memeorandum: What President Obama has learned from Republicans (Washington Post)

10:00 PM ET, July 16, 2012

Top Items:

David Frum / CNN:

Mitt Romney's painfully bad week — Editor's note: David Frum is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor. He is the author of seven books, including a new novel, “Patriots.” — (CNN) — By any measure, the Mitt Romney for president campaign has had a painfully bad week.

Discussion: This Just In, Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice, No More Mister Nice Blog, Michelle Malkin, Marbury and American Power

Matt Negrin / ABCNEWS: Democrats Revive Attack That Romney Misstated Role at Bain

David Corn / Mother Jones:
Romney's Account of His Departure From Bain Undercut By...Romney Testimony

Discussion: PERRspectives, Bloomberg, The Daily Dish, Mother Jones, Daily Kos, TBogg and Firedoglake

CNN:
Facts don't support Obama's charges against Romney

Discussion: Daily Kos, Hit & Run, Fortune, American Power, Crooks and Liars, Guardian, Wake up America, The Caucus, The Daily Dish, Red Alert Politics, National Review and Balloon Juice

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Politifact: Mitt Romney's companies sent jobs overseas

Discussion: The Daily Dish

John Cassidy / News Desk:
Why Won't Romney Release More Tax Returns?

Discussion: Firedoglake, Bloomberg, msnbc.com, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, Liberal Info, The Moderate Voice, The Hinterland Gazette and The Daily Dish

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
The Bain Quatrain

Discussion: Red Alert Politics, The Maddow Blog, The New Republic and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Hillary Clinton / CNN:

TRENDING: Hillary Clinton: Romney ads featuring her a ‘waste of money’ — (CNN) - She's been featured in two negative television ads from Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday the spots would have little effect on voters who already know the story of the 2008 Democratic primaries.

Discussion: Politico and The Hinterland Gazette

Mitt Romney for President of the United States …:

Memorandum — Location — To: Interested Parties — From: Neil Newhouse - Romney Campaign Pollster — Re: The State Of The Race: Ballot Narrowing Despite Obama Attack Ads — Four years ago today, candidate Barack Obama led John …

Discussion: American Power, Daily Kos, Weekly Standard and National Review

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Obama Cites Campaign Donor as ‘Non-Partisan Economist’

Discussion: Hot Air and The Lonely Conservative

Rob Portman / CNN:
Portman slams president for ‘personal’ attacks

Discussion: Politico and The New Republic

Amanda Terkel / The Huffington Post:
Mitt Romney Ad Taken Down Over Copyright Claim

Discussion: Mediaite and Taegan Goddard's …

Kevin Robillard / Politico:
Mitt Romney rips Obama camp's ‘dishonesty’

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Examiner

Jake Sherman / Politico:

Dick Cheney to talk sequester with House GOP — Former Vice President Dick Cheney is flying to Washington from Wyoming to talk to top House Republicans about automatic cuts to defense spending, according to senior GOP sources. — Cheney will speak to Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy's (Calif.) …

Discussion: CNN

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Latest Word on the Trail? I Take It Back — The quotations come back redacted, stripped of colorful metaphors, colloquial language and anything even mildly provocative. — They are sent by e-mail from the Obama headquarters in Chicago to reporters who have interviewed campaign officials under …

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Outside the Beltway, Wake up America, Guardian, Hot Air, protein wisdom, Mother Jones, New York Magazine, Washington Wire, Michelle Malkin, Jammie Wearing Fools and Nick Turse, more at Mediagazer »

Humberto Sanchez / Roll Call:
Democrats Want Leverage From Sequester

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Suburban Guerrilla

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Republicans Turn Against John Roberts, U.S. Supreme Court — Democrats now positive about both — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' opinions of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts are now much more negative than they were seven years ago, with the most recent reading coming soon …

Discussion: The Hill, Politico, Weasel Zippers and Business Insider

Jay Nordlinger / National Review:
Against Growth! — In today's Impromptus, I have some comments …

Discussion: Gawker, Wonkette, Angry Black Lady Chronicles and Little Green Footballs

Lila Shapiro / The Huffington Post:
Edie Windsor vs. DOMA: 83-Year-Old Lesbian Petitions U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Case

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Firedoglake, Towleroad News #gay and ThinkProgress

Kevin Robillard / Politico:

Rush Limbaugh: Obama ‘hates this country’ — President Barack Obama “hates this country,” and his philosophy appeals to “people with miserable, meaningless lives” and “people who don't count,” Rush Limbaugh said Monday. — “I think it can now be said, without equivocation …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, ThinkProgress, Rush Limbaugh, The Maddow Blog and AEIdeas

