Top Items:
David Corn / Mother Jones:
WATCH: Ted Cruz's Dad Calls US a “Christian Nation,” Says Obama Should Go “Back to Kenya” — Want to understand where the tea party champion's hardcore views come from? Meet his father, Rafael. — In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to the tea party of Hood County …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Trail Blazers Blog, Liberaland, Mediaite, The Hinterland Gazette, The Raw Story and PoliticusUSA
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Rebecca Shabad / The Hill:
Reid: Cruz nomination would destroy GOP — Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says if Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) won the Republican nomination for president, it would destroy the GOP. — In an interview on MSNBC's “The Rachel Maddow Show” Wednesday night, Reid discussed fallout from the 16 …
Discussion:
CNN, Politico and Sabato's Crystal Ball
David Denby / Comment:
TED CRUZ: THE MASK OF SINCERITY — When Ted Cruz lies, he appears to be praying. His lips narrow, almost disappearing into his face, and his eyebrows shift abruptly, rising like a drawbridge on his forehead into matching acute angles. He attains an appearance of supplication …
Discussion:
Trail Blazers Blog, Sky Dancing, No More Mister Nice Blog and DownWithTyranny!
Manu Raju / Politico:
Cruz extends olive branch to GOP senators
Cruz extends olive branch to GOP senators
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …, First Read, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway and Talking Points Memo
Avik Roy / Forbes:
Obama Officials In 2010: 93 Million Americans Will Be Unable To Keep Their Health Plans Under Obamacare — On Wednesday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius testified before Congress about the continuing issues with the rollout of Obamacare's health insurance exchanges.
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Aaron Blake / Post Politics:
Obama blames ‘bad apple insurers’ for canceled insurance plans — President Obama tried a new tack Wednesday as he fought back against criticism of his Obamacare claims. — Fact-checkers and journalists have ruled that Obama wasn't being truthful when he claimed that people who liked their insurance could keep it.
Discussion:
BizPac Review, Washington Post, Investor's Business Daily, THEROOT.COM, The Lonely Conservative, Power Line, Connecting.the.Dots, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, NationalJournal.com, The PJ Tatler, Hit & Run, NewsBusters blogs, CNN, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, Maggie's Farm and Talking Points Memo
David Firestone / Taking Note:
The Uproar Over Insurance ‘Cancellation’ Letters — Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services secretary, took a lot of grief Wednesday from Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee who were outraged that some people's individual insurance policies had been “cancelled” because of health care reform.
Discussion:
The Raw Story and Right Wing News
Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Pelosi pushes back hard on dropped plans
Pelosi pushes back hard on dropped plans
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, americanthinker.com and The Lonely Conservative
Katie McHugh / The Daily Caller:
Report: White House exerting ‘massive pressure’ on insurance companies to keep quiet
Report: White House exerting ‘massive pressure’ on insurance companies to keep quiet
Discussion:
Hot Air, Post Politics, NBCNews and The Dish
Ian Swanson / The Hill:
President asked Hillary to stay — President Obama asked Hillary Clinton to stay on for an extra year as secretary of State after he won reelection. — Obama was worried at the time about losing both Clinton and Leon Panetta, his outgoing Defense secretary, according to an excerpt released Thursday …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, ABC News, CNN and Politico
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Katie Glueck / Politico:
Book: Obama asked Hillary Clinton to stay — President Barack Obama asked Hillary Clinton several times to stay on as his secretary of state during a Nov. 2012 ride aboard Air Force One, but she told him it was time for her to move on, a new book reveals. — “Would you reconsider, perhaps stay another year?
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, Mediaite and The Lead with Jake Tapper
Peter Nicholas / Washington Wire:
Hillary Clinton's Ratings Slip in New WSJ/NBC Poll
Mark Murray / NBCNews:
NBC/WSJ poll: Obama approval sinks to new low — President Barack Obama's approval rating has declined to an all-time low as public frustration with Washington and pessimism about the nation's direction continue to grow, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Politico, Business Insider, The PJ Tatler, Daily Kos, The Hugh Hewitt Show, BillMoyers.com, The Gateway Pundit, First Read, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, Scared Monkeys, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, Weasel Zippers, Pat Dollard, Talking Points Memo, American Power, New York Times and Washington Free Beacon
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Michael O'Brien / NBC Politics:
Obama leadership style raises question of ‘who is in control?’
Obama leadership style raises question of ‘who is in control?’
