memeorandum: Dear Andrew Sullivan: Why Focus On Obama's Dumbest Critics? (Conor Friedersdorf/The Atlantic Online)

11:25 AM ET, January 18, 2012

Top Items:

Newt Gingrich: If Mitt Romney Wins South Carolina, It's Over … South Carolina Primary Election , South Carolina Primary Election 2012 , Politics News — COLUMBIA, S.C. — Newt Gingrich came clean Tuesday afternoon, admitting that if he can't win this state's primary on Saturday …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Salon.com, The Buzz Florida Politics Feed, Hot Air, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, The Caucus, Connecting.the.Dots, americanthinker.com, American Prospect, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The Hill, msnbc.com and Mediaite

msnbc.com:

First Thoughts: Newt-mentum returns? — Is Newt-mentum returning?... Even if so, Gingrich faces two challenges: time and math... Romney's wealth and Bain Capital have been THE story in the GOP race for the past 10 days (and counting)... Are the first Obama TV ads going up?

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and The Caucus

Adam Beam / The State:

SC evangelicals split, frustrated — ‘Who gets to tell the other two that they should drop out?’ — More than two-thirds of South Carolina's evangelical voters do not want Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney to become the GOP's nominee for president, according to a new poll from Monmouth University.

Discussion: 2012 Decoded and msnbc.com

David Catanese / The Politico:
Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum set South Carolina expectations

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and CNN

Ross Douthat / Campaign Stops:
Not the Bane of His Existence — Newt Gingrich's closing argument …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Mail Online, The Huffington Post and Fox News

Alexander Burns / The Politico:
Palin: I'd vote for Gingrich in South Carolina

Discussion: Hit & Run, Wonkette, New York Times, The Reaction and CNN

Wallacegw / CNN:
Gingrich urges Santorum, Perry to drop out

Discussion: The Politico, CBS News, Ballot Box, The Hill, The Other McCain, Rick Santorum for President, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative and Washington Examiner

Megan Ruyle / The Hill:

Unbowed by protests, Lamar Smith to move ahead on piracy bill — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) vowed to push forward with his controversial anti-piracy bill on Tuesday as popular websites prepared to go dark in protest. — “I am committed to continuing to work …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, The Politico, Media Decoder, The American Independent, Networking Blog, RedState and Instapundit

David A. Fahrenthold / Washington Post:
SOPA protests shut down Web sites

Discussion: Scientific American, The Mahablog, The BLT and US Politics

Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
Web Site Will Shut Down to Protest Antipiracy Bills

Discussion: nytm.org, Bits, Media Decoder, msnbc.com, Campaign 2012 and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

CNET:
Google will protest SOPA using popular home page

Discussion: Emily L. Hauser, Techdirt, Political Mojo and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Roxanne Cooper / The Raw Story:
Announcement: Raw Story to go dark on January 18 to protest SOPA/PIPA

Discussion: Networking Blog, Computerworld, Taylor Marsh, Company Town and Crooks and Liars

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
It's Baaaaaaaaack: Lamar Smith Says SOPA Markup To Resume In February

Discussion: The Politico, Salon, The Verge, Hit & Run, The Hill, Company Town, Daily Kos and Making Light, more at Techmeme »

ABCNEWS:

Mitt Romney Sent Millions to Mormon Church — Republican presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney walks toward his campaign plane, Jan. 11, 2012 in Bedford, Mass. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) — Underscoring the prominent, if little discussed role that Mitt Romney played …

Joel Gehrke / Campaign 2012:
New Obama OMB director a Bain alum

Discussion: Pat Dollard, Betsy's Page, Hot Air and The Politico

Fox News:

‘Occupy’ protesters suspected of throwing smoke bomb over White House fence — WASHINGTON - The Secret Service was responding Tuesday night to an escalating protest that may have involved one or more smoke bombs being thrown over the White House fence. — An estimated 1,000 protesters have gathered.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Weasel Zippers, RedState, Fire Andrea Mitchell!, The Heritage Foundation and Hot Air

