memeorandum: In Speech to AFL-CIO, Obama Says It's Time to Decide on Health Care (Alexi Mostrous/Washington Post)

10:50 AM ET, September 8, 2009

Top Items:

As Obama Speech Nears, Details on a Compromise — WASHINGTON — As President Obama and top advisers drafted his eagerly awaited health care speech to Congress, new details emerged Monday about fees and coverage limits under a proposal being floated by the chairman of a crucial Senate committee.

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Los Angeles Times, The Confluence, The Politico, Air America Media blogs, Wake up America, TalkLeft, The Caucus, WSJ.com, New York Times, Connecting.the.Dots, msnbc.com, Taegan Goddard's …, LewRockwell.com Blog, Wall Street Journal, The Note and The Page

The Hill:

Already, 23 Dems have said they will vote ‘no’ on healthcare reform — At least 23 House Democrats already have told constituents or hometown media that they oppose the massive healthcare overhaul touted by President Barack Obama. — If Republicans offer the blanket opposition they've promised …

Discussion: CBS News, Flopping Aces, Don Surber and Pajamas Media

Washington Post:
Deeply Divided House Democrats Return to Work — and the Same Set of Problems

Discussion: Wake up America, Riehl World View and Commentary

Jared Allen / The Hill:
Pelosi leans on Obama

Discussion: RedState and msnbc.com

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Key Blue Dog Ross will oppose any bill with public option

Discussion: TPMDC

Roll Call:
Key Liberals Willing to Bargain

Discussion: The Plum Line

Alexi Mostrous / Washington Post:
In Speech to AFL-CIO, Obama Says It's Time to Decide on Health Care

Discussion: Washington Monthly, New York Times, TPMtv, Reuters and TalkLeft

Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:

Thank you, Glenn Beck. By helping force the resignation of Van Jones, you have done a great service to your country. But in the exact opposite way than what you intended. — Your vile and vicious smear campaign has helped reverse one of the worst examples of miscasting since John Wayne took …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, The TrogloPundit, Hot Air, The Western Experience, Dennis the Peasant, NewsBusters.org, Michael Calderone's Blog, Riehl World View, Politics Daily, JammieWearingFool, The Jawa Report, Gateway Pundit, Time, Power Line, The Politico, San Francisco Chronicle and The Greenroom

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Why did the press ignore the Van Jones scandal? — On March 13, 2008, ABC News broke the story that Barack Obama's longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, had made a number of incendiary statements from the pulpit of Obama's church in Chicago. The most inflammatory of those remarks was Wright's notorious “God damn America” sermon.

Discussion: Fox News, Riehl World View, Gateway Pundit, NewsBusters.org and Discriminations

Wall Street Journal:

Obama and the Left — The lesson of the rise and fall of Van Jones. — Printer — Friendly — The abrupt resignation of White House aide Van Jones, deep in the news hiatus of Labor Day weekend, will probably be forgotten in a few days. But it's a story that still deserves elaboration …

Discussion: The Note, Commentary, Taylor Marsh and Wake up America

JammieWearingFool:
'I Think the Racists in the Right Wing are Upset Because Poor People …

Discussion: Hot Air, Gateway Pundit and Scared Monkeys

Row 2, Seat 4:
Van Jones Did Not Fill Out WH Questionnaire

Discussion: BizzyBlog, RBO, Pajamas Media, Riehl World View, Commentary, Scared Monkeys, The Glittering Eye, Patterico's Pontifications, YID With LID, Hot Air, Don Surber, Blue Crab Boulevard, Bluegrass Pundit and The Volokh Conspiracy

Peter Wallsten / Los Angeles Times:
Obama is fast losing white voters' support

Discussion: American Spectator, Outside The Beltway, DownWithTyranny!, Jules Crittenden, North Star Writers Group, Pundit & Pundette, Nice Deb, Pat Dollard, The Daley Gator, Harry's Place, Patterico's Pontifications and And So it Goes in Shreveport

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings — The controversy over President Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered …

