They're driving 'rates up'
Since the dawn of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, it was evident that for the law to have any measure of success it would require millennials to enroll in large numbers. Critics knew it wouldn't happen - that young people would pay the fine instead of ponying up a huge chunk of money for health insurance they were sure they wouldn't need.
Now that Obamacare has fallen on hard times, the president who must swallow the blame for its creation is pointing fingers at those same millennials who wouldn't bite, among others.
"In those states where the governor and the legislature are hostile to the ACA, it makes it harder to enroll people because the state is not actively participating in outreach," Obama explained. "As a consequence, in those states, enrollment - especially enrollment of young people - has lagged.
"What that means is the insurance pool is smaller and gets a higher percentage of older and sicker people who are signing up because if you're sick or you're old, you're more likely to sign up no matter what because I know I'm going to need it," he added. "If you're young and healthy like you guys, you say, 'ehhh, I'm fine. Life's good.'"
And that, Obama told them, "drives rates up."
At least he didn't blame Bush on this one.
Hillary and Al: It's complicated
Former Vice President Al Gore made an appearance with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton earlier this fall, but what he was promised for that endorsement may not be known unless Clinton wins the White House. For, according to WikiLeaks, there is no love lost between the two.
Their relationship, in fact, was "bad," according to emails sent by Clinton aide Huma Abedin to Cheryl Mills, Clinton's personal lawyer and former chief of staff to the former secretary of state, and revealed on WikiLeaks.
Gore had, last November, refused to endorse his former boss's wife for president.
Mills opined she was surprised that he wouldn't endorse since Gore sought Clinton's endorsement in his 2000 presidential bid.
"Well," said Abedin, "that was 16 years ago. Hard to put on email but there is no love lost in this relationship."
The famous hug-a-thon uniting the all-Bubba Democratic ticket of 1992, with Bill and Hillary Clinton and Al and Tipper Gore, now seems so yesterday. Al and Tipper have long gone their separate ways, and Bill and Hillary, well, to use the phrase the candidate herself uses, "It's complicated."
How to spin a lie
WikiLeaks has exposed another lie by President Barack Obama, this one about his knowledge of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server.
Obama told CBS News in March 2015 he learned about the private server the same way most Americans did, "through news reports." But emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's Gmail account say otherwise.
"They know POTUS (president of the United States) and HRC (Hillary Rodham Clinton) emailed," Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri wrote to aides In March 2015, just about a month before the now-Democratic nominee launched her campaign.
Palmieri knew the heat would be coming down.
"Josh has been asked about that," she wrote, referring to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
"Standard practice is not to confirm anything about [Obama's] email, so his answer to [the] press was that he would not comment/confirm," Palmieri wrote to Clinton aide Philippe Reines. "I recollect that Josh was also asked if POTUS ever noticed her personal email account and he said something like POTUS likely had better things to do than focus on his Cabinet's email addresses."
Reines had written, "One of us should connect with the WH (White House) just so they know that the email will show his statement to not make sense. But it's not unreasonable to assume that Josh is going to get asked how this was possible, and he should have the factset."
Bye, Bayh?
Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh still has the upper hand in his race for the open U.S. Senate seat in Indiana, but his once commanding lead over U.S. Rep. Todd Young has dwindled to a scant few points.
Although Bayh claims his Indianapolis condominium has been his home, the home where he spent "lots and lots" of time since he decided to run for Senate again, a copy of his schedule provided to The Associated Press shows he did not spend the night there once during his last year in office in 2010.
However, the schedule shows he did spend time in Indianapolis hotels during the period, thanks to taxpayer money, campaign funds and the kindness of friends.
The AP also detailed how Bayh spent $3,000 in taxpayer money for job hunting trips to New York, trips the campaign says were devoted to media appearances, and $2,000 on return trips from vacations, trips the campaign called legitimate because they were returning him for official business.
He also has listed Washington as his primary place of residence on multiple records after leaving the Senate and recently sold one house in D.C. and bought another one. Further, Indiana election officials determined he was an "inactive" voter in the state.