CAF In The News

motherjones.com — You've probably seen the ads. Ominous voice-overs warn you about how health care reform "could put a bureaucrat in charge of your medical decisions, not you." A massive bulldozer with "government-run insurance plan" written on the side crushes your health care "choices." Canadians and Britons relay horror stories of their experiences dealing with health care in those nightmarish socialist dystopias.

The ads are the product of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign designed to derail health care reform—especially what's been dubbed the "public option," which would set up a government-run plan to compete with private insurers. The man behind this ad blitz is the person who might be Public Option Enemy No. 1: one-time hospital executive and longtime Republican donor Richard Scott.

salon.com — It has been 100 days since Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. The 100th day of a presidency is traditionally a time for taking stock of what the new occupant of the White House has achieved -- especially when the nation confronts a crisis, as in 1933 and 2009, or when there has been true ideological regime change -- again, as in 1933 and 2009. Salon asked 21 writers, politicians, activists and economists for their assessment of the Obama presidency so far. The state of the president's report card is (mostly) strong. He earns a high GPA, though there are critics both left and right ready to give him failing grades in a few crucial areas.

prospect.org — The last time Democrats took the White House, they managed, in the immortal words of George W. Bush, a "heckuva job." During the Clinton administration's famously rocky transition, one White House alumna saw signs of trouble early. "The day after the election, we were getting calls from leaders all over the world," she says, but apparently Clinton's team hadn't realized the State Department now worked for them. Martha Kumar, founder of the bipartisan White House Transition Project, recalls the story of one Clinton flack who "walked into his office and saw there were six phone lines and all of the phones were ringing." Tellingly, only one question came to his mind: "If I answer them, what do I say?"

politico.com — Echoing Karl Rove's words from four years ago, Democratic pollsters on Friday touted the creation of a “permanent progressive majority.”

“This was not just a change election, but a sea-change election,” Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, said during remarks at the National Press Club. “This is the end of the conservative era.”

afp.google.com — US voters want the Republican Party, which took a beating in this week's general elections, to embrace progressiveness and work with Democratic president-elect Barack Obama to get America back on track, a poll showed Friday.

More than three-quarters of 2,000 people surveyed on Tuesday, the day of the historic election which saw Obama become the first African-American elected to the White House, and on Wednesday, said the US has gone "pretty seriously off on the wrong track" and needed change.

washingtonpost.com — When President-elect Barack Obama moves into the White House in January, he will inherit a stratospheric budget deficit, a collapsing financial system and the gloomiest economic outlook since the Great Depression. The silver lining? For a few months, at least, he may have a license to spend money.

Make that lots and lots of money. With the nation sliding into what is expected to be a severe recession, economists are calling on the federal government to pump at least $150 billion -- and as much as $500 billion -- into the economy to blunt the most painful effects of rising joblessness and stalled consumer spending.

realclearpolitics.com — They captured the White House under a mantra of "change" and scored big House and Senate gains promising a "new direction."

Now Democrats have to figure out how to fulfill those lofty promises without alienating the very people who handed them the keys to the government for the first time in more than a decade.

rollcall.com — Oh so nearly — but not quite — jumping the gun on its celebration, the liberal Campaign for America’s Future announced Tuesday afternoon that it will hold press conferences Wednesday and Friday to “outline the mandate defined in today’s elections.”

Wednesday’s event is a conference call to “release a new report on the themes and issue positions that united successful federal candidates.” High on the list will be talk of universal health care, clean energy and Obama’s tax plan. Friday’s event will feature results of post-election polls about major electoral themes by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg.

careerjournal.com — A phalanx of liberal think tanks and interest groups -- anticipating a Democratic victory on Tuesday -- are mobilizing to push Sen. Barack Obama to the left of his campaign positions.

In recent weeks, groups have held conferences, drafted policy papers and lobbied campaign advisers in the hope of influencing what they believe would be the most receptive administration to the political left since Jimmy Carter. The Obama campaign declined to comment about pressure from liberal policy groups.

thenation.com — This should be a big election about big issues. The greatest financial crisis since the Depression. Soaring global debt. Collapsing public infrastructure. A broken health care system. Gilded Age inequality. Two disastrous occupations and a failing "war on terror." Yet, until Wall Street imploded this weekend, it seemed as if no one could move the 24/7 mainstream media beyond the trivial. Tired of talking about swine and lipstick, moose and baby bumps? We are.

That's why The Nation's lead editorial this week calls for an end to gotcha journalism and the politics of distraction and diversion. It's time to say, Enough! Let's refocus this election on what's truly at stake. To that end, we're laying out a series of questions in the magazine and at TheNation.com that we believe should be asked of both candidates--not only in the upcoming debates, the first of which takes place just one week from this Friday--but by a mainstream media that seems, well, "hell-bent" on reporting on the election as if it's a new hit reality show.