memeorandum: Poll: Clinton and McCain well ahead in Arizona (Shaun McKinnon/Arizona Republic)

6:05 PM ET, January 23, 2008

Top Items:

Bill Clinton gets upset with CNN reporter — (CNN) - Bill Clinton became visibly upset Wednesday over comments by a prominent South Carolina Democrat that compared the former president's actions on the trail to those of infamous Republican strategist Lee Atwater.

Discussion: The Politico and The Plank

The Onion:

Bill Clinton: 'Screw It, I'm Running For President' — CHARLESTON, SC—After spending two months accompanying his wife, Hillary, on the campaign trail, former president Bill Clinton announced Monday that he is joining the 2008 presidential race, saying he “could no longer resist the urge.”

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Carpetbagger Report, The Corner and UrbanGrounds

Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:

ABC News Badly Mischaracterizes Obama's Alleged “Testy Exchange” With Reporter — Okay, this is really a bad one. Late yesterday, ABC News posted a story called: “Is Bill Clinton getting in Obama's head?" — The piece reported that Obama had had a “testy exchange” with New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny …

Discussion: Political Radar, FOX Embeds, DC Download, Jack and Jill Politics, TalkLeft, Riehl World View, TPM Election Central and MoJoBlog

Wall Street Journal:

Obama's Clinton Education — One of our favorite Bill Clinton anecdotes involves a confrontation he had with Bob Dole in the Oval Office after the 1996 election. Mr. Dole protested Mr. Clinton's attack ads claiming the Republican wanted to harm Medicare, but the President merely smiled …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, michellemalkin.com, The Daily Dish, Maggie's Farm, QandO, NewsBusters.org, Political Punch, Outside The Beltway, Rox Populi, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Betsy's Page

Dick Morris / Real Clear Politics:

How Clinton Will Win the Nomination by Losing S.C. — Hillary Clinton will undoubtedly lose the South Carolina primary as African-Americans line up to vote for Barack Obama. And that defeat will power her drive to the nomination. — The Clintons are encouraging the national media …

Discussion: Booker Rising

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
New Negative Hillary Ad In South Carolina Hits Obama For Calling GOP …

Discussion: TalkLeft, Spin Cycle, Liberal Values, Taylor Marsh and The State

NY Daily News:
Mud, muddier, muddiest

Discussion: The Corner, New York Times, New York Post, Political Machine and Redstate

David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Now or Never for Obama — COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina …

Discussion: Horses Mouth, DownWithTyranny! and Captain's Quarters

Glenn Thrush / The Swamp: Bill Clinton: Obama, media spinning racial angle

The Buzz:

St. Pete Times Poll: Bye-bye Rudy? — It's Mitt Romney vs. John McCain in the final stretch of Florida's crucial Republican primary. — A new St. Petersburg Times poll shows the former Massachusetts governor and Arizona senator neck and neck among Florida Republicans, while Rudy Giuliani's Florida-or-bust strategy has been a bust.

Discussion: The Politico, Marc Ambinder and Q: The Florida Politics Blog

Ben Adler / The Politico:

Ron Paul continues to best Giuliani — Ron Paul, the Texas congressman frequently dismissed as a long shot candidate with no real chance at winning the Republican presidential nomination, has won nearly twice as many total votes to date as Rudy Giuliani, a candidate still widely viewed as a strong contender.

Discussion: Volunteer Voters and Hot Air

Shaun McKinnon / Arizona Republic:

Poll: Clinton and McCain well ahead in Arizona — Arizona Sen. John McCain has opened a wide lead in his home state for the Feb. 5 Republican presidential primary, according to a poll released Tuesday. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton leads fellow Democrats by a similar margin.

Discussion: The Caucus

Times of London:

Exclusive: Hamas ‘spent months cutting through Gaza wall in secret operation’ — James Hider of The Times at the Rafah border crossing — As tens of thousands of Palestinians clambered back and forth between the Gaza strip and Egypt today, details emerged of the audacious operation …

Discussion: Haaretz, Spectator, Agence France Presse, Israel Matzav, Jerusalem Post, Jihad Watch, Ynetnews, GINA COBB, Gateway Pundit, Flopping Aces, A Blog For All, The Moderate Voice, Little Green Footballs, FP Passport, Power Line and Israellycool

New York Times:
Palestinians Topple Gaza Wall and Cross to Egypt

Discussion: MoJoBlog, CNN, Guardian, Commentary, BAGnewsNotes, The Swamp and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Your Harry Reid-led Senate in action — (updated below - Update II) — Harry Reid — who has (a) done more than any other individual to ensure that Bush's demands for telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping powers will be met in full and (b) allowed the Republicans all year …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Crooks and Liars, TPMmuckraker, Emptywheel, Daily Kos, Scholars and Rogues, Booman Tribune, The Plank, the albany project, Hullabaloo, D-Day, The Carpetbagger Report, Pacific Views, The Newshoggers and New York Times

Markos Moulitsas / The Hill:
Scare tactics — Stuck in traffic on Sept. 11, smoke …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

“Legendary” GOP Strategist Launches Hillary Namecalling Effort — A couple of days ago, a group called Citizens United Not Timid filed papers with the IRS as a “527” organization. Then we saw that Roger Stone had signed on as the group's “assistant treasurer." Uh oh.

Discussion: Washington Times, Feministing, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Politics1 and Shakespeare's Sister

Matt Labash / Weekly Standard: Making Political Trouble

CNN:

Hunter endorses Huckabee — WASHINGTON (CNN) — California Rep. Duncan Hunter, a former presidential candidate, announced Wednesday he is endorsing Mike Huckabee's White House bid. — “I got to know Governor Huckabee well on the campaign trail,” Huckabee said in a statement.

Discussion: Hot Air, michellemalkin.com, The Swamp, Say Anything and PrestoPundit

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

Gore for same-sex marriage — Not sure what prompted this, but Al Gore has quietly released a video with a forceful endorsement of equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. It pushes the Democratic establishment that much closer to a position he now shares with Eliot Spitzer and some other leading Dems …

Discussion: The Opinionator, Wonkette and D-Day

Frank James / The Swamp:

Obama's Rezko problem; it's about judgment — In Monday night's Democratic presidential slugfest, er, debate in South Carolina, Sen. Hillary Clinton hit Sen. Barack Obama with the charge that as a young lawyer he represented a now infamous Chicago “slumlord” named “Rezko.”

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, The Opinionator, Taylor Marsh, Watching Those We Chose and ArchPundit

This Is London:

BOOK A SPACE NOW ON OUT OF THIS WORLD TOURIST FLIGHT — This is the first craft that is set to make regular tourist flights into space. — Trip to the stars: the Virgin Galactic — The Virgin Galactic spacecraft, which was being unveiled in New York today, is already under construction.

Discussion: Pat Dollard and Transterrestrial Musings