Rush Limbaugh:
Barack Obama Hates This Country

Discussion: Doug Ross, Examiner, The Gateway Pundit, The PJ Tatler, americanthinker.com, Business Insider and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*

Andy Campbell / The Huffington Post:

Jonah Falcon, Man With World's Largest Penis, Frisked By TSA At California Airport … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Anatomical Wonders, TSA, Video, 13.5 Inches, Jonah Falcon, San Francisco International Airport, Stop And Frisk, X-Ray Body Scanners, Airport Screening, Largest Penis …

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker, Riehl World View and The Raw Story

Orlando Sentinel:

‘Witness 9’ tells prosecutors Zimmerman molested her for years — A woman told authorities that while they were children, murder suspect George Zimmerman sexually molested her for a decade, according to prosecution records released today. — The woman, identified only as “witness 9,” …

Discussion: CBS News, New York Times, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Daily Kos, theGrio, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Mediaite, ThinkProgress, msnbc.com, New York Magazine and Balloon Juice

DealBook:

A Yahoo Search Calls Up a Chief From Google — Updated — Marissa Mayer, one of the top executives at Google, will be the next chief of Yahoo, making her one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley and corporate America. — The appointment of Ms. Mayer is consider a coup for Yahoo …

Discussion: Business Insider, TechCrunch, New York Magazine, Online NewsHour, Jezebel, Gawker, The Loop and ThinkProgress, more at Mediagazer »

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:

Pawlenty Looked at as Romney Running Mate — EAGAN, Minn. — It was four years ago this summer, when Tim Pawlenty ranked high on the list of John McCain's potential running mates, and Mr. Pawlenty and his wife, Mary, were plowing through a voluminous questionnaire probing deep into their finances …

Bloomberg:

Hardheaded Socialism Makes Canada Richer Than U.S. — On July 1, Canada Day, Canadians awoke to a startling, if pleasant, piece of news: For the first time in recent history, the average Canadian is richer than the average American. — According to data from Environics Analytics WealthScapes published …

Discussion: CANNONFIRE and AEIdeas

James Hohmann / Politico:

Bain not going away—Kucinich launching PAC—Bush 43 unveiling book tomorrow—Gillespie says Mitt retired retroactively—Dems hit Mourdock for opposing auto bailout — ROMNEY TO HIT OBAMA ON CRONYISM: Boston desperately wants to find a way to put the president on the defensive …

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Tampa Bay Times

Tammie Fields / Tampa Bay Fl News:

Lt. Governor speaks out about sex scandal accusations — Lt. Governor Carroll made the comments Saturday in Orange Park, at the opening of a campaign office for Mitt Romney. — Carletha Cole claims she walked in on a sexual encounter between Carroll and Carroll's travel aide, Beatriz Ramos.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Advocate, Jezebel, The Other McCain, Wonkette, The Raw Story, theGrio and Towleroad News #gay

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

Romney Suggests Releasing Additional Tax Returns Could Be Politically Damaging — Mitt Romney appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning to respond to the growing number of conservatives who are calling on the former Massachusetts governor to release more of his tax returns.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, ABCNEWS, Wonkette, The Hinterland Gazette, The Maddow Blog and FreakOutNation

Alex Carp / News Desk:

Writing With Antonin Scalia, Grammar Nerd — The first time Bryan A. Garner, a lawyer and writer, met Antonin Scalia—over breakfast at the Washington, D.C., Four Seasons, in 2006—the Justice spent the early part of their conversation praising a magazine essay he had recently read on English grammar and usage.

Discussion: Althouse

Xinhua News Agency:

3 cops killed, 3 injured in police station attack in NW Pakistan — At least three policemen were killed and another three wounded in an attack launched by two militants at a police station in Pakistan's northwest city of Bannu on Monday morning, reported local Urdu TV channel Samaa.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Long War Journal

Bob Cusack / The Hill:

Probe cites officials for soliciting prostitutes, accepting gifts, FOIA docs reveal — Treasury Department officials have been cited for soliciting prostitutes, breaking conflict-of-interest rules and accepting gifts from corporate executives, according to the findings of official government investigations.

Discussion: RedState, Washington's Blog, The Raw Story, ABCNEWS and ThinkProgress

James Pethokoukis / AEIdeas:

JPMorgan just gave a calamitous economic forecast for Obama — Just out from JPMorgan: … Basically, this is a forecast for stagnation for the rest of this year and through 2013. Also note that the forecast sees monthly job growth at just 100,000 a month in the third quarter, with the unemployment rate averaging 8.2%.

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, The PJ Tatler, protein wisdom and Washington Free Beacon