++Timothy Egan at the Times had a column extolling President Obama's accomplishments. It's worth a read because Egan is one of our most accomplished writers and usually has a unique way of putting things.
++I guess The Post really misses Congress because they had two more new articles on President Obama's comeback and his relaxed manner.
++Even more bizarre the Post had a news article how the ACA aka Obamacare has improved healthcare in the United States. Always noting that you can never be sure what factors have actually made a difference.
++And even stranger still the Post decided to editorialize in support of the ACA and its effects.
++President Obama didn't let up. He repeated his message at the press conference in his weekly address that spoke about America resurgent.
++I like David Axelrod's snark on tweeter that "Isn't interesting how CW went from Obama dead to CW he has rebounded. WOW."
++President Obama will continue his end zone dance with a one-on-one interview with Candy Crowley has she winds up her stay at CNN.
++I guess the only male this past week who got to question the President was Stephen Colbert, who finally ended the Colbert Report with a celebrity party.
Showing posts with label Stephen Colbert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stephen Colbert. Show all posts
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
What Would Reagan Do?
++Stephen Colbert did a fun spoof on Bill O'Relly,Ileana Ros-Letinnen, and others appearing on Fox News opining about what President Reagan would do about Syria. Colbert said they invented Super Reagan, who can solve all present problems.
++Invoking Reagan to contrast with President Obama has been a constant practice of the Right thoughout Obama's presidency. We had the Zombie Reagan in the 2012 presidential primary, who would cut taxes, balance the budget and create millions of jobs. Now we have the Reagan who would simply warn Assad not to use chemical weapons and if he did,Assad would be assassinated. And certainly Reagan wouldn't trust the Russkies in any negotiated settlement.
++This is what the real Reagan did in the Middle East on such matters. To secure the release of the Iranian hostages, his envoy made a commitment that the United States would not invade Iran or destabilize the Iranian Islamic Republic.
In 1983,the marine barracks in Lebanon were attacked by suicide bombers of Hezbollah and 299 American and French servicemen were killed. Reagan promptly withdrew from the country.
From 1986-1988, Saddam Hussein conducted the Al-Anfal campaign against Kurds and other ethnic minorities using chemical weapons. Separate from that campaign was the gas attack in 1988 on Halabja, a Kurdish territory, between 3,200 and 5,000 were killed and 7-10,000 were injured and thousands more died years later. From classified documents, we know the United States knew all along in great operational detail about these attacks and did nothing because we wanted a tie in the Iran-Iraq War. Ronald Reagan did nothing about the largest use of chemical weapons since WWII.
Saddam Hussein attacked the U.S.S. Stark and killed 37 Americans. Ronald Reagan simply accepted Saddam's apologies.
With the war in Afghanistan, USIA became the world's largest distributor of literature prompting Islamic fundamentalism, surpassing the Saudi efforts to spread Wahhabism. Islamic fundamentalism was seen as the appropriate ideological counter-balance to Communism.
I don't think it is wise for conservatives to invoke the Big Ron on matters concerning Syria.
++Invoking Reagan to contrast with President Obama has been a constant practice of the Right thoughout Obama's presidency. We had the Zombie Reagan in the 2012 presidential primary, who would cut taxes, balance the budget and create millions of jobs. Now we have the Reagan who would simply warn Assad not to use chemical weapons and if he did,Assad would be assassinated. And certainly Reagan wouldn't trust the Russkies in any negotiated settlement.
++This is what the real Reagan did in the Middle East on such matters. To secure the release of the Iranian hostages, his envoy made a commitment that the United States would not invade Iran or destabilize the Iranian Islamic Republic.
In 1983,the marine barracks in Lebanon were attacked by suicide bombers of Hezbollah and 299 American and French servicemen were killed. Reagan promptly withdrew from the country.
From 1986-1988, Saddam Hussein conducted the Al-Anfal campaign against Kurds and other ethnic minorities using chemical weapons. Separate from that campaign was the gas attack in 1988 on Halabja, a Kurdish territory, between 3,200 and 5,000 were killed and 7-10,000 were injured and thousands more died years later. From classified documents, we know the United States knew all along in great operational detail about these attacks and did nothing because we wanted a tie in the Iran-Iraq War. Ronald Reagan did nothing about the largest use of chemical weapons since WWII.
Saddam Hussein attacked the U.S.S. Stark and killed 37 Americans. Ronald Reagan simply accepted Saddam's apologies.
With the war in Afghanistan, USIA became the world's largest distributor of literature prompting Islamic fundamentalism, surpassing the Saudi efforts to spread Wahhabism. Islamic fundamentalism was seen as the appropriate ideological counter-balance to Communism.
