Barackface: George W. Bush

Showing posts with label George W. Bush. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Karl Rove Is Riding The Gallup Horse

Karl Rove has a sharp political mind. I don't doubt that. But he is also sharply partisan, to the point of being blind. I don't doubt that either. When in the mood he also looks at Republican National Committee surveys.

Rove: Sifting the Numbers for a Winner

For example, in 2004 President George W. Bush had 49% in the final Gallup likely-voter track; he received 50.7% on Election Day. In 1996, President Clinton was at 48% in the last Gallup; he got 49.2% at the polls. And in 1992, President George H.W. Bush was at 37% in the closing Gallup; he collected 37.5% in the balloting. ...... On Friday last week, Gallup hinted at the partisan makeup of the 2012 electorate with a small chart buried at the end of its daily tracking report. Based on all its October polling, Gallup suggested that this year's turnout might be 36% Republican to 35% Democratic, compared with 39% Democratic and 29% Republican in 2008, and 39% Republican and 37% Democratic in 2004. ..... Gallup delivered some additional bad news to Mr. Obama on early voting. Through Sunday, 15% of those surveyed said they had already cast a ballot either in person or absentee. They broke for Mr. Romney, 52% to 46%. The 63% who said they planned to vote on Election Day similarly supported Mr. Romney, 51% to 45%. ........ Furthermore, in battleground states, the edge in early and absentee vote turnout that propelled Democrats to victory in 2008 has clearly been eroded, cut in half according to a Republican National Committee summary. ...... My prediction: Sometime after the cock crows on the morning of Nov. 7, Mitt Romney will be declared America's 45th president. Let's call it 51%-48%, with Mr. Romney carrying at least 279 Electoral College votes, probably more.

Gallup vs. the World

The Gallup national tracking poll now shows a very strong lead for Mitt Romney.......... its results are deeply inconsistent with the results that other polling firms are showing in the presidential race, and the Gallup poll has a history of performing very poorly when that is the case. ....... Other national polls show a race that is roughly tied on average, while state polls continue to indicate a narrow advantage of about two points for President Obama in tipping-point states like Ohio. The forecast has Mr. Obama as a narrow favorite in the election largely on the basis of the state polls. ...... the Gallup national tracking poll constitutes a relatively small part of the polling landscape. ....... there are quite a few interviews conducted by a tracking poll over the course of a week — about 3,000 per week in the Gallup national tracking poll, for instance. ...... But Gallup is not the only national tracking poll. There are six published on most days ....... even though the Gallup national tracking poll is more influential than any other individual poll series in the FiveThirtyEight trend-line calculation, it still accounts for only about 12 percent of it. It can very easily be outweighed by the other polls if they are in disagreement with it. ....... Our research suggests, for instance, that state polls, rather than national polls, often provide a better estimate of the national popular vote, in addition to the Electoral College. ....... the Gallup daily tracking poll accounts for only about 3 percent of the weight in this stage of the calculation. The national tracking polls collectively, including Gallup, account for only about 10 percent of it. Most of the weight, instead, is given to the state polls. ...... Perhaps the Gallup poll accounts for 5 or 10 percent of the information that an election analyst should evaluate on a given day. ....... The Gallup poll’s influence on the subjective perception about where the presidential race stands seems to be proportionately much greater than that, however — especially when the poll seems to diverge from the consensus. ........ Usually, when a poll is an outlier relative to the consensus, its results turn out badly. ...... You do not need to look any further than Gallup’s track record over the past two election cycles to find a demonstration of this....... In 2008, the Gallup poll put Mr. Obama 11 points ahead of John McCain on the eve of that November’s election. ... That was tied for Mr. Obama’s largest projected margin of victory among any of the 15 or so national polls that were released just in advance of the election. The average of polls put Mr. Obama up by about seven points. ..... The average did a good job; Mr. Obama won the popular vote by seven points. The Gallup poll had a four-point miss, however. .... In 2010, Gallup put Republicans ahead by 15 points on the national Congressional ballot, higher than other polling firms, which put Republicans an average of eight or nine points ahead instead. ..... In fact, Republicans won the popular vote for the United States House by about seven percentage points — fairly close to the average of polls, but representing another big miss for Gallup............ Apart from Gallup’s final poll not having been especially accurate in recent years, it has often been a wild ride to get there. Their polls, for whatever reason, have often found implausibly large swings in the race. ....... In 2000, for example, Gallup had George W. Bush 16 points ahead among likely voters in polling it conducted in early August. By Sept. 20, about six weeks later, they had Al Gore up by 10 points instead: a 26-point swing toward Mr. Gore over the course of a month and a half. No other polling firm showed a swing remotely that large. ...... Then in October 2000, Gallup showed a 14-point swing toward Mr. Bush over the course of a few days, and had him ahead by 13 points on Oct. 27 — just 10 days before an election that ended in a virtual tie. ...... In 1996, Gallup had Bill Clinton’s margin over Bob Dole increasing to 25 points from nine points over the course of four days. ..... After the Republican convention in 2008, Gallup had John McCain leading Mr. Obama by as many as 10 points among likely voters. Although some other polls also had Mr. McCain pulling ahead in the race, no other polling firm ever gave him larger than a four-point lead. ......... The context is that its most recent results differ substantially from the dozens of other state and national polls about the campaign. It’s much more likely that Gallup is wrong and everyone else is right than the other way around.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Andrew Sullivan: Talking Like A True Conservative

Image via WikipediaThe Daily Beast: Andrew Sullivan: How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics

When Obama took office, the United States was losing around 750,000 jobs a month. The last quarter of 2008 saw an annualized drop in growth approaching 9 percent. This was the most serious downturn since the 1930s, there was a real chance of a systemic collapse of the entire global financial system, and unemployment and debt—lagging indicators—were about to soar even further. No fair person can blame Obama for the wreckage of the next 12 months, as the financial crisis cut a swath through employment. Economies take time to shift course. ...... Obama did several things at once: he continued the bank bailout begun by George W. Bush, he initiated a bailout of the auto industry, and he worked to pass a huge stimulus package of $787 billion. ....... The job collapse bottomed out at the beginning of 2010, as the stimulus took effect. Since then, the U.S. has added 2.4 million jobs. ...... In 2011 alone, 1.9 million private-sector jobs were created, while a net 280,000 government jobs were lost. Overall government employment has declined 2.6 percent over the past 3 years. (That compares with a drop of 2.2 percent during the early years of the Reagan administration.) ....... the stimulus did exactly what it was supposed to do. It put a bottom under the free fall. It is not an exaggeration to say it prevented a spiral downward that could have led to the Second Great Depression. ....... Not only did he agree not to sunset the Bush tax cuts for his entire first term, he has aggressively lowered taxes on most Americans. A third of the stimulus was tax cuts, affecting 95 percent of taxpayers; he has cut the payroll tax, and recently had to fight to keep it cut against Republican opposition. ....... Under Bush, new policies on taxes and spending cost the taxpayer a total of $5.07 trillion. Under Obama’s budgets both past and projected, he will have added $1.4 trillion in two terms. Under Bush and the GOP, nondefense discretionary spending grew by twice as much as under Obama. ........ Obamacare .. will reduce the deficit ...... based on the individual mandate, an idea pioneered by the archconservative Heritage Foundation, Newt Gingrich, and, of course, Mitt Romney, in the past. ...... Like Obama’s Race to the Top education initiative, it sets standards, grants incentives, and then allows individual states to experiment. Embedded in it are also a slew of cost-reduction pilot schemes to slow health-care spending. Yes, it crosses the Rubicon of universal access to private health care. But since federal law mandates that hospitals accept all emergