As I mentioned just below, there’s some movement toward red states adopting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. But the holdout states are clustered in the South, where African Americans are most affected by the lack of Medicaid coverage.
The idea that Medicaid expansion in red states is a dead letter until Obama leaves office may not entirely hold up. The financial incentives to expand sooner are so great that even very conservative states (at least outside the South) are starting to see the light.
Jon Stewart on whether he’s a “self-hating Jew” …
“Look, there’s a lot of reasons why I hate myself — being Jewish isn’t one of them,” Stewart told the reporter. “So when someone starts throwing that around, or throwing around you’re pro-terrorist, it’s more just disappointing than anything else. I’ve made a living for 16 years criticizing certain policies that I think are not good for America. That doesn’t make me anti-American. And if I do the same with Israel, that doesn’t make me anti-Israel. You cannot outsmart dogma, no matter what you do. If there is something constructive in what they’re saying, hopefully I’m still open enough … to take it in and let it further inform my position. But I’m pretty impermeable to yelling. As soon as they go to, ‘Your real name is Leibowitz!’ that’s when I change the channel.”
Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager has announced his resignation, effective Saturday, amid questions over his alleged role in a 2012 Iowa bribery scandal when he was working for Ron Paul.
Florida Republicans set up website alternative to the Obamacare exchange. It signed up 30 people.
Judge tosses Chris McDaniel’s lawsuit challenging Sen. Thad Cochran’s win in the GOP primary runoff.
A debate broke out on Twitter among three male journalists — New York Times’ Nick Confessore, Politico’s Alex Burns, and MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin — on Thursday afternoon: Does Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), whose anonymous colleagues she said told her she was “porky,” “chubby,” and “fat” during the months just after she had a baby, have a responsibility to name her harassers? Confessore and Burns say yes, Sarlin says no.
A good piece linking that awful Uzi accident involving a 9-year old girl and what is called “gun tourism.” It includes a bit more about where that incident happened: “The dusty outdoor range calls itself the Bullets and Burgers Adventure and touts its “Desert Storm atmosphere.” You get the idea.
Legal experts confirm that Bob McDonnell’s extraordinary legal defense that he and his wife could not have committed conspiracy because they’re weren’t even speaking to each other is in fact extraordinary.