Paul Bedard / US News:
Taxpayers on Hook for D.C. Protester's Potties

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, americanthinker.com, Weasel Zippers and The Lonely Conservative

Jessica Firger / Wall Street Journal:
Protest Sapped of Cash

Discussion: Associated Press, NewsBusters.org blogs, Weasel Zippers, New York Magazine, Hot Air, The Politico, ThinkProgress, The Hill and Gothamist

Andrew Kaczynski / Politics:

The Book On Mitt Romney: Here Is John McCain's Entire Opposition Research File … The Book On Mitt Romney: Here Is John McCain's Entire Opposition Research File — Politics Buzz A document found online by BuzzFeed appears to be John McCain's entire, 200-page opposition research file …

Discussion: Washington Post, Political Mojo, Shakesville, Grim's Hall, Gawker and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Recess appointments might not hold — Some legal experts, including those who have sided with President Obama on other constitutional issues, think there is a good chance the courts could overturn his recent recess appointments. — Legal experts said courts could invalidate Obama's appointments …

Discussion: americanthinker.com and Prairie Weather

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

Why They Stood and Cheered — Gingrich confronts the left's insidious theory of racial supremacy. — Bye-Ku for Jon Huntsman — Call me crazy, but — I think insulting voters — Will warm them to me — The live-audience reaction to Republican presidential debates is a matter …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and The Raw Story

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

Obama's jobs council report says ‘drill’ — President Obama's jobs council called Tuesday for an “all-in approach” to energy policy that includes expanded oil-and-gas drilling as well as expediting energy projects like pipelines. — “[W]e should allow more access to oil …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Questions and Observations and Betsy's Page

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Romney Caricatures Himself — Mitt Romney, in all likelihood, is going to walk away with his party's presidential nomination. Yet from the standpoint of positioning himself for the general election, the primary season has been a disaster for him. Romney's campaign has worked hard …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, Jared Bernstein, Public Policy Polling, American Prospect and Balloon Juice

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

Dear Andrew Sullivan: Why Focus On Obama's Dumbest Critics? — A major defense of the president exaggerates Obama's accomplishments and misses the point: his scandalous transgressions against rule of law. — After reading Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek essay about President Obama, his critics …

Discussion: Samizdata.net, The Daily Dish, Mediaite, Mother Jones and Patterico's Pontifications

John Avlon / The Daily Beast:

Did Rick Santorum Win the Iowa Caucuses, Not Mitt Romney? — Incorrect precinct numbers from one Iowa town, and a 20-vote misallocation to Mitt Romney, casts his eight-vote victory in question—along with his claim to be the only candidate to win both Iowa and New Hampshire.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Taegan Goddard's …

Byron Tau / The Politico:

No union labor used at DNC speech site, contractor says — One of the contractors responsible for building Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, N.C. is ‘praising’ President Obama and the Democratic Party for holding a convention event there, calling the stadium an ‘outstanding example’ of the free enterprise system.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Reuters:

Obama's not-so-super PAC — Last spring, Sean Sweeney — a co-founder of Priorities USA Action, Barack Obama's not-so-super super PAC — rode an elevator up to a donor's office atop a Chicago skyscraper, hoping to ride down with a big check. — His pitch: Sure, Obama has made a career …

Discussion: The Politico

Sam Youngman / Reuters:

Romney says he is taxed at around 15 percent rate — (Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney acknowledged Tuesday that his income tax rate is “probably closer to 15 percent than anything,” suggesting that one of the wealthiest people to ever run for U.S. president pays a much lower rate than most Americans.

Emmanuel Dunand / ABCNEWS:
Romney Reveals his Tax Rate is ‘Probably Closer to 15 Percent’

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, New York Magazine, Angry Bear, Daily Kos and Hot Air

Donovan Slack / The Politico:

White House locked down because of ‘smoking objects’ — The White House was locked down Tuesday night because of “smoking objects” found near the North Portico as hundreds of protesters rallied outside the executive mansion, Secret Service officials said. — “We had approximately 1,000 …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and The Hill