Top Items:
Vanity Fair:
Becoming Obama — When Barack Obama met Genevieve Cook in 1983 at a Christmas party in New York's East Village, it was the start of his most serious romance yet. But as the 22-year-old Columbia grad began to shape his future, he was also struggling with his identity: American or international?
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Dylan Byers / Politico:
Obama: ‘New York girlfriend’ was composite — One of the more mysterious characters from President Obama's 1995 autobiography Dreams From My Father is the so-called ‘New York girlfriend.’ Obama never referred to her by name, or even by psuedonym, but he describes her appearance, her voice, and her mannerisms in specific detail.
Pam Spaulding / Firedoglake:
Wife of NC State Senator: Amendment One Needed ‘To Protect the Caucasian Race’ — I don't even know where to begin to unpack this trash. Chad Nance who is a freelance journalist in Winston-Salem and is covering the election here in NC, recorded the wife of NC Sen. Peter Brunstetter confirming …
Discussion:
Truth Wins Out, The Raw Story and Holy Bullies …
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Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
VIDEO: Wife Of Key Legislator Behind North Carolina's Anti-Gay Amendment Claims It Would Protect ‘Caucasian’ Race — The wife of a prominent North Carolina state senator and supporter of Amendment 1 — a proposed ballot initiative that would outlaw same-sex marriage, civil unions …
Discussion:
www2.journalnow.com
Jordan Green / The YES! Weekly Blog:
Racialized remark about marriage amendment attributed to state senator's wife — UPDATE: National media pickups at Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast and Daily Kos. Still no word from the Brunstetters. — ORIGINAL POST: Chad Nance, a Winston-Salem freelance journalist …
Dustin Ingalls / Public Policy Polling:
Amendment One still up 14 points in N.C.
Amendment One still up 14 points in N.C.
Discussion:
FayObserver.com, Towleroad News #gay, Washington Post and American Power
Joel Siegel / Yahoo! News:
Newt Gingrich $4 Million in Debt; Staffers and Creditors Fume — Newt Gingrich ends his White House dream today with his political committee facing a mountain of debts — owing about $4 million to scores of businesses and campaign workers around the country who fear they will never get paid.
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Ginger Gibson / Politico:
Newt Gingrich drops out: ‘Truly wild ride’ is over — ARLINGTON, Va. — Newt Gingrich finally called it quits. — For all intents and purposes, his campaign was over months ago. — In a hotel ballroom steps from a Washington D.C.-area subway stop Wednesday afternoon …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Washington Monthly, The Caucus, Truthdig and Little Green Footballs
Felicia Sonmez / Washington Post:
Newt Gingrich brings campaign to a close, with swipes at Obama, jokes at his own expense
Newt Gingrich brings campaign to a close, with swipes at Obama, jokes at his own expense
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Fox News and ThinkProgress
ABCNEWS:
Designer of Ann Romney's $1K Shirt Says It's Off The Rack — CHANTILLY, Va. — The fashion house that makes the nearly $1,000 blouse worn by Ann Romney on morning television earlier this week tells ABC News that they had nothing to do with the wardrobe choice, remarking that they'd prefer to stay out of politics.
Discussion:
Naked DC, Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit, Stinque and Washington Free Beacon
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Jada Wong / Styleite:
Ann Romney's Reed Krakoff Bird T-Shirt Costs $990 — Today Mitt and Ann Romney appeared on CBS's This Morning to talk about Barack Obama, Osama bin Laden, and a slew of other political things. Sharp eyes over at The Cut noticed that Ann was wearing a bird-printed t-shirt by Reed Krakoff.
Discussion:
Politico, Indecision Forever, The Political Carnival, Wonkette, New York Magazine and Mediaite
Hillary Chabot / Boston Herald:
Warren: I used minority listing to make friends — Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, fending off questions about whether she used her Native American heritage to advance her career, said today she enrolled herself as a minority in law school directories for nearly a decade …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Althouse, The Volokh Conspiracy, Weasel Zippers and Hot Air
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Howie Carr / Boston Herald:
White and wrong: On the reservation with Elizabeth Warren
White and wrong: On the reservation with Elizabeth Warren
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
BuzzFeed:
New York Post Mocks Obama's Afghanistan Trip — Two schools of thought: Obama is at risk of being seen as politicizing national security. Or, any day spent talking about Osama Bin Laden, and not the economy, is a good one.
