Top Items:
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Obama, Clinton Continue Reign as Most Admired — Sixth year in a row for Obama, 12th straight year for Clinton — PRINCETON, NJ — For the sixth consecutive year, Barack Obama ranks as the Most Admired Man among Americans, and Hillary Clinton is again the Most Admired Woman. Both won by comfortable margins.
Discussion:
Joe. My. God., PoliticusUSA, CNN, Reuters and Talking Points Memo
Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:
Yes, There IS Evidence Linking al Qaeda to Benghazi — Libyan militants tell the New York Times that al Qaeda is not behind the 2012 Benghazi attack. Some members of Congress have intelligence that says otherwise. — On Sunday, The New York Times published an investigation …
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Thomas Joscelyn / Weekly Standard:
The New York Times Whitewashes Benghazi
The New York Times Whitewashes Benghazi
Discussion:
Fox News, Power Line, americanthinker.com, Wizbang, BREITBART.COM, Examiner, Politico, Right Wing News, Hot Air and The Mahablog
Jethro Mullen / CNN:
2nd deadly blast hits Russian city of Volgograd ahead of 2014 Sochi Olympics — (CNN) — Another deadly blast has struck the southern Russian city of Volgograd, killing at least 14 people and further highlighting Russia's security challenges as it readies to host the Winter Olympics in less than six weeks.
Discussion:
Associated Press, americanthinker.com, The Jawa Report, New Day, Atlas Shrugs and Scared Monkeys
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RIA Novosti:
At Least 14 Killed in Second Volgograd Suicide Bombing
At Least 14 Killed in Second Volgograd Suicide Bombing
Discussion:
Siberian Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Long War Journal, Associated Press, Scared Monkeys and TalkLeft
Steven Lee Myers / New York Times:
Second Blast Hits Russia, Raising Olympic Fears
Second Blast Hits Russia, Raising Olympic Fears
Discussion:
The Week, Algemeiner.com, The Other McCain, Gawker, RT, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, WJLA-TV, Business Insider and Reuters
Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Obama's TV Picks: Anything Edgy, With Hints of Reality — WASHINGTON — War, terrorism, economic struggle, mass shootings — such is life in the Oval Office for President Obama. — Yet in his few quiet moments, this president seeks not to escape to the delicious back-stabbing of the …
Discussion:
Politico, Talking Points Memo, The Verge, TheBlaze.com and New York Magazine
John Prager / Americans Against the Tea Party:
Watch Phil Robertson's Tips On Finding The Perfect Underage Girl To Marry! (Video) — As we've already established, Chris Hansen might enjoy it very much if Phil Robertson “took a seat over there,” based on some comments made at the Sportsmen's Ministry in Georgia in 2009.
Discussion:
Joe. My. God. and The Dish
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New York Times:
Cost of Being Mayor? $650 Million, if He's Rich — Michael R. Bloomberg loves tropical fish. So when he was elected mayor, he installed two giant aquariums in City Hall. — The cost to him for having the tanks cleaned out every week for the past 12 years: around $62,400. — The mayor likes to nosh, too.
Discussion:
Politicker and Associated Press
Juan Williams / The Hill:
Republicans to blame for the public's disgust with Congress — As the year ends, Gallup reports that public approval of Congress averaged 14 percent during 2013. This, the polling firm points out, is “the lowest annual average in Gallup's history.” — The pollsters added …
CNN:
CNN Poll: Afghanistan war arguably most unpopular in U.S. history — Washington (CNN) - Support for the war in Afghanistan has dipped below 20%, according to a new national poll, making the country's longest military conflict arguably its most unpopular one as well.
Discussion:
Business Insider, Post Politics, Politico and Talking Points Memo
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Fiscal Fever Breaks — In 2012 President Obama, ever hopeful that reason would prevail, predicted that his re-election would finally break the G.O.P.'s “fever.” It didn't. — But the intransigence of the right wasn't the only disease troubling America's body politic in 2012.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Prairie Weather and Daily Kos
Jay Michaelson / Forward:
Obamacare ‘Pajama Boy’ Controversy Wrapped in Anti-Semitism — Right Wing Anger at ‘Jewish’ Star of Viral Health Care Ad — Surely the silliest kerfluffle of a political year that contained much silliness was the recent conservative hand-wringing over “Pajama Boy.”
Discussion:
americanthinker.com and The Other McCain
Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Mike Huckabee: My adventures in radio — Huckabee said he got through the interview on air, but after it wrapped he remembered telling the producer, “Look, I don't mind doing fun stuff, I don't mind doing some stuff that's off the wall, but this is the kind of topic — this isn't going to happen again.”
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and The Raw Story
The Hill:
Regulatory fights loom large in 2014 — Battles lines are being drawn for a series of upcoming clashes over new regulations on the horizon in 2014. — The year promises to be chock full of contentious fights over scores of new rules stemming from ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank and a host of other laws.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Robert J. Samuelson / Washington Post:
The good news about 2014 (maybe) — For four and a half years, we have waited for a powerful and self-sustaining economic recovery. More than once it seemed imminent. Then, for various reasons, it vanished, and we returned to a plodding expansion with too much unemployment and too little confidence.
Discussion:
Liberaland and Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Robert Wilde / BREITBART.COM:
NO CHURCH FOR OBAMA FAMILY ON CHRISTMAS DAY — The President and his family, enjoying a 17-day vacation in Hawaii, did not attend Church on Christmas Day. Ironically, President Obama recently asked all Christians to remember the religious aspects of Christmas and not to exaggerate the commercial.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Americans Against the …, Liberaland and Joe. My. God.