I don't think it is wise for conservatives to invoke the Big Ron on matters concerning Syria.
Friday, December 23, 2011
The GOP Implodes
Throughout the year, it has been obvious that the GOP has obstructed almost anything the Obama Administration has proposed to stimulate the economy. But the extension of unemployment insurance and the payroll tax break for the Middle class seemed a no-brainer. The Senate Republicans extracted a concession on the XL Pipeline from the Democrats and the Senate bill passed 89-10 for the extension. And we could all go home for Christmas.
But strange things happened and they were disasterous for the Republicans. The Senate bill negotiated by Mitch McConnell was done with the active collaboration of John Boehner, who approved of all the Senate moves in advance. So naturally, the table was set for both sides to proclaim a great bipartisan victory and adjourn. Remember the extension is only for two months and both sides had agreed to recovene in January to negotiate a full year at that time. But the tea bag caucus in the House balked and Boehner was left trying to defend the indefensible.
In one swift moment, all the past year's obstructionism finally became obvious to the whole public and over 130 million Americans faced a tax increase of between $1,500 and $2,200. The great tax-cutting party now looked like they were OK with raising taxes on the middle-class, when they refused the millionaire tax to pay for the middle-class tax cut. Finally, the Obama Administration could zero in on the hypocrisy of the GOP and the very direct negative consequences their actions have on the average American. This has been clear all year to the broader public.
Throughout the week, Republicans began to eat themselves alive. Karl Rove denounced the House Republicans for losing the tax debate. John McCain said that House Republicans were damaging the GOP brand. Even Mitch McConnell had to weigh in calling on the House Republicans to fold. By week's end, the Tan Man looked pale and rumors from House GOP aides suggested Boehner's day as Speaker were limited. It was as if the polling of Congress as the worst ever came to focus on the House. Senate Republicans said that their own chances of taking the Senate back were fading.
Rachel Maddow returned to her thesis that John Boehner was incompetent and there was alot of evidence to support her view. Boehner didn't have the vote count accurate in his own Caucus and then was forced through a surrogate not to allow the Senate Bill to be voted on in the House because it would have passed with total support of the Democrats and a sufficient number of the House Republicans so that the GOP would looked divided.
Yes, the battle begins anew in January and one person commented in the Washington Post that this was all inside baseball and would soon be forgotten. I don't think so because all the Republican columnists waged war over this and the Wall Street Journal, the business side of the GOP,blasted House Republicans. It became very plain and the Democrats are exploiting this that the Republicans now really have come down on the side of the 1% against the 99%. With the change of the debate caused by the Occupy movement,the wind is now at the Democrats' back, partocularly President Obama.
One of the winners of this fracas was Willard "Mitt" Romney. The reason is that the news over the Boehner failure took away from Romney's astonishing weeks of lying. Romney claimed that President Obama has not created a single job and that Romney as head of Bain Capital created 100,000 jobs and he would pit that against Obama. Romney's campaign has systematically lied about when the great Recession began. His graphics blame all job loss on the Obama Administration and seems to imply that Obama was responsible for all events in 2007 and 2008. The problem with this is that we have Mitt on tape praising the President's stimulus plan.
The other problem with this is that we have had 21 straight months of private job growth. From 2010 through 2011, the private sector created 2.9 million jobs, or roughly three times the amount created during 8 years of President George W. Bush. Job creation this year has been the best since 2006 and the fragile green roots of the economy seem to suggest more job creation in 2012, if Europe doesn't collapse. That Mitt Romney, who was 47th of 50th governor in job creation, managing to eek out Louisiana who was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina,would like to criticize this is rather appalling.
But Mitt didn't stop there. In a sitdown interview, he said that it was great that President Obama got bin Laden but added that any President would make the same decision. The democrats immediately went aerial with an ad attacking Romney,splicing comments by Gates, Colin Powell and Rudy Guiliani suggesting Obama's decision took courage. And, by the way, Presidents Clinton and George W. didn't make the same decision, when they had the chance.
Mitt has spent the week trying to build moment by locking down Iowa after spending millions on attacks ads against Newt. With Ron Paul emerging as the Iowa front-runner, the news media is giving Paul the front-runner treatment and exacavating all his racist newsletters from the 1990s when he predicted a race war. Mitt is predicting a second-place finish, which would stem the tide of the anti-Mitt vote.
Romney picked up an incredibly lukewarm endorsement from President George H.W. Bush, who said he had favored Rick Perry but Mitt was the best the GOP could do for now. Also, old Iowa Senator and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole weighed in on Mitt's behalf.
