The Commentariat -- November 23
In today's New York Times eXaminer, I discuss Tom Friedman's strategy for ensuring President Obama's re-election. The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote come to mind. Here's the lede:
It’s Wednesday, so Tom Friedman has some more advice for President Obama. Well, not more advice. The same old advice. But it has a new date stamp on it.
In today's Off Times Square, we ask the question, "What should President Obama say to address the police attacks on students and other Occupy demonstrators?" ...
... Shawna Thomas of NBC News: "During his speech in Manchester, N.H. today, President Obama found himself interrupted by members of Occupy New Hampshire. The protesters handed out fliers along with attempting to employ a 'human microphone' to deliver a message of dissatisfaction to the president. They got about halfway through before others in the crowd began to counter-chant with the President’s 2008 slogan of 'Fired up. Ready to go.'”
... Here's how Peter Wallsten & Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post report the story. ...
... Here's Karen Garcia on "Obama, Occupied." ...
... See also Adam Martin & Alexander Abad-Santos of The Atlantic. Read the comments here, too.
Rule: When you get a lede like this in Politico, you run it. Josh Boak: "The economy would have been in much worse shape without the 2009 stimulus — which increased employment in the third quarter of this year by as many as 3.3 million full-time jobs, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office."
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The has secretly declared a significant number of ’s potential judicial nominees 'not qualified,' slowing White House efforts to fill vacant judgeships — and nearly all of the prospects given poor ratings were women or members of a minority group, according to interviews."
Chris Spannos of the New York Times eXaminder interviews Julian Assange. Part 4 of the interview:
... You can link to the first parts of the interview here.
More on Both Sides Do It! Greg Sargent: "Today’s [actually, yesterday's] false equivalency sweepstakes: We have a winner! Today’s prize goes to National Journal’s Ron Fournier for the most perfect false equivalency of the morning.... What we’re really talking about here is the quest to establish factual reality, which is what journalists are supposed to be doing." ...
... Steve Benen on Fournier: "The high-profile political reporter, who admitted in 2007 that he entered talks to join the McCain campaign as a paid staffer, and later sent encouraging emails to Karl Rove, covered the Obama-McCain race with a series of questionable pieces." CW: And now he's making up stuff at the National Journal. He was always a lazy-assed reporter, and now he's a lazy-assed opinionator.
Right Wing World
Jim Rutenberg & Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "The Republican presidential candidates highlighted their party’s lack of a single national security vision a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, differing on Tuesday night over the pace of withdrawal from Afghanistan, aid to Pakistan and, in an exchange that could resonate dangerously for Newt Gingrich, what to do with illegal immigrants in the United States." ...
... The Times has a quick fact-check here. The Washington Post story, by Dan Balz & Amy Gardner, is here.
Dan Milbank holds Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) responsible for the failure of the supercommittee. And he doesn't pull any punches, calling Kyl "cold and ruthless" and "destructive."
The Fiction, Courtesy of Fox "News"
"It's a food product." -- Megyn Kelly, on pepper spray:
Although this picture just might be Photoshopped, the image of Fox "News" horticulture reporter Megyn Kelly is not. She posed for this photo for GQ magazine. Stay tuned. Next week, she explains why pizza is a vegetable.
... The Facts
** "Banned for Use in War." Meredith Melnick of Time: "... in the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice cited nearly 70 fatalities linked to pepper-spray use.... Getting pepper-sprayed is worse than getting maced [PDF] — mace causes burning but no respiratory effects [which pepper spray causes].... Classified as a riot-control agent and banned for use in war by Article I.5 of the Chemical Weapons Convention, pepper spray is meant to be used against violent attackers who are resisting arrest and threatening physical harm to others.... According to guidelines [PDF] for all California State schools, pepper spray is meant to be used for less than one second on any one person." Thanks to a friend for the link.
