memeorandum: Chinese dissident becomes political headache for Obama (Jamie Klatell/The Hill)

11:50 PM ET, May 3, 2012

Top Items:

David Harsanyi / Human Events:

Who the hell is “Julia” and why am I paying for her whole life? — In the new Barack Obama campaign piece The Life of Julia, voters can “Take a look at how President Obama's policies help one woman over her lifetime — and how Mitt Romney would change her story.”

Discussion: Washington Post, Twitchy, Guardian, National Review, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Wake up America, Politico, The PJ Tatler, Swampland, Indecision Forever, ABCNEWS, The Lonely Conservative, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers and Viking Pundit

Kevin D. Williamson / National Review:

‘Julia’ — Alas, Team Obama has omitted a few milestones from the life of Julia: — 4 months: Julia's mother decides that giving birth will be hard on her figure. She kills Julia. Under Barack Obama, her right to do so is absolutely nonnegotiable. — 10 years: Trapped in a failing …

Discussion: Power Line

Ann Althouse / Althouse:
Who is this woman?

Discussion: Washington Post and RedState

Joe Picard / The Hill:

Obama administration hits back on notion that it abandoned Chen in China — The Obama administration pushed back Thursday evening on the notion that U.S. diplomats abandoned Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng when they let him leave the Beijing embassy on Wednesday.

Discussion: Eschaton

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:
Chinese dissident becomes political headache for Obama

Discussion: National Review

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:
Republicans rip Obama's handling of Chinese activist Chen

Discussion: Politico, CBS News, CNN and p m carpenter's commentary

Walter Russell Mead / Via Meadia:
China Syndrome — No good deed goes unpunished; this must …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Global Spin, Business Insider, The Heritage Foundation and Mother Jones

Justin Sink / The Hill:
In Virginia, Bachmann endorses Romney

Discussion: Politico and ABCNEWS

Tim Mak / Politico:

Gingrich: Romney said untrue things — Newt Gingrich accused Mitt Romney on Thursday of saying “things that weren't true,"but fell short of reasserting his claim that Romney was a liar. — “I still believe that the Romney campaign said things that weren't true,” said Gingrich on CNN's “Situation Room.”

ABCNEWS:

Bachmann: 'He Can't Beat Obama ... Not Going to Happen' — Michele Bachmann has finally decided to endorse Mitt Romney - 119 days after she dropped out of the race. — The endorsement will come at a joint Romney-Bachmann appearance on Thursday. No doubt Bachmann will talk about the importance …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Post, Daily Kos, Washington Wire, Deseret News, The Raw Story, Indecision Forever, Gallup, Politico and Yahoo! News

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Perry: ‘God help us’ if Romney loses

Discussion: CNN

Newt Gingrich / CNN:
Gingrich says he's already endorsed Romney, still critical

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Ballot Box, Connecting.the.Dots and Conservatives4Palin

BuzzFeed:

After A Twitter Win, Romney Meets The Online Right — A united front against Obama and the liberal media. But: Huffington Post broke news of the meeting. — At the Republican National Committee yesterday, conservative online writers and bloggers who arrived to meet with Romney were also shown …

Discussion: The Impolitic, The Other McCain, Mediaite, TVNewser, PERRspectives, Wonkette, ThinkProgress, TBogg, Washington Monthly, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Lonely Conservative, GOP 12, Campaign 2012 and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Examiner:

Klein: Obama is winning the general election — The general election unofficially began nearly a month ago, and so far President Obama is winning. — This has nothing to do with poll numbers. Sure, Obama enjoys a statistically insignificant 3.7 percent edge over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney …

Discussion: Hot Air and The Jawa Report

Combating Terrorism Center at West Point:

Letters from Abbottabad: Bin Ladin Sidelined? — Authors: Don Rassler, Gabriel Koehler-Derrick, Liam Collins, Muhammad al-Obaidi, Nelly Lahoud — This report is a study of 17 de-classified documents captured during the Abbottabad raid and released to the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC).

Discussion: msnbc.com, New York Magazine, Hot Air, ABCNEWS, democracyarsenal.org, Blogs of War, Voice of America, Campaign 2012, Business Insider, FT Alphaville and This Just In, more at Mediagazer »

Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider:
Al-Qaida Hated Fox News And Thought MSNBC Is Not Neutral Because They Fired Keith Olbermann

Discussion: msnbc.com, Poynter, Mediaite, New York Magazine, ABCNEWS, Guardian, Washington Free Beacon and Naked DC

BuzzFeed:

Conservative Activist: More Navy SEALs to Attack Obama — Joel Arends, the man behind the ad hammering the White House for “taking so much credit” on Bin Laden, believes more Special Forces operators will come out against Obama. Arends objects to the term “swift boat.”

