Top Items:


The 2012 campaign is the smallest ever — For years, operatives, reporters and potential nominees envisioned the 2012 presidential campaign as a titanic clash of media-swarmed combatants with big ideas about the future. In the Republican primaries, this was almost a mantra: this is the most important campaign in a generation.
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, pandagon.net and Riehl World View
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Tim Pawlenty's stock soars in Romney-world — Tim Pawlenty has jumped to the top of the vice presidential shortlist of several Mitt Romney advisers after emerging as the most effective — and well-liked — surrogate for the GOP nominee-to-be, according to several Republicans familiar with campaign deliberations.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and msnbc.com


Clues Emerge on Romney's VP Pick — Speculation about Mitt Romney's running mate has kicked up a notch, as one possibility seemed to remove himself from the running, another took a more central role in the campaign and a third saw Mr. Romney confirm him as a serious contender.
Discussion:
Washington Wire


First Thoughts: Why Rubio probably won't be the pick — Why Rubio probably won't be Romney's VP pick... And why T-Paw seems to be rising... Obama campaign releases two new TV ads hitting Romney's record as Massachusetts governor... Romney's boxed in on immigration... Romney raises money in Michigan …
Discussion:
CNN, ABCNEWS and www2.timesdispatch.com

Romney: “Marco Rubio Is Being Thoroughly Vetted”
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, Mediaite and Israel Matzav

Obama Leads In Poll As Voters View Romney As Out Of Touch — Barack Obama has opened a significant lead over Mitt Romney in a Bloomberg National Poll that reflects the presumed Republican nominee's weaknesses more than the president's strengths. — Obama leads Romney 53 percent …
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Americans Say They'Re Better Off Since Obama Took Office — A plurality of Americans now say they are better off than they were when President Barack Obama was inaugurated, providing a surprising lift to Obama's re- election campaign despite troublesome economic news.
Discussion:
American Prospect and Balloon Juice

Elizabeth Warren loses it, lashes out at “right wing extremist” (me) — As you know, Elizabeth Warren has been caught in a series of at best misleading and at worst false responses since The Boston Herald first broke the story in late April that Harvard Law promoted her as Native American in the mid-to-late 1990s.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and American Glob
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Cherokee women to Elizabeth Warren: Stop ducking us!
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Jammie Wearing Fools and Examiner

Vicki Kennedy rejects Scott Brown's proposed condition for hosting Senate debate
Discussion:
2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, The Impolitic, Daily Kos, The Raw Story, The Hill, CNN and The Rightnewz

Rep. Issa ‘disappointed,’ says contempt vote against Holder will move forward — A House panel is expected to vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress after a last-ditch effort to reach a deal over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious appeared to fail.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Moderate Voice
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BREAKING: After Issa and Holder Meet, Still No Documents, Contempt Charges Still Looming
Discussion:
RedState, UrbanGrounds and American Spectator

No deal: After meeting, Issa says contempt vote on Holder is still on
Discussion:
Influence Alley


Obama's grandfather tortured by the British? A fantasy (like most of the President's own memoir) — A new biography of Barack Obama has established that his grandfather was not, as is related in the President's own memoir, detained by the British in Kenya and found that claims that he was tortured were a fabrication.
Discussion:
National Review and UrbanGrounds

Rep. Mark Critz, other Dems, to skip convention in favor of campaigning in Pennsylvania — U.S. Rep. Mark Critz said on Tuesday he will skip the Democratic National Convention in favor of campaigning in Pennsylvania, much like top elected Democrats in neighboring West Virginia who are disgruntled with President Obama.
Discussion:
Ballot Box and Washington Free Beacon


National Review's New Contributor: White Nationalist David Yerushalmi — Back in April, National Review finally parted ways with longtime contributor John Derbyshire after Derbyshire penned an especially racist piece advising non-black American parents on how to talk to their kids about black people.
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Wonkette, Little Green Footballs and Balloon Juice

U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say — The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected critical intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage attacks aimed at slowing Iran's ability …

Change.org Drops Michelle Rhee Group Under Pressure From Progressives … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Michelle Rhee, éducation, Michelle Rhee, Video, Politics News, Change, Change.Org, Changeorg, Michelle Rhee Dc, Politics News — WASHINGTON — In a surprising reversal, Change.org …
Discussion:
US Politics and Aaron KragerAaron Krager


Fix health care after Supreme Court ruling, poll says — If the Supreme Court strikes down President Barack Obama's signature health care reform law, 77 percent of Americans want the president and Congress to work on new legislation overhauling the system, according to a new AP-GfK poll on Wednesday.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress

HHS: 3 million young adults gained coverage under healthcare law — More than 3 million young adults have been able to stay on their parents' insurance plans because of President Obama's healthcare law, the Health and Human Services Department said Tuesday.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal and New York Times


Conflicting reports over Mubarak's health — Military denies earlier reports that Mubarak was “clinically dead”, saying deposed president is on life-support machine. — Hosni Mubarak, the deposed Egyptian leader, has been revived and is on an artificial respirator after he suffered stroke …
Discussion:
Mashable!, Newsy, Reuters, msnbc.com and White House Dossier
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'Joe The Plumber's' Spokesman Explains His Holocaust Theories: ‘Joe Is A Student Of History’ — Ohio congressional candidate and living 2008 campaign artifact Samuel “Joe The Plumber” Wurzelbacher released a video yesterday in which he cited gun control as a contributing cause for the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide.
Discussion:
Gawker
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Anti-Romney Protesters Say They're Paid To Heckle — Two protesters and an Obama official say “Good Jobs Now” protesters are compensated for their time. A protest leader denies it. — A few of the protesters outside Romney's rally, shortly before filing on to a charter bus parked down the street.
Discussion:
The Right Scoop, americanthinker.com, The Lonely Conservative, Weasel Zippers, National Review, Hot Air, The Hill and Betsy's Page


Grover Norquist's pledge to increase spending, deficits — Over in Bloomberg View, Ramesh Ponnuru passes the mic to Grover Norquist: … You hear this often from Republicans: The reason you can't make a deal that balances both spending cuts and tax increases is that the tax increases happen and the spending cuts don't.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The New Republic and The Enterprise Blog

Dem activist slugs GOP congressman's wife with campaign sign — It's all fun and games until somebody gets slugged with a campaign sign — at least in Montana, where following the first U.S. Senate campaign debate this cycle, a Democratic activist hit one candidate's wife with a rolled up sign.
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit and Weasel Zippers
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Little Big Sky: Where political civility took yet another non-fatal but unseemly wound
Discussion:
Rasmussen Reports


Food Stamp Fiasco — The Senate refuses to cut $20 billion out of $770 billion. — The next time someone moans about Washington “austerity,” tell them about the Senate's food stamp votes on Tuesday. Democrats and a few Republicans united to block even modest reform in a welfare program …
Discussion:
protein wisdom and The Lonely Conservative


New NSA docs contradict 9/11 claims — “I don't think the Bush administration would want to see these released,” an expert tells Salon — Over 120 CIA documents concerning 9/11, Osama bin Laden and counterterrorism were published today for the first time, having been newly declassified and released to the National Security Archive.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Suburban Guerrilla and Hullabaloo


Spending A Bundle — President Barack Obama's campaign “bundlers” — big-ticket donors who combine their own contributions with those of wealthy friends and family members — include at least 138 individuals who sit on boards of charitable foundations or other grant-giving charities, a Daily Caller analysis shows.
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon