memeorandum: SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES (law.cornell.edu)

8:10 AM ET, April 17, 2008

Top Items:

The Debate: A Shameful Night for the U.S. Media — In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia.

Discussion: Deadline USA, Rox Populi, Guardian Unlimited, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, KIKO'S HOUSE, Wonkette, The Other McCain, Swing State Project, Liberal Values and The American Mind

Marc Ambinder:

The Score Card — Keeping the score card, there's no way Obama could fared worse. Nearly 45 minutes of relentless political scrutiny from the ABC anchors and from Hillary Clinton, followed by an issues-and-answers session in which his anger carried over and sort of neutered him.

Discussion: MSNBC, Hot Air, AMERICAblog, National Review, The Fix, Althouse, A NEWT ONE, GINA COBB, PunditGuy, Weekly Standard Blog, Spin Cycle and JustOneMinute

The Huffington Post:

ABC Hosts Heckled After Debate: “The Crowd Is Turning On Me” — Reflecting what seemed to be the main consensus of the night - that ABC botched this debate, big time - Charlie Gibson tells the crowd there will be one more, superfluous commercial break of the night and is subsequently jeered.

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal, Comments from Left Field and Lonewacko

Greg Mitchell / Editor and Publisher:

Clinton-Obama Debate: ABC Decides Top Issues Facing Americans Are Gaffes, Flag Pins and '60s Radicals — NEW YORK In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly …

Discussion: AMERICAblog and Daily Kos

Senator Hillary Clinton / New York Times:

Democratic Debate in Philadelphia — The following is a transcript of the Democratic debate in Philadelphia, as provided by the Federal News Service. — PARTICIPANTS: — SENATOR BARACK OBAMA — MODERATORS: — LOCATION: THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER, PHILADELPHIA

Discussion: Power Line, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos and BatesLine

Sam Boyd / American Prospect:

THESE QUESTIONS ARE A DISGRACE. — A woman asks if Obama “believes in the American flag” because he doesn't wear a flag pin. — Charlie Gibson says that questions about the flag are “all over the internet” — along with Pamela Anderson's sex tape, cats with bad grammar, and Rick Astley.

Discussion: Daily Kos and michellemalkin.com

ABCNEWS:

Clinton, Obama Find ‘Brotherly Love’ at Philly Debate — For Clinton, Obama Last Chance to Settle Scores Before Pennsylvania Primary — Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama opened Wednesday's presidential debate on a point of accord: neither would answer head-on whether they'd be willing to name the other as vice president.

Discussion: Commentary, Buck Naked Politics, Political Machine, MyDD, Pandagon, The RBC and The Daily Dish

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

The Fall-Out — I agree largely with Ambers: … It was a lifeless, exhausted, drained and dreary Obama we saw tonight. I've seen it before when he is tired, but this was his worst performance yet on national television. He seemed crushed and unable to react.

Discussion: The Glittering Eye, Below The Beltway, Boston Globe, FiveThirtyEight.com and TigerHawk

Nicole Belle / Crooks and Liars:

Attention ABC: You're HURTING America! UPDATED with VIDEO! — Well, it worked for Jon Stewart and Crossfire... An hour into the latest Democratic Debate and overwhelmingly, the consensus is that ABC is doing a fine job... of completely ignoring the issues that concern Americans and focusing …

Discussion: Newshoggers.com and Macsmind

New York Times:

Clinton Uses Sharp Attacks in Tense Debate — PHILADELPHIA — Senator Barack Obama found himself consistently on the defensive as he and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton met Wednesday night in a tense debate that left him parrying questions and criticism on issues including values …

Discussion: The Politico, Gawker, USA Today, Boston Globe, American Street and Jules Crittenden

Katrina Vanden Heuvel / The Nation:

The ‘Gotcha’ Debate — We're into the 21st debate. We've been through fifteen months of this primary calendar or, as ABC's Charles Gibson put it in introducing what may well be the last....we're into “round 15.” — These boys love their sports metaphors.

Discussion: Betsy's Page and The New Republic

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Sorry, Charlie: You're Wrong on the Cap Gains Tax

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Comments from Left Field and Wonk Room

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Live-Blogging Pennsylvania — 9.51 pm. The big winner is John McCain.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Perfunction, protein wisdom, Marc Ambinder, Viking Pundit and Commentary

Will Bunch / Philly.com:
An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos

Discussion: TalkLeft, Multi Medium and Cliff Schecter …

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The ABC News “Freak Show”

Discussion: Wonkette and The Anonymous Liberal

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:
Tactics Uber Alles

Discussion: Comments from Left Field and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Nitya Venkataraman / ABCNEWS:
Stakes High for Democrats in Philly Debate

Discussion: The Swamp, Pajamas Media, marbury, ScrappleFace and michellemalkin.com

Hindrocket / Power Line:

HAMAS ENDORSES OBAMA — On Sunday, Aaron Klein and John Batchelor interviewed Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Prime Minister of Hamas, on WABC radio. The interview produced a scoop which, for some reason, has not been widely publicized: Hamas has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Discussion: Fausta's blog, Dartblog and Israel Matzav

Mosheh Oinounou / Cameron's Corner:
A Hamas problem for Obama?

Discussion: Associated Press, Dr. Sanity, Hot Air, A NEWT ONE, Jules Crittenden, Commentary, Jihad Watch and Redstate

The Huffington Post:

Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: “Screw 'Em” — During the past week, Sen. Hillary Clinton has presented herself as a working class populist, the politician in touch with small town sentiments, compared to the elitism of her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Below The Beltway, Top of the Ticket, MoJoBlog, The Reaction, Guardian Unlimited, Deadline USA, NewsBusters.org, Classical Values, Bang the Drum, Spin Cycle, The Carpetbagger Report, The New Republic, Political Machine, Hot Air, Indecision 2008, AMERICAblog and Swampland

The New Republic: What Did Hillary Say? — Alan Wolfe, a professor of political science …

Mark Hemingway / The Corner:

And the winner is... ...McCain by a landslide! A reader writes in: … That jibes with my impression of the debate. My prediction? The debate will be received so badly there will be increased pressure to kick Hillary out of the race. But since Obama was clearly the worse of the two in the debate …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
GIBSON — I guess I'm not enough of a Gibsonologist.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and Firedoglake

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
After The Freak Show … Josh Marshall: … Dave Weigel:

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Reason Magazine and Publius Endures

law.cornell.edu:

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES — RALPH BAZE and THOMAS C. BOWLING, PETI- TIONERS v. JOHN D. REES, COMMISSIONER, — KENTUCKY DEPARTMENT OF — CORRECTIONS, et al. — on writ of certiorari to the supreme courtof kentucky — Chief Justice Roberts announced the judgment of the Court …

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications, TalkLeft, Althouse and SCOTUSblog

Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
Justices Uphold Lethal Injection in Kentucky Case

Discussion: Feministe

Associated Press:

AP-Yahoo poll shows McCain winning back unhappy Republicans — WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are no longer underdogs in the race for the White House. To pull that off, John McCain has attracted disgruntled GOP voters, independents and even some moderate Democrats who shunned his party last fall.

Discussion: Hot Air