memeorandum: Why Romney Is So Confident About Winning Michigan (McKay Coppins/Politics)

10:50 AM ET, February 21, 2012

Top Items:

Steven Bertoni / Money Talks:

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson Says He Might Give $100M To Newt Gingrich Or Other Republican — Sheldon Adelson: The GOP's $25 billion man … Sheldon Adelson plays as stubbornly in politics as he does in business. So the criticisms that he's trying to personally buy the presidential election …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politico, msnbc.com, Ballot Box, DownWithTyranny! and Political Insider

Politico:

Mitt Romney's burn rate a boon for Barack Obama — Mitt Romney is burning through cash more than twice as fast as he's raising it, new reports filed Monday show — a clear sign that a protracted GOP primary fight could leave the front-runner limping into a general election fight with President Barack Obama.

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Santorum Expands Lead, but Romney Gets Electability Vote — Fifty-eight percent of Republicans say Romney has best chance to beat Obama — PRINCETON, NJ — Rick Santorum now holds a 10-percentage-point lead in Gallup's Daily tracking of national Republicans registered voters' preferences for the 2012 GOP nomination.

Discussion: Reuters, Arizona Republic, Guardian, Hot Air, Lists, TIME Ideas, Washington Wire, Towleroad News #gay, msnbc.com and Daily Kos

Peter Overby / NPR:

Romney Benefits From Campaign, SuperPAC Funds … The financial battle for the Republican nomination is tightening. Candidates spent a lot of cash in January — what with contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. Also spending a lot of money, as it turns out …

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Daily Kos and Guardian

Mike Littwin / Denver Post:
Santorum's phony theology

Discussion: The Agonist

Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll: Republican voters oppose a ‘brokered’ convention

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, msnbc.com, Mediaite, American Power, IndyStar Bloggers, Ballot Box, TheBlaze.com, Bloomberg, Politico and ABCNEWS

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Santorum aide ties Obama to Islam

Discussion: Daily Kos, NO QUARTER, Weasel Zippers, AngryBlackBitch and Truthdig

T.W. Farnam / Washington Post:
Study: Negative campaign ads much more frequent, vicious than in primaries past

Discussion: ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Boston Globe, Online NewsHour, Politico, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Ballot Box and msnbc.com

KPLC-TV:
Santorum's controversial comments meet criticism

Discussion: The Raw Story and CNN

Peter H. Gleick / The Huffington Post:

The Origin of the Heartland Documents — Climate Change , Global Warming , Heartland Institute , Heartland Institute Leaked Documents , Green News — Since the release in mid-February of a series of documents related to the internal strategy of the Heartland Institute to cast doubt on climate science …

Andrew C. Revkin / Dot Earth:

Peter Gleick Admits to Deception in Obtaining Heartland Climate Files — Peter H. Gleick, a water and climate analyst who has been studying aspects of global warming for more than two decades, in recent years became an aggressive critic of organizations and individuals casting doubt …

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, The PJ Tatler, Right Wing News, Watts Up With That?, Guardian, Vox Popoli, The Huffington Post, Instapundit and TBogg

Felix Salmon:

The improbable Greece plan — Greece is now officially a ward of the international community. It has no real independence when it comes to fiscal policy any more, and if everything goes according to plan, it's not going to have any independence for many, many years to come.

Discussion: National Review and Paul Krugman

Wall Street Journal:

Europe Reaches a Greek Deal — BRUSSELS—Euro-zone finance ministers early Tuesday agreed to an ambitious €130 billion ($172.1 billion) rescue deal that will see Greece's private creditors take an even larger loss in order to put the debt-laden country on a sustainable footing and avert a catastrophic default.

Discussion: Bloomberg, New York Times, americanthinker.com and The Big Picture

Reuters:
Europe seals new Greek bailout to avert default

Discussion: EU Referendum, msnbc.com and Associated Press

Stephen Castle / New York Times:
Europe Agrees on New Bailout to Help Greece Avoid Default

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Agence France Presse, Political Mojo and Wall Street Journal

Politico:

Pro-Rick Santorum PAC picks up another mega-donor — The super PAC supporting Rick Santorum's presidential campaign pulled in $2.1 million in January - half of which came from a relatively low-profile Louisiana energy executive, according to a report filed Monday evening with the Federal Election Commission.

Saul Loeb / ABCNEWS: January Fundraising: Campaigns and Super PACs, Side by Side

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:
‘Super PAC’ Role Grows for Republican Campaigns

Discussion: USA Today, Media Decoder, FiveThirtyEight, msnbc.com, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, ABCNEWS, Washington Post and The Caucus

Capital Flows / Opinions That Matter:

The “Robo-Signing” Settlement: Seeds of Recovery, Or Chaos? — George Mason law professor Todd J. Zywicki fears that the “robo-signing” agreement will lead to further efforts to bleed the banks, all the while delaying the necessary clearing of the housing market.

Discussion: EconLog

David Weigel / Slate:

My Candidate Ate Here — There are so many serious factoids to pull out of the four remaining Republicans' FEC reports. Here's an unserious one. Below, the restaurants or food-selling establishments patronized by the campaigns in January. We can break them down into two neat categories.

JournalGazette.net:

You choose, we deliver … Indiana — Authorities are searching for an Indianapolis man who fled on foot, accused of shooting at a state trooper near a southern Indiana highway.Today 9:03 am — Rep. Bob Morris said he did some Web-based research and found allegations that the Girl Scouts …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Associated Press, The Maddow Blog, The Raw Story, Towleroad News #gay and Booman Tribune

WRTV-TV:

Lugar Defends Himself On Residency Question — Longtime Senator Says He Meets Requirements — INDIANAPOLIS — Sen. Richard Lugar defended himself during an appearance in Indianapolis on Monday that came days after opponents claimed that he isn't qualified to run for office because he doesn't live in the state.

Jonathan Strong / Roll Call:

Associate Confronted Rep. Ron Paul About Flights — In March 2005, David James called Rep. Ron Paul's (R-Texas) Congressional office for some documentation. — James's nonprofit group, the Liberty Committee, had paid for one of Paul's flights, and James needed a receipt or boarding pass to document the expense.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Hot Air and The Spectacle Blog

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Newt Gingrich says defeating President Obama is a matter of ‘national security’ — Newt Gingrich doubled-down on his weekend claim that defeating President Obama is a matter of national security, ripping the president for what described as policies of appeasement.

Discussion: Politico

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

McConnell risks political capital to show solidarity with Boehner in payroll fight — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) risked some political capital last week to make a high-profile show of solidarity with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), allaying scrutiny of their relationship.

McKay Coppins / Politics:

Why Romney Is So Confident About Winning Michigan — A campaign advisor dismisses the polls and the media's doomsday narrative. “Once a message and resources are concentrated in a state... the numbers tend to move,” he says. — (AP / Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Discussion: The Week, CNN, Hot Air, About.com US Liberal Politics, FiveThirtyEight and ABCNEWS