The Commentariat -- November 14

Anne Kornblut of the Washington Post writes that "After nearly two weeks of introspection, President Obama's top advisers have concluded that the 'shellacking' Democrats took on Election Day was caused in large part by their own failure to live up to expectations set during the 2008 campaign, not merely the typical political cycles and poor messaging they pointed to at first." CW: so does this mean the President will veer left & -- mind you, in an effort to win re-election & not because he gives a shit -- try to do keep some campaign promises? ...

... Kornblut's colleague Greg Sargent assesses the reality as opposed to the storyline: "My guess is that insiders are, understandably, mainly leaking along these lines to project a sense that they 'get the message' of the elections, and that we'll ultimately see a different and more sophisticated comeback strategy play out. Also: Note that officials seem to recognize above that overseeing tangible improvements in the economy will do more to brighten Obama/Dem prospects than any high-profile displays of 'compromise' will. That's good." ...

... Steve Benen: "the White House should imagine Republicans being as reckless, irresponsible, ignorant, ill-tempered and child-like as humanly possible -- and then expect that to happen, because it probably will."

Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress: duplicitous John McCain moves the goalposts again on DADT. With video of McCain's star turn on "Press the Meat," as my friend Karen Garcia aptly calls it.

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "The intense focus on the coming struggles between President Obama and congressional Republicans obscures one of the most important and underreported results of the midterm elections: the GOP takeover in the states. Republicans picked up at least 675 state legislative seats Nov. 2. As with the increases in the House, that gain is the biggest any party has made in state legislative seats since 1938 and is far larger than the GOP's tally in its 1994 landslide. Given the distribution of those gains, Republicans have the power to work their will in the states in ways they can't begin to think about doing in Washington."

Paul Krugman on the catfood commission's mandate: it was supposed to "produce a package good enough to accept as is.... Instead, it produced a PowerPoint that is one part stuff that has long been on the table, one part conservative wish-list, and one part just weirdly ill-considered."

** Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "A secret history of the United States government’s Nazi-hunting operation concludes that American intelligence officials created a 'safe haven' in the United States for Nazis and their collaborators after World War II, and it details decades of clashes, often hidden, with other nations over war criminals here and abroad." A pdf of the Justice Department report is here.

Brian Friel of the Congressional Quarterly, in a New York Times op-ed: ten issues Darrell Issa, et al., are likely to "investigate," and ten they should (but probably won't) look into, according to oversight experts.

New York Times Editorial Board: "... there are too many signs that Republicans relish tooth-and-claw politicking from within government as the easy alternative to the actual labor of governing.... Profiles of the incoming Republican freshmen are not encouraging. Half deny the science of global warming, and 39 percent signed on to the know-nothing move to end birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment....

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: former Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), a lobbyist for creating tax loopholes for big corporate interests, returns to the Senate, where he hopes to get on the Finance Committee -- the one that creates tax loopholes for big corporate interests.

Nina Mandell of the New York Daily News: Cindy McCain was against DADT before she was for it.

Our Most Superficial President Ever. AP: "Former President George W. Bush says he doesn't miss much about the White House, just the pampering. Bush told more than 3,000 people at a sprawling central Florida retirement community on Saturday that he misses the convenience of Air Force One and never waiting in traffic jams. The 43rd president said, most of all, he misses being commander in chief of the U.S. military."

Have a Big Mac, Fatty. Felicity Lawrence of the Guardian: In Britain, "the Department of Health is putting the fast food companies McDonald's and KFC and processed food and drink manufacturers such as PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Unilever, Mars and Diageo at the heart of writing government policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease...." CW: this is what you get with conservative government.