memeorandum: Two-thirds of Americans don't understand the public option (Ezra Klein)

2:45 PM ET, December 7, 2009

Top Items:

An Affordable Truth — Maybe I'm naïve, but I'm feeling optimistic about the climate talks starting in Copenhagen on Monday. President Obama now plans to address the conference on its last day, which suggests that the White House expects real progress.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, JustOneMinute, Switchboard, Agence France Presse, The Glittering Eye, Daily Kos, Climate Progress, Beat the Press, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Financial Times and The Awl

Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:

Obama administration will formally declare danger of carbon emissions — The Obama administration will formally declare Monday that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public's health and welfare, a move that lays the groundwork for an economy-wide carbon cap …

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hill, Crooks and Liars, Matthew Yglesias, Michelle Malkin, Washington Monthly, The Hill, The Mahablog, The Corner on National …, AmSpecBlog, Blue Virginia, American Power and Weasel Zippers

Guardian:

'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation' — This editorial calling for action from world leaders on climate change is published today by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages — Copenhagen climate change summit - opening day liveblog

Discussion: Washington Post, The Jawa Report, RaceWire, Grist, MyDD, Environmental Capital, Switchboard, QandO, Biased BBC, TigerHawk, The Impolitic, AMERICAblog News, Pundit & Pundette, The Strata-Sphere, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Wall Street Journal:

Business Fumes Over EPA Rule — Carbon-Dioxide Emissions to Face Curbs — Officials gather in Copenhagen this week for an international climate summit, but business leaders are focusing even more on Washington, where the Obama administration is expected as early as Monday to formally declare carbon dioxide a dangerous pollutant.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, New York Times, QandO, Grist and Environmental Capital

Michelle Malkin:

56 Chicken Little newspapers on climate change — Make sure you keep this list of 56 newspapers handy when looking for thorough, fair coverage of the ClimateChange scandal. — These are 56 newspapers that you cannot trust on the issue: — Today, the eco-herd of papers published …

Discussion: Vanity Fair and NewsBusters.org

David Derbyshire / Daily Mail:
Copenhagen climate change summit to produce as much CO2 as an African country

Discussion: The Politico, DaTechguy's Blog, Riehl World View, Fausta's Blog, Gateway Pundit, JammieWearingFool and Pajamas Media

John M. Broder / Green Inc.:
E.P.A. Sets Carbon Crackdown

Discussion: MyDD and The New Republic

Rasmussen Reports:

Tea Party Tops GOP on Three-Way Generic Ballot — Running under the Tea Party brand may be better in congressional races than being a Republican. — In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote.

Discussion: Politics Daily, Hot Air, The Hill, Scared Monkeys, Mouth of the Potomac, FrumForum, The Other McCain, Tax Day Tea Party, Raw Story, Townhall.com, The Plum Line, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, TPMDC and The Strata-Sphere

Andy Barr / The Politico:
‘Tea party’ polls better than GOP

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Little Green Footballs

Josh Gerstein / The Politico:

NPR reporter pressured over Fox role — Executives at National Public Radio recently asked the network's top political correspondent, Mara Liasson, to reconsider her regular appearances on Fox News because of what they perceived as the network's political bias, two sources familiar with the effort said.

Discussion: Think Progress, NewsBusters.org, Townhall.com, Hot Air, Power Line, The Jawa Report, Jules Crittenden, Politics Daily, Sister Toldjah, Villainous Company, Pundit & Pundette, Dependable Renegade, TPM LiveWire, Weasel Zippers and Confederate Yankee

Ezra Klein:

Exclusive: Medicare buy-in attracting interest in the public option negotiations — Sources who have been briefed on the negotiations say that Medicare buy-in is attracting the most interest. Expanding Medicaid is running into more problems, though there's some appeal because …

Discussion: TalkLeft and Daily Kos

Ezra Klein:
The not-a-public-option compromise, and beyond

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Democratic Strategist and AMERICAblog News

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Checkmate: How Joe Lieberman Turned The Public Option Fight On Its Head

Discussion: Ezra Klein and Democracy in America

David M. Herszenhorn / Prescriptions:
Ad Jabs at Lieberman Over ‘Public Option’

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
A Deal With Missing Pieces

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Politico, Prescriptions, Ezra Klein, CBS News, Open Left, DownWithTyranny!, Wonk Room and Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!