Iowa is seeing the slight rise in the fortunes of Frothy Mix Santorum, who nailed the endorsement of Van der Plaats, the evangelical leader who supported Mike Huckabee. Rick Perry is on a bust tour of the state and has dropped his homophobic ads for one with his wife.
It's all pretty unsavory. The Congressional Republicans acted and sounded like a bunch of chumps this week and the erstwhile Presidential candidates continued to embarrass.
It has not been a good week for conservatives. Brent Bozell of the right-wing Media Research group,tastefully referred to President Obama as "a skinny, ghetto crackhead". And that about sums up the current position on the right--Obama is the enemy and we have no new ideas and could care less about the public good.
President Obama continued his war against Christmas by sending people like me a Christmas card showing Bo lying in front of a fireplace, with a Poinsetta on the table surrounded by presents. I didn't know this was anti-Christmas until Fox News and Sarah Palin opined that Americans expected references to Christ. Although it seems that past Presidents, especially Republicans, neglected to mention Christ either. But we have to remember Obama is "the Other".
For his part, President Obama stayed home from his anticipated vacation in Hawaii, but he got criticized for planning on going to Hawaii anyway. A few polls showed him hitting 49% and roughly his average is around 46%, a nice range to begin the re-election year.
At least Jon Huntsman seemed to have a good week. He played Johnny B.Goode on the Letterman show and said he always wanted to be Paul Schaeffer when he grew up. And the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire endorsed him for that state's primary because he is relatively sane.
Gary Johnson decided to run on the libertarian ticket because no one would allow him to debate in the Republican contest. Interestingly enough, Johnson was the greatest job-creator in the field but his libertarian social views made him a paraiah.
Stephen Colbert of the Colbert report hit the right note when he offered $500,000 for the naming rights to the South Carolina Republican primary. And it looks like South Carolina might take him up on it.
But strange things happened and they were disasterous for the Republicans. The Senate bill negotiated by Mitch McConnell was done with the active collaboration of John Boehner, who approved of all the Senate moves in advance. So naturally, the table was set for both sides to proclaim a great bipartisan victory and adjourn. Remember the extension is only for two months and both sides had agreed to recovene in January to negotiate a full year at that time. But the tea bag caucus in the House balked and Boehner was left trying to defend the indefensible.
In one swift moment, all the past year's obstructionism finally became obvious to the whole public and over 130 million Americans faced a tax increase of between $1,500 and $2,200. The great tax-cutting party now looked like they were OK with raising taxes on the middle-class, when they refused the millionaire tax to pay for the middle-class tax cut. Finally, the Obama Administration could zero in on the hypocrisy of the GOP and the very direct negative consequences their actions have on the average American. This has been clear all year to the broader public.
Throughout the week, Republicans began to eat themselves alive. Karl Rove denounced the House Republicans for losing the tax debate. John McCain said that House Republicans were damaging the GOP brand. Even Mitch McConnell had to weigh in calling on the House Republicans to fold. By week's end, the Tan Man looked pale and rumors from House GOP aides suggested Boehner's day as Speaker were limited. It was as if the polling of Congress as the worst ever came to focus on the House. Senate Republicans said that their own chances of taking the Senate back were fading.
Rachel Maddow returned to her thesis that John Boehner was incompetent and there was alot of evidence to support her view. Boehner didn't have the vote count accurate in his own Caucus and then was forced through a surrogate not to allow the Senate Bill to be voted on in the House because it would have passed with total support of the Democrats and a sufficient number of the House Republicans so that the GOP would looked divided.
Yes, the battle begins anew in January and one person commented in the Washington Post that this was all inside baseball and would soon be forgotten. I don't think so because all the Republican columnists waged war over this and the Wall Street Journal, the business side of the GOP,blasted House Republicans. It became very plain and the Democrats are exploiting this that the Republicans now really have come down on the side of the 1% against the 99%. With the change of the debate caused by the Occupy movement,the wind is now at the Democrats' back, partocularly President Obama.
One of the winners of this fracas was Willard "Mitt" Romney. The reason is that the news over the Boehner failure took away from Romney's astonishing weeks of lying. Romney claimed that President Obama has not created a single job and that Romney as head of Bain Capital created 100,000 jobs and he would pit that against Obama. Romney's campaign has systematically lied about when the great Recession began. His graphics blame all job loss on the Obama Administration and seems to imply that Obama was responsible for all events in 2007 and 2008. The problem with this is that we have Mitt on tape praising the President's stimulus plan.
