JAY CARNEY: As you know, the President in an interview, earlier this fall took this question head on and expressed his concern for those individuals, those Americans who received cancellation notices and were potentially adversely impacted by or affected by that and took action to encourage states and state insurance commissioners to allow those who wanted to stay on existing plans to stay on them longer. So I think he’s, in a very honest way, addressed this question. End-of-the-year categorizations like that are always fun, even when they don’t jive with past characterizations of the same exact statement. But, we’re focused on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
(Newser) – Back in 2000, health experts thought they’d eradicated measles in the US. They were wrong. As of August 24 there have been 159 cases this year, putting the country on pace for its worst year since 1996, the CDC revealed yesterday. The causes: travel, and vaccination foes. All of the outbreaks can be traced to someone bringing the disease from a foreign country, NPR reports. But nearly two-thirds of cases occurred in three communities where religious or philosophical objections to vaccination are common, according to CNN.
Eighty-two percent of those infected hadn’t been vaccinated, and another 9% didn’t know if they had been, CBS reports. The CDC believes discredited fears about the vaccine, like the myth that it causes autism, are contributing to the problem. “This is very bad. This is horrible,” says one infectious disease expert. “The complications of measles are not to be toyed with, and they’re not altogether rare.” And because babies under a year old can’t be vaccinated, vaccination foes are potentially endangering their neighbors’ babies. “None of us lives in isolation,” the expert says.
DAVID BROOKS: Well, first, internationally, it looks a little more unilateral, so it looks a little more Bush-like, to be honest.
Before, Russia seemed isolated. Now we’re looking not isolated, but with a smaller coalition, as Mark said. In Congress, I think it’s bad. I think the decision to go to Congress was a very unfortunate decision, because it made it much bigger than Syria itself.
Now it’s a test case for Obama’s credibility, credibility around the world, and credibility at home. There is a common assumption that he can rally public opinion, he can lean on Congress, and ultimately they will force Democrats to say — they don’t like the policy, but they will say you can’t let Obama go down and have his credibility destroyed.
I’m really dubious that that’s going to be the case. I think Republicans are going to be largely against. That’s really clear. The Democrats in their hearts, they’re against. The noise from their districts is going to be solidly against. Pelosi is very good at rallying votes. But I think this is a — going to be an uphill fight for them, and if he loses, it will be really bad for the administration.
JUDY WOODRUFF, PBS NEWSHOUR: You agree it was a mistake to go to Congress?
MARK SHIELDS: No, I don’t think it was a mistake to go to Congress, Judy.
I think I have never seen any president on the eve of initiating military action that is war action, that is hitting another country with less popular support, less public support, less political support, and less international support than the president had a week ago, when we met.
The idea of doing it then, I don’t — I mean, it just amazes me — and with all respect to David — people on the left who say, oh, ignore the Congress. The Congress is lousy.
I mean, would they have the same attitude if a President Ted Cruz were there? I mean, it is the constitutional order for a president to do that. And when you’re making a decision, there’s none more grievous than that to go to war. To involve the Congress and the country in that decision, I think is absolutely imperative.
It’s the only way there’s going to be any sense of national support, let alone unity, for this action, which is controversial.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You don’t agree?
DAVID BROOKS: Well, no, I don’t.
I mean, I certainly agree, if Syria was the main thing. I think, when you go to war, if Syria was the main thing we were worried about, and if we actually had a plan to actually change something materially for the good in Syria, then going to Congress would be fine, and that would be a good thing to do, to get popular support, so the president isn’t isolated, so you get enough people on board in the beginning, so they’re there at the end when things get complicated.
That would be fine. But this really isn’t about Syria. The policy is not going to do anything materially to affect Syria. We may lob a few missiles in there. That’s just face-saving. Let’s face it. The real issue is the broader credibility of the president, the international credibility of the United States, especially vis-a-vis Iran.
This is really about Iran more than Syria. And by going to Congress and potentially getting slapped down, then our credibility vis-a-vis Iran is in shatters, and the president’s credibility at home is in shatters.
And so I just — on substantive ground, I think Mark is right. On Machiavellian ground, I think it was a mistake.
Candy Crowley’s not ready to pull a Chuck Todd on her network – yet.
While Todd blasted NBC for its plans to air a mini-series about Hillary Clinton close to her possible 2016 presidential run, calling it a “total nightmare” on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Crowley couched her words.
She told Politico that while a branch of CNN producing a documentary made her “life more difficult,” CNN and CNN Films are separate entities with no influence on each other’s content.
“This is a commissioned documentary from people who are not in the employ of CNN,” Crowley said. “It’s not me. It’s not Wolf Blitzer. It’s not John King. It’s an outside documentary group. But we’re with CNN and so this is not a story where the nuances are well-received, particularly by Republicans.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has threatened to pull GOP primary debates from both CNN and NBC should they proceed with their plans, something Media Matters and Chuck Todd agreed with.
But Crowley suggested that Priebus was using the documentary and miniseries to reduce the number of GOP primaries after the 2012 election left eventual Republican candidate Mitt Romney bruised and burnt out before his presidential campaign even started.
On the other hand, Crowley said, “airtime is airtime,” so any Clinton publicity could be good publicity for her presidential campaign. “Politically, it makes it very difficult for me,” she said. “But I also think it is being used by the chairman.”
