memeorandum: Smartest Guy in the Room (Andrew Stiles/Washington Free Beacon)

12:40 AM ET, May 4, 2012

Top Items:

Klein: Obama is winning the general election — The general election unofficially began nearly a month ago, and so far President Obama is winning. — This has nothing to do with poll numbers. Sure, Obama enjoys a statistically insignificant 3.7 percent edge over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney …

Discussion: Hot Air and The Jawa Report

BuzzFeed:

After A Twitter Win, Romney Meets The Online Right — A united front against Obama and the liberal media. But: Huffington Post broke news of the meeting. — At the Republican National Committee yesterday, conservative online writers and bloggers who arrived to meet with Romney were also shown …

Discussion: The Other McCain, Mediaite, The Impolitic, TVNewser, PERRspectives, Wonkette, TBogg, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, The Lonely Conservative, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, GOP 12, Campaign 2012 and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Tim Mak / Politico:

Gingrich: Romney said untrue things — Newt Gingrich accused Mitt Romney on Thursday of saying “things that weren't true,"but fell short of reasserting his claim that Romney was a liar. — “I still believe that the Romney campaign said things that weren't true,” said Gingrich on CNN's “Situation Room.”

ABCNEWS:
Bachmann: 'He Can't Beat Obama ... Not Going to Happen'

Discussion: Washington Post, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, Washington Wire, Deseret News, Indecision Forever, The Raw Story, Gallup, Yahoo! News and Politico

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Perry: ‘God help us’ if Romney loses

Discussion: CNN

Newt Gingrich / CNN:
Gingrich says he's already endorsed Romney, still critical

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Connecting.the.Dots, Ballot Box and Conservatives4Palin

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
Romney blasts Obama for opposing D.C. voucher program

Discussion: ABCNEWS, EAGnews.org and The Heritage Foundation

David Harsanyi / Human Events:

Who the hell is “Julia” and why am I paying for her whole life? — In the new Barack Obama campaign piece The Life of Julia, voters can “Take a look at how President Obama's policies help one woman over her lifetime — and how Mitt Romney would change her story.”

Discussion: Guardian, Washington Post, Twitchy, National Review, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Wake up America, The PJ Tatler, Swampland, Indecision Forever, ABCNEWS, Politico, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative and Viking Pundit

Kevin D. Williamson / National Review:

‘Julia’ — Alas, Team Obama has omitted a few milestones from the life of Julia: — 4 months: Julia's mother decides that giving birth will be hard on her figure. She kills Julia. Under Barack Obama, her right to do so is absolutely nonnegotiable. — 10 years: Trapped in a failing …

Discussion: Power Line

Ann Althouse / Althouse:
Who is this woman?

Discussion: Washington Post and RedState

Joe Picard / The Hill:

Obama administration hits back on notion that it abandoned Chen in China — The Obama administration pushed back Thursday evening on the notion that U.S. diplomats abandoned Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng when they let him leave the Beijing embassy on Wednesday.

Discussion: Eschaton

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:
Chinese dissident becomes political headache for Obama

Discussion: National Review

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:
Republicans rip Obama's handling of Chinese activist Chen

Discussion: Politico, CNN, CBS News and p m carpenter's commentary

Walter Russell Mead / Via Meadia:
China Syndrome — No good deed goes unpunished; this must …

Discussion: Global Spin, The Daily Dish, Business Insider, The Heritage Foundation and Mother Jones

Justin Sink / The Hill:
In Virginia, Bachmann endorses Romney

Discussion: Politico and ABCNEWS

Combating Terrorism Center at West Point:

Letters from Abbottabad: Bin Ladin Sidelined? — Authors: Don Rassler, Gabriel Koehler-Derrick, Liam Collins, Muhammad al-Obaidi, Nelly Lahoud — This report is a study of 17 de-classified documents captured during the Abbottabad raid and released to the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC).