Discussion:
Associated Press, VodkaPundit and NBCNews
Investor's Business Daily:
The Biggest Lie? ‘Keep Your Plan’ — Deception: In the face of millions of cancellation notices, Democrats want to downplay the president's “keep your health plan” pledge as standard political hyperbole. It was, in fact, a calculated lie that got ObamaCare enacted.
Discussion:
americanthinker.com, Washington Examiner, VodkaPundit, TheBlaze.com and National Review
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Byron York / Washington Examiner:
In health care mess, Obama reaps what he sowed
In health care mess, Obama reaps what he sowed
Discussion:
Conservatives4Palin
Joe Biden / CNN:
Biden apologizes, says Obama tried to log on to health site — (CNN) - President Barack Obama tried to log onto the Obamacare website, according to Vice President Joe Biden, who added his name to those apologizing for the online snafu that has rocked the introduction of the administration's sweeping health care initiative.
Discussion:
Politico, Weasel Zippers and BizPac Review
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Lucy McCalmont / Politico:
Joe Biden: President Obama and I not tech ‘geeks’
Joe Biden: President Obama and I not tech ‘geeks’
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin
Erik Wasson / The Hill:
Deficit was $680 billion in 2013 — The federal budget deficit for fiscal 2013 was $680 billion, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday. — This is the first time that the deficit has fallen below $1 trillion during President Obama's time in the White House.
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Terence P. Jeffrey / CNSNews:
Obama Has Presided Over 5 of 6 Largest Deficits in U.S. History
Disclose.tv:
MASSIVE OIL DISCOVERY IN AUSTRALIA IS DEATHBLOW FOR SAUDIS — It is 6 times larger than the Bakken, 17 times the size of the Marcellus formation, and 80 times larger than the Eagle Ford shale. — All told the recent discovery outside a sleepy Australian town contains more black gold than in all of Iran, Iraq, Canada, or Venezuela.
Discussion:
Israpundit and Israel Matzav
Norm Ornstein / NationalJournal.com:
The Right to Vote — It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which eviscerated the Voting Rights Act, is leading to a new era of voter suppression that parallels the pre-1960s era—this time affecting not just African-Americans …
Discussion:
A plain blog about politics
Rowan Scarborough / Washington Times:
U.S. commandos fought in Benghazi — Two out of eight in Tripoli sent to rescue, honored for valor — Masked from public view, two of the U.S. military's elite special operations commandos have been awarded medals for bravery for a mission that further undercuts the Obama administration's original story about the Benghazi tragedy.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, TheBlaze.com, The Lonely Conservative and Washington Free Beacon
Rich Lowry / Politico:
The Obamacare whiners — Henry Waxman made a plea at the end of Wednesday's House hearing grilling of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The California Democrat and liberal lion asked Republicans to reach across the aisle to work with Democrats to improve Obamacare.
Discussion:
National Review
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Jim Acosta / CNN:
White House on Sebelius hearing: GOP ‘did us a favor up there’
White House on Sebelius hearing: GOP ‘did us a favor up there’
Discussion:
Politico, The Hill and American Power
Jason Leopold / Al Jazeera America:
Revealed: NSA pushed 9/11 as key ‘sound bite’ to justify surveillance … The National Security Agency advised its officials to cite the 9/11 attacks as justification for its mass surveillance activities, according to a master list of NSA talking points. — The document, obtained …
Discussion:
The Raw Story, The Switch, Techdirt and Business Insider
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Washington Post:
NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say
NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Politico, The Switch, New York Times, americanthinker.com, CNN, The Week, naked capitalism, Consumerist, AMERICAblog News, Telegraph, AllThingsD, Mashable, Business Insider, emptywheel, Techdirt, Balloon Juice, Guardian, Boing Boing, Gawker, BBC, Hot Air, msnbc.com, Lawfare, Blazing Cat Fur, The Hinterland Gazette, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Daily Caller, Marginal Revolution, Talking Points Memo, Foreign Policy, WJLA-TV and TechCrunch
Timothy H. Lee / The Hill:
Proposed bills fail to fix Fannie and Freddie — Remember the Detroit auto bailout, when the federal government improperly rewarded favored constituencies like labor unions in violation of secured creditors' contractual rights? — The Obama Administration's conduct flatly violated …
Mike Lillis / TheHill:
Pelosi: No revenue, no deal — New revenue must be part of any bipartisan agreement to eliminate the sequester, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday. — Although President Obama has reportedly signaled an openness to tackle the across-the-board cuts without hiking taxes …
Daniel Henninger / Wall Street Journal:
Henninger: Progressive Government Fails — Obama's ideology is the politics of the personal cram down.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Betsy's Page