Discussion: Hot Air, The Last Tradition, Taylor Marsh, Weasel Zippers and Hullabaloo

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:

Horror!... Neo-Nazi #Occupy Phoenix Protester Goes On Shooting Rampage - 5 Dead — Back in October we reported that Neo-Nazi Jason Todd Ready was patrolling the #Occupy Phoenix camp with AR-15′s. — Neo-Nazi Jason Todd (J.T.) Ready pictured on left patrolling the Occupy Phoenix protest …

Discussion: Associated Press, The Huffington Post, Feathered Bastard, The Raw Story and Little Green Footballs

Jim Treacher / The Daily Caller: The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: … Just because the Cleveland 5 …

Washington Post:

Post Poll: Obama leads Romney as campaigns converge on Virginia — President Obama leads former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in Virginia but commonwealth voters are evenly divided on the White House's major policies, a new Washington Post poll shows. — Obama is ahead of Romney …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, The Caucus, CNN, Outside the Beltway, Ballot Box, Politico and Reuters

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Another Misleading Edit Costs Another NBC News Employee Her Job — Lilia Luciano, a Miami-based NBC News correspondent, is no longer working for the network, TVNewser has learned. — Luciano last reported for NBC News March 31. Until that point, she had been reporting mainly on the Trayvon Martin story.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, NewsBusters.org blogs, Mediaite and Clayton Cramer's Blog

NPR:

Do Liberals Live Under A ‘Tyranny Of Cliches’? … Conservative critic Jonah Goldberg says he's inspired to write when he gets annoyed. “Aggravation is a muse,” he says. And after speaking on a number of college campuses, he grew aggravated enough to write a book.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Los Angeles Times

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

A GOP ‘assault’ on women's health? — “In order to pay for it, [House Republicans] are going to make an assault on women's health, make another assault on women's health, continue our assault on women's health and pay for this with prevention initiatives that are in effect right …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Washington Free Beacon

Wall Street Journal:

Noonan: The Case for Dick Lugar — Washington needs seasoned statesmen, especially at a time of national crisis. — Let's wade into an argument, and on what may well be the losing side. — The most recent polls suggest Dick Lugar, the senior U.S. senator from Indiana, first elected in 1976 …

Discussion: PoliPundit.com

Bloomberg:

Colin Powell Says Iraq ‘Blot’ Teaches Need for Skepticism — Colin Powell says his erroneous address to the United Nations about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction provides a lesson to business leaders on the importance of staying skeptical and following their intuition.

Morgan Korn / Yahoo! Finance:

T. Boone Pickens: Biggest Deterrent To U.S. Energy Plan Is Koch Industries — Investor T. Boone Pickens has made a fortune over the years running an energy-oriented hedge fund, and in recent years he's been placing big bets on the natural gas and wind industries.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Business Insider

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Mitt Romney Commissioned Pro-America Pins, Made Them In China — At a fundraiser in Virginia last night, Mitt Romney touted his experinece running the Salt Lake City Olympic Games in 2002 — a familiar refrain — but also introduced a new rhetorical line about something more specific: lapel pins.

Discussion: Lynn Sweet, The Political Carnival, Indecision Forever, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Washington Free Beacon and 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com

Dave Boyer / Washington Times:

RNC campaign parodies Obama '08 sticker — The Republican National Committee is getting ahead of President Obama's official campaign kickoff in Ohio and Virginia on Saturday with a media blitz labeling his re-election drive the “Hype & Blame” tour. — The RNC will sell “Hype & Blame 2012” …

Discussion: CNN, nation.foxnews.com, Weasel Zippers and Associated Press

Karl Smith / Modeled Behavior:

Rajan on Lessons from Recession — Tyler Cowen can't heap enough praise on this paper from Raghuram Rajan. — I am loathe to use such language, but at this late date I think it helps to be direct. The paper reads to me like nonsense on stilts. Ostensibly its about the ineffectiveness …

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Mother Jones, Ezra Klein, TheMoneyIllusion and Marginal Revolution

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

CNN Ratings Decline Stirs Worries — “Maybe CNN is just like an emergency room.” — That is what a longtime CNN employee theorized last year, during one of the channel's predictable defeats in the Nielsen ratings. — When elections and explosions happen, people tune in to CNN …

Discussion: Mediaite, Politico, BuzzFeed, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, HotAirPundit and TVNewser, more at Mediagazer »

Andrew Stiles / Washington Free Beacon:

Smartest Guy in the Room — Failed Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry's (D., Mass.) long history of ethically dubious investments could invite controversy as he takes on a new role as a “top surrogate” for President Obama's reelection campaign.

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative

Jonathan H. Adler / The Volokh Conspiracy:

Secondary Boycotts and the Breakdown of Civil Society — Activist groups of various political stripes are increasingly urging boycotts of companies not because of the companies' own behavior, but because of the behavior or speech of those the companies patronize or support.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion