memeorandum: NBC/WSJ Poll: Obama's Foreign Policy Rating Plummets, Even Without Iraq (Mark Murray/NBC News)

11:55 AM ET, June 18, 2014

Top Items:

The Collapsing Obama Doctrine — Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. — As the terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) threaten Baghdad, thousands of slaughtered Iraqis in their wake, it is worth recalling a few …

Rod Nordland / New York Times:
Extremists Said to Take Control of Iraq's Biggest Oil Refinery

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CNN, Gawker and National Review

New York Times:
Obama Is Said to Consider Selective Airstrikes on Sunni Militants

Discussion: Hot Air, Mediaite and Politico

Theresa Vargas / Washington Post:

U.S. patent office cancels Redskins trademark registration, says name is disparaging — The United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the Washington Redskins trademark registration, calling the football team's name “disparaging to Native Americans.”

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Weekly Standard, Gawker, Outside the Beltway, Weasel Zippers, Patterico's Pontifications, The Raw Story, KFOR-TV and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

ThinkProgress:

In Landmark Decision, U.S. Patent Office Cancels Trademark For Redskins Football Team — The United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled six federal trademark registrations for the name of the Washington Redskins, ruling that the name is “disparaging to Native Americans” …

Discussion: Mashable, Mediaite, SBNation.com, The Daily Caller, Independent Journal Review, Daily Kos and The Week

Kendall Breitman / Politico:

Karl Rove: Bill Clinton revealed Hillary Clinton's health — Karl Rove is continuing to raise questions about Hillary Clinton's health and says Bill Clinton is the one who revealed new details about the extent of her lengthy recovery. — “She has a problem with the fact …

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

Apprehension of Ahmed Abu Khattala May Begin to Answer Questions on Assault — CAIRO — Ahmed Abu Khattala was always open about his animosity toward the United States, and even about his conviction that the Muslims and Christians were locked in an intractable religious war.

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:
Fox's Bret Baier Relentlessly Hammers Hillary Clinton on Benghazi

Discussion: msnbc.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Taylor Marsh and The Huffington Post

Carrie Dann / NBC News:
America Divided Over Hillary Clinton Presidency, NBC/WSJ Poll Finds

Discussion: Hot Air, Politico, Real Clear Politics and Washington Post

Washington Post:
Too many questions remain about Benghazi attacks, Hillary Clinton says

Discussion: Power Line and Hot Air

Fox News:
Clinton claims she had doubts about video explanation after Benghazi strike

Discussion: CNN, Guardian, Power Line, National Review and Washington Free Beacon

Dan Merica / CNN:
What we heard from Clinton

Discussion: Althouse, Taylor Marsh and Mashable

BBC:
US seizes Benghazi raid ‘ringleader’ Ahmed Abu Khattala

Discussion: The Daily Beast, National Review, Sic Semper Tyrannis and The Raw Story

Mark Murray / NBC News:

NBC/WSJ Poll: Obama's Foreign Policy Rating Plummets, Even Without Iraq — And respondents are evenly divided if the details of Bergdahl's disappearance from his base in Afghanistan matter in the U.S. decision to secure his release: 47 percent say the details matter, while 46 percent say they don't.

Discussion: Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, Scared Monkeys and Hot Air

Wall Street Journal:

Poll Shows Erosion in President's Support — As clouds gather abroad, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds Mr. Obama's job approval rating at 41%, matching a previous low.

Discussion: Politico, New York Times, Independent Journal Review and Washington Free Beacon

Jonathan Topaz / Politico:

Ted Cruz says he'd never heard of Peter King — Rep. Peter King? Never heard of him, Sen. Ted Cruz says. — The Texas senator says he had never heard of the New York Republican who has repeatedly and harshly attacked him until recently. — “I don't know Mr. King,” Cruz, a Texas Republican, said on CNN on Tuesday evening.

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Politico's reporting disaster — Politico's media blogger, Dylan Byers, regularly supplies his readers with tidbits on comings and goings in the news business, but this week he provided an additional service: a lesson in the limitations of armchair journalism.

Discussion: Mediaite, Balloon Juice, Gawker, Hot Air, ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo and The Daily Caller

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Dana Milbank's Heritage disaster

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, Power Line, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Salon, Little Green Footballs, Doug Ross, The Jawa Report, Yahoo! News, Ed Driscoll, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Business Insider, Liberaland, Washington Post and The PJ Tatler

Glenn Harlan Reynolds / USA Today:

Obama's double asterisks on IRS: Column — First, we found out agency was targeting Tea Party. Now IRS emails are missing. Cover-up? — I guess it's time to award President Obama a second asterisk. When charges came out that the IRS targeted Tea Party groups for harassment …

Discussion: TaxProf Blog, NewsBusters, Vox Popoli and Sister Toldjah

Theodore Schleifer / New York Times: Lawmakers Skeptical on Emails and I.R.S.

Betsy Morais / New Yorker:

What Keeps You Up at Night — “Sleep is the most moronic fraternity in the world, with the heaviest dues and the crudest rituals,” Vladimir Nabokov writes in “Speak Memory.” He goes on, “It is a mental torture I find debasing ... I simply cannot get used to the nightly betrayal of reason, humanity, genius.”

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:

‘The Past Is Never Dead,’ Bill Faulkner Told Us—but He Didn't Know About the Iraq War — If you're anything like me, when you hear the words “wise insights about the Iraq war,” two names that immediately come to mind are Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby. — Fortunately the Hertog Institute …

Discussion: The Dish, Washington Post, PoliticusUSA, Mediaite, American Power and Salon

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

The Conundrum of a Unified Iraq and a Unified Syria — There is much talk right now about America teaming up with Iran to push back the coalition of Sunni militias that has taken over Mosul and other Sunni towns in western Iraq and Syria. For now, I'd say stay out of this fight …