memeorandum: Obama Fares Worse Among Women after Month-Long Contraception Mandate Battle (John McCormack/Weekly Standard)

12:50 AM ET, March 13, 2012

Top Items:

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Specter says Obama ditched him after he helped pass health law — Former Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) writes in a new book that President Obama ditched him in the 2010 election after he helped Obama win the biggest legislative victory of his term by passing healthcare reform.

Discussion: YID With LID, National Review, Ricochet Conversations Feed, CNN, Patterico's Pontifications, Power Line, The Other McCain and The Spectacle Blog

Meredith / Senate Democrats:

Cloture filed on 17 Judicial nominations — Today Senator Reid filed cloture on the following 17 Judicial nominations. Under the rule, the first vote would occur 1 hour after the Senate convenes on Wednesday, March 14. — Cal.#408, Gina Marie Groh, of West Virginia; Cal.#441, David Nuffer, of Utah;

Discussion: Poliglot, Washington Blade, Towleroad News #gay and ACS Blog

Josiah Ryan / The Hill:

Reid: Republicans clogging judicial confirmation process to embarrass Obama — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) charged Senate Republicans on Monday of gumming up the Senate's judicial confirmation process in order to embarrass President Obama, and said he plans to file cloture …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, RedState, Firedoglake and ThinkProgress

Manu Raju / Politico: Harry Reid vows floor fight for judicial nominees

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Other notes from Alabama and Mississippi — In addition to asking about the Presidential race in Alabama and Mississippi we also touched on some other issues in those states: —There's considerable skepticism about Barack Obama's religion with Republican voters in them.

Discussion: Addicting Info, NewsBusters.org blogs, Firedoglake and Little Green Footballs

Jake Sherman / Politico:
Mitt Romney wishes Mobile 'good mornin"

Discussion: CNN, Ballot Box, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Don Surber and Daily Kos

CNN:
Foxworthy on hunting with Romney: More dangerous than Cheney

Discussion: GOP 12

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Republicans' war on the TelePrompter — and its limits

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Maddow Blog, Mediaite, ThinkProgress and Washington Monthly

CNN:
Romney: If battle to convention, ‘signaling our doom’

Discussion: Politico

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Obama Still Muslim, Report Southern Republicans

Discussion: American Prospect, Prairie Weather, The Reaction, Washington Monthly, Connecting.the.Dots, The New Republic, The Maddow Blog, No More Mister Nice Blog, Bloomberg, Outside the Beltway and ThinkProgress

Bobby Jindal / CNN:
Jindal won't endorse before Louisiana primary

Discussion: Politico, GOP 12 and The Page

New York Times:

Obama Approval Rating Shows Serious Slip in New Poll — Despite improving job growth and an extended Republican primary fight dividing his would-be opponents, President Obama is heading into the general election season on treacherous political ground, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Discussion: Power Line, The New Republic, The Last Tradition and Politico

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:

Obama Fares Worse Among Women after Month-Long Contraception Mandate Battle — Washington Post poll contradicts Washington Post narrative about female voters. — How's the great contraception mandate battle of 2012 playing out? If you read the Washington Post's news coverage …

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Ezra Klein, Instapundit, LifeNews.com and FITSNews

Stephanie Condon / CBS News:

Poll: Obama's approval rating sinks to new low — CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto. — (CBS News) President Obama's approval rating has hit the lowest level ever in CBS News polling, according to the latest CBS News/New York Times survey.

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air, BREITBART.COM, The Hill, Althouse, Michelle Malkin, Patterico's Pontifications and Washington Post

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:

Santorum Concedes: He Can't Win The Nomination Outright — Winning by losing? Strategy memo is less a “path to victory” as it is a path to a contested convention. — Santorum talks with supporters during a stop at Sweet Peppers Deli, Sunday, March 11, 2012, in Tupelo, Miss. — (AP / Eric Gay)

Discussion: Reuters, Hot Air, Politico, Business Insider, Washington Post, Guardian, Daily Kos, Indecision Forever, Outside the Beltway, The Other McCain, The Spectacle Blog, The Hill, A plain blog about politics, Little Green Footballs and News Desk

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Santorum Campaign Responds To Dutch Euthanasia Outrage

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, Mediaite and A plain blog about politics

David Corn / Mother Jones:
Michael Steele: “I Wanted a Brokered Convention”

Discussion: Mediaite, The PJ Tatler, Indecision Forever, Hot Air, The Impolitic and The Other McCain

Joshua Keating / FP Passport:
In his heart, Rick Santorum knows that Dutch people are forcibly euthanized

