Bruce Hoffman sees the Internet recruiting efforts as part of a calculated strategy. He says al-Qaida and other jihadi groups are using these lower-level Internet recruits to overwhelm U.S. law enforcement with small plots, so they can have the space they need to plan bigger ones.

"I think that the Internet was correctly seen by al-Qaida and its fellow jihadis as a vacuum they could fill and they have filled it very well," Hoffman says. "And we are just now, unfortunately, paying increased attention to this particular new threat."President Obama, in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, declined to talk specifically about this latest case. He did say "we have to constantly be mindful that some of these twisted ideologies are available over the Internet."

Kitzhaber's open discussion of rationing brings up questions about what individuals are willing to sacrifice to make sure the health care system as a whole is viable. Last year, this point propelled cancer patient Barbara Wagner into the headlines. She received a letter from the Oregon Health Plan denying her cancer treatment because it had less than a 5 percent chance of success. The same letter offered payment for the state's physician-assisted suicide program. The drugmaker eventually gave Wagner the medication for free, but she died a few months later. Despite difficult situations like Wagner's, Kitzhaber says Oregon is a good place to have this public conversation. "I do think Oregon has a history of innovation in medical care," he says. "And we've had discussions on how you prioritize — and limits and rationing — that most states haven't had."Kitzhaber predicts that within a few years, most people will realize the fix being crafted in Washington right now won't work. And policymakers will then look to states like Oregon as models to craft a national policy that will work.