memeorandum: What really went wrong with healthcare.gov? (David Auerbach/Slate)

7:55 PM ET, October 9, 2013

Top Items:

Andrew Dugan / Gallup:

Republican Party Favorability Sinks to Record Low — Falls 10 percentage points from September's 38% — This article is part of an ongoing series analyzing how the government shutdown and the debate over raising the debt ceiling are affecting Americans' views of government, government leaders …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, The Plum Line, Yahoo! News, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, National Review, Hot Air, The Hill, Outside the Beltway, The Dish, Business Insider, Daily Kos, PoliticusUSA, Liberal Values, Mediaite, Taegan Goddard's …, Balloon Juice and The Political Line

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:
Gallup: GOP Favorability Plunges To Record Low

Discussion: Daily Kos, National Review and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Associated Press:

POLL: GOP GETS THE BLAME IN SHUTDOWN — You are here — Home » United States Congress » Poll: GOP gets the blame in shutdown — WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are holding Republicans primarily responsible for the partial government shutdown as public esteem sinks for all players …

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:

Ted Cruz poll shows GOP gained in fight over Obamacare despite shutdown — BARACK OBAMA OBAMACARE REPUBLICAN PARTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY POLLS TED CRUZ PENNAVE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN — Sen. Ted Cruz during a closed-door lunch on Wednesday argued to his Republican colleagues that the campaign …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, PoliticusUSA and TheBlaze.com

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Democrats maintain edge for 2014 — PPP's newest national survey finds that Americans continue to lean toward voting Democratic for the House next year, as they pin most of the blame for the government shutdown on Republicans. — Democrats lead the generic Congressional ballot 46/41, including a 42/33 lead with independents.

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Mediaite and Politico

Louis Bolden / clickorlando.com:
Lead health care navigator in Florida provides wrong information on credit scores

Discussion: The Raw Story, Weekly Standard, Washington Free Beacon and Corrente

John Nolte / BREITBART.COM:
MEDIA FAIL: OBAMA APPROVAL PLUMMETS TO 37%

Discussion: Power Line and The Lonely Conservative

Dana Bash / CNN:

Senior House GOP source: Debt deal may require Democratic help — Washington (CNN) - A Senior House GOP source concedes to CNN that to get the White House on board with a debt ceiling deal, House Republicans would likely have to agree to a clean short term debt ceiling increase.

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Politico

Erick Erickson / RedState:

This is the Strategy. Now Do It. — Conservatives need to push the debt ceiling fight off the front burner to after Christmas. — Republican Leaders are begging us to merge the continuing resolution fight and debt ceiling fight. They covet this with all their mind and heart.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Politico, Conservative Intelligence …, ThinkProgress, Roll Call, Yahoo! News, Gawker, Myajc Blogs, BillMoyers.com, National Review, Business Insider, Ross Douthat, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, Booman Tribune and Washington Monthly

Jake Sherman / Politico:
GOP unity frays, frustration builds

Discussion: CNN, ThinkProgress, Hullabaloo and The Hill

Justin Sink / The Hill:
House GOP ‘negotiators’ to meet Obama

Discussion: Taking Note

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
The Republican Arcade Claw Machine

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, The Lead with Jake Tapper, Talking Points Memo and Hullabaloo

First Read / NBCNews:

First Thoughts: The beginning of the end? — The beginning of the end? Paul Ryan op-ed appears to be an olive branch and a way out of the budget stalemate... But can conservatives accept that potential end (which has no Obamacare changes?)... Cantor's bad cop to Ryan's good cop? …

Discussion: Campaign for America's Future, Hot Air, Mediaite, Politicker, Wall Street Journal, Connecting.the.Dots and CNN

Eric Cantor / Washington Post:
Divided government requires bipartisan negotiation

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Roll Call, The Plum Line, Slate, Daily Kos, PostPartisan, Associated Press, Ballot Box, Real Clear Politics, msnbc.com and Post Politics

Brian Tashman / Right Wing Watch:

Bachmann: Obama ‘Committed Impeachable Offenses,’ Wants To Be A Dictator — Speaking with conservative talk show host Rusty Humphries on a conference call sponsored by TheTeaParty.net yesterday, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota suggested that the House hold hearings on impeaching the president.

Discussion: Mediaite, PoliticusUSA, The Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and The Hill

John Podhoretz / New York Post:

Suicide of the Right — Every piece of evidence we have so far on the government shutdown shows the public is blaming Republicans most of all for the standoff. On Monday, an ABC poll showed 71 percent fault the GOP; 61 percent fault Congressional Democrats; 51 percent fault President Obama.

