Top Items:
Bob Woodward / Washington Post:
McChrystal: More Forces or ‘Mission Failure’ — Top U.S. Commander For Afghan War Calls Next 12 Months Decisive — The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them …
Discussion:
Mudville Gazette, Weekly Standard, The Daily Dish, Think Progress, Washington Monthly, FiveThirtyEight, Guardian, Achenblog, The Anchoress, Flopping Aces, Center For Defense Studies, Wall Street Journal, Swampland, The New Republic, Don Surber, BLACKFIVE, TalkLeft, PoliBlog, QandO, SWJ Blog, MoJo Blog Posts, The Politico, Commentary, democracyarsenal.org, Hot Air, The BLT, The Confluence, Jules Crittenden, Christian Science Monitor, Below The Beltway, Outside The Beltway, EU Referendum, Taylor Marsh, Wonk Room, ATTACKERMAN, Political Punch, Townhall.com, Weasel Zippers, Prairie Weather, The Page, George's Bottom Line, LewRockwell.com Blog, The Washington Independent, Truthdig, Associated Press and LiveWire
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New York Times:
General Calls for More U.S. Troops to Avoid Afghan Failure — WASHINGTON — The top military commander in Afghanistan warns in a confidential assessment of the war there that he needs additional troops within the next year or else the conflict “will likely result in failure.”
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Matthew Yglesias, BBC, Shakesville, DownWithTyranny!, The Faster Times, MyDD, Donkeylicious, Guardian, EU Referendum and CNN
The Huffington Post:
Bush In 2008: “I'm Not Going To Tell Some Gay Kid In The Audience That He Can't Get Married” — Speechwriter Matt Latimer's new book trains its gaze on the lunacy of the late-era Bush White House. And there was plenty of material. — Latimer, who first wrote speeches and congressional testimony …
Discussion:
Think Progress, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Moderate Voice, The Raw Story and LiveWire
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Ross Douthat / New York Times:
The Self-Correcting Presidency — Last week, the Census Bureau released a statistical report on the last year of George W. Bush's presidency. The numbers were brutal. On every indicator, Americans lost ground during the Bush era. The median income slumped. The poverty rate increased.
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Obama's TV Blitz: On The Air, but Off His Game? — The White House doesn't buy the notion that President Obama, who appeared on five talk shows Sunday and is heading next for David Letterman's couch, could be wearing out his welcome on the tube. — Sure, this is a president …
Discussion:
Commentary, Outside The Beltway, Althouse, Sister Toldjah, Riehl World View, AmSpecBlog and ABCNEWS
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Alessandra Stanley / New York Times:
For President, Five Programs, One Message — No one shifted an armchair, moved a flower arrangement or asked an unexpected question. — President Obama gave five back-to-back television interviews broadcast on Sunday that were as tightly choreographed — and eerily similar …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, TVNewser, Chris Floyd, Personal Democracy Forum blogs, The Politico, Salon, Macsmind, Hold Fast, Politics Daily and Washington Post
Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Nontax Tax — On a Sunday show, the President offers a revealing definition. — Printer — Friendly — President Obama didn't make much news on his round of five Sunday talk shows yesterday, with one notable exception. The President revealed a great deal about his philosophy …
Discussion:
Conservative Dallas, Betsy's Page, Commentary, YID With LID, Dennis the Peasant, The Caucus and George's Bottom Line
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Jazz Shaw / The Moderate Voice:
Did Barack Obama Read the Baucus Bill?
Did Barack Obama Read the Baucus Bill?
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Greenroom, NO QUARTER, ABCNEWS, Wake up America, Moe Lane and Weasel Zippers
Frank Newport / Gallup:
Americans More Likely to Say Government Doing Too Much — Belief that government is over-regulating business is at high for decade — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans are more likely today than in the recent past to believe that government is taking on too much responsibility for solving …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, Politics Daily, The Plum Line, Wake up America and AmSpecBlog
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Byron York / Washington Examiner:
New poll: Majority believe government is doing too much — A new Gallup poll shows that the number of people who believe government has its hand in too many areas of American life has reached its highest point in more than a decade. — The question asked by Gallup was …
Discussion:
Riehl World View
Patrick Courrielche / Big Hollywood:
EXPLOSIVE NEW AUDIO Reveals White House Using NEA to Push Partisan Agenda — **NEA conference call full audio and transcript here** — Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally?
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Susan Page / USA Today:
Secret interviews add insight to Clinton presidency — BALTIMORE — The call from the White House usually would come in late afternoon. President Clinton had a few hours open in the evening. Could he come over? — Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and civil rights historian …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, The Note, Taegan Goddard's …, Glenn Thrush's Blog, Talking Points Memo and LiveWire
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Reform or Bust — In the grim period that followed Lehman's failure, it seemed inconceivable that bankers would, just a few months later, be going right back to the practices that brought the world's financial system to the edge of collapse. At the very least, one might have thought …
New York Post:
Dave's ejection is Andy's election — All hail Andrew Cuomo, the de facto governor-elect of New York. — And all pity David Paterson, now the state's de facto lame-duck governor. — This sudden and breathtaking transformation of the New York political scene comes compliments …
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Scott / Power Line:
Sliming James O'Keefe: A case study — James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles are the young activists who have blown the lid off the criminal left-wing enterprise known as ACORN. If they were left-wingers exposing some conservative or religious organization, government-funded or not …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
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Jacob Weisberg / Slate:
First They Came for the Marlboros — The hazards of Michael Bloomberg's paternalist utopia. — Last Monday dawned clear and bright in the nanny state of New York City. The newspaper brought word that the city's new health commissioner was working on ways to get residents to exercise more.
Discussion:
Politics Daily
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Bill Carter / New York Times:
Letterman Takes Turn Toward the Political — And now, it's Dave's turn. — One week after he watched his old rival Jay Leno return to television as NBC's great prime-time hope, David Letterman will start making a statement of his own. — He will start with the president of the United States.
Wall Street Journal:
Hillary's Honduras Obsession — The U.S. is trying to force the country to violate its constitution. — Printer — Friendly — “The Supreme Court of Honduras has constitutional and statutory authority to hear cases against the President of the Republic and many other high officers of the State …
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-Okla.) Chief of Staff: ‘All Pornography Is Homosexual Pornography’ — One of the final events of the Values Voter Summit was a Saturday breakout session on “the new masculinity,” a wide-ranging topic that one speaker used to explain how any and all pornography could lead young people into homosexual lifestyles.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Minnesota Independent, TPMDC and Think Progress