memeorandum: Why President Obama Isn't Using His Most Powerful Weapon

4:55 PM ET, November 29, 2012

Top Items:

Inside the talks: Fiscal framework emerges — Listen to top Democrats and Republicans talk on camera, and it sounds like they could not be further apart on a year-end tax-and-spending deal - a down payment on a $4 trillion grand bargain. — But behind the scenes, top officials …

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:

The GOP's Medicare confusion — The austerity crisis talks have hit a peculiar impasse. The problem isn't, as most analysts expected, taxes, where Republicans seem increasingly resigned to new revenue. It's Medicare. And the particular Medicare problem isn't that Democrats are refusing the GOP's proposed Medicare cuts.

Discussion: The Impolitic, Hit & Run, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos and The New Republic

Russell Berman / The Hill:

‘Disappointed’ Boehner calls on Obama to get serious on spending in deficit talks — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday there had been “no substantive progress” in fiscal-cliff negotiations in the two weeks since congressional leaders met with President Obama.

Discussion: Politico, New York Times, ABCNEWS and The Page

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Inside the ‘fiscal cliff’ haggling over Medicare

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Politico and Eschaton

Tom Cohen / CNN:
Boehner: Obama has to get serious

Discussion: New York Times

Washington Examiner:
Morning Examiner: We're going over the cliff

Discussion: Hit & Run, Daily Kos, THE WESTERN EXPERIENCE and Politico

Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:

Drive to Unionize Fast-Food Workers Begins — After three years of working at the McDonald's restaurant on 51st Street and Broadway, Alterique Hall earns $8 an hour — and is yearning for something better. — So when he heard about an unusual campaign that aims to unionize dozens …

Discussion: American Prospect, The Week, Feministing, Washington Examiner, Weasel Zippers, Daily Kos, Firedoglake, Politicker, Taylor Marsh, Jammie Wearing Fools and Gawker

Josh Eidelson / Salon:
In rare strike, NYC fast-food workers walk out

Discussion: Colorlines

Sarah Jaffe / The Atlantic Online:
McJobs Should Pay, Too: It's Time for Fast-Food Workers To Get Living Wages

Discussion: The Raw Story and OccupyWallSt News

James Cowie / Renesys Blog:

Syrian Internet Is Off The Air — Starting at 10:26 UTC (12:26pm in Damascus), Syria's international Internet connectivity shut down. In the global routing table, all 84 of Syria's IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet.

Oliver Holmes / Reuters:
Damascus fighting cuts off Internet, airport

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic Online, Taylor Marsh, The Week and Guardian

New York Times:
U.S. Is Weighing Stronger Action in Syrian Conflict

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Infowars, Belmont Club, Weasel Zippers, Via Meadia, The Caucus, ABCNEWS, The Week and National Review

Nick Reisman / Capital Tonight:

Gibson: Norquist Pledge Doesn't Stick For New District — Now that he's representing a (mostly) new area, Rep. Chris Gibson says he won't be bound by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist's pledge not to support any tax increases. — The decision to go this way is significant, on a number of fronts …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Politicker and Politico

Justin Sink / The Hill:
GOP lawmaker: Norquist tax pledge doesn't apply after being redistricted

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Ford O'Connell / Pundits Blog:
Dems dishonest in ‘fiscal cliff’ dealings

Discussion: Riehl World News, The PJ Tatler, Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos

BuzzFeed:

White House: Obama And Romney “Pledged To Stay In Touch” — The pair dined over “white turkey chili and Southwestern grilled chicken salad,” the White House said. — Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney arrives at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012, for his luncheon with President Barack Obama.

Discussion: Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes'

Washington Wire: At Lunch, Romney Congratulates Obama on Win

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Romney, Ryan meet off Capitol Hill

Discussion: CNN

Erick Erickson / RedState:

The Incestuous Bleeding of the Republican Party — If money is the root of all evil, for the Republican Party evil is located on the fifth floor of 66 Canal Center Plaza, Alexandria, VA 22314. — Strip away the candidate and coalition and it is on the fifth floor of 66 Canal Center Plaza …

Discussion: americanthinker.com, The Hinterland Gazette, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Taylor Marsh

J. David Goodman / New York Times:

Photo of Officer Giving Boots to Barefoot Man Warms Hearts Online — On a cold November night in Times Square, Officer Lawrence Deprimo was working a counterterrorism post when he encountered an older, barefooted homeless man. The officer disappeared for a moment, then returned with a new pair of boots …

Discussion: Infowars, The Week, Newsday, Weasel Zippers, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Telegraph, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Gawker, This Just In, Gothamist and New York Magazine

BuzzFeed:

Why President Obama Isn't Using His Most Powerful Weapon — Again — The stakes in “fiscal cliff” talks are high — so where's the e-mail list? So far, it's 2009 all over again. — Via: barackobama.com — President Obama and his victorious campaign team have signaled that they won't repeat …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Joshua Green / Business Week:

The Science Behind Those Obama Campaign E-Mails — One fascination in a presidential race mostly bereft of intrigue was the strange, incessant, and weirdly overfamiliar e-mails that emanated from the Obama campaign. Anyone who shared an address with the campaign soon started receiving messages …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Week, Mediaite, Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Washington Examiner and Washington Post

Scott Shane / New York Times:

Big Issues Are Lost in Focus on Libya Talking Points — WASHINGTON — Three days after the lethal attack on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya, Representative C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, asked intelligence agencies to write …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs, Right Wing News, the daily howler and The Moderate Voice

Wall Street Journal:
The Trouble With Susan Rice

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hot Air and Cognitive Dissidence

Joel B. Pollak / BREITBART.COM:

EXCLUSIVE: UN CONSPIRES TO EXPEL PROMINENT JEWISH GROUP FROM PALESTINE VOTE — Today, for the first time, the United Nations will name Palestine a (non-member) “observer state” by first engaging in exactly the charge that they press against Israel: apartheid.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Jawa Report, Algemeiner.com, Israel Matzav and The PJ Tatler

CAMERA Snapshots:
Where's the Coverage? “Palestine” Doesn't Qualify as a State

Discussion: “The Lid”, The Investigative Project …, Hot Air, TIME, New York Times, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and IHT Rendezvous

Dane Schiller / Houston Chronicle:

Former President George H.W. Bush hospitalized in Houston — Former President George H.W. Bush remains in a Houston hospital, where he has been for seven days as doctors battle a lingering cough that has drawn concern, officials said Thursday. — Bush, 88, has bronchitis …

Discussion: Politico, Addicting Info, Associated Press and The Hill

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:

National Income and Product Accounts Gross Domestic Product, 3rd quarter 2012 (second estimate); Corporate Profits, 3rd quarter 2012 (preliminary estimate) — Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States …

Discussion: Economix, BBC, AEIdeas, Wonkblog, Business Insider and Balloon Juice

Nelson D. Schwartz / New York Times:
U.S. Growth Revised Up, but Year-End Slowdown Is Feared

Discussion: realtor.org, Outside the Beltway, The Atlantic Online and The Maddow Blog

Chuck Bennett / New York Post:

David Petraeus says he ‘screwed up royally’ in letter to old Army buddy — Ex-CIA chief David Petraeus took the blame for the extramarital affair that torpedoed his career, but his forgiving wife, Holly, is sticking by him, according to a newly revealed private letter.

Discussion: WorldViews, New York Magazine, CBS DC and Mediaite

Pew Social & Demographic Trends:

U.S. Birth Rate Falls to a Record Low; Decline Is Greatest Among Immigrants — OVERVIEW — The U.S. birth rate dipped in 2011 to the lowest ever recorded, led by a plunge in births to immigrant women since the onset of the Great Recession. — The overall U.S. birth rate …

Discussion: Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes', Wonkblog and NBC Latino

KHOU-TV:

Surveillance video shows violent confrontation at gas station — HOUSTON—As family members of a man who was shot by a Valero clerk in southeast Houston called for the store clerk's arrest, the store owner released surveillance video. — Alexander Calloway, 21, and his two cousins were trying …

Discussion: Moonbattery, The Gateway Pundit and The Last Refuge

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

The Time John McCain And Lindsey Graham Relayed Bad Intelligence On A Sunday Talk Show — The duo are attacking Susan Rice for giving bad information on a Sunday show. “He is lying, Tim, when he says he doesn't have weapons of mass destruction.” — Image by AP / AP

Discussion: AMERICAblog, CBS News and msnbc.com