Discussion: American Prospect, Prairie Weather, The Moderate Voice, Ricochet Conversations Feed, The Dish and Talking Points Memo

Michael Isikoff / NBC Politics:

Kochs to Congress: Focus on spending, not Obamacare — In a move that highlights a growing rift in conservative ranks, Koch Industries — the privately held energy conglomerate owned by billionaires Charles and David Koch — today distanced the firm from allied political groups lobbying …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, his vorpal sword, Politico and msnbc.com

Jeremy Herb / The Hill:
GOP's Huelskamp: Does Reid not like veterans?

Discussion: Politico, ThinkProgress and BizPac Review

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:

Wolf Blitzer: White House Should Take GOP ‘Advice,’ Delay Obamacare For A Year — Wolf Blitzer said on CNN Wednesday that the Obama administration should have listened to Republicans and delayed the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. — “If they had three years to get this ready …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Evan McMurry / Mediaite:
CNN's Blitzer: Obama Should ‘Accept GOP Advice, Delay Obamacare’ Over Glitchy Websites

Discussion: Hot Air

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

Waterboarding Is A Big Joke At Cheney Roast — A sentimental evening at the Plaza for Cheney, Rumsfeld, Mukasey, and Lieberman. “Really tasteless,” says a guest. — The cover of the program at the Oct. 7 “Roast of Dick Cheney.” — Dick Cheney is ready to laugh about waterboarding.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Gawker, The Dish, Crooks and Liars, Mediaite and The Daily Caller

ThinkProgress:

Congressman Asks IRS Official: Are You A Witch? — A Democratic Congressman mocked the GOP's effort to demonize an IRS official during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday by asking her if she was a witch consorting with the devil. — The official, Affordable Care Act Office …

Discussion: The Hill and Mediaite

Patrick Howley / The Daily Caller:
White House, IRS exchanged confidential taxpayer info

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative, Weasel Zippers, National Review and The PJ Tatler

Kristin Roberts / NationalJournal.com:

Republicans Are Awfully Close to Violating the Constitution — Who cares if President Obama has 14th Amendment obligations? The critical sentence in that block of text should be read as instruction for lawmakers first, and last. — Have Republicans forgotten that they too must abide by the Constitution?

Discussion: Booman Tribune, The Mahablog, Taegan Goddard's … and Prairie Weather

Venessa Wong / Businessweek:

Unpaid Intern Is Ruled Not an ‘Employee,’ Not Protected From Sexual Harassment — There's plenty for unpaid interns to complain about—mainly, the lack of money—but apparently it gets worse. Because they're not paid and don't receive remuneration such as pension and life insurance …

Discussion: Gawker, The Raw Story, ThinkProgress and Shakesville

Ryan Dunn / Courier:

You're still legally dead, judge tells Fostoria man — Donald Eugene Miller Jr. walked out of Hancock County Probate Court on Monday as legally dead as ever. — In 1994, the court ruled that Miller was legally dead, eight years after he disappeared from his Arcadia rental home.

Discussion: Techdirt and Liberaland

David Auerbach / Slate:

What really went wrong with healthcare.gov? — Of all the terrible websites I've seen, healthcare.gov ranks somewhere in the middle. It has been difficult if not impossible to sign up, and customer service has been inadequate. But it's certainly better than the NYC Department of Education site …

Amanda Marcotte / Slate:

Sarah Lacy Writes Every Female-Penned Defense of Gender Inequality Ever — As reported here earlier, there is a kerfuffle over the revelation that Twitter's board, investors, and almost all of its executives are male. This is playing out by the book: The initial criticisms, the defensive retorts, the anger at the defensive retorts.

Discussion: Feministing, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and Gawker

CBS News:

Obamacare website looks “like nobody tested it,” programmer says — (CBS News) Healthcare.gov launched more than a week ago, and while millions of Americans have signed into the site, not many have been able to actually sign up for insurance because of glitches with the website.

Discussion: CBS DC, Weasel Zippers, Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Jammie Wearing Fools and USA Today

Washington Post:

Letter from Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder to fans — The following is the text of a letter dated Oct. 9 from Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder to season-ticket holders. (Related story: Snyder defends Redskins name in emotional letter to fans) — To Everyone in our Washington Redskins Nation:

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, WJLA-TV, Guardian and National Review

Paul Waldman / American Prospect:

Is the Shutdown Creating a Dystopic Political Future? — Let's cast our minds forward a few weeks, to after the shutdown/default crisis is over. At that point, the 2014 off-year elections will be only a year away. And what will the lasting effect of this episode be? Maybe not all that much.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Princeton Election Consortium

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

Ohio's GOP Governor May Adopt Obamacare Via Executive Order — Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is considering accepting Obamacare's Medicaid expansion in his state via executive order, his office confirmed to TPM, after the state legislature stymied his efforts earlier this year.

ThinkProgress:

How Racism Caused The Shutdown — This isn't an article about how Republicans shut down the government because they hate that the President is black. This is an article about how racism caused the government to shut down and the U.S. to teeter on the brink of an unprecedented and catastrophic default.

Discussion: Washington Monthly