Top Items:
Dan Pfeiffer / White House.gov Blog Feed:
The Public Option: Rumor Check — A rumor is making the rounds that the White House and Senator Reid are pursuing different strategies on the public option. Those rumors are absolutely false. — In his September 9th address to Congress, President Obama made clear that he supports …
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Newsweek:
Obama's pointless bipartisanship. — From the magazine issue dated Nov 2, 2009 — “There she is, the Party of One!” cried Sen. Barbara Mikulski when she saw Sen. Olympia Snowe outside the Senate chamber last week. Mikulski, in a wheel-chair because of a broken ankle, rolled closer to the object of her praise.
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Senate Dems to Obama: Um, a Little Help Here? — After a weekend of furious activity, Democratic leaders in the Senate think they are close to getting the votes they need in order to pass an “opt-out” version of the public option. — But they feel like President Obama could be doing more to help them …
Wall Street Journal:
Senate on Verge of Health Bill — Measure With Stiffer Penalties on Employers and Public Plan Could Come This Week — WASHINGTON — Top Senate Democrats are close to finalizing their health bill and could unveil a measure as soon as early this week that would include stiffer penalties …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Washington Post, USA Today, The Hill, The Politico, Wonk Room, The Foundry, Washington Times, msnbc.com, Ben Smith's Blog, NPR Blogs and Associated Press
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Conservatives Maintain Edge as Top Ideological Group — Compared with 2008, more Americans “conservative” in general, and on issues — PRINCETON, NJ — Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009, confirming a finding that Gallup first noted in June.
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Commentary, Gateway Pundit, AmSpecBlog, JammieWearingFool, The Political Carnival and USS Neverdock
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Robert J. Samuelson / Washington Post:
Samuelson on the fake debate on the public health plan — In the health-care debate, the “public plan” is all things to all people. For supporters, it would discipline greedy private insurers and make health-care coverage affordable. For detractors, it's a way station on the path …
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Fred Hiatt / Washington Post:
Hiatt on the public option — Talk cloaks political inaction — The “public option” is dangerous not for what it might do but for what it allows the politicians not to do. — From the start, the Obama administration has said that health-care reform has to make health care both more accessible and less costly .
Washington Post:
U.S. tested 2 Afghan scenarios in war game — Obama and advisers evaluating exercise that used different troop levels — The Pentagon's top military officer oversaw a secret war game this month to evaluate the two primary military options that have been put forward by the Pentagon …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Guardian, DownWithTyranny!, ATTACKERMAN, The Washington Independent and Associated Press
Patricia Murphy / Politics Daily:
Newt Gingrich Considering Run for President in 2012 — Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker and perennial big thinker in the Republican party, said this morning that he will likely run for president in 2012 if he and his wife, Callista, assess the field of candidates in 2011 and feel “a requirement as citizens that we run.”
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Stephen Labaton / New York Times:
U.S. Considers Reining In ‘Too Big to Fail’ Institutions — WASHINGTON — Congress and the Obama administration are about to take up one of the most fundamental issues stemming from the near collapse of the financial system last year — how to deal with institutions that are so big …
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
After Reform Passes — So, how well will health reform work after it passes? — There's a part of me that can't believe I'm asking that question. After all, serious health reform has long seemed like an impossible dream. And it could yet go all wrong.
Ronald Kessler / NewsMax.com:
Gov. Pawlenty: Obama Corrosive to Freedom, Liberty — President Obama has used bait-and-switch tactics first to get elected and now to push his healthcare proposal, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty tells Newsmax. — During the campaign, Obama portrayed himself as a centrist but has governed as a …
John O'Connor / The State:
EXCLUSIVE: How Sanford unplugged — Second-term focus was not on SC, records show — Gov. Mark Sanford typically packed more than a dozen events into his daily schedule when he took office in 2003 - sometimes jumping from meetings about tort reform, cutting state income taxes …
Discussion:
The Fix
Maggie Fox / Reuters:
Healthcare system wastes up to $800 billion a year — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud …
Discussion:
Politics Daily
Patrick Gavin / The Politico:
PRESIDENT OBAMA TIES GEORGE W. BUSH ON GOLF — President Barack Obama has only been in office for just over nine months, but he's already hit the links as much as President Bush did in over two years. — CBS' Mark Knoller — an unofficial documentarian and statistician of all things White House-related …
Ian Urbina / New York Times:
Recession Drives Surge in Youth Runaways — MEDFORD, Ore. — Dressed in soaked green pajamas, Betty Snyder, 14, huddled under a cold drizzle at the city park as several older boys decided what to do with her. — Betty said she had run away from home a week earlier after a violent argument with her mother.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
Kristi Keck / CNN:
Is it morning in America, or has hope given way to malaise? — (CNN) — Nearly a year after the presidential election, the excitement of Barack Obama's campaign has faded into the reality of an Obama White House. — As observers try to determine what time it is in American politics, they arrive at opposite conclusions.
New York Post:
Andy warns Rudy: Psst! I'm running — Andrew Cuomo has secretly notified Rudy Giuliani that he will run for governor next year, The Post has learned. — The confidential message, conveyed through intermediaries, was delivered to Giuliani recently and is expected to play a central role …
New York Times:
Oklahoma vs. Women — Anti-abortion activists found great encouragement in 2007, when the Supreme Court's conservative majority abruptly departed from the high court's recent precedents and upheld a federal ban on a particular method of abortion. — Soon, they began looking …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …