memeorandum: Convention Wisdom — The common wisdom offered two possible outcomes … (David Freddoso/National Review Online)

8:30 AM ET, December 11, 2007

Top Items:

Security Guard: 'God Guided Me And Protected Me' — Jeanne Assam Stopped Gunman At New Life Church — COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Jeanne Assam appeared before the news media for the first time Monday and said she "did not think for a minute to run away" when a gunman entered the New Life Church …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Of Arms and the Law, No More Mister Nice Blog, PoliPundit.com, Slapstick Politics, GINA COBB, The Moderate Voice, QandO, Vox Popoli, Blue Crab Boulevard, Gateway Pundit, Jules Crittenden, The World Wide Rant, BLACKFIVE, Instapundit.com, Whiskey Fire and michellemalkin.com

Hindrocket / Power Line:
SPEAKING OF HATE CRIMES...

Discussion: Sadly, No!, TBogg, Patterico's Pontifications, KUSA-TV, The Moderate Voice and Right Voices

Tom McGhee / Denver Post:
Church gunman "hated Christians"

Discussion: Rocky Mountain News, Slapstick Politics and Hot Air

Ron Claiborne / ABCNEWS:

Analysis: How McCain Could Still Win — Political Watchers Say John McCain May Be Down, but a Comeback Is Possible — A year ago, he was the odds-on favorite to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. Today, he's considered a long shot. — His campaign has rebounded …

Discussion: The Hill

Byron York / The Corner:

McCain Attacks Romney's Attack on Huckabee — Here's an interesting one. The Romney campaign is set to release the first negative ad of the season in Iowa tomorrow - an attack on Mike Huckabee on the immigration issue. Huckabee will certainly respond - and now, he has help from another candidate, John McCain.

Discussion: Redstate and The Atlantic Online

David Brooks / New York Times:
The Postwar Election

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
Two GOP hopefuls see some illegals as citizens

Discussion: Right Wing News, PrairiePundit and PoliPundit.com

ABCNEWS:

Coming in From the Cold: CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary But Torture — Former Agent Says the Enhanced Technique Was Used on Al Qaeda Chief Abu Zubaydah — A leader of the CIA team that captured and interrogated the first major al Qaeda figure, Abu Zubaydah, says subjecting him to waterboarding was torture but necessary.

Washington Post:

Waterboarding Recounted — Ex-CIA Officer Says It 'Probably Saved Lives' but Is Torture — A former CIA officer who participated in the capture and questioning of the first al-Qaeda terrorist suspect to be waterboarded said yesterday that the harsh technique provided an intelligence breakthrough that …

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
TWO STORIES....After the United States captured al-Qaeda operative …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

New York Times:

Destruction of C.I.A. Tapes Cleared by Lawyers — Lawyers within the clandestine branch of the Central Intelligence Agency gave written approval in advance to the destruction in 2005 of hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting interrogations of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda …

Discussion: The Corner, The Raw Story, Los Angeles Times, Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, PrairiePundit, ScrappleFace, Corrente, Prairie Weather, Oliver Willis and War and Piece

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:

House Democrats Pull Budget Offer — The GOP Is Negotiating In Bad Faith, Obey Says — A Democratic deal to give President Bush some war funding in exchange for additional domestic spending appeared to collapse last night after House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Political Machine, Main and Central and PrairiePundit

Josh Kraushaar / The Politico:

NRCC props up its pummeled Ohio candidate — Republicans are facing a surprisingly fierce fight in a Tuesday special election to hold on to a conservative northwestern Ohio seat that has been under the party's control for the past 70 years. — The GOP expects to win another special election set …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, Buckeye State Blog, Eunomia, Daily Kos and Ohio Daily Blog

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:

Obama, Under the Clinton Microscope — DES MOINES - Presidential campaigns have unlimited appetites for information about their rivals. They track their whereabouts, they study their records and they obsessively follow nearly every movement. By this point in the race, though …

Discussion: Wizbang

Sean Olender / San Francisco Chronicle:

MORTGAGE MELTDOWN — Interest rate 'freeze' - the real story is fraud — Bankers pay lip service to families while scurrying to avert suits, prison — New proposals to ease our great mortgage meltdown keep rolling in. First the Treasury Department urged the creation of a new fund …

Discussion: Angry Bear, Mish's Global Economic … and Seeing the Forest

Hadley Arkes / Claremont Institute:

A Very Claremont Christmas — There's nothing quite like a good book for ensuring the merriest yule cheer and a happy new year. Here are a few picks from friends and colleagues of the Claremont Institute... Edward Ney Professor of Jurisprudence, Amherst College

Discussion: The Corner and Power Line

Barry Hertz / network.nationalpost.com:

Teen girl in critical condition after alleged dispute over hijab — A 16-year-old girl is in critical condition after being choked by a man believed to be her father, apparently after a dispute with her family over her refusal to wear the hijab, the Islamic headscarf worn by some Muslim women.

Wall Street Journal:

Group Says Iran Resumed Weapon Program — The Iranian opposition group that first exposed Iran's nuclear-fuel program said a U.S. intelligence analysis is correct that Tehran shut down its weaponization program in 2003, but claims that the program was relocated and restarted in 2004.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters

Basem Wasef / Popular Mechanics:

2008 Lamborghini Reventón: Video Test Drive — It's named after a deadly bull, — looks like something dreamed up by a skunkworks team at Area 51 and boasts the formidable pricetag of $1.4 million. The Reventon is the rarest, most extreme modern Lamborghini to date.