Discussion: Reason, Wizbang, The TrogloPundit, PoliBlog, Cold Fury and JammieWearingFool

John / Power Line: No Investigation This Time — When President Obama's speech …

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Obama school speech released; Update: Obama's priority in speech …

Discussion: National Review Online, Pam's House Blend, Row 2, Seat 4, theblogprof, Cold Fury, Michelle Malkin, The Western Experience, Power Line, NO QUARTER, Weasel Zippers, Nashville Scene, The Politico, GayPatriot, Balloon Juice, Patterico's Pontifications and Ztower

Karl Vick / Washington Post:

As ‘Rescissions’ Spawn Outrage, Health Insurers Cite Fraud Control — Firms Defend ‘Rescissions’ as Fraud Control — LOS ANGELES — The untimely disappearance of Sally Marrari's medical coverage goes a long way toward explaining why insurance companies are cast as the villain in the health-care reform drama.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Think Progress, rubber hose, AMERICAblog News and Obsidian Wings

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

Americans Still Sharply Divided on Healthcare Reform — Opponents more likely than supporters to base their 2010 vote on the issue — PRINCETON, NJ — The American people are no less divided on healthcare reform today than they were a month ago. A new Gallup Poll finds 39% of Americans saying …

Discussion: Glenn Thrush's Blog, JustOneMinute, YID With LID, Real Clear Politics, The Plum Line and RealClearPolitics Video Log

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:

Reversal of Supreme Court Precedents at Issue — Campaign Case Touches on Justices' Stance on Earlier Rulings — The Supreme Court's unusual hearing Wednesday on the role corporations can play in influencing elections carries the potential not only for rewriting the nation's campaign finance laws …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway and MyDD

Theodore B. Olson / Wall Street Journal:
The Chance for a Free Speech Do-Over

Discussion: New York Times, The Caucus, OpenSecrets.org, The Hill, USA Today and Betsy's Page

Michelle Malkin:

Out: Commie Truther green jobs czar. In: Union hack “manufacturing” czar — President Obama's payoffs to Big Labor continue. — The union bosses got not one, but two, Cabinet appointees: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

Discussion: Pundit & Pundette, justoneminute.typepad.com, The Caucus and RedState

The Politico:

Whiteboard Archives — T-MINUS 36 HOURS: Draft 1 of Wednesday night's joint session address circulated among a tiny handful of West Wing aides over the holiday weekend. The text is now in the president's hands, and he is personally reshaping it. “As we like to say around here …

Discussion: The Page

Nissan Ratzlav-Katz / Arutz Sheva:

Al-Qaeda Targeting Germany for ‘Next 9/11’ - Within Weeks — Follow Israel news on and . — (IsraelNN.com) Jihadists close to al-Qaeda explicitly warned in new communications that Germany will be the target of the next 9/11-scale terrorist attack. The timing of the strike, they say, will be within the next few weeks.

Discussion: The Jawa Report

Elliott Abrams / Washington Post:

What President Jimmy Carter Missed in His Op-Ed on the Middle East — In an op-ed on Sunday ["The Elders' View of the Middle East"], former president Jimmy Carter, speaking on behalf of a self-appointed group of “Elders,” described a rapacious Israel facing long-suffering, blameless Palestinians …

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Commentary, Yourish.com, YID With LID and Jihad Watch

Borys Kit / Hollywood Reporter:

Obama's mother to be focus of documentary — Production in talks to secure the president's involvement — Aloe Entertainment, along with IMG and Schroeder-Ptacek Prods., are bringing the story of Barack Obama's mother to the screen, readying a feature-length doc to be directed by Charles Burnett.

Stuart Rothenberg / Roll Call:

All Signs Point to Another Top-Notch Election Cycle in 2010 — I began this year doubtful that we'd see much excitement in the 2010 elections. I'm quickly changing my tune. — After two big elections, Democrats didn't have many opportunities left in the House.

Discussion: Scorecard's Blog and msnbc.com