusetts governor from his critics - flip-flopping.

Discussion: Fox News, CNN, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Taegan Goddard's …, Indecision Forever, The Caucus, New York Times, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, Harry's Place, Connecting.the.Dots, ABCNEWS and The Moderate Voice

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Obama looking good in Virginia — PPP has polled Virginia four times in 2011 and has come to the same conclusion every time: Barack Obama just hasn't slipped there to the extent he has nationally. That's a finding with major, major implications for his reelection prospects …

Discussion: The Politico, Ballot Box, Hot Air and USA Today

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

Mitt Romney: Gingrich a “very wealthy” man — Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney doesn't want to be cast as the only rich person in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. — In the wake of his attempt to make a $10,000 bet with Rick Perry during Saturday's Republican …

Discussion: The Politico, Hot Air, The Page, Daily Kos, Campaign 2012, National Review, Business Insider and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Opinionator:

With Candidates Like This ... David Brooks: Gail, I'm on vacation this week, and in my absence the entire political world seems to have come to bipartisan agreement: Newt Gingrich would be a terrible president. I believe this. George Will believes this. Michael Savage, the über …

Discussion: Gallup and Hullabaloo

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Romney's Eerie Post-Flip-Flop Consistency

Discussion: Hot Air, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, The Reaction and The Politico

Kevinliptak / CNN:

TRENDING: Paul reacts to positive poll fortunes, nagging questions about electability — Amherst, New Hampshire (CNN) - Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is currently confronted by two political realities: promising poll numbers in the states that hold the first two presidential contests …

Jonathan Bernstein / Washington Monthly:
Stepping back and watching a mugging

Discussion: Prairie Weather and National Review

Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
Rick Perry, Mitt Romney internals show Newt Gingrich slippage, sources say

Discussion: CNN, Campaign 2012, Swampland, Pundit & Pundette and Daily Kos

The Iowa Republican:
Focus Group Fallout

Discussion: USA Today, The Other McCain, Catholic Bandita, Washington Wire, Iowa Caucuses, Washington Post, The Raw Story, Shakesville and Taylor Marsh

Danny Yadron / Washington Wire:
Occupy Protesters Interrupt Gingrich

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and MyFox Philadelphia

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Ron Paul questions his own stamina in protracted nomination fight

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Hot Air

Kevinliptak / CNN:

FIRST ON CNN: Obama, Dems drop millionaire surtax to pay for payroll tax cut — (CNN) - In what would be a major concession, President Obama and Senate Democrats will drop their insistence that a surtax on millionaires pay for extending the payroll tax cut, a Democratic source tells CNN.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Political Carnival and Daily Kos

Marie Diamond / ThinkProgress:
GOP's Latest Radical List Of Demands May Force A Government Shutdown In Three Days

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Kos and bizjournals

CNN:
Senate Democrats to offer new payroll tax plan

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, Iowa Caucuses, Sister Toldjah, Michelle Malkin and New York Times

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
GOP leader McConnell blocks Senate vote on House payroll-tax-cut package

Discussion: Roll Call, Wonkette, Wake up America and Daily Kos

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Boehner gets tough with Senate: Time to act on House payroll tax extension

Discussion: CNN and The Politico

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:

NBC News Brass Reportedly Furious Over Handling Of Romney KKK Slogan Story — As if former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney didn't have enough problems already, a story that connects him to the Ku Klux Klan has now entered the cable news bloodstream. AmericaBlog noticed that a phrase Romney has used …

Discussion: The Caucus, Hot Air, US Politics, Don Surber, Inside Cable News, Jack & Jill Politics, Wonkette and The Hinterland Gazette

James Crugnale / Mediaite:
Obamney Fail: Fox News Mistakenly Uses Barack Obama Photo On Mitt Romney Poll Graphic

Discussion: The Right Scoop, The Daily What, Inside Cable News and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

Commander in Creep — Got a friend who backs Obama? They have a list of people like you. — Somewhere along the line, somebody signed us up for the Barack Obama campaign emails. Normally we don't care for spam, political or otherwise, but these are so odd that we've kept them coming out of curiosity.

