memeorandum: No, Seriously, How Contagious Is Ebola? (Michaeleen Doucleff/NPR)

5:00 PM ET, October 3, 2014

Top Items:

Matthew Continetti / Washington Free Beacon:

The Case for Panic — Deadly, irrational, and determined, the intruder snuck across a weakened perimeter. Eluding capture, the intruder was detained only after missteps and close calls. The spin began soon after the threat was isolated. Information was selectively leaked.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, Weekly Standard, alicublog, BuzzFeed, Betsy's Page, The Daily Caller, Hot Air and Washington Examiner

Jonathan Topaz / Politico:

CDC chief on Ebola: We can't shut the border — Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Friday said restricting travel between the U.S. and West Africa would likely “backfire” and put Americans more at risk of contracting Ebola.

Discussion: msnbc.com, Shot in the Dark, Outside the Beltway, Vox Popoli, New York Times, The PJ Tatler, Washington Post, Townhall.com and Hot Air

Michaeleen Doucleff / NPR:
No, Seriously, How Contagious Is Ebola?

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The New Republic, Guardian, New York Times and Associated Press

Sarah Ferris / The Hill:
Ebola becomes political fight

Discussion: ThinkProgress, New York Magazine and Daily Kos

Gabrielle Canon / Mother Jones:
Budget Cuts “Eroded Our Ability to Respond” to Ebola, Says Top Health Official

Discussion: The Daily Beast, BillMoyers.com, The Mahablog, Daily Kos, Americans Against the …, Campaign for America's Future and The Huffington Post

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Exclusive: Hillary Clinton plans midterm blitz — Hillary Clinton has mapped out much of her political schedule through Election Day, an itinerary that focuses on helping Senate candidates and includes trips to a half-dozen states, including Kentucky and presidential early states Iowa and New Hampshire …

Discussion: CNN, Deadline, Taylor Marsh, Political Insider blog and The PJ Tatler

James Hohmann / Politico:

Are big three senate races slipping from Dems? — It's been the most remarkably enduring story line of Election 2014: three Democratic senators defying their states' deep red complexion and their president's abysmal approval ratings to stay competitive in races that should have, on paper, been lost long ago.

Discussion: Power Line and Wall Street Journal

Brian Beutler / The New Republic:

The GOP's Midterm Strategy Is a Lot Like “Seinfeld” — It's a campaign about nothing—but way less funny — As if to signal his awareness that there's a gaping void in the GOP's midterm election strategy, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus did something a little unusual …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Fox News Insider and Washington Post

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Charles Krauthammer: The real reason winning the Senate matters

Discussion: National Review

Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:

The Return of the GOP Hawks — Not that they ever really left. — The Republican flirtation with dovish noninterventionism is over. It wasn't much of a fling. — For five years, we've been hearing that foreign policy and national security issues would split the Republican party.

Discussion: CNN, Hit & Run, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, Bloomberg View, The Daily Caller, OnPolitics, Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog, Talking Points Memo, Politico and American Spectator

Daniel Larison / The American Conservative:

Lindsey Graham: The Embodiment of Everything Wrong with the GOP — Reading this Stephen Hayes report was good for a laugh: … Graham is kidding himself if he thinks he could be the nominee, so I'm not sure what the point of this would be. The likely 2016 field will already be filled with reliably hawkish candidates.

Discussion: The Dish

Jonathan Allen / Bloomberg:

Bogus Congressman Said to Get Backstage at Obama Event — An unidentified man posing as a member of Congress made it into a secure area backstage at President Barack Obama's appearance at a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation awards dinner in Washington Sept. 27, according to a White House official.

Discussion: New York Magazine, CANNONFIRE, Talking Points Memo, Hinterland Gazette, Business Insider, Washington Free Beacon and National Review

John Fund / National Review:

Obama's Éminence Grise — As the Obama administration crashes and burns, insiders begin to blame Valerie Jarrett. — Are significant chunks of the mainstream media in despair over Barack Obama? This past week, Obama used 60 Minutes to attempt to shift blame for the failure …

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, Power Line, JustOneMinute and The PJ Tatler

Alex Roarty / National Journal:
Ebola Scare, Secret Service Enter Campaign Politics

Discussion: WRAL-TV, No More Mister Nice Blog and Daily Kos

Reuters:

Has Kim Jong-Un lost control of North Korea? Pyongyang is on lockdown and nation's former intelligence officer says Kim has ALREADY been overthrown — A former North Korean counter-intelligence officer has claimed that Kim Jong-Un is no longer in control of the nation and is now just a ‘puppet leader’.

Discussion: ABC News and Power Line

Keegan Hamilton / VICE News:

Former Top Official Says Kim Jong-un Is No Longer in Control of North Korea — An elite group of exiles from North Korea gathered in September in the Netherlands to discuss the state of the regime they used to serve. The conference included top diplomats, an ex-senior official of the Ministry of Security …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air and New York Magazine

Jeff Greenfield / The Daily Beast:

A Loss by Pat Roberts in Kansas? Actually, Not So Bizarre — Yes, every Kansas senator since 1940 has been a Republican. But Pat Roberts is in trouble for the same reasons incumbents usually are. — In December 1930, in the depths of the Great Depression, Kansas voters chose Democrat George McGill …

Andrew Dugan / Gallup:
Kansas: GOP Has Numbers Advantage, but Support Drops

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Washington Post

Tyler Durden / Zero Hedge:

Labor Participation Rate Drops To 36 Year Low; Record 92.6 Million Americans Not In Labor Force — While by now everyone should know the answer, for those curious why the US unemployment rate just slid once more to a meager 5.9%, the lowest print since the summer of 2008 …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, The Right Scoop and Vox Popoli

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

Colo. Ed Board Member: Give U.S. Credit For Voluntarily Ending Slavery — A member of Colorado's state Board of Education argued that the fact that the United States voluntarily ended slavery proved “American execptionalism” and this perspective should be taught to students in a recent Facebook post …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, KUSA-TV, Denver Post, Raw Story and TheDenverChannel.com

Politico:

David Perdue: ‘I spent most of my career’ outsourcing — David Perdue has run aggressively as a “job creator,” touting his record as a top executive with Fortune 500 companies as the chief selling point in his Georgia Senate campaign. — Yet during a controversial chapter in his record …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post and Daily Kos

Irin Carmon / msnbc.com:

5th Circuit decision to close most of Texas abortion clinics — The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday allowed Texas to begin enforcing tough new abortion restrictions that will effectively close all but eight abortion facilities in the nation's second-largest state.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Washington Post and Associated Press

Manny Fernandez / New York Times:
Decision Allows Abortion Law, Forcing 13 Texas Clinics to Close

Discussion: Dallas Morning News, American Prospect and New York Magazine

Laura Vozzella / Washington Post:

McAuliffe aide suggested job for senator's daughter if he remained in his seat — RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's chief of staff left a voice-mail message for a Democrat who was on the verge of quitting the General Assembly in June, saying that the senator's daughter might …

Discussion: WTVR-TV and Talking Points Memo