memeorandum: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll

5:50 PM ET, February 23, 2010

Top Items:

Dan Pfeiffer / White House.gov Blog Feed:

Will the Republicans Post Their Health Plan... and When? — The President believes strongly that Thursday's bipartisan meeting on health insurance reform will be most productive if both sides come to the table with a unified plan to start discussion - and if the public has the opportunity …

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Stupak: ‘Unacceptable’ — This statement from Bart Stupak is conciliatory in tone, but not in substance, and it isn't going to make things easy in the House: — I was pleased to see that President Obama's health care proposal did not include several of the sweetheart deals provided to select states in the Senate bill.

Discussion: Firedoglake, CNN, TalkLeft, CentristNet and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Robert Gibbs: Public Option Via Reconciliation Can't Pass Congress — Hmm. At the press briefing just now, Robert Gibbs made the White House's most expansive comments yet about the push for a reconciliation vote on the public option — and, to put it mildly, supporters won't find them encouraging.

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Washington Monthly, CentristNet, TPM LiveWire, SpeakEasy, The Page and Daily Kos

kff.org:

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — February 2010 — The February Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds the public still split on health care reform legislation, with 43 percent in favor and 43 percent opposed. However, the poll also finds that majorities of Americans of all political leanings …

Discussion: Ezra Klein, The New Republic, Planet Washington, Behind the Numbers, Daily Kos, ProfessorBainbridge.com and Politics Daily

Ezra Klein:

A failure of White House leadership — One other point on the public option: This has been a complete and utter failure of White House leadership. They need to give this effort their support, or they need to kill it by publicly stating their opposition. But they can't simply wait …

Discussion: MyDD, Matthew Yglesias and Eschaton

Ezra Klein:

Jay Rockefeller's inconvenient honesty on the public option — Sen. Jay Rockefeller did something very strange last night: He was honest. He said, publicly, that he does not support adding the public option to the reconciliation bill. And he's going to pay for it today.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, TPMDC, The New Republic, The Hill, Mother Jones and Swampland

Wall Street Journal:

ObamaCare at Ramming Speed — The White House shows it has no interest in compromise. — A mere three days before President Obama's supposedly bipartisan health-care summit, the White House yesterday released a new blueprint that Democrats say they will ram through Congress with or without Republican support.

Discussion: Riehl World View, Moonbattery, JustOneMinute and Betsy's Page

The Huffington Post:

Gibbs: The Public Plan Doesn't Have The Votes — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — The White House made it official on Tuesday: the president doesn't think the votes are there to get a public option passed through reconciliation and consequently won't make a push to include or pass the provision.

Discussion: Firedoglake, TPMDC, Raw Story, Hullabaloo, Open Left, TalkLeft, AMERICAblog News and Taylor Marsh

Rachel Slajda / TPMDC:
Boehner: Obama's Health Care Proposal Is Too Short

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Think Progress, Open Congress, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake and Shakesville

Mike Allen / The Politico:
GOP plans dozens or hundreds of health-care amendments …

Discussion: Christian Science Monitor, CNN, msnbc.com, Washington Post, Hot Air, CBS News, The Note and Taegan Goddard's …

Huma Khan / ABCNEWS:
Cantor: WH Health Care Bill a ‘Non-Starter’

Discussion: The Hill, The Save Jersey Blog, MinnPost, Gateway Pundit, Say Anything, Jules Crittenden and The Other McCain

David Brooks / New York Times:
Into the Mire — Barack Obama came to Washington with the …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Commentary, Los Angeles Times, Ross Douthat, Ezra Klein, Political Punch, Prairie Weather and Washington Times

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Stupak: Obama's Health Care Plan “Unacceptable” on Abortion

Discussion: Power Line and National Review Online

Harry Joe / Margin of Error:
Republican Blizzard on the Generic Ballot

Discussion: The Monkey Cage, The New Republic, Matthew Yglesias, Democracy in America and Wake up America

Daniel Foster / The Corner on National Review Online:
The Democrats' Orwellian Talking Point — By: Daniel Foster

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Note, Commentary, Wake up America, The Swamp, GINA COBB and Fausta's Blog

Erica Werner / Associated Press:
Hoyer: Comprehensive health bill may be no go

Discussion: Hot Air, Pundit & Pundette, Commentary, Washington Post and msnbc.com

The Hill:
Gibbs: Public option won't pass

Discussion: CNN

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

Harry Reid Says GOP Should “Stop Crying” About Reconciliation — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Tuesday that Republicans “should stop crying” about the possible use of the parliamentary procedure known as budget reconciliation to pass a health care reform bill.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Page, Say Anything, Hot Air and Truthdig

J. Taylor Rushing / The Hill:

Senate sitting on 290 bills already passed by House; tension mounts — Exasperated House Democratic leaders have compiled a list showing that they have passed 290 bills that have stalled in the Senate. — The list is the latest sign that Democrats in the lower chamber are frustrated with their Senate counterparts.

