The Commentariat -- May 9, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is an overview of today's New York Times op-ed page. The NYTX front page is here. There are a couple of excellent posts on Brooks. ...

... ALSO Chris Spannos on the New York Times management's stalemate with members of the Newspaper Guild. "The Guild’s contract expired March 31, 2011. They have been locked in negotiations with Times management since then." ...

... AND this from Ralph Nader: "It is the edge of absurdity for the U.S. to urge and modestly assist [developing countries] to build their educational systems and their knowledge industries -- for their own future -- and then aggressively pull the cream of their crop into our own orchard, while so many of our Americans are neglected." ...

... PLUS, Dean Baker helps you understand what the authors of this New York Times article omit.

President Obama spoke in Albany yesterday. (See also yesterday's News Ledes.) Capital Tonight has the full transcript:

Paul Krugman explains, again, why "austerity is so wrong!" in the Daily Beast. ...

... AND you can read Chapter 1 of Krugman's new book End This Depression Now!

Justin Lahart of the Wall Street Journal: "If there were as many people working in government as there were in December 2008, the unemployment rate in April would have been 7.1%, not 8.1%."

Nate Silver: "... the Republican Senate is starting to grow as conservative as the Republican House." ...

,,, Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times profiles Richard Mourdock, "the man who deposed the Republican foreign policy conscience of the Senate," Dick Lugar (R-Indiana). "He is best known in political circles for trying -- unsuccessfully -- to block the auto bailout that saved thousands of jobs in Indiana, the state he seeks to represent in Congress." And his stated reason for his Senate run: "... to cease the efforts at bipartisanship that defined the six-term tenure of Mr. Lugar and push for a more conservative agenda among Republicans on Capitol Hill."

David Dayen of Firedoglake: Progressive Caucus co-chairs Keith Ellison & Raul Grijalva introduce an amendment into an appropriations bill aimed at discouraging stand-your-ground laws. The 'Stop Shoot First Laws' amendment, which will in reality never get a floor vote, would cut some federal funding to states with stand-your-ground laws.

Wendy Gittleson of Addicting Information poses 10 questions to ask your favorite conservative. Thanks to reader Bonnie for the link.

Steven Myers & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Days of drama preceded the deal between the United States and China in the case of Chen Guangcheng, but the negotiations ultimately reflected a maturing relationship...."

Maureen Dowd reports from Paris on the complicated love lives of French presidents. ...

... AND in other superficial news involving NYT op-ed columnists --

     Bobo in Paradise. Driftglass: Our Mister Brooks has recently purchased a nearly-$4 million manse in Cleveland Park, D.C. "Should you ever have occasion to read Mr. Brooks' interview in Playboy wherein he describes his exhausting, joyless life as America's most prominent Conservative Public Intellectual, just remember that he his doing all of this -- all of the endless lying, all of the tireless hippie punching, all of the acting as the eager creature of power -- for money." ...

... AND this could help explain the move. It seems Cleveland Park is in Washington, D.C.'s Ward 3. From a 2009 column by Our Mister Brooks: "... people in this neighborhood are very nice and cerebral. On any given Saturday, half the people in Ward Three are arranging panel discussions for the other half to participate in."

Presidential Race

Dana Milbank: "... the anti-Obama hatred is flaring anew. But I worry that Obama’s current opponent doesn't have the strength of character to push back against the most dangerous voices on his side." Milbank cites the evidence. ...

... As Greg Sargent pointed out early this year, Romney doesn't have any trouble shouting down the left.

Mitt Romney may think he can fool the American people by hiding his belief that we should 'let Detroit go bankrupt,' but the American people won't let him. His comments [Monday] that he will 'take a lot of credit that the [auto] industry has come back' are a new low in dishonesty, even for him. Mitt Romney seems to think Americans will just forget the past and his very vocal and clear opposition to the successful auto rescue. -- Former Gov. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) ...

... David Firestone of the New York Times: "Mitt Romney's claim that his ideas contributed to the revival of the auto industry is preposterous and easy enough to knock down. It's exhausting, however, to refute each and every laughable distortion or outright untruth that he and his campaign issue virtually every day."

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: Mitt Romney claims the economy should be adding 500,000 jobs a month, which is "normal" and "not an unreasonable expectation." But Kessler finds that in Romney's entire lifetime -- the last 65 years -- "only nine times out of the last 784 months — a rate of slightly more than 1 percent — has the U.S. economy created more than 500,000 jobs in a month. Even if we include months that came close to 500,000 jobs, we only end up with a total of 14. So 500,000 is anything but normal.

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "A Republican National Committee roundtable on Tuesday aimed at highlighting the GOP’s Hispanic get-out-the-vote effort ended up backfiring as the RNC’s director of Hispanic outreach struggled to explain to reporters Republicans' message to Hispanics when it comes to immigration. Part of the reason for the RNC's difficulty: ... Mitt Romney (R) is 'still deciding what his position on immigration is,' as RNC Hispanic Outreach Director Bettina Inclán termed it." CW: the big dilemma: if he panders to Hispanics, will he lose votes among the white racists he pandered to to get the nomination? This would be a problem similar to Obama's "evolutionary" problem on gay marriage.

