Top Items:
Jessica Van Sack / Boston Herald:
Poll shocker: Scott Brown surges ahead in Senate race — + Recent Articles + Recent Blog Entries + Email + Bio — Riding a wave of opposition to Democratic health-care reform, GOP upstart Scott Brown is leading in the U.S. Senate race, raising the odds of a historic upset that would reverberate …
Discussion:
Commentary, The Strata-Sphere, Pajamas Media, Taylor Marsh, Outside The Beltway, Hot Air, The Confluence, Power Line, Scared Monkeys, Townhall.com, PoliBlog, Ruby Slippers, RedState, Boston Globe, Fox News, MyDD, The Lonely Conservative, The Note, Sister Toldjah, Washington Wire, Politics Daily, The Daily Caller, NO QUARTER, Blue Mass. Group, Gateway Pundit, Ben Smith's Blog, The Natural Truth, The Jawa Report, Michelle Malkin, National Review Online, Left Coast Rebel, race42008.com, The Corner on National …, Riehl World View and TPMDC
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Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Massachusetts: ‘Bottom has fallen out’ of Coakley's polls; Dems prepare to explain defeat, protect Obama — Here in Massachusetts, as well as in Washington, a growing sense of gloom is setting in among Democrats about the fortunes of Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley.
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
OK, It's a Toss-Up — Earlier today I tweeted about how there wasn't enough evidence to describe the Massachusetts special election as a “toss-up”, as some other forecasters have done, based on the information available to us at that time. — Well, now there's some new evidence.
Red Mass Group:
Coakley: “You can have religious freedom but you probably shouldn't work in the emergency room” — Last evening, while on Broadside with Jim Braude, I told Jim that Scott Brown was trying to prevent Nuns like the Sisters of Charity that taught me from performing medical procedures contrary to their religious beliefs.
Discussion:
theblogprof, Big Journalism, RedState, Pajamas Media, The Natural Truth, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Anchoress and Power Line
Mickey Kaus / Kausfiles:
How Health Care Reform Could Crash — Poll watcher Sean Trende (if that really is his name) thinks Massachusetts GOP challenger Scott Brown may have peaked too soon. Hmm. Doesn't necessarily look like it. .... Mark Blumenthal has some guidance for reading and reconciling all the Mass. polls …
Washington Post:
White House nears deal on health care — Gripped by a building sense that its window of opportunity could be closing, the White House on Thursday broke the last major logjam blocking enactment of far-reaching health-care legislation, cutting a deal with organized labor on how to tax high-cost insurance policies.
Discussion:
Boston Globe, Beat the Press, The Politico, Capital Gains and Games blogs, Swampland, The Page and Associated Press
Jessica Taylor / The Politico:
Suffolk U. poll: Brown up by 4 — A Suffolk University poll released Thursday evening shows Republican Scott Brown four points ahead of Democrat Martha Coakley as he continues his improbable surge in the Massachusetts Senate special election. — The poll reports Brown is leading Coakley …
Discussion:
Boston Herald, The Other McCain, AmSpecBlog, CNN, Hot Air, The Daily Caller and The Political Carnival
Michael Cooper / New York Times:
3rd-Party Candidate Named Kennedy Could Tip Senate Race in Massachusetts
3rd-Party Candidate Named Kennedy Could Tip Senate Race in Massachusetts
Discussion:
The Note, Boston Globe, Bloomberg, The Caucus, Wall Street Journal, The Fix and Political Punch
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Officials quickly stamp out talk of Boise State football team's appearance — The White House on Thursday quickly took away the possibility of Boise State University's football team joining the national champions Alabama at an honorary Rose Garden ceremony.
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Ian Swanson / The Hill:
White House budget director blames old computers for ineffective government — A big reason why the government is inefficient and ineffective is because Washington has outdated technology, with federal workers having better computers at home than in the office.
New York Times:
Accord Reached on Insurance Tax for Costly Plans
Accord Reached on Insurance Tax for Costly Plans
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, The Politico, NOW! Blog, Ezra Klein, The New Republic, Political Punch and Wonk Room
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Limbaugh stands by his Haiti remarks, tells critical caller she's a ‘bigot’ with ‘tampons in her ears.’ — Yesterday, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh controversially said that President Obama was going to try to use the devastating Haitian earthquake to boost his credibility with the …
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David Axelrod / Washington Post:
What Karl Rove got wrong on the U.S. deficit — For its Topic A feature last Sunday, The Post invited a panel of political operatives to offer their advice to the Democratic Party on strategy for 2010 [Sunday Opinion, Jan. 10]. Improbably, one of the operatives asked was Karl Rove …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Politics Daily, The Politico, The Swamp, The Page, Ezra Klein, The Political Carnival and Washington Times
Dorothy Rabinowitz / Wall Street Journal:
Martha Coakley's Convictions — The role played by the U.S. Senate candidate in a notorious sex case raises questions about her judgment. — The story of the Amiraults of Massachusetts, and of the prosecution that had turned the lives of this thriving American family to dust, was well known to the world by the year 2001.
Discussion:
The Natural Truth, Michelle Malkin, Riehl World View, NO QUARTER, The Lonely Conservative, Betsy's Page and RedState
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Bankers Without a Clue — The official Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission — the group that aims to hold a modern version of the Pecora hearings of the 1930s, whose investigations set the stage for New Deal bank regulation — began taking testimony on Wednesday.
CNN:
Powell: ‘Very impressed’ with Obama administration — Washington (CNN) - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell praised the Obama administration's initial response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti Thurday, and said that the international community needs to be prepared to provide aid for years to come.
Fox News:
Sarah Palin Debuts as Fox News Contributor — This is a RUSH transcript from “The O'Reilly Factor,” January 12, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. — Watch “The O'Reilly Factor” weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET! — BILL O'REILLY, HOST …
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Bill Quigley / The Huffington Post:
What the Mainstream Media Will Not Tell You About Haiti: Part of the Suffering of Haiti is “Made in the USA” — Part of the suffering of Haiti is indeed “Made in the USA.” While the earthquake would harm any country, actions by the United States have absolutely magnified the harm from the earthquake in Haiti.
Discussion:
Dennis the Peasant
Jon Walker / Firedoglake:
Exclusive: Arkansas Democrat Vic Snyder Trailing Tim Griffin 39% to 56%; Individual Mandate Penalty Unpopular with 3 of 4 Voters — FDL/SurveyUSA poll, 1/11-1/13, likely voters, Margin of Sampling Error: ± 3.9% … In a new SurveryUSA poll sponsored by Firedoglake …
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
One year out: President Obama's fall — What went wrong? A year ago, he was king of the world. Now President Obama's approval rating, according to CBS, has dropped to 46 percent — and his disapproval rating is the highest ever recorded by Gallup at the beginning of an (elected) president's second year.
Andrew Pollack / Prescriptions:
Biologic Drugs May Get Less Protection — President Obama is pushing for a last-minute change in the final health care bill that would shorten the time that expensive biotechnology drugs would be shielded from generic competition, pharmaceutical industry officials said Thursday.