memeorandum: You're Not Special — Dr. Wong, Dr. Keough, Mrs. Novogroski … (David McCullough Jr/Boston Herald)

6:05 PM ET, June 8, 2012

Top Items:

Obama: “The Private Sector Is Doing Fine” — Question: What about the Republicans saying that you're blaming the Europeans for the failures of your own policies? — President Obama: The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone.

Discussion: The Caucus, Hit & Run, The Lonely Conservative, The Enterprise Blog, Questions and Observations, Mediaite, Grim's Hall, Weasel Zippers, Sister Toldjah and GOP 12

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Romney: Obama ‘doing fine’ comment will ‘go down in history’ as ‘extraordinary miscalculation’ — Mitt Romney blasted President Obama for comments during a press conference Friday in which the president suggested the private sector was “doing fine.” — “He said the private sector is doing fine.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Ezra Klein, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers and GOP 12

Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:

President Obama Clarifies “Private Sector Is Doing Fine” Remarks — With Republicans seizing upon remarks he made earlier in the day that “the private sector is doing fine” - arguing that they show a president out of touch with an ailing economy — President Obama sought to clarify his remarks Friday afternoon.

Discussion: 2012 Decoded, Weasel Zippers, Daily Kos and Hot Air

Amie Parnes / The Hill:

Obama walks back comment about private economy ‘doing fine’ — Hours after saying the private sector is “doing fine,” President Obama on Friday walked back those remarks, saying it's “absolutely clear” the economy is not fine. — “That's precisely why I asked Congress to start taking some steps to make a difference,” Obama said.

James Pethokoukis / The Enterprise Blog:

Obama is wrong. The private sector isn't ‘doing fine’ — In his news conference today, President Obama gave some interesting insight into his views of the state of the American economy. — “The private sector is doing fine.” — Here is the whole quote (via RealClearPolitics):

Discussion: The Caucus, Hot Air, Ed Driscoll, Outside the Beltway, Vodkapundit, Wake up America, The Lonely Conservative and Daily Pundit

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Mitt Romney: We don't need more cops, firefighters or teachers — When Republicans attack public workers, they often take care to exempt cops and firefighters, because they are culturally sympathetic figures, and muddle the message that government workers are parasites who are destroying the economic conditions of ordinary Americans.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Maddow Blog, The New Civil Rights Movement and The New Republic

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Obama's Most Clueless Moment Yet? — President Obama's seemingly-bizarre claim that “the private sector is doing fine” is echoing across the country. When I first saw the quote, I thought it must be a momentary gaffe, or perhaps taken out of context. But no: Obama really did say …

Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:
President Obama Says The Private Sector Is Doing Fine

Discussion: CNN, Swampland and The Week

Devin Dwyer / ABCNEWS:
Obama Says ‘Private Sector Doing Fine,’ Calls for Aid to States

Discussion: Politico, Weekly Standard, CNN, Reuters and ABCNEWS

Michael O'Brien / msnbc.com:
Obama: ‘It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine’

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Business Insider and Indecision Forever

BuzzFeed: Obama's “Fundamentals Of The Economy” Moment

BuzzFeed:
Obama: “The Private Sector Is Doing Fine”

Discussion: Washington Post, News Desk, New York Magazine, US Politics and The Page

Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:
Scott Walker: Obama's Comments Reflect a Fundamental Misunderstanding of the Economy

Discussion: Ed Driscoll

Philip Rucker / Associated Press:
Mitt Romney: Obama ‘detached, out of touch’

Discussion: American Prospect, Washington Post, The Democratic Daily and Taylor Marsh

Rick Santorum / CNN:
Romney on Obama: ‘Is he really that out of touch?’

Discussion: BuzzFeed and Wonkette

New York Times:

Approval Rating for Justices Hits Just 44% in New Poll — WASHINGTON — Just 44 percent of Americans approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing and three-quarters say the justices' decisions are sometimes influenced by their personal or political views, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times and CBS News.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, NewsBusters.org blogs, Law Blog, The Week, Wonkette, Indecision Forever, Prairie Weather, Swampland, ThinkProgress, The Week, Althouse, News Desk, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The BLT, Daily Kos, Election Law Blog, The Caucus and msnbc.com

CNN:
CNN Poll: Americans weigh in on health care, immigration

Discussion: Politico, The Hill and Hot Air

Matea Gold / Los Angeles Times:

FEC debates semantics in political ads — The FEC discusses a request by a conservative group to run TV ads that refer to ‘the White House’ or use Obama's voice without triggering a rule requiring it to disclose its donors. — Does the “White House” refer to President Obama when it comes to political ads?

