memeorandum: Begala: I got a better deal through Obamacare (CNN)

1:15 PM ET, March 31, 2014

Top Items:

Obamacare has led to health coverage for millions more people — At least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gotten health insurance since Obamacare started, surveys and reports show. — Precise figures on national health coverage will not be available for months …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, The Moderate Voice, Liberaland, The Plum Line, Daily Kos, ACASignups.net and American Spectator

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:

That Good News on Obamacare? Republicans Insist It's Not Real — Americans are signing up for the Affordable Care Act. And they appear to be doing so in really big numbers. As of the latest official update, last week, more than 6 million people had selected a private insurance plan through …

Discussion: The Plum Line, Mediaite, Daily Kos, Politico, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo and Booman Tribune

Juan Williams / The Hill:

O-Care perception bests reality — Last week, in the run-up to Monday's deadline for enrolling in ObamaCare, I called one of the few people with a hand in designing both the Affordable Care Act and the Massachusetts healthcare reform plan signed into law in 2006 by then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R).

Discussion: CNN and The Moderate Voice

CNN:

Begala: I got a better deal through Obamacare — Editor's note: Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator, was a political consultant for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992 and was counselor to Clinton in the White House. He is a consultant to the pro-Obama Super PAC, Priorities USA Action.

Discussion: CBS DC and Real Clear Politics

Fox News:
Republican senator says administration has ‘cooked the books’ on ObamaCare numbers

Discussion: Americans Against the …, BizPac Review, Weasel Zippers and Viking Pundit

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Record volume for O-Care exchanges — The federal health insurance marketplace saw record volume for a Saturday, and operators at the federal call centers struggled to keep up with the volume of calls as consumers flooded the ObamaCare exchanges ahead of Monday's enrollment deadline.

Discussion: Politico, CNN and Taylor Marsh

Politico:

HealthCare.gov offline for nearly six hours on deadline morning — Obamacare sign-up closes at midnight and enrollment is surging, but a technical flare-up on HealthCare.gov Monday morning marred the administration's momentum. — The online portal, which had been handling millions of visitors …

Discussion: USA Today, CNN, Mashable and ACASignups.net

Rebecca Shabad / The Hill:
HealthCare.gov restored after morning outage

Discussion: National Review

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico: Dems try to keep hope alive with ACA mantra

NY Daily News:

Ratings may sink Ronan Farrow's show on MSNBC — ‘Ronan Farrow Daily’ came in 708th in the Nielsens on Wednesday, and a network source says he ‘sort of stinks on TV’ — Ronan Farrow's MSNBC talk show is facing cancellation amid poor ratings, sources exclusively tell Confidenti@l.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Banter, Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon and National Review

Justin Gillis / New York Times:

Panel's Warning on Climate Risk: Worst Is Yet to Come — YOKOHAMA, Japan — Climate change is already having sweeping effects on every continent and throughout the world's oceans, scientists reported Monday, and they warned that the problem is likely to grow substantially worse unless greenhouse emissions are brought under control.

Discussion: Firedoglake, BBC, ThinkProgress, News Desk, The Week, Washington Post, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air, The Verge, Gothamist, Guardian, Mashable, The Agonist and Gawker

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

DHS document: 68,000 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions released in 2013 — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials last year released 68,000 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions, undercutting Democratic claims that President Obama has strictly enforced immigration laws.

Discussion: RedState

Jessica Vaughan / cis.org:
Catch and Release — Interior immigration enforcement in 2013

Discussion: Hot Air, The PJ Tatler, The Other McCain and Fox News

Matthew Boyle / BREITBART.COM:
REPORT: OBAMA ADMIN RELEASED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIMINALS

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Althouse

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:

How You, I, and Everyone Got the Top 1 Percent All Wrong — Unveiling the real story behind the richest of the rich — For years, I've been making the same embarrassing mistake about U.S. economic inequality. Sorry. — I've written, over and over, that the most important divide …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Caller, House of Debt and Business Insider

Olga Khazan / The Atlantic Online:

Other People's Pathologies — Over the past week or so, Jonathan Chait and I have enjoyed an ongoing debate over the rhetoric the president employs when addressing African Americans. Here is my initial installment, Chait's initial rebuttal, my subsequent reply, and Chait's latest riposte.

Discussion: The Dish and Bloomberg View

Tom Boggioni / The Raw Story:

Judge: Probation for du Pont heir in daughter rape because ‘he would not fare well’ in prison — A Superior Court judge who sentenced an heir to the du Pont fortune to probation for raping his 3-year-old daughter wrote in her order that he “will not fare well” in prison and suggested …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Gawker, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Shakesville

Cris Barrish / delawareonline:
Judge said du Pont heir ‘will not fare well’ in prison

Discussion: Firedoglake, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, FreakOutNation, Taylor Marsh, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Liberaland

Los Angeles Times:

Democratic turnout seen as key to party's retaining Senate control — The Democratic Party is tackling a historical weakness: the failure of Democratic voters to show up for midterm elections. — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe gestures during a news conference in Richmond.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Andrew Kohut / Wall Street Journal: The Demographics Behind the Democrats' 2014 Troubles

Kenneth P. Vogel / Politico:

Sheldon Adelson: Wild card — Plus, Zeidman suggested that Adelson's personal feelings on the various 2016 possibilities won't factor into his decision as they did in 2012. “None of them have a 20-year history like Newt Gingrich did,” Zeidman said of the former House speaker's relationship with Adelson.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Las Vegas Review-Journal

Kenneth P. Vogel / Politico:
Sheldon Adelson: Wild card

Discussion: ABC News, Taylor Marsh, Informed Comment, Talking Points Memo, his vorpal sword and Mediaite

Eliana Johnson / National Review:

Inside the Koch-Funded Ads Giving Dems Fits — In one of the ads Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has put on the air this year, a thirtysomething actress stands against a white backdrop and looks into the camera. “People don't like political ads,” she says plaintively. “I don't like them either.

Discussion: RedState

Rebecca Shabad / The Hill:

Report: Review finds torture methods not key in bin Laden hunt — A forthcoming Senate report concludes that waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques did not provide any key evidence that aided the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the Associated Press reports.

Discussion: Liberaland

Bradley Klapper / Associated Press: Senate Torture Report Examines Hunt for Bin Laden

Jackie Calmes / New York Times:

Hopes Frustrated, Many Latinos Reject the Ballot Box Altogether — AURORA, Colo. — As the weather warms, Lizeth Chacon is anticipating a new season of registering Latino voters — yet dreading experiences like one late last year, when she came upon a skate park full of older teenagers.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog