Top Items:
The Corner:
Krauthammer's Take — From last night's All-Stars: On North Korea releasing U.S. journalists to President Clinton: Well, it's the return of hostages in exchange for stuff. And we will learn about that stuff. It's clear that this was wired in advance. There probably was an apology [offered by President Clinton in Pyongyang].
RELATED:
New York Times:
Bill Clinton and Journalists in Emotional Return to U.S. — WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday morning after a dramatic 20-hour visit to North Korea, in which he won the freedom of two American journalists, opened a diplomatic channel …
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Let the Big Dog Run
Let the Big Dog Run
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Note, Full Comment, DailyHowler.com and Los Angeles Times
Ben Armbruster / Think Progress:
Right Wing Attacks Clinton's Successful Trip To Free American …
Right Wing Attacks Clinton's Successful Trip To Free American …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Top of the Ticket, Commentary, TalkLeft and Democracy in America
CNN:
CNN Poll: Americans split on Obama's health care proposals — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Americans appear split over President Barack Obama's health care reform proposals, according to a new national poll. — Fifty percent of those questioned in CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday morning …
RELATED:
Quinnipiac University:
Scrap Health Care Reform If It Adds To Deficit, U.S. Voters Tell Quinnipiac University National Poll; Voters Disapprove Of Obama's Handling Of Health Care — American voters, by a 55 - 35 percent margin, are more worried that Congress will spend too much money and add to the deficit …
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Hot Air, The Foundry, Glenn Thrush's Blog, Tammy Bruce, Outside The Beltway and Moe Lane
Arthur B. Laffer / Wall Street Journal:
How to Fix the Health-Care ‘Wedge’
How to Fix the Health-Care ‘Wedge’
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Weekly Standard, Chronicle of the Conspiracy and John Stossel's Take
The Politico:
Obama: ‘Left-wing groups’ should back off. — OBAMA WAVES OFF LIBERALS: On the same day that MoveOn.org announced a new wave of ads to pressure centrist ... ... Democrats on health care reform, President Obama told Senate Democrats he wished “left-wing groups” would back off.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Moderate Voice, AmSpecBlog, The Plum Line, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Think Progress, JustOneMinute and Don Surber
RELATED:
Eric Zimmermann / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Cornyn worried White House collecting personal data
Cornyn worried White House collecting personal data
Ben Armbruster / Think Progress:
Liasson: ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program ‘is like a mini-Katrina.’ — Last night, Fox News aired a clip of a woman at a Philadelphia town hall meeting over the weekend berating Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) about health care reform. “What I see is a bureaucratic nightmare, senator. ...
Mark Preston / CNN:
GOP turns tables on Democrats — WASHINGTON (CNN) — National Republicans turned the tables on their political counterparts Wednesday by redirecting angry telephone calls coming into their switchboard to the Democratic National Committee. — The DNC released a Web video early …
RELATED:
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Washington Post Kills ‘Mouthpiece’ Video Series — The Washington Post has brought down the curtain on “Mouthpiece Theater.” — Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli killed the satirical video series Wednesday after harsh criticism of a joke about Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton …
RELATED:
Roll Call:
House Orders Up Three Elite Jets — Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by private jet to attend a hearing about a possible bailout of their companies. — But apparently Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel …
Discussion:
Townhall.com, Hot Air, Raw Story, msnbc.com, Moonbattery, Flopping Aces, JammieWearingFool and Gateway Pundit
Sandhya Somashekhar / Washington Post:
Obama's Domestic Policies Are Having Immediate Effects on Race for Va. Governor — Some Voters Who Backed President Disillusioned Over Economic Pledges — The coffee was still brewing when Chris Ann Cleland got her first reminder of the day that voting for Barack Obama might have been a mistake.
James Joyner / Outside The Beltway:
The Other — While I'm generally on the other side of the issue, Josh Marshall is one of several left-of-center bloggers I read because he's interesting, thoughtful, and generally fair. But even he falls for a rather common trope: The belief that your opponents are crazy. … Now, none of that is wrong.
RELATED:
Boston Globe:
Mass. bashers take note: Health reform is working — PUNDITS and politicians who oppose universal healthcare for the nation have a new straw man to kick around - the Massachusetts reform plan that covers more than 97 percent of the state's residents. In the myth that these critics have manufactured …
Discussion:
Cato @ Liberty, Salon, American Street, JustOneMinute, Economist's View, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Ezra Klein, AmSpecBlog, The Confluence and EconLog
Helen Kennedy / NY Daily News:
Shepard Fairey-designed Obama portrait on cover of upcoming Rolling Stone — Artist Shepard Fairey, whose iconic HOPE campaign poster of Barack Obama was a global sensation, is back with a new image that both questions and deifies the President. — Appearing on the cover of the Aug. 20 Rolling Stone …
Alex Koppelman / Salon:
Salon's handy-dandy guide to refuting the Birthers — Barack Obama with his mother, Ann Dunham, in an undated photo from the 1960s. — There are, sadly, a lot of Birthers out there. A recent poll showed that 11 percent of Americans — including 28 percent of Republicans …
RELATED:
James Kirchick / NY Daily News:
Liberals' birther obsession: It's the left-wing, not the GOP, that's pumping up the story — You could be forgiven for thinking that a serious campaign is afoot - aided and abetted by the national Republican Party - to question Barack Obama's citizenship. Over the past two weeks …
RELATED:
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Palin calls divorce report ‘made up’ — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tells POLITICO that widespread blogosphere reports about a possible divorce from her husband, Todd, are “made up.” — In a brief telephone interview on Tuesday night, Palin quipped that she loves finding out “what's goin' on in my life from the news.”
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Tammy Bruce, The Daily Dish, Gawker, The Sundries Shack, Wonkette and Riehl World View
Kathleen Parker / Washington Post:
Sen. George Voinovich and the GOP as a Party of the South — Southern writer Walker Percy liked to poke fun at Ohioans in his novels, just to even things out a bit. — “Usually Mississippians and Georgians are getting it from everybody, and Alabamians,” he once explained to an interviewer.
Right Wing News:
Joker Obama Flyers Show Up At George Washington University & Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Updated) — Supposedly, prior to yesterday, the Joker Obama posters had only shown up in LA and Atlanta. Well, now a few hundred have shown up at George Washington University. Here are a few pics I was emailed yesterday.
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Boxer: Protesters too well dressed to be sincere — Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) appeared on Hardball last night in support of the Left's attempt to discredit the people showing up to townhalls in protest of ObamaCare. Boxer says she can tell that they're fakes, because they're too well dressed.