memeorandum: IL & MI — We continue our polls in Midwestern states today … (We Ask America)

3:50 PM ET, September 22, 2014

Top Items:

Gillibrand's Weight Watcher Revealed, and a Presidential Nominee Is Sunk — Good Monday morning and welcome to the inaugural edition of First Draft, your morning briefing for politics. Today, the White House is reviewing the locks on its doors, 91-year-old Bob Dole hits the campaign trail …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Politico, Patterico's Pontifications, Talking Points Memo and Washington Monthly, more at Mediagazer »

Alana Goodman / Washington Free Beacon:

The Hillary Letters — NOTE: READ THE HILLARY CLINTON-SAUL ALINSKY LETTERS HERE. — Previously unpublished correspondence between Hillary Clinton and the late left-wing organizer Saul Alinsky reveals new details about her relationship with the controversial Chicago activist and shed light on her early ideological development.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, CNN, No More Mister Nice Blog, New Hampshire Journal, The Federalist, New York Times, Fox News, Hot Air, Raw Story, The Daily Banter, Weasel Zippers, Liberal Values and The Other McCain

Ashley Parker / New York Times:

Alaska Ad Finds a Target in Begich's Support of Gun Rights — Senator Mark Begich of Alaska was one of just five Democratic senators who voted against a bipartisan gun control bill last year, helping to ensure its failure. — But that hasn't prevented Dan Sullivan, Mr. Begich's Republican opponent …

Discussion: Hot Air, The PJ Tatler, Fox News, Politico, Daily Kos, Althouse, RedState, Weekly Standard and Twitchy

Stanley Kurtz / National Review:

Why Hillary's Alinsky Letters Matter — Alana Goodman's revelation at the Washington Free Beacon of previously unknown correspondence between Hillary Clinton and Saul Alinsky shows that Clinton has not been honest about her far-left past. The lost Alinsky letters also remind us of what we ought …

Discussion: Ed Driscoll and Taylor Marsh

Rachael Bade / Politico:

Exclusive: Lois Lerner breaks silence — Employers won't hire her. She's been berated with epithets like “dirty Jew.” Federal agents have guarded her house because of death threats. And she's spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending herself against accusations she orchestrated …

Discussion: Liberaland, Hot Air, Fox News, Daily Signal, Wall Street Journal, Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller, National Republican …, Scared Monkeys and Instapundit

David Harsanyi / The Federalist:
Sorry, Politico, But Lois Lerner Is Not A Victim

Discussion: Politico, Hit & Run and Instapundit

Anchorage Daily News:

KTVA reporter quits on-air, reveals herself as owner of Alaska Cannabis Club — Reporter Charlo Greene quit on-air during KTVA-TV's 10 p.m. newscast Sunday, revealing herself as the owner of the medical marijuana business Alaska Cannabis Club and telling viewers that she would be using …

Discussion: Raw Story, WTVR-TV, Mashable, Hot Air, Shakesville and Twitchy

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Alaska TV reporter quits on-air

Discussion: The Stranger … and Washington Free Beacon

Numbers / Pew Research Center's Religion …:

Public Sees Religion's Influence Waning — Growing Appetite for Religion in Politics — Nearly three-quarters of the public (72%) now thinks religion is losing influence in American life, up 5 percentage points from 2010 to the highest level in Pew Research polling over the past decade.

Discussion: American Prospect, Washington Post, Towleroad News #gay, CBS DC and Washington Free Beacon

Noah Rothman / Hot Air:

Reason Magazine actually asked climate protesters what they want to do, and it's hilarious — Those in politics who spend much of their time railing about the dangers associated with anthropogenic climate change will often assert that the public largely shares their concerns about catastrophic climate shifts.

Discussion: Fox News, American Thinker, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Power Line, Hit & Run and New York Times

Reason:
What We Saw at the People's Climate March

Discussion: The Daily Caller

John Fund / National Review:

The Crumbling Climate-Change Consensus — Extremists' rhetoric heats up as their case falls apart. — Protesters at the People's Climate March in New York City, September 21. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images) — The United Nations Climate Summit will begin in New York this Tuesday, but environmental activists didn't wait.

