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11:55 PM ET, August 20, 2009

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
The Note:
Obama Ally: Dem Majority Is History If Health Reform Fails  —  ABC News' Teddy Davis reports:  —  A top Obama ally predicted Wednesday in an interview with ABC News that Democrats will lose their congressional majority in next year's midterm elections if they fail to put a health-care reform bill on President Obama's desk.
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Pelosi Says She Can't Pass Bill Without Public Option  —  Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won't be able to pass health-care legislation in her chamber if the measure doesn't include a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers.
Mike Soraghan / The Hill:
Left flexes muscles on healthcare reform  —  The fury from the left about President Barack Obama's shift on a public option has raised the prospect of House liberals joining together to defeat a healthcare bill that doesn't meet their standards.  —  Heading into the August recess …
John Avlon / Blogs and Stories:
The Coming Liberal Suicide
Discussion: Majikthise
Big Tent Democrat / TalkLeft:
The Madman Theory Of Political Bargaining: Part 4
Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and Daily Kos
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
If Progressive Members of the House Think We'll Accept Co-Ops …
Sam Youngman / The Hill:
‘One way or another,’ Obama guarantees reform
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Liberals And Gut Hatred, Or, Why I'm Sorry I Wrote What I Wrote  —  Both Glenn Greenwald and Marcy Wheeler have written posts eviscerating me for contending that Bush-hatred, not anything else, drove skepticism among liberals about the terrorist threat warnings.
RELATED:
US News:
Tom Ridge on National Security After 9/11  —  Tom Ridge, the first head of the 9/11-inspired Department of Homeland Security, wasn't keen on writing a tell-all.  But in The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again, out September 1, Ridge says he wants to shake “public complacency” over security.
Emptywheel:
Ambinder: Sorry I Was So Stupid, But I Was Right To Be Stupid
Discussion: Hullabaloo and Salon
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Don't Cry For Tom Ridge
Discussion: Truthdig and Grasping Reality …
Charlie Cook / The Cook Political Report:
Special Update from the Cook Political Report  —  For those of you not addicted to the 1:00pm EDT daily release of Gallup's three-night moving average tracking poll, President Obama's job approval rating in both their August 16-18 and August 17-19 averages was just 51 percent, the lowest level of his presidency.
Discussion: Don Surber and Blue Crab Boulevard
RELATED:
Charles Mahtesian / Scorecard's Blog:
Charlie Cook: Dem situation has ‘slipped completely out of control’  —  Charlie Cook, one of the best political handicappers in the business, sent out a special update to Cook Political Report subscribers Thursday that should send shivers down Democratic spines.
David A. Patten / NewsMax.com:
Inside Cover  —  Zogby: Obama Hits Record Low in Poll  —  President Barack Obama's popularity has plummeted to a record low, with just 45 percent of voters now approving of his performance, according to the latest Zogby International poll.  —  Asked whether they approve or disapprove …
Discussion: Hot Air and Weasel Zippers
RELATED:
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Obama's lost summer
Discussion: American Power
Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Obama: everything gets ‘wee-weed’ up in D.C. in August  —  President Obama is betting on a more successful September than August, when it comes to his bid for healthcare reform.  —  At an online forum on healthcare held Thursday at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) …
RELATED:
BREITBART.COM:
Obama fires back at political critics  —  US President Barack Obama launched a mocking counter-attack Thursday at pundits who believe the euphoric early promise of his presidency is evaporating amid bitter political warfare.  —  Obama, who has watched his poll ratings dip sharply over recent months …
Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blog:
Righty bloggers slam MSNBC over ‘gun’ clip; network responds  —  Several conservative bloggers, including Hot Air, RedState, and NewsBusters, have taken MSNBC to task for not identifying a man with a gun at an Obama event as an African-American in a segment that discussed the “racial overtones” …
RELATED:
Gene Lyons / Salon:
You won't win the healthcare debate by calling people stupid racists  —  The folks listening to them are mostly just scared  —  A man speaks at a town hall held by Democratic Reps. Vic Snyder and Mike Ross at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock on Aug, 5.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Republicans Calling for Super-Supermajority for Health Care  —  In order to become law, a health care bill needs to secure a majority on the House Ways & Means Committee and also the House Energy & Commerce Committee and also the House Education & Labor Committee and, of course, the full United States House of Representatives.
