memeorandum: 9/11 Responders To Be Warned They Will Be Screened By FBI's Terrorism Watch List (EXCLUSIVE) (Michael McAuliff/The Huffington Post)

11:00 AM ET, April 22, 2011

Top Items:

Nation's Mood at Lowest Level in Two Years, Poll Shows — Americans are more pessimistic about the nation's economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama's first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession …

Discussion: The Note, TalkLeft, msnbc.com, The Awl, Scared Monkeys, Don Surber, Outside the Beltway, Questions and Observations, Taegan Goddard's …, New York Times, The Moderate Voice, FrumForum, naked capitalism, iOwnTheWorld.com, Runnin' Scared and The Daily Dish

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

Poll: Most Americans oppose raising debt limit — CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto. — Despite Obama administration warnings that failing to do so would devastate the economy, a clear majority of Americans …

Discussion: Hot Air, Slate, Patterico's Pontifications, Gothamist, RedState, Hotline On Call, Washington Post, The Atlantic Online and Daily Kos

New York Times:

New York Times/CBS News Poll: 2012 Republicans, Obama and the Economy — Americans are more pessimistic about the nation's economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama's first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession.

Discussion: CNN

Stephanie Condon / CBS News:
Poll: One in four Americans think Obama was not born in U.S.

Discussion: The Reaction, The Daily Dish, Top of the Ticket, The Atlantic Online and CBS News

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

The Electoral Implications of Ensign's Resignation — Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada is expected to appoint Dean Heller, currently the Republican incumbent in the state's Second Congressional District, to replace Senator John Ensign, who is resigning. — Mr. Heller was already expected …

Discussion: USA Today and Booman Tribune

Eric Lipton / New York Times:

Senator Ensign to Resign Amid Inquiry — WASHINGTON — Senator John Ensign of Nevada, the subject of an ethics investigation related to his affair with the wife of a former top aide, announced Thursday evening that he was resigning, effectively ending the high-profile Senate inquiry …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, USA Today, Prairie Weather and Balloon Juice

Jennifer Cooper / John Ensign …:
ENSIGN TO RESIGN FROM OFFICE

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Ballot Box, Hot Air, Las Vegas Sun, Roll Call, Slate, The Note, The Politico, New York Times, The Political Carnival, The Other McCain, Swampland, Mediaite, Gawker and The Lonely Conservative

Michael McAuliff / The Huffington Post:

9/11 Responders To Be Warned They Will Be Screened By FBI's Terrorism Watch List (EXCLUSIVE) … WASHINGTON — A provision in the new 9/11 health bill may be adding insult to injury for people who fell sick after their service in the aftermath of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks, The Huffington Post has learned.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, The Mahablog and FrumForum

Attaturk / Firedoglake:

A trio of self-proclaimed GOP heroes — Let's have a good solid Bronx Cheer for these three survivors of the burger wars: — Cliff Stearns (R-Florida) who added a provision to the 9/11 Responders health care bill last May that requires the tens of thousands of police, firefighters …

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Huckabee, Trump, Romney Set Pace for 2012 GOP Field — Trump leads among liberal and moderate Republicans — PRINCETON, NJ — Donald Trump debuts in a first-place tie in Gallup's latest update of Republicans' preferences for the party's 2012 presidential nomination among potential contenders.

Discussion: Ballot Box, GOP 12, The Political Carnival and RedState

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Media's Spotlight Shines Less Brightly on Palin — One of the few pieces of statistical evidence that we can look toward at this early stage of the presidential campaign is the number of media hits that each candidate is receiving. Apart from being interesting unto itself, it's plausible that this metric has some predictive power.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Political Carnival, Shot in the Dark, Public Policy Polling, Opinionator, Hot Air, GOP 12, Guardian, Swampland, The Daily Dish, CNN, Mediaite and Salon

The Onion:
Mitt Romney Haunted By Past Of Trying To Help Uninsured Sick People

Discussion: Washington Post and Boston Globe

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Obama makes ‘birther’ joke at fundraiser — President Obama on Thursday lightened up talk of high gas prices and the budget deficit on his West Coast swing with a joke about those who question his citizenship. — “A lot of you got involved when the prospect of electing Barack Hussein Obama to the Oval Office was slim.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Wake up America

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Obama suggests low poll numbers due to high gas prices — President Obama on Thursday suggested his lagging poll numbers are due to high gas prices around the nation. — Speaking to supporters at his sixth fundraising event in California, Obama conceded that gas prices are having an effect …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, FrumForum and The Hill

Washington Examiner:
There is a ‘magic’ formula for lower gas prices

Discussion: Hot Air, Right Wing News, Associated Press, The Lonely Conservative, JammieWearingFool, POWIP and Outside the Beltway

Maggie Haberman / The Politico:

