memeorandum: Obamacare: From game-changer to background noise (David Nather/Politico)

10:05 AM ET, September 17, 2014

Top Items:

Is Obama tough enough in dealing with ISIS? — President Obama delivers a prime time address from the Cross Hall of the White House on September 10, 2014 in Washington, D.C. SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES — Shares - — Despite his speech announcing his strategy to “degrade and ultimately destroy” …

Discussion: Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Hot Air and Washington Free Beacon

NY Daily News:

Sorry, Hillary, things are breaking the GOP's way — Those picking Hillary Clinton as the odds-on favorite are ignoring some powerful political trends — Hillary Clinton's creepy “I'm baack” announcement in Iowa this weekend should be enough to scare any good Republican.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

CNN:

A failure to communicate? — Washington (CNN) — It's the one tenet of President Barack Obama's ISIS strategy that's remained ironclad: No U.S. troops are headed back into Iraq for combat. — At least it was ironclad until Tuesday, when Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys

New York Times:

Is U.S. Policy on Fighting ISIS Already Changing? — A week ago, President Obama stood before the American people and promised that the expanding fight against the Islamic State — a vicious Sunni militant group known as ISIS or ISIL that is terrorizing parts of Iraq and Syria — would not mean a commitment of American ground troops.

New York Times:
U.S. General Open to Ground Forces in Fight Against ISIS in Iraq

Discussion: Firedoglake, Guardian, Gawker, CANNONFIRE, The Dish, The Daily Banter, Balloon Juice, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, USA Today, Daily Kos, Hit & Run, ThinkProgress and Washington Post

Spencer Ackerman / Guardian:
Pentagon: US ground troops may join Iraqis in combat against Isis

Discussion: Mediaite and Gawker

David Nather / Politico:

Obamacare: From game-changer to background noise — A year ago, it looked like Obamacare was going to have a huge role in this year's elections. And not in a good way — as a symbol of government incompetence and the Republicans' main case against President Barack Obama's record.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Taegan Goddard's …, Hot Air, RedState and Washington Free Beacon

Abby Goodnough / New York Times:
In Kentucky, Health Law Helps Voters but Saps Votes

Discussion: Washington Post

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

Democrats now have a 51 percent chance of holding the Senate — Democrats are now (very slightly) favored to hold the Senate majority on Nov. 4, according to Election Lab, the Post's statistical model of the 2014 midterm elections. — Election Lab puts Democrats' chances of retaining …

Discussion: Business Insider, The Other McCain, Pat Dollard, Prairie Weather, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway and Booman Tribune

Linda Killian / The Daily Beast:
Meet the One Numbers-Cruncher Who Foresees Democrats Holding the Senate

Discussion: National Journal, Washington Post, Firedoglake, Taegan Goddard's …, Wall Street Journal and The Dish

Charlie Cook / National Journal:
What Could Go Wrong for GOP?

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, Washington Examiner, The Hill, Liberal Values and FiveThirtyEight

Elise Viebeck / The Hill:

Official: Rogue state could weaponize Ebola — A rogue state could turn Ebola into a weapon of mass destruction, a federal health official acknowledged Tuesday. — Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it would take a “state-type” …

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

Judge: Hobby Lobby Decision Means Polygamous Sect Member Can Refuse To Testify In Child Labor Case — A law enforcement officer escorts polygamist religious leader Warren Jeffs (center) from the courthouse where he was convicted of two counts of child sexual assault

Discussion: Wonkette, Shakesville, Religion Clause, BuzzFeed, Raw Story and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Yahoo! News:

Jewish group brands Biden's Shylock comment ‘offensive’ — Yahoo News 16 hrs ago — Vice President Joe Biden drew fire from a prominent Jewish group on Tuesday after he described unscrupulous bankers who prey on servicemen and servicewomen deployed overseas as “Shylocks” — a term frequently condemned as an anti-Semitic caricature.

Discussion: Hot Air and Washington Free Beacon

Tom Holbrook / The Numbers:

Another Look at Electoral Change — Last fall, I posted some data on the changes in Democratic and Republican support in the states in presidential elections, in part in response to observations made by a number of pundits and politicians that there is an increasing Democratic “lock” on the Electoral College.

Discussion: Bloomberg View

Daily Mail:

US to send 3,000 troops to Ebola danger zone as Obama administration shuffles military's mission in Africa — The Obama administration said late Monday night that the U.S. military will set up a command post in Monrovia, Liberia, the Ebola outbreak's epicenter

Discussion: Pat Dollard

Reuters:
Citing security threat, Obama expands U.S. role fighting Ebola

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, The White House, Gawker and New York Times

John Frank / Denver Post:

POLL: IN BIG SHIFT, BEAUPREZ POSTS 10-POINT LEAD ON HICKENLOOPER — Republican Bob Beauprez holds a 10-point lead against Gov. John Hickenlooper, according to a new poll, marking a major shift in a governor's race deadlocked for months. — The Quinnipiac University Poll, released Wednesday …

Discussion: National Review and The Colorado Independent

Washington Post:

From outside voice to inside player: Rise of Steve Scalise reflects changing House GOP — At the center of the swirling congressional debate over funding the government and arming rebels in Syria stands the new House majority whip, Rep. Steve Scalise, whose rise to power reflects …

Discussion: ABC News

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Oregon Doctor GOP Senate Candidate's Health Plan Plagiarized From Karl Rove Group's Survey — Very strange. — Monica Wehby / Via Facebook: monicafororegon — Republican Senate candidate Monica Wehby's original health plan appears to have been plagiarized from a survey done …

Blupman / Our Bad Media:

Fareed Zakaria Never Stopped Plagiarizing: How Dozens Of Episodes Of His CNN Show Ripped Others Off — Earlier this year, a certain CNN employee specializing in international news was caught red-handed plagiarizing dozens of instances of reporting. What did the network do?

Discussion: Poynter, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Mediaite and Politico, more at Mediagazer »

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:

The Disappearing “Undue Burden” Standard for Abortion Rights — Those words—"undue burden"—represent Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's most important triumph during her long and consequential tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court. Almost single-handedly, O'Connor rewrote abortion law.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Gail Sullivan / Washington Post:

Study: Liberals and conservatives sniff out like-minded mates by body odor — Conservatives and liberals do not smell the same to potential mates. According to a study published this month in the American Journal of Political Science, people can literally sniff out ideology …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The Week Magazine and Hot Air

Bryan Lowryeagle Topeka / Wichita Eagle:

Justices question why Democrat Chad Taylor can't withdraw from Senate race — › — ‹ — Kansas Supreme Court justices grilled Secretary of State Kris Kobach's attorney at a special court hearing Tuesday about whether Democrat Chad Taylor should remain on ballot as a candidate for U.S. Senate.

Discussion: Kansas City Star, Politico, Election Law Blog and Outside the Beltway

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

Bobby Jindal Refuses To Say If He Believes In Evolution — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal dodged three questions on Tuesday about whether he personally believes the theory of evolution explains the presence of complex life on Earth. — “The reality is I'm not an evolutionary biologist,” …

Discussion: his vorpal sword, CANNONFIRE, Raw Story and Washington Monthly