Top Items:
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
How Conservatives Are Blowing Their Chance — President Obama is on his way to Portsmouth, New Hampshire at this hour for a town hall meeting on health care. At this same hour last week, several of the President's top political advisers were meeting in a White House conference room to discuss …
RELATED:
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
What's the Point of These Health Care Town Halls? — Michael Crowley liked Senator Claire McCaskill's performance at a town hall earlier today: … I agree, but watching McCaskill on TV what I mostly thought of was that I don't understand why members of congress are holding these town halls.
Discussion:
Democratic Strategist
Political Punch:
President Obama's “Senior” Moment? — Rachel Martin and Jake Tapper report: — President Obama today suggested that the health care reform legislation for which he's pushing has been endorsed by the American Association of Retired Person. — “We have the AARP on board …
CNN:
Specter faces angry crowd at town hall meeting — LEBANON, Pennsylvania (CNN) — A hostile crowd shouted questions and made angry statements Tuesday at a town hall meeting on health care led by Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter. — At one point, Specter shouted into his microphone …
Ezra Klein:
It Is Democracy, Not Health-Care Reform, That Is Sick — As Josh Marshall says, we've reached a point in the health-care reform discussion where logic has fallen apart. Consider, for instance, Danielle Allen's op-ed this morning. Discussing the insistence of some that health-care reform …
Discussion:
The American Scene, Washington Post, Democracy in America, American Power, Talking Points Memo, Will Wilkinson, Stop The ACLU, Neptunus Lex, Washington Monthly, Reason, Liberal Values, Democratic Strategist, Firedoglake, JustOneMinute, The Strata-Sphere, AMERICAblog News and The New Republic
RELATED:
Mike Madden / Salon:
The “death panels” are already here
The “death panels” are already here
Discussion:
DownWithTyranny!, The Plum Line, Liberal Values, Blue Virginia, msnbc.com, ABCNEWS, The Strata-Sphere, Shakesville, Daily Kos and Blog entry
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Matthews to Obama protester: Why'd you bring a loaded gun to a town hall with the president? — Good question, especially given the sign this guy was carrying. Considering the lengths to which the Secret Service normally goes to investigate threats against the president …
Discussion:
Blue Crab Boulevard, Raw Story, Salon, BLACKFIVE, Jack & Jill Politics and Freedom's Lighthouse
RELATED:
Carrie Johnson / Washington Post:
Documents Detail Campaign to Oust U.S. Attorney — The dismissal of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias in December 2006 followed extensive communication among lawyers and political aides in the White House who hashed over complaints about his work on public corruption cases against Democrats …
RELATED:
Zachary Roth / TPMMuckraker:
Email: Rich Lowry Offered To Help White House Spin Firings — Here's a fun nugget from the U.S. attorney documents (h/t reader B.M.): — It looks like Rick Lowry of National Review offered the White House his services in doing some positive P.R. on behalf of Rove protege Tim Griffin …
Scott / Power Line:
Does Linda Douglass know about this? part 2 — Barack Obama's denial that he has advocated a “single payer,” Canadian style health care system may not have been the most comic moment of his Portsmouth dog-and-pony show. He also disputed the notion that adding a government plan to “compete” …
RELATED:
Philip Klein / AmSpecBlog:
Obama Lies on Single-Payer, Disses Post Office
Obama Lies on Single-Payer, Disses Post Office
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah
Brendan Steinhauser / FreedomWorks:
FREEDOMWORKS ISSUES ABJECT APOLOGY TO LEFT — Free-market organization thanks left-wing groups for instruction on the finer points of intelligent policy debate — Washington, DC — Today, FreedomWorks released an apology to leftist political organizations, including MoveOn.org …
John H. Richardson / Esquire:
What Really Happens When You Demand the President Produce His Birth Certificate? — You get a bunch of outrageous people — very nice people, mind you, but frustrated enough to believe anything about Obama — storming the offices of the attorney general, the secretary of state, and the FBI.
WhiteHouse.gov Blog:
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM TOWN HALL — THE PRESIDENT: Hello, Portsmouth! Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you so much. Everybody have a seat. Oh, thank you so — AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you! — THE PRESIDENT: I love you back. Thank you. (Laughter.)
