memeorandum: NYPD Opens Branch in Israel (Avi Ashkenazi/Al-Monitor)

4:15 PM ET, September 6, 2012

Top Items:

Why Bill Clinton's Speeches Succeed — Because he treats listeners as if they are smart. — That is the significance of “They want us to think” and “The strongest argument is” and “The arithmetic says one of three things must happen” and even “Now listen to me here, this is important.”

Discussion: ThinkProgress

CNN:
PHOTO: Hillary Clinton watches husband deliver convention speech

Discussion: Associated Press, The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh and The Agonist

Benjy Sarlin / Talking Points Memo:
Romney, Ryan Double Down On False Welfare Attack Clinton Decried

Discussion: msnbc.com and Washington Post

Daniel Larison / The American Conservative:
The Clinton Speech and the “Campaign of Ideas”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, ThinkProgress, The Daily Dish, News Desk and Outside the Beltway

Kevin Cirilli / Politico:
Pundits swoon over Bill Clinton's speech

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, A plain blog about politics, The Daily Beast, Queerty, Grist and The Hill

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Fact checking Bill Clinton's speech and other Democrats at the convention in Charlotte

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, National Review, Wake up America and LifeNews.com

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Democratic National Convention Night 2: Winners and Losers

Discussion: Washington Post, Hot Air, Politico, The Daily Beast, Swampland, ABCNEWS, Applesauce, Taegan Goddard's …, The Daily Dish and Newsy

Maggie Haberman / Politico:
Schumer: Clinton going around the country in October with message from speech

Discussion: BuzzFeed

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Obama senior adviser: Don't expect big bounce in polls from convention

Discussion: Washington Monthly, americanthinker.com and The PJ Tatler

Jonathan Bernstein / A plain blog about politics:
Democrats Day 2 — I already did one item about Bill Clinton's speech …

Discussion: CNN, Associated Press, The Reality-Based Community and The Daily Dish

New York Times:
Check Point: Democrats Stretch the Truth in Talk and Text - Check Point

Discussion: Prairie Weather and The Stranger …

Jared A. Favole / Washington Wire:
In East Timor, Hillary Clinton Watches Bill Clinton's Speech in Charlotte

Discussion: The Hill

Benjy Sarlin / Talking Points Memo:
Bill Clinton To Mitt Romney: Barack Obama Is My True Heir

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Mahablog, Applesauce, The Stranger …, Sky Dancing and msnbc.com

New York Times:

Transcript of Bill Clinton's Speech to the Democratic National Convention — The following is the full text of former President Bill Clinton's speech on Wednesday from the Democratic National Convention. — PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. (Sustained cheers, applause.)

Brooks Jackson / FactCheck.org:

Our Clinton Nightmare — CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former President Bill Clinton's stem-winding nomination speech was a fact-checker's nightmare: lots of effort required to run down his many statistics and factual claims, producing little for us to write about. — Republicans will find plenty of Clinton's scorching opinions objectionable.

Discussion: ECHIDNE of the snakes, ThinkProgress, Twitter Blog, The New Civil Rights Movement, Hot Air, Hit & Run and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:

Bill Clinton: wonk-in-chief — “People ask me all the time how we delivered four surplus budgets,” former President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday night. “What new ideas did we bring? I always give a one-word answer: arithmetic.” — That's also the one-word answer to what Clinton brought to his convention speech.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, Balloon Juice, A plain blog about politics, Washington Wire, Wall Street Journal, Washington Monthly and First Draft

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

Bill Clinton's long, long speech about the meanie Republicans — Bill Clinton, don't get me wrong, was the best speaker Wednesday night. But that is largely because the rest of the evening was atrocious. Clinton was hoarse, and he seemed to holler for no reason at all.

Discussion: New York Times, Poynter, Weekly Standard, Roger's Rules, Power Line, The Fix, Outside the Beltway, Washington Monthly, Pirate's Cove, Mashable!, Fausta's Blog, Blue Crab Boulevard and Balloon Juice, more at Mediagazer »

Aviva Shen / ThinkProgress:
Associated Press ‘Fact Checks’ Clinton's Speech By Bringing Up Monica Lewinsky

Discussion: New York Magazine, Crooks and Liars and Politifact.com Truth …

Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:
FACT CHECK: Clinton claims of compromise a stretch

Discussion: US Politics, Politicker and Balloon Juice

Washington Wire:
Text of Bill Clinton's Address to the Democratic Convention

Discussion: The Impolitic, American Thinker, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Jawa Report, Booman Tribune, No More Mister Nice Blog, ABCNEWS, Liberty Street, JOSHUAPUNDIT, The Hinterland Gazette, Liberal Values, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Reaction, Politico, CNN and Gallup

David Dayen / Firedoglake:
Bill Clinton Manages to Trust America to Listen to 46 Minutes of Policy

Discussion: Suburban Guerrilla

Politico:

Verdict is in: Obama levels more personal attacks — A crabby, negative campaign that has been more about misleading and marginal controversies than the major challenges facing the country? Barack Obama and Mitt Romney can both claim parenthood of this ugly child.

Discussion: CNN, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, Wake up America, The PJ Tatler and Betsy's Page

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Boston's response to Clinton as of midnight... (Updated) — ...was nothing. — Bill Clinton wrapped up his roughly 45-minute, meandering, box-checking, fist-pounding, off-script Democratic National Convention speech about 40 minutes ago. So far, Mitt Romney's campaign has not issued an official statement.