RELATED:
The Huffington Post:
New Poll: 77 Percent Support “Choice” Of Public Option  —  Read More: Poll Public Option, Public Option Poll.  Nbc Poll, Public Plan, Survey Usa, Survey Usa Poll, Politics News  —  More than three out of every four Americans feel it is important to have a “choice” between …
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
ABC's Charles Gibson to Cindy Sheehan: Thanks for your sacrifice.  Now get lost.  —  In an appearance August 18 on WLS radio in Chicago, ABC News anchor Charles Gibson was asked about anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan's plans to travel to Martha's Vineyard next week, where she will protest …
Joe Klein / Time:
The GOP Has Become a Party of Nihilists  —  In one of those awful collisions between public policy and real life, I was in the midst of an awkward conversation about end-of-life issues with my father when Sarah Palin raised the remarkable idea that the Obama Administration's attempt to include …
Kevin Drum / MoJo Blog Posts:
Credible Threats  —  Via ActBlue, Blue America has raised nearly $200,000 for members of Congress who have pledged to vote against any bill that doesn't contain a public option.  Pretty impressive.  If push comes to shove, and the choice is no bill vs. a bill without a public option …
Ronald Dworkin / Wall Street Journal:
An Anesthesiologist's Take on Health-Care Reform  —  Expect a two-tier medical system and needless ER deaths if Congress and the White House have their way.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Every medical student learns an old adage: You can skimp on some medicine, but you can't skimp on obstetrics or anesthesiology.
Chris Ariens / TVNewser:
Glenn Beck Off This Week: Vacation or Something More?  —  First on TVNewser: Tipsters inside Fox News tell us Glenn Beck's vacation this week from his Fox News show was not planned.  We hear Beck was told to take this week off to let some of the heat surrounding him die down.
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Bachmann: No Government Control Over My Body!  —  Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who is a a staunch champion of the religious right and an opponent of President Obama on all things under the sun, has a new line against the Democrats on health care: Keep the government off my body!
Discussion: Minnesota Independent
Megan McArdle:
Who's Crazy Now?  —  A series of posts at Reason illustrates that the liberal rage at right-wing loonies is starting to sound, well, a little loonie:  —  From Jesse Walker: “The social construction of the brownshirt menace, chapter DXXIII: … Here's the video:
Jeff Poor / The Business & Media Institute:
Looking for a Health Care Scapegoat: Networks Try to Marginalize Talk Radio  —  Media blame ObamaCare struggles on conservative stations, reminiscent of 2007 immigration reform failure.  —  Business & Media Institute  —  If you can't beat them, ban them.  That's the new model for CNN, “the most trusted name in news.”
Steve Chapman / Reason:
An Odd Silence on Gay Marriage  —  Why won't leading opponents of same-sex marriage go on the record with their predictions?  —  Opponents of same-sex marriage reject it on religious and moral grounds but also on practical ones.  If we let homosexuals marry, they believe …
 
 
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 More Items: 
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Time to Follow the Doctor's Orders on Health Care
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Mitt Romney's fundraising slows
Damon W. Root / Reason:
A History of Violence  —  Do the noisy protests directed …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Bayh will have to ‘evaluate’ card check stance
Joseph Curl / Washington Times:
Obama: GOP conspiracy out to kill health reform
Shira Toeplitz / Roll Call:
Senate GOP's Campaign Arm Outraises Democrats in July
Discussion: Senate Guru and RedState
Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
Flashback: FDR and Johnson Got Republican Votes
 Earlier Items: 
Randal Edgar / Providence Journal:
Rumor has it that Palin's moving to Rhode Island
John H / CNN:
Coleman headed to Harvard
Discussion: Minnesota Independent and TPMDC
CNN:
Elizabeth Edwards: I expect a paternity test on Hunter's child
Discussion: The Sleuth
Aaron Rowe / Wired Science:
New Mosquito Repellents Beat DEET