memeorandum: Obamacare's October Numbers Are Going to Be Low (Jonathan Cohn/The New Republic)

4:15 PM ET, November 12, 2013

Top Items:

Christie's tea-party problem — The day after Chris Christie, the cuddly moderate conservative, won a landslide reelection as the Republican governor of Democratic New Jersey, I took the Internet Express out to Iowa, surveying its various newspapers, blogs and such to see how he might do in the GOP caucuses …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Politico, Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, Little Green Footballs, Business Insider, The Hinterland Gazette, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, Hullabaloo, Booman Tribune, Weasel Zippers, The Dish and TheBlaze.com

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

Racist Op-Ed Columns Are a Strange Business Strategy — I'm not sure what, if anything, Jeff Bezos will do to try to turn around the financial fortunes of the Washington Post. But Richard Cohen's column today suggests one small step that the owner of the daily paper in a majority-black city could take …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, The Wrap, Washington Post, The Raw Story, ThinkProgress, No More Mister Nice Blog and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Richard Cohen Has Written Something Insane About Interracial Marriage — Cotton-topped ladies man Richard Cohen hilariously poses as a “liberal” columnist at the Washington Post, despite being... how can we put this gently... a power-worshiping bigot. Don't take our word for it.

Discussion: p m carpenter's commentary, Business Insider, The Week, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, theGrio and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

WaPo Publisher Calls Cohen Column ‘Brilliant’ — Before Richard Cohen's latest column sparked widespread outrage, the publisher of the Washington Post praised the piece. — Katharine Weymouth tweeted a link to Cohen's column on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) relationship with the tea party, which she hailed as “brilliant.”

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mediaite and Feministing

President Bill Clinton / Ozymandias:

Assessing the Healthcare Rollout … When OZY sat down with President Clinton, one of the things we were most interested to hear were his impressions of the recent national health care rollout. Here's what he had to tell us. — 1. The country is better off with the Affordable Care Act than without it.

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Bill Clinton: ‘President Should Honor the Commitment’ and Let People Keep Their Insurance Plans — Former President Bill Clinton said that President Obama should keep his pledge to allow people to keep their current health care plans, if they like them, under Obamacare:

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Yahoo! News, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Post Politics, Red Alert Politics, Conservatives4Palin and NewsBusters

Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider:
BILL CLINTON TO OBAMA: ‘Honor Your Commitment’ On Obamacare

Discussion: Liberaland and Colorado Peak Politics

Mark Murray / NBCNews:

NBC poll: Christie faces divided GOP, trails Clinton in hypothetical '16 race — If New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie runs for president in 2016, he would likely face the dual challenges of uniting a fractured Republican Party and besting a formidable Hillary Clinton in a general election, according to a new NBC News poll.

Discussion: The Fix, New York Times, Daily Kos, Mediaite, The Week, NewsBusters, Talking Points Memo, Taylor Marsh, No More Mister Nice Blog, p m carpenter's commentary, ABC News, Liberaland and Cafe Hayek

Alex Bolton / The Hill:
Left wants challenger for Hillary

Discussion: Shakesville, Power Line and Prairie Weather

Politico:
Wall Street's nightmare: President Elizabeth Warren

Discussion: CNN, Daily Kos, Power Line, WJLA-TV and The Raw Story

Katie Glueck / Politico:
Poll: Hillary Clinton 44, Chris Christie 34

Discussion: CNN, The Hinterland Gazette, Joe. My. God. and Riehl World News

Brian Beutler / Salon:

GOP about to hurt itself again!: New ploy to kill Obamacare will blow up — The new “Keep Your Health Plan Act” sounds great — but its timing reveals Republicans' dubious ulterior motives — Starting on Jan. 1, votes to repeal Obamacare will become votes to take health insurance away from a lot of people.

Discussion: The Mahablog and A plain blog about politics

Washington Post:

About 40,000 Americans are said to have signed up for plans on HealthCare.gov — Roughly 40,000 Americans have signed up for private insurance through the flawed federal online insurance marketplace since it opened six weeks ago, according to two people with access to the figures.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Hit & Run, National Review, New York Times, Wonkblog, Outside the Beltway, Post Politics, Weasel Zippers, Scared Monkeys, ProPublica, Taylor Marsh, Forbes and Althouse

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Obamacare's October Numbers Are Going to Be Low

Discussion: Balloon Juice, BillMoyers.com, Reuters, The PJ Tatler and Washington Free Beacon

Sarah Kliff / Wonkblog:
Who counts as an Obamacare enrollee? The Obama administration settles on a definition.

