Top Items:
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.
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
A Trade Center image in DSCC spot — A new ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee uses an unlikely symbol of Wall Street greed: the World Trade Center. — The image in the attack on Scott Brown for his alleged closeness to Wall Street pictures the Trade Center and the destroyed Marriott Hotel on its western side.
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:
The Politico, Gateway Pundit, Steve Kornacki, Red Mass Group, Boston Globe, wbur.org, Commentary, Washington Post, Crooks and Liars, sisu, PERRspectives, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Outside The Beltway, Fox News, Political Byline, Taylor Marsh, NewsBusters.org, Another Black Conservative, The Note, The Strata-Sphere, RedState, The Confluence, AMERICAblog News, Pajamas Media, No More Mister Nice Blog, Townhall.com, Scared Monkeys, PoliBlog and Daily Kos
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.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Scott Brown Voted Against Giving Help To 9/11 Recovery Workers — One month after the September 11th attacks, Scott Brown was one of only three Massachusetts State Representatives to vote against a bill to provide financial assistance to Red Cross workers who had volunteered with 9/11 recovery efforts, we've learned.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Ben Smith's Blog, The Corner on National …, The New Republic, Daily Kos and AMERICAblog News
Josh Kraushaar / Scorecard's Blog:
Obama heading to Massachusetts for Coakley — President Barack Obama will be heading to Massachusetts to campaign for Martha Coakley this Sunday, according to two senior sources informed of the president's decision, a last-minute effort to give the Democrat a needed boost in the Senate race.
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 …
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.
Jonathan Martin / Ben Smith's Blog:
Obama to campaign for Coakley — BOSTON — President Barack Obama will campaign for Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley on Sunday, POLITICO has learned, a sign that Democrats believe the seat remains winnable enough that it's worth risking the president's prestige.
Discussion:
Washington Times, The Strata-Sphere, The Daily Dish, Hotline On Call, The Note, Washington Post and Dennis the Peasant
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Breaking: Obama To Campaign For Coakley — The White House says that President Obama will campaign for Martha Coakley in Massachusetts on Sunday afternoon. Why? — (1) The White House has decided to OWN the race in Massachusetts, despite faulting Coakley for running a sleeper of a campaign since the primary.
Roger L Simon / Pajamas Media:
Massachusetts shocker: Brown Up 15% in Pajamas Media/CrossTarget Poll
Massachusetts shocker: Brown Up 15% in Pajamas Media/CrossTarget Poll
Kerry Picket / Washington Times:
Martha Coakley: Devout Catholics 'Probably shouldn't work in the emergency room'
Martha Coakley: Devout Catholics 'Probably shouldn't work in the emergency room'
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:
Wall Street Journal, Ben Smith's Blog, The Note, Boston Globe, Bloomberg, The Caucus and The Daily Dish
Jon Ward / The Daily Caller:
Obama to campaign for Coakley
Obama to campaign for Coakley
Discussion:
Boston Globe, Betsy's Page, Washington Wire, The BRAD BLOG, The Hill and Riehl World View
Glen Johnson / Associated Press:
Mass. Senate poll shows shift toward GOP candidate
Mass. Senate poll shows shift toward GOP candidate
Discussion:
Washington Post, Scorecard's Blog, The Other McCain, Hot Air, PostPartisan, Ben Smith's Blog, AMERICAblog News and American Spectator
Charles Krauthammer / Real Clear Politics:
The Fall of Obama — WASHINGTON — 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.
Discussion:
The New Republic, The Greenroom, The Atlantic Business Channel, Political Punch and Commentary
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Charlie Cook / National Journal Online:
Colossal Miscalculation On Health Care — OBAMA AND HILL DEMOCRATS SHOULD HAVE FOCUSED MUCH MORE ON THE ECONOMY. — Honorable and intelligent people can disagree over the substance and details of what President Obama and congressional Democrats are trying to do on health care reform and climate change.
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Underlying Tragedy — On Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California. Sixty-three people were killed. This week, a major earthquake, also measuring a magnitude of 7.0, struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Discussion:
Atlantic Correspondents, Clive Crook, BBC, Achenblog, The Foundry, FP Passport, Matthew Yglesias, The Awl, The Anchoress, TPMCafe, The Moderate Voice, EconLog and Cafe Hayek
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Rush ‘meant’ what he said about Haiti — Rush Limbaugh is not backing down from his claim that President Barack Obama is trying to score political points off the earthquake in Haiti. — Challenged by a caller during his show Thursday, Limbaugh said: “If I said it, I meant to say it …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, The Swamp, Little Green Footballs, The Confluence, Firedoglake and Shakesville
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Damian Paletta / Wall Street Journal:
Consumer Protection Agency in Doubt — Dodd Weighs Dropping Idea of Creating Independent Body in Bid to Get Financial Regulatory Revamp Passed This Year — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd is considering scrapping the idea of creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Wonk Room, Felix Salmon, New Deal 2.0, The Washington Independent, The Hill and naked capitalism
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Ezra Klein:
Cynicism on the excise tax — “Unions get a special two-year exclusion from the [excise] tax,” comments Megan McArdle. “Presumably, the unions plan to go back and get their exclusion extended every few years.” Tyler Cowen agrees with her, commenting that this will “increase the rate of unionization …
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Matthew Yglesias, Gateway Pundit, The Atlantic Politics Channel and The Incidental Economist
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Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Bill Clinton: Haiti's rebirth, an opportunity — In the sobering controversy that has arisen this week - say it isn't so - over the contribution of humanitarian and U.S. aid to Haiti, some question what will become of all the money. — They're suggesting, basically, that some or much of the money …
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Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama to meet with Bush, Clinton on Haitian relief
Obama to meet with Bush, Clinton on Haitian relief
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
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:
msnbc.com, The Fix, The Hill, Raw Story, The Politico, The Foundry, Daily Kos, Think Progress, Politics Daily, Washington Monthly, TPM LiveWire and The Swamp
New York Times:
Pentagon Report on Fort Hood Shooting Details Failures — WASHINGTON — The military's defenses against threats from inside its own ranks are outdated and ineffective, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Monday as he described the findings of an Army review of the Nov. 5 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas.
Discussion:
No Sheeples Here, Outside The Beltway, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Online NewsHour and Main Justice
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Historical Sex Scandals — It's interesting how even as our popular culture has become raunchier, our official political culture has in a lot of ways become more prudish. Consider the case of Grover Cleveland: … This campaign also featured Blaine's supporters accusing the Democrats …