 |
|||
|
With over 60 percent of Americans supporting an end to the Bush tax cuts for the richest one percent, would you support going back to the Clinton tax rate for the richest one percent of Americans in exchange for cutting of the corporate income tax from 35 percent to 20 percent? (Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
What should gall Palin is that it did not have to be this way. Neither Michele Bachmann nor Rick Perry were remotely plausible national figures a year ago, and they exist today because of ground that Palin was too unfocused to occupy.
Sarah Palin has formidable campaign talents, but none of the will to use those assets to gain power. That makes her reassuringly normal as a person, but it will never carry her anywhere near the presidency. (Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
Should Uncle Omar be deported? Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts believes so. [The Hill] The latest poll numbers on President Obama. [Politico] 7 White House economic speeches from the past that flopped. [MSNBC] The 9/11 Decade: How Washington D.C. has changed since that fateful day. [New York Times]
Our government came together to bail out Wall Street and the banking system, using taxpayer dollars, almost as fast as Usain Bolt runs a 100-meter dash. Why are they not doing this with jobs, the economy, and unemployment?
This is a serious crisis. President Obama needs to present a strong jobs plan on Thursday night and put some new ideas into the fast lane. Congress needs to think about the future of this country rather than the 2012 elections. Congress has to be willing to play ball on job creation and the economy at such an important time. So is it election politics as usual or is Washington D.C. really going to help find real solutions to the problems that face our economy? Is the 2012 presidential race really more important than a 9.1 percent unemployment rate? We shall see… (Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
This, however, is what should keep Democratic strategists up at night: not counting blacks, Obama’s approval ratings have dipped dramatically with every sector of his 2008 majority, including Latinos, Jews, independents, white working class voters, and whites under 29. In other words, even if Obama achieves the 2008 turnout model, there is no guarantee that he will duplicate his ’08 demographic performance levels. And if he does not, he will have almost no margin for error. (Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
I will surely return to the issue of Christianity again, but I devote this piece to Rick Perry’s character and the character he would nurture in American citizens. Teddy Roosevelt said, “Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.” So what is the character that Perry embodies? What is his view of the American citizen and the citizen’s responsibility to our country and to one’s fellows?
His persona evokes the rugged individualist. His warning to Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, not to come to Texas so that he can avoid being subjected to “real ugly” frontier justice evidences a character antithetical to one of the crowning achievements of the United States — a nation under law, not men. In a phrase, he dismisses the Bill of Rights — due process, trial by jury, the right to confront one’s accuser. The real question is not what character he would make of the United States but whether he believes in America at all. He has threatened to secede. Central to his campaign is his pledge to shrink the federal government — making it impossible for our noble nation to lead the world, to serve as the “city on the Hill.” Read the rest of…
President Obama and Speaker Boehner get into a disagreement over speech scheduling. [Washington Times] Four analysts discuss the impact of General David Petraeus’ military career. [Washington Post] Can you hear me now? The proposed ATT and T-Mobile merger is being challenged by the Federal Government. [Bloomberg] D.C. Comics’ “reboot” of their entire franchise begins. Cynical nerds everywhere are weighing-in with their opinions. [New York Times]
Not surprisingly, those traits–candor and grace–explain why his essay in the New York Times on August 25, 2011, “Dr. King Weeps From His Grave”, has touched nerves in all manner of places. West’s critique is best captured in one scathing, beautiful sentence: “the recent budget deal is only the latest phase of a 30 year, top-down, one-sided war against the poor and working people in the name of a morally bankrupt policy of deregulating markets, lowering taxes and cutting spending for those already socially neglected and economically abandoned”.  Dr. Cornel West These are arrows aimed at Republicans from Ronald Reagan to John Boehner for the contraction they have forced in the social contract, and at Democrats from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama, who in West’s view have left that contract too thinly defended and have done their own damage by trying too hard to sample conservative rhetoric on deficit reduction and taxes. To put a crescendo on the point, West, an early Obama supporter, calls the “age of Obama” a time that has “fallen tragically short of fulfilling King’s prophetic legacy”.
West is absolutely right about this much: the season of our first African American chief executive has most certainly not reshaped the foundations of our politics in the way that a million plus freezing bodies aligned on the National Mall on January 20, 2009 imagined it would. More Americans self-describe as conservative today, and fewer call themselves liberals, than on the day Obama shattered his glass ceiling, and the net effect is a nation that by roughly two to one leans right rather than left. That is not exactly, in West’s words, a place that sustains a “radical democratic vision.” Read the rest of…
Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple. [Bloomberg] Texas Governor Rick Perry makes powerful bid for Republican front-runner. [Politico] Glenn Beck speaks at the Temple Mount: no word on whether he plans to ride a donkey. [Guardian] Former Vice-President Dick Cheney says his soon-to-be-released autobiography will have “heads exploding” in D.C. [MSNBC] Latest “Google Doodle” celebrates Fermat’s last theorem. Learn more about it here. [PCWorld] Al Qaeda’s next target is….David Letterman? [EOnline] Abercrombie and Fitch stock price plummets after dissing “Jersey Shore.” [TMZ] Jackie Chan is alive and well, but the phenomenon of celebrity death hoaxes is alive and well. [Christian Science Monitor]
|
| ||
| Copyright © 2024 The Recovering Politician - All Rights Reserved | |||