The Independent:

Home > News > World > Europe — The news that a leaked set of emails appeared to show senior climate scientists had manipulated data was shocking enough. Now the story has become more remarkable still. — The computer hack, said a senior member of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change …

Discussion: Guardian, Times of London, Robert Amsterdam, Raw Story, Informed Comment and Little Green Footballs

New York Times:

In Face of Skeptics, Experts Affirm Climate Peril — Just two years ago, a United Nations panel that synthesizes the work of hundreds of climatologists around the world called the evidence for global warming “unequivocal.” — But as representatives of about 200 nations converge in Copenhagen …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The Politico, Coal Tattoo, EconLog, Climate Progress, Pajamas Media and Dot Earth

Richard Harris / NPR:
For Public, Climate Change Not A Priority Issue

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Gallup, The Corner on National …, Guardian, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, American Power and Hit & Run

Lisa Lerer / The Politico:
U.N. leaders: Clock has ticked to zero

Discussion: The Swamp

Victoria McGrane / The Politico:

Strange coalition targets Bernanke — There's a strange political cocktail brewing in Washington, one that mixes top conservative strategist Grover Norquist and tea party organizers at FreedomWorks with democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), progressive activists and public interest advocates.

Discussion: Bloomberg, The New Ledger, The Big Picture, Big Government, The Washington Independent, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and LewRockwell.com Blog

Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
U.S. Forecasts Smaller Loss From Bailout of Banks

Discussion: The Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Capital Gains and Games blogs, The Caucus, Gothamist, The Political Carnival and The Page

Jackie Calmes / Boston Globe:
US may recover most TARP loans

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Financial Times and Plunderbund

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

In Polls, Much Opposition to Health Care Plan Is From Left — Don't know why I didn't catch this earlier, but it strikes me as fairly important. — Ipsos/McClatchy put out a health care poll two weeks ago. The topline results were nothing special: 34 percent favored …

Discussion: The New Republic, Weekly Standard, The Impolitic and The Political Carnival

Ezra Klein:
Two-thirds of Americans don't understand the public option

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Matthew Yglesias, Outside The Beltway and TalkLeft

Wall Street Journal:

Girlfriends and Double Standards — Before Max Baucus there was Paul Wolfowitz. Will the ethical uproar be the same? — Printer — Friendly — Here's a poser: Suppose a public official is accused of recommending his girlfriend for a promotion, though he was the one who first flagged …

Discussion: Accuracy in Media and Betsy's Page

Wall Street Journal:
Baucus Tie to Nominee Kept Mum

Discussion: The Politico, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Law Blog, Swampland and National Review Online

Thomas H. Maugh II / Los Angeles Times:

Pearl Harbor mini-submarine mystery solved? — Researchers think they have found the remains of a Japanese mini-submarine that probably fired on U.S. battleships on Dec. 7, 1941. — Japanese warplanes hit, from left, the USS West Virginia, USS Tennessee and USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.

Discussion: The Confluence, Hot Air and Jules Crittenden

Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:
Lt. John William Finn: Pearl Harbor's Last Hero, 68 Years Later

Discussion: Star Bulletin and BLACKFIVE

The Note:

Santorum: ‘Absolutely Taking a Look’ at Running in '12; Palin Will ‘Have to Do Some Explaining if She Runs’ — ABC News' Rick Klein reports: — Former Sen. Rick Santorum has some more political travel on tap this week, with a trip scheduled for South Carolina to follow recent visits to Iowa …

Discussion: GOP 12

Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:

Secret Service counts 91 breaches — 2003 report has been used as training tool — Long before a pair of gate-crashers penetrated a White House state dinner, the Secret Service had detailed for its internal use a lengthy list of security breaches dating to the Carter administration …

Discussion: Top of the Ticket, NewsBusters.org and The Page

Sarah Palin / To The Point News Syndicated:

SARAH AT THE GRIDIRON — [The Gridiron Club, founded in 1865, is the oldest and most prestigious journalist organization in Washington DC. The annual Gridiron Dinner is attended by the media elite, at which the president is traditionally the speaker. This year, President Zero …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Weekly Standard, Atlas Shrugs, The Politico and No More Mister Nice Blog

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:

Supreme Court to take up corruption law — ‘Honest services’ called too vague; prosecutors call provision vital — The Supreme Court this week will consider whether to apply the brakes to what critics have called a vague and limitless law that has proved essential to federal prosecutors …

Discussion: Law Blog, New York Times, The Washington Independent and SCOTUSblog

Chris Frates / The Politico:

Nelson files his abortion amendment — Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch today filed their amendment to tighten restrictions on federal funding for abortion. The amendment is likely to be debated on the floor tomorrow. Most observers expect it to fail …

Discussion: AmSpecBlog

The Huffington Post:

Palin's Father: She Left Hawaii Because Asians Made Her Uncomfortable — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — Did Sarah Palin leave Hawaii because there were too many Asians? In the New Yorker review of “Going Rogue,” Sam Tanenhaus writes that Palin's father suggested as much to the reporters who wrote “Sarah From Alaska.”

Discussion: The Other McCain, Firedoglake, Confederate Yankee and The Political Carnival