Discussion:
Dennis the Peasant, Crooks and Liars, Left Coast Rebel, Washington Monthly, Donklephant, Jules Crittenden and Blue Virginia
Peter Daou / ConsiderThisNews:
“Send Them Home With a Bullet in the Head” — I've gone on the record disagreeing with the term ‘Teabaggers’ and with the use of the word ‘un-American’ - I've done so because despite the astroturfing and the faux-grassroots opposition to health care reform, I place a premium on citizen activism …
Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Santorum dips toes in 2012 Iowa waters — Add former Sen. Rick Santorum to the list of potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates. — POLITICO has learned Santorum will visit first-in-the-nation Iowa this fall for a series of appearances before the sort of conservative activists …
Benjamin Spillman / Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Poll: Reid would lose if Lowden were to run — Republican Sue Lowden would defeat incumbent Democratic Sen. Harry Reid by 6 percentage points in a head-to-head matchup, according to a poll of likely Nevada voters. — Unfortunately for Reid-bashers, Lowden isn't running — at least not yet.
RELATED:
Dan / Riehl World View:
Jesse Griffin: Just Asking Questions — The investigation into infamous, expletive-spewing, former assistant kindergarten instructor and anti-Palin blogger, who when not encouraging masturbation on a blog he provided a link to on his MySpace page that any student who knew him by name could have discovered …
Discussion:
The Other McCain, Conservatives4Palin.com, Confederate Yankee, Doug Ross, The Greenroom, Right Wing News and AmSpecBlog
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
How Democrats And Republicans Exploit Emotion — The field of cognitive neuroscience has all but given up trying to distinguish between emotion and reason, but political debate evidently lags far behind the science. Some observers of health care politics, particularly on the left …
William D. Cohan / The Atlantic Online:
The Final Days of Merrill Lynch — IT'S BEEN ALMOST a year since Bank of America agreed to buy Merrill Lynch, on September 15, for $50 billion in stock, in what now looks like one of the most fraught deals in the history of American business. The deal was announced on the same …
Discussion:
Clusterstock
Rasmussen Reports:
Support for Congressional Health Care Reform Falls to New Low — Public support for the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats has fallen to a new low as just 42% of U.S. voters now favor the plan. That's down five points from two weeks ago and down eight points from six weeks ago.
Chris Ariens / TVNewser:
No More Talk Radio Hosts on CNN? — Exclusive: TVNewser has learned, and a CNN spokesperson confirms, that in his morning editorial meeting today, CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein asked his show producers to avoid booking talk radio hosts. “Complex issues require world class reporting,” …
Michelle Malkin:
Little girl at Obama town hall has not-so-random political connections — As we always like to point out: There are no coincidences in Obama world. — Via the Boston Globe: Surprise! … Tons of readers point to this AR15.com post tracking Hall's political footprint, including this Facebook page and photo:
Niall Ferguson / Financial Times:
A runaway deficit may soon test Obama's luck — Felix the Cat, the wonderful, wonderful cat! Whenever he gets in a fix, he reaches into his bag of tricks! — President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat. One of the best-loved cartoon characters of the 1920s, Felix was not only black.
Washington Post:
White House Decries Physicians Committee's Poster, Which Mentions Obama Girls — The posters went up last week, 14 in Union Station. On each of the large displays, a thought bubble rises up from a picture of a beautiful 8-year-old: “President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches.
Discussion:
Power Line, The Volokh Conspiracy, Political Byline, Political Punch, Politics Daily, The Caucus, JustOneMinute and American Power
Peter Hamby / CNN:
Sanford defends expensive travel, denies divorce — (CNN) - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford defended his trips on expensive international flights on Tuesday and said that a state Senate probe into his foreign travel is driven by a politically-motivated “feeding frenzy.”
David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
Armed and Dangerous? — MSNBC just aired footage of the crowd gathering at the Obama town hall meeting on health care that's supposed to start later today in New Hampshire and pointed out one man in a group holding protest signs with a gun in a holster on his hip. Apparently not a law officer, but a civilian.
Erika Slife / Chicago Tribune:
Obama baby boom: Predicted surge in births goes bust — On Nov. 4, the hope and happiness seemed boundless for supporters of President-elect Barack Obama, leading some to speculate, with a wink and a nod, that in nine months there would be a virtual Obama baby boom — a celebratory uptick in the national birthrate.
Michael Lind / Salon:
Are liberals seceding from sanity? — The left is crazy to insult white Southerners as a group — Back in the 1960s, Seymour Martin Lipset and Richard Hofstadter and other liberal sociologists, historians and political scientists, puzzled that anyone could support Barry Goldwater rather …
John / Power Line:
Cap and Trade: Measuring the Disaster — The Heritage Foundation has released a new economic analysis of Waxman-Markey, the cap and trade bill that is dead—we hope—at least for this year. The results aren't pretty. Heritage finds that Waxman Markey would, by 2035: