memeorandum: Obama's critic-in-chief strikes again (Josh Gerstein/Politico)

9:05 AM ET, November 13, 2013

Top Items:

Troubled HealthCare.gov unlikely to work fully by end of November — Software problems with the federal online health insurance marketplace, especially in handling high volumes, are proving so stubborn that the system is unlikely to work fully by the end of the month as the White House has promised …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, “The Lid” and White House Dossier

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Obama's critic-in-chief strikes again — President Bill Clinton — the man President Barack Obama once dubbed his “Secretary of Explaining Stuff” — once again has some explaining of his own to do with the Obama White House. — In an interview released Tuesday, Clinton called for a fix …

Discussion: The Hill, CNN, Wonkblog, Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, BizzyBlog and Rush Limbaugh

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Obama is boxed in by Bill Clinton — President Obama scrambled to find a coherent response Tuesday after former President Clinton jammed the administration by saying it should keep its promise that people could keep their health insurance plans if they liked them.

Discussion: Instapundit

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

Obama's Image as “Strong and Decisive Leader” Takes a Hit — Public approval of his handling of the economy and healthcare largely steady — PRINCETON, NJ — After six messy weeks — defined chiefly by the partial government shutdown and troubled rollout of the federal government's …

Discussion: Politico, Post Politics and PostPartisan

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

It's Good That You Can't Keep Your Insurance Plan — Obama was wrong to mislead people but right to scrap dysfunctional insurance products. — “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” That was the promise Barack Obama made to insured Americans when stumping for his signature health insurance overhaul back in 2009 and 2010.

Discussion: First Read, The Week, Business Insider and New York Times

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:

Bill Clinton Is Wrong. This Is How Obamacare Works. — Bill Clinton has been one of Obamacare's most effective advocates—the “Secretary of Explaining Things,” as President Obama famously called him. But in a new interview already getting attention and sure to get more, Clinton didn't explain things very well.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, American Spectator, The Daily Caller, Scared Monkeys, Sister Toldjah, BBC, CNN, Politico and BuzzFeed

Dean Baker / The Huffington Post:
The Obama Pledge on Keeping Your Insurance

Discussion: Eclectablog and Conservatives4Palin

Abby D. Phillip / ABC News:

Exclusive: Obamacare's Mystery Woman Says She Fell Victim to Cyberbullies … The smiling woman who was once the face of the Affordable Care Act's website has come out of the shadows to stand up to the “cyberbullying” she says she suffered after the law's flawed kickoff.

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, National Review and ABC News

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:

Richard Cohen Defends Column: ‘Word Racist Is Truly Hurtful’ — Richard Cohen says that his latest piece was not intended to be and shouldn't be read as racist. — “The word racist is truly hurtful,” he told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. “It's not who I am. It's not who I ever was.

Discussion: Althouse, AMERICAblog News, ThinkProgress, The Moderate Voice, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, This Week in Blackness, Shakesville, Little Green Footballs, Politico and TheBlaze.com, more at Mediagazer »

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:
WaPo Publisher Calls Cohen Column ‘Brilliant’

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Mediaite, Feministing, Taylor Marsh and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Alan Taylor / The Atlantic Online:
Richard Cohen on Black-White Marriage

Discussion: addictinginfo.org, Wonkblog, Daily Kos, Making Light, The Wrap, p m carpenter's commentary, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider and Washington Monthly

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:
Richard Cohen Has Written Something Insane About Interracial Marriage

Discussion: Twitchy, The Other McCain, Weasel Zippers, Business Insider, Washington Post, Joe. My. God., Daily Kos, The Hinterland Gazette, Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo, Balloon Juice, The Dish, Booman Tribune and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:
Racist Op-Ed Columns Are a Strange Business Strategy

Discussion: Liberaland, Liberal Values, The Daily Beast, Connecting.the.Dots, ThinkProgress, The Week, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Lonely Conservative, The Raw Story and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Matt Higgins / CBS Sacramento:

Calif. Insurance Commissioner: More Than 1M Californians Having Insurance Cancelled Due To ACA — SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS Sacramento/AP) — Health insurer Anthem Blue Cross of California has agreed to a two-month extension of about 104,000 individual policies after failing to give the required 90 …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Why It's Not Too Late for the ‘Keep Your Health Plan’ Act

Discussion: Hot Air

Brian Beutler / Salon:
GOP about to hurt itself again!: New ploy to kill Obamacare will blow up

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, The Mahablog, Daily Kos and A plain blog about politics

Washington Post:

Democrat Mark Herring gets a leg up in Va. attorney general's race in late ballot count — State Sen. Mark R. Herring padded his still-narrow lead over state Sen. Mark D. Obenshain on Tuesday night in the race for Virginia attorney general, giving the Democrat an apparent 163-vote advantage …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Booman Tribune and Election Law Blog

Elizabeth Titus / Politico:
Virginia AG race: Democrat widens lead

Discussion: The BRAD BLOG, Outside the Beltway and Washington Post

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

A reversal of fortune for Democrats after Obamacare — Two months ago, polls showed Democrat Kay Hagan leading prospective opponents by double digits in her quest for a second term representing North Carolina in the Senate. — So why is she so nervous? — Well, her problem begins with Obamacare …

Discussion: Public Policy Polling, Betsy's Page, Talking Points Memo, National Review and AEIdeas

Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Dianne Feinstein joins push to keep health plans

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Emily Schultheis / Politico:
Dem poll: Kay Hagan lead vanishes

Discussion: VodkaPundit, Scared Monkeys, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Outside the Beltway, The Hill and The PJ Tatler

Dallas News:

One fired, three suspended after undercover health care video — By: myfoxdfw.com Staff - email — The Urban League of Greater Dallas fired one person and suspended three others after a video from a conservative activist reportedly showed the workers encouraging health care applicants to lie.

Discussion: National Review, Twitchy, UrbanGrounds, James O'Keefe's Project … and “The Lid”

James Carville / TheHill:

Not so fast, my friend — In my column two weeks ago, I bet that Terry McAuliffe would have a decisive win in Virginia but that it wouldn't be enough for the Washington media elite. — Look, I'm not one of those people who always has to be right — when I'm wrong, I fess up.

Alleigh Marre / National Republican Congressional …:

Kurt Schrader's “grossly misleading” ObamaCare hypocrisy — In an interview with Laural Porter about the disastrous roll-out of ObamaCare, Congressman Kurt Schrader was asked explicitly about the President's line, “if you like your health care plan you can keep it,” which millions of Americans are learning is not true.

Discussion: Power Line, Oregonian, Yahoo! News and National Review

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Dem. Rep: Obama ‘misleading’ on ACA

Discussion: The Week, Real Clear Politics and The Daily Caller

Igor Bobic / Talking Points Memo:

Sarah Palin ‘Surprised’ By Pope Francis' ‘Liberal’ Sounding Statements — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) said Tuesday that some of the pope's statements “sounded kind of liberal,” but assured CNN's Jake Tapper that she wouldn't necessarily trust her ears nor the “lamestream media” until she did her “own homework” on the matter.

Discussion: Liberaland

Jay Bookman / Ajc Blogs:

Cobb GOP chairman concerned about (those) people coming to Braves' games — I just got back from Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed's press conference on the Braves' move to a transportation-challenged site in Cobb County, and will have a lot more to say on that later. But I can't let this pass without notice:

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Esquire

Pete Williams / U.S. News:

Supreme Court justices rebuff chance to hear second Oklahoma abortion case — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down another opportunity to take up a state restriction on abortion that was ruled unconstitutional by a lower court. — The top court rejected a request from officials …

Discussion: Off the Kuff and Juanita Jean's