memeorandum: How The Romney Campaign Decided To Take The Gloves Off (BuzzFeed)

4:05 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: Politico, American Prospect, Washington Monthly, CNN, Firedoglake, 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: Weasel Zippers, The Mahablog and BuzzFeed

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, Patterico's Pontifications, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, NewsBusters.org, ABCNEWS, American Prospect, Hot Air and The Hinterland Gazette

CNN:

Americans view Romney's campaign more unfavorably than Obama's — (CNN) - After weeks of scathing back-and-forth between President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, a plurality of the American public views the incumbent Democrat as running a more favorable campaign, according to a poll released Wednesday.

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

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:
Oops!... Obama's Top Bundler Jonathan Lavine Was In Charge of Bain During GST Steel Layoffs

Discussion: American Power and National Review

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly: “Vetting” Genie Out of the Bottle

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

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

Steve M. / No More Mister Nice Blog:
DEAD ANDY BREITBART IS NOW ROMNEY'S TOP CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Balloon Juice and Booman Tribune

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

Discussion: CNN, Taylor Marsh and The Moderate Voice

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, CBS News, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, CNN, Politico, CBS New York, Guardian, New York Magazine, The Daily Caller and Wall Street Journal

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:

Bachmann: Letter on Clinton aide was ‘distorted’ — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said a letter she and colleagues sent about an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is “being distorted.” — She issued the statement shortly after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took to the Senate floor …

Discussion: Politico and Wonkette

United States Senator John McCain:
U.S. Senator John McCain - Arizona

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mother Jones, Business Insider and Salon

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: Guardian, JOSHUAPUNDIT, msnbc.com, Business Insider and The Gateway Pundit

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

Discussion: Reuters, Weasel Zippers and Atlas Shrugs

Fox News:
Israel blames Iran for deadly bus explosion targeting Israeli tourists in Bulgaria

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Washington Free Beacon and Mondoweiss

Zach Carter / The Huffington Post:

Mitt Romney Taxes For 2010 Not Fully Disclosed … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Elections 2012, Elections 2012, Mitt Romney, Elections 2012, Politics, Taxes , Video, Mitt Romney Tax Returns, Mitt Romney Taxes, Election 2012, Fbar, Mitt Romney 2012, Mitt Romney Taxes 2010, Politics News

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Guardian and Daily Kos

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

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: Washington Wire, The Lonely Conservative, americanthinker.com, The PJ Tatler and Yahoo! News

Josh Gerstein / Politico: White House: Obama's plate too full for Jobs Council

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 Gateway Pundit, 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, Wired, The PJ Tatler, Outside the Beltway, Taking Note, americanthinker.com, News Desk, Via Meadia and Mother Jones

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:
A Brief Reminder: Suicide Bombing is Not a Hopeful Sign

Discussion: National Review

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: PolitiFact, Washington Post, The Hill, CNN, Business Insider, Washington Examiner, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Washington Free Beacon, iOwnTheWorld.com, Prairie Weather, americanthinker.com and DownWithTyranny!

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

Justin Sink / The Hill:

George W. Bush: Romney ‘can do well without me’ — Former President George W. Bush said that presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney “can do well without me” and indicated he would not get involved in the 2012 campaign in an interview released Wednesday.

Discussion: CNN

Thomas M. Defrank / NY Daily News:
Medal-winner in Mitt Romney veep stakes won't be known until after Olympic Games

Discussion: ABCNEWS, msnbc.com, New York Times and Outside the Beltway

James Pethokoukis / AEIdeas:

The chart that shows just how much reelection trouble Obama is in — A daisy chain of political disaster seems to be forming for President Obama, says political analyst Dan Clifton at Strategas Research. Clifton suggests that “there seems to be a relationship between consumer confidence and whether a president gets reelected.

Discussion: Washington Post

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Obama lead in New Mexico declining — PPP's newest New Mexico poll finds the race for President there getting a lot more competitive. Barack Obama continues to lead but his advantage is down to 5 points at 49-44, a far cry from the leads of 14 and 15 points he had on our previous two polls of the state.

Discussion: Business Insider and Taegan Goddard's …

Brennan Center for Justice:

The Challenge of Obtaining Voter Identification — PUBLICATIONS — Ten states now have unprecedented restrictive voter ID laws. Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin all require citizens to produce specific types …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Firedoglake, Politico, American Prospect, The BRAD BLOG and Washington Post

Callum Borchers / The Boston Globe:

Web campaign targets Romney's ‘extreme anti-LGBT agenda’ — A pair of liberal super PACs are teaming up on a new Web campaign that accuses Mitt Romney of advancing an “extreme anti-LGBT agenda” that would make life worse for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans.

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

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: Conservatives4Palin