Obama, Cheney National Security Messages Begin to Sink in

Our daily look at stories and topics that are lighting up the Internets:

Digesting the Cheney-Obama Feud

Like we said yesterday and the day before, the Obama-Cheney showdown is dominating debates in the blogosphere. Let's begin with the debate taking place at Thomas Jefferson Street. Conservative Mary Kate Cary, a former speechwriter herself, analyzes both speeches: "Chances are, if you watch the video of yesterday's speeches, you'll think President Obama won. But if you read the transcripts online, you might think Vice President Cheney won, as I did." Liberal Bonnie Erbe thinks that Obama lost by simply taking Cheney on. Liberal Robert Schlesinger has the opposite view. In another blogpost on the subject, he writes on the blogospheric divide: "If you are a consumer of conservative blogs, Cheney was 'a grownup,' 'sober,' a projector of 'gravitas' ... If you're touring the lefty side of the blogosphere, the battle between them seems quite different. Obama was 'characteristically thoughtful and elegant,' Cheney was 'completely illogical ... a complete moral simpleton.'" Here's Jon Stewart's take on the subject. Conservative Jennifer Rubin thinks Obama is precariously triangulating on national security. Greg Sargent sees hypocrisy in Cheney's request to declassify more torture memos. In a separate post, Sargent shows how important closing Guantanamo Bay is for the GOP's political strategy. And, as liberal Satyam Khanna points out, former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain thinks Cheney is just flat-out wrong.

America's Economic Woes

Reports like this one from Reuters are lighting up the blogosphere: "Bill Gross, manager of the world's biggest bond fund, warned on Thursday the United States will eventually lose its top AAA credit rating." Turns out Britain's in danger of losing its credit rating too. Conservative Allahpundit blames the news on Obama, asking: "If we haven't lost it already, how fantastically huge would our annual deficits have to be before we do lose it? $3 trillion? $4 trillion?" Felix Salmon doesn't think the news is much to worry about: "The US sovereign rating is so imbued with symbolism, especially since the Treasury-bond rate being considered the risk-free rate of return, that it can never be taken at face value." Salmon explains in another post: "So long as Treasuries have the lowest yields in the dollar-denominated world, they will retain their triple-A, and there are much more important things to worry about." And Carlos Watson delivers a double-edged sword: "There's good news and bad news: your chances of being employed just went up, but the paycheck you'll start earning could be worth less." Plus: Think the U.S. has economic problems? Let the troubles in California give you some perspective.

Memorial Day

With Memorial Day at hand, bloggers are honoring the servicemen and women who died in the line of duty. Gen. Wesley Clarke blogs on the subject. "How do you serve men like Mat Schram, Jack Swan, Cooter, Jon Ayers or Rick Rescorla?" asks blogger Blackfive. "You honor them by being the best American that you can be, being the best parent, friend or spouse, being the best supporter of the ' the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan .' We must never forget their families." Liberal Louis Bickford ties celebrating Memorial Day into a call for an investigation into Bush-era torture practices: "Extreme violations of human rights in any context, including a war, are too important to forget. We want future generations to remember that we insisted on accountability for them. Those are good reasons to have Memorial Day." And conservative Eric Trager gets all up in the MLB's face.