memeorandum: Dozens of gay couples prepare to wed in California (Lisa Leff/Associated Press)

9:00 PM ET, June 16, 2008

Top Items:

My endorsement — A few hours from now I will step on stage in Detroit, Michigan to announce my support for Senator Barack Obama. From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected President of the United States. — Over the next four years …

Discussion: Wake up America, The Carpetbagger Report, Wonkette, Hot Air, Spin Cycle, The Swamp, Washington Wire, The Trail, Shakesville, All Things Obama 2008 and TPM Election Central

Anne E. Kornblut / The Trail:

Clinton Insiders Take Umbrage at Solis Doyle Move — FLINT, Mich. — The nomination fight is over, but the warring between the Obama and Clinton campaigns lives on. — The Obama team announced today that it had picked former Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle to serve on its general election staff.

Discussion: CQ Politics, Taylor Marsh, THE GUN TOTING LIBERAL™, TIME.com, PoliGazette, Washington Wire and MyDD

Adam Nagourney / The Caucus:

Former Clinton Campaign Manager Joins Obama Team — The Obama campaign is about to make its first big hire out of the campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Patti Solis Doyle, who was Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign manager until she was ousted in a staff shake up in February …

John Heilemann / New York Magazine:

The Fall and Rise of Hillary Clinton — What she won by losing. — The victor and the vanquished are standing in a cluttered hallway backstage at the Washington Convention Center, conducting a conversation short and sweet—for one of them, at least. It's just around noon on June 4 …

Discussion: The Opinionator, Left in the West, The New Republic, MyDD, TalkLeft, marbury, The Caucus, Taylor Marsh, The Democratic Daily, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Making Light, The Daily Dish and NO QUARTER

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, TAKE 2....It turns out that Barack Obama's hiring of Patti Solis Doyle is even more interesting than I thought at first. Perhaps because I deliberately pulled back from campaign coverage during the final couple of months after Texas and Ohio, I didn't realize that Solis Doyle …

Discussion: The Trail, TalkLeft, Balloon Juice and Political Machine

Chris Bowers / Open Left:

Vice-President: Clinton Sinking, Nunn Rising? — Following the news that former Hillary Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle has been hired by the Obama campaign as Chief of Staff for the Vice-Presidential nominee, there has been quite a bit of speculation about the ramifications of this hiring.

Discussion: Newshoggers.com and Boston Globe

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

Doing her part — Clinton gamely puts out a statement on Patti Solis Doyle going to work for Obama: — “Patti will be an asset and good addition to the Obama campaign. After nearly two decades in political life, she brings with her the ability to tap an extensive network that will be a huge asset to Senator Obama.

Discussion: TalkLeft

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

Solis Doyle to Obamaland — As I first reported a couple of weeks ago, former Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle is going to work for Obama. — She'll be “chief of staff to the vice presidential candidate - whoever he (or she) will be, campaign officials said,” Nagourney reports.

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The Swamp, Marc Ambinder, DemConWatch and The New Republic

Jason Horowitz / New York Observer:
Clinton Bundler on Obama's Doyle Pick: The Biggest ‘F**k You’ Ever

Discussion: Hot Air, Gawker, TalkLeft and Political Machine

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:
Gore to Appear With Obama

Discussion: Associated Press, Hotline On Call, Tales from the Trail, TVNewser and Political Machine

Matthew Yglesias:
New Jobs — Obama campaign announces a bunch of new senior hires …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

CNN:

Second President Bush floats prospect of a third — (CNN) - For only the second time in nearly three decades, there won't be a Bush on the presidential ballot this November. But that absence may not be a permanent one, the current White House occupants hinted Sunday.

Discussion: Wake up America and Wonkette

Jeff G. / protein wisdom:

Don't call me nigger, Whitey — Or, how Sly and the Family Stone have prefigured the tortured logic of mainstream “liberal” American academic/media elite discourse on race. From the Chicago Tribune: … Beyond the irony of being lectured on what people should or should not take offense …

Chicago Tribune:

‘Whitey’ fails to wound — Fellow slurs snicker at word's utterance — It's hard to come up with an ethnic slur that has less of a sting than “whitey.” — A prevalent yet unsubstantiated Internet rumor has it that Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, used this term at some point in a speech …

Discussion: neo-neocon

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:

Obama Plans Trip Pre-Election Day Visit to Iraq and Afghanistan — FLINT, Mich. - Senator Barack Obama said today he intends to visit Iraq and Afghanistan before the November election. — Mr. Obama, who spoke to the Iraqi foreign minister by telephone this morning, said he was “encouraged” by the reductions in violence in Iraq.

Discussion: Hot Air, Connecting.the.Dots, Democracy Project, Salon and TPM Election Central

Robert D. Kaplan / The Current:
What Obama Can Learn from Gates

Discussion: Commentary

Maria Gavrilovic / CBS News:
Obama Promises to Visit Iraq and Afghanistan Before Election

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Commentary

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Here's Our New Policy On A.P. stories: They're Banned — The stories over the weekend were bad enough - the Associated Press, with a long history of suing over quotations from their articles, went after Drudge Retort for having the audacity to link to their stories along with short quotations via reader submissions.

Little Green Footballs: Boycotting the Associated Press

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Fiscal Poison Pill — A poison pill, in corporate jargon, is a financial arrangement designed to protect current management by crippling the company if someone else takes over. — As I read the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center's analysis of the presidential candidates' tax proposals …

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Weekly Standard Blog, QandO, Outside The Beltway, Newshoggers.com and DownWithTyranny!

David Corn / MoJoBlog:
Obama's New Chief of Staff: A Fan of the Bush Tax Cuts?

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias

Jonathan Martin / Jonathan Martin's Blogs:

Hitting McCain on “a Google” — Ben Smith notes that Barack Obama is to mention Google three separate times in his Michigan speech today. — That's surely no accident. — Last week, discussing how easy it is to find information on people these days, McCain said, “You know, basically it's a Google.”

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

As Obama Aide, Reporter Dons Flack Jacket — ST. LOUIS — As Barack Obama started fielding questions at a hospital here last week, Linda Douglass stood off to the left, scribbling in a reporter's notebook, as she has in every presidential campaign since 1980.

Discussion: Cliff Schecter, The Daily Dish, Political Machine, Commentary, NewsBusters.org, Salon, The Politico and Balloon Juice

BBC:

Blogger arrests hit record high — More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report. — Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, Atlas Shrugs, Fausta's blog and Sweetness & Light

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:

What's Next for MTP? — With the poignant farewell to Russert on yesterday's Meet the Press, the conversation is now turning to replacements. — Let me just say, that I didn't agree with Tim Russert's approach to his show in every respect. I thought his obsession with the green-eyeshade stuff could be tedious.