memeorandum: Gaza fighting rages as Clinton pursues durable cease-fire (Washington Post)

9:20 AM ET, November 21, 2012

Top Items:

Gaza fighting rages as Clinton pursues durable cease-fire — TEL AVIV — A bus bombing Wednesday morning brought the Gaza conflict to central Tel Aviv, as intensified fighting between Hamas militants and the Israeli military raised doubts about the prospects of a durable cease-fire being sought …

Discussion: New York Times, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Right Wing News

Frank J. Gaffney Jr / Washington Times:
GAFFNEY: Middle East melting down into ‘Obamawar’

Discussion: Althouse

Jerusalem Post:
IDF soldier, civilian killed as over 140 rockets hit Israel

Discussion: National Review, msnbc.com, Melanie Phillips, Israel Matzav and Maggie's Farm

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:
Reelected Obama Shows No “Daylight” With Israel

Discussion: Guardian and The Maddow Blog

New York Times:
Hamas's Illegitimacy

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Pomegranate, WorldViews, Israel Matzav, msnbc.com, The Atlantic Online and Mondoweiss

Daniel Engber / Slate:

Who Said It: Marco Rubio or Barack Obama? — Willful ignorance of science is a bipartisan value. — By now you've heard the outrageous quote from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on his doubts about the origins of planet Earth. When asked to give its age, he replied: “I'm not a scientist, man. ...

Discussion: Forbes, Washington Examiner, National Review, Ricochet Conversations Feed, NBC Latino, American Prospect and The Reaction

Erick Erickson / RedState:

I Believe and Am Thankful — Marco Rubio is getting beaten up by the press for not decisively and convincingly saying he thinks the world is billions of years old. It has become the new litmus test in the media. Believing what was believed to be literally true for a few thousand years is now nutty.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and The Daily Caller

The Week:
Marco Rubio should know that science and God do not have to be at odds

Discussion: The Page, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Election 2012, The Week, The Atlantic Online and National Review

Neil King Jr / Washington Wire:

Iowa's GOP Governor: Time to End the Straw Poll — Is one of the quirkiest rituals of the Republican presidential election calendar heading for the grave? — It is, if Iowa's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad has his say. — Eyeing the wreckage of the 2011 Ames Straw Poll …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politico, The Iowa Republican, CNN, Hot Air, Election 2012, The Hill and The Daily Caller

Hamed Aleaziz / ThinkProgress:

McCain Backs Away From Benghazi Conspiracies — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) today issued a statement essentially conceding that he was wrong in accusing the White House of changing U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's talking points on Benghazi for political purposes. — Former CIA Director David …

Discussion: United States Senator … and Daily Kos

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
CBS: “Office of the DNI” cut al-Qaeda and terrorism references from Benghazi talking points

Discussion: NO QUARTER USA NET and The Other McCain

CBS News:
Sources: DNI cut “al Qaeda” reference from Benghazi talking points, and CIA, FBI signed off

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon, Taylor Marsh, Ace of Spades HQ, The PJ Tatler, Power Line, Taking Note, Weekly Standard, National Review, Michelle Malkin and Althouse

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Poetic justice: Romney likely to finish at 47 percent — When all the votes are counted, could Mitt Romney really end up achieving perfect poetic justice by finishing with 47 percent of the national vote? Yup. Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report says new votes in from Maryland put Romney at 47.56 percent.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Liberal Values, msnbc.com, Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes' and Daily Kos

Peter Nicholas / Washington Wire:

Obama Campaign Viewed Huntsman as ‘Very Tough Candidate’ — When Obama campaign aides surveyed the field of Republican presidential hopefuls early on, they saw a certain handsome Mormon candidate and thought he'd be trouble in a general election showdown. — It wasn't Mitt Romney.

Discussion: National Review and Outside the Beltway

Politico:

Messina: Huntsman would have been ‘tough’ candidate — Obama campaign manager Jim Messina spoke with Mike Allen at POLITICO's Playbook Breakfast spoke about the campaign's concerns about Huntsman being the Republican nominee. 11/20/2012 12:09 PM EDT

Discussion: The Raw Story

John Schnatter / The Huffington Post:

The Real Scoop on Papa John's and Obamacare … Affordable Care Act , Obamacare , Papa Johns , Papa Johns Health Care , Papa Johns Obama , Papa Johns Obamacare , Papa Johns Pizza , Pizza Health Care , Business News — Reading what has been written about statements I made on the effect …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, msnbc.com and The Heritage Foundation

David Weigel / Slate:

From the Maker of Unskewed Polling Comes: The Obama Voter Fraud Map — In the last weeks of the election, Dean Chambers became famous for putting into numbers what other conservative put into words. The polls that showed Mitt Romney losing must, said Chambers, have been skewed.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Maddow Blog, Outside the Beltway and Election 2012

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:
‘Unskewed Polls’ Founder Dean Chambers Launches Vote Fraud Website

Discussion: The League of Ordinary …, Wonkette and Little Green Footballs

Paul Krugman:

The New Republicans — There has been a lot of talk since the election about the possible emergence of a new faction within the Republican party, or at least among the conservative intelligentsia. These new Republicans, we're told, are willing to be more open-minded on cultural issues …

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Marginal Revolution

Jed Graham / Investor's Business Daily:

U.S. Deficit Shrinking At Fastest Pace Since WWII, Before Fiscal Cliff — Believe it or not, the federal deficit has fallen faster over the past three years than it has in any such stretch since demobilization from World War II. — In fact, outside of that post-WWII era …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and FT Alphaville

Joe Palca / NPR:

Big News From Mars? Rover Scientists Mum For Now … Scientists working on NASA's six-wheeled rover on Mars have a problem. But it's a good problem. — They have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found …

Discussion: Wired, Balloon Juice, The Daily Caller and Unqualified Offerings

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

Nate Silver on ‘Morning Joe’: Why pollsters got it wrong — New York Times statistician Nate Silver stopped by MSNBC's “Morning Joe” on Tuesday to discuss how he got it right this election when so many others didn't. — Host Joe Scarborough — who during the campaign questioned Silver …

Discussion: Brad DeLong

Alexandra Jaffe / Ballot Box:

Democrats preparing candidates in case Kerry moves to Cabinet — Democrats in Massachusetts are culling a list of candidates for a 2013 special election should Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) be appointed to President Obama's cabinet. — Recently-defeated Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) …

Discussion: Associated Press

Jessica Testa / BuzzFeed:

Mitt Romney Went To Disneyland — Earlier: Mitt Romney fills up his gas tank.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Washington Examiner and TMZ.com

Robert Gehrke / Salt Lake Tribune:

Matheson wins in closest victory of his career, by 768 votes — Politics » Love gains in final count of provisional and absentee ballots, but not enough to force recount. — | The Salt Lake Tribune — First Published 8 hours ago — Rep. Jim Matheson held onto a narrow 768-vote victory …

Discussion: Twitchy, The Raw Story and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Charles Lane / Washington Post:

The best tax deduction to chop — What's the least defensible special break in the U.S. tax code? With so many distortions to choose from, it's hard to name just one. If forced to pick, I might say the deduction for state and local taxes, which cost $67 billion in fiscal 2011 …

Declan McCullagh / CNET:

Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants — Proposed law scheduled for a vote next week originally increased Americans' e-mail privacy. Then law enforcement complained. Now it increases government access to e-mail and other digital files.