memeorandum: First Thoughts: The margins told the story (msnbc.com)

5:45 PM ET, May 9, 2012

Top Items:

Rick Klein / Yahoo! Good Morning America:

President Obama Affirms His Support for Same Sex Marriage — President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president. In an interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts …

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:

Obama Backs Same-Sex Marriage — Updated President Obama declared for the first time on Wednesday that he supports same-sex marriage, putting the moral power of his presidency behind a social issue that continues to divide the country. “At a certain point,” Mr. Obama said in an interview …

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

BREAKING: Obama Embraces Marriage Equality — President Obama has come out in support of marriage equality for gay and lesbian people in an interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts this afternoon: … Watch it: — His endorsement comes less than a week after Vice President Joe Biden embraced …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, American Prospect, Washington Post, Politico, Washington Monthly, Mother Jones, Campaign 2012, Taylor Marsh, The Maddow Blog, Washington Free Beacon, Business Insider, Weekly Standard, Towleroad News #gay, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Indecision Forever

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

President Obama's calculated gamble on gay marriage — President Obama's decision to express support for gay marriage in an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts is a decision that comes with real political risk. — President Obama declares his support for gay marriage in an interview with Robin Roberts of ABC News.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Los Angeles Times and msnbc.com

Log Cabin Republicans:

Obama Announcement Is Cold Comfort to LGBT Americans — (Washington, DC) - Log Cabin Republicans respond to President Barack Obama's latest evolution on the freedom to marry. — “That the president has chosen today, when LGBT Americans are mourning the passage of Amendment One …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress, PoliticusUSA, rightwingwatch.org and Indecision Forever

New York Times:

Obama Says Same-Sex Marriage Should Be Legal — WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday ended nearly two years of “evolving” on the issue of same-sex marriage by publicly endorsing it in a television interview, taking a definitive stand on one of the most contentious and politically charged social issues of the day.

Discussion: Democracy in America, The Caucus, FiveThirtyEight and Philly.com

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
An Obama Gay Marriage Timeline

Discussion: Hot Air, ABCNEWS, NationalJournal.com, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller, Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers, Wake up America, Guardian and Instapundit

Joe Sudbay / Gay Politics:
BREAKING: President Obama supports marriage equality

Discussion: American Prospect, Crooks and Liars, ABCNEWS, The New Republic and DISSENTING JUSTICE

E.J. Graff / American Prospect:
I Am Gobsmacked

Discussion: pandagon.net

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Evolve: Obama gay marriage quotes

Discussion: CNN, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Little Green Footballs

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Lugar's Demise and the Constitutional Crisis — The defeat of Richard Lugar in the Indiana Republican Senate primary is the kind of event that would have been shocking just a half-dozen years ago, and has since grown routine. Incumbent senators used to have almost no fear that they might …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Liberal Values, Ezra Klein, The Right Sphere, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, neo-neocon, Washington Wire, Balloon Juice, CNN, msnbc.com, American Prospect, Mother Jones, ABCNEWS, The Daily Caller, No More Mister Nice Blog, Campaign 2012 and Left Coast Rebel

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:

EXCLUSIVE: Former Sen. Danforth (R) Says GOP Becoming ‘Increasingly Inconsequential,’ ‘Intolerant’ — Former Ambassador to the UN and U.S. Sen. John Danforth (R-MO) — In 2010, former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO) told the New York Times that “If Dick Lugar, having served five terms …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, The Gateway Pundit, Weekly Standard and The Maddow Blog

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Richard Mourdock: ‘Bipartisanship Ought To Consist Of Democrats Coming To The Republican Point Of View’ — Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) crushed Sen. Dick Lugar (R) in yesterday's GOP Senate primary in Indiana, ending the 36-year career of one of the few Republican senators left …

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Maddow Blog

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Richard Mourdock dismisses Dick Lugar attack

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Evansville Courier …, Swampland and Daily Kos

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:
Man in the News | Richard Mourdock: Richard Mourdock's Many Pursuits Don't Include Bipartisanship

Discussion: Firedoglake, Ezra Klein, Washington Post, Capital New York, DealBook, Politico and ThinkProgress

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Moderate Republicans Fall Away in the Senate

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Taegan Goddard's … and Swampland

Manu Raju / Politico:
GOP senators wonder: Am I next?

