The Commentariat -- February 6, 2012
My column in today's New York Times eXaminer critiques Thomas Edsall's New York Times column on deficit politics. Edsall may be an excellent journalist, but he's no economist. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...
... BTW, today's Commentariat is open for comments. If you're not reading the comments, you're really missing something. I may be a bit biased, but I think Reality Chex contributors often make important points more cogently than the "experts" do. Yesterday was no exception.
Digby: "Barack Obama is the most conservative Democratic president of the modern era. And George W. Bush was the most conservative Republican." CW: See also Paul Krugman on this:
Paul Krugman: "... here’s what needs to be said about the latest [employment] numbers: yes, we’re doing a bit better, but no, things are not O.K. — not remotely O.K. This is still a terrible economy, and policy makers should be doing much more than they are to make it better." ...
... It's Paul Krugman Day: "... the left and right aren’t symmetric. People of all persuasions lie; but the right has a whole institutional structure of lying that has no counterpart on the left."
"Romney Takes Nevada, Obama Takes the Lead." Michael Falcone & Amy Walter of ABC News: "This was supposed to be Mitt Romney's week. Back-to-back wins in Florida and Nevada have helped to cement him as the all-but-certain Republican nominee. Instead, the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll points to President Obama as the biggest winner of the GOP primary contest. President Obama has snuck ahead of Romney among registered voters, 51 percent to 45 percent. What's more, 50 percent of voters in the new poll approve of Obama's job performance and the same percentage say he deserves re-election. Here's a related ABC News story, with video." ...
Obama Super PAC? Republican Clinton Eastwood cuts an ad for President Obama's re-election. No, wait, it's a Chrysler ad that ran during the Super Bowl half-time. Update: Chrysler took the ad down, but here's another YouTube version, which may or may not remain available:
** Elections Have Consequences. Mark Sherman of the AP on the importance of this year's presidential election in determining the future of American jurisprudence. "Despite his slow start in nominating judges and Republican delays in Senate confirmations, Obama has still managed to alter the balance of power on four of the nation's 13 circuit courts of appeals. Given a second term, Obama could have the chance to install Democratic majorities on several others."
President Obama on Iran's nuclear program, Israel, and other stuff:
... Ethan Bronner of the New York Times: "Israel believes that its threats to attack Iran have been the catalyst that has pushed much of the world to agree to harsh sanctions on Iran’s energy and banking sectors.... But Israel’s top leaders also worry that the sanctions are too late and that, in the end, a military assault is the only way to accomplish their goal — stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. So the talk in this crisis is not made instead of action, but in addition to it — and perhaps as a prelude to it." ...
... Michael Ono of ABC News: "As United States and Israel grow increasingly concerned over Iran's nuclear program [Mike Rogers {R-Michigan}] the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is cautioning that a pre-emptive strike by Israel could spell trouble for America.... This statement comes days after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed concern that Israel would bomb Iran in an unattributed comment run in a column in the Washington Post." ...
... Activist-author Tom Hayden (D-Calif.) on how Romney, Gingrich or Santorum could push President Obama toward war with Iran during this election cycle.
Rick Hertzberg advocates for more debates. As the man most responsible for arranging the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates, Newton Minow, has written, “The debates are the only time during presidential campaigns when the major candidates appear together side by side under conditions that they do not control.”
Right Wing World
Anjeanette Damon of the Las Vegas Sun: "A painstakingly slow hand count of Clark County’s [Nevada] presidential caucus vote delayed final results by more than a day, prompting accusations of fraud and conspiracy from supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, doubts from national Republicans about Nevada’s ability to run a caucus and derision from national political observers, who called for Nevada’s status as an early caucus state to be summarily yanked. While no evidence of fraud was uncovered, the prolonged count capped a caucus marked by disorganization, bickering and bumbling at nearly every turn."
Jane Mayer of the New Yorker. Meet Larry McCarthy, creator of the Willie Horton ad against 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, and Mitt Romney's top attack dog. You will not find McCarthy strapped to the roof of Romney's station wagon; he works out of Washington, D.C.
Deficit Spending, Newt Style. Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Newt Gingrich’s campaign remains roughly $600,000 in debt, two months after it reported deep debts and a long list of creditors, newly released campaign spending records show." ...
At Least He's Consistent. Howard Gleckman in a Christian Science Monitor post from December 2011: "GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is proposing a massive tax cut aimed at the highest earning American households. Gingrich’s plan would add about $1 trillion to the federal deficit in a single year. And while most of the nation’s lowest income families would get no benefit from these tax cuts, the top 0.1 percent (who make an average of more than $8 million) would get about a quarter of the windfall, according to new estimates by my colleagues at the Tax Policy Center." ...
... Oh. Wait. On his Website, Newt says he would "balance the budget by growing the economy, controlling spending, implementing money saving reforms, and replacing destructive policies and regulatory agencies with new approaches."
More on This: We are the only people on the earth that put our hand over our heart during the playing of the national anthem. It was FDR who asked us to do that, in honor of the blood that was being shed by our sons and daughters in far-off places. -- Mitt Romney>
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "This is a strange one.... Romney managed to get just about everything wrong in this story, in what appears to be a misguided attempt to both promote American exceptionalism and ding President Obama."
News Ledes
New York Times: "With a deadline looming on Monday for state officials to sign onto a landmark multibillion-dollar settlement to address foreclosure abuses, the Obama administration is close to winning support from [California,] a crucial state that would significantly expand the breadth of the deal.... Another important potential backer, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York, has also signaled that he sees progress on provisions that prevented him from supporting it in the past. The potential support from California and New York comes in exchange for tightening provisions of the settlement to preserve the right to investigate past misdeeds by banks, and stepping up oversight...." Washington Post story here.
