memeorandum: For Romney, the Perils of Protection (Ashley Parker/The Caucus)

1:45 PM ET, February 3, 2012

Top Items:

Tom Benning / The Scoop:

Komen apologizes for ‘recent decisions,’ pledges to continue funding Planned Parenthood — UPDATE, 10:44 a.m. Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards just released a statement praising Komen for “clarifying” its grant process, saying “we look forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders and volunteers.”

Susan G. Komen for the Cure:

Statement from Susan G. Komen Board of Directors and Founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker — We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives. The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters …

Discussion: National Review, New York Times, Guardian, LifeSiteNews.com Latest …, Nation Now, Big Government, GetReligion, TBogg, Datechguy's Blog, Associated Press and Pundit & Pundette

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Komen caved. Or did it? — As you may have heard, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation just announced that it was reversing its decision to ban Planned Parenthood from applying for grants to cover breast cancer screenings — after a massive outcry that spread from women's groups to social media to Capitol Hill.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, LifeNews.com, Wonkette, Daily Kos, Wake up America, Outside the Beltway, Planned Parenthood, Capital New York, The Atlantic Online, The Lede, Feministe and Taylor Marsh

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:

Is the Susan G. Komen Foundation backing down? — The Susan G. Komen Foundation has just released a new statement from CEO Nancy Brinker. The first line is a mea culpa: “We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives.”

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, National Review, The American Independent, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Hill, Political Mojo, Wizbang and Hot Air

Washington Post:

Komen Foundation revises funding policy — The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation announced Friday that it would revise a new policy that barred the organization from funding Planned Parenthood, a move that had thrust the cancer foundation into a national controversy.

Discussion: LifeNews.com, The Lonely Conservative and Political Mojo

Marie Diamond / ThinkProgress:

Victory! Komen Apologizes And Reverses Decision To Cut Planned Parenthood Funding — The Dallas Morning News reports that Susan G. Komen For the Cure is reversing its decision to stop funding cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood health centers. — Facing an avalanche of criticism …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and US Politics

Michael Brendan Dougherty / Business Insider:
HOPE KILLS: Susan G Komen Foundation Would Rather Be Associated With A Handgun Than Planned Parenthood

Discussion: LifeNews.com, The Daily Caller, Los Angeles Times, Gothamist, The Moderate Voice, CBS Seattle, Washington Post, Pirate's Cove, The Jawa Report, The Mahablog, The PJ Tatler, LifeSiteNews.com Latest …, Campaign 2012, Rumproast, Balloon Juice, Runnin' Scared and Newshoggers.com

New York Times:
A Painful Betrayal — With its roster of corporate sponsors …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Business Insider, Crooks and Liars, Washington Post, Bloomberg, NewsBusters.org blogs, Outside the Beltway, Political Mojo, Wall Street Journal, NewsBusters.org, Feministing, AUL.org, TBogg, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos and The Loyal Opposition

Kate Noceraand David Nather / Politico:
Susan G. Komen fights to contain Planned Parenthood damage

Discussion: CBS Los Angeles, Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story, The Reid Report, LifeNews.com, Daily Kos and AlterNet

David Nather / Reuters:
Susan G. Komen backs down on Planned Parenthood

Discussion: Politico, CatholicVote.org and blogs.wsj.com

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:
Susan G. Komen Reverses Course, Will Allow Planned Parenthood Funding

Discussion: CatholicVote.org, blogs.wsj.com, Gothamist and Colorlines

Washington Post:
Komen gives new explanation for cutting funds to Planned Parenthood

Discussion: Firedoglake, Associated Press, The New Republic, Rod Dreher, NewsBusters.org blogs, Don Surber, Campaign 2012, The Maddow Blog and The Huffington Post

Kate Shellnutt / Newswatch:
Komen reverses, says it will keep funding Planned Parenthood

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The PJ Tatler

Tom Benning / Dallas Morning News:
Komen for the Cure reverses decision to cut Planned Parenthood funding

Discussion: The PJ Tatler and The Maddow Blog

New York Times:
Komen Foundation Urged to Restore Planned Parenthood Funds

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Post, TIME Ideas, The Confluence, Healthland, Daily Kos, AlterNet, Balloon Juice, Media Decoder, Gothamist, American Prospect and Mediaite

Tyler Durden / ZeroHedge:

