Top Items:
Washington Post:
Approval Ratings Drop for Obama on Health Care, Other Issues — Approval Rating on Health Care Falls Below 50 Percent — Obama's approval ratings on other front-burner issues, such as the economy and the federal budget deficit, have also slipped over the summer, as rising concern …
Discussion:
Hot Air, NY Daily News, Commentary, Washington Monthly, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Kausfiles, Guardian, Reason, The Moderate Voice, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Swamp, JustOneMinute, The Anchoress, Rasmussen Reports, Ezra Klein, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Right Pundits, Scared Monkeys, The Provocateur, Dr. Orly Taitz Esquire, Political Byline, Newsweek Blogs, Riehl World View, The Huffington Post, Boston Globe, Flopping Aces, Think Progress, Below The Beltway and Campaign Silo
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William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Kristol: Kill It, and Start Over — With Obamacare on the ropes, there will be a temptation for opponents to let up on their criticism, and to try to appear constructive, or at least responsible. There will be a tendency to want to let the Democrats' plans sink of their own weight …
Tom Raum / Associated Press:
White House putting off release of budget update — WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape. — The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits …
Discussion:
Right Pundits, Political Punch, Patterico's Pontifications, The Hill's Twitter Room, Matthew Yglesias, The New Republic, The Atlantic Business Channel, theblogprof, The Foundry, Wizbang, Don Surber, Pajamas Media, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Wake up America, The Confluence, On Deadline, Betsy's Page, Political Byline, PoliGazette, JammieWearingFool and QandO
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Pelosi: Make millionaires pay
Pelosi: Make millionaires pay
Discussion:
HotMES, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Wall Street Journal, The Page and Eye of Polyphemus
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Obama hiding the budget numbers until August recess
Obama hiding the budget numbers until August recess
Discussion:
YID With LID, Obi's Sister, Right Pundits, Stop The ACLU, Sense of Events and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
Amie Parnes / The Politico:
Barack Obama's gaffe: seeking greater inefficiencies
Barack Obama's gaffe: seeking greater inefficiencies
Discussion:
Wizbang
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
D-Day for DeMint — Amy Kremer of the National Tea Party Patriots sends on the full audio recording of a conference call I wrote about Friday, on which Sen. Jim DeMint said health care reform could be Obama's “Waterloo.” The comments have attracted attention, and an attack from President Obama today.
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Lee Fang / Think Progress:
Obama hits back at DeMint's threat: 'It is about a health care system …
Obama hits back at DeMint's threat: 'It is about a health care system …
Discussion:
Greenville News, WhiteHouse.gov Blog, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Firedoglake and New York Times
Rasmussen Reports:
2012 Match-ups: Obama, Romney Tied at 45%; Obama 48%, Palin 42% — If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Obama and possible Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be all tied up at 45% each, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Eamon Javers / The Politico:
Bailouts could cost U.S. $23 trillion — A series of bailouts, bank rescues and other economic lifelines could end up costing the federal government as much as $23 trillion, the U.S. government's watchdog over the effort says - a staggering amount that is nearly double the nation's entire economic output for a year.
Discussion:
The Provocateur
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Binyamin Appelbaum / Washington Post:
Financial Rescue I.G. Says Banks Funneled TARP Aid to Various Expenses — Many of the banks that got federal aid to support increased lending have instead used some of the money to make investments, repay debts or buy other banks, according to a new report from the special inspector general overseeing …
Tracy Jan / Boston Globe:
Harvard professor Gates arrested at Cambridge home — Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among …
Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Fox News Guest Ralph Peters Suggests Taliban Should Kill U.S. Soldier If He Deserted — Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who has been captured by the Taliban and appears in a video released this weekend by his captors, “went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30.”
Discussion:
Daily Kos, ABCNEWS, TheZoo, JONATHAN TURLEY, Registan.net, The Washington Independent and ATTACKERMAN
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David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Rep. Mike Castle Fends Off the Birthers — I got a little friendly fire from my friend and colleague Matt Welch over last week's article on the Obama birth certificate conspiracy. He took issue with my “contention that the movement ‘dogs Republicans’ (there being so very many other issues that have more bite than a few barkers).”