Discussion: CBS News, Say Anything and AMERICAblog News

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Reid: GOP should ‘stop crying’ about majority-vote move on healthcare — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told Republicans to “stop crying” about the potential use of a legislative tactic to finish healthcare legislation with a majority vote. — Reid lashed out at the minority Republicans …

Discussion: The Politico and American Conservative …

Frank Bruni / New York Times:

Where Scott Brown Is Coming From — In just 48 hours, Scott Brown would be sworn in as the newest member of the United States Senate, stepping into the shoes (and office suite) of Edward M. Kennedy and the world of woe on Capitol Hill. But as he zipped down a Massachusetts highway …

Discussion: Marbury, The Swamp, The Page, Commentary and The Washington Independent

CBS News:
Scott Brown's Jobs Vote Spurs Angry Online Backlash

Discussion: Washington Post, The Atlantic Business Channel and Mediaite

Carl Hulse / New York Times:
In Passage of Jobs Measure, a Glimpse of Bipartisanship

Discussion: Atlantic Correspondents, The Politico, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Boston Globe, Bloomberg, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, The Hill, Washington Monthly and Shakesville

Scott Whitlock / NewsBusters.org:

MSNBC Regular Donny Deutsch Slams Marco Rubio With Racially Charged Attack: He's a ‘Coconut’ — MSNBC and CNBC contributor — and professed Charlie Crist admirer — Donny Deutsch used racially charged language on Monday night, smearing Republican senatorial candidate Marco Rubio as a “coconut.”

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, race42008.com, Hot Air and Say Anything

Adam C. Smith / St. Petersburg Times:
As Crist poll numbers slide, staffers leave campaign

Discussion: Hot Air, The Politico and Hotline On Call

Matthew Jaffe / Political Punch:

CBO Says Stimulus Added Up to 2.1 Million Jobs in Fourth Quarter of 2009 — ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports: — The Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus bill created up to 2.1 million jobs during the final three months of last year, according to a new report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and New York Magazine

Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and The Page

Michael Barbaro / City Room:

Ford Polls New Yorkers on Himself and Gillibrand — Former Representative Harold E. Ford Jr. of Tennessee has dug into his own pocket to pay for a detailed poll, conducted over the last few days, intended to test the viability of a Senate run in New York, according to people briefed on the matter.

Discussion: The Daily Politics, Taegan Goddard's …, Ben Smith's Blog, The Page and The Corner on National …

The Conference Board:

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® Declines Sharply — The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had increased in January, declined sharply in February. The Index now stands at 46.0 (1985=100), down from 56.5 in January. The Present Situation Index decreased to 19.4 from 25.2.

Discussion: The Atlantic Business Channel, Financial Times, Clusterstock, Associated Press, Reuters and FT Alphaville

RushLimbaugh.com:

What I Would've Said at CPAC — BEGIN TRANSCRIPT — RUSH: No, Snerdley. Look, I'm going to get to it. I got an e-mail just in time ago, “Would you stop being mean to Snerdley?” Hey, e-mailer! Snerdley should stop interrupting me. He's not the host. I am.

Discussion: Washington Times, Vox Popoli, No More Mister Nice Blog, Think Progress, The Corner on National …, Hit & Run and The Washington Independent

Chris Stirewalt / Washington Examiner:

Mitch Daniels: CPAC was “a lot of rowdyism” — At this morning's Christian Science Monitor breakfast with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, the governor was careful to retain his status as an unwilling presidential candidate and steered clear of any hypotheticals about his political future.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog

Richard Teitelbaum / Bloomberg:

Secret AIG Document Shows Goldman Sachs Minted Most Toxic CDOs — Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — When a congressional panel convened a hearing on the government rescue of American International Group Inc. in January, the public scolding of Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner got the most attention.

Discussion: Economic Perspectives …, Clusterstock, The Atlantic Business Channel, Real Time Economics, The Big Picture, naked capitalism and DealBook

Jenna Wortham / New York Times:

Apple Bans Some Apps for Sex-Tinged Content — Apple has started banning many applications for its iPhone that feature sexually suggestive material, including photos of women in bikinis and lingerie, a move that came as an abrupt surprise to developers who had been profiting from such programs.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Digits and New York Magazine

CNN:

Traficant will launch independent congressional bid — (CNN) - Former Democratic Rep. James Traficant, who in September was released from a federal prison after serving seven years on a bribery and racketeering conviction, told CNN Tuesday he will launch an independent bid to return to Congress.

Discussion: Washington Wire, Taegan Goddard's …, Glenn Thrush's Blog and National Review Online

New York Times:

A Big Mistake — Megan McArdle blogs at Asymmetrical Information on The Atlantic magazine Web site. — If the Democrats use budget reconciliation to bypass the Republicans, they will be making a big mistake. — Reconciliation is not meant to handle these sorts of problems …

Discussion: HillBuzz and Dr. Melissa Clouthier

Tara Brautigam / Canadian Press:

‘My heart, my choice,’ Williams says, defending decision for U.S. heart surgery — An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.

Discussion: Say Anything and Top of the Ticket

Jeanne Cummings / The Politico:

Steele's spending spree angers donors — Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers - expenses that are infuriating the party's major donors who say Republicans need every penny …