memeorandum: To Enjoy Driverless Cars, First Kill All the Lawyers (Megan McArdle/Bloomberg)

10:35 AM ET, September 13, 2013

Top Items:

Poll Finds Republicans Gain Favor on Key Issues — The Republican Party is gaining a public-opinion edge on several key issues ahead of the 2014 elections, as Americans question President Barack Obama's leadership on Syria and worry about the country's overall direction, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows.

Discussion: The Hill and Washington Free Beacon

Lucy McCalmont / Politico:

NBC/WSJ poll: GOP on the rise — Republicans are now leading Democrats on handling several key issues, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. — The poll, released Friday, shows more Americans think that the Republicans are doing a better job on the economy, foreign policy and reducing the federal deficit.

Domenico Montanaro / NBCNews:

Poll: 44 percent of Americans oppose raising debt ceiling — Americans overwhelmingly do not think Congress should raise the nation's debt limit as President Barack Obama and Congress prepare once again to wage battle over the issue, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Discussion: Business Insider, Hot Air and Talking Points Memo

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
Five Years after Market Crash, U.S. Economy Seen as ‘No More Secure’

Discussion: Gawker, Los Angeles Times, Daily Kos and CNN

Domenico Montanaro / NBCNews:
Wall Street remains highly unpopular five years after crisis

Discussion: First Read and Washington Free Beacon

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

The fruits of epic incompetence — The president of the United States takes to the airwaves to urgently persuade the nation to pause before doing something it has no desire to do in the first place. — Strange. And it gets stranger still. That “strike Syria, maybe” …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Weekly Standard, Althouse, Yahoo! News, Right Turn, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Erik Wemple, ThinkProgress and Taegan Goddard's …

Steven T. Dennis / Roll Call:

Decisiveness Overrated? White House Thinks Yes — President Barack Obama's Syria strategy may not have been particularly decisive, but that's not a bad thing, according to the White House. — White House Press Secretary Jay Carney defended his boss Thursday after a blistering few weeks …

Discussion: Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit and Right Wing News

Roger Cohen / New York Times:
An Anchorless World — BERLIN — At dinner the other night …

Discussion: Fox News, Hot Air, The New Republic and Los Angeles Times

Ian Swanson / The Hill: Putin gets his revenge on Obama

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
Countering Putin, Rep. Israel pens column for Russian press

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Online Office …, Taylor Marsh, CNN, The Huffington Post, World News and The Hill

Elise Viebeck / The Hill:

Forty-three House Republicans back bill to defund ObamaCare — Forty-three House Republicans on Thursday endorsed legislation that would keep the government open while defunding ObamaCare. — The sponsorship total reveals that there is a significant bloc of opposition to a plan from GOP leaders …

Discussion: Roll Call and The Hill

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:

Boehner Seeking Democrats' Help on Fiscal Talks — WASHINGTON — With Congress momentarily freed from the Syrian crisis, lawmakers plunged back into their bitter fiscal standoff on Thursday as Speaker John A. Boehner appealed to the Obama administration and Democratic leaders to help …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, First Read and Talking Points Memo

The / Los Angeles Times:

GOP's unhealthy obsession with Obamacare — Republicans in the House need to stop waging a fight they can't win. — A large faction in the House wants to hold funding for the rest of the government hostage until Democrats agree to stop implementing Obamacare.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
The House GOP Is About to Crack Up: Three Theories Why

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Plum Line, Politico, Business Insider, Wonkblog, Daily Kos, The Week and First Read

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Biden calls House GOP ‘Neanderthals’

Discussion: Politico

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
'Scuse Me, While I Kick the Sky

Discussion: Politico, Hot Air, Booman Tribune and The Rachel Maddow Show

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
House votes 235-191 to stop ObamaCare's insurance subsidies

Discussion: The Reaction, Daily Kos and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Rod Bastanmehr / Alternet:

Trayvon Martin's Medical Examiner: Prosecution Threw the Case — Fired Zimmerman trial coroner says conviction was never going to happen. — A recent revelation in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case could, and should spark a new wave of outrage. — Dr. Shiping Bao …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Wall Street Journal:

Elite Syrian Unit Scatters Chemical Arms Stockpile — Assad Regime Has Moved Weapons to as Many as 50 Sites — A secretive Syrian military unit at the center of the Assad regime's chemical weapons program has been moving stocks of poison gases and munitions to as many as 50 sites …

Discussion: americanthinker.com, National Review, Guardian, New York Times, Israel Matzav and NPR

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

In Email, Zimmerman's Local Police Chief Agrees He's Another ‘Sandy Hook’ Waiting To Happen — Police Chief Steve Bracknell, who is responsible for the Florida town where George Zimmerman resides, agreed in a series of emails that Zimmerman is a “ticking time bomb” and another “Sandy Hook” waiting to happen.

Discussion: Salon, addictinginfo.org, Mediaite and Shakesville

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

Obama Acts Like He Doesn't Know He's an Executive-Power Extremist — On the fake moderation of a president who talks a good game but doesn't follow through — It's often hard to tell if President Obama is lying to the American people or to himself. Is he willfully misrepresenting who he is?

Discussion: Betsy's Page

James Arkin / Politico:

Report: Harry Reid fundraises vs. Mitch McConnell — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will help raise funds for the 2014 opponent of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, according to a report. — Reid will hold a luncheon for Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state …

Discussion: cn|2 Politics, First Read and Ballot Box

Monte Morin / Los Angeles Times:

NASA confirms Voyager 1 has left the solar system — This post has been corrected. See the note below for details. — NASA confirmed Thursday that after 36 years of space travel and months of heated debate among scientists, Voyager 1 has indeed left our solar system and had entered interstellar space more than a year ago.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Calculated Risk, Outside the Beltway, New York Times and The Week

Julian Walker / Virginian-Pilot:

Trailing McAuliffe, Cuccinelli changes staff, focus — Some senior staff members working to get Ken Cuccinelli elected governor have had their roles redefined in a move that insiders say was made to reinvigorate the Republican's campaign. — The announcement at a Monday meeting …

Discussion: Yahoo! News and Taegan Goddard's …

Peter Wehner / Commentary Magazine:

The Collapse of the Obama Presidency — How bad has 2013 been for Barack Obama? Let us count the ways. — In the first year of his second term, the president has failed on virtually every front. He put his prestige on the line to pass federal gun-control legislation-and lost.

Discussion: Right Turn, Power Line, Israel Matzav and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Investigators probe Jeffrey E. Thompson's possible role in Clinton's 2008 campaign — Federal investigators are probing Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign as part of an effort to expand their case against a D.C. businessman alleged to have financed below-the-radar political operations …

Discussion: Ballot Box and Yahoo! News