Discussion: CNN and Daily Kos

Politico:

How Bill Clinton does it — The crowd was roaring, TV commentators were gushing, and Barack Obama himself thanked Bill Clinton for his nominating speech with a big hug as he left the stage here Wednesday night. — Well might Obama be grateful: In 48 minutes, the 42nd president had stated …

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Kos and No More Mister Nice Blog

Politifact.com Truth-O-Meter rulings from National:
Bill Clinton: “Since 1961 ... our private economy has produced 66 million private-sector jobs.

Discussion: ABCNEWS and Business Insider

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Bill Clinton, playing ‘referee,’ makes strongest case yet for Obama's reelection

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Hullabaloo and First Read

Pema Levy / Talking Points Memo:

Disillusioned Obama Supporter In Romney Ad Is Actually GOP Staffer — Republicans debuted a new ad Thursday in which a frustrated former Obama supporter expresses her disappointment with the president. The only problem: The woman in the video is actually an RNC staffer.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, msnbc.com, Hullabaloo, Naked Politics and The Stranger …

BuzzFeed:

Republican Staffer Breaks Up With Obama — Could they not find anyone else? — Source: youtube.com — CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Republicans are out with a new web video today highlighting their messaging push during the Democratic convention that President Barack Obama is a disappointment …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, CNN, Jammie Wearing Fools and Daily Kos

Eric Kleefeld / Talking Points Memo:

Romney, GOP Groups Pull Ads From Michigan and Pennsylvania — Republicans signaled this week that they might have given up hope in two important swing states. — TPM Slideshow: Romney Takes The Stage At The RNC — The Romney campaign and conservative groups like Crossroads GPS …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, The Mahablog, Booman Tribune and The Stranger …

Chad Livengood / detroitnews.com:

Conservatives pull ads from Michigan — Pro-Romney groups focus on key states; Obama's campaign off air for weeks — Mitt Romney's conservative allies are bypassing Michigan with their advertising while stepping up efforts in other battleground states — suggesting campaign strategists …

Discussion: CNBC, USA Today, GOP 12, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway and The Political Carnival

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Tom Brokaw Rushed to Charlotte Hospital — NBC News special correspondent Tom Brokaw was taken by ambulance to a Charlotte hospital this morning after an appearance on MSNBC's “Morning Joe.” — Brokaw, 72, who stepped down as anchor of “Nightly News” after the 2004 election …

Discussion: The Impolitic, Gawker, Mediaite, BuzzFeed, Fox News Insider, The Hill, Deadline.com and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Dylan Byers / Politico:
NBC's Tom Brokaw sent to hospital

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and CNN

Steve Gutterman / Reuters:

Russia's Putin defiant on Syria, says Romney “mistaken” — * Says Obama is honest, Romney could widen missile rift — President Vladimir Putin signalled in an interview aired on Thursday that Russia was not ready to shift its stance on Syria, and suggested Western nations were relying …

Discussion: The Hill, Business Insider, Taylor Marsh, The Hinterland Gazette and Jammie Wearing Fools

Wall Street Journal:
Putin Weighs In On ‘Genuine’ Obama, ‘Mistaken’ Romney

Discussion: Washington Examiner

S.A. Miller / New York Post:

Dems trotting out H'wood beauties to introduce Obama — CHARLOTTE, NC — Call them Barack's Angels. — Democrats have secretly scheduled an appearance by Hollywood beauties Scarlett Johansson and Kerry Washington tonight at their national convention, in a bid to counter Clint Eastwood's surprise speech …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice and Althouse

CNN:
Kim Kardashian says she's headed to party with Dems at convention

Discussion: Associated Press, OpenSecrets.org, Applesauce, Tablet Magazine, The PJ Tatler, Jammie Wearing Fools and Political Capital

Ben Pershing / Washington Post:

Bartlett suggests federal student loans are unconstitutional, invokes Holocaust — Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) suggested Wednesday federally-issued student loans were unconstitutional. He also said disregarding the Constitution could lead down a “slippery slope” and cited the Holocaust …

Discussion: Gawker, Outside the Beltway and Taegan Goddard's …

Associated Press:

Unemployment benefits claims fall 12,000 — WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell by 12,000 last week, a hopeful signal that the job market may be improving. — Sponsored Links — The Labor Department says applications declined to a seasonally adjusted 365,000.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and ABCNEWS

Steve Hargreaves / CNNMoney.com:
Jobs picture brightens

Discussion: Jammie Wearing Fools

Tom Blanton / Foreign Policy:

A Classified CIA Mea Culpa on Iraq — In this exclusive from the National Security Archive, a secret agency report on its WMD failures is published for the first time. — This remarkable CIA mea culpa, just declassified this summer and published here for the first time …

Talking Points Memo:

Sununu Thinks Obama Camp Lying About Cost Of Michelle Obama's Dress — Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu questioned reports that the Tracey Reese dress Michelle Obama wore for her convention address Tuesday night cost $350 on a conference call with reporters Wednesday.

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, Wonkette and New York Times

ABCNEWS:

Steelworker Featured at DNC Didn't Work for Bain — The Democratic National Convention on Wednesday featured three speakers billed as “former employees of companies controlled by Bain Capital.” — They each told compelling stories about jobs lost, allegedly because of the actions of Bain under Romney's leadership.

Discussion: 2012 Democratic National …, Weasel Zippers, Jammie Wearing Fools and ABCNEWS

KCEN-TV:

Judge Orders Accused Fort Hood Shooter Hasan to be Shaved — UPDATE (KCEN) — Judge Gross has ordered Hasan to be shaved. — Hasan now has the chance to appeal with the Army Court of Criminal Appeals. — The judge also said no more pretrial hearings will be held until the issue is resolved.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Atlas Shrugs and Jihad Watch