memeorandum: Assailing the Supreme Court (Wall Street Journal)

11:30 AM ET, April 2, 2012

Top Items:

Susan Page / USA Today:

Swing States poll: A shift by women puts Obama in lead — MILWAUKEE - President Obama has opened the first significant lead of the 2012 campaign in the nation's dozen top battleground states, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, boosted by a huge shift of women to his side.

Justin Sink / The Hill:

‘Mad Men’ character knocks Mitt Romney's father as ‘a clown’ — Sunday's episode of “Mad Men” — the popular drama about an ad agency in the 1960s — gave a nod to the current political scene, with one character taking a not-so-subtle jab at the father of 2012 Republican front-runner Mitt Romney.

Discussion: CNN

Lois Romano / Politico:

Ann Romney is the Romney Democrats fear most — Ann Romney's unexpected rock star status has the political arena buzzing about how her husband's campaign will leverage her popularity in an election in which Michelle Obama — one of the most admired first ladies in history — will have an outsized and substantive portfolio.

Discussion: CNN

Christian Heinze / GOP 12:

Swing state poll makes key omissions — USA Today released a seemingly-rough poll for Mitt Romney over the weekend, but it's not nearly as lopsided as it first appears. — The substance: Barack Obama has jumped to a 9% lead over Romney, overall, in swing states (Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico …

Discussion: Ballot Box and The Raw Story

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Obama 49%, Romney 45% Among Registered Voters Nationwide — Obama, Romney supporters equally enthusiastic about voting — PRINCETON, NJ — If asked to choose between them today, 49% of U.S. registered voters say they would vote for Barack Obama for president, while 45% would choose likely Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

Discussion: Politico, Guardian, The Spectacle Blog, The Maddow Blog, FiveThirtyEight and The PJ Tatler

Jonathan Easley / Ballot Box:
New Santorum ad links Romney to Obama on healthcare, bailouts

Discussion: CNN

Washington Post:
Mitt Romney's women problem

Discussion: Hot Air, Associated Press, The Hill, The Raw Story and Hotline On Call

James Crugnale / Mediaite:
Mad Men Takes A Swipe At Mitt Romney's Father, Calls Him A ‘Clown’

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Campaign 2012 and nation.foxnews.com

John E. Sununu / Boston Globe: An exciting VP? Don't go for it, Mitt

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Pink Slime Economics — The big bad event of last week was, of course, the Supreme Court hearing on health reform. In the course of that hearing it became clear that several of the justices, and possibly a majority, are political creatures pure and simple, willing to embrace any argument …

Discussion: The Hill, National Review, The Huffington Post, Paul Krugman, Suburban Guerrilla, Daily Kos, Washington Wire and Prairie Weather

E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:

The right's stealthy coup — Right before our eyes, American conservatism is becoming something very different from what it once was. Yet this transformation is happening by stealth because moderates are too afraid to acknowledge what all their senses tell them.

Discussion: The Mahablog

Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:

Former President Clinton on Mitt Romney: Etch-a-Sketch “Is What He's Got to Do” — Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, currently faces a dynamic similar to the one President Bill Clinton faced during his first presidential run 20 years ago: a long, bruising primary, driving up his unfavorable ratings.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Politico, CNN and Taegan Goddard's …

Christian Heinze / GOP 12: Clinton: Flip-flops will doom Romney

Wall Street Journal:

Assailing the Supreme Court — The legal left echoes Newt Gingrich on judicial power. — After last week's Supreme Court argument on ObamaCare, the political left seems to be suffering a nervous breakdown. Only a week ago, the liberal consensus was that the federal mandate to buy insurance couldn't possibly be overturned.

Discussion: Althouse and BizzyBlog

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Rep. Clyburn: Obama should campaign against Supreme Court if health law falls

Discussion: Politico and Hot Air

Seattle Times:
U.S. Supreme Court should overturn Arizona's anti-illegal-immigration law

Discussion: Don Surber

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Obama allies launch ad campaign hitting back over gas prices — In case you needed another sign of how intense the battle over gas prices will get as the election heats up, the Obama-allied Priorities USA Action is going up with a new ad in seven swing states hitting back hard at a spot …

Discussion: American Prospect and Scared Monkeys

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Obama extends olive branch to Cantor after passage of jobs bill

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:
Facing voter anger at home, lawmakers play gas prices blame game

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The Heritage Foundation

Washington Examiner:

Spike Lee puts the ‘twit’ in Twitter — Just when you thought the controversy over the Trayvon Martin shooting couldn't get any worse, it got worse. Or, more accurately, several parties helped make it worse. — Enter Marcus Davonne Higgins, a Los Angeles man no one's probably ever heard of …

Terence P. Jeffrey / CNSNews:

Obama Calls for More Redistribution of Wealth, Declaring: 'I Am My Brother's Keeper' — (CNSNews.com) - In a campaign speech in Vermont on Friday, President Barack Obama referenced the biblical story of Cain and Abel in condemning what he called “you're-on-your-own economics” …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Lonely Conservative

Ylan Q. Mui / Washington Post:

Senior citizens continue to bear burden of student loans — New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that Americans 60 and older still owe about $36 billion in student loans, providing a rare window into the dynamics of student debt. More than 10 percent of those loans are delinquent.

Discussion: News Desk, US Politics and Via Meadia

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Keith Olbermann's Angry Email Trail Traces Breakup With Current TV — His bitter divorce from Al Gore's network followed months of escalating complaints to Current TV executives. Howard Kurtz unearths the acrimonious correspondence. — It was a terrible marriage from the beginning.

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Caller, The Other McCain, Poynter, New York Magazine and Betsy's Page, more at Mediagazer »

Steven Lee Myers / New York Times:

At Summit, Nations Move to Increase Aid for Syrian Rebels — ISTANBUL — The United States and more than 60 other countries moved closer on Sunday to direct intervention in the fighting in Syria, with Arab nations pledging $100 million to pay opposition fighters and the United States agreeing …