memeorandum: Romney Advocate Says “Christian Right” is Key to Santorum's Successes (Shushannah Walshe/ABCNEWS)

1:05 PM ET, February 28, 2012

Top Items:

After Many Momentum Shifts, Michigan Is Too Close to Call — People sometimes apply the term “tossup” a bit too broadly, using it to refer to anything close enough that they don't want to render a prediction about it. — In Michigan, however, the term is appropriate.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Guardian, ABCNEWS, Big Government, Politico, MLive.com, The Mahablog, Ballot Box, Marbury, Washington Post and Balloon Juice

Evan McMorris-Santoro / 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com:

Updated at 5:10 EST with audio of the call. — Updated at 6:12pm EST with confirmation that the call did indeed come from the Santorum campaign — LANSING, MI — Rick Santorum's campaign is locked in a tight battle with Mitt Romney ahead of Tuesday's Michigan primary.

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Momentum back toward Santorum in MI? — PPP's final poll in Michigan finds Rick Santorum holding on to the smallest of leads with 38% to 37% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Ron Paul, and 9% for Newt Gingrich. — It's always good to be cautious with one night poll numbers, but momentum seems to be swinging in Santorum's direction.

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Romney also said he voted in Dem primaries to influence the race — The Romney campaign has been denouncing Democratic efforts - and now those by Rick Santorum - to get Democrats to vote in Michigan's open primary. — Mitt Romney himself called it a “new low” in politics in a round of TV interviews.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Wake up America, Daily Kos and CBS News

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Reid slams Romney for opposing auto industry bailout

Discussion: Politico

Rick Santorum / CNN:
Romney hits Santorum robo calls as ‘new low’ in campaign

Discussion: American Prospect, The Moderate Voice, Campaign 2012 and Big Government

Jon Cohen / Washington Post:
Conservatives take dimmer view of Romney ahead of voting

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Boston Globe and msnbc.com

Reid J. Epstein / Politico:
How Mitt Romney booked Kid Rock

Discussion: Dependable Renegade

Shushannah Walshe / ABCNEWS:
Romney Advocate Says “Christian Right” is Key to Santorum's Successes

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Enterprise Blog and Metro

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Election day polls show Michigan further tightening

Discussion: CNN

Michael Falcone / ABCNEWS:
Can Rick Santorum Score A Michigan Upset? (The Note)

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and GOP 12

Jonathan Easley / Ballot Box:
Romney: Santorum robocalls to Michigan Dem voters ‘disgusting’

Discussion: The Hill and The Right Scoop

Mark Blumenthal / The Huffington Post:
Michigan Polls: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum Close On Election Eve

Discussion: Washington Post, Examiner, weaskamerica.com, Guardian, The Moderate Voice and FiveThirtyEight

Steven Hayward / Power Line:

The Unbearable Gleickness of Being: An Omnibus Climate Update — The Gleickgate hits just keep coming. (Or is it Fakegate, as Heartland is calling it, or Gleick-Out, as I've called it? Doesn't matter.) First, Gleick has taken a leave of absence from his post as president of the Pacific Institute …

Discussion: Watts Up With That? and National Review

Michael S. Greve / Online Library of Law and Liberty: Climate Change, Part I: Catastrophe

Brad Plumer / Washington Post:
Will the EPA's new climate rules get killed in court?

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Volokh Conspiracy, Reuters, Lawyers, Guns & Money and InsideClimate News

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Possum Republicans — Politicians do what they must to get re-elected. So it's not unexpected that Republican senators like Richard Lugar and Orrin Hatch would swing sharply to the right to fend off primary challengers. — As Jonathan Weisman reported in The Times on Sunday …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog, p m carpenter's commentary, RedState, Booman Tribune and NewsBusters.org blogs

Wbastone / The Smoking Gun:

Sorry, The Restaurant Receipt Left By That Nasty, Rich Banker Is A Photoshop Hoax — The restaurant receipt that a California banker purportedly used to denigrate a waitress—while also leaving her a one percent tip—was wildly “altered and exaggerated,” according to a spokesperson …

Discussion: Associated Press, JIMROMENESKO.COM, iOwnTheWorld.com, The Daily What and The Political Carnival

Max Fisher / The Atlantic Online:

