DAYEE PICTURE: Barrio Triste in Medellin, Colombia. From the Daily Mail of the UK.
Democracy Corps Survey Shows Growing Support for Obamacare (Joan McCarter) from Daily Kos
"The shifts Democracy Corps identifies are in the groups who have been most likely to see the benefits of the law so far: unmarried women, white non-college voters and seniors."
From the Right, Despair, Anger and Disillusion (Campbell Robertson) from the New York Times
"“I’m just totally blown away by everything. I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong anymore.” JEAN NAPLES, a homemaker in Doylestown, Pa. For frustrated conservative voters, the end of the government shutdown was as much a surrender to reality as to Democratic demands."
Handicappers: Shutdown Puts House Majority in Play (Alex Seitz-Wald) from National Journal
"Republicans lose ground in 14 House districts, according to new rankings from Cook Political Report."
Conservatives, Get a Grip on Reality! (Charlie Cook) from National Journal
"Those who thought shutting down the government was a winning strategy should have their heads examined. ... I heard my friend, the extremely able congressional reporter Dave McConnell, relate a conversation he had had with a Republican House member. This member told McConnell that allowing the debt ceiling to be breached might “get the leadership’s attention.” That sounded like a kid saying if he threw his mother’s priceless vase against the wall, she might start letting him do what he wants. Political judgment this bad, coming from members of Congress, is a dangerous thing for a party."
For GOP, the Damage Is Undeniable (Stuart Rothenberg) from Roll Call
"One GOP consultant — who clearly hails from the more conservative end of his party — didn’t hold back recently in slamming the “no compromise” conservatives who led House Republicans off the political cliff with a government shutdown and by flirting with a debt default. “We will be weaker when we negotiate with Democrats next time, and we proved that President Obama doesn’t need to negotiate with us,” he said on the condition of anonymity."
GOP Frees The Debt Ceiling Hostage -- Maybe For Good from Talking Points Memo
""There's nothing in this for conservatives. Not even a bright or shiny object," a despondent Rep. Tom Massie (R-KY) told TPM. "I don't know how you negotiate up from this capitulation. I think the long faces are a result of the realization, if not the vocalization yet, that this sets the precedent for this Congress.""
Republicans Walked Into Obama's Trap (Karl Rove) from the Wall Street Journal
"His goal was to discredit the GOP before 2014. The defunders fell for it. ... This all fits into the White House's desire to use the continuing resolution and debt-ceiling fights to punish the GOP House majority in order to flip the House in the 2014 midterm election. That's a long shot, but the Obama-Reid-Pelosi cause was helped by a minority of House Republicans who persisted in a failed tactic."
Now ... it has to be said -- most of what Rove says in this column is delusional right-wing pap. But the piece I agree with is that Obama is INDEED using every opportunity to divide the GOP and to marginalize the Tea Party. I view it as Obama's HIGHEST political priority! In the political arena, it is what 2013 is about for the White House. And I think rightly so.
GOP’s McConnell Promises No More Shutdowns Over ObamaCare (Alexander Bolton) from The Hill
"“One of my favorite old Kentucky sayings is there’s no education in the second kick of a mule. The first kick of a mule was when we shut the government down in the mid-1990s and the second kick was over the last 16 days,” he said. “There is no education in the second kick of a mule. There will not be a government shutdown."
The Conservative War on the GOP (Molly Ball) from the Atlantic
"What was once an uneasy alliance between Tea Partiers and Republican loyalists is increasingly marked by hostility—and many on the right now want a divorce."
A Teachable Moment (Ross Douthat) from the New York Times
"There was no argument for the shutdown itself that a person unblindered by political fantasies should be obliged to respect, no plausible alternative world in which it could have led to any outcome besides self-inflicted political damage followed by legislative defeat, and no epitaph that should be written for its instigators’ planning and execution except: “These guys deserved to lose.”"
Confusing Politics With Religion (Rod Dreher) from the American Conservative
A view from a conservative columnist.
"... what kind of mind sees what just happened as either a victory, or a defeat that happened not because the cause was hopeless, but because the cause was betrayed, its noble defenders stabbed in the back by faithless RINO traitors. Because that is the emerging narrative within the right-wing bubble. Can the Tea Partiers’ beliefs be falsified? I don’t think they can be. ... Religion requires us to believe the impossible; that’s what makes it religion. Politics is the art of the possible; that’s why it is not religion."
For those who appreciate Ross Douthat, David Frum, Kathleen Parker, and David Brooks -- (very sane and thoughtful conservative columnists) I refer you to Rod Dreher. I'm beginning to think he is in their company.
Don't Rule Out the Democrats Winning Back the House in 2014 (Harry Enten) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"The party in the White House usually struggles in midterms, but the Republicans could lose their majority without a huge swing."
Donors' Frustration with GOP Mounts from Politico
"Republican donors were horrified in November after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into losing campaigns for president and Congress with nothing to show for it. A year later they’re appalled by how little has changed, angered by the behavior of Republican lawmakers during a string of legislative battles this year capped by the shutdown, and searching for answers."
Boehner’s Business Allies Eye Tea Party (Jia Lynn Yang and Tom Hamburger) from the Washington Post
Organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are standing behind the House speaker and are preparing to take on tea party Republicans in at least three states."
Mitch McConnell Is Now Tea Party Enemy No. 1 (Patricia Murphy) from the Daily Beast
"The Senate minority leader’s deal to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling (plus a couple of dams for Kentucky) has his right flank howling. By Patricia Murphy."
Tea Party Preps for Fight with ‘Surrender Caucus’ After Declaring Moral Victory from the Washington Times
"A surprisingly number of prominent Republicans are saying that if the GOP loses the 2016 presidential elections, the party will go the way of the Whigs — or formally split into a moderate party and a conservative party. ... “If we are not willing to fight on those issues, Republicans could become Whigs,” Mr. Yue said."
FreedomWorks CEO: 'A Real Possibility' That The GOP Splits In Two from Talking Points Memo
"FreedomWorks chief Matt Kibbe said Friday that divisions on the right could cause the Republican Party to split in two."
The Ted Cruz Armageddon Is Coming (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"A new Pew poll shows Tea Partiers’ devotion to the otherwise divisive senator. Can the Republican establishment stop him before it’s 2016? By Michael Tomasky."
‘Walmart Moms’ Are Furious With Washington (Eleanor Clift) from the Daily Beast
"Two focus groups of American moms who shop at Walmart revealed deep, enduring pessimism about the state of American governance, and suggested Hillary might be the only one who could excite them again."
Hillary Clinton, Welcome to the White House (Michael Hirsch) from National Journal
"She has no Democratic challenger, and the Republican Party is no longer a credible opposition force."
BRAIN SCIENCE NUGGET!!
When we sleep, our brains get rid of gunk that builds up while we're awake, suggests a study that may provide new clues to treat Alzheimer's disease and other disorders from the Associated Press
"This cleaning was detected in the brains of sleeping mice, but scientists said there's reason to think it happens in people too. If so, the finding may mean that for people with dementia and other mind disorders, "sleep would perhaps be even more important in slowing the progression of further damage," Dr. Clete Kushida, medical director of the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, said in an email."
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