OBAMA AGENDA: Ebola czar gets to work
From the New York Times: "In taking office during two overseas wars and the Great Recession, President Obama set out to restore society’s frayed faith in its public institutions, saying that the question was not whether government was too big or small, “but whether it works.” Six years later, Americans seem more dubious than ever that it really does."
Ron Klain starts as the White House's 'Ebola czar' today.
The New York Times writes on Eric Holder's legacy of moving terror cases to civilian courts.
Here's the Washington Post's lede in its obit for Ben Bradlee: "Benjamin C. Bradlee, who presided over The Washington Post newsroom for 26 years and guided The Post’s transformation into one of the world’s leading newspapers, died Oct. 21 at his home in Washington of natural causes. He was 93. From the moment he took over The Post newsroom in 1965, Mr. Bradlee sought to create an important newspaper that would go far beyond the traditional model of a metropolitan daily. He achieved that goal by combining compelling news stories based on aggressive reporting with engaging feature pieces of a kind previously associated with the best magazines. His charm and gift for leadership helped him hire and inspire a talented staff and eventually made him the most celebrated newspaper editor of his era."
The Washington Post: "Former CIA director Leon E. Panetta clashed with the agency over the contents of his recently published memoir and allowed his publisher to begin editing and making copies of the book before he had received final approval from the CIA, according to former U.S. officials and others familiar with the project. Panetta’s decision appears to have put him in violation of the secrecy agreement that all CIA employees are required to sign and came amid a showdown with agency reviewers that could have derailed the release of the book, people involved in the matter said."
The Wall Street Journal: "With companies set to face fines next year for not complying with the new mandate to offer health insurance, some are pursuing strategies like enrolling employees in Medicaid to avoid penalties and hold down costs. The health law’s penalties, which can amount to about $2,000 per employee, were supposed to start this year, but the Obama administration delayed them until 2015, when they take effect for firms that employ at least 100 people."
OFF TO THE RACES: On the road again…
NBC News is on the road this week, talking to voters in Kansas, Iowa and Wisconsin. You can learn what our trip is all about here and here -- from one of us(!)
The Washington Post’s Robert Costa talked to Mary Burke and Scott Walker about the close governors race.
ALASKA: Rep. Don Young used profanity, referred to "bull sex" and made blunt remarks about a student's recent suicide during a high school assembly Tuesday, the Alaska Dispatch News writes.
ARKANSAS: Making some waves yesterday: a thesis written by Mark Pryor in 1985, reported on by the Washington Free Beacon. Bloomberg has a good summary of what the thesis actually says about Pryor and Arkansas.
FLORIDA: Likely voters are split 42-42 percent between Rick Scott and Charlie Crist, a new Quinnipiac poll shows.
"You don't know me." The final Florida governor's debate was particularly personal, writes host CNN.
IOWA: The White House flubbed on Bruce Braley's campaign AGAIN, describing him as a candidate for governor - not senator - in a transcript emailed to reporters. It later emailed out a corrected version. (But let those who have NEVER made typos cast the first stone…)
Joni Ernst is up with a new ad featuring -- you guessed it -- more hogs.
KENTUCKY: The Lexington Herald-Leader reports on Bill Clinton's rally for Alison Grimes, which featured a lot of horserace metaphors.
LOUISIANA: The Wall Street Journal checks in with Mary Landrieu's re-election bid, saying that the Democrat is "spending the home stretch before November’s vote campaigning more like an anxious challenger than a seasoned lawmaker in her 18th year in office."
MICHIGAN: A new ERIC-MRA survey finds Gov. Rick Snyder’s lead up to eight points over Mark Schauer.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Sen Jeanne Shaheen, during last night's New Hampshire debate, moderated by one of us(!): “Sen. Brown when he lost his race, he didn’t move to New Hampshire and say, 'I want to get involved in this state.' He thought about running for the Senate again in Massachusetts, then he thought about running for governor in Massachusetts, then he went out to Iowa and said he was thinking about running for president. Well I don’t think New Hampshire is a consolation prize.”
NEW YORK: Rep. Michael Grimm's trial has been postponed from December to February 2.
SOUTH DAKOTA: The Argus Leader: "U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rounds as governor knew his Cabinet secretary, Richard Benda, was going to work for an investor in the Northern Beef Packers plant about the time he approved Benda's proposal to give the plant more state aid — or found out immediately afterwards but was not alarmed."
PROGRAMMING NOTES.
*** Wednesday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: Tamron Hall interviews Marc Caputo, political writer for “The Miami Herald,” Bob Ingle from the Asbury Park Press, Former FBI Profiler Clint Van Zandt about an accused serial killer in Indiana, and in today’s Born in the U$A segment: Jim D’Addario, CEO of D’Addario & Company, the world’s largest maker of guitar strings.
*** Wednesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews former Rep. Tom Davis, Vin Weber, Fmr. Ambassador Christopher Hill, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Global Health Laurie Garrett, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, NBC’s Richard Engel and Pete Williams and Terri Chung, the sister of American Kenneth Bae, who’s detained in North Korea.