memeorandum: Krugtron the Invincible, Part 3 (Niall Ferguson/The Huffington Post)

2:10 PM ET, October 10, 2013

Top Items:

Erick Erickson / RedState:

House GOP Preparing to Give Up — I'm being told by several sources that Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are plotting to give up trying to either defund or delay Obamacare. — This comes at the same time the Obama administration admits it will be months before their Obamacare website …

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, The Lonely Conservative, Business Insider, The Hinterland Gazette, Talking Points Memo, The PJ Tatler and The Dish

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

New GOP strategy: Offer deal on debt limit, but keep shutdown fight going — BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL REPUBLICAN PARTY JOHN BOEHNER DEBT CEILING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN — Many House Republicans, including some key leaders, have decided they can live with a government shutdown but not with the threat of default.

Discussion: Firedoglake, National Review, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Associated Press, Hot Air and The Daily Caller

Jim Acosta / CNN:

Official: Obama will sign short term debt ceiling extension — Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama would sign a short term debt ceiling increase as long as the measure contains no conservative-backed provisions, a White House official said late Wednesday.

Discussion: The Hill and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

GOP's New Strategy: Avert Default But Keep Government Shut — Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced Thursday that the House will move forward with a six-week debt limit extension after pitching the idea to his Republican conference during a closed-door meeting.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Dish

Jake Sherman / Politico:

GOP mulls six-week debt hike — Speaker John Boehner's latest gambit — to lift the debt ceiling for six weeks while leaving government shut down — isn't exactly a magic bullet. — It's a bet that President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats will want so desperately to avoid …

Discussion: CNN, Daily Kos, Taylor Marsh, The Hill, The Impolitic, The Hill and Taking Note

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:
As Pressure Mounts, House G.O.P. Weighs Short-Term Debt Deal

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Agonist, The Moderate Voice, WJLA-TV, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, Prairie Weather, The Fix, Calculated Risk, Daily Kos and Gawker

Washington Post:
GOP offers short-term debt-limit increase, but wants negotiations before ending shutdown

Discussion: Power Line, Vox Popoli, The Right Scoop and Daily Kos

Ian Swanson / The Hill:
House GOP unveils six-week debt hike that continues shutdown

Discussion: Politico and The Federalist

MJ Lee / Politico: Stocks surge on reports of possible debt ceiling deal

Wall Street Journal:
CONNECT — WASHINGTON—The partisan logjam that has paralyzed …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, The Plum Line, Salon, Washington Examiner, ABC News, Outside the Beltway, Washington Wire and The World's Greatest …

Politico:
GOP quietly backing away from Obamacare

Discussion: The Hill, Firedoglake, No More Mister Nice Blog, MadMike'sAmerica …, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Daily Kos and The Lead with Jake Tapper

Tim Alberta / NationalJournal.com:
House Republicans Expect to Approve Short-Term Debt Deal

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review, Daily Kos, Hot Air and CNN

Politico:
Mitch McConnell, Senate GOP search for way out

Discussion: naked capitalism and Roll Call

Washington Post:
Key Republicans signal willingness to back down on effort to defund health-care law

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Scarborough: A NYT Editor Told Me Krugman's Column Is ‘Their Biggest Nightmare’ (VIDEO) — MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Thursday that a public editor at the New York Times considers liberal columnist Paul Krugman's work to be an ongoing “nightmare.” — During a segment on “Morning Joe …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Shakesville and Weekly Standard

Niall Ferguson / The Huffington Post:

Krugtron the Invincible, Part 3 — In my previous two articles, I have shown that Paul Krugman - revered by his acolytes as the Invincible Krugtron - failed to anticipate the financial crisis and wrongly predicted that the single European currency would fall victim to it.

Discussion: The Grumpy Economist, Washington Free Beacon, Mediaite and msnbc.com

James Hohmann / Politico:

Virginia governor election: Less money, more problems for Cuccinelli — Ken Cuccinelli is getting crushed on the Virginia airwaves, and it's probably only going to get worse - a major factor thwarting the Republican's hopes of a comeback in a governor's race that's been slipping away.

Discussion: CNN and Right Wing Watch

Fredrick Kunkle / Washington Post:
McAuliffe among investors in Rhode Island insurance scam that preyed on dying people

Discussion: Politico, Outside the Beltway, Associated Press and Washington Free Beacon

Ace / minx.cc:

CBS' Jan Crawford: Obama Rollout “Nothing Short of Disastrous” — From Tami. Jan Crawford is one of the few reporters in the media who calls things as they are, without prejudice or favor. — This is a tough report. Tough, but honest. Look below the fold for it.

Discussion: Hot Air, TruthRevolt.org, Talking Points Memo and Washington Post

Rich Lowry / Reuters:
Train wreck: The Obamacare rollout

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere, Politico and National Review

U-T San Diego / utsandiego.com:
President Obama's shameful death-benefit theater

Discussion: Betsy's Page, Hot Air, National Review and Instapundit

ThinkProgress:

Indiana Sues To Prevent Its Own Residents From Receiving Obamacare's Insurance Subsidies — Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller (R) — This week, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) challenging its authority …

Discussion: in.gov, Liberaland, The Hill and Shakesville

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

The House GOP's Little Rule Change That Guaranteed A Shutdown — Late on the night of Sept. 30, with the federal government just hours away from shutting down, House Republicans quietly made a small change to the House rules that blocked a potential avenue for ending the shutdown.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

New York Times:

Business Groups See Loss of Sway Over House G.O.P. — WASHINGTON — As the government shutdown grinds toward a potential debt default, some of the country's most influential business executives have come to a conclusion all but unthinkable a few years ago: Their voices are carrying little weight …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Wire, Liberaland, Prairie Weather, Taegan Goddard's … and DealBook

Peter Baker / New York Times:

The Final Insult in the Bush-Cheney Marriage — In the final days of his presidency, George W. Bush sat behind his desk in the Oval Office, chewing gum and staring into the distance as two White House lawyers briefed him on the possible last-minute pardon of I. Lewis Libby. — “Do you think he did it?”

Discussion: emptywheel

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Alice Munro Wins Nobel Prize in Literature — Alice Munro, the renowned Canadian short-story writer whose visceral work explores the tangled relationships between men and women, small-town existence and the fallibility of memory, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

Discussion: Mashable, ArtsBeat, Gawker, The Week, National Review, Althouse, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Marginal Revolution

Irin Carmon / msnbc.com:

California moves to prevent more Gosnells — People hold up signs during a women's pro-choice rally on Capitol Hill, July 11, 2013 in Washington, DC. The rally was hosted by Planned Parenthood Federation of America to urge Congress against passing any legislation to limit access to safe and legal abortion.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, American Spectator, ThinkProgress and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Ian Lovett / New York Times:
California Expands Availability of Abortions

Discussion: Wonkblog and RH Reality Check

Max Fisher / WorldViews:

Oops: Azerbaijan released election results before voting had even started — Azerbaijan's big presidential election, held on Wednesday, was anticipated to be neither free nor fair. President Ilham Aliyev, who took over from his father 10 years ago, has stepped up intimidation of activists and journalists.

Discussion: Liberaland, Gawker and Spectator

Kevin Derby / Sunshine State News:

Charlie Crist's Lead Within Margin of Error Against Rick Scott in New Poll — A new poll released Thursday finds Gov. Rick Scott at the heels of former Gov. Charlie Crist, the front-runner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, in a possible 2014 match-up.