memeorandum: U.S. Economic Confidence Continues to Slide Amid Shutdown (Jeffrey M. Jones/Gallup)

11:20 AM ET, October 15, 2013

Top Items:

Mike Allen / Politico:

2 DAYS TO DEBT DEADLINE; SHUTDOWN DAY 15 — SENATE NEAR DEAL to postpone both cliffs to next year — HOUSE UNDER PRESSURE: 'won't be pretty' — WILL REPUBLICANS BE LEFT with little but bad polls? — DATA DU JOUR - DISapproval for handling of budget crisis, in new ABC News/WashPost poll …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Moderate Voice and Weasel Zippers

Carrie Budoff Brown / Politico:

What Barack Obama, Republicans get with a deal — It's not a perfect deal for the White House — but it's a worse deal for Republicans. — Democrats won't say it too loudly just yet, but the emerging budget agreement leaves Republicans with remarkably little to show for forcing …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Heritage Action for America, Hot Air, ABC News and The World's Greatest …

CNN:

‘Tremendous progress’: Senate has a plan, but what will House do? — Washington (CNN) — [Breaking news update, 9:51 a.m. ET] — House Republicans will offer their own plan on Tuesday to temporarily reopen the government and raise the federal debt ceiling while also making changes to Obamacare …

Discussion: KTLA 5

Reuters:
Pressure rising on Boehner

Discussion: Politico, National Review, ThinkProgress, NBCNews, USA Today, Mashable, Business Insider, Associated Press, First Read, Firedoglake and BuzzFeed

Ian Swanson / The Hill:
Reid, McConnell near deal to end shutdown, raise $16.7T debt limit

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Hill, Crooks and Liars, Hit & Run, No More Mister Nice Blog, Shakesville, Pat Dollard, Conservatives4Palin, Taylor Marsh, msnbc.com and The Lonely Conservative

Abby D. Phillip / ABC News:
Senate Nears Debt Limit Deal

Discussion: ABC News and THEROOT.COM

Kristina Peterson / Wall Street Journal:
Senate Leaders in Striking Distance of a Deal

Discussion: Washington Wire, BBC, Taegan Goddard's …, The Week and Washington Post

Matt Fuller / Roll Call:

Ted Cruz, House Republicans Meet in Secret at Tortilla Coast — Sen. Ted Cruz met with roughly 15 to 20 House Republicans for around two hours late Monday night at the Capitol Hill watering hole Tortilla Coast. — The group appeared to be talking strategy about how they should respond …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and Business Insider

Robert Costa / National Review:

House Conservatives Revolt — Later this morning, House Republicans will meet in the Capitol's basement. The chief topic of conversation: the emerging Senate deal. But before the meeting even begins, House conservatives are bashing it behind the scenes, and they're pushing the leadership to reject the compromise.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Business Insider, Prairie Weather, The Dish and The Hill

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Ted Cruz: Unsure if he'd block vote on Senate deal

Discussion: Slate, ThinkProgress, The Fix, The World's Greatest …, Power Line and Businessweek

Felix Salmon:

The default has already begun — The big question in Washington this week is whether, in the words of the NYT, we're going to see “a legislative failure and an economic catastrophe that could ripple through financial markets, foreign capitals, corporate boardrooms, state budget offices and the bank accounts of everyday investors”.

New York Times:

Senators Near Fiscal Deal, but the House Is Uncertain — WASHINGTON — Senate leaders neared the completion Monday night of a bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown while the rest of the world braced for the possibility of an American default that could set off a global financial disaster.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, First Read, Liberaland, Taegan Goddard's …, The Atlantic Online, DealBook, Outside the Beltway, Booman Tribune, naked capitalism, The Dish and JustOneMinute

New York Times:
House Outlines Alternative to Senate Leaders' Fiscal Deal

Discussion: Liberaland

Washington Post:

NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally — The National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials …

Discussion: The Switch, BBC, Just Security, Scared Monkeys, The Week, Techdirt, The Hill, Informed Comment, TechCrunch, Althouse, Gawker, Business Insider, The Hinterland Gazette, Mercury Rising and The Lonely Conservative

Washington Post:
The NSA's problem? Too much data.

Discussion: Independent Journal Review, JONATHAN TURLEY, Hot Air, Prairie Weather, emptywheel, TechCrunch, The Switch, Weasel Zippers, Pat Dollard and The Daily Caller

Don Kaplan / NY Daily News:

'The Kelly File's' surge is legit, Nielsen says — MSNBC had questioned Fox News show's 100% ratings increase — Megyn Kelly hosts the Fox News Channel's new show “The Kelly File.” — Nielsen has conducted an investigation into the ratings for Megyn Kelly's new Fox News Channel show …

Discussion: Politico, TVNewser, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, TheBlaze.com and Independent Journal Review

Esquire:

13 THINGS THAT DEFINE THE NEW AMERICAN CENTER — It is bigger than you think... An exclusive Esquire-NBC News survey shows us that everything we are told about politics in America today—that there is no middle ground between left and right, blue and red, us and them—is wrong.

Discussion: NBCNews and Real Clear Politics

Jonathan Capehart / PostPartisan:

Ugly rebel yell in front of the White House — If you want to curdle the blood of an African American and send a message of menace without resorting to burning a cross on the lawn or marching around in white sheets all one need do is wave the Confederate flag.

Discussion: FIRST DRAFT, National Review, Twitchy, Firedoglake, DCist and The Week

Jose DelReal / Politico:
Sarah Palin: Barack Obama flirts with impeachment

Discussion: The Reality-Based Community, Liberaland and Des Moines Register

Evan McMurry / Mediaite:
Million Vet March Organizers: We Were ‘Hijacked for Political Gain’

Discussion: msnbc.com, Little Green Footballs and Daily Kos

Ruth Marcus / Washington Post:

Panetta rebukes Obama's handling of shutdown — Leon Panetta served in Washington with nine presidents, starting with Lyndon Johnson. He has been a member of Congress, Office of Management and Budget director, White House chief of staff, director of the Central Intelligence Agency and secretary …

Discussion: Politico, Right Turn, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Taegan Goddard's … and Washington Wire

Jonah Goldberg / National Review:

Roger Simon and Media Bias — Over at Politico, Roger Simon has written a fairly trollish bit of “analysis,” which leads off with what he calls a joke about how America would be better off if John Boehner and Ted Cruz drowned. It goes on with the usual clichéd drek about the shutdown being racist and so on.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Roger Simon / Reuters:
Government shutdown unleashes racism

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Gerald F. Seib / Wall Street Journal:

Three GOP Faces Who Are Outshining Their Party — Paul, Christie and Ryan Manage to Improve Their Standing During the Shutdown — At this point, it's both an understatement and a statement of the obvious to say the government-shutdown showdown hasn't been good for the Republican Party.

Discussion: First Read and ABC News

Associated Press:

British authorities break up terror plot — British law enforcement agencies averted a plot to orchestrate a large-scale terror attack similar to the assault on Kenya's Westgate mall, an official said Monday. — Police were questioning four men in their 20s on suspicion of terrorism …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Jihad Watch