memeorandum: THE MYSTERY SMEAR — Just how desperate is the faltering Hillary-for-President team? (New York Post)

12:55 PM ET, February 26, 2008

Top Items:

Clinton Campaign Starts 5-Point Attack on Obama — After struggling for months to dent Senator Barack Obama's candidacy, the campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now unleashing what one Clinton aide called a “kitchen sink” fusillade against Mr. Obama, pursuing five lines …

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Team Clinton: Down, and Out of Touch — They are in the last throes, if you will. As Vice President Cheney knows, such predictions can be perilous. Still, there was no mistaking a certain flailing, a lashing-out, as two Clinton advisers sat down for a bacon-and-eggs session yesterday at the St. Regis Hotel.

Discussion: Christian Science Monitor, Washington Wire, The New Republic, Reason Magazine, Blue Crab Boulevard, Booman Tribune, Buck Naked Politics, Redstate, Donklephant and Prairie Weather

The Politico:

Finger-pointing, frustration in Clinton camp — With a week to go before climactic tests in Texas and Ohio, Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign team has slipped into full recriminations mode. — Looking backward, interviews with a cross-section of campaign aides and sympathetic outsiders suggest …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Captain's Quarters, New York Times, Spin Cycle, Newsweek Blogs, Real Clear Politics and MSNBC

New York Post:

THE MYSTERY SMEAR — Just how desperate is the faltering Hillary-for-President team? Desper ate enough for overt race-baiting? — Consider the flap over a photo that popped up on the Drudge Report yesterday, depicting Sen. Barack Obama in traditional Somali garb during a 2006 trip to Kenya - his father's homeland.

Discussion: Spin Cycle, Sweetness & Light and Attytood

Las Vegas Review-Journal:

FLOWERS PUTTING CLINTON PHONE CONVERSATIONS UP FOR BID — Gennifer Flowers is putting the tapes of her recorded conversations with Bill Clinton during their 12-year affair on the auction block, Vegas Confidential learned Monday. — Flowers, who came forward during Clinton's 1992 Presidential …

Discussion: Political Machine, Los Angeles Times and Wonkette

David Brody / CBN.com:
Hillary Clinton Fights On

Discussion: TownHall Blog and michellemalkin.com

OPENERS:
Debate primer: How to watch Tuesday's presidential debate

Discussion: dispatchpolitics.com, Associated Press, The Caucus and The Page

Times of London:

Mansion ‘mistake’ piles the pressure on Barack Obama — James Bone in New York and Dominic Kennedy in London — A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

Discussion: NO QUARTER, The Corner, protein wisdom, The Moderate Voice, Flopping Aces, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The Jawa Report, Don Surber, UrbanGrounds and Atlas Shrugs

Rick Moran / Right Wing Nut House:
WILL DIRTY CHICAGO POLITICS BE THE UNDOING OF OBAMA?

Discussion: Say Anything

David Lat / Abovethelaw.com:

Breaking: Monica Goodling Is Engaged! — This just in: the super-fabulous Monica Goodling, one of ATL's all-time favorite people, is engaged! — Monica Marie Goodling, of Alexandria, is engaged to be married to Michael Krempasky, of Falls Church. The wedding is planned for later this year.

Discussion: Think Progress, Wonkette, Firedoglake, LewRockwell.com Blog, Dependable Renegade and TBogg

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Real McCain — You wouldn't know it to look at them, but political consultants are as faddish as anyone else. And the current vogueish advice among the backroom set is: Go after your opponent's strengths. So in the first volley of what feels like the general election campaign …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Firedoglake, The Carpetbagger Report, Commentary, The Campaign Spot and The RBC

Michael J. Totten:

Guns in the Desert — ANBAR PROVINCE, IRAQ - The Humvee slammed to a halt on the desert road between Fallujah and the town of Al Farris. I peered around the driver's head from the back seat and tried to figure out what was happening. — “Why are we stopping?” I said. — “IED,” Sergeant Guerrero said.

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, Dean's World and UrbanGrounds

Tapscott's Copy Desk:

Porkbuster groups planning to crash Murtha's Earmarkers Ball — Rep. John Murtha is one of the all-time champion porkers in Congress and he's even hosting a swanky dinner tomorrow night for defense lobbyists who have or who hope to get millions of tax dollars from earmarks sponsored by the Pennsylvania Democrat.

Americans for Prosperity: The Murtha Bash - Pork Crash

Electa Draper / Denver Post:

Huckabee endorses ‘egg as person’ amendment — Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Monday endorsed a proposed Colorado Human Life Amendment that would define personhood as a fertilized egg. — The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister also supports a human-life amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Pam's House Blend and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Ardeshir Arian / Pajamas Media:

IRANIAN SHOPPERS RIOT AGAINST MODESTY POLICE — It happens every day on the streets of Tehran: a police squad grabbed a young woman for dressing immodestly. But this time, the young woman fought back: and a crowd defended her and attacked the police. Thanks to cell phone video, the Internet …

Discussion: Power Line, Fausta's blog, Gateway Pundit and Ynetnews

Breitbart.tv:

Bill Slips While Stumping for Hillary? ‘If You Elect Me...’ — Was he speaking “as” his wife or was it a slip? (see related link) “If you elect me, I'll repeal those subsidies and put them into a strategic energy fund that will create American jobs for America's future with clean energy.”

Discussion: The Daily Dish and Patterico's Pontifications

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:

Obama stiffs, stifles national press — EDINBURG, Texas - For all the positive press Barack Obama receives, as he moves closer to clinching the Democratic nomination he is establishing himself as the candidate who keeps the most distance from the national media.

Discussion: Marc Ambinder, Washington Post, Wonkette, MSNBC and NO QUARTER