Discussion: msnbc.com, New York Magazine, Hot Air, ABCNEWS, democracyarsenal.org, Business Insider, Campaign 2012, Blogs of War, Voice of America, FT Alphaville and This Just In, more at Mediagazer »

Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider:
Al-Qaida Hated Fox News And Thought MSNBC Is Not Neutral Because They Fired Keith Olbermann

Discussion: msnbc.com, Poynter, New York Magazine, Mediaite, ABCNEWS, Guardian, Washington Free Beacon and Naked DC

BuzzFeed:

Conservative Activist: More Navy SEALs to Attack Obama — Joel Arends, the man behind the ad hammering the White House for “taking so much credit” on Bin Laden, believes more Special Forces operators will come out against Obama. Arends objects to the term “swift boat.”

Discussion: Hot Air, The Last Tradition, Taylor Marsh, Weasel Zippers and Hullabaloo

Jonathan H. Adler / The Volokh Conspiracy:

Secondary Boycotts and the Breakdown of Civil Society — Activist groups of various political stripes are increasingly urging boycotts of companies not because of the companies' own behavior, but because of the behavior or speech of those the companies patronize or support.

Discussion: Lean Left and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Bradley A. Smith / Wall Street Journal: Welcome to Boycott Nation

Andrew Stiles / Washington Free Beacon:

Smartest Guy in the Room — Failed Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry's (D., Mass.) long history of ethically dubious investments could invite controversy as he takes on a new role as a “top surrogate” for President Obama's reelection campaign.

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Another Misleading Edit Costs Another NBC News Employee Her Job — Lilia Luciano, a Miami-based NBC News correspondent, is no longer working for the network, TVNewser has learned. — Luciano last reported for NBC News March 31. Until that point, she had been reporting mainly on the Trayvon Martin story.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, NewsBusters.org blogs, Mediaite and Clayton Cramer's Blog

NPR:

Do Liberals Live Under A ‘Tyranny Of Cliches’? … Conservative critic Jonah Goldberg says he's inspired to write when he gets annoyed. “Aggravation is a muse,” he says. And after speaking on a number of college campuses, he grew aggravated enough to write a book.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Los Angeles Times

Washington Post:

Post Poll: Obama leads Romney as campaigns converge on Virginia — President Obama leads former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in Virginia but commonwealth voters are evenly divided on the White House's major policies, a new Washington Post poll shows. — Obama is ahead of Romney …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, The Caucus, CNN, Outside the Beltway, Ballot Box, Politico and Reuters

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:

Horror!... Neo-Nazi #Occupy Phoenix Protester Goes On Shooting Rampage - 5 Dead — Back in October we reported that Neo-Nazi Jason Todd Ready was patrolling the #Occupy Phoenix camp with AR-15′s. — Neo-Nazi Jason Todd (J.T.) Ready pictured on left patrolling the Occupy Phoenix protest …

Discussion: Associated Press, The Huffington Post, The Raw Story, Feathered Bastard and Little Green Footballs

Jim Treacher / The Daily Caller: The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: … Just because the Cleveland 5 …

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

A GOP ‘assault’ on women's health? — “In order to pay for it, [House Republicans] are going to make an assault on women's health, make another assault on women's health, continue our assault on women's health and pay for this with prevention initiatives that are in effect right …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Washington Free Beacon

Wall Street Journal:

Noonan: The Case for Dick Lugar — Washington needs seasoned statesmen, especially at a time of national crisis. — Let's wade into an argument, and on what may well be the losing side. — The most recent polls suggest Dick Lugar, the senior U.S. senator from Indiana, first elected in 1976 …

Discussion: PoliPundit.com

Bloomberg:

Colin Powell Says Iraq ‘Blot’ Teaches Need for Skepticism — Colin Powell says his erroneous address to the United Nations about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction provides a lesson to business leaders on the importance of staying skeptical and following their intuition.

Morgan Korn / Yahoo! Finance:

T. Boone Pickens: Biggest Deterrent To U.S. Energy Plan Is Koch Industries — Investor T. Boone Pickens has made a fortune over the years running an energy-oriented hedge fund, and in recent years he's been placing big bets on the natural gas and wind industries.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Business Insider