Karoli / Crooks and Liars:
The 300,000-Strong Climate Change March Media Ignored

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Firedoglake

Ari Phillips / ThinkProgress:
More Than 310,000 People Descend On New York To March For Climate Action

Discussion: USA Today, Feministing, Mother Jones and United Nations

Associated Press:

Obama Concerned Intruder Got in His Family's Home — President Barack Obama is expressing concern that an intruder carrying a knife was able to get into the White House where his family lives. — Obama press secretary Josh Earnest says Obama is “obviously concerned” that a man got through …

Discussion: Politico

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
Secret Service considers a larger buffer zone around the White House

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Times, The Daily Banter, ABC News, Fox News, The Hill, Yahoo! News and CBS News

CNN:
ISIS war rollout resembles launch of Obamacare site

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Those Lazy Jobless — Last week John Boehner, the speaker of the House, explained to an audience at the American Enterprise Institute what's holding back employment in America: laziness. People, he said, have “this idea” that “I really don't have to work. I don't really want to do this.

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Shakesville and Washington Monthly

Juan Williams / The Hill:

Obama's October Surprise — Get ready for bombs bursting in air and this election's October Surprise - President Obama's air strikes to “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS. — Last week a Fox News poll identified a phenomenon that my friend, pollster Dana Blanton, dubbed “The ISIS effect.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Washington Post:

Sam Brownback's failed ‘experiment’ puts state on path to penury — GOV. SAM BROWNBACK of Kansas says he has come to regret characterizing his policy agenda as a “real live experiment” that would test the efficacy of deep tax cuts to spur jobs and economic growth. In fact, Mr. Brownback's choice of words was apt.

Discussion: CBS News, The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly and New York Times

Gerald F. Seib / Wall Street Journal:

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence Draws GOP Presidential Attention — He Helped Found the Tea-Party Caucus in Congress, and Now Leads a State With Booming Economy — With Washington's reputation lurking in used-car-salesmen territory, there will be a wide lane in the 2016 presidential campaign …

Tim Murphy / Mother Jones:

Will It Take a Keg Stand for Mary Landrieu to Get Reelected? — Tailgating with the most endangered Democrat in the Senate. … It's game day in Baton Rouge, and the bro in the purple shirt wants Mary Landrieu's help doing a keg stand. — Landrieu, elected three times by the narrowest of margins …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Business Insider, National Review, Fox News Insider, OnPolitics, Roll Call and ABC News

UN Women - Headquarters:

Emma Watson: Gender equality is your issue too — Speech by UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson at a special event for the HeForShe campaign, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 20 September 2014 — [Check against delivery.] — Today we are launching a campaign called “HeForShe.”

Discussion: Business Insider, CNN, Washington Post, Raw Story, ThinkProgress, Wall Street Journal, Stop Street Harassment, Feministing, Mashable and Telegraph

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Willie Nelson Feels Maureen Dowd's Pain — WASHINGTON — WHEN Willie Nelson invites you to get high with him on his bus, you go. — The man is the patron saint of pot, after all, and I'm the poster girl for bad pot trips. — It seemed like a match made in hash heaven.

Discussion: Hit & Run and The Dish

Jessica Schulberg / The New Republic:

Guantánamo Bay Is Crumbling Into Ruins — But guards and prisoners aren't leaving any time soon — In 1995, the U.S. military built a small temporary food preparation station on the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base to feed an influx of Haitian and Cuban refugees.

Discussion: The Dish

Jon Feere / The Hill:

Obama's lawless immigration plan is a gift to the 1 percent — Unlike most political issues, immigration is not really a right vs. left or Republican vs. Democrat issue. Instead, immigration is better understood as an elite vs. public issue where the elite in our society tends …

We Ask America:

IL & MI — We continue our polls in Midwestern states today with our home base—Illinois—and races in Michigan. — Illinois: Everything old is new again — Governor Pat Quinn has made a career out of proving those who dismiss his chances in political races wrong.

Discussion: Eclectablog and National Review