memeorandum: Brokest Nation In History Fusses Instead About Sex (Mark Steyn/Investors.com)

12:10 PM 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: The Reaction, Taylor Marsh, americanthinker.com, The Raw Story, Eschaton and Booman Tribune

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: Hot Air, 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

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

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 …

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, New York Times, Valley Fever, Univision News Tumblr, Towleroad News #gay, Box Turtle Bulletin, American Spectator, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Joe. My. God.

CNN:
TRENDING: Arizona sheriff resigns Romney role after allegations

Discussion: Wake up America, Hot Air, Arizona Republic and The Hill

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

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

Paul Krugman:

Austerity and Growth — Or, actually, shrinkage. — Watching Europe sink into recession - and Greece plunge into the abyss - I found myself wondering what it would take to convince the chattering classes that austerity in the face of an already depressed economy is a terrible idea.

Discussion: Brad DeLong

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: Washington Monthly, 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.