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times and Weasel Zippers

Janie Lorber / Roll Call:
Occupy, Liberals Can't Get Together

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Kurt Andersen / Time:

The Protester — Once upon a time, when major news events were chronicled strictly by professionals and printed on paper or transmitted through the air by the few for the masses, protesters were prime makers of history. Back then, when citizen multitudes took to the streets without weapons …

Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:

Marines' Haditha Interviews Found in Iraqi Junkyard — BAGHDAD — One by one, the Marines sat down, swore to tell the truth and began to give secret interviews discussing one of the most horrific episodes of America's time in Iraq: the 2005 massacre by Marines of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Prairie Weather and Booman Tribune

Trent Hill / Independent Political Report:

IPR Exclusive: Gary Johnson to Announce Libertarian Switch Tomorrow — UPDATE: Johnson has told a reporter that this is something he's looking at and that he will be in New York tomorrow to do “as many media appearances as they can wind me up and send me in that direction.”

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Gateway Pundit, Outside the Beltway and GOP 12

Justin Sink / The Hill: Gary Johnson to leave GOP race, run as Libertarian

Robert / KAYAK:

We Handled This Poorly — We would like to apologize to anyone who was offended by how we handled our decision not to continue advertising on All-American Muslim when it returns in January. We decided to advertise on it in the first place because we adamantly support tolerance and diversity.

Discussion: The Star-Ledger Editorial Page, msnbc.com, Media Decoder, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Daily What and National Review

City Room:

Woman Fatally Crushed in Midtown Elevator Accident — A 41-year-old woman was crushed to death when she entered an elevator at the Madison Avenue headquarters of the advertising giant Y&R and it suddenly rose before the doors had closed, pinning her between the floor of the elevator and ceiling …

Discussion: The Daily What, Runnin' Scared and Gothamist

WISN Milwaukee's Channel 12:

Mickey Mouse, Adolf Hitler Allowed On Wis. Recall Petitions — GAB Rules Address, Date More Important Than Names — MADISON, Wis. — The signatures of Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler will be counted on recall petitions targeting Gov. Scott Walker as long as they are properly dated and include …

Discussion: The Politico, The TrogloPundit, Hot Air, Wizbang, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Althouse, The PJ Tatler, The Impolitic, Instapundit and The Jawa Report

Stephanie Hallett / The Huffington Post:

Marriage Rate In America Drops Drastically … Barely half of Americans over the age 18 are married, according to a new report from the Pew Research Institute. The number of married couples dropped a startling five percent between 2009 and 2010 and has declined by more than 20 percent since 1960.

Discussion: Pew Social & … and On Top Magazine Headlines

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
Santorum Blames Gays For Plummeting Marriage Rate

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Ron Paul For The GOP Nomination — The Dish goes through the process of endorsing candidates in a primary season, not because I'm under any illusions that my endorsement counts. It probably hurts an insignificant amount, if anything. I try to make a decision - because it's easy to pontificate …

Discussion: The Hill, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, Hit & Run, Belmont Club, The PJ Tatler and GOP 12

Emily Goodin / The Hill:

Gary Busey withdraws Gingrich endorsement — Actor Gary Busey is withdrawing his endorsement of Newt Gingrich for president. — “It is not time for me to be endorsing anyone at this time! When there are the two final candidates, then I will endorse,” Busey said Wednesday in a statement released through his representative.

Discussion: Mediaite, PopWatch and The Daily Caller

Keith Koffler / White House Dossier:

Obama Campaign Collecting GOP Emails — The Obama presidential campaign is launching an effort to collect Republican email addresses by inviting its supporters to submit information about their Republican associates to the Obama 2012 website. — The effort could help the Obama campaign build …