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Reid announces push for public option — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this afternoon that he plans to push ahead with a public health insurance option that includes an opt-out provision for states - even though he's currently short several votes for passage, according to people close to the situation.
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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 …
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Pelosi: Health care ‘public option’ needs new name — SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) - A government-sponsored “public option” for health care lives, though it may be more attractive to skeptics if it goes by a different moniker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday. — In an appearance …
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American Power, Townhall.com, Michelle Malkin, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Foundry, Verum Serum and Don Surber


Senator Reid Announces ‘Opt-Out’ Public Plan — The Senate health care legislation will include a government-run insurance plan, but states would be allowed to “opt out” of it, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, announced Monday afternoon. — The question of whether to include …
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The Note, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Politico, The Hill, Democratic Strategist, New York Times and The Page


Durbin: Progressives Forced Our Hand On Public Option
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SENATE REFORM BILL EARNS PLAUDITS.... Now that a Senate health care bill …

CFG Poll: Hoffman Leading in NY-23 — Hoffman Surges Into Lead in NY-23 — New CFG Poll shows Hoffman 31.3%, Owens 27.0%, Scozzafava 19.7% — Washington - A poll released today by the Club for Growth shows Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman surging into the lead in the special election …
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REDSTATE EXCLUSIVE: Tim Pawlenty Endorses Doug Hoffman — With polling now showing NY-23 has come down to a two man race between Hoffman and Owens, the Democrat, momentum is clearly in Hoffman's favor. — Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota is now adding to the momentum becoming the first sitting Republican Governor to endorse Hoffman.

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.


NOW President on President Obama's All-Male Athletic Outings: 'It's Troubling' — We asked Terry O'Neill, the new president of the National Organization for Women, what she thought of those Democratic women and others quietly complaining about a “boy's club” atmosphere at the White House …
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Hot Air, Don Surber, Washington Post, Lynn Sweet, THE WEEK News & Opinion and Real Clear Politics
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CNN Drops to Last Place Among Cable News Networks — CNN, which invented the cable news network more than two decades ago, will hit a new competitive low with its prime-time programs in October, finishing fourth - and last - among the cable news networks with the audience that all the networks rely on for their advertising.
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DailyFinance, The Daily Dish, Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, Michael Calderone's Blog and Politics Daily


RNC keeps racist pics on Facebook for nearly a week — Perhaps no one noticed. Perhaps no one cared. But hours after a liberal news forum brought attention to a series of days old controversial photos on the Republican National Committee's Facebook page, the photos were finally taken down.

McDonnell has double-digit lead in Va. governor's race, Post poll says — Republican Robert F. McDonnell carries a double-digit lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds into the final week of the campaign for Virginia governor, according to a new Washington Post poll.


Anchors sink on ‘Jeopardy’ — CNN should consider banning its anchors from appearing on “Celebrity Jeopardy” after the humiliating defeats of — Soledad O'Brien. Wolf was blitzed last month, coming in last with minus-$4,600, behind comic — Andy Richter, a past winner who racked up $68,000 for charity.


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 …
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New Jersey Poll Preview — Some folks thought it was a little odd when Chris Christie went on the air with negative ads against independent candidate Chris Daggett a few weeks ago but it seems to have been a good idea. — Two weeks ago Daggett's fav/unfav was 30/24. Now it's 31/36.
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AP IMPACT: Statisticians reject global cooling — WASHINGTON — Have you heard that the world is now cooling instead of warming? You may have seen some news reports on the Internet or heard about it from a provocative new book. — Only one problem: It's not true, according to an analysis …


The Indecider — About New York's governorship, as about so much in his recent political career, Rudy Giuliani can't fully, wholeheartedly make up his mind. — On an early-October night here in Kingston, a town about a hundred miles north of Manhattan, it was 2007 all over again.
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The Bench in Purgatory — The new Republican obstructionism on Obama's judicial nominees. — It's still early in President Obama's first term, but not too soon to conclude that the president's effort to “put the confirmation wars [for judges] behind us” is not going well.
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UNPRECEDENTED OBSTRUCTIONISM.... In the Clinton era …
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Gawker

Top 25 Daily Newspapers in New FAS-FAX — NEW YORK Here are the top 25 newspapers in the country ranked by daily (Monday-Friday) circulation for the six months ending September 2009 from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percent change compares the same six-month period ending September 2008.

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.