The president made a proposal. That’s great. Except David Sirota says the proposal is just another example of Obama looking out for the Big Guy, and John Cole says it won’t even merit a debate. You want to know what the problem is? No one on the left is fighting for the president’s agenda. Half the progressives are spending all their time bitching and the other half are spending all their time in utter despondency.
I don’t call myself a progressive. I don’t even think of myself as part of the left anymore, which I did for nigh on fifty years, until now. Since five minutes after the President was elected, it’s been an unproductive, destructive whine fest, while the right organized itself into the 2010 elections. It’s like nobody can figure out how to have a Democratic president. The only thing I will call myself anymore is a Democrat and I will let anybody else interested figure out the rest.
Really, what a waste of time and energy this whole argument has been. You can’t support the President because you’re not getting what you want; he can’t give you what you want unless you strengthen his hand, instead of weakening it. It’s that simple and that crazy-making.
But while there is a part of the left who couldn’t care less that there is a Democratic President or Congress, don’t care that they are collaborating with the right wing to damage the Obama administration–they’re just as happy damaging Democrats as Republicans–I do understand those on the left who mostly just want to see the guy we elected now and again. The guy who gave this speech on Monday.
You see that picture there? That’s the bad ass motherfucker we elected, not the milquetoast pussy that gave the worthless Oval Office speech on Iraq last week. You see who’s behind him there? Those are mostly white workers. If you saw them at a gathering of teabaggers, you wouldn’t be surprised. It was as if President Obama let out his inner Barack, unencumbered by chimeric bipartisanship and briefly let loose by Rahm “Fucking” Emanuel. And Barack enjoyed coming out to play. We last had a play date with Barack sometime around June 30.
This was Obama’s Labor Day speech, where he genuinely brought the old time noise, going after Republicans with a surprising streak of viciousness and anger. “Even on things we usually agree on, they say no. If I said the sky was blue, they say no,” he mocked, to laughter in the large crowd “If I said fish live in the sea, they’d say no.” He said that the “special interests” in DC “talk about me like I’m a dog.” And he proposed a near-certainly dead-on-arrival $50 billion infrastructure rebuilding plan and tax cuts for business investments in new equipment. If he’s up to what the Rude Pundit think he might be, its failure could be the rallying point for Democrats (assuming Democrats understand this).
Remember (and sometimes the Rude Pundit has to remember this, too): Obama’s game has always been rope-a-dope. Lull the opposition into a sense of security. Play turtle to their hare. And then rip off the shell at the last minute to sprint to the end. …
In its report this morning, NPR interviewed some guy who didn’t like the speech. Obama promised bipartisanship, the man said. All he heard was more of the same old politics.
“And it’s about time,” the Rude Pundit wanted to tell the man.
I understand the Rude One. I feel that way sometimes, too. The Rude One is right. And BooMan’s got it exactly right: “You want to know what the problem is? No one on the left is fighting for the president’s agenda.” When we have both of these things, together at the same time, is when we get ours, and not before.
Never heard of this person, have never seen the show, didn’t watch the President on “The View” — and I had no clue there even was this oh so important controversy going on.
But I thought this was damned good, the DNC comeback to whatever it is:
* Profoundly important exchange of the day: The RNC attacked Obama today for taking a question about Snooki on The View, arguing that the president should spend more time on the economy than on the Jersey Shore. DNC spox Hari Sevugan responds with a barb about the RNC cash spent at the bondage-themed nightclub:
“What’s clear is that while the President took bold action to pull our economy out of the ditch that Republicans had left it in, the GOP sat on the sidelines playing political games that didn’t do a thing to help American families. So, thanks, but we’ll pass on advice from a party that spent more time helping the Southern California sex club economy than the American economy at large.”
A choice for people without job-related health plans saves money, too. Let’s do it.
As both political parties worry about the growing federal deficit, an unlikely proposal is returning from last year’s divisive healthcare debate: the “public option.” …
“There is all this concern about the deficit,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma), a leading champion of the proposal. “Well, guess what: This would reduce the deficit because it saves so much money.”
Creating a public option that all Americans could choose would save $68 billion through 2020, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. The analysis was included in a letter to Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), who along with Reps. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) is introducing a bill this week creating a public option in the state exchanges that start in 2014.
The new CBO report scores lower savings than the public options discussed during the healthcare reform debate because they were tied to legislation that differs from the law that was enacted in March. The bill has more than 100 Democratic co-sponsors but faces strong opposition from the insurance industry, and physicians and hospitals worried that it would bring down payment rates.
PORTLAND, Ore. — A masseuse who accused former Vice President Al Gore of groping and kissing her at a downtown hotel in 2006 failed a lie detector test and had a history of falsely accusing people of mistreating her, according to a report in this week’s Portland Tribune newspaper.
Tribune editors said they found out about Molly Hagerty’s sex abuse allegation against Gore 3 ½ years ago, but they didn’t print an article because the newspaper’s reporters thought her story lacked credibility. …
Tribune editor Mark Garber said Hagerty’s lawyer asked her to take a lie detector test and she failed, but that wasn’t the reason they didn’t print the story. He said the newspaper reporters’ “personal interaction” with Hagerty raised red flags.
“We became concerned throughout dozens and dozens of conversations that she had with another editor and the reporter,” Garber said. “They both became concerned about credibility issues as it relates to her story.”
Hagerty told the National Enquirer recently that she had Gore’s DNA saved on a pair of slacks. But this week’s Tribune report said DNA tests showed there was no semen at all on the pants.
One of the keys to the Republican midterm strategy is hammering away at an unpopular health care reform package signed into law in March. Of course, the plan — which includes GOP demands for a repeal of the entire law — only works if the Affordable Care Act is, in fact, unpopular.
There’s at least some evidence, however, that public attitudes are changing.
The patient is alive and kicking. A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds public support for President Barack Obama’s new health care law has risen to its highest point.
The nation remains divided, with 45 percent in favor and 42 percent opposed to the president’s signature domestic accomplishment.
Still, the shift in public sentiment was significant. Opposition to the overhaul increased after Congress passed it in March. And last month, supporters were outnumbered 39 percent to 46 percent. But the latest survey found the strongest backing for the health care plan since the AP-GfK poll began asking in September.
The AP found some of the largest gains among men (support jumped 10 points, to 46%) and 30-49 year-olds (support jumped 14 points to 49%). Even among self-indentified Republicans, support for the new law doubled — from 8% to 17% — though clearly GOP voters are a long way from liking the ACA.
More jobs might be created this year than during George W. Bush’s presidency.
If the economy produces jobs over the next eight months at the same pace as it did over the past four months, the nation will have created more jobs in 2010 alone than it did over the entire eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency.
That comparison comes with many footnotes and asterisks. But it shows how the economic debate between the parties could look very different over time — perhaps by November, more likely by 2012. More important, the comparison underscores the urgency of repairing an American job-creation machine that was sputtering long before the 2008 financial meltdown.
First, the numbers: From February 2001, Bush’s first full month in office, through January 2009, his last, total U.S. nonfarm employment grew from 132.5 million to 133.5 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s an increase, obviously, of just 1 million. From January through April of this year, the economy created 573,000 jobs. Over a full year, that projects to 1.72 million jobs. Job-creation numbers are notoriously volatile, so the actual result could run above or below that estimate. But Obama administration economists are increasingly optimistic that job growth this year will exceed expectations. Few of them will be surprised if more jobs are created in 2010 than over Bush’s two terms.
Now the principal footnote: To compare job growth in 2010 with Bush’s record ignores the nearly 4 million jobs lost in Obama’s first year, during the freefall that began in Bush’s final months. That’s like ignoring a meteor strike. Over time, voters are likely to judge Obama by his degree of success in eliminating that deficit and reducing unemployment. Still, if the economy this year produces more than 1 million jobs — or, conceivably, more than 2 million — that will give Democrats more ammunition to argue that their agenda has started to turn the tide.
Barack Obama’s right-wing opponents have cast him as a socialist failure. His left-wing hecklers see him as an over-cautious hedger. But, critics notwithstanding, President Obama is on the path to be a huge success by the time of November’s midterm elections.
In March 2008, Obama gave one of his best speeches, in my opinion, also at Cooper Union, and on the same topic. It’s interesting to hear again this pre-crisis speech, because of how predictive the speech was and how little his thinking has been changed by the economic cauldron of his first year in office.
Here is the President giving remarks today at Cooper Union. A little older-looking, perhaps, giving not quite the soaring oration, but still on the mark he set last time he was in that room. Steady as a rock. The right man for the job, fully in his time.
