At

, Todd Gitlin defends President Obama 

: 

You can say that he's still not willing to talk to Americans straight about the need to limit high-tech medicine for the very old and very frail. Presidents won't do that.

We have to learn to live within the constraints of our political system, I guess. ...[ Thanks to alert reader R .] 2:15 P.M.

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Hostage to Fortune Watch:

Joe Biden  --" I believe we will have a bill before Thanksgiving."

Nancy Pelosi  -- "I'm confident the president will sign a bill this year."

Joe Klein --"Congress will pass some form of health-care reform this year, probably something very close to what the President proposed." ...

2:25 P.M.

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Breitbart 1, National Endowment for the Arts 0.  ... Update : NEA damage control lacks crisp uner-the-busness of WH damage control. ...  2:41 P.M.

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Ambinder : Romneycare is kind of a success  in Massachusetts. ... 2:46 P.M.

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