memeorandum: Entitlement Trouble (Ed Kilgore/Washington Monthly)

5:15 PM ET, September 6, 2012

Top Items:

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: Bloomberg, ThinkProgress, ECHIDNE of the snakes, The New Civil Rights Movement, Hot Air, The Right Sphere, Twitter Blog, Poynter and Politifact.com Truth …, 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, A Better Iowa, The Daily Beast, Balloon Juice, Washington Wire, Washington Monthly, A plain blog about politics, Wall Street Journal and First Draft

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:

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

Daniel Larison / The American Conservative:

The Clinton Speech and the “Campaign of Ideas” — Scott Galupo identifies the main strength of Bill Clinton's convention speech: … It was, and it was all the more devastating because Romney and Ryan made no concerted effort to make the case for their ticket and their agenda last week.

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

Politico:
How Bill Clinton does it

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

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Bill Clinton's long, long speech about the meanie Republicans

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

Dashiell Bennett / The Atlantic Wire:
What Bill Clinton Wrote vs. What Bill Clinton Said

Discussion: USA Today, Little Green Footballs, American Prospect, Mother Jones and The Moderate Voice

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

Discussion: New York Magazine, US Politics and Crooks and Liars

Bloomberg:
Bill Clinton: Trust Me, the Jobs Are Coming

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Washington Post

Washington Post:
DNC 2012: Bill Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention (Full transcript)

Discussion: Hit & Run and Swampland

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

Discussion: BuzzFeed

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

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

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, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, 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

Benjy Sarlin / Talking Points Memo:

Romney, Ryan Double Down On False Welfare Attack Clinton Decried — CHARLOTTE — In one of the most pointed moments of President Clinton's Wednesday speech to the Democratic National Convention, he slammed the Romney campaign for lying in ads and statements by claiming President Obama …

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Mahablog and The Stranger …

CNN:
PHOTO: Hillary Clinton watches husband deliver convention speech

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

Bill Clinton / CNN:
On Facebook, Clinton's speech more popular than NFL kickoff game

Discussion: Politico

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

Discussion: CNN, Rush Limbaugh, Taking Note, A plain blog about politics, The Daily Beast, Queerty and Grist

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs, Prairie Weather and The Stranger …

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

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: Washington Wire, FishbowlDC, CNN, Jammie Wearing Fools and Daily Kos

Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times: Romney cedes Ohio TV airwaves to Obama (at least for now)

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: The Mahablog, Booman Tribune, Little Green Footballs, Balloon Juice 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, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway, GOP 12 and The Political Carnival

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: ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, Gawker, Outside the Beltway, Taegan Goddard's … and The Hinterland Gazette

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

Entitlement Trouble — Digby noticed it. I noticed. Maybe you noticed it, too: the one time Bill Clinton didn't get rousing applause from the Democratic Convention audience last night was when he made a favorable reference to the Simpson-Bowles Commission.

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Library Grape

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

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, Althouse and The Moderate Voice

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

Discussion: Politico, OpenSecrets.org, Associated Press, Applesauce, Tablet Magazine, Jammie Wearing Fools, The PJ Tatler and Riehl World News

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: ABCNEWS and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

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 …

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, National Review and ABCNEWS

Benny Johnson / TheBlaze.com:

DEATH THREAT FROM DNC DELEGATE: ‘MITT ROMNEY... I WOULD LIKE TO KILL HIM!’ — During the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, TheBlaze took to Time Warner Cable Arena to speak with delegates about the most pressing issues of our time.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, LifeNews.com, The Daily Caller, The Jawa Report and The Right Scoop

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 Atlantic Online, Politico, The Impolitic, CNN, Mediaite, BuzzFeed, Fox News Insider, The Hill, Gawker, Deadline.com and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

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