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 …
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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 …
Discussion:
Examiner, Below The Beltway, RedState, Atlas Shrugs, Right Pundits, Dennis the Peasant and Patterico's Pontifications
Tom Blumer / NewsBusters.org:
Can't Make It Up: Dem Rep Who Opposes Photo ID To Vote Requiring Photo ID For Town Halls — This is Congressman Eugene Green (HT to an e-mailer), Democrat from Texas, telling the world that if you're not from his District, you're not welcome at his future town hall meetings — oh, and how he'll enforce his new rule (bold is his):
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:
Liberal Values, Dennis the Peasant, Crooks and Liars, Donklephant, Washington Monthly, Jules Crittenden and Blue Virginia
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 …
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David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
Armed and Dangerous? — MSNBC just aired footage of the crowd …
Armed and Dangerous? — MSNBC just aired footage of the crowd …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, DownWithTyranny!, Lawful Good Patriot, The Mahablog and New York Magazine
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 …
Discussion:
judiciary.house.gov, TPMMuckraker, The BLT, Donklephant, Firedoglake and MoJo Blog Posts
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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 …
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:
Discussion:
Gateway Pundit, Boston Globe, And So it Goes in Shreveport, GayPatriot, Instapundit and HotAirPundit
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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” …
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Philip Klein / AmSpecBlog:
Obama Lies on Single-Payer, Disses Post Office
Obama Lies on Single-Payer, Disses Post Office
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah
Dorothy Rabinowitz / Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Tone-Deaf Health Campaign
Obama's Tone-Deaf Health Campaign
Discussion:
The New Republic, Hyscience, JustOneMinute, Betsy's Page, Founding Bloggers, Wake up America and Pundit & Pundette
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 …
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:
Democracy in America, Neptunus Lex, American Power, Reason, The American Scene, Stop The ACLU, Washington Monthly, Democratic Strategist, Liberal Values, Will Wilkinson, Firedoglake, JustOneMinute, Washington Post, The Strata-Sphere, AMERICAblog News, The New Republic and Talking Points Memo
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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 …
Phil Izzo / Wall Street Journal:
Economists Call for Bernanke to Stay, Say Recession Is Over — Economists are nearly unanimous that Ben Bernanke should be reappointed to another term as Federal Reserve chairman, and they said there is a 71% chance that President Barack Obama will ask him to stay on, according to a survey.
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Randall Kroszner / Financial Times:
Central banks must time a ‘good exit’
Central banks must time a ‘good exit’
Discussion:
Marginal Revolution
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 …
John Cook / Gawker:
Let's Just Say It: We're Scared Someone's Going to Try to Kill Barack Obama — MSNBC just aired video of a man with a pistol strapped to his leg waiting for Barack Obama to arrive at a townhall in New Hampshire. — The man is carrying a sign that says, “It Is Time to Water the Tree of Liberty.”
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.
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News
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.
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 Greenroom, The Other McCain, Doug Ross, Conservatives4Palin.com, Confederate Yankee, Right Wing News and AmSpecBlog
The Huffington Post:
Anonymous Group Making Robocalls With Fake Harry Reid Caller ID — Congressional staffers have been plagued over the past two days with telephone calls that appear to be coming from Senate Majority Harry Reid's office but are actually from an anonymous organization highly critical of Democrats.
Discussion:
The Political Carnival