memeorandum: Poll shows Obama trailing three GOP challengers in Iowa (Meghashyam Mali/Ballot Box)

11:35 AM ET, February 19, 2012

Top Items:

Santorum says Obama agenda not “based on Bible” — COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum challenged President Barack Obama's Christian beliefs on Saturday, saying White House policies were motivated by a “different theology.”

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, americanthinker.com, The Raw Story, Booman Tribune and Eschaton

Des Moines Register:

Obama trails three of four Republican candidates in latest Iowa Poll — © Des Moines Register and Tribune Co. — President Barack Obama trails three of the four Republican candidates in head-to-head match-ups if the election were held today, according to a new Iowa Poll.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Hit & Run, Washington Post and Taegan Goddard's …

Meghashyam Mali / Ballot Box:

Poll shows Obama trailing three GOP challengers in Iowa — A new poll shows President Barack Obama trailing three of the four GOP presidential candidates in the key swing state of Iowa. — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads Obama by 46 percent support to 44 percent among likely Hawkeye state voters in the latest Iowa poll.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys and HotAirPundit

Meghashyam Mali / Ballot Box:

Ron Paul gains votes in delayed Maine caucus, but Romney keeps lead — GOP hopeful Mitt Romney held on to his lead in Maine's caucuses Saturday after votes postponed by bad weather were finally tallied. — Ron Paul gained 83 votes on Romney following the caucus in Washington county …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:

Sunday Morning Layup Drill — ‘Hope and Change’ is sooo 208 - Team Obama is looking for a new slogan for 2012: — WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Winning The Future. Greater Together. We Don't Quit. — They may not be official but those are all phrases that could in one form or another …

Jeff Mason / Reuters:
RPT-Obama's slogan: looking to replace Hope and Change

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, americanthinker.com, Weasel Zippers and The PJ Tatler

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Gingrich: Romney will be ‘badly weakened’ if he loses Michigan — Newt Gingrich said Sunday that rival Mitt Romney's campaign would be “very badly weakened” by a loss in the Feb. 28 Michigan primary and dismissed the idea - floated by some conservatives concerned about the GOP field's performance …

Discussion: Politico, CNN and Hot Air

David Catanese / Politico:

Babeu comes out, denies allegations — Arizona GOP congressional candidate Paul Babeu acknowledged Saturday he is gay but forcefully denied charges he threatened an ex-lover with deportation after their relationship soured. — “All of the allegations are false except one, I am gay,” Babeu said.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Fox News, Valley Fever, Towleroad News #gay, Univision News Tumblr, Box Turtle Bulletin, TalkLeft, American Spectator, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Joe. My. God.

Arizona Republic:
Babeu steps down as Romney Arizona co-chairman

Discussion: New York Times, NewsHounds blog, The Other McCain, Advocate, Washington Wire, ABCNEWS, Hotline On Call, Daily Kos, The Caucus, The Impolitic, HotAirPundit, Politico, Ballot Box, Washington Post, On Top Magazine Headlines, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Gateway Pundit and The Raw Story

CNN:
TRENDING: Arizona sheriff resigns Romney role after allegations

Discussion: Wake up America, Hot Air and The Hill

Ross Douthat / New York Times:

The ‘Safe, Legal, Rare’ Illusion — AMID the sound and fury of the latest culture-war battles — first over breast cancer dollars and Planned Parenthood, and then over the White House's attempt to require that religious employers cover contraception and potential abortifacients …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Rod Dreher

John Cole / Balloon Juice:

Today's Worst Person in the World — By informing consumers, he is of course referring to the Virginia bill requiring women to be vaginally probed against their will before electing to have an abortion. — Because, you know, most of those “consumers” were “uninformed” as to what was in there.

Discussion: Right Wing News, Lawyers, Guns & Money, ABCNEWS and Washington Post

Margalit Fox / New York Times:

John Fairfax, Who Rowed Across Oceans, Dies at 74 — He crossed the Atlantic because it was there, and the Pacific because it was also there. — He made both crossings in a rowboat because it, too, was there, and because the lure of sea, spray and sinew, and the history-making chance …

Peter Allen / Telegraph:

Hitler had son with French teen — Adolf Hitler had a son with a French teenager while serving as a soldier during the First World War, according to new evidence. — Jean-Marie Loret, who died in 1985 aged 67, never met his father, but went on to fight Nazi forces during the Second World War.

Discussion: Israel Matzav

Joanne Kenen / Politico:

2012: The year of ‘birth control moms’? — First came the soccer moms. — Then the security moms. — Will 2012 be the year of the “birth control moms”? — Just a few weeks ago, the notion would have seemed far-fetched. The country is deeply divided on abortion, but not on contraception …

Discussion: State of the Union and Althouse

Jodi Kantor / New York Times:

Washington Memo: Supreme Court Justices Remain Security Exceptions — When Justice Stephen G. Breyer was robbed in his Caribbean vacation home 10 days ago, the crime was unremarkable except for one fact: a machete-wielding intruder was able to walk right into the residence of one of the highest members of the United States government.