Top Items:
Peter Baker / New York Times:
Bush Official, in Book, Tells of Pressure on '04 Vote — WASHINGTON — Tom Ridge, the first secretary of homeland security, asserts in a new book that he was pressured by top advisers to President George W. Bush to raise the national threat level just before the 2004 election in what he suspected was an effort to influence the vote.
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Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Liberals And Gut Hatred, Or, Why I'm Sorry I Wrote What I Wrote — Both Glenn Greenwald and Marcy Wheeler have written posts eviscerating me for contending that Bush-hatred, not anything else, drove skepticism among liberals about the terrorist threat warnings.
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Bush vets dismiss Ridge claims — Top officials from the George W. Bush White House are disputing claims in former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's coming book that they pressured him to adjust the terror threat level for political gain. — “We went over backwards repeatedly …
Washington Post:
Faith in Obama Drops As Reform Fears Rise — Health-Care Effort Is Major Factor, Poll Finds — Public confidence in President Obama's leadership has declined sharply over the summer, amid intensifying opposition to health-care reform that threatens to undercut his attempt to enact major changes …
Discussion:
The Note, Politics Daily, ABCNEWS, San Francisco Chronicle, The Strata-Sphere, New York Times, Connecting.the.Dots and The Page
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Bloomberg:
Pelosi Says She Can't Pass Bill Without Public Option — Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won't be able to pass health-care legislation in her chamber if the measure doesn't include a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers.
Discussion:
The Confluence, Betsy's Page, Glenn Thrush's Blog, TalkLeft, Washington Post and Open Left
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Obama's Trust Problem — According to news reports, the Obama administration — which seemed, over the weekend, to be backing away from the “public option” for health insurance — is shocked and surprised at the furious reaction from progressives. — Well, I'm shocked and surprised at their shock and surprise.
David A. Patten / NewsMax.com:
Inside Cover — Zogby: Obama Hits Record Low in Poll — President Barack Obama's popularity has plummeted to a record low, with just 45 percent of voters now approving of his performance, according to the latest Zogby International poll. — Asked whether they approve or disapprove …
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BREITBART.COM:
Obama fires back at political critics — US President Barack Obama launched a mocking counter-attack Thursday at pundits who believe the euphoric early promise of his presidency is evaporating amid bitter political warfare. — Obama, who has watched his poll ratings dip sharply over recent months …
Discussion:
Pundit & Pundette, Don Surber, Patterico's Pontifications, Gateway Pundit and The Sundries Shack
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:Obama: everything gets ‘wee-weed’ up in D.C. in August
Discussion:
The Note, The Other McCain, QandO, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Conservatives4Palin.com and Weekly Standard
Peter Finn / Washington Post:
Lawyers Showed Photos of Covert CIA Officers to Guantanamo Bay Detainees — Justice Dept. Looking Into Whether Attorneys Broke Law at Guantanamo — By Peter Finn, Page A01 — The Justice Department recently questioned military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay about whether photographs …
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
ABC's Charles Gibson to Cindy Sheehan: Thanks for your sacrifice. Now get lost. — In an appearance August 18 on WLS radio in Chicago, ABC News anchor Charles Gibson was asked about anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan's plans to travel to Martha's Vineyard next week, where she will protest …
Gene Lyons / Salon:
You won't win the healthcare debate by calling people stupid racists — The folks listening to them are mostly just scared — A man speaks at a town hall held by Democratic Reps. Vic Snyder and Mike Ross at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock on Aug, 5.
Charlie Cook / The Cook Political Report:
Special Update from the Cook Political Report — For those of you not addicted to the 1:00pm EDT daily release of Gallup's three-night moving average tracking poll, President Obama's job approval rating in both their August 16-18 and August 17-19 averages was just 51 percent, the lowest level of his presidency.
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Globe and Mail:
Jennifer MacMillan — New passport rules are keeping Americans at home, with June numbers showing that travel to Canada from the United States fell to its lowest level since Statistics Canada started tracking cross-border trips in 1972. — The number of same-day car trips from the United States …
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Most Americans Expect Income-Tax Hike Under Obama — Even a majority of lower-income Americans expect an increase — PRINCETON, NJ — A new Gallup Poll finds that 68% of Americans believe their federal income taxes will be higher by the time Barack Obama's first term as president ends.
Discussion:
The Swamp
New York Times:
C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones — WASHINGTON — From a secret division at its North Carolina headquarters, the company formerly known as Blackwater has assumed a role in Washington's most important counterterrorism program: the use of remotely piloted drones to kill Al Qaeda's leaders …
Washington Post:
Key Senators Discuss Trimming Health Bill — President Calls Public Option a ‘Good Idea’ but Not Essential to Reform Effort — Senate health-care negotiators agreed late Thursday to ignore the increasingly strident rhetoric from Republican and Democratic leaders and to keep working toward …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, On Deadline, Wall Street Journal, The Page, msnbc.com and Associated Press
Ann Althouse / Althouse:
Obama would like you to see government as religion. — He addresses a group of religious leaders: … Bearing false witness? Breaking the 9th Commandment? So his opponents are sinners. I'm trying to imagine the separation-of-church-and-state freakout if George Bush had taken this approach to arguing for one of his policies.
New York Times:
Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall — The rich have been getting richer for so long that the trend has come to seem almost permanent. — They began to pull away from everyone else in the 1970s. By 2006, income was more concentrated at the top than it had been since the late 1920s.
The Huffington Post:
New Poll: 77 Percent Support “Choice” Of Public Option — Read More: Poll Public Option, Public Option Poll. Nbc Poll, Public Plan, Survey Usa, Survey Usa Poll, Politics News — More than three out of every four Americans feel it is important to have a “choice” between …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Minnesota Independent, Outside The Beltway, Think Progress, Reno and Its Discontents, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, TPMDC, MyDD, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, NOW! Blog, The Washington Independent, Newshoggers.com, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, Blogometer and DownWithTyranny!
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Newspaper corrects ‘Jackass’ Keith Olbermann mixup — Thank goodness, The Times newspaper is the forthright, ethical institution that it is. — And when a mistake happens, it rushes to set the journalistic record straight with an honest repair. — Here is an actual correction from Page A4 of today's print edition:
Discussion:
Moe_Lane's blog
Big Tent Democrat / TalkLeft:
The Madman Theory Of Political Bargaining: Part 4 — Matt Yglesias does not like being equated with Blue Dogs: … I do not think Matt, or Ezra Klein, or Kevin Drum, or Paul Starr are closet Blue Dogs, but I DO think, in terms of political bargaining, they DO represent well why Democrats …
Ronald Dworkin / Wall Street Journal:
An Anesthesiologist's Take on Health-Care Reform — Expect a two-tier medical system and needless ER deaths if Congress and the White House have their way. — Printer — Friendly — Every medical student learns an old adage: You can skimp on some medicine, but you can't skimp on obstetrics or anesthesiology.
Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:
On Health Care, Democrats Lack Passion — Here's the least surprising news of the week: Americans are souring on the Democratic Party. The wonder is that it's taken so long for public opinion to curdle. There's nothing agreeable about watching a determined attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
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