Discussion:
The Last Tradition
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Mark McKinnon / The Daily Beast:
GOP Attacks on Obama's Bin Laden Ad Misguided
GOP Attacks on Obama's Bin Laden Ad Misguided
Discussion:
Salon, The Hill, Outside the Beltway, Liberal Values and Washington Wire
Fred Lucas / CNSNews:
Obama in 2006: 'I've Had Enough of Using Terrorism As a Wedge Issue in Our Politics'
Obama in 2006: 'I've Had Enough of Using Terrorism As a Wedge Issue in Our Politics'
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, protein wisdom, The Gateway Pundit and The Lonely Conservative
Frances Robles / MiamiHerald.com:
George Zimmerman's crude Myspace page from 2005 uncovered — While it includes photos of an ethnically diverse group of friends, the murder defendant's 2005 web presence includes disparaging remarks about Mexicans. — FROBLES@MIAMIHERALD.COM — SANFORD — Just as George Zimmerman's attorney pushes …
Discussion:
Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Mashable!, msnbc.com, ThinkProgress, The Political Carnival, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Colorlines
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Washington Post:
Chen Guangcheng leaves U.S. embassy; deal to guarantee his safety may be unraveling, friends say — BEIJING — Blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who fled de facto house arrest last month and sought refuge for six days at the U.S. Embassy, left the diplomatic compound on Wednesday …
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Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:
Obama's Not-So-Hot Date With Wall Street — In late January, Brad Thompson, the Obama campaign's chief liaison to major donors in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, called some of his contacts in the area, most of them Wall Street executives. The president's next trip to town would be in early March.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Hullabaloo, American Prospect and Politico
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Amitai Etzioni / CNN:
Why Occupy May Day fizzled — Occupy Wall Street participants stage …
Why Occupy May Day fizzled — Occupy Wall Street participants stage …
Discussion:
CANNONFIRE, Guardian and Wonkette
utsandiego.com:
Man abandoned in DEA cell steps forward — He screamed. He kicked madly at the door. He cried like a baby. Then, locked inside a five-by-10-foot windowless cell and seemingly forgotten, the hallucinations crept in. — Daniel Chong said nothing made sense.
Discussion:
Guardian
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Sarah Grieco / KNSD-TV:
DEA Ignored All My Cries: Student
DEA Ignored All My Cries: Student
Discussion:
San Diego …, Gawker, msnbc.com, The Daily Caller, The Raw Story, Hit & Run, Colorlines and US Politics
Bill Clinton / New York Times:
‘The Passage of Power,’ Robert Caro's New L.B.J. Book — “The Passage of Power,” the fourth installment of Robert Caro's brilliant series on Lyndon Johnson, spans roughly five years, beginning shortly before the 1960 presidential contest, including the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, The New Republic, Lean Left and The Scoop
Steve Kornacki / Salon:
It's starting to look over for Dick Lugar — Welcome to the permanent era of Tea Party politics — It sure doesn't look like Richard Lugar is long for the political world. The news that the major super PAC supporting his candidacy is bailing on him a week before the Republican primary reinforces …
Discussion:
FiveThirtyEight
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Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
‘Saturday Night Live’ creator: Romney won't be on show this season — Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels said presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney will not be on the show this season, but left the door open to Romney making an appearance when it returns in the fall.
Discussion:
Deadline.com and HotAirPundit
John Sides / FiveThirtyEight:
Is Obama More Popular Than He Should Be? — It's well known that presidential approval ratings are a powerful predictor of election outcomes. President Obama's current 47 percent approval rating would be among the lowest approval ratings of any incumbent president who went on to be re-elected.
Discussion:
Hot Air, NewsBusters.org blogs, The Monkey Cage and Ezra Klein
Marquette Law School Poll:
Marquette Law School Poll shows Barrett leads Falk in recall primary; Walker and Barrett within single percentage point — Milwaukee, Wis. - With less than a week until the primary in the historic Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election, a new Marquette Law School Poll shows Tom Barrett …
Discussion:
Washington Post, msnbc.com and Politico