memeorandum: The scene at the airport — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu … (Marcus Dysch/thejc.com)

1:50 PM ET, July 18, 2012

Top Items:

How The Romney Campaign Decided To Take The Gloves Off — Surrogates will bring up cocaine, Fast and Furious, and ties to Blagojevich, one aide says. What Romneyland is thinking. — Image by Win McNamee / Getty Images — IRWIN, Penn. — Standing before hundreds of roaring partisans …

Latino Decisions:

New poll: After SB1070 decision Obama widens lead over Romney among Latinos — Latino Decisions released new national poll of Latino registered voters showing Barack Obama winning 70% of the Latino vote compared to 22% for Mitt Romney. The poll, commissioned by the Center …

Discussion: American Prospect, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, CNN, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, Naked Politics and The Hinterland Gazette

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

Is Team Romney Becoming Unhinged? — It's beginning to look like John Sununu's Day of Rage yesterday wasn't an outlier for the Romney campaign but a sign of things to come. Here's McKay Coppins' report on where Team Romney seems to be going: … So it's the Obama campaign's “ruthless” …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Weasel Zippers and The Mahablog

Seema Mehta / Los Angeles Times:

Romney campaign's attacks on Obama play on ‘birther’ fears — Mitt Romney says the Obama administration resembles foreign governments, and a chief surrogate for the GOP candidate says the president needs to ‘learn how to be an American.’ — IRWIN, Pa. — In remarks that played …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, American Prospect, Patterico's Pontifications, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, ABCNEWS, The Hinterland Gazette and Hot Air

Thomas M. Defrank / NY Daily News:

Medal-winner in Mitt Romney veep stakes won't be known until after Olympic Games — Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and ex-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty head list of likely running mates — WASHINGTON — Kicking the vice presidential sweepstakes into overdrive, Mitt Romney Tuesday announced …

Discussion: New York Times, Outside the Beltway and GOP 12

CNN:
Americans view Romney's campaign more unfavorably than Obama's

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Caucus, The Daily Dish, Washington Examiner and Connecting.the.Dots

CNN:
Another day on the trail: Dancing horses, cronyism

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The Impolitic, Politico and msnbc.com

Justin Sink / The Hill:
George W. Bush: Romney ‘can do well without me’

Discussion: CNN

Alexander Burnsand Maggie Haberman / Politico:
Conservative elites club Mitt Romney

Discussion: CNN, Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice and msnbc.com

Michael Falcone / ABCNEWS:
When Going Negative Becomes A Positive (The Note)

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Politicker

Alexander Burns / Politico:
Poll: Obama winning 70 percent of Hispanics

Discussion: Politicker

National Review:
Release the Returns — Mitt Romney is steadfastly resisting calls …

Haaretz:

7 reported killed in terror attack against Israelis in Bulgaria — Haaretz brings you minute-by-minute updates on the deadly attack; Israeli rescue services en route to country; Terror attack occurs on 18th anniversary of attack on Jewish community in Buenos Aires.

Discussion: Fox News, The Gateway Pundit and Mondoweiss

Marcus Dysch / thejc.com:

The scene at the airport — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed Iran for the bombing of a bus which killed at least three Israelis in a Bulgarian resort. — He said “all signs point to Iran” and said Israel would “respond with force”. — It is not clear whether the attack …

Discussion: Reuters, Weasel Zippers, Business Insider and Atlas Shrugs

Jerusalem Post:
5 dead in suicide bombing on Israeli bus in Bulgaria

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Elder of Ziyon and Jammie Wearing Fools

Las Vegas Sun Blogs:

Adelson to DCCC: Retract your “Chinese prostitution money” comments or I'll sue — In a scathing letter to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Sheldon Adelson's lawyer accused the organization of “maliciously branding Mr. Adelson as a pimp” and demanded the DCCC either retract and apologize or be sued.

Discussion: CNN, The Hill, Washington Post, iOwnTheWorld.com, Washington Free Beacon, DownWithTyranny!, Prairie Weather and americanthinker.com

Andrew Malcolm / Investor's Business Daily: Memo to Dem press secretary: Probably best not to imply GOP billionaire is a pimp

PolitiFact:
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says prostitution money is helping fund groups backing …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Raw Story and JOSHUAPUNDIT

Christopher Kolk / People.com:

Anthony Weiner Shares a Family Photo — What's next for former New York congressman Anthony Weiner? Baby's first birthday, of course. — “I'm very happy in my present life,” Weiner, 47, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “The only next dramatic steps I'm planning on are Jordan's first …

Discussion: Politicker, Politico, Washington Post, CBS New York, Guardian, CNN and New York Magazine

Tim Mak / Politico:

Nancy Pelosi: Democrats should skip the convention — House minority leader Nancy Pelosi says that Democratic members should stay home and campaign in their districts rather than go to the party's national convention in North Carolina. — “I'm not encouraging anyone to go to the convention …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Taylor Marsh, Weekly Standard, The Right Scoop, Althouse, Jammie Wearing Fools and The Gateway Pundit

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

4 Pinocchios for an unproven Romney claim of ‘crony capitalism’ — “I am ashamed to say that we're seeing our President hand out money to the businesses of campaign contributors, when he gave money, $500 million in loans to a company called Fisker that makes high end electric cars, and they make the cars now in Finland.

Discussion: msnbc.com

David Shepardson / detroitnews.com:
Romney targets Obama, loan for electric vehicle startup in new ad

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Washington Free Beacon, The PJ Tatler and Weasel Zippers

New York Times:

Blast Kills Core Syrian Security Officials — BEIRUT, Lebanon — An explosion that Syria state television called a suicide bomb attack killed at least three top aides to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Wednesday including the defense minister and Mr. Assad's powerful brother-in-law.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Telegraph, Taking Note, americanthinker.com, News Desk, Mother Jones and Via Meadia

Reuters:
Bomb kills Syrian ministers at heart of Assad rule

Discussion: BBC, The Long War Journal, CNN, World, Weasel Zippers, DAWN.COM, The Heritage Foundation and US Politics

Mark Blumenthal / The Huffington Post:

Likely Voter Polls: Mitt Romney's Hidden Edge? … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Barack Obama , Barack Obama , Mitt Romney, Barack Obama 2012 , Elections 2012, Video, Mitt Romney Polls, Obama Romney Polls, Likely Voters, Mitt Romney 2012, Polls 2012, Pollster Analysis, Presidential Polls, Politics News

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and Conservatives4Palin

Steve Chaggaris / CBS News: Poll: VP choice matters to most voters

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:

Senate Democrats Propose Letting All Tax Cuts Expire — WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats — holding firm against extending tax cuts for the rich — are proposing a novel way to circumvent the Republican pledge not to vote for any tax increase: Allow all the tax cuts to expire Jan. 1 …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Roll Call, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, Suburban Guerrilla, White House.gov Blog, The Hill and Wall Street Journal

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Awkward: Obama jobs panel MIA — President Barack Obama's Jobs Council hasn't met publicly for six months, even as the issue of job creation dominates the 2012 election. — At this point, the hiatus — which reached the half-year mark Tuesday — might be less awkward than an official meeting …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, Yahoo! News and americanthinker.com

Ben Shapiro / BREITBART.COM:

O'KEEFE RISES: UNION BOSSES OKAY DIGGING UP-THEN FILLING BACK IN-DITCHES ON TAXPAYERS' DIME — James O'Keefe's new Project Veritas video (see below) is a stunning exposé of union corruption surrounding so-called “shovel ready” jobs. In typically irreverent Project Veritas style …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

CFPB probe into Capital One credit card marketing results in $140 million consumer refund — WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced its first public enforcement action with an order requiring Capital One Bank (U.S.A.), N.A. to refund approximately $140 million …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and BBC

John Kass / Chicago Tribune:

Who else, Mr. President? … When President Barack Obama hauled off and slapped American small-business owners in the mouth the other day, I wanted to dream of my father. — But I didn't have to close my eyes to see my dad. I could do it with my eyes open.

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Russell Berman / Ballot Box:

Boehner defends Romney on tax returns, calls issue a ‘sideshow’ — House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday gave Rep. Paul Ryan a brief lesson on presidential surrogacy. — Boehner (R-Ohio) leapt to Mitt Romney's defense at a press conference after Ryan (R-Wis.), a vice presidential contender …

Discussion: CNN