memeorandum: Obama makes swing-state energy push amid GOP attacks over high gas prices (Ben Geman/The Hill)

4:40 PM ET, March 7, 2012

Top Items:

Joel B. Pollak / BREITBART.COM:

THE VETTING: BEN SMITH RELEASES SELECTIVELY EDITED OBAMA RACE VIDEO — Earlier today, Buzzfeed's Ben Smith announced on Twitter that video researcher Andrew Kaczynski had released “the mysterious Harvard/Obama/race video that the Breitbart folks have been talking about.”

Discussion: Wake up America, The PJ Tatler, The Spectacle Blog, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Gateway Pundit, Outside the Beltway, Atlas Shrugs, Mediaite, Rumproast, American Spectator and Weasel Zippers

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

At Harvard, Obama Dived Into Diversity Fight — In this video, not previously available online but licensed by BuzzFeed from a Boston television station, the future president speaks at a 1991 campus protest organized to demand tenure for minority and female law professors. — Source: youtube.com

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Talking Points Memo, The BRAD BLOG, Mediaite, The PJ Tatler, Washington Post, Hullabaloo, National Review and New York Times

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:

News Analysis: No Super Tuesday Knockout Punch — Mitt Romney won the delegates, but not necessarily the argument. — His quest to win the Republican presidential nomination has always resembled a detailed, methodical business plan. Mr. Romney, who spent much of his life fixing troubled corporations …

Wall Street Journal:

Republican Split Decision — Romney had a good night but Santorum has cause to fight on. — If Republican poohbahs were hoping that Super Tuesday's 10 contests would settle the Republican primary contest, they woke up Wednesday disappointed. While Mitt Romney had a good night and stretched …

Discussion: GOP 12, Townhall.com, National Review, RedState, Reuters, New York Post, Politico and Campaign 2012

Alexander Burns / Politico:

Newt aide: No, Mitt should drop out — Newt Gingrich adviser Vince Haley rejected a call from the Rick Santorum super PAC for his candidate to get out of the 2012 race - and argued this morning that it's Mitt Romney, rather than Gingrich or Santorum, who's making a mess of the Republican primary.

Discussion: The Hill, CNN and Ballot Box

Mj Lee / Politico:
Super Tuesday Alaska: Sarah Palin voted for Newt Gingrich

Discussion: CNN, American Prospect, The Week, KTUU-TV, msnbc.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Other McCain, Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog, Reuters, ABCNEWS, TBogg, The Page and Pundits Blog

David Weigel / Slate:
Romney and Galactus: Five Lessons from Super Tuesday

Discussion: Mother Jones

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
Obama campaign says long GOP primary hurts president's fundraising

Discussion: Politico

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Gingrich spokesman: Alabama and Mississippi are must-wins

Discussion: CNN

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Mitt's Glass Half Empty

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, TalkLeft, Reuters and The Enterprise Blog

Toby Harnden / Mail Online:
Slouching towards victory? Mitt Romney wins six on Super Tuesday but gets labelled a loser

Discussion: New York Times, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, CNN, Sabato's Crystal Ball, The Daily Beast, Washington Post, Salon, Wake up America, The Lonely Conservative and The Moderate Voice

David Corn / MoJo Articles:
Mitt Romney's Zombie Problem

Discussion: BuzzFeed

The Daily Beast:
No Clear Path To Victory For Romney

Discussion: Politico

William Kristol / Weekly Standard: It Ain't Over — Out here, in the dark quiet of the winter …

Michael Kinsley / Bloomberg:

The insincere push to crush Rush — The people who want to drive Rush Limbaugh off the air aren't assuaged or persuaded by his apology over the weekend. They say he wasn't sincere: He only apologized for calling a Georgetown University law student a “slut” and a “prostitute” because of pressure from advertisers.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, No More Mister Nice Blog and The Moderate Voice

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

Bill Maher Defends Rush Limbaugh — Last night on Twitter, Bill Maher defended Rush Limbaugh and attacked liberals for not accepting Limbaugh's apology after he spent three days relentlessly attacking law student Sandra Fluke. — Notably, Limbaugh only apologized for “two words,” after attacking Fluke dozens of times.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Firedoglake, Examiner, Daily Kos and The Daily Dish

Dan Riehl / BREITBART.COM:

EXCLUSIVE: DEMS INCITE DEATH THREATS AGAINST LIMBAUGH — Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh is being targeted by multiple death threats after President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party ignored his apology for controversial remarks and continued to single him out for rebuke.