Discussion: Angry Black Lady Chronicles, Washington Monthly and Washington Post

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

EXCLUSIVE: 141 Companies Drop Advertising From Rush Limbaugh — ThinkProgress has obtained an internal memo from Premiere Radio Networks listing 96 national companies that have “specifically asked” their advertisments not be played during the Rush Limbaugh Show. Premiere is the distributor of Limbaugh's program.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Taegan Goddard's …, rubber hose, The Last Tradition, The Raw Story, Mediaite, The Political Carnival, The Impolitic, Don Surber, RADAMISTO, skippy the bush kangaroo, ECHIDNE of the snakes and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, more at Mediagazer »

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Rush Limbaugh losing more advertisers? — Think Progress gets its hands on an internal memo from Premiere Radio Networks that lists nearly 100 national companies that have asked that their advertisements not be played on the Rush Limbaugh show — companies that have not been publicly named until now.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice and The Mahablog

Sari Horwitz / Washington Post:

Justice Department bars Texas voter ID law — The Justice Department has blocked a new law in Texas requiring voters to show a photo ID, saying that it disproportionately harms Hispanic residents. — The action is the second time in three months that the Obama administration has blocked a state voter ID law.

Discussion: The POH Diaries and The Lonely Conservative

Eric Kleefeld / 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com:
TPM2012 — Wisconsin election officials have now closed …

Discussion: JSOnline and The BRAD BLOG

JSOnline:
Judge rules Wisconsin's voter ID law unconstitutional

Discussion: New York Times and The Maddow Blog

BBC:

Homeless hotspots plan causes controversy for BBH ad agency — Google Maps was used to alert the public to where the Homeless Hotspots participants were — An “experiment” which involved using homeless people as mobile wi-fi hotspots has attracted criticism, forcing the advertising agency behind it to defend itself.

Discussion: Gawker and Balloon Juice

Tim Carmody / Wired:
The Damning Backstory Behind ‘Homeless Hotspots’ at SXSW

Discussion: New York Times, BuzzFeed, Gawker, Colorlines, Los Angeles Times, US Politics and Washington Free Beacon

Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:

Rep. Stearns On Obama Birth's Certificate: ‘The Question Is, Is It Legitimate?’ — New video of a February town hall shows Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) pandering to birthers and raising questions about the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificate. — When Stearns met with constituents …

Discussion: Politico, Zandar Versus The Stupid, The Raw Story and Booman Tribune

Josh Lederman / Ballot Box:
Longtime GOP lawmaker questions legitimacy of Obama birth certificate

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Digby / Hullabaloo:

Welfare queens and college sluts — CNN, you really need to examine your hiring policies. Your “analyst” Dana Loesch wrote this piece of drivel on her site yesterday: … I assume that CNN knows that Fluke wasn't testifying about herself and they know that she wasn't talking about her own sex life …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Eschaton

Brian Beutler / tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com:

TPMDC — The Many Misleading Claims In Mitt's Monday Medicare Memo — As part of an effort to reverse the public's perception of the parties' positions on Medicare, Mitt Romney's campaign is appropriating a common Democratic attack and using it against President Obama.

Discussion: Washington Post, ABCNEWS, The New Republic, Firedoglake and The Maddow Blog

CNN:
Romney to forgo Medicare

Discussion: The Hill, BuzzFeed, Hot Air, Indecision Forever, Politico, The War Room …, No More Mister Nice Blog and ABCNEWS

Steven Ertelt / LifeNews.com:

Obama Admin Finalizes Rules: $1 Abortions in ObamaCare — It's official. The concern pro-life organizations had about the ObamaCare legislation funding abortions has been confirmed, as the Obama administration has issued the final rules on abortion funding governing the controversial health care law.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:

Very Sad: No One Came To Mitt Romney's Twitter Birthday Party — The campaign is encouraging supporters to use the hashtag #hbdmitt, but their social media push isn't really working. Just 19 tweets with the hashtag over three days. (There are many more if you search Mitt Romney directly.)

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Rumproast, Guardian and Daily Kos

Mj Lee / Politico:
Mitt Romney: I'm weak? What about Newt Gingrich?

Discussion: Wonkette, CNN, The Lonely Conservative and The Hill

Scott Wong / Politico:

Marco Rubio builds A-Team to control image, bio — Rubio's PAC also employs Malorie Miller, who worked for Jeb Bush when he was Florida governor and led the Rubio campaign's online messaging, fundraising and grass-roots outreach, as well as Alberto Martinez, a Tallahassee-based operative …

Allysia Finley / Wall Street Journal:

Coffee Is an Essential Benefit Too — Here are some other health-care mandates that government should impose on employers. — Dear President Obama, — Can you believe the nerve of employers? Many of them still seem to think that they should be allowed to determine the benefits they offer.

Discussion: Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, JustOneMinute, National Review and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Adam Peck / ThinkProgress:

Georgia Republican Compares Women to Cows, Pigs, And Chickens — Republican Georgia State Representative Terry England — A speech from a Georgia Republican state representative surfaced last week in which he compared women seeking abortions of stillborn fetuses to cows and pigs.

Discussion: Jezebel