Stratfor Is a Joke and So Is Wikileaks for Taking It Seriously — The corporate research firm has branded itself as a CIA-like “global intelligence” firm, but only Julian Assange and some over-paying clients are fooled. — On June 2, 2009, Anya Alfano of Stratfor, which describes itself as a private …

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Yes Men, Algemeiner.com and Daniel W. Drezner, more at Mediagazer »

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

What's the Matter With ‘Nebraska’? — A frivolous essay underscores the left's serious prejudices. — This column has recently become skeptical of the view—nearly universal on the liberal left but common as well among conservative elites—that Rick Santorum is “unelectable” …

Discussion: Rod Dreher

Politico:

GOP frets over 2012 knife fight — National Republican leaders are voicing increasing dismay over the course of the party's presidential primary, which has fallen into such a negative grind that they warn could cost them the White House. — At the core of their concern is the atmosphere …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Political Carnival

Sara A. Carter / Washington Examiner:

Secret memo suggests White House ignored SOS from Iranian opposition — Iranian supporters of defeated reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi demonstrate on June 18, 2009 in Tehran, Iran. Thousands of people have continued to protest in the streets of Tehran during a day of mourning …

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Hot Air and The PJ Tatler

Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:

Democratic lobbyists giving cold shoulder to Obama super-PAC — Democratic lobbyists who have been barred from fundraising for President Obama's campaign are showing little interest in donating instead to a super-PAC that supports him. — Unlike Obama's official campaign …

Discussion: Hot Air and Washington Free Beacon

William J. Broad / New York Times:

Yoga Fans Sexual Flames and, Predictably, Plenty of Scandal — The wholesome image of yoga took a hit in the past few weeks as a rising star of the discipline came tumbling back to earth. After accusations of sexual impropriety with female students, John Friend, the founder of Anusara …

Discussion: Althouse

Abby Goodnough / New York Times:

New Hampshire May Revoke Its Gay Marriage Law — As same-sex marriage supporters celebrate victories in Washington and Maryland this month, they are keeping a wary eye on New Hampshire, where lawmakers may soon vote to repeal the state's two-year-old law allowing gay couples to wed.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Law Blog, Balloon Juice and Gay Politics

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Democrats target likely veep pick Sen. Rubio — Democrats have started to wage a political assault against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and the intensity of their attacks will intensify in the coming weeks. — Senior officials in the Democratic Party anticipate that Mitt Romney will win …

Discussion: Jammie Wearing Fools

ABCNEWS:

What Happens if Rick Santorum Wins Michigan? — That's the question I asked ABC News contributor Matt Dowd ahead of tonight's primary. Mitt Romney has been bouncing up and down in the polls of his home state, and is now neck and neck with Rick Santorum. — “If Rick Santorum wins tonight it's …

David White / al.com:

Senator plans to rewrite bill in Alabama Legislature that would require ultrasounds before abortions — State Sen. Clay Scofield, R-Guntersville, today said he plans to rewrite an abortion bill he sponsored so that it could not require a woman seeking an abortion to first undergo an ultrasound …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, ThinkProgress, Montgomery Advertiser, The Raw Story, American Prospect and TimesDaily.com

Elizabeth Lopatto / Bloomberg:

Wealthy More Likely to Lie, Cheat: Researchers — Are society's most noble actors found within society's nobility? — That question spurred Paul Piff, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, to explore whether higher social class is linked to higher ideals, he said in a telephone interview.

Discussion: Wired, Guardian, Feministing and Suburban Guerrilla

Jessica Firger / Wall Street Journal:

Occupy Groups Get Funding — A group of business leaders—including Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and former Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg—are planning to pour substantial funds into the Occupy Wall Street movement in hopes of sustaining the protests and fostering political change.

Discussion: Gothamist

Washington Post:

Colonial ism in Africa helped launch the HIV epidemic a century ago — We are unlikely to ever know all the details of the birth of the AIDS epidemic. But a series of recent genetic discoveries have shed new light on it, starting with the moment when a connection from chimp to human changed the course of history.

Discussion: News Desk and Joe. My. God.

Harold A. Pollack / New York Times:

Do Liberals Disdain the Disabled? — Earlier this month, I was hanging out with my brother-in-law Vincent. He lives with developmental disabilities caused by an unwanted genetic sequence that deprives his brain of a critical protein. We were sitting in our family room when Rick Santorum …

Discussion: Washington Monthly