Record 1.2 Million People Fall Out Of Labor Force In One Month, Labor Force Participation Rate Tumbles To Fresh 30 Year Low — A month ago, we joked when we said that for Obama to get the unemployment rate to negative by election time, all he has to do is to crush the labor force participation rate to about 55%.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, Swampland, Daily Pundit, Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit, Wake up America, The Right Scoop and The Strata-Sphere

Jeff Cox / CNBC:

Employment Jumps; Rate 8.3%, 243,000 New Jobs Created — The pace of job creation surged in January, with the US economy generating 243,000 new positions while the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent, according to government data released Friday. — Both numbers were far better than consensus …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Outside the Beltway, Questions and Observations and The Lonely Conservative

Motoko Rich / New York Times:
U.S. Economy Added 243,000 Jobs in January; Unemployment Rate Is 8.3%

Discussion: Economix, TalkLeft and Prairie Weather

Bob Willis / Bloomberg:
Unemployment Drops to 8.3%; Payrolls in U.S. Jump 243,000

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Wall Street Journal:
Economy Adds 243,000 Jobs

Discussion: Washington Wire, Washington Post, The Maddow Blog, blogs.wsj.com, Gothamist, Real Time Economics and Saint Petersblog

Lucia Mutikani / Reuters:
Job growth surges, jobless rate drops to 8.3 percent

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Vodkapundit and The Page

Byron Tau / Politico:

Obama campaign plays Trump card against Romney — The Obama campaign is fundraising off of Donald Trump's endorsement of Mitt Romney, calling the New York real estate mogul the “birth certificate conspiracy leader” in an email to supporters. — “Yesterday, Mitt Romney said he was ‘humbled’ to accept Donald Trump's endorsement.

Discussion: Guardian

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Mitt Romney: We Are The Only People Who Put Their Hand Over Our Hearts During The National Anthem …

Discussion: Mediaite and Riehl World View

Byron York / Campaign 2012:
Team Obama shocked to learn Romney wants to win

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Cameron Joseph / The Hill:
Romney gaffes alarm GOP

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, ABCNEWS, Wall Street Journal, The Other McCain, Mediaite, Hot Air and The Daily Caller

Brent Budowsky / Pundits Blog:
Mitt Romney, Donald Trump, Ron Paul and the ‘Hope America Fails’ Republicans have a problem: Jobs

Discussion: Daily Kos

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

GOP lawmaker walked out on Obama's speech at National Prayer Breakfast — Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey (Ga.) walked out of President Obama's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, his spokesman confirmed to The Hill. — Jen Talaber said the five-term lawmaker “left quietly” in the middle of the president's remarks.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Obama's Magic Number? 150,000 Jobs Per Month — The unemployment report on Friday will give us the most tangible read to date on how the economy is performing in 2012. It might also represent the most important number yet for President Obama's prospects of winning re-election.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, American Prospect, Political Mojo, Washington Post and Jay Bookman

Edward Wyatt / New York Times:

S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks — WASHINGTON — Even as the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its investigations of Wall Street in the last decade, the agency has repeatedly allowed the biggest firms to avoid punishments specifically meant to apply to fraud cases.

Discussion: Felix Salmon, New Deal 2.0, Booman Tribune, naked capitalism, Prairie Weather, The BLT and Economix

Politics:

Mitt Romney Was A Democrat — It may only have been for a few minutes in 1992. But this is a little-known, true fact: The likely GOP nominee is a former Democrat. — Mitt Romney's 1992 Democratic Primary vote for Paul Tsongas — a technocratic modernizer and reformer, but very much a Democrat …

Discussion: Mediaite and Saint Petersblog

Andy Pierrotti / WBBH-TV:

NBC2 Investigates: Voter fraud — Two elections supervisors are taking action after an NBC2 investigation uncovers flawed record keeping and human error allowing people who are not citizens of the United States to vote. — No one knows how widespread this problem is …

Discussion: Pat Dollard and UrbanGrounds

Pew Internet:

Why most Facebook users get more than they give — Most Facebook users receive more from their Facebook friends than they give, according to a new study that for the first time combines server logs of Facebook activity with survey data to explore the structure of Facebook friendship networks and measures of social well-being.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, msnbc.com, Washington Post, AllThingsD and ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Romney up big in Nevada — Mitt Romney is headed for a dominant victory in Nevada on Saturday. PPP finds him polling at 50% to 25% for Newt Gingrich, 15% for Ron Paul, and 8% for Rick Santorum. — Certainly in Nevada the Mormon vote will get a lot of attention and Romney leads Paul 78-14 …