memeorandum: ‘Obamacare’ Memos Reveal Chaos, Confusion of October Rollout (Associated Press)

4:50 PM ET, November 6, 2013

Top Items:

James Hohmann / Politico:

Why Terry McAuliffe barely won — How the heck did that happen? — Most public polls leading up to Election Day had Terry McAuliffe coasting to victory, some by double digits, in the Virginia governor's race. Instead he squeaked by, beating Republican Ken Cuccinelli by less than 3 percentage points.

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

Tell Me Again Who Won in Virginia? — Before we get into any more election analysis, I have to make a preliminary objection to what we are hearing this morning about the Virginia governor's race. Yes, we all play the expectations game, and Terry McAuliffe only won by two-and-a-half percent …

Discussion: The Impolitic, PoliCyBear, The Raw Story, Hullabaloo, The Federalist, The Week Magazine, Business Insider, Mediaite, National Review, The Mahablog, Right Turn and Politico

Emily Schultheis / Politico:

Ken Cuccinelli's near miss sparks recriminations — RICHMOND — Anyone expecting Ken Cuccinelli and the conservative wing of the Virginia GOP to lie down and admit defeat was disappointed Tuesday night. — After Cuccinelli's closer-than-expected loss, the defiant candidate and his supporters …

Discussion: CNN, NationalJournal.com, NBCNews, Daily Kos, National Review, The Reaction, Washington Monthly and Taylor Marsh

Wall Street Journal:

The Portents of Election 2013 — Republicans beat themselves in Virginia. Is Christie a model? — The major political parties split Tuesday's pair of Governor's races, as Democrat Terry McAuliffe won a close race for an open seat in the swing state of Virginia while Republican Chris Christie romped to a second term in New Jersey.

Discussion: PostPartisan, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, protein wisdom, The Week, ABC News, CNN and TheBlaze.com

Ashley Killough / CNN:

Rubio: Don't jump to conclusions about meaning of Christie win — Washington (CNN) - In an interview with CNN, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio downplayed Wednesday any national takeaways from GOP Gov. Chris Christie's crushing victory in the blue state of New Jersey and Republican Ken Cuccinelli's loss …

Discussion: Politico, Daily Kos and Guardian

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Cuccinelli's stance on Obamacare was a liability, McAuliffe pollster says

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, National Review, Daily Kos, Feministing, Washington Monthly and Right Turn

Jonah Goldberg / National Review: And Now, The Airing of Grievances

Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:
Some reflections on the Virginia and New Jersey elections

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, The New Republic, USA Today, Fox News, National Review, CNN, Wonkblog, Hot Air, Mediaite, PostPartisan, Conservatives4Palin, The Glittering Eye and Washington Wire

Bill Turque / Washington Post:
Obenshain, Herring virtually tied in Virginia attorney general's race; recount expected

Discussion: The Fix, Guardian, Washington Monthly, Politico and Liberaland

ProPublica:

Loyal Obama Supporters, Canceled by Obamacare — San Francisco architect Lee Hammack says he and his wife, JoEllen Brothers, are “cradle Democrats.” They have donated to the liberal group Organizing for America and worked the phone banks a year ago for President Obama's re-election.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Heritage Foundation, Ricochet Conversations Feed and National Review

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Sebelius: ObamaCare enrollment numbers will be ‘quite low’ — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius acknowledged on Wednesday that the initial enrollment numbers through the new healthcare exchanges will be “quite low.” [WATCH VIDEO] — In testimony to the Senate Finance Committee …

Discussion: Politico

Steven Dennis / The World's Greatest Deliberative Body:

Democrats Up in 2014 Vent Their Obamacare Anger in White House Meeting (Updated) — Sen. Mark Udall said he let the president know how upset he is about the troubled rollout of the health care law at a White House meeting Wednesday. (CQ Roll Call File Photo) — Updated 3:50 p.m. |

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and National Review

Justin Sink / The Hill:
White House sends SOS to insurers

Discussion: CNN

Robert Pear / New York Times:
Sebelius Rejects Bipartisan Calls for Delay in Health Law

Discussion: Mashable and Talking Points Memo

Alexis Levinson / The Daily Caller:
Sebelius: Possible for convicted felons to become Obamacare navigators [VIDEO]

Discussion: Michelle Malkin and Conservatives4Palin

New York Times:

Chris Christie Coasts to 2nd Term as Governor of New Jersey — Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey won re-election by a crushing margin on Tuesday, a victory that vaulted him to the front ranks of Republican presidential contenders and made him his party's foremost proponent of pragmatism over ideology.

