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

4:00 PM ET, May 9, 2012

Top Items:

Rick Klein / Yahoo! Good Morning America:

President Obama Affirms His Support for Same Sex Marriage — WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS ARTICLE? … 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.

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:

REPORT: Obama Expected To Endorse Marriage Equality In ABC News Interview — As President Obama prepares to sit down with ABC's Robin Roberts this afternoon just hours after voters in North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions …

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Wake up America, Poliglot, Business Insider and Towleroad News #gay

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: Washington Post, ABCNEWS, Politico, msnbc.com, The Maddow Blog and Indecision Forever

Ashley Parker / The Caucus:

Asked About Gay Marriage, Romney Doesn't Answer — FORT LUPTON, Col. — At an event at an oil-and-gas production company here Wednesday morning, Mitt Romney refused to answer questions on same-sex marriage, a topic about which President Obama is expected to speak this afternoon, in an interview with Robin Roberts of ABC.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Hill, Washington Post, Swampland, ACS Blog, City Room, The Maddow Blog, New York Times, Business Insider, Weasel Zippers, Shakesville and Connecting.the.Dots

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

An Obama Gay Marriage Timeline — President Obama may come out in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage today in an interview with the ABC News. It's been a long and winding road there. — Obama in 1996: “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”

Discussion: ABCNEWS, NationalJournal.com, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers and Guardian

ABCNEWS: Obama Affirms Support for Same-Sex Marriage

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Evolve: Obama gay marriage quotes

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

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Roberts to ask Obama about gay marriage

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Peter Wallsten / Washington Post:
Obama may clarify position on same-sex marriage in interview today

Discussion: CNN, Hit & Run, The New Republic, Gay Politics, American Spectator, The Daily Dish and thenation.com/blogs/163230

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 …

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: The Gateway Pundit and The Maddow Blog

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

Richard Mourdock dismisses Dick Lugar attack — Fresh from his Republican primary win, Richard Mourdock on Wednesday brushed aside Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar's parting shot hat he has an “unrelenting partisan mindset.” — On appearances on Fox News' “Fox & Friends” and CNN's “Starting Point …

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

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

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

Man in the News | Richard Mourdock: Richard Mourdock's Many Pursuits Don't Include Bipartisanship — The man who deposed the Republican foreign policy conscience of the Senate is a 60-year-old homebody, a former geologist who loves riding motorcycles, running marathons and thumbing through history books in bed.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, DealBook, Washington Post, Capital New York, Politico and Lawyers, Guns & Money

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

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

Washington Post:
Why Dick Lugar lost

Discussion: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Weekly Standard, The Huffington Post, Ezra Klein, ABCNEWS, Swampland, Outside the Beltway and CNN

Melinda Henneberger / Washington Post:
Dick Lugar, poor loser?

Discussion: Wonkette

Geneva Sands / Ballot Box:
Mourdock says he hasn't decided on backing McConnell as leader

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Politico

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, Wonkette, FishbowlDC, Taylor Marsh, Crooked Timber, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »

National Review: Jonah Goldberg — Jonah Goldberg was the founding editor …

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Obama Loses West Virginia Delegates To Prison Inmate — The vote highlights the President's unpopularity in the Appalachian heartland. In 2008, white voters there cited race as a factor. — Federal prisoner Keith Russell Judd, 49, at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Beaumont, Texas in March 15, 2008.

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

msnbc.com:
First Thoughts: The margins told the story

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

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

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The New Republic

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
10 facts about felon Keith Judd

Discussion: Sentencing Law and Policy, Washington Post, Weekly Standard and Newsy

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: Weekly Standard, protein wisdom, TBogg, RedState, National Review and ProfessorBainbridge.com

Wall Street Journal:
The Cravenness of Higher Education

Discussion: American Power, Althouse and The Other McCain

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

Tim Mak / Politico:

Michele Bachmann claims Swiss citizenship — Rep. Michelle Bachmann is now officially a Swiss miss. — Bachmann (R-Minn.) recently became a citizen of Switzerland, making her eligible to run for office in the tiny European nation, according to a Swiss TV report Tuesday.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Outside the Beltway, Indecision Forever, CNN, Mother Jones, FP Passport, New York Magazine, National Review, The Maddow Blog, The Daily Caller, ABCNEWS and Hot Air

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: Politico and American Spectator

Emily Schultheis / Politico:

Tom Barrett wins Wisconsin recall primary — Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett won the Democratic primary in Wisconsin's gubernatorial recall election Tuesday, dealing a blow to organized labor and setting up the June 5 race against Republican Gov. Scott Walker. — Barrett defeated former Dane …

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, americanthinker.com, American Spectator and We Party Patriots

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.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, This ain't Hell … and The Raw Story

Rolling Stone:

Tom Gabel of Against Me! Comes Out as Transgender — Singer reveals plans to begin living as a woman in the new issue of Rolling Stone — Against Me! singer Tom Gabel reveals plans to begin living as a woman in the new issue of Rolling Stone. Gabel, who has dealt privately …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress, BuzzFeed, newsfeed.time.com, Towleroad News #gay, The Other McCain, ABCNEWS and Guardian

Nigel Bunyan / Telegraph:

Rochdale grooming trial: Police accused of failing to investigate paedophile gang for fear of appearing racist — Police and social workers were last night accused of failing to investigate an Asian paedophile gang for fear of being perceived as racist, allowing them to prey on up to 50 young white girls.

Discussion: The Other McCain, The Jawa Report, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, msnbc.com, Jihad Watch, iOwnTheWorld.com and Atlas Shrugs

John Miller / CBS News:

CIA sacrifices valuable intelligence source to foil underwear bomb plot — PLAY CBS NEWS VIDEO — (CBS News) NEW YORK - It's a stunning revelation in the foiled plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner: The triggerman chosen by al Qaeda was actually a double agent who was working for the CIA and Saudi intelligence services.

Discussion: The Reaction and iOwnTheWorld.com