memeorandum: Obama to confront racial issues (Tom Raum/Associated Press)

10:10 AM ET, March 18, 2008

Top Items:

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

The Testing Of Obama — Today will be a crucial day. It will be a day when we will discover if America's racial environment - and the emotions and feelings and anger and fears that it entails - can allow for a black man - with all that entails - to become president.

Discussion: The Corner, protein wisdom and Outside The Beltway

The Politico:

Race uproar offers test for Obama — Democrats who worry that Barack Obama is untested can put their concerns to rest. — The inflammatory rhetoric of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has confronted Obama with the most severe test of his presidential campaign and, quite likely, of his public career.

Discussion: MSNBC, Spin Cycle, Classical Values, Real Clear Politics, Ben Smith's Blogs, Jules Crittenden, marbury, MyDD, Brendan Nyhan, The New Republic, JustOneMinute, American Power, protein wisdom, The Page and Sister Toldjah

Press Association:

On Defensive, Obama Plans Talk on Race — Faced with what his advisers acknowledged was a major test to his candidacy, Senator Barack Obama sought on Monday to contain the damage from incendiary comments made by his pastor and prepared to address the issue of race more directly than at any other moment of his presidential campaign.

Discussion: Fox News, NYCweboy, The Caucus, Connecting.the.Dots, MSNBC, American Thinker, Suburban Guerrilla, TalkLeft, TPM Election Central, Political Radar, American Power and The Page

Byron York / The Corner:

All The News That's Fit... Greetings from the train to Philadelphia, where Barack Obama will give his big speech this morning. In advance of the speech, the Jeremiah Wright story finally got big-time coverage in the Washington Post, with a front-page story headlined “Congregation Defends Obama's Ex-Pastor.”

Discussion: democracyarsenal.org

Tom Raum / Associated Press:

Obama to confront racial issues — PHILADELPHIA - Democrat Barack Obama is seeking to distance himself from “stupid statements” by his longtime pastor that have aggravated racial divisions in the contentious Democratic primary battle. He is calling for both sides to tone down their rhetoric.

Discussion: Redstate and FREEDOM EDEN

Gwen Ifill / The Page:
U.S. SENATOR, — Washington, D.C. — GWEN IFILL: Senator Obama, welcome.

Discussion: Boston Globe, Power Line and TPM Election Central

Baltimore Sun:
Obama: Wait until Tuesday for more on Rev. Wright

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, Scared Monkeys, Right Wing Watch, Reuters, Riehl World View, Washington Monthly, The Swamp, Pat Dollard and Don Surber

Ross Douthat:
Denominations and Double Standards

Discussion: Eunomia and The Corner

NY Daily News:

Gov. Paterson admits to sex with other woman for years — The thunderous applause was still ringing in his ears when the state's new governor, David Paterson, told the Daily News that he and his wife had extramarital affairs. — In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife …

New York Post: STATE OF AFFAIRS — NEW GOV DAVE & WIFE CHEATED ON EACH OTHER

E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:

The Street on Welfare — Never do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are, how much they deserve their seven-figure salaries and how government should keep its hands off the private economy. — The Wall Street titans have turned into a bunch of welfare clients.

Discussion: Firedoglake and Daily Kos

Alan S. Blinder / Washington Post:
The Fed Can't Do It Alone — Psychology has now overwhelmed economics.

Discussion: Economist's View

Landon Thomas Jr / New York Times:
Aftershocks of a Collapse, With a Bank at the Epicenter

Discussion: Eschaton, Think Progress, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal

Vikas Bajaj / New York Times:
Plunge Averted, Markets Look Ahead Uneasily

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Steven Lee Myers / New York Times:
Bush Supports Fed's Actions, but Critics Quickly Find Fault

Discussion: BAGnewsNotes and The Caucus

Randy E. Barnett / Wall Street Journal:

Gun-Rights Showdown — Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Heller v. District of Columbia, a suit brought by several D.C. citizens contending that the ban on the possession of operable firearms inside one's home violates the Second Amendment.

Discussion: Law Blog, Convictions, Betsy's Page and Instapundit.com

Robert A. Levy / Boston Globe:

Fighting for our right to bear arms — DOES THE Constitution's Second Amendment give individuals the right to bear arms or is that right reserved exclusively for members of a “well-regulated militia”? That is the question the US Supreme Court will consider today in the case of District …

Discussion: New York Times, Clayton Cramer's BLOG, Confederate Yankee, Los Angeles Times and SCOTUSblog

Bill Mears / CNN:
Court decision on gun-control is personal for 2 women

Discussion: NewsBusters.org

Adam Liptak / New York Times:
A False Claim of Valor and a Cry of Free Speech

Discussion: Law Blog

Roger Simon / The Politico:

Obama camp: HRC is taking the low road — Is it possible to win the Democratic nomination in such a way as to make winning not worth it? — The Barack Obama campaign thinks so. It thinks Hillary Clinton's campaign is willing to take any road to the White House, including the low road.

John M. Broder / New York Times:

Florida Democrats Won't Vote Again, Official Says — WASHINGTON — The Florida Democratic Party chairwoman on Monday officially buried the possibility of redoing the state's disputed January presidential primary, saying there was no practical or affordable way to conduct a new election.

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, The Carpetbagger Report, Electoral-vote.com, PoliBlog (TM), TPM Election Central, Lawyers, Guns and Money, PoliGazette and CNN

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:
Poll: Majority of Democrats prefer Obama

Discussion: MyDD, Taegan Goddard's …, TPM Election Central and USA Today

Frank Newport / Gallup:

McCain's 67% Favorable Rating His Highest in Eight Years — Obama has a 62% favorable rating, while Clinton's is 53% — PRINCETON, NJ — John McCain's 67% favorable rating is the highest of any of the three major candidates running for president, and ties for his highest in Gallup polling history.

Discussion: Hot Air and Real Clear Politics

Waleed Ibrahim / Reuters:

Iraq reconciliation meeting off to shaky start — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A conference to reconcile Iraq's warring political groups began to unravel even before it got under way on Tuesday, with the main Sunni Muslim Arab bloc pulling out and protesting it had not been properly invited.

Fareed Zakaria / Newsweek:
Stuck in the Iraq Loop

Discussion: The Newshoggers, The Glittering Eye, Early Warning and Commentary

ABCNEWS:

Clinton Sticking to Iraq Plan, No Matter What — In Testy Exchange With Reporter, Clinton's Top Advisers Clarify Her Troop Withdrawal Plan — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is sticking to her plan to withdraw troops from Iraq, no matter what. — In a testy exchange with a reporter …

Discussion: Fact Checker and The Strata-Sphere

Adam Nagourney / Press Association:
Anniversary Highlights Iraq War's Role in Campaign

Discussion: New York Times

Christopher Hitchens / Slate:

How Did I Get Iraq Wrong? — I DIDN'T. … An “anniversary” of a “war” is in many ways the least useful occasion on which to take stock of something like the Anglo-American intervention in Iraq, if only because any such formal observance involves the assumption that a) this is, in fact …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, alicublog, TigerHawk and Little Miss Attila

Shelby Steele / Wall Street Journal:

The Obama Bargain — Geraldine Ferraro may have had sinister motives when she said that Barack Obama would not be “in his position” as a frontrunner but for his race. Possibly she was acting as Hillary Clinton's surrogate. Or maybe she was simply befuddled by this new reality …

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Classical Values