The other problem with this is that we have had 21 straight months of private job growth. From 2010 through 2011, the private sector created 2.9 million jobs, or roughly three times the amount created during 8 years of President George W. Bush. Job creation this year has been the best since 2006 and the fragile green roots of the economy seem to suggest more job creation in 2012, if Europe doesn't collapse. That Mitt Romney, who was 47th of 50th governor in job creation, managing to eek out Louisiana who was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina,would like to criticize this is rather appalling.
But Mitt didn't stop there. In a sitdown interview, he said that it was great that President Obama got bin Laden but added that any President would make the same decision. The democrats immediately went aerial with an ad attacking Romney,splicing comments by Gates, Colin Powell and Rudy Guiliani suggesting Obama's decision took courage. And, by the way, Presidents Clinton and George W. didn't make the same decision, when they had the chance.
Mitt has spent the week trying to build moment by locking down Iowa after spending millions on attacks ads against Newt. With Ron Paul emerging as the Iowa front-runner, the news media is giving Paul the front-runner treatment and exacavating all his racist newsletters from the 1990s when he predicted a race war. Mitt is predicting a second-place finish, which would stem the tide of the anti-Mitt vote.
Romney picked up an incredibly lukewarm endorsement from President George H.W. Bush, who said he had favored Rick Perry but Mitt was the best the GOP could do for now. Also, old Iowa Senator and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole weighed in on Mitt's behalf.
Iowa is seeing the slight rise in the fortunes of Frothy Mix Santorum, who nailed the endorsement of Van der Plaats, the evangelical leader who supported Mike Huckabee. Rick Perry is on a bust tour of the state and has dropped his homophobic ads for one with his wife.
It's all pretty unsavory. The Congressional Republicans acted and sounded like a bunch of chumps this week and the erstwhile Presidential candidates continued to embarrass.
It has not been a good week for conservatives. Brent Bozell of the right-wing Media Research group,tastefully referred to President Obama as "a skinny, ghetto crackhead". And that about sums up the current position on the right--Obama is the enemy and we have no new ideas and could care less about the public good.
President Obama continued his war against Christmas by sending people like me a Christmas card showing Bo lying in front of a fireplace, with a Poinsetta on the table surrounded by presents. I didn't know this was anti-Christmas until Fox News and Sarah Palin opined that Americans expected references to Christ. Although it seems that past Presidents, especially Republicans, neglected to mention Christ either. But we have to remember Obama is "the Other".
For his part, President Obama stayed home from his anticipated vacation in Hawaii, but he got criticized for planning on going to Hawaii anyway. A few polls showed him hitting 49% and roughly his average is around 46%, a nice range to begin the re-election year.
At least Jon Huntsman seemed to have a good week. He played Johnny B.Goode on the Letterman show and said he always wanted to be Paul Schaeffer when he grew up. And the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire endorsed him for that state's primary because he is relatively sane.
Gary Johnson decided to run on the libertarian ticket because no one would allow him to debate in the Republican contest. Interestingly enough, Johnson was the greatest job-creator in the field but his libertarian social views made him a paraiah.
Stephen Colbert of the Colbert report hit the right note when he offered $500,000 for the naming rights to the South Carolina Republican primary. And it looks like South Carolina might take him up on it.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Stewart/Colbert Crush Beck
Estimating yesterday's crowd size, Stephen Colbert said,"Six billion". spoofing the Beckites' claim of 1 million for their Restore Honor rally. Colbert returned to the scene of his first crime, testifying on immigration on the Hill. If Washington pundits legitimize the teabaggers, they absolutely, totally don't have a clue at what went on at yesterday's rally, which CBS estimates drew 250,000 but probably much more than that. Politics USA wrote yesterday that the John Stewart/ Colbert Show drew twice or as many as three times Glenn Beck's crowd. And from what I could observe it outdrew the One Nation rally.
The National Park Service offered the idea that the rally surpassed 300,000. From the capitol building to the Washington Monument is impressive. The two previous rallies around the Lincoln Memorial had to contend with the reflecting pool and it's clear from the photos that this was more massive.
When I expressed my doubts to my son that many people would show up, he said that friends of his were coming from Ohio for this. He said that all his fellow college students get their news from John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. In fact, a whole generation turned in to see John Stewart's interview with Barack Obama before the rally. A fact that escaped everyone in Washington.D.C.
Depending on your age and taste, the rally had something for everyone. An aging baby-boomer wrote that seeing Tony Bennett made his day. For fans of the Captain and the L.A. Lakers, Stephen Colbert's attack of Muslims brought the reposte by John Stewart that all Muslims aren't bad. "How about this guy?" And on walks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The array of signs brought home the goof on the teabagger crowd--posters of Colbert as Hitler, a smiley face with a Hitler moustache, an aging hippie with a sign,"No Socialists Here", a Muslim woman with a sign,"I'm Muslim but I also fear terrorists", and a slew of takes on the idea of sane politics.
In the next few days, you will read more drivel about the rally than you can imagine. This morning's post had an op-ed ,which said that one can hope for civility but that doesn't mean one accepts the liberal politics of the DNC. We were assured that the intrepid reporter interviewed many at the rally who were liberals. Days before Washington pundits begged John Stewart to cancel the rally because these were serious times and the political decisions to be made were heavy. What was interesting is to see how narcissistic all the commentators were, trying to somehow outsmart John Stewart. Perhaps, one of the more honest comments was from Howard Kurtz who tweeted that he had no idea how all these people got here and what they were doing. Andy Borowitz upped the tweet by posting, "Fox News estimates crowd size at 7."
Remember Washington does not do irony, sarcasm or humor very well. Gloria Bolger at CNN sniffed,"Do these people even vote?" What people will avoid in the next few days is that the rally just destroyed the whole image of the Glenn Beck pretense of wrapping patriotism around a fundamentalist religious concept. The Beck follies were termed "historic" by Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and the other right-wing talk shows. They just got owned by two comedians, who did it all much better with wit.
Frank Rich's column today in the New York Times is about how the teabaggers are going to get owned by the Republican party. Rich reviews the actual strength of the teabaggers--about 2% of the population--and the findings of the Washington Post, which found that of the several thousand chapters the average take was $800. for this year's elections. He points out that the real Teabag operation,as well knew, was engineered by the Koch Brothers and Dick Armey. None of the Republicans who used the teabaggers have any intention of letting these people interfere with their agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy and the elimination of regulations demanded by their corporate masters. Rich remarks how repulsive Republicans like Mitch McConnell find Jim DeMint's demand the U.S. adopt biblical law. They were a good show that propelled the necessary media narrative that the Republicans were not the same people who crashed the economy and ran up $12 trillion in debt. To this degree, Republicans have been masterful in changing the storyline.
A Bloomberg poll reports that the vast majority of Americans really believe that Barack Obama raised their taxes, despite the real world fact that 90% of Americans really got a tax break. The majority also believe that it was Barack Obama that created the TARP program, not George W. Bush, and also believe that the program didn't pay back the money. The absolute confusion of the American voter on economic reality is staggering and ,unfortunately, will aid the Republicans.
The torrent of ads by Karl Rove and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce actually pedal the myth that Obama's policies are killing jobs, even though Obama has surpassed Rove's boss's record in job creation in only 20 months. The propaganda against the stimulus program has been astonishing and ,unfortunately, the administration has not kept up its educational effort on this front. A few months ago, they had launched a tour by Joe Biden and statistics by leading economists about the number of jobs saved and created, the millions of children who received health care, and the strengthening of state governments. All that has clearly not withstood the assault by the anonymous private and foreign donors.
Dana Milbank writes today about where are the adults in the Republican Party. Even right-winger Barry Goldwater said that essence of holding a post in Congress was compromise. The House Republicans have already ruled out any compromise with the Obama Administration. Even veteran Republicans like Judd Gregg said that repealing the healthreform bill was folly but he has been loudly shouted down. Mitch McConnell has clearly said that the whole purpose of Republicans in Congress was to make Barack Obama a one-term President. So much for the nation.
David Broder today pontificated how Barack Obama is clearly the brightest bulb in the political frimament and he stands heads of shoulders above any potential Republican candidates. This is actually an astonishing admission from Broder. But he warns that really nothing can be done about the economy since the markets move in their own time. He says that there will not be a strong enough recovery to propel Obama into a second term. But He says there is one way President Obama can recover--Go to War with Iran. Beam me up, Scottie.
Meanwhile in a new episode of Northern Exposure, the Republicans are jumping ship over Joe Miller and are now pouring resources into the Lisa Murkowski write-in campaign because America's Hero , Scott McAdams, stands a chance of winning. The Alaskan judges are trying to get on board by ruling that people can have assistance in filing out the write-in ballots. Apparently, Joe Miller has stepped into it big time. When he was a federal magistrate, he was obligated by law to list all his assets or face jail-time. It turns out that not only did he omit the 40 acres and a the two-story house he owned on his FEC filing , but also on the form he submitted when he was a judge. Big Problem.
In Nevada, it is wild and woolly. John Ralston writes in the Las Vegas Sun that virtually everything is running against Harry Reid this year. But he expects Harry to pull it out. He recites Harry's loss in the Senate race in the 1970s, his loss for mayor, and his slim margins of victory ever since. Ralston claims that Reid needs to keep Angle's lead among independents to single digit (something he is not doing right now) but that his ground game is outstanding this year and that he leads in the early voting.
In California, Barbara Boxer is performing just as she has done historically. Slow start, often behind, and gradually over the period of the campaign open enough of a lead to win. It's nice to know something is working normally this year.
Charles Cook yesterday wrote that Republicans have zero chance on taking the Senate this year. He has flipped some of his toss-up states over to the Democrats. He's now sayng that Republicans now might pick up between 6 to 8 seats in the Senate.
Not to be deterred Campaigner Barack Obama returned to the Midway Pleasance, where I used to live, and addressed over 30,000 people in Chicago. (I just love the name, which comes from the old Chicago World's Fair.) He was trying to whip up the crowd to vote for the Governor and the Senate. He had stopped in Philadelphia also but just for a meeting with organizers. And he should hit Ohio today.
The Republicans are banking on taking the governorship of Ohio so as to lay the groundwork for 2012. It looks like Karl Rove will have to return to the scene of his crime. He was served with court papers for a trial on rackeetering, which will look into his activities in the 2004 election and answer questions about his donors in this election. After all the attempts at a Citizens' Arrest by Move-On and other anti-war activist, it took the skill of an elections lawyer to nail him. Unfortunately, for the case, the key witness on fraud in 2004 was a Republican computer hacker, who died in a mysterious plane crash and the hard drive to his computer was never found.
President Obama has spent alot of political capital in Ohio for Governor Strickland. But what may destroy John Kasich is the issue of gun rights. The local NRA will not endorse Kasich because when in congress he received an "F" on gun rights. Ohio gunowners are coming out for Strickland, who they say is far better. This would be one of the few times that the gun issue actually bit a Republican. This may account for Strickland inching ahead in the late polls.
In Florida, Alex Sink , the Democrat, has moved out ahead of Rick Scott. From a simple law and order point of view, it's necessary for her to win.
NPR has been running alot of roundtables on what Washington will look like after the election. A good many of the commentators really do not get the fact that Republicans are serious about not cooperating at all with the Administration. In fact, people are commenting that at least Newt Gingrich learned to cooperate with Bill Clinton, but that there is no one even like Newt around now. One of the first showdowns will be when Congress must raise the debt ceiling of the country. The strong odds are that Republicans will oppose since they have become fiscal conservatives. This will shut the government down to just essential services. Social Security checks will not be paid, government and military pensions will not be paid, Medicare will not be paid and even the larger military budget will not be paid. The question will be how long can the Republicans keep the shutdown going.
Senator Tom Coburn wants Republicans to keep submitting bills to repeal the healthcare bill even though he has publically said they don't have a chance of passing. (P.S. Howard Dean is of the opinion that the healthcare bill can survive without the individual mandate, which conservatives are suing about. On this, Howard is pretty clever but I have no idea what he has in mind.)
The one area people seem to think may produce a solution is on the infrastructure. As of last week, President Obama raised in his weekly address that hope of bipartisan cooperation and specifically mentioned the need to improve our infrastructure so we can compete in the world. The six-year infrastructure program is expiring, which means that our Highway Fund is depleted. The Administration wants to raise the gas tax to fund this but John Boehner claims he has never voted for a tax increase and won't on this occasion. But his master Tom Donoghue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says he has all the information that this has to be done or else we will fall behind in global competition. People expect corporations will twist Boehner's arm. Rep. Mica, the lead Republican on this issue, voiced his opinion that infrastructure spending will be a top priority. Even the Chamber knows this will be a massive job creator and Donoghue has said openly that the economy desparately needs it. But it means spending money. So watch this play out.
What I would like to see is that in the lame duck session that the Republicans filibuster the tax proposals of President Obama for the tax cuts for the wealthy and that the White House doesn't compromise and all tax cuts expire. And President Obama use the White House bully pulpit to call out the Republicans and their masters. Quite frankly it would make fiscal sense. Since no one believes he cut taxes in the first place, why would they give the President credit with keeping middle-class tax cuts?
Remember to Get Out the Vote!
The National Park Service offered the idea that the rally surpassed 300,000. From the capitol building to the Washington Monument is impressive. The two previous rallies around the Lincoln Memorial had to contend with the reflecting pool and it's clear from the photos that this was more massive.
When I expressed my doubts to my son that many people would show up, he said that friends of his were coming from Ohio for this. He said that all his fellow college students get their news from John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. In fact, a whole generation turned in to see John Stewart's interview with Barack Obama before the rally. A fact that escaped everyone in Washington.D.C.
Depending on your age and taste, the rally had something for everyone. An aging baby-boomer wrote that seeing Tony Bennett made his day. For fans of the Captain and the L.A. Lakers, Stephen Colbert's attack of Muslims brought the reposte by John Stewart that all Muslims aren't bad. "How about this guy?" And on walks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The array of signs brought home the goof on the teabagger crowd--posters of Colbert as Hitler, a smiley face with a Hitler moustache, an aging hippie with a sign,"No Socialists Here", a Muslim woman with a sign,"I'm Muslim but I also fear terrorists", and a slew of takes on the idea of sane politics.
In the next few days, you will read more drivel about the rally than you can imagine. This morning's post had an op-ed ,which said that one can hope for civility but that doesn't mean one accepts the liberal politics of the DNC. We were assured that the intrepid reporter interviewed many at the rally who were liberals. Days before Washington pundits begged John Stewart to cancel the rally because these were serious times and the political decisions to be made were heavy. What was interesting is to see how narcissistic all the commentators were, trying to somehow outsmart John Stewart. Perhaps, one of the more honest comments was from Howard Kurtz who tweeted that he had no idea how all these people got here and what they were doing. Andy Borowitz upped the tweet by posting, "Fox News estimates crowd size at 7."
Remember Washington does not do irony, sarcasm or humor very well. Gloria Bolger at CNN sniffed,"Do these people even vote?" What people will avoid in the next few days is that the rally just destroyed the whole image of the Glenn Beck pretense of wrapping patriotism around a fundamentalist religious concept. The Beck follies were termed "historic" by Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and the other right-wing talk shows. They just got owned by two comedians, who did it all much better with wit.
Frank Rich's column today in the New York Times is about how the teabaggers are going to get owned by the Republican party. Rich reviews the actual strength of the teabaggers--about 2% of the population--and the findings of the Washington Post, which found that of the several thousand chapters the average take was $800. for this year's elections. He points out that the real Teabag operation,as well knew, was engineered by the Koch Brothers and Dick Armey. None of the Republicans who used the teabaggers have any intention of letting these people interfere with their agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy and the elimination of regulations demanded by their corporate masters. Rich remarks how repulsive Republicans like Mitch McConnell find Jim DeMint's demand the U.S. adopt biblical law. They were a good show that propelled the necessary media narrative that the Republicans were not the same people who crashed the economy and ran up $12 trillion in debt. To this degree, Republicans have been masterful in changing the storyline.
A Bloomberg poll reports that the vast majority of Americans really believe that Barack Obama raised their taxes, despite the real world fact that 90% of Americans really got a tax break. The majority also believe that it was Barack Obama that created the TARP program, not George W. Bush, and also believe that the program didn't pay back the money. The absolute confusion of the American voter on economic reality is staggering and ,unfortunately, will aid the Republicans.
The torrent of ads by Karl Rove and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce actually pedal the myth that Obama's policies are killing jobs, even though Obama has surpassed Rove's boss's record in job creation in only 20 months. The propaganda against the stimulus program has been astonishing and ,unfortunately, the administration has not kept up its educational effort on this front. A few months ago, they had launched a tour by Joe Biden and statistics by leading economists about the number of jobs saved and created, the millions of children who received health care, and the strengthening of state governments. All that has clearly not withstood the assault by the anonymous private and foreign donors.
Dana Milbank writes today about where are the adults in the Republican Party. Even right-winger Barry Goldwater said that essence of holding a post in Congress was compromise. The House Republicans have already ruled out any compromise with the Obama Administration. Even veteran Republicans like Judd Gregg said that repealing the healthreform bill was folly but he has been loudly shouted down. Mitch McConnell has clearly said that the whole purpose of Republicans in Congress was to make Barack Obama a one-term President. So much for the nation.
David Broder today pontificated how Barack Obama is clearly the brightest bulb in the political frimament and he stands heads of shoulders above any potential Republican candidates. This is actually an astonishing admission from Broder. But he warns that really nothing can be done about the economy since the markets move in their own time. He says that there will not be a strong enough recovery to propel Obama into a second term. But He says there is one way President Obama can recover--Go to War with Iran. Beam me up, Scottie.
Meanwhile in a new episode of Northern Exposure, the Republicans are jumping ship over Joe Miller and are now pouring resources into the Lisa Murkowski write-in campaign because America's Hero , Scott McAdams, stands a chance of winning. The Alaskan judges are trying to get on board by ruling that people can have assistance in filing out the write-in ballots. Apparently, Joe Miller has stepped into it big time. When he was a federal magistrate, he was obligated by law to list all his assets or face jail-time. It turns out that not only did he omit the 40 acres and a the two-story house he owned on his FEC filing , but also on the form he submitted when he was a judge. Big Problem.
