Top Items:
Lucy McCalmont / Politico:
Rick Santorum ties Obamacare, Nelson Mandela — As condolences and reflections followed the passing of Nelson Mandela, Rick Santorum linked the injustices the former South African president fought and Obamacare. — “He was fighting against some great injustice, and I would make the argument …
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Leslie Larson / NY Daily News:
Sen. Ted Cruz's praise for Nelson Mandela met with criticism by supporters — The Texas senator posted a message on his Facebook page saying that Mandela would ‘live in history as an inspiration for defenders of liberty,’ but some of the comments posted called the former South African leader a 'terrorist …
Discussion:
Liberaland, Daily Kos, BOR and Joe. My. God.
Nick Wing / The Huffington Post:
Dick Cheney Didn't Regret His Vote Against Freeing Nelson Mandela, Maintained He Was A ‘Terrorist’ — In 1986, Nelson Mandela — the former president of South Africa who died Thursday at the age of 95 — was serving the 23rd year of what would ultimately be a 27-year prison sentence.
Adam Peck / ThinkProgress:
Rick Santorum Compares Obamacare To Apartheid — Rick Santorum, the erstwhile Republican presidential candidate with a penchant for controversy, appeared on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor on Thursday night and memorialized the passing of South African leader and global visionary Nelson Mandela by equating Obamacare with apartheid.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Austin Chronicle, Mediaite and Shakesville
Max Boot / Commentary Magazine:
The Character of Nelson Mandela
The Character of Nelson Mandela
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Betsy's Page, National Review, The Dish and BREITBART.COM
Hunter Walker / Talking Points Memo:
Richard Branson: Mandela Tried To Stop The Iraq War
Richard Branson: Mandela Tried To Stop The Iraq War
Discussion:
CNN and Liberaland
Richard Stengel / TIME:
Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013: Remembering an Icon of Freedom
Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013: Remembering an Icon of Freedom
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, The Dish, News Desk, Slate, The Monkey Cage, Jezebel, Spectator and The New Republic
Scott Wilson / Washington Post:
Mandela's cause shaped Obama's political awakening
Mandela's cause shaped Obama's political awakening
Discussion:
Booman Tribune, Washington Wire, Post Politics and Taegan Goddard's …
Bill Keller / New York Times:
Nelson Mandela, South Africa's Liberator as Prisoner and President, Dies at 95
Nelson Mandela, South Africa's Liberator as Prisoner and President, Dies at 95
Discussion:
BBC, Hit & Run, Washington Post, Associated Press, naked capitalism, NPR, KHOU-TV, Guardian, ≠ Inequality Matters, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Outside the Beltway, Taylor Marsh, The Democratic Daily, Politico, No More Mister Nice Blog, Mashable, The Lede, The Hugh Hewitt Show, BBC and Colorlines
Paul Taylor / Washington Post:
Nelson Mandela knew how to deploy the moral high ground
Nelson Mandela knew how to deploy the moral high ground
Discussion:
Gothamist, NBCNews, Hot Air, Politico, Business Insider and New York Times
Peter Schweizer / Politico:
When Barry Met Kathy — Almost never, it turns out. — Journalists and pundits have begun offering lengthy postmortems to explain the causes of the ruinous Obamacare rollout. The debacle's scale has surprised even progressives who supported the Affordable Care Act.
Discussion:
PostPartisan, Hot Air, National Republican … and Government Accountability …
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Laura Barron-Lopez / The Hill:
Eagle-killing rule almost done — The Obama administration has nearly finalized a rule that would give energy companies lengthy permits for wind farms that end up killing bald and golden eagles. — Hundreds of thousands of birds are killed every year after flying into large wind turbine blades …
Discussion:
americanthinker.com and Prairie Weather
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
No talk of affordable health care in Obamacare PR push — WHITE HOUSE BARACK OBAMA OBAMACARE KATHLEEN SEBELIUS JAY CARNEY — One striking thing about the new White House Obamacare promotion campaign is that so far it hasn't had much to say about the central focus of Obamacare …
Art Swift / Gallup:
Majority of Americans Want Major Changes to Health Law — Fifty-two percent want Congress to repeal or scale back the law — WASHINGTON, D.C. — After two months of glitches with the new federal healthcare website and attempts to fix it, the percentage of Americans who prefer that Congress scale …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Weekly Standard, JustOneMinute, The Plum Line, Business Insider, Weasel Zippers and Reuters
Charlie Cook / NationalJournal.com:
Can Democrats Recover From the Obamacare Catastrophe? — If Republicans don't flub the coming fiscal debates like they did in the fall, voters will focus squarely on the health care rollout. — Most graphs of polling data show shifts that are very gradual.
Discussion:
First Read and Roll Call
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Michael O'Brien / NBCNews:
Obama: GOP should be ‘embarrassed’ by low productivity on Hill
Obama: GOP should be ‘embarrassed’ by low productivity on Hill
Discussion:
Washington Wire, Liberaland and Independent Journal Review
Emily Schultheis / Politico:
Thad Cochran to run for reelection — Six-term Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) will run for reelection next year, POLITICO has confirmed. — The second most-senior Republican in the Senate guarded his decision so closely that even Senate leaders and top officials at the National Republican Senatorial Committee …
Discussion:
Clarion-Ledger and CNN
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Nathan L. Gonzales / Rothenblog:
Cochran to Seek Re-Election in Mississippi — Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran has decided to seek re-election and is expected to announce that decision shortly. The Republican incumbent will likely face a competitive primary election against state Sen. Chris McDaniel.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and Taegan Goddard's …
Brendan Sasso / The Hill:
Patriot Act author: Obama's intel czar should be prosecuted — Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the original author of the Patriot Act, says Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be prosecuted for lying to Congress. — “Lying to Congress is a federal offense …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, SiliconBeat, The Switch and The Gateway Pundit
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Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Exclusive: The Obamacare Error Rate Has Fallen Dramatically — Some perspective on the latest ACA freak-out — These days it seems like everybody following Obamacare is talking about the 834s. Those are the personal data files that healthcare.gov sends insurance companies, in order to notify them of new enrollees.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Hot Air and The Huffington Post
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First Read / NBCNews:
First Thoughts: Universal, bipartisan praise for Mandela — when that wasn't always the case — Universal, bipartisan praise for Mandela after his passing — when it wasn't always the case... Cincinnati-area focus group: Voters angry with Washington, down on Obama, and feeling helpless in fixing things …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and The Fix
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Marc Fortier / Londonderry Patch News:
Scott Brown in ‘No Hurry’ to Decide on NH Senate Run
Scott Brown in ‘No Hurry’ to Decide on NH Senate Run
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Taegan Goddard's …
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Obama Gets Real — Much of the media commentary on President Obama's big inequality speech was cynical. You know the drill: it's yet another “reboot” that will go nowhere; none of it will have any effect on policy, and so on. But before we talk about the speech's possible political impact …
Discussion:
Washington Center …, Talking Points Memo, Via Meadia, nextnewdeal.net, Balloon Juice, White House.gov Blog and msnbc.com