Steve Benen: "Mitt Romney’s very first television ad of the 2012 campaign pushes a blatant, shameless lie. In 2008, a month before the president was elected, then-candidate Obama told voters, 'Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’” In Romney’s new attack ad, viewers only see part of the quote: 'If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.' Here's how the Romney camp defended the ad: "He did say the words. That’s his voice." ...
...Judd Legum & Jeff Spross of Think Progress: "... the Romney campaign has defended this blatantly dishonest campaign tactic as 'not out of bounds.' Thus, ThinkProgress has created this completely in-bounds 'advertisement' quoting Romney, in his own words:
... "Accurate, according to the Romney standard of accuracy."
As for Romney's ad, it's not just misleading. It's TV-station-refuse-to-air-it-misleading. -- Jake Tapper, ABC News
"The Secret Letters of Gov. Mitt." Michael Levenson of the Boston Globe: "Mitt Romney [Sunday] briefly reiterated his campaign’s assertion that his aides did nothing wrong when they purchased their state-issued hard drives in 2006, as they left their jobs and Romney began his first run for president.... The Globe reported on Thursday that 11 of Romney’s aides ... took the unusual step of buying 17 hard drives from the Massachusetts governor’s office, paying $65 for each one. The Romney administration also wiped the server for the governor’s office and replaced the remaining computers in the office as they prepared to turn over power to Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat. 'We actually put 700 boxes of information into the archives that wasn’t even required, so we followed the law exactly as intended and as written,' he said." ...
... Charles Pierce of Esquire: "I would bet all the federal tax dollars we've sunk into Michele Bachmann's family farm that all that's in those e-mails is a bunch of stuff that would have complicated Willard's 426 ideological and cultural makeovers that he's undergone since he went national with his bad self. Seventeen hard drives at $65 per? You know what's cheaper? Having deeply held convictions that last longer than 11 minutes." ...
... AND on That Note. Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy: "In advance of [Tuesday] night's GOP foreign policy debate, the Obama campaign has put out a memo identifying all the ways the presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has 'flip-flopped' on the major foreign policy issues of the day. Romney's 'penchant for changing positions is of particular concern on matters of national security,' Obama for American campaign manager Jim Messina wrote in a memo released ahead of tonight's CNN-AEI-Heritage debate in Washington. "A Commander-in-Chief only gets one chance to get it right. But Mitt Romney has been on all sides of the key foreign policy issues facing our nation today."
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Medicare administrator Don Berwick has stepped down from his position, effective next Friday.... The White House intends to appoint Marilyn Tavenner, currently second-in-command at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as Berwick’s replacement." CW: read the post. Republicans' treatment of Dr. Berwick was a travesty.
The Obama family participated in a service event this afternoon.
Sacramento Bee: "Four days after the pepper spraying incident at UC Davis Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, acting governor while Gov. Jerry Brown is on vacation out of state, issued a statement Tuesday night condemning the 'senseless violence' and praising UC officials for ordering an independent investigation." CW: as far as I know, Newsom is the highest-ranking official to speak out against U.C. Davis police brutality. Not a word from President O'Bambi. Thanks to reader James S. for the link.
President Obama pardoned the national Thanksgiving turkey:
New York Times: "Banks clamored for emergency funds from the on Tuesday, borrowing the most since early 2009 in a clear sign that region’s financial institutions are having trouble obtaining credit at reasonable rates on the open market."
Washington Post: Pakistan named a liberal female lawmaker as its new ambassador to the United States on Wednesday, swiftly filling a crucial diplomatic vacancy created amid a scandal that highlighted civil-military tensions. The appointment of Sherry Rehman, a prominent former journalist known for her human rights work, surprised observers who expected a choice with a more obvious stamp of approval from the powerful military."
New York Times: "After months of street protests calling for his resignation, President traveled to on Wednesday to sign an agreement that would require him to immediately transfer his powers to his vice president, a move that could pave the way for an end to Mr. Saleh’s 33-year rule."
Share Article