David Shamah / The Times of Israel:

Stuxnet, gone rogue, hit Russian nuke plant, space station — A cyber-security expert says several ostensibly secure facilities became victims of the virus that struck Iran's nuclear program — A Russian nuclear power plant was reportedly “badly infected” by the rogue Stuxnet virus …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, CANNONFIRE, Outside the Beltway and Liberaland

New York Times:
Iran Nuclear Talks: Unfinished, but Alive

Discussion: CFR.org, National Review, CNN, The Week, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mondoweiss, The Dish, emptywheel and Politico

John Fund / National Review:

The Truth about Navigators — James O'Keefe, the guerrilla videographer who helped bring down ACORN (the “community organizing” group that Barack Obama worked for as a lawyer and trainer) and got NPR's president fired, is back. — This time, his undercover investigators focused on Obamacare's …

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, Twitchy, PJ Media, The Lonely Conservative, Betsy's Page, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Scared Monkeys, The Other McCain, Hot Air and Riehl World News

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed:

“Don't Get Screwed By Obamacare, Find A Sugar Daddy!” Says Dating Website — Don't get screwed, by the government. — Seekingarrangement.com is a site that connects young females and older males for a “sugar daddy arrangement.” — seekingarrangement.com

Discussion: Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, Weasel Zippers and National Review

Andrew Huszar / Wall Street Journal:

Confessions of a Quantitative Easer — We went on a bond-buying spree that was supposed to help Main Street. Instead, it was a feast for Wall Street. — I can only say: I'm sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece program …

Discussion: Firedoglake, emptywheel, Gawker, AEIdeas, Business Insider and Power Line, more at Mediagazer »

Julia Ioffe / The New Republic:

I've Got Whooping Cough. Thanks a Lot, Jenny McCarthy. — At this writing, I have been coughing for 72 days. Not on and off coughing, but continuously, every day and every night, for two and a half months. And not just coughing, but whooping: doubled over, body clenched …

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy, Betsy's Page, The Dish, Daily Kos, Liberaland and Balloon Juice

Bryan Preston / CNN:

Voter ID critics proved wrong — Editor's note: Bryan Preston is editor at large of the conservative blog PJ Media. He was a founding blogger and producer at Hot Air, was producer of the “Laura Ingraham Show” and was communications director of the Republican Party of Texas.

Washington Post:

Virginia attorney general race: Herring takes lead, with a recount appearing likely — Democratic state Sen. Mark R. Herring took the lead in the extraordinarily tight Virginia attorney general race Monday evening, after he picked up more than 100 previously uncounted votes in Richmond.

Discussion: Slate, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Taegan Goddard's …, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Fix and Washington Monthly

Sharyl Attkisson / CBS News:

Memo warned of “limitless” security risks for HealthCare.gov — (CBS News) WASHINGTON — CBS News has learned that the project manager in charge of building the federal health care website was apparently kept in the dark about serious failures in the website's security.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, The Lonely Conservative, The PJ Tatler and Washington Free Beacon

Harriet Alexander / Telegraph:

Typhoon Haiyan ‘the result of climate change’ — The Philippines delegate at the UN Climate Change talks that began on Monday has blamed Typhoon Haiyan on climate change, and urged sceptics to ‘get off their ivory towers’ — Naderev “Yeb” Sano, representative for the Philippines …

Discussion: Reuters, Hot Air, Questions and Observations, BBC and Guardian

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Dem. Rep.: ‘I Think the President Was Grossly Misleading to the American Public’ — Rep. Kurt Schrader, a Democrat from Oregon, said that President Obama was “grossly misleading” on Obamacare: — “Very misleading,” the Democratic congressman says of Obama's promise that you can keep your health care plan, if you like it.

Discussion: Power Line, The PJ Tatler, Scared Monkeys and National Review

Jennifer Kabbany / The College Fix:

Public University's Plaque Labels President Lincoln A Democrat — CHICAGO - A public university in President Abraham Lincoln's home state of Illinois is adorned with a plaque that states Lincoln - arguably the most famous and influential president in American history - was a Democrat.

Discussion: Chicks on the Right

Washington Free Beacon:

Carney: Obamacare ‘Enrollment Figures Will Be Low’ — White House press secretary Jay Carney made a serious admission during Tuesday's White House press briefing. ABC's Jon Karl asked Carney if the number of people who enroll in Obamacare is expected to be lower than those that received cancellation notices.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin and Weasel Zippers

Emily Schultheis / Politico:

Dem poll: Kay Hagan lead vanishes — Incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) is near the top of national Republicans' target list for 2014 — and a new poll shows her lead over her potential GOP challengers has all but evaporated. — Against state House Speaker Thom Tillis, Hagan leads by only 2 points …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, National Review and The PJ Tatler