memeorandum: Obama lunches with Hill leaders (Donovan Slack/Reuters)

3:25 PM ET, February 29, 2012

Top Items:

Odds of a Brokered Convention Are Increasing — We're finally close enough to Super Tuesday to get a sense of how the overall delegate count might work out in the GOP primary. The end result: Assuming that none of the four candidates drops out of the race, it looks increasingly …

Discussion: Firedoglake, American Prospect, Salon, Washington Post, Hot Air, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, Dean's World and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

G.O.P. Greek Tragedy — Rick should scat. — Mitt Romney needs to be left alone to limp across the finish line, so he can devote his full time and attention to losing to President Obama. — Robo-Romney, who pulled out victories in his home state and in Arizona, and Sanctorum are still in a race to the bottom.

Discussion: The Caucus, Boston Herald, The PJ Tatler, The Hinterland Gazette, Daily Kos and Connecting.the.Dots

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

Santorum Loses Catholic Vote—But Did He Ever Have It? — As they awaited the final results from Michigan, probably the single biggest topic of conversation in the chattering classes last night was the shocking news from the exit polls that Rick Santorum had lost Michigan Catholics to Mitt Romney by a 44-37 margin.

Discussion: The New Republic, hanoverhenry's Diary, Outside the Beltway and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:

Romney Wins Arizona; Tight Race in Michigan — SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Mitt Romney won the Arizona primary on Tuesday, based on surveys of voters leaving polls, but was locked in a tight battle with Rick Santorum in Michigan, where Mr. Santorum hoped to use his strong showing in his rival's native state …

Discussion: News Desk, The Caucus, Washington Post, CNN, The Reaction, The Moderate Voice, Shakesville, ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress, Scared Monkeys, Wall Street Journal, Towleroad News #gay, Religion News Service, NY Daily News, msnbc.com, Politico and The Page

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Mitt Romney talks tough on China during Ohio visit

Discussion: Daily Kos, Guardian and American Power

msnbc.com:
First Thoughts: Winning ugly

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Wake up America and Power Line

Jonathan Martin / Reuters:
Michigan and Arizona primaries 2012: Mitt Romney wins ugly

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Bloomberg, The Hill, neo-neocon, Washington Post, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, Marbury, NationalJournal.com, CNN and The Moderate Voice

Aliyah Shahid / NY Daily News:
Rick Santorum: I regret saying John F. Kennedy speech on religion made me want to throw up

Discussion: The Spectacle Blog and ABCNEWS

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Ron Paul calls Romney a ‘flip-flopper’ in new ad

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Ross Douthat / Campaign Stops:
What Mitt Lost While He Won

Discussion: p m carpenter's commentary, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times and Prairie Weather

Mj Lee / Politico:
Reince Priebus: ‘I feel good about this’

Discussion: Guardian and Rush Limbaugh

Maggie Haberman / Politico:
5 takeaways from Arizona and Michigan

Discussion: Pirate's Cove, A Certain Enthusiasm and Algemeiner.com

Meghashyam Mali / Ballot Box:
Poll finds Santorum up by double-digits in Ohio

Discussion: CNN, Indecision Forever and The Moderate Voice

Justin Sink / Ballot Box:
Romney's new Web ad says Obama's ‘Kill Romney’ strategy failed

Discussion: CNN

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:

Are the Rich Completely Undeserving of Sympathy? — I saw a fair amount of chortling this morning about this Bloomberg piece on wealthy financial-industry types who are having to cut back because of plummeting bonuses. And to be sure, some of the cuts are in the “Call me a Waaaah-mbulance” category: can't go to Aspen any more?

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Balloon Juice

Max Abelson / Bloomberg:

Wall Street Bonus Drop Means Trading Aspen for Discount Cereal — Andrew Schiff was sitting in a traffic jam in California this month after giving a speech at an investment conference about gold. He turned off the satellite radio, got out of the car and screamed a profanity.

Discussion: TBogg, Mock, Paper, Scissors, Gothamist, Boing Boing and Gawker

Religion News Service:

Franklin Graham apologizes for questioning Obama's faith — WASHINGTON (RNS) Evangelist Franklin Graham apologized Tuesday (Feb. 28) to President Obama for questioning his Christian faith and said religion has “nothing to do” with Graham's decision not to support Obama's re-election.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, Balloon Juice, The Democratic Daily and USA Today

Tim Mak / Politico:
Report: Rev. Franklin Graham apologizes to Obama

Discussion: News Desk, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Political Carnival and Religion Dispatches

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

The Democrats' nightmare scenario — If Republicans regain the Senate, will they seek to reform the filibuster, sweeping away an obstacle that bedeviled Dems and making it far easier for them to enact their own agenda with a simple Senate majority? — Matt Steinglass argues that the GOP …

Discussion: American Prospect, New York Magazine, Outside the Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice and Mother Jones

Donovan Slack / Reuters:

Obama lunches with Hill leaders — President Barack Obama lunched privately with congressional leaders Wednesday to talk about jobs and the economy — the first such meeting since last summer's debt-ceiling negotiations dissolved. — The group was limited to only the top congressional leaders …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Campaign 2012 and Politico

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Boehner describes Obama meeting with bipartisan leaders as constructive

Discussion: Algemeiner.com

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Will Olympia Snowe Join Americans Elect? — Olympia Snowe's retirement statement seemed like it dropped a huge hint, and I'm surprised it hasn't received any attention: … This sounds exactly like the kind of rhetoric emanating from Americans Elect, the third-party group that believes …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, American Prospect, Politico, No More Mister Nice Blog, Guardian, The Maddow Blog, Balloon Juice, Salon, Outside the Beltway, The Caucus, The Hill and Mother Jones

Michelle Boorstein / Washington Post:

D.C. archdiocese: Denying Communion to lesbian at funeral was against ‘policy’ — Deep in grief, Barbara Johnson stood first in the line for Communion at her mother's funeral Saturday morning. But the priest in front of her immediately made it clear that she would not receive the sacramental bread and wine.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, NewsBusters.org blogs, The Daily Caller and WJLA-TV

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:

House subcommittee votes to repeal healthcare reform law's ‘death panel’ — Bipartisan legislation to repeal the healthcare law's cost-control board sailed through a House panel on Wednesday, raising pressure on the Senate to take up the bill and dealing President Obama a political blow.

Discussion: Hot Air, LifeNews.com and The PJ Tatler

Stephen Galloway / Hollywood Reporter:

Whatever Happened to Ted Turner? — The “Mouth of the South” is no longer as he devotes his time (and $1 billion) to the U.N., jets between 28 homes and four girlfriends, misses Jane Fonda and opens up to THR about Rupert, Jerry and his abuse as a child. Says a friend: “He's definitely changed.”

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller and The PJ Tatler

New York Times:

U.S. Sees Iran Attacks as Likely if Israel Strikes — WASHINGTON — American officials who have assessed the likely Iranian responses to any attack by Israel on its nuclear program believe that Iran would retaliate by launching missiles on Israel and terrorist-style attacks on United States civilian and military personnel overseas.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Dish and Israel Matzav

Barak Ravid / Haaretz:
Netanyahu will ask Obama to threaten Iran strike

Discussion: ABCNEWS, ABCNEWS and LewRockwell.com Blog

Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:

Obama makes a play for Scalia — Not surprisingly, the federal government quotes that opinion a lot in its court briefs. — Sutton hinted that he didn't like the mandate but said Supreme Court precedent favors a growing expansion of Commerce Clause power and that Congress has latitude to address national problems.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

E.J. Graff / American Prospect:

Do Women Count? — Yesterday, after I made some snarky comment, a friend asked me if I was Eeyore. The truth is, I'm a mash-up of Eeyore and Tigger. Tigger bounces up and down gleefully whenever I talk about gay rights. But today I'm talking about the ladies again, so get ready for Eeyore.

Sacramento Bee:

Support for gay marriage takes dramatic leap in California, new poll shows — A new poll shows gay marriage has arrived in California - in public opinion if not in state lawbooks. — Golden State registered voters now favor same-sex unions by 59 percent to 34 percent …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Daily Dish, Towleroad News #gay, Steve Rothaus' Gay …, Law Blog and Joe. My. God.

Ali Gharib / ThinkProgress:

Illinois GOP Congressional Candidate: ‘The Holocaust Never Happened’ — Jones, a neo-Nazi, wants runs to be GOP candidate for Congress — Art Jones wants to be the U.S. Representative from the 3rd district of Illinois, which encompasses part of the South Side of Chicago and its suburbs.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Hinterland Gazette

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

Rules Chairman Dreier announces retirement after 16 House terms — House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) on Wednesday morning announced from the House floor that he would not seek reelection this year. — “We all know that this institution has an abysmally low approval rating …

Discussion: Politico