memeorandum: Midterms, for Clinton Team, Aren't All Gloom (Amy Chozick/New York Times)

6:20 PM ET, November 7, 2014

Top Items:

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Court to rule on health care subsidies — The Supreme Court, moving back into the abiding controversy over the Affordable Care Act, agreed early Friday afternoon to decide how far the federal government can extend its program of subsidies to buyers of health insurance.

Discussion: Washington Post, Bloomberg View, Hot Air, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mediaite, National Review and Althouse

Nicholas Bagley / The Incidental Economist:

The Supreme Court will hear King. That's bad news for the ACA. — In a significant setback for the Obama administration, the Supreme Court just agreed to review King v. Burwell, the Fourth Circuit's decision upholding an IRS rule extending tax credits to federally established exchanges.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo and Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Supreme Court Accepts New Challenge to Health Law — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act, potentially imperiling President Obama's signature legislative achievement two years after it survived a different challenge in the court by a single vote.

Discussion: Power Line

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

BREAKING: Supreme Court To Hear Case Seeking To Gut Obamacare — In an unexpected step into a politically charged case, the Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would hear a lawsuit seeking to strip health care from millions of Americans. The Affordable Care Act gives states …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and No More Mister Nice Blog

Jay Kolls / KSTP-TV:

Mpls. Mayor Flashes Gang Sign with Convicted Felon; Law Enforcement Outraged — 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has obtained a photo of Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges posing with a convicted felon while flashing a known gang sign. — The man in the photo is a twice-convicted felon for drug selling …

Discussion: Minneapolis Star Tribune, Raw Story, Gawker and The Daily Banter

Shaun King / Daily Kos:

pointergate may be the most racist news story of 2014 — What you are about to read and watch is stranger than fiction. It's so racist and so outrageous, that people are questioning whether or not it's satire from The Onion. It's real though, and that's what is so shocking and heartbreaking about the whole ordeal.

Discussion: Addicting Info and Hullabaloo

Brendan James / Talking Points Memo:
TV Station Accuses Mayor of ‘Gang Signs’ For Pointing Index Finger With Black Volunteer

Discussion: ThinkProgress, New York Magazine and FOX2now.com

Evan Perez / CNN:

Obama's expected pick for Attorney General — Washington (CNN) — Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, is expected to be President Barack Obama's pick for Attorney General, U.S. officials briefed on the matter told CNN. — An announcement is expected in the coming days …

Discussion: Washington Post, Reuters, Washington Monthly, Gothamist, Hot Air, Business Insider, Hinterland Gazette, Balloon Juice and FOX News Radio

New York Times:

Obama to Nominate Loretta Lynch as U.S. Attorney General — WASHINGTON — President Obama will nominate Loretta E. Lynch, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, to succeed Eric H. Holder Jr. as attorney general, people close to the process said Friday evening.

Discussion: Washington Post, NPR, ThinkProgress, US News, Daily Kos and New York Magazine

Alex Rogers / TIME:

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin: People Just Don't Believe Obama Cares — West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin told TIME Thursday that President Barack Obama has lost his emotional connection with the American people. — “There's an old saying my grandmother would say …

Discussion: Mediaite, National Review, CBS DC, Real Clear Politics and The Daily Caller

Sam Youngman / Lexington Herald-Leader:

McConnell: If Rand Paul runs for president, 'he'll be able to count on me' — LOUISVILLE — There were only two things Mitch McConnell didn't want to talk about Thursday — whether he will run for re-election in 2020 and his eventual legacy. — In his first one-on-one interview since …

Discussion: Mediaite, CNN, Bloomberg Politics, Washington Post, Booman Tribune and Politico

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Lame duck swims to Asia

Discussion: ThinkProgress, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, ABC News and JustOneMinute

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Fox News cuts ties with Ben Carson — Following an ABC News report that Fox News contributor Ben Carson is set to air a 40-minute ad “introducing himself to the American people” as part of a 2016 presidential bid, Fox News has cut ties with him, according to a Fox spokeswoman.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, National Review, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, The Hill, Raw Story, Washington Monthly and LifeNews.com

