Top Items:
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:
Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, ABC News and ABC News
RELATED:
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
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.
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 …
Yuval Levin / National Review:
The President Is Losing His Plan — The most important thing about the policy move announced by President Obama on Thursday is not its practical significance—which is frankly very hard to predict—but rather what it tells us about the mindset of the president and his top lieutenants.
Discussion:
A plain blog about politics and Weekly Standard
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, Washington Post, USA Today, Conservative Intelligence …, Daily Kos, NBCNews, 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 and Scared Monkeys
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
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 …
Discussion:
Politico, The Lonely Conservative and Weekly Standard
Jonathan H. Adler / The Volokh Conspiracy:
The Legality of the Latest ObamaCare Fix — Yesterday, the President announced a purported fix to the problem that, under the PPACA, insurance companies are not allowed to renew policies that fail to comply with PPACA requirements, even if consumers like their existing plans. This was not an accident.
Discussion:
The Plum Line, NationalJournal.com, National Review, Hot Air, Hit & Run, Talking Points Memo, Roll Call and AEIdeas
Jon Passantino / BuzzFeed:
Obama Vows To Veto “Keep Your Health Plan” Bill
Obama Vows To Veto “Keep Your Health Plan” Bill
Discussion:
Fox News, Questions and Observations, Red Alert Politics and National Review
Todd S. Purdum / Politico:
The Obamacare fumble — It's the cardinal rule of marketing …
The Obamacare fumble — It's the cardinal rule of marketing …
Discussion:
USA Today, Washington Post and The Dish
Jennifer Rubin / Right Turn:
The Obama-disaster news conference
The Obama-disaster news conference
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Post Politics, Townhall.com, Washington Free Beacon, Wonkblog and Washington Post
David Martosko / Daily Mail:
Revealed: Obamacare plans will cost MORE ‘in many cases’ even with government subsidies, officials admit for the first time — The Obama administration has directly conceded for the first time that ‘in many cases,’ health insurance plans offered through government exchanges are more expensive …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Hot Air and “The Lid”
RELATED:
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 Impolitic, The Dish, The Mahablog, The Week and BuzzFeed
Leigh Ann Caldwell / CNN:
Obama digging out of a deep hole
Obama digging out of a deep hole
Discussion:
NewsBusters, The Raw Story and BizPac Review
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 and TheBlaze.com
RELATED:
Reid J. Epstein / Politico:
Liberals to President Obama: Keep it together
Liberals to President Obama: Keep it together
Discussion:
The Week, Weasel Zippers and New York Times
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:
BBC, “The Lid”, The Lonely Conservative, Liberaland, Weasel Zippers, Right Wing News, The PJ Tatler, Jihad Watch and Gawker
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, Shakesville, emptywheel, The Daily Caller, Gawker, Guardian, TechCrunch and Prairie Weather
RELATED:
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
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
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