Discussion: ABCNEWS and Balloon Juice

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
President: Allegation that security leaks were politically motivated is ‘offensive’

Discussion: Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative, Wall Street Journal and Algemeiner.com

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
The ‘leak’ wars — President Barack Obama's administration …

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, Mediaite, The New Republic, Gawker, Business Insider and Secrecy News, more at Mediagazer »

Jason Clayworth / Des Moines Register:

Romney heckler and a Biz owner in Council Bluffs: We were disrespected — Council Bluffs, Ia. — A 62-year-old Vietnam veteran who continuously disrupted Mitt Romney's event here today by screaming “liar” over a megaphone says he was disrespected by security and guests who shouted insults …

Discussion: Daily Kos

BuzzFeed:
Romney Visits Iowa Restaurant, Owners Feel Dissed

Discussion: Guardian

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

'Schindler's List' Producer Claims Graduation Speech Censorship — A controversy erupted in a small Montana town after a high school principal prevented Oscar winner Gerald Molen from delivering his planned speech because he's “a right-wing conservative.” — Gerald Molen won a best picture Oscar …

Discussion: Clayton Cramer's Blog, The PJ Tatler, The Jawa Report and Campaign 2012

Josh Margolin / New York Post:

Booker's big mouth ruins relationship with Obama, Cabinet hopes — It's bye-bye, Beltway for Cory Booker. — Newark's mayor, who was gunning for a spot in President Obama's Cabinet, lost the chance after he shot his mouth off during a blunderingly honest TV appearance last month, sources told The Post.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, RealClearPolitics Video Log, Political Insider, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, Mediaite, iOwnTheWorld.com, Pirate's Cove, The Lonely Conservative, Washington Post and The Daily Caller

House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans:

Emails Show White House Helped Create Third-Party Advertising Initiative Behind Health Care Law, Had Close Involvement in Messaging and Advocacy of Outside Interests — WASHINGTON, DC - The House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), today released a memo …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Wire, Hit & Run, Speaker Mobile and Speaker.gov

Alex Pareene / Salon:

Joe Scarborough says New York Times is “thin skinned” for correcting his nonsense — MSNBC talker doesn't let facts get in the way of his “general impressions” of liberal media bias — Joe Scarborough may have been totally, utterly, completely wrong this morning, when he incorrectly argued …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Politico, FishbowlDC, American Prospect and Mediaite

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

NPR: Criticism of President Coming from ‘GOP Dope’ — National Public Radio has a blog post about President Obama's statement this morning on the private sector—and how conservatives reacted to the president's assertion that"the private sector is doing fine." The title of the post?

Discussion: National Review

Rand Paul / CNN:

Would be ‘an honor’ to be Romney's VP — (CNN) - A day after endorsing Mitt Romney, Sen. Rand Paul said it would be an honor to run alongside the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. — “A year, year and a half ago, I was a physician in a small town,” Paul, the junior Republican senator from Kentucky, told CNN's Don Lemon.

Discussion: GOP 12

Rene Stutzman / Orlando Sentinel:

Orlando man with Zimmerman's old phone number slammed by threatening calls — At age 49, Junior Alexander Guy got his first cell phone last month. The calls started immediately. — Strangers called at all hours. Some were insulting. Others angry. Sometimes, they threatened him.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, msnbc.com, Business Insider and TheBlaze.com

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Reagan Was a Keynesian — There's no question that America's recovery from the financial crisis has been disappointing. In fact, I've been arguing that the era since 2007 is best viewed as a “depression,” an extended period of economic weakness and high unemployment that …

Discussion: Jared Bernstein, CANNONFIRE, The Enterprise Blog, The Daily Beast and Conservatives4Palin

Krystal Bonner / Slate:

Typos Happen to Obama Too … - Obama Blames Europe, Asia, and Everyone Else for America's Economic Woes — Stop Laughing About the LinkedIn Security Breach. It's More Serious Than You Think. - Prometheus Is Deep but Not Very Smart - Lululemon Is Tanking, but the Yoga Bubble Is as Strong as Ever

Discussion: Moe_Lane's blog, The Week and Telegraph

Jay Cost / Weekly Standard:

Morning Jay: The Media Doesn't Understand Races in the States — This write-up from the Hill on a recent Pennsylvania poll is pretty similar to many others these days: … And polls like these are producing frames like these, from Charles Babington of the AP:

Michelle Malkin:

Going dark to urge congressional action: Who will protect the freedom to blog? — My syndicated column today covers the crucial battle between truth-telling bloggers versus convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin and his band of malicious online thugs. In honor of the National Day of Blogger Silence called …