Top Items:
Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:
Insurance chiefs called to White House for meeting — Several insurance company CEOs have been called to a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House Friday afternoon, POLITICO has learned. — The meeting comes one day after the White House announced a plan to allow insurers …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard
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Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Why liberals are panicked about Obamacare — “Even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got.” — Bill Clinton, Nov. 12 — So the former president asserts …
Discussion:
National Review, Betsy's Page, Weasel Zippers, The Fix, Politico, Ed Driscoll and Towleroad News #gay
New York Times:
A Health Care Fix — President Obama has come up with a modest fix for a self-inflicted political wound: his repeated — and wrong — assertions that Americans would be able to keep their health insurance plans if they wanted to under the health care reform law.
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Politico, USA Today, Daily Kos, NBCNews, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Wonkblog and Crooks and Liars
Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:
The President's ObamaCare Backpedal — His proposal to allow people to keep their health plans will not provide a political escape hatch for beleaguered congressional Democrats. — Succumbing to the growing panic over his health law, the president on Thursday moved to throw his party a political lifeline.
Discussion:
Politico
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
To pass health plan, Obama and Dems kept mum about its downsides — BARACK OBAMA OBAMACARE HARRY REID NANCY PELOSI — The journalist Jonathan Cohn, an ardent supporter of Obamacare, recently wrote in The New Republic that problems with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act should be …
Discussion:
The Lonely Conservative, Weekly Standard, National Review and Weasel Zippers
Megan McArdle / Bloomberg:
Obamacare Is Whatever Obama Says It Is — Well, it's been a pretty busy couple of days for Obamacare. — First we got the enrollment numbers, except for the one we'd like to know, which is how many people have actually gone through the process of enrolling in a plan.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal
Elise Viebeck / The Hill:
Regulators ‘unclear’ on O-Care fix plan — President Obama's proposed fix for ObamaCare may not work in practice, according to state insurance regulators who would help implement the policy. — The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) suggested Thursday that the plan …
David Martosko / Daily Mail:
Revealed: Obamacare plans will cost MORE ‘in many cases’ …
Revealed: Obamacare plans will cost MORE ‘in many cases’ …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Hot Air and “The Lid”
Jon Passantino / BuzzFeed:
Obama Vows To Veto “Keep Your Health Plan” Bill
Obama Vows To Veto “Keep Your Health Plan” Bill
Discussion:
Fox News, Hot Air, Red Alert Politics and National Review
Reid J. Epstein / Politico:
Liberals to President Obama: Keep it together
Liberals to President Obama: Keep it together
Discussion:
The Week and Weasel Zippers
Leigh Ann Caldwell / CNN:
Obama digging out of a deep hole
Obama digging out of a deep hole
Discussion:
NewsBusters, The Raw Story, BizPac Review and The Hill
Brian Beutler / Salon:
The president strikes back: Insurance companies get their justified comeuppance
The president strikes back: Insurance companies get their justified comeuppance
Discussion:
Close Read, National Review, The Week and The New Republic
Dan Friedman / NY Daily News:
Obama admits fumbled health care rollout is ‘on me,’ says his administration will have to earn back credibility
Obama admits fumbled health care rollout is ‘on me,’ says his administration will have to earn back credibility
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and NBCNews
Sarah Kliff / Wonkblog:
The White House's Obamacare fix is about to create a big mess
The White House's Obamacare fix is about to create a big mess
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy, Washington Post, Post Politics, The Plum Line, The Incidental Economist, Bloomberg, New York Times, Hot Air, AEIdeas and The Dish
Ronald Brownstein / NationalJournal.com:
Obamacare's Problems Could Haunt Democrats for Years — The party's strategists thought the program would show white voters that government programs can help them. It's not going so well. — President Obama's health care law is now compounding a political problem it was meant to solve …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, ABC News and ABC News
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Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Health Law Rollout's Stumbles Draw Parallels to Bush's Hurricane Response — WASHINGTON — Barack Obama won the presidency by exploiting a political environment that devoured George W. Bush in a second term plagued by sinking credibility, failed legislative battles, fractured world relations and revolts inside his own party.
Todd S. Purdum / Politico:
The Obamacare fumble — It's the cardinal rule of marketing management: Under-promise and over-deliver. If the sign at “Pirates of the Caribbean” says the wait is 45 minutes, and your kids are floating along on the ride in half that time, Disneyland really is the Happiest Place on Earth.
New York Times:
C.I.A. Collects Global Data on Transfers of Money — WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency is secretly collecting bulk records of international money transfers handled by companies like Western Union — including transactions into and out of the United States …
Discussion:
Liberaland, emptywheel, The Daily Caller, Gawker, Guardian, TechCrunch and Prairie Weather
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Evan Perez / CNN:
Source: CIA using Patriot Act to collect money transfer data
Source: CIA using Patriot Act to collect money transfer data
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice and The Hinterland Gazette
Richard Spencer / Telegraph:
Al-Qaeda-linked rebels apologise after cutting off head of wrong person — Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham militants say sorry for decapitating a fellow extremist rather than enemy — Militant Islamist rebels in Syria linked to al-Qaeda have asked for “understanding and forgiveness” …
Discussion:
“The Lid”, BBC, The Lonely Conservative, Liberaland, Right Wing News, Weasel Zippers, Jihad Watch and Gawker
Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Oprah: Old Racists ‘Just Have To Die’ To Further Racial Progress — Oprah did not hold back when talking about race in an interview with the BBC on Friday. — She was in the UK to promote “The Butler,” and forthrightly told interviewer Will Gompertz that there needed to be some demographic pruning to stamp out racism more fully.
Discussion:
Liberaland, Weasel Zippers and The Hinterland Gazette
David / Crooks and Liars:
Watch: Forum Audience Laughs at Ted Cruz for Claiming He 'Didn't Want a Shutdown' — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) faced howls of laughter from an audience in Washington, D.C. on Thursday when he claimed that he “didn't want a shutdown” over President Barack Obama's health care reform law.
Discussion:
Mediaite
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Three Keys to the Obamacare Tweaks Announced Thursday — President Obama on Thursday announced a new administration initiative designed to help that small portion of Americans whose insurers are cancelling existing policies. — It's not clear how much impact it will actually have …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Prairie Weather and Wonkblog