Discussion: Washington Post, Left Coast Rebel, USA Today, Business Insider, CNN, The Gateway Pundit and msnbc.com

KDVR.com is the website for KDVR Television …:

Romney in Colorado: “I do not favor civil unions” — DENVER — Mitt Romney, who's now a sure bet to be the Republican Party's presidential nominee this fall, commented about gay marriage and civil unions during an interview with FOX31 Denver's Jeremy Hubbard Wednesday.

Discussion: Business Insider, The Caucus and Advocate

Ashley Parker / The Caucus:
Asked About Gay Marriage, Romney Doesn't Answer

Discussion: BuzzFeed, ThinkProgress, The Hill, Washington Post, Swampland, City Room, ACS Blog, New York Times, Business Insider, Poliglot, Weasel Zippers and The Maddow Blog

Justin Sink / The Hill:
RNC chairman: Obama ‘played politics,’ GOP ‘clear’ in opposition to same-sex marriage

Discussion: CNN

Sarah Huisenga / CBS News:
Romney affirms opposition to same-sex marriage

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hit & Run, Harry's Place and ABCNEWS

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed: Republicans: Our Position Is Clear, Marriage Is Between One Man And One Woman

msnbc.com:

First Thoughts: The margins told the story — Voters arrive at Overbrook Elementary School in Charleston to cast their votes in the primary election, Tuesday, May 8, 2012. … *** The margins told the story: The overall results went largely as expected last night in Indiana, North Carolina …

Discussion: American Prospect, southernstudies.org, JustOneMinute, The Moderate Voice and The Heritage Foundation

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Obama Loses West Virginia Delegates To Prison Inmate

Discussion: Twitchy, Wake up America, Weasel Zippers, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, msnbc.com, americanthinker.com, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, Pundit & Pundette, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Outside the Beltway and Balloon Juice

John Nolte / BREITBART.COM:
TO EXPLAIN OBAMA'S WV HUMILIATION, DEMS ACCUSE THEIR OWN OF RACISM

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The New Republic

Bill Dedman / msnbc.com:

Conservative author Jonah Goldberg drops claim of two Pulitzer nominations — On the dust jacket of his new book, “The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas,” best-selling conservative author and commentator Jonah Goldberg is described as having “twice been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.”

Discussion: Mediaite, National Review, FishbowlDC, Taylor Marsh, Crooked Timber, Wonkette, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »

Naomi Schaefer Riley / Wall Street Journal:

The Academic Mob Rules — Instead of encouraging wide discussion, the Chronicle of Higher Education fires a blogger. — Recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a cover story called “Black Studies: ‘Swaggering Into the Future,’” in which the reporter described how …

Discussion: Rod Dreher, The Lonely Conservative, Weekly Standard, RedState, TBogg, National Review and protein wisdom

Wall Street Journal:
The Cravenness of Higher Education

Discussion: American Power, Althouse and The Other McCain

Dylan Byers / Politico:

NOW president returns fire on Limbaugh — Terry O'Neill, the president of the progressive National Organization for Women (NOW), is returning fire on conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who yesterday called her organization a “faux feminist group” and its members “femi-nazis,” …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Weasel Zippers

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Cumulus: Limbaugh boycott cost ‘millions’

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Right Sphere, ThinkProgress and Rush Limbaugh

Emily Schultheis / Politico:

Mass. Dems file ethics complaint against Brown (Updated) — The Massachusetts Democratic Party has filed an ethics complaint against Scott Brown, alleging that Brown has used official resources for campaign purposes. — The complaint focuses on footage of Brown's half-court shot …

Discussion: BuzzFeed and The Gateway Pundit

Newt Gingrich / Human Events:

Sarkozy, Obama, Romney, Ron Paul and the recent European elections — In the past few weeks, a number of elections in Europe have offered telling signs for American politics about the effect of the current pain on voters. — Two consistent patterns are emerging in virtually every European country …

Discussion: Washington Wire, Politico, American Spectator and Wall Street Journal

Holly Bailey / ABCNEWS:

Romney: Obama's policies are ‘old’ and ‘outdated’ — For the second day in a row, Mitt Romney painted President Obama as someone who is leading the country based on “old” and “outdated policies”—arguing that he, not Obama, is the candidate able to get America “growing and thriving again.”

Discussion: CNN and Yahoo! News

Reuters:

Florida nabs white supremacists planning “race war” — ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Ten alleged members of a white supremacist group training near Orlando and Disney World for a “race war” have been rounded up in a series of arrests in central Florida, authorities said on Tuesday.