memeorandum: Making Up Is Hard to Do — The conversation was about how tiring … (Michael Kinsley/Washington Post)

5:15 PM ET, March 27, 2008

Top Items:

Obama Weathers the Wright Storm, Clinton Faces Credibility Problem — National Discontent Approaches 20-Year High, Bush Approval at 28% — Summary of Findings — The videos of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's controversial sermons and Barack Obama's subsequent speech on race and politics …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Boston Globe and Associated Press

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Democratic Groups Most at Risk of Deserting — Independents, conservatives likeliest to vote for McCain — PRINCETON, NJ — Democrats are at most risk of losing the support of independents, conservative Democrats, and, among Hillary Clinton supporters, less well-educated Democrats …

Discussion: Marc Ambinder, The Fix, The Huffington Post and BuzzFlash.org

Gallup:
Gallup Daily: Obama Now at 48% to Clinton 44%

Discussion: The Jed Report

John Whitesides / Reuters:
Democratic race over? Clinton doesn't think so

Discussion: Southern Political Report, The Moderate Voice and Booman Tribune

USA Today:

Obama: Beware 'you're on your own' society — GREENSBORO, N.C. — Presidential candidate Barack Obama, largely ignoring his Democratic rival for now, ridiculed likely Republican nominee John McCain on Wednesday for offering “not one single idea” to help hard-pressed homeowners facing foreclosure.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Trail, Hot Air, The American Mind and MSNBC

New York Times:
How Not to Prevent Foreclosures

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and The Democratic Daily

New York Post:
IT'S THE BLOOMY-'BAMA SHOW

Discussion: Hot Air, Comments from Left Field, The Daily Politics, Gothamist, Ground Game and A Blog For All

Patrick Healy / The Caucus:
Obama Warms to Wrapping Up Contest

Discussion: Open Left, American Street, TPM Election Central and Washington Times

Frank James / Baltimore Sun:

Expert: Current Iraq fighting not good guys vs bad — The battles raging in southern Iraq's Basra are more than a central Iraqi government trying to assert control over the militia of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Instead, it's more complicated, more like a mini civil war between competing Shiite groups vying for power.

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Weekly Standard Blog, The New Republic, Reuters, Outside The Beltway, democracyarsenal.org, Matthew Yglesias and The Glittering Eye

Abu Aardvark:
another theory for the pile

Discussion: CNN, The Newshoggers, asharq-e.com, Danger Room and Washington Monthly

Dean Godson / Times of London:
Crude oil surges after Basra pipeline bombing

Discussion: Salon, The Huffington Post, Informed Comment, Hot Air, Counterterrorism Blog, VetVoice, Danger Room, Outside The Beltway, The Carpetbagger Report, Hullabaloo and Balloon Juice

Jules Crittenden:
Sadr Tidings — The good news is, Iraqi forces are heavily engaged …

Discussion: Time, Neptunus Lex, The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, The Seminal and Dean's World

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Hillary vows: We're going all the way to the convention; Update: Hillary questions the legitimacy of Obama's nomination — Good lord. Even I find her ruthlessness here creepy, and I'm pulling for her. I'm giving you the second clip mostly for the smug look on her face after she delivers her bone-chilling …

Discussion: RIGHTWINGSPARKLE, Riehl World View and Redstate

Joe Klein / Time:

Silly Season — Unlike Barack Obama, Bill Clinton does not believe in “the fierce urgency of now.” The former President has an exquisitely languid sense of how political time unfurls. He understands that those moments the political community, especially the media, considers urgent usually aren't.

Discussion: Reuters, Commentary, Ben Smith's Blogs, Wonkette, The Carpetbagger Report, The Raw Story, The Unapologetic Mexican and Poll Dancing

Ann Althouse / Althouse:
Fraud in Texas? “It looks like there was data entry error.

Discussion: Marc Ambinder

Amanda / Think Progress:

EXCLUSIVE: McCain's Foreign Affairs Speech Plagiarizes 1996 Address By Adm. Timothy Ziemer (UPDATED) — EXCLUSIVE: McCain's Foreign Affairs Speech Plagiarizes 1996 Address By Adm. Timothy Ziemer (UPDATED) … Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) gave a foreign policy speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

Discussion: The Swamp, Marc Ambinder and Wonk Room

New York Post:

AND THERE HE HO'S AGAIN — ‘WICKED’ SPITZER LINKED TO BUSTY BUSTED MADAM'S BIZ — Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been identified as a long-standing client of a second high-priced call-girl ring, The Post has learned. — The ex-governor regularly patronized Wicked Models …