John Avlon / The Daily Beast:
Christie's Reelection Triumph Is a Revenge of the RINOs

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, CNN and The Week

George Neumayr / American Spectator:
Look to Cruz, Not to Christie

Discussion: Connecting.the.Dots, Cahnman's Musings and Ricochet Conversations Feed

Monte Whaley / Denver Post:

51ST STATE QUESTION ANSWERED “YES” IN 6 OF 11 COUNTIES CONTEMPLATING SECESSION — Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway, center, with other elected officials address a group of supporters of the 51st State Initiative during an election result watch party at the Historic Fort Lupton Fort, November 5, 2013.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, DownWithTyranny!, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Caller, The Week, The Gateway Pundit, The Fix and The Daily Beast

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:
Five Counties Vote To Secede From Colorado

Discussion: KDVR.com, Washington Monthly and Talking Points Memo

Steven T. Dennis / Roll Call:

Democrats' Anxiety Grows Over Obamacare Problems — When a loyal leader on your own team says there is a “crisis of confidence” surrounding your signature initiative, you've got trouble. — That's the phrase Democratic Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland used repeatedly Tuesday morning …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Daily Caller and The Reaction

Major Garrett / NationalJournal.com:
Obama's ‘Crisis of Confidence’

Discussion: Associated Press, Yahoo! News, VodkaPundit and Ed Driscoll

Adam Aigner-Treworgy / CNN:

Sebelius' chief tech officer leaving, first major departure since website troubles — Washington (CNN) - The official in charge of technology at the federal agency that developed the problem-plagued HealthCare.gov website is leaving the government for a private sector job, according to an internal email announcement.

Discussion: Weekly Standard

Brett Norman / Reuters: Top IT officer leaving Obamacare agency

Alex Tabarrok / Marginal Revolution:

Did Obama spy on Mitt Romney? As recently as a few weeks ago if anyone had asked me that question I would have consigned them to a right (or left) wing loony bin. Today, the only loonies are those who think the question unreasonable. Indeed, in one sense the answer is clearly yes.

Discussion: The Glittering Eye

Robert Costa / National Review:

Rand Paul Fights the Press — After facing plagiarism charges, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky spent much of Tuesday apologizing for making mistakes. In a statement, Doug Stafford, Paul's top political aide, pledged to fix the office's “approval process.” Paul, for his part …

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, No More Mister Nice Blog and Daily Kos

Dan Stewart / The Week:
I was plagiarized by Rand Paul, and I don't care

Discussion: American Prospect, FishbowlDC, msnbc.com, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Gawker, Mediaite, BuzzFeed, Taking Note, Yahoo! News and Hot Air

Robert Shiller / Guardian:

is economics a science? — Critics of ‘economic sciences’ sometimes refer to the development of a ‘pseudoscience’ of economics, arguing that it uses the trappings of science, like dense mathematics, but only for show — I am one of the winners of this year's Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences …

Discussion: PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM and Cafe Hayek

Guardian:

Swedish cinemas take aim at gender bias with Bechdel test rating — Movies need to pass test that gauges the active presence of women on screen in bid to promote gender equality — You expect movie ratings to tell you whether a film contains nudity, sex, profanity or violence.

Discussion: ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Daily Dot, The Verge and Shakesville, more at Mediagazer »

David Dayen / American Prospect:

The Democrats' Original Food-Stamp Sin — “Today, 47 million Americans struggling to put food on the table will have to make do with less,” began the emailed press release from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's office. The statement lamented the $5 billion cut to food-stamp benefits …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, mtcowgirl.com and Crooks and Liars

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Lost Art of Loyalty — There is a futuristic cop show starting soon on Fox called “Almost Human,” produced by J.J. Abrams. — It's set in the year 2048, and it features an attractive black robot who is highly evolved, logic-based and designed to be as human as possible …

Discussion: Mock Paper Scissors

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

TX Republicans want to replace Cornyn — PPP's newest Texas poll finds that John Cornyn is in grave danger of losing a primary next year if a serious campaign is run against him. Cornyn's approval with Republican primary voters is only 46%, with 33% of voters disapproving of him.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Associated Press:

‘Obamacare’ Memos Reveal Chaos, Confusion of October Rollout — More than 175 pages of internal Obama administration memos, obtained by the House Oversight Committee, released Tuesday and reviewed by ABC News, present the most detailed account yet of the troubled rollout of the federal health insurance exchange, HealthCare.gov.

Discussion: Hot Air and Weasel Zippers

Politifact.com Truth-O-Meter rulings from National:

Barack Obama: “What we said was, you can keep (your plan) if it hasn't changed since the law passed.” — The Truth-o-Meter says: Pants on Fire! Barack Obama says that what he'd said was you could keep your plan 'if it hasn't changed since the law passed' — President Barack Obama's attempt …

Discussion: Liberal Values, NewsBusters and Weasel Zippers