The substantial uptick in satisfaction among Democrats follows the House’s passage of the new healthcare bill on March 21 and President Obama’s signing the bill into law on March 23 (Obama signed the revised healthcare bill on March 30). Democrats’ satisfaction had dropped from readings in the mid-40% range last fall to 29% in early March. By the time of Gallup’s March 26-28 survey this year, Democrats’ satisfaction had begun to move back up; it has recovered to the current 49% in Gallup’s April 8-11 survey.
Nice news to wake up to. The Tea Party was looking to the election of Ed Lynch as its first success following on the passage of health care reform.
The TEA Party’s clout may be felt this week in the race for the open Congressional seat in Florida’s 19th District on April 13th. This may be the first shot across the bow of Republicans running for national, state wide, and local offices.
Tow the conservative line or else may be the message sent if TEA Party favorite Edward Lynch wins this special election.
I just received an e-mail from a friend saying that TEA Party members have made over 10,000 phone calls in support of conservative Edward Lynch for Congress. Edward is running against Florida Senator Ted Deutch a Democrat who embraced President Obama’s healthcare bill, anti-Israel posturing, and stimulus package. Edward won a special Republican primary election in February and now will use that momentum to turn a Democrat seat into a Republican seat – the first in Florida.
In the three ongoing special elections where Republicans hope to take seats once held by Democrats, “repeal” has become a rallying cry for local activists and national fundraisers. The next election on the calender will come April 13 in the 19th District of Florida, some of the safest Democratic terrain in the state. The Obama-Biden ticket won 65 percent of the vote there, while Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) won re-election with 66 percent. But Ed Lynch, the businessman running as a Republican to replace Wexler, has taken to the pages of Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government to call his race “the first referendum on nationalized health care.”
“By contributing, 5, 10, or 20 dollars to our campaign,” wrote Lynch, “your donation will count towards a full and unequivocal REPEAL of the most dangerous legislation passed since this nation’s founding.”
In an interview with TWI, Lynch made it clear that he backed full repeal, and wouldn’t quibble about parts of the legislation that Republicans have occasionally endorsed, such as preventing coverage from being denied for pre-existing conditions. “This bill is going to kill our seniors,” said Lynch. “Making something less bad doesn’t mean making it good.” He would sign the “Repeal It” pledge, he said, and he’d also co-sponsor legislation Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has introduced to repeal the Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act. “I’m a big supporter of Michele,” he said.
So much for that idea, but it’s heartening to see, after all the Tea Party hype by CNN and FOX News, that seniors, of which I am one, know how to protect our best interests.
Deutch had 62 percent of the vote compared to Lynch’s 36 percent with 97 percent of the precincts counted, CNN affiliate WFOR reported. The election was to fill the seat of Democrat Robert Wexler, who resigned at the beginning of the year to head up the Center for Middle East Peace. …
“We’ve heard for months that tonight … is a referendum on health care, it’s a referendum on the (Obama) administration, it’s a referendum on what direction this country is going,” Deutch said. “Let me tell you something, what we learned today is that in Broward County and Palm Beach County, Florida, the Democratic Party is alive and well.”
The controversial health care reforms may have played a large role in the election results.
Lynch said he wanted to repeal the new law. The 44-year-old contractor made opposition to President Barack Obama’s health care legislation a major part of his campaign. Lynch was also critical of the federal stimulus program, and of the president’s handling the war in Iraq. Deutch, also 44, supported the new health care law.
While Michele Bachmann has developed a reputation as a champion for cutting government spending, her own 2009 congressional staff salary budget mushroomed by $176,868 – a whopping 26.4 percent – over her 2008 staff budget, even though her congressional workload didn’t change.
At the same time, Bachmann’s national media profile took a dramatic jump in 2009 due to her frequent cable tv appearances and campaign speaking engagements around the country.
Are taxpayers subsidizing Bachmann’s campaign expenses and increased media exposure with a congressional staff growing at more than twice the rate of anyone else in the Minnesota delegation? That’s hard to tell, because a number of Bachmann staffers also work as consultants to her campaign.
The Minnesota Daily reported on Bachmann’s Democratic challenger:
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is gaining attention as one of the faces of the national Tea Party movement, but Tarryl Clark says it’s time for someone to get things done in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District instead.
Clark, a state senator from St. Cloud, said she is challenging the incumbent Bachmann for the 6th District U.S. House seat because she wants to make government work for the people of her district. She won the DFL party endorsement in the race in March.
Clark has raised more than $505,000 so far in 2010, more money in the first quarter of an election year than any Minnesota candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in more than a decade. …
Likewise, Sen. Sandy Rummel, DFL-White Bear Lake, said Clark was gaining attention for her positive work in the community rather than outrageous statements — one of the common complaints against Bachmann.
Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute who is a former reporter for The New York Times and The New York Post, recalled the elder Mr. Cuomo’s calling his house once and having a 45-minute conversation with the cleaning woman about housing policy.
April 13 (Bloomberg) — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has a 74 percent job-approval rating among voters and leads his Republican contenders by more than 2-to-1 in his still-undeclared Democratic candidacy for governor, a Quinnipiac University poll reported.
Cuomo holds a 55 percent to 26 percent lead over former U.S. Congressman Rick Lazio, a 60 percent to 24 percent edge over Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino and a 57 percent to 24 percent advantage over Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, the poll found.
Dems’ Governing Core Stays Intact
After some wavering, Democrats have responded to adversity by closing ranks.
by Ronald Brownstein
In a rolling sea, Democrats are steering directly into the waves.
After Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown’s victory in January’s Senate special election, Democrats appeared shaken to the point of panic. But, from President Obama on down, the party has rapidly regrouped–enacting health care reform, virtually daring Senate Republicans to filibuster tougher regulation of financial institutions, and challenging the GOP with last weekend’s White House announcement of recess appointments for 15 nominees stalled in the Senate. Pundits may be pelting the party with predictions of doom in November, but Democrats have apparently decided that the best defense against a resolute Republican opposition is a good offense. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could have just as easily been speaking for Obama when she recently told columnists: “I’m in the arena; I’ve jumped in for the fight.”
Democrats achieved nothing like that clarity when they last controlled both the White House and Congress, during President Clinton’s first two years. As if ducking out of a barroom brawl, Democratic legislators back then routinely deserted their party whenever they thought it would help them at home; few accepted responsibility for passing the president’s program. As a consequence, key pillars of Clinton’s agenda (health care reform, for example) collapsed. In November 1994, so did the Democrats’ House and Senate majorities.
Today, Democrats face much the same electoral challenge as they did then: unyielding opposition from congressional Republicans and a growing grassroots conservative backlash. But after some wavering, Democrats this time have mostly responded by closing ranks, especially in the dramatic drive to complete health care reform. Democrats remain divided on immigration, climate change, and some other issues, but they have united enough to make this arguably the most productive legislative session for any Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson.
The key to that success has been the willingness of Democrats elected by the same constituencies as Obama to bind their fate to his. The governing core of the party’s House majority has been members elected from districts that Obama carried in 2008. House Democrats who represent such districts voted 199-8 for final approval of the Senate health care bill last month. Last year, they voted 201-1 for Obama’s stimulus plan, 194-1 for federal tobacco regulation, 191-8 for financial reform, and 189-15 for climate-change legislation. The Democrats elected in districts that preferred Republican presidential nominee John McCain haven’t supported Obama nearly as reliably, but Pelosi has corralled enough of them each time to pass the president’s priorities.
In the Senate, the governing core is the 33 Democratic senators elected from the 18 “blue wall” states that have supported the party’s presidential nominees in at least the past five elections. In 2009, these senators collectively recorded a stunning 97 percent party unity score on the index calculated by Congressional Quarterly. Around that axis, Democratic leaders have assembled shifting coalitions of Democrats from states that are more closely divided. On the most-momentous votes — the stimulus plan and the initial health care reform package — every Senate Democrat from either camp backed Obama.
“I see the way we did health care reform as a model of getting something done for the American people,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says in an interview with PBS. “We reach for bipartisanship, we try to find common ground, but if we can’t, it doesn’t mean we don’t go forward.”
Rep. Jim Moran, a fiery Virginia Democrat, got a visit from tea party activists at his office earlier this week. Aides got between the burly lawmaker and the activists. The activists, according to the congressman, asked whether he needed “bodyguards” to protect him.
“We’re not protecting him from you,” the aides said, according to Moran. “We’re protecting you from him.”