"Big Lie #1." Ed Kilgore of the Washington Monthly: "Mitt Romney gave another much-ballyhooed 'big speech' today in Michigan, aimed at clarifying the differences between his approach to the economy and the president's.... The claim here is that Obama turned his back on the Clintonian 'New Democrat' heritage and went back to the bad old liberal ways of the distant past.... It's particularly outrageous for Romney to claim that the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act of 2010 was some sort of betrayal of the New Democrat legacy." ...

... "Big Lie #2, Same Speech. Ed Kilgore: the crux of Romney's big speech was this line: "This is a time for new ideas, new answers and a new direction." So just what part of Romney's policies is new? The only one Kilgore can think of -- the only one that Romney proposes which is different from Dubya policies -- is Romney's stance on immigration -- even if he's "evolving" on that.

Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "The top two Senate Democratic leaders called on Romney to enter the Senate debate after Republicans voted along party lines to block student loan legislation." CW: I have little doubt that Cap'n. Williard M. Courageous will save the day for the kids.

Alex Altman of Time on the strong showing by Keith Judd, a.k.a. Inmate #11593-051 and "an ostensible crazy person" in the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary. (See also today's News Ledes.) "Despite being a federal inmate from another state, Judd’s protest candidacy racked up some 70,000 votes, crushing President Obama in the heart of West Virginia's coal country. The rebuke to Obama by conservative Democrats (West Virginia's is a closed primary) isn't entirely surprising -- the President was trounced in 2008 by Hillary Clinton -- but it is an embarrassment for the President that underscores his weakness in rural Appalachia."

CW: I don't often recommend a Ross Douthat post, but his comments on Obama's gay marriage evolution-on-hold is worth reading. Bearing in mind that Douthat's take is self-serving, one can still find some truth to the points he makes. I might have more to say on this later. I hope you do, too.

News Ledes

New York Times: "President Obamaon Wednesday ended nearly two years of 'evolving' on the issue of same-sex marriage by publicly endorsing it in a television interview, taking a definitive stand on one of the most contentious and politically charged social issues of the day."

ABC News: "Up until John Edwards officially claimed paternity of his mistress's daughter, his dying wife Elizabeth clung to his lies that he was not the father and on her death bed lamented that she would die alone because of his indiscretions, a friend testified today."

New York Times: "Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked consideration of a Democratic bill to prevent the doubling of some student loan interest rates, leaving the legislation in limbo less than two months before rates on subsidized federal loans are set to shoot upward.... 'Mitt Romney says he supports what we're trying to do. I'd suggest he pick up the phone and call Senator McConnell,' said Senator Harry Reid...."

New York Times: "As the Police Department's stop-and-fris practice draws increasing criticism from black and Latino New Yorkers, the city's public advocate, Bill de Blasio, said he would call on the mayor to force a reduction of the controversial practice."

New York Times: "In a rare step, doctors on a panel revising psychiatry's influential diagnostic manual have backed away from two controversial proposals that would have expanded the number of people identified as having psychotic or depressive disorders."

West Virginia Is for Losers. ABC News: "Barack Obama was not the only Democrat on the ballot on Tuesday in West Virginia's Democratic Presidential Primary. Keith Judd -- also known as Inmate No. 11593-051 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas -- was running against him. Judd, who is serving out a 17.5 year sentence for extortion, currently has received 40 percent of the vote, with 83 percent of precincts reporting, according to The Associated Press. Obama currently has received 60 percent of the vote."

CNN: Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is now a Swiss citizen. She "was granted dual citizenship with the European country, her spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday night." CW: could a bank account be far behind?

Comments

[MAG]

Pssssst! (Quote attribution in yellow box) "Gov. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio)" ... He's not Governor... Kasich (unfortunately) is.

[MAG]

True, Strickland WAS the former/previous governor. Too nit-picky?

[Akhilleus]

Regarding the issue of across the board rights for all couples who wish to marry, especially as broached by blow-up doll boy Douthat, I have two things to say.

First, I believe Obama should come out and state his true position which I cannot imagine to be anything other than support for this particular iteration of civil rights, his protestations of evolution to the contrary.

So what is he doing? Pandering to the right? God, I hope not. He should reject any hope that such fence sitting will precipitate spontaneous choruses of Kumbayah down in North Carolina, for instance, where they've just taken a stick and scrawled into freshly poured electoral concrete "We are bigots and mighty proud of it, you betcha."

Is he sending smoke signals via Joe Biden? Could be. But I find this a less than satisfactory way to communicate true intentions to those who voted for him with the hope that his position on this subject had come pre-evolved. So wtf is he doing? Really, I don't have a clue. I think he's learned to be cautious in his first term and he's obviously got some kind of electoral or positional calculus going. He doesn't just do crazy shit just to do it, like Bush. He always has a plan. Whether it's a good one or not is open for debate.

Just come out and say it: same sex couples are no different than any other couples and deserve the same protection under the Constitution.

That's not so hard, is it?

Second, I weep (don't you?) that blow-up doll boy is so concerned that a president of the United States and leader of his political party come clean and be honest with the public. Poor little Rossie.

Where was this concern for openness when Lie-a-Minute Bush was in power? Where is his concern for honesty NOW when the entire GOP (including, and especially, the PN--presumptive nominee) is running around with burgeoning schnozzolas and pantaloons aflame?

Oh, wait. Is this Ross Douthat cherry-picking ethics again??

Okay. Never mind.

[James Singer]

The Better-Late-Than-Never president has done it again. After Joe and Arne tested the water and didn't get excoriated by hoards of hillbillies marching on WDC, his honor timidly jumped in the pool.