Discussion: Instapundit, The Hill, Nice Deb, Rumproast, The Spectacle Blog, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Daily Caller, Campaign 2012, INSTAPUTZ, NewsBusters.org, Jammie Wearing Fools, The PJ Tatler and Weekly Standard

Mj Lee / Politico:
Sarah Palin defends Rush Limbaugh, cites ‘hypocrisy’

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, nation.foxnews.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, CNN and Weasel Zippers

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Maine Miscellany —It looks like Maine voters will reverse their 2009 decision and legalize gay marriage in the state this fall. 54% think that gay marriage should be legal to only 41% who think it should be illegal. And when we asked about the issue using the exact language voters …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and ThinkProgress

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Liberal darling Chellie Pingree won't run for Snowe's seat

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Hullabaloo, The Maddow Blog and Hotline On Call

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Antonio Villaraigosa backs gay marriage plank

Discussion: ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, The Raw Story and Towleroad News #gay

Associated Press:

Obama loses Dem primary in 15 Oklahoma counties — OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — President Barack Obama collected the most votes in the Oklahoma Democratic primary, but lost in 15 counties. — With 98 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday, Obama won 57 percent of the vote.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Scared Monkeys, Weasel Zippers, Wonkette, Wizbang, Campaign 2012 and Clayton Cramer's Blog

Jonathan Easley / Ballot Box:
Anti-abortion activist may keep Obama from unanimous re-nomination

Discussion: Hot Air

Paul Kane / Washington Post:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich suffers primary defeat in Ohio — Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), the two-time presidential candidate and icon of the antiwar left, suffered a bruising primary defeat Tuesday as a new Republican-drawn congressional map threatened to end the career of one of the most colorful figures in Congress.

Discussion: The American Conservative, American Prospect, Slate, Metro, UrbanGrounds, Don Surber, Weasel Zippers, Questions and Observations, Scared Monkeys, Business Insider, Ballot Box, The Lonely Conservative and Daily Kos

Alex Isenstadt / Reuters:
‘Joe the Plumber’ wins Ohio Republican congressional primary bid

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, Outside the Beltway, The Week and Washington Wire

Brian Mylar / KSAT-TV:

Racial incident mars high school game — School district, students apologize — SAN ANTONIO - — A local school district is apologizing after an apparent incident of racism at a boys high school basketball game this past weekend. — When the final whistle blew Saturday …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, americanthinker.com, Moonbattery, The Jawa Report and Questions and Observations

TSA Out of Our Pants!:

$1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog — How Anyone Can Get Anything Past The Scanners — This video is here to demonstrate that the TSA's insistence that the nude body scanner program is effective and necessary is nothing but a fraud, just like their claims that the program is safe …

Discussion: Addicting Info, The Daily Caller, The Raw Story, Mashable and US Politics

Eric Kleefeld / 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com:

TPM2012 — Jean Schmidt Loses House Seat In Major GOP Primary Upset — In a major upset, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH), a fiery conservative voice in the House of Representatives, has lost the Republican primary for her redrawn House seat. — With 99% of precincts reports …

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, Wonkette, Mock, Paper, Scissors and News Desk

Josh Lederman / Ballot Box:
Ohio Rep. Schmidt becomes first member ousted in 2012 primary

Discussion: Politico and The Mahablog

Sahil Kapur / tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com:

TPMDC — Senate Republicans Backing Off Contraception Wars — From one top GOP senator openly lamenting the fallout of the ongoing fight over contraception, to the author of the controversial legislation at the heart of that fight effectively conceding defeat in the upper chamber …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Ezra Klein, pandagon.net, The Loyal Opposition and The Maddow Blog

Reuters:
House slowing down on contraception legislation

Discussion: Daily Kos

Ben Geman / The Hill:

Obama makes swing-state energy push amid GOP attacks over high gas prices — President Obama on Wednesday touted White House efforts to boost deployment of electric-powered and natural gas vehicles during his third energy-themed speech in as many weeks in electoral battleground states.

Discussion: Politico

Dan Froomkin / The Huffington Post:
Obama Fights Gas Prices By ‘Reconstituting’ Oil Speculation Task Force

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Suburban Guerrilla and Politico

Pat Garofalo / ThinkProgress:

Romney Admits His Economic Plan 'Can't Be Scored,' Still Insists It Will Balance The Budget — Mitt Romney — fresh off his series of primary victories last night — appeared on CNBC this morning, where he was asked about the Tax Policy Center's assessment that his tax plan would add trillions of dollars to the national debt.

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The Maddow Blog and Ezra Klein

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Romney says his tax plan 'can't be scored' because it lacks details

Discussion: PERRspectives

Tim Stevens / Engadget:

Apple next-generation iPad liveblog! — March 7, 2012. Hard to say if it's a day that'll live long in terms of historical significance, but you can bet it'll be an important milestone in the history of Apple's iPad family. The next iPad (iPad 3? iPad HD? iPad 2S?) is due to be unveiled …

Discussion: TPM Idea Lab and Vodkapundit

BuzzFeed:

Why Rick Won't Quit — The cost is high. But it's not about logic, or even winning, any more. — There comes a point in a presidential campaign — and in the lore, it's always 3 a.m. when this happens — where the candidate finds himself staring at the ceiling, contemplating financial ruin.

Discussion: GOP 12