New York Times: "The leaders of the rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas announced on Monday that they have broken a long political deadlock to form an interim unity government led, at least at first, by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank. The announcement at a news conference in Doha, Qatar ... signaled a significant step toward reconciling the two movements as they prepare for elections...." Haaretz story here.
New York Times: "Syrian forces shelled the battered city of Homs for another day Monday, striking a makeshift clinic and killing at least 17 people in a mounting toll that has made the city the epicenter of the 11-month Syrian uprising, opposition groups said." Al Jazeera story here. ...
... ** Washington Post Update: "The United States has closed its embassy in Damascus and pulled all diplomats and U.S. staff out of the country, the State Department said Monday. The decision comes two days after Russia and China vetoed a United Nations resolution condemning Syria’s violent repression of anti-government demonstrators, whose opposition to the government is threatening to become an all-out civil war."
AP: "Georgia's top court on Monday struck down a state law designed to discourage assisted suicides. The Georgia Supreme Court's unanimous ruling concludes the 1994 state law 'restricts speech in violation of the free speech clauses' of the U.S. and Georgia constitutions."
New York Times: "An appeals court ruled on Monday that Alberto Contador, a three-time winner of the Tour de France, used a performance-enhancing drug when he won the race in 2010, the latest black mark on a sport that has been tarnished by doping scandals over the past several years.... On Friday, federal investigators announced that they had ended a criminal investigation of Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour from 1999 to 2005. The United States Anti-Doping Agency, with the support of the World Anti-Doping Agency, is continuing a separate investigation of Armstrong under its rules."
AP: "The NFL and a major television network are apologizing for another Super Bowl halftime show...: an extended middle finger from British singer M.I.A. during Sunday night's performance of Madonna's new single, 'Give Me All Your Luvin.' ... She flipped the bird and appeared to sing, 'I don't give a (expletive)' at one point, though it was hard to hear her clearly." CW: shouldn't ever contract for a live performance include a penalty clause for the performer's purposefully offensive gestures and language?
ABC News: "President Barack Obama's grandmother, Sarah Obama, is home recovering from an accident that, judging by the condition of the vehicle, could have been much worse.... Police in the town of Kisumu, [Kenya] say the 87-year-old was traveling to her home Saturday night when the driver lost control, and the vehicle rolled into a ditch."
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Reader Comments (6)
Thank you, Marie, for the Krugman posts: they keep me sane.
But I would like to mention something which has fascinated me in a depressing way for a while now. It has to do with what I call "Romney's Rictus" (yup, I did look up the definition of "rictus: a fixed or unnatural grin or grimace, as in horror or death."). Going back a few days, your clips of Romney all showed startling similarities: his rictus. It's always the same (accompanied by wide staring eyes); a startling contrast to the many expressions of O'bama. It makes Romney look wooden, as in always the same, but I think he's terrified of being in crowds of 99 percenters. He is literally horrified, scared to death. His discomfort causes people to say, "I don't know what it is: I just don't like him." Any human can read his face.
This same rictus was on the face of the woman chancellor of UC Davis as she walked down the rows of silent students after the spraying of the occupy students. That was not a smile: she was scared to death.
I wonder why people don't talk about this. It almost seems "clinical" to me.
"Romney rictus". You nailed it! He's confident in a world of doormen and coffee servers, but you don't see him capable of negotiating a bar crowd at a feisty Super Bowl party.
Mitt Romney, the android , will soon become the official Republican candidate. How will his frequently told lies effect his campaign. Will the fearful media ever start challenging him for the truth. Will the Democrats be clever enough to paint him as a chronic liar as well as a threat to the middle class. His own words and his tax plan should be sufficient evidence of his deviancy.
I'll have to admit that I've been a constant companion of your blog service since I've arrived in France a couple years ago studying/working abroad, however I've never left a message until now. First of all, I just wanted to say thanks for the all the work you do chasing down the real stories and at least attempting to bring some sanity to the bordel our country is slowly becoming. I felt it necessary to at least put a word in after reading that you'll be discontinuing your blog soon.
Coming from the midwest, I've grown up in the heart of our country's contradictions, with modernity and conservatism creating the distinct clivage of identities normally reserved for international borders. The economic crisis coupled with the insanity of higher education costs sent me abroad for the second time to complete a Masters degree in International Cooperation and Development (paid for by yours truly working in a restaurant, no 1% free rides here). Armed with youth and a quest for knowledge, I've trekked the globe with my eyes wide open, soaking in reality until my retinas dry up. Obviously being outside of the media echo chamber that exist within our borders gives a completely different perspective on the dirty truths we secretly wallow in daily. As attested by your blog, which dares to lift up the rug on America's dirt, we seem to be headed down a narrow country road where a u-turn is becoming increasingly improbable.
The glaring contradictions being engraved into the national consciousness has left me far more than disheartened. The evidence is unrefutable, yet the general populace just sits on their hands and awaits the seem to connect to the disdain of Norman Mailer a little more each day.
@internationalobserver I hope your education will include hiring an editor and buying a ladder so you can dismount.
@internationalobserver & @James Singer. Wow. I have to disagree with both of you. First, @internationalobserver: While I appreciate your pessimism, it is actually young people like you -- who are going out to seek a broader understanding of the world -- who are the crux of my hope for the future of the nation. I tend to think my generation is leaving the nation in better hands than ours. This doesn't mean there won't be millions of wingnuts to contend with, but they're part of every generation (and tend to ossify with age). It's great to criticize what is, but you have to be a part of what will be, and insist that it be better.
@James Singer: I missed the high horse. I think internationalobserver is on the right track, & I got the impression he was walking. As for his need for an editor -- we could all use one.