In Nevada, it is wild and woolly. John Ralston writes in the Las Vegas Sun that virtually everything is running against Harry Reid this year. But he expects Harry to pull it out. He recites Harry's loss in the Senate race in the 1970s, his loss for mayor, and his slim margins of victory ever since. Ralston claims that Reid needs to keep Angle's lead among independents to single digit (something he is not doing right now) but that his ground game is outstanding this year and that he leads in the early voting.
In California, Barbara Boxer is performing just as she has done historically. Slow start, often behind, and gradually over the period of the campaign open enough of a lead to win. It's nice to know something is working normally this year.
Charles Cook yesterday wrote that Republicans have zero chance on taking the Senate this year. He has flipped some of his toss-up states over to the Democrats. He's now sayng that Republicans now might pick up between 6 to 8 seats in the Senate.
Not to be deterred Campaigner Barack Obama returned to the Midway Pleasance, where I used to live, and addressed over 30,000 people in Chicago. (I just love the name, which comes from the old Chicago World's Fair.) He was trying to whip up the crowd to vote for the Governor and the Senate. He had stopped in Philadelphia also but just for a meeting with organizers. And he should hit Ohio today.
The Republicans are banking on taking the governorship of Ohio so as to lay the groundwork for 2012. It looks like Karl Rove will have to return to the scene of his crime. He was served with court papers for a trial on rackeetering, which will look into his activities in the 2004 election and answer questions about his donors in this election. After all the attempts at a Citizens' Arrest by Move-On and other anti-war activist, it took the skill of an elections lawyer to nail him. Unfortunately, for the case, the key witness on fraud in 2004 was a Republican computer hacker, who died in a mysterious plane crash and the hard drive to his computer was never found.
President Obama has spent alot of political capital in Ohio for Governor Strickland. But what may destroy John Kasich is the issue of gun rights. The local NRA will not endorse Kasich because when in congress he received an "F" on gun rights. Ohio gunowners are coming out for Strickland, who they say is far better. This would be one of the few times that the gun issue actually bit a Republican. This may account for Strickland inching ahead in the late polls.
In Florida, Alex Sink , the Democrat, has moved out ahead of Rick Scott. From a simple law and order point of view, it's necessary for her to win.
NPR has been running alot of roundtables on what Washington will look like after the election. A good many of the commentators really do not get the fact that Republicans are serious about not cooperating at all with the Administration. In fact, people are commenting that at least Newt Gingrich learned to cooperate with Bill Clinton, but that there is no one even like Newt around now. One of the first showdowns will be when Congress must raise the debt ceiling of the country. The strong odds are that Republicans will oppose since they have become fiscal conservatives. This will shut the government down to just essential services. Social Security checks will not be paid, government and military pensions will not be paid, Medicare will not be paid and even the larger military budget will not be paid. The question will be how long can the Republicans keep the shutdown going.
Senator Tom Coburn wants Republicans to keep submitting bills to repeal the healthcare bill even though he has publically said they don't have a chance of passing. (P.S. Howard Dean is of the opinion that the healthcare bill can survive without the individual mandate, which conservatives are suing about. On this, Howard is pretty clever but I have no idea what he has in mind.)
The one area people seem to think may produce a solution is on the infrastructure. As of last week, President Obama raised in his weekly address that hope of bipartisan cooperation and specifically mentioned the need to improve our infrastructure so we can compete in the world. The six-year infrastructure program is expiring, which means that our Highway Fund is depleted. The Administration wants to raise the gas tax to fund this but John Boehner claims he has never voted for a tax increase and won't on this occasion. But his master Tom Donoghue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says he has all the information that this has to be done or else we will fall behind in global competition. People expect corporations will twist Boehner's arm. Rep. Mica, the lead Republican on this issue, voiced his opinion that infrastructure spending will be a top priority. Even the Chamber knows this will be a massive job creator and Donoghue has said openly that the economy desparately needs it. But it means spending money. So watch this play out.
What I would like to see is that in the lame duck session that the Republicans filibuster the tax proposals of President Obama for the tax cuts for the wealthy and that the White House doesn't compromise and all tax cuts expire. And President Obama use the White House bully pulpit to call out the Republicans and their masters. Quite frankly it would make fiscal sense. Since no one believes he cut taxes in the first place, why would they give the President credit with keeping middle-class tax cuts?
Remember to Get Out the Vote!
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