Top Items:
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:
National Review, Hit & Run, Post Politics, Talking Points Memo, The Dish and AEIdeas
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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:
Questions and Observations and Wall Street Journal
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:
Power Line, The Dish and A plain blog about politics
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:
Power Line, PostPartisan, NewsBusters, Betsy's Page, Real Clear Politics, Right Turn, National Review, The Fix, Cafe Hayek, Post Politics, Weasel Zippers and Ed Driscoll
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 …
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
White House defends legality of Obamacare fix
White House defends legality of Obamacare fix
Discussion:
Liberaland, NationalJournal.com, National Review, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers and Wonkblog
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”
Elise Viebeck / The Hill:
Regulators ‘unclear’ on O-Care fix plan
Regulators ‘unclear’ on O-Care fix plan
Discussion:
Hit & Run, The Lonely Conservative and Weekly Standard
Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Pelosi: No apology for ACA promise
Pelosi: No apology for ACA promise
Discussion:
The Week, American Thinker, Weasel Zippers and Balloon Juice
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, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice, 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.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Althouse, NBCNews, BuzzFeed, American Prospect, Washington Free Beacon, National Review, Right Turn, The Public Editor's Journal, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Hullabaloo, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Balloon Juice, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Campaign for America's Future, The Raw Story and Hot Air
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
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:
New York Times, BuzzFeed, Scared Monkeys and Politico
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:
Washington Post, USA Today, JustOneMinute, Firedoglake, Politico, Daily Kos, NBCNews, Conservative Intelligence …, Close Read, Wonkblog and Outside the Beltway
Ross Douthat:
What Obamacare Needs Now ... ... is not at all the same as what freaking-out Congressional Democrats think they need politically, and what the president tried to provide to them yesterday. That's because all of the “if you like your plan, you keep your plan” ideas in the wind right now …
Discussion:
Business Insider, AEIdeas, Mediaite, Wonkblog and The Mahablog
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 and First Read
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:
Hit & Run, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, The Jawa Report, Atlas Shrugs, “The Lid”, BBC, The Lonely Conservative, Liberaland, Right Wing News, Weasel Zippers, Jihad Watch, Gawker and The PJ Tatler
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Salma Abdelaziz / CNN:
Al-Qaeda-linked rebels mistakenly behead fellow fighter, rebel group says
Al-Qaeda-linked rebels mistakenly behead fellow fighter, rebel group says
Discussion:
National Review
Donald Gilliland / Marching toward Gettysburg:
Living on the wrong side of history? The Harrisburg Patriot & Union's notorious ‘review’ of the Gettysburg Address — “We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of.”
Discussion:
Poynter
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Eric Lach / Talking Points Memo:
Companies Use Obamacare Confusion To Sell ‘Junk Insurance’ — Georgene Mortimer, who runs a winery and lives in Hilton Head, S.C., was recently having trouble accessing the online health insurance exchange. So she decided to check in with the local insurance agent who in 2010 had sold …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress and Liberaland
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:
Just Security, Guardian, Gawker, Shakesville, The Daily Caller, emptywheel, Liberaland, 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
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:
Weasel Zippers, The Hinterland Gazette and The PJ Tatler