Patricia Cohen / New York Times:

Jobs Data Show Steady Gains Even as Voters Signal Anxiety — Three days after voters expressed their discontent with the state of the economy, the government on Friday reported strong signs of improvement, estimating that employers added 214,000 jobs in October, while the official jobless rate dropped …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Outside the Beltway, The Hill, The Moderate Voice and Washington Monthly

Javier E. David / CNBC:
Payrolls grow by 214K; jobless rate hits 6-year low

Discussion: Hinterland Gazette and Hot Air

Roberta Rampton / Reuters:

Obama authorizes 1,500 additional U.S. troops for deployment to Iraq — 1 OF 2. U.S. President Barack Obama (L) speaks as Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel listens before the start of a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, November 7, 2014.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Fox News and Hot Air

Reuters:
Obama to send more troops to Iraq as campaign expands

Discussion: The PJ Tatler and NBC News

Eric Bradner / CNN:

Ed Gillespie concedes Virginia Senate race — Washington (CNN) — Republican Ed Gillespie conceded the Virginia Senate race Friday to incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Warner. — Gillespie said at a Friday afternoon news conference that he had called Warner “congratulating him on his re-election” …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Politico:
Ed Gillespie: No plan to run for Virginia governor

Discussion: ABC News and Bloomberg Politics

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Triumph of the Wrong — The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet midterms to men of understanding. Or as I put it on the eve of another Republican Party sweep, politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth.

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, Hot Air and Bloomberg View

Yahoo! News:

Ukraine accuses Russia of sending in tanks, escalating crisis — Reuters 5 hrs ago — KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukraine's military accused Russia on Friday of sending a column of 32 tanks and truckloads of troops into the country's east to support pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces.

Discussion: Hit & Run and Vox Popoli

Agence France-Presse:
Kiev says tanks roll in from Russia, five soldiers die

Discussion: Hot Air, The Dish and The PJ Tatler

MacKenzie Elmer / Des Moines Register:

Joni Ernst spokeswoman resigned after OWI arrest — Gretchen Hamel, a campaign spokeswoman for Joni Ernst's U.S. Senate campaign, was arrested on Oct. 29 for operating while intoxicated and resigned the morning after the incident. — West Des Moines police found Hamel passed out behind …

Discussion: Latest from Crooks and Liars, Raw Story and Talking Points Memo

National Journal:

He says he wants to live a normal life. But he can still taste the White House. — Certainly, Ryan has given his suitors some cause for optimism: the visits to early primary states, the discussions with GOP donors, the high-profile blitz to promote his book, The Way Forward, which reads in parts like a presidential manifesto.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller, CNN and OnPolitics

Elizabeth Harrington / Public Opinion Strategies:

MCINTURFF-HARRINGTON MORNING CONSULT COLUMN (11-6-14): THE ACA WAS NOT A SIGNIFICANT VOTE FACTOR THIS ELECTION — Public Opinion Strategies' Election Night Poll shows that the ACA was not as much of a vote factor in 2014 as it was in 2010. — Here is what we knew going into Election Day 2014:

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Right Scoop and Political Wire

Andrew Desiderio / Mediaite:

Bernie Sanders Wants to Make Election Day a National Holiday — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is not happy that the voter turnout in Tuesday's midterm elections was so low — in fact, it hasn't been this low since the 1940s, and Sanders' own state saw its lowest turnout of registered voters in recorded history.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler and FOX News Radio

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

In defeat, Obama tells GOP: My mandate is bigger than yours — WHITE HOUSE BARACK OBAMA 2014 ELECTIONS CAMPAIGNS GEORGE W. BUSH VIDEO — President Obama did something extraordinary, perhaps unprecedented, in his post-election news conference Wednesday: He claimed a mandate on behalf of voters who didn't vote.

Discussion: The Right Scoop