Top Items:
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 …
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Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
Reid to announce push for public option — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will announce this afternoon that he plans to push ahead with a public option vote - most likely one 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.
Discussion:
The Swamp, Ben Smith's Blog, AmSpecBlog, The Plum Line, Weekly Standard, Salon, The Page, Taegan Goddard's … and American Tory
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 …
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 …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Booman Tribune, Politics Daily, Roll Call, TPMDC, American Tory, Gawker, Daily Kos, MoJo Blog Posts, MoJo Blog Posts, AMERICAblog News, Taylor Marsh, Reno and Its Discontents, Talking Points Memo, TalkLeft, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, The Huffington Post, Another Black Conservative, Open Left and Comments from Left Field
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Lincoln Non-Committal On Reid Plan For Public Option With Opt-Out — Now that Senator Harry Reid appears likely to announce today that the final Senate bill will include a public option with an opt-out — a bold gamble that assumes it'll have the support of 60 Senators in the end …
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Over White House Skepticism, Reid Likely To Go The Opt Out Route
Over White House Skepticism, Reid Likely To Go The Opt Out Route
Discussion:
Firedoglake, TalkLeft, The Plum Line, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, The Anonymous Liberal, Ben Smith's Blog and Left in the West
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.
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Jon Meacham / Newsweek:
The Great American Ideological Crackup — From the magazine issue dated Nov 2, 2009 — Shortly after the 2004 presidential election, I was chatting with a senior figure in the Democratic Party when, inevitably, the talk turned to why John Kerry had lost.
Jennifer Rubin / Commentary:
Conservative Still — Gallup offers us this interesting survey information:
Conservative Still — Gallup offers us this interesting survey information:
Discussion:
JustOneMinute
Club for Growth:
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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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 …
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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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 …
Discussion:
The Swamp, The Jawa Report, NewsBusters.org, Hot Air, Outside The Beltway, Sister Toldjah, Townhall.com, Mediaite, Althouse, Riehl World View and Weasel Zippers
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.
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The Importance of Being Earnest — Howard Fineman thinks Barack Obama …
The Importance of Being Earnest — Howard Fineman thinks Barack Obama …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein
Daniel Tencer / Raw Story:
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 controversial photos on the Republican National Committee's Facebook page, the photos were finally taken down.
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.
Bill Carter / Media Decoder:
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.
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 …
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
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.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
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Stephanie Griffith / Agence France Presse:
Karzai questions US reliability as partner — Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai questioned the reliability of the United States as a partner Sunday, as he fought off criticism of his government's legitimacy following fraud-marred elections. — Karzai's main challenger …
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