Krauthammer: Trump is running — Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer says Donald Trump reached out to him after a piece he wrote that laced into the developer's potential 2012 bid — a phone call he said convinced him The Donald is running for president.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway, FrumForum and Don Surber

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Obama speaks to the stars; Tom Hanks suggests ‘five and a half more years’ — President Obama asked for support Thursday from a small Los Angeles audience dotted with Hollywood stars. — Speaking in a tiny room of the Italian restaurant Tavern to a an audience of 60 who included Steven Spielberg …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

The Politico:
Birtherism: Where it all began

Discussion: Right Wing News and White House Dossier

Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Likability Gap

Discussion: UrbanGrounds and Right Wing News

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Patients Are Not Consumers — Earlier this week, The Times reported on Congressional backlash against the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a key part of efforts to rein in health care costs. This backlash was predictable; it is also profoundly irresponsible, as I'll explain in a minute.

Discussion: The New Republic, TalkLeft, The Incidental Economist, Daily Kos, Paul Krugman and Jay Bookman

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:

Ayn Rand's adult-onset adolescence — The movie “Atlas Shrugged,” adapted from Ayn Rand's 1957 novel by the same name, is a triumph of cinematic irony. A work that lectures us endlessly on the moral superiority of heroic achievement is itself a model of mediocrity.

Discussion: Hit & Run and The Daily Caller

Sean Trende / Real Clear Politics:

Getting Real About Obama's Chances, Part 1 — As of this writing, the Intrade futures markets give the Democrats a 62 percent chance of holding the White House in 2012, essentially unchanged from a peak of 63 percent a month ago. Washington conventional wisdom seems to agree.

Discussion: RedState and James Pethokoukis

Mary Grabar / Originals:

Writing Teachers: Still Crazy After All These Years — After spending four depressing days this month at a meeting of 3,000 writing teachers in Atlanta, I can tell you that their parent group, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, is not really interested in teaching students to write and communicate clearly.

Discussion: TigerHawk and protein wisdom

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

Obama: Think about ditching those gas-guzzling SUVs — President Obama urged the public Thursday to think about trading in their SUVs for more fuel-efficient vehicles, arguing that gas-guzzlers keep the country dependent on foreign oil. — “When you do decide to buy a new car …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Wall Street Journal:

Iraq Troop Talks Falter — Allies Want U.S. to Stay Past Withdrawal Date but Baghdad Fears Unrest — WASHINGTON—Senior U.S. and Iraqi military officials have been in negotiations about keeping some 10,000 American troops in Iraq beyond the scheduled withdrawal of all U.S. forces at year's end …

Discussion: Connecting.the.Dots and FrumForum

Robert Frank / The Wealth Report:

Millionaire Tax Didn't Chase the Rich From New Jersey, Study Says — Anti-tax advocates contend that higher taxes on the wealthy lead to millionaire flight. They say this has been seen in Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York. The rich are mobile, they say.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Mahablog, Gawker, Oliver Willis and Mercury Rising

Sebastian Junger / Vanity Fair:

Sebastian Junger Remembers Tim Hetherington — The death of an incomparable photojournalist, killed on April 20 while covering the conflict in Libya, is recounted by his collaborator, confrère, and friend. — Tim, man, what can I say? For the first few hours the stories …

Discussion: Newshoggers.com

Rep. Phil Roe / Economy & Budget:

Debt elimination is a national priority — Seeking to put our economy on the path to prosperity and fiscal responsibility, the House passed the Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 budget, which aims to cut $6.2 trillion in government spending over the next ten years. The Senate must still approve a budget …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Associated Press:

McCain Lauds Anti-Qaddafi Forces During Libya Visit — BENGHAZI, Libya — U.S. Sen. John McCain, one of the strongest proponents in Congress of the American military intervention in Libya, said Friday that Libyan rebels fighting Muammar Qaddafi's troops are his heroes.

Discussion: Global Public Square, Pajamas Media and New York Times

Deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: MEL GIBSON FINALLY TALKS — EXCLUSIVE: On May 6th, Mel Gibson's much-delayed comeback picture, The Beaver, will open in limited release. It's directed by his longtime friend and co-star Jodie Foster. The movie has already garnered reviews praising Gibson's performance as …

Discussion: Guardian and PopEater

Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:

Democrats Sue to Force U.S. Election Agency to Reveal Political Donations — WASHINGTON — Unable to stanch the flow of corporate money to Republican causes, Democrats tried a new tack on Thursday by bringing a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission to force the disclosure of tens of millions of dollars in secret donations.

Discussion: Sunlight Foundation Blog and Fox News

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:

Large Tax Increases Are Not a Semantic Question — Yesterday I argued that simply covering our medium-term fiscal problems with tax hikes was not going to be easy or relatively painless; we'd have to go back to the Clinton-era tax rates, and then hike rates again by at least a third, possibly more.

Discussion: The Daily Dish and Instapundit