memeorandum: Faced with good news about economy, Romney dissolves into incoherence (Greg Sargent/Washington Post)

3:45 PM ET, February 3, 2012

Top Items:

Tom Benning / The Scoop:

Komen apologizes for ‘recent decisions,’ pledges to continue funding Planned Parenthood — UPDATE, 12:32 p.m.Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, said during a Friday conference call that her understanding of Komen's announcement is that it's a complete reversal of the decision to bar funding to her group.

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.

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: Washington Post, Epicenter, New York Times, Nation Now, Associated Press, Guardian, LifeSiteNews.com Latest …, Big Government, National Review, TBogg, Pundit & Pundette, Big Journalism, CBS Philly, US Politics, The Hill and Prairie Weather

Daniel Foster / National Review:

You Should Find the Anti-Komen Backlash Disgusting, Even If You're Pro-Choice — It's official. The Komen Foundation has “apologized” for its Planned Parenthood decision and appears set to reinstate the funding, thus making our editorial this morning both premature and, in a more profound sense, too late.

Discussion: LifeSiteNews.com Latest …, NewsBusters.org blogs, Big Think, Live Action News & Opinion, Right Wing Watch, The Huffington Post, Trail Blazers Blog and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
Is the Susan G. Komen Foundation backing down?

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

Steven Ertelt / LifeNews.com:
Komen Board Member: Haven't Caved on Planned Parenthood Funding

Discussion: Washington Post, RedState and The Gateway Pundit

Marie Diamond / ThinkProgress:
Victory! Komen Apologizes And Reverses Decision To Cut Planned Parenthood Funding

Discussion: Washington Post, US Politics and Datechguy's Blog

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

Discussion: Washington Post, Gothamist, blogs.wsj.com, TIME Ideas, Colorlines and Lawyers, Guns & Money

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

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Business Insider, Balloon Juice, Washington Post, TBogg, Outside the Beltway, NewsBusters.org blogs, NewsBusters.org, Crooks and Liars, Feministing, Bloomberg, AUL.org, CatholicVote.org, Daily Kos, The Maddow Blog, Campaign 2012 and The Loyal Opposition

Jennifer Haberkorn / Reuters:
The Komen decision: Cut your losses, move on

Discussion: Politico and CNN

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

Discussion: LifeSiteNews.com Latest …, CBS Los Angeles, Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story, ABCNEWS, The Reid Report, LifeNews.com and Daily Kos

Washington Post:
Komen Foundation revises funding policy

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative and Political Mojo

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

Discussion: Associated Press, Firedoglake, New York Times, Guardian, The New Republic, Rod Dreher, Campaign 2012, Don Surber, The Maddow Blog, Daily Kos, The Atlantic Online, NewsBusters.org blogs and The Huffington Post

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

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

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: FreeEnterprise.com, The PJ Tatler, Weasel Zippers, Swampland, The Gateway Pundit, Daily 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

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

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Impolitic and ThinkProgress

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

Discussion: The Caucus, Economix, Gothamist, TalkLeft and Prairie Weather

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

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Vodkapundit and The Page

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Faced with good news about economy, Romney dissolves into incoherence — Since Mitt Romney announced his candidacy last June, he has continually made two core claims about Obama's economic record, each of which contradicts the other. Depending on the moment, Romney has said either:

Discussion: The Hill, Riehl World View, A plain blog about politics, Political Mojo and The Maddow Blog

Amie Parnes / The Hill:
After strong jobs report, Obama tells Congress 'don't muck it up'

Discussion: Politico and GOP 12

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine: Economic Pessimism Is Still Romney's Best Bet

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

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

Discussion: Politico, PERRspectives and Daily Kos

msnbc.com:
2012: Rolling the dice — GINGRICH: “The Newt Gingrich campaign …

Discussion: Guardian

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

Discussion: Betsy's Page

OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL:

A.G. SCHNEIDERMAN ANNOUNCES MAJOR LAWSUIT AGAINST NATION'S LARGEST BANKS FOR DECEPTIVE & FRAUDULENT USE OF ELECTRONIC MORTGAGE REGISTRY — Complaint Charges Use Of MERS By Bank Of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, And Wells Fargo Resulted In Fraudulent Foreclosure Filings

Discussion: TalkLeft, Daily Kos and Business Insider

David Dayen / Firedoglake: Schneiderman Sues Three Big Banks, MERS for Deceptive Practices, Illegal Foreclosures

Dave Levinthal / Politico:

What super PAC filings left out — About the only thing more notable than the donor information super PACs this week revealed is the information they didn't. — Super PACs filed reports with the Federal Election Commission that outlined what they raised — and from whom — in the last six months of 2011.

Discussion: CNN and United Republic

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Colbert v. the Court

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and CNN

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: Right Wing Watch, Randy's Roundtable and Weasel Zippers

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, RedState and Saint Petersblog

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, A plain blog about politics, American Prospect, Washington Post, Political Mojo and Jay Bookman

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

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Mitt Romney: We Are The Only People Who Put Their Hand Over Our Hearts During The National Anthem He ran the Olympics, he should know better.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Rod Dreher and Riehl World View

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

Shelby Steele / Time:

Q: What does a conservative believe? — I believe that freedom of the individual — as opposed to good works or “social justice” — is by far the highest goal any society can strive for. I became a conservative precisely to deal with my fate as a black American born into a segregated society.

Discussion: National Review, Hit & Run and The Daily Caller