memeorandum: GOP voters want Santorum, Rubio for VP (Jonathan Easley/Ballot Box)

5:45 PM ET, May 3, 2012

Top Items:

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: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Other McCain, GOP 12 and The Lonely Conservative

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Mitt Romney Meets With Conservative Media Off The Record … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Elections 2012, Mitt Romney, Elections 2012, Video, Ann Romney, Daily Caller, National Review, Washington Examiner, Conservative Media, Media News, Mitt Romney 2012, Powerline, Reince Priebus, Right Wing News …

Discussion: Wonkette, Washington Monthly, Little Green Footballs, Greensburg Tribune-Review, TVNewser, Mediaite, BuzzFeed, TBogg, Wall Street Journal, ThinkProgress, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Suburban Guerrilla and ABCNEWS, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Examiner:
Klein: Obama is winning the general election

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Hot Air

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: ABCNEWS, democracyarsenal.org, msnbc.com, Voice of America, New York Magazine, Hot Air, Blogs of War, Campaign 2012, Business Insider, 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: Mediaite, ABCNEWS, Poynter, Guardian, New York Magazine, Washington Free Beacon and Naked DC

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: ABCNEWS, National Review, Swampland, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative, Hit & Run, Guardian, Washington Post and Politico

Tim Stanley / blogs.telegraph.co.uk:

Why it matters that Obama dated a composite and ate a dog — There was a brief media firestorm yesterday when Vanity Fair broke the news that Obama's famous “New York girlfriend” was a fiction. She appears in his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father, described in some detail by her appearance, voice and mannerisms.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Power Line, Outside the Beltway, Ed Driscoll, The Atlantic Online, GayPatriot, Mediaite, Michelle Obama's Mirror, NewsBusters.org blogs and Moe_Lane's blog, more at Mediagazer »

Politico:

The dangerous new Obama book — Months before Barack Obama knew Mitt Romney would be his political opponent in 2012, the president knew the identity of his foremost literary challenger: Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Maraniss, who had been reaching out to Obama's old friends, classmates and lovers for the past several years.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, National Review, Reuters and Vanity Fair

Melinda Liu / The Daily Beast:

Activist Chen Guangcheng: Let Me Leave China on Hillary Clinton's Plane — In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast's Melinda Liu, blind dissident Chen Guangcheng says he's been abandoned by American officials at a Chinese hospital and begs to leave the country on Hillary Clinton's plane.

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

Discussion: Politico

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

Discussion: CNN and p m carpenter's commentary

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

Discussion: The Heritage Foundation, Global Spin and Business Insider

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

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

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

CNN Ratings Decline Stirs Worries — “Maybe CNN is just like an emergency room.” — That is what a longtime CNN employee theorized last year, during one of the channel's predictable defeats in the Nielsen ratings. — When elections and explosions happen, people tune in to CNN …

Discussion: Politico, BuzzFeed, Mediaite and HotAirPundit, more at Mediagazer »

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
CNN Feels Heat on Ratings

Discussion: Politico, Poynter, New York Magazine and TVNewser

Ali Gharib / ThinkProgress:

EXPOSED: Romney Campaign Silenced Gay Spokesman To Avoid Confronting Hate Groups, Misled Reporters — When presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's openly gay foreign policy spokesman resigned under pressure from right-wing anti-gay groups, the campaign sought to minimize …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Huffington Post, Truth Wins Out, p m carpenter's commentary and Daily Kos

New York Times:
Behind Richard Grenell's Departure, a Right-Wing Storm

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

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, Mediaite, NewsBusters.org blogs and Clayton Cramer's Blog, more at Mediagazer »

Fox News:

Issa sends out draft contempt order against Holder, says ‘Furious’ response ‘cannot stand’ — Republican Rep. Darrell Issa has circulated a lengthy pair of documents making the case for holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over his “refusal” to cooperate in an investigation …

Discussion: Hot Air, Wake up America, The Hill, Nice Deb, Moe Lane, HotAirPundit and White House Dossier

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Video: The freaky quadruple deaky “tanning mom” clip — It's come to this. — Via Mediaite, I've been looking around all day for a palate cleanser. And now, at last, I've found it. Trust me: Whatever you have on your news palate right now, this'll clean it right out. Doesn't matter how important it is.

ABCNEWS:

Bachmann: 'He Can't Beat Obama ... Not Going to Happen' — Michele Bachmann has finally decided to endorse Mitt Romney - 119 days after she dropped out of the race. — The endorsement will come at a joint Romney-Bachmann appearance on Thursday. No doubt Bachmann will talk about the importance …

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

Karl Smith / Modeled Behavior:

Rajan on Lessons from Recession — Tyler Cowen can't heap enough praise on this paper from Raghuram Rajan. — I am loathe to use such language, but at this late date I think it helps to be direct. The paper reads to me like nonsense on a stick. Ostensibly its about the ineffectiveness …

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Mother Jones, Marginal Revolution, TheMoneyIllusion and Ezra Klein

Dave Boyer / Washington Times:

RNC campaign parodies Obama '08 sticker — The Republican National Committee is getting ahead of President Obama's official campaign kickoff in Ohio and Virginia on Saturday with a media blitz labeling his re-election drive the “Hype & Blame” tour. — The RNC will sell “Hype & Blame 2012” …

Discussion: CNN, Associated Press, nation.foxnews.com and Weasel Zippers

CNN:

Study: Campaign ads much more negative than four years ago — (CNN) - If you think the current race for the White House seems more negative than the 2008 presidential campaign, a new study indicates you're right. — According to a political advertising analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project …

Discussion: Politico

Jonathan Easley / Ballot Box:

GOP voters want Santorum, Rubio for VP — Republican voters would like to see Rick Santorum or Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) standing at Mitt Romney's side this fall, a new poll found. — A Reuters-Ipsos poll released Thursday found Santorum and Rubio are the top choices among Republican voters to be Romney's running mate.

Discussion: CNN

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Mitt Romney Commissioned Pro-America Pins, Made Them In China — At a fundraiser in Virginia last night, Mitt Romney touted his experinece running the Salt Lake City Olympic Games in 2002 — a familiar refrain — but also introduced a new rhetorical line about something more specific: lapel pins.

Discussion: Lynn Sweet, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Political Carnival, Washington Free Beacon and 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com

Shaun Waterman / Washington Times:

Russia threatens to strike NATO missile defense sites — Russia's most senior military officer said Thursday that Moscow would preemptively strike and destroy U.S.-led NATO missile defense sites in Eastern Europe if talks with Washington about the developing system continue to stall.

Discussion: Power Line, Wake up America and Clayton Cramer's Blog

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Jon Will's gift — When Jonathan Frederick Will was born 40 years ago — on May 4, 1972, his father's 31st birthday — the life expectancy for people with Down syndrome was about 20 years. That is understandable. — The day after Jon was born, a doctor told Jon's parents that the first question …

Discussion: American Spectator, Betsy's Page and Ricochet Conversations Feed

Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:

Methodists Vote Against Ending Investments Tied to Israel — The United Methodist Church, the nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination, voted against two proposals on Wednesday to divest from companies that provide equipment used by Israel to enforce its control in the occupied territories.

Discussion: Via Meadia, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and PJ Media

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:

Sen. Kirk leaving rehab facility three months after suffering stroke — Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is leaving the rehabilitation facility where he had most recently been recovering from a stroke he suffered in January. — He will continue his recovery at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago while living at home.

Discussion: Politico and CNN