Robert J. Samuelson / Washington Post:
President Obama, Democratic Congress's Squandered Stimulus — It's not surprising that the much-ballyhooed “economic stimulus” hasn't done much stimulating. President Obama and his aides argue that it's too early to expect startling results. They have a point. A $14 trillion economy won't revive in a nanosecond.
RELATED:
Tim Fernholz / American Prospect:
WHY THE STIMULUS IS WHAT IT IS, AND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR HEALTH CARE.
WHY THE STIMULUS IS WHAT IT IS, AND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR HEALTH CARE.
Discussion:
The Impolitic
Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:
Obama Loves Mayo, But Mayo Does Not Love Him (Update: Gibbs Responds, Badly) — Throughout his push for health-care reform, President Obama has held up the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota as an example of great medicine at lower prices—something that could and should be emulated all over the country …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, ABCNEWS, Hot Air, Reason, The Hill's Twitter Room and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
REJECTING THE IDEA OF AN OVERHAUL.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky was on “Meet the Press” yesterday, talking about his opposition to the health care reform proposal(s). That's fine; he's the opposition leader. Of course he's going to oppose the majority's agenda.
RELATED:
New York Times:
Obama Making Push on Health as G.O.P. Steps Up Criticism — WASHINGTON — With President Obama set to step up his focus on health care this week, the political battle over the plan working its way through Congress is entering a new register, and Republicans are pushing back in ever sharper language.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, Room for Debate, Reason, AIP Blog and Zandar Versus The Stupid
RELATED:
New York Post:
JENNA AND BARBARA BUSH GAVE SECRET SERVICE FITS — WHEN it came to protecting Jenna and Barbara Bush, the Secret Service truly had its hands full, with President George W. Bush's wild and crazy daughters doing everything in their power to escape them, a new book reveals.
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
Race in 2028 — During last week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Republican senators kept bringing the conversation back to 2001 — the year when Sonia Sotomayor delivered the most famous version of her line about how a “wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences” might outshine a white male judge.
Chris Matyszczyk / Technically Incorrect:
New iPhone app helps you score pot — States that are low on funds are steadily inhaling the idea of taxing the sale of a substance that gets you high. — Meanwhile, as if anticipating an uptick in demand, the folks at Apple have approved a new iPhone and iPod Touch app that will allow …
David Boies / Wall Street Journal:
Gay Marriage and the Constitution — Why Ted Olson and I are working to overturn California's Proposition 8. — Printer — Friendly — When I got married in California in 1959 there were almost 20 states where marriage was limited to two people of different sexes and the same race.
Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll: Less faith in Obama's economic abilities — WASHINGTON — The public's confidence in President Obama's ability to handle the economy is eroding amid concern about higher federal spending and expanding government power, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — a development that could complicate …
Bruno Schirra / Wall Street Journal:
Germany's Spies Refuted the 2007 NIE Report — ‘Work on nuclear weapons can be observed in Iran even after 2003’ — President Obama has committed to trying diplomacy to stop the Iranian bomb. Time, though, is on the mullahs' side, not least because so much of it was wasted …
Steven T. Dennis / Roll Call:
Ross Is Blue Dogs' Bulldog — He warned them. — Months ago, Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), chairman of the Blue Dogs' health care task force, told House leaders and chairmen they'd better include Blue Dogs in the writing of their health care bill. But that didn't happen.
Discussion:
The Hill, The Moderate Voice, The Politico, Washington Monthly, Moe_Lane's blog and TPMDC
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Video: Mythbusters on Mooner-conspiracies; Update: Surprise — Whoopi's a conspiracy theorist — Think of the Moon-landing hoax conspiracy theorists as the original Truthers, 32 years before 9/11. No matter how much scientific evidence one supplies, no matter how many times the debunkers debunk …