memeorandum: ObamaCare Questions Nobody Asked (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr/Wall Street Journal)

2:05 PM 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 …

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: Ross Douthat, The PJ Tatler, First Read, The Week, Weekly Standard, Roll Call, The World's Greatest …, VodkaPundit, Business Insider and The New Republic

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: Politico, Althouse and Instapundit

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Two Dems join ‘keep your plan’ bill — A House bill that would allow insurance companies the option of offering old healthcare plans is gaining dozens of co-sponsors ahead of a vote this week. — Sixty-eight House members signed on to the bill Tuesday alone, giving the measure sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Politico

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
A reversal of fortune for Democrats after Obamacare

Discussion: Public Policy Polling, Hit & Run, Daily Kos, Taylor Marsh, Washington Free Beacon, Talking Points Memo and National Review

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Merkley, Feinstein Back Landrieu's Bill To Unwind Obamacare Market Reforms

Discussion: Business Insider, Betsy's Page and The Daily Caller

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
Feinstein becomes 5th Dem on bill fixing ObamaCare

Discussion: Wonkblog, The Hugh Hewitt Show and Ozymandias

Brett Norman / Politico:
Issa attacks Obamacare website

Discussion: CNN and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Phillip M. Bailey / WFPL:
Mitch McConnell Wants Kentucky Senate Race to Focus on Obamacare Woes

Discussion: PoliticusUSA and Politico

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

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Wonkblog, CNN, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, Mediaite, BizzyBlog, The Moderate Voice and The Plum Line

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: CNN, Washington Wire, Telegraph, Gawker, The Daily Caller, WGBH News, The PJ Tatler, The Raw Story, Weasel Zippers, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Business Insider, National Review, ABC News and Yahoo! News

Jim McElhatton / Washington Times:
WebMD's healthy deal with Obamacare: Kind words for law, millions from feds

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and The PJ Tatler

Tal Kopan / Politico:
Health care website photo: The face of Obamacare speaks out

Discussion: Liberaland, The Daily Caller and National Review

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Controversy over Richard Cohen's comments on the de Blasio family — Richard Cohen has a knack for making venom-spewing enemies out of people who should be his allies. — Like on Tuesday, when The Washington Post columnist wrote about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's chances …

Discussion: Esquire, TheBlaze.com, NewsBusters, ThinkProgress, Salon, The Huffington Post, PostPartisan, Liberal Values, Poynter, The Week, No More Mister Nice Blog, Slate, Making Light and Lawyers, Guns & Money, more at Mediagazer »

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Is Richard Cohen a Racist?

Discussion: Liberaland, We are respectable negroes, AMERICAblog News, addictinginfo.org, The Other McCain, Weasel Zippers, Washington Post and The Lonely Conservative

Alan Taylor / The Atlantic Online:
Richard Cohen in Context

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Guardian, The Huffington Post, ThinkProgress, Althouse, Chicks on the Right, Slate, The Moderate Voice, Wonkblog, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Daily Beast, Mediaite, A plain blog about politics and This Week in Blackness

First Read / NBCNews:

Boehner draws another hard line on immigration reform — House Speaker John Boehner says he will not allow any House-passed immigration legislation to be blended with the Senate's sweeping reform bill, further quashing the chances of comprehensive immigration reform legislation being signed into law anytime soon.

Discussion: The Plum Line and Mediaite

ThinkProgress:
Teens Confront Speaker Boehner On Immigration Reform

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette

Igor Bobic / Talking Points Memo:
Boehner: We Have ‘No Intention Of Ever’ Taking Up Senate Immigration Bill

Discussion: PoliticusUSA

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: Politico, Business Insider, The BRAD BLOG, Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway, Booman Tribune and Election Law Blog

TIME:
With 106 Vote Attorney General Victory, Virginia Democrats Sweep State

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Washington Post and Outside the Beltway

Jose DelReal / Politico:

Charles Krauthammer: Death of ‘liberalism’ — Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer sees “the collapse of American liberalism” in sight, in no small part because of the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act. — “We have not just Obamacare unraveling, not just the Obama administration unraveling …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and p m carpenter's commentary

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Reid lacks the votes to go nuclear (VIDEO) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is short of the 50 votes he would need to advance President Obama's stalled judicial nominees via the “nuclear option,” according to sources who have advocated for filibuster reform.

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Talking Points Memo

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Republicans Again Reject Obama Pick for Judiciary

Discussion: Daily Kos, Master Feed and Washington Post

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: Michelle Malkin, National Review, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, Twitchy, UrbanGrounds, James O'Keefe's Project … and “The Lid”

Soopermexican / Twitchy:

Former Obama speechwriter deletes late-night tweets about disastrous Obamacare website [screenshot] — Jon Lovett, a former speechwriter for President Obama, seems to have gone all #bqhatevwr mode with some middle-of-the-night tweets about the Obamacare website.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

ThinkProgress:

India's Top Police Official: 'If You Can't Prevent Rape, You Enjoy It' — India erupted in outrage Tuesday after the nation's top police official casually commented, “'If you can't prevent rape, you enjoy it.” — Ranjit Sinha, chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation …

Discussion: Guardian, India & World, Liberaland and Shakesville

Kurtis Lee / Denver Post:

PRO-OBAMACARE ADS TARGETING MILLENNIALS STIR CONTROVERSY IN COLORADO — A new round of advertisements unveiled by supporters of Colorado's health insurance exchange has ignited controversy that rippled through social media Tuesday and launched debate over their portrayal of women.

Discussion: Health Policy Solutions, Outside the Beltway, The College Fix and Business Insider

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.

Peggy Noonan's Blog:

ObamaCare Is the Story — Republicans should stop taking the boob bait of the press. The story of the day is ObamaCare and the pain it is causing the Democrats. That story is not being fully explored. We are not seeing pieces on Captol Hill Democrats rethinking their four-year-long lockstep backing …

Discussion: Mediaite