memeorandum: Sperling Admits Obama Misled in Debate: The President Did Propose the Sequester (Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard)

3:00 PM ET, March 3, 2013

Top Items:

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

Romney: I Lost Because Minorities Love Obamacare — Earlier today, Fox News Sunday broadcast former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney first post-campaign interview. In it, he blamed his loss on his poor performance among minorities, who he claimed were seduced by the President's promise …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Gawker

Reid J. Epstein / Politico:

Mitt Romney: ‘It kills me’ not to be president — Four months after he lost to President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney says “it kills me” not to be in the White House finding solutions to the nation's problems. — In his first television interview since the election, the former Massachusetts governor …

Discussion: CNN

Talking Points Memo:

Romney: ‘Obamacare’ Was Attractive To Minority, Low-Income Voters — Mitt Romney stood by his belief that President Obama was aided in his re-election by giving gifts to minority voters, during an interview that aired on “Fox News Sunday.” — “The president had the power of incumbency …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs

bigstory.ap.org:
Romney: Heart told him he'd win, until he saw Fla.

Discussion: The Reaction and Taegan Goddard's …

Elise Viebeck / Ballot Box:
Ann Romney: GOP never approached me about Kerry's seat

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Politico

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Sperling Admits Obama Misled in Debate: The President Did Propose the Sequester — White House economic adviser Gene Sperling admits that, yes, in fact, the sequestration was President Obama's plan: — “We put forth the design of” the sequestration, Sperling finally admits after a long back-and-forth.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The PJ Tatler

Maureen Callahan / New York Post:

Beat the press — Reporters reveal how the Obama administration threatens and controls the media — As coverage of last week's flare-up between Bob Woodward and the White House devolved into the granular parsing of words and implications and extrapolations and possible intent …

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, Riehl World News and Jammie Wearing Fools

Reid J. Epstein / Politico:

John Boehner: No government shutdown — The sequester is in effect, but House Speaker John Boehner says he won't force a government shutdown. — Boehner told “Meet the Press” the House will vote this week to keep the federal government operating through September, when the fiscal year ends …

Discussion: CNN and Outside the Beltway

Kevin Robillard / Politico:
Sperling: I 'can't explain' Woodward's reaction

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Washington Post:
Stymied by a GOP House, Obama looks ahead to 2014 to cement his legacy

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Booman Tribune and The Week

Vicki Needham / The Hill:
McConnell: GOP standing firm against using ‘taxes to turn off the sequester’

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Ashley Killough / CNN:
Sperling on Woodward: 'I think he's a legend'

Discussion: Politico

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:

This is why Obama can't make a deal with Republicans — File this under “Jonathan Chait is right.” — My column this weekend is about the almost comically poor lines of communication between the White House and the Hill. The opening anecdote was drawn from a background briefing I attended …

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Booman Tribune, The Impolitic, Balloon Juice, New York Magazine and Prairie Weather

Garrett Quinn / Mediaite:

Dennis Rodman 'Won't Apologize' For ‘My Friend’ Kim Jong Un's Murderous Regime: ‘We Do The Same Thing Here’ — Former NBA start Dennis Rodman stood by his controversial trip to North Korea and remarks about its dictator Kim Jong-Un on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Weekly Standard and The Gateway Pundit

Madeleine Morgenstern / TheBlaze.com:

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT DISARMS GUNMAN...GETS SUSPENDED? … A Florida high school student wrestled a loaded gun away from another teen on the bus ride home this week and was slapped with a suspension in return. — The 16-year-old Cypress Lake High student in Fort Myers, Fla. told WFTX-TV there was …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, americanthinker.com, The Gateway Pundit, Clayton Cramer's Blog and GUN WATCH

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

The Scary Hidden Stressor — IN her introduction to a compelling new study, “The Arab Spring and Climate Change,” released Thursday, the Princeton scholar Anne-Marie Slaughter notes that crime shows often rely on the concept of a “stressor.” A stressor, she explains, is a …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Vanessa Gera / Associated Press:

Lech Walesa Shocks Poland With Anti-Gay Words — Lech Walesa, the Polish democracy icon and Nobel peace prize winner, has sparked outrage in Poland by saying that gays have no right to a prominent role in politics and that as a minority they need to “adjust to smaller things.”

Discussion: Guardian, Advocate, AMERICAblog, Towleroad News #gay and Joe. My. God.

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:

McConnell slams liberal super-PAC for tweet about wife's ethnicity — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Saturday blasted a liberal super-PAC for a tweet targeting his wife's ethnicity. — “They will not get away with attacking my wife in this campaign,” …

Discussion: CNN and Post Politics

Abdul Haq Omari / Afghanistan News-TOLOnews.com:

Pakistan Ulema Permits Suicide Attacks — The Chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council on Friday said that suicide attacks in Afghanistan are permitted as long as US forces are present in the country. — “Palestine is occupied by Israel, Kashmir by India, and Afghanistan by the US.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

Lisa Lundquist / The Long War Journal:
Pakistani clerics endorse suicide bombings, reject proposed peace conference

Discussion: americanthinker.com

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs:

“CPAC Turns Away Pamela Geller” — I won't be at CPAC this year. Every year AFDI organizes a must-see event, addressing issues that the Grover Norquist/Suhail Khan cabal refuse to address (jihad, sharia, the war on freedom in the West). — This year, I applied to speak and was ignored.

Discussion: Riehl World News, The Other McCain and American Power