Discussion: NY Daily News, New York Times, The Jawa Report and michellemalkin.com

New York Times:

Obama on ‘Renewing the American Economy’ — Following is the transcript of Barack Obama's economic speech at Cooper Union in New York, as provided by CQ Transcriptions Inc. — Thank you so much for being here. — Let me begin by thanking Dr. Drucker and Cooper Union for hosting us here today.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, The Glittering Eye, Comments from Left Field and The RBC

Sam Graham-Felsen / my.barackobama.com:
In Major Speech, Obama Calls for Modernizing Our Regulation of Financial Markets

Discussion: Associated Press, Matthew Yglesias, American Street, The Campaign Spot, DownWithTyranny!, The Carpetbagger Report and Democratic Strategist

Michelle Malkin:

Fitna has arrived — Readers are sending the Liveleak English version of Geert Wilders' Fitna, which has just been posted. (Be patient, may be a little slow to load.) It's 15 minutes with scenes of jihad interlaced with quotes from the Koran. — The film ends not with any blasphemous image …

Discussion: The Sundries Shack, Wake up America and Riehl World View

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Video: “Fitna” now online; Update: Torrent link added; Update …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Reuters, snapped shot, Gateway Pundit, A Blog For All and PoliGazette

Emilie Lounsberry / Philly.com:

No death for Mumia Abu-Jamal — at least for now — A federal appeals court today refused to reinstate the death sentence of world-famous death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, but left intact his murder conviction in the 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Discussion: Moonbattery, The Moderate Voice, Reason Magazine and Attytood

Hindrocket / Power Line:
FREE MUMIA! — A panel of the Third Circuit Court …

Discussion: Agence France Presse, Hot Air, NewsBusters.org and michellemalkin.com

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:

FIRST THOUGHTS: MYTH BUSTER — From Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro — *** Myth buster: Pollster Peter Hart calls the NBC/WSJ poll a “myth buster” survey; it really breaks down a lot of the myths we've been hearing over the last week like: (1) that the Wright controversy was the beginning …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, Spin Cycle, Taylor Marsh, Crooks and Liars, The Fix and The Swamp

David Freddoso / The Corner:
McCain and Tupac Shakur

Discussion: Weekly Standard Blog

Eric Lichtblau / Slate:

The Education of a 9/11 Reporter — THE INSIDE DRAMA BEHIND THE TIMES' WARRANTLESS WIRETAPPING STORY. … For 13 long months, we'd held off on publicizing one of the Bush administration's biggest secrets. Finally, one afternoon in December 2005, as my editors and I waited anxiously …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, protein wisdom, The Strata-Sphere and NewsBusters.org

C. J. Chivers / New York Times:

Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans — Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. — But to arm the Afghan forces …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Sunlight Foundation blogs, Confederate Yankee, TPMMuckraker, Alternate Brain, BuzzFlash.org, On Deadline, Blue Girl, Red State, First Draft, MoJoBlog, democracyarsenal.org, The Swamp, The Washington Independent, The Blotter, Hog On Ice and At-Largely

Lindsay Renick Mayer / Capital Eye:

Democratic Donors Send $24 Million Letter to Pelosi — Major fundraisers, who support Hillary Clinton, urge the Speaker of the House not to meddle with superdelegate votes—and millions of dollars are behind their message. — Prominent backers of Hillary Clinton sent a multi-million-dollar message …

Discussion: Spin Cycle, The Trail, Boston Globe and AMERICAblog

John Shiffman / Philly.com:

Four locals charged in Puerto Rico corruption scandal — Puerto Rico's governor and four Philadelphians, including prominent fund-raiser Robert M. Feldman, were charged this morning in San Juan with federal campaign-finance related crimes. — The investigation of Gov. Anibal Acevedo-Vila …

Discussion: The Trail, Pajamas Media, Hot Air, Attytood, TPMMuckraker, On Deadline and A Blog For All

Gail Shister / TVNewser:

Olbermann Counting Up...Happy At Last — Five years later, Keith “Take This Job and Shove It” Olbermann is still — dare we say it? — happy at MSNBC. — In fact, when Olbermann marks the milestone with a special Countdown on NBC Sunday, he will be just six months away from breaking …

Ben / Think Progress:

Krauthammer: McCain Has ‘Hidden Agenda’ To ‘Kill The United Nations’ — Yesterday in an foreign policy address in Los Angeles, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called for the United States to create and lead a “League of Democracies” in order to “harness the vast influence of the more than one hundred …

Discussion: USA Today, The Newshoggers, Outside The Beltway, Weekly Standard Blog, Ground Game and Washington Monthly