memeorandum: Cobb GOP chairman concerned about (those) people coming to Braves' games (Jay Bookman/Ajc Blogs)

2:53 AM ET, November 13, 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: Booman Tribune, PostPartisan, Daily Kos, Little Green Footballs, Weasel Zippers, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, The Hinterland Gazette, Washington Monthly, Hullabaloo and The Dish

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: ThinkProgress, The Moderate Voice, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Shakesville, Balloon Juice and TheBlaze.com, more at Mediagazer »

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: Mediaite, Feministing, Taylor Marsh and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Alan Taylor / The Atlantic Online:

Richard Cohen on Black-White Marriage — I'm not racist. I just don't recognize my country. — Here's a fairly amazing paragraph from Richard Cohen's latest: … Right. I'm not racist. I just don't recognize my country. Also, the sight of you, and your used-to-be-lesbian black wife …

Discussion: The Wrap, Making Light, p m carpenter's commentary, Business Insider, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice and Booman Tribune

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: Twitchy, Joe. My. God., Daily Kos and Lawyers, Guns & Money

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

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Washington Post, ThinkProgress, The Week, No More Mister Nice Blog, Connecting.the.Dots, The Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Talking Points Memo

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.

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: Mediaite, The Moderate Voice and NewsBusters

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.

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Bill Clinton: ‘President Should Honor the Commitment’ and Let People Keep Their Insurance Plans

Discussion: Ross Douthat, Hot Air, Scared Monkeys, Michelle Malkin, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Yahoo! News, Talking Points Memo, Post Politics and NewsBusters

Rush Limbaugh:
Clinton Lectures Obama: Keep Your Word

Discussion: Politico and CNN

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

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, Daily Kos and A plain blog about politics

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:

Why It's Not Too Late for the ‘Keep Your Health Plan’ Act — With millions of Americans losing their health insurance because of Obamacare, bills have been introduced in Congress to let people keep their plans. — But health industry consultant Bob Laszewski says it's too late for these measures …

Discussion: Hot Air

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Dem. Rep.: ‘I Think the President Was Grossly Misleading to the American Public’

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

Seung Min Kim / Politico:

Dianne Feinstein joins push to keep health plans — It's not just red-state Democrats who want to take aggressive steps to mend controversial provisions in Obamacare. — Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she will co-sponsor a bill by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) …

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

Discussion: Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, National Review and The PJ Tatler

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Dem calls for ObamaCare probe (Video)

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The PJ Tatler and Betsy's Page

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

Josh Lederman / Associated Press:

Obama Lunches With US Service Members at Irish Pub — President Barack Obama made an unannounced trip out for lunch with members of the military. — The president and Vice President Joe Biden dined with active duty service members from each of the five military branches at Capitol Hill restaurant Molly Malone's on Tuesday.

ABC News:
Biden to Push Immigration at Naturalization Event

Discussion: Politico and Weasel Zippers

Amy Davidson / Close Read:

“60 Minutes” and the Benghazi Scandal Trap — “I didn't even have to go into the room to see who it was,” a man calling himself Morgan Jones told Lara Logan, of “60 Minutes,” on October 27th, remembering how he had glimpsed a body through the glass in a door.

Discussion: Roger Ailes, Hullabaloo, Outside the Beltway and Guardian, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:

White House technology chief to testify at hearing — (CNN) - The top White House technology officer will appear before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, despite the Obama administration's insistence that he was too busy helping to repair the flawed Obamacare website

Discussion: Politico

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Congressional Approval Sinks to Record Low — Current approval at 9%; 2013 average now 14% — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' approval of the way Congress is handling its job has dropped to 9%, the lowest in Gallup's 39-year history of asking the question. The previous low point was 10%, registered twice in 2012.

Discussion: CNN, TIME, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, ThinkProgress, Reuters, ABC News and Firedoglake

Ivan Watson / CNN:

Projected Typhoon Haiyan death toll falls, but tensions rise amid aid bottlenecks — Typhoon Haiyan — Cebu, Philippines (CNN) — While still unimaginably devastating, Typhoon Haiyan may not turn out to be as deadly as initially thought, the president of the Philippines told CNN's Christiane Amanpour Tuesday.

Discussion: BBC, Climate Central, Bangkok Post, ThinkProgress, VICE, BusinessGreen, The Raw Story, RAPPLER, New York Times, WGBH News and The Week

Harriet Alexander / Telegraph:
Typhoon Haiyan ‘the result of climate change’

Discussion: Questions and Observations and Hot Air

Noah Rothman / Mediaite:

CNN's Dana Bash: Friday ‘De Facto Deadline’ Before Dems ‘Defy’ Obama, Back GOP's Obamacare Fixes — CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash told her network's anchors on Tuesday that the end of the week is the “de facto deadline” at which point the White House needs to have settled …

Discussion: The Plum Line, Hot Air and Weasel Zippers

Dan Merica / CNN:

Bush 43 to sit down with Leno — Washington (CNN) - Former President George W. Bush will be on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on November 19, a spokesman for NBC tells CNN. — The former Republican president, who has largely avoided the spotlight since leaving the White House in 2009 …

Discussion: Politico

Elizabeth Titus / Politico:

Virginia AG race: Democrat widens lead — Democrat Mark Herring climbed to an unofficial lead of 163 votes over Republican Mark Obenshain in the 2.2 million-vote race for Virginia attorney general on Tuesday. — Herring gained 160 votes when Fairfax County tallied its provisional ballots Tuesday night …

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

Rasmussen Reports:

55% Favor Repeal of Obamacare — Most voters view the new national health care law as bad for the country and want to repeal it. — A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 35% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe the trouble-plagued health care law is good for America.

Discussion: Washington Times, Power Line and The PJ Tatler