The Note’s Must-Reads for Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Note's Must-Reads are a round-up of
today's political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S.
newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com

Compiled
by ABC News Digital News Associates and Desk Assistants JAYCE HENDERSON,
CLAUDIA MORALES, JACQUELINE NG FERNANDEZ, CARRIE HALPERIN AND MAGGY PATRICK

PRESIDENT
OBAMA:

ABC
News’ Sunlen Miller: “Obama's Economic Town Hall: ‘Is The American Dream
Dead For Me?’” President Obama defends his
decisions to middle class in town hall meeting that aired on CNBC. LINK

G.O.P.
/ TEA PARTY / CAMPAIGN 2010:

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer: “Christine O'Donnell:
Homosexuality an 'Identity Disorder'” Delaware GOP Senate Candidate
Struggles to Portray Mainstream Image on Sexual Values LINK

The
New York Times’ Robert Pear: “Short of Repeal, G.O.P. Will Chip at Health
Law” WASHINGTON — Republicans are serious. Hopeful of picking up
substantial numbers of seats in the Congressional elections, they are
developing plans to try to repeal or roll back President Obama’s new health
care law. LINK

The
Washington Post’s Amy Gardner: “Tea party picking up steam nationwide”
Fresh off big primary wins in Delaware and Alaska, national "tea
party" groups are redirecting the energy of the movement toward the
November midterm elections, raising millions of dollars, expanding their
advocacy into dozens of congressional races and building voter turnout
operations nationwide. LINK

Newsweek’s
Alan Mascarenhas: “Murkowski Spells Trouble… Most Likely For Herself”
Could Lisa Murkowski's decision to "go rogue" actually work? Last
month, the senior Alaska senator was ousted in the GOP primary by Joe Miller, a
long shot who snuck up late, backed by the Tea Party and Murkowski's
archnemesis, Sarah Palin. Now she's fighting back, announcing on Friday she
will contest November's election as a write-in candidate. LINK

The
Wall Street Journal’s Jim Carlton: “Fiorina Hopes to Harvest Valley’s Votes”
MERCED, Calif.—The San Joaquin Valley, often considered one of California's
political backwaters, is shaping up to be a key battleground in the state's
hotly contested U.S. Senate race. LINK

The
Wall Street Journal’s Danny Yadron and Brody Mullins: “House Democrats Raise
More Than GOP Rivals” House Democrats are heading into the last leg of the
midterm race with a better funded campaign committee than their GOP rivals,
according to early numbers released to Washington Wire this evening. LINK

FOREIGN
AFFAIRS:

The
Los Angeles Times' Laura King: "Helicopter crash in Afghanistan kills
nine Western troops" Afghanistan — Nine Western service members died
Tuesday in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan, making this the
deadliest year for NATO in the nine-year war. Military officials did not
immediately disclose the nationalities of the dead or say precisely where the
crash happened. LINK

Bloomberg’s
Bomi Lim and Jun Yang: “North Korea to Hold Party Congress to Choose Leaders”
North Korea will hold its first party congress in 30 years next week, setting
the stage for a possible dynastic transfer of power in the Stalinist state from
Kim Jong Il to his youngest son. The Workers Party of Korea will meet on Sept.
28 in the capital of Pyongyang to choose “its supreme leadership body,” the
official Korean Central News Agency reported today. LINK

Bloomberg’s
Peter S. Green: “Cameron, Lula Absence Shows UN Losing Ground to G-20
Summits” World leaders are cutting back their visits to the United Nations
General Assembly session this week as they find the Group of 20 and other
smaller gatherings more effective venues to debate international problems.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva, whose countries both sit on the UN Security Council, won’t be in New
York. LINK

HEALTH
CARE:

The
Hill's Julian Pecquet: "Health insurers drop coverage for children
ahead of new rules" Health plans in at least four states have
announced they're dropping children's coverage just days ahead of new rules
created by the healthcare reform law, according to the liberal grassroots group
Health Care for America Now (HCAN). The new healthcare law forbids insurers
from turning down children with pre-existing conditions starting Thursday, one
of several reforms Democrats are eager to highlight this week as they try to
build support for the law ahead of the mid-term elections. LINK

ECONOMY:
USA Today’s Richard Wolf: “How the tax cut debate affects you”
WASHINGTON — In 2001, George W. Bush signed one of the biggest tax cuts in U.S.
history. He heralded it as an elixir for a struggling economy. But it also
contributed to a growing deficit.

LINK

The
Washington Times’ Stephen Dinan: “Economic worries shove security aside in
minds of voters” The focus of this year’s national election debate will be
not be on security, but economics, for the first time since the Sept. 11
attacks. LINK

DON’T
ASK, DON’T TELL:

Politico’s
Josh Gerstein and Scott Wong: “GOP moderates hold key to DADT” Democrats
look to moderate Republicans to bring DADT bill to the floor of the Senate. LINK

REGIONAL
POLITICS:

The
Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels: “7th CD: A debate over debates” Democratic
Congressman Ed Perlmutter will participate in a candidates’ forum tonight,
while his Republican opponent, Ryan Frazier, is fund-raising in Washington.
Perlmutter’s campaign charged that Frazier “backed out” of tonight’s event
sponsored by the Allied Jewish Federation debate. LINK

The Miami
Herald’s Marry Ellen Klas: “Lawmakers push to challenge Florida
redistricting proposals” TALLAHASSEE — As the high-stakes battle over
drawing political boundaries goes to the November ballot, two veteran Florida
congressmen joined with business groups Monday to launch a campaign to defeat
the proposals that would upend the way their districts are drawn. LINK

The
Miami Herald’s Simon Lomax and Miles Weiss: “Bill Clinton: Disaffected
voters key to win” WASHINGTON — Democrats facing the November midterm
elections must win back disaffected voters who supported the party in 2006 and
2008 in order to keep control of Congress, former President Bill Clinton said. LINK

The
Philadelphia Inquirer’s Thomas Fitzgerald: “Obama, in Philadelphia, asks for
enthusiasm, funds for Sestak” President Obama urged Democrats to recapture
the enthusiasm of his historic 2008 campaign Monday as he raised cash for U.S.
Senate candidate Joe Sestak and the national party at three Philadelphia
events. "This is what change looks like in a big, messy democracy like
ours. It's not smooth, but it's worthwhile," Obama told about 65 elite
donors who gave a total of $1 million to the national party to mingle with the
president at the Pyramid Club in Center City. LINK

The
Philadelphia Inquirer’s Angela Couloumbis: “Pa. legislature has little time,
major issues” Hope is a word uttered often these days in the halls of the
Capitol. There is hope that Republicans and Democrats in the legislature can
agree on how to tax the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale LINK

OTHER:

Bloomberg’s
Joshua Zumbrun and Steve Matthews: “Fed Under Pressure to Avoid Creating
Confusion Over Potential for Easing” Federal Reserve officials debating
whether to boost stimulus are under pressure to avoid creating confusion among investors
about any new effort to spur the U.S. recovery. The Federal Open Market
Committee, which meets today, triggered a stock selloff with its last statement
on Aug. 10 as investors took it as a signal the economy will falter.  LINK

ABC
NEWS VIDEO:

ABC
News Video: “Connolly: 'Health Care Is Hardly A Secret'” Rep. Gerry Connolly
D-VA., discusses Democrats campaign strategy on "Top Line." LINK

ABC
News Video: “Lady Gaga: 'Equality Is the Prime Rib of America'”

Pop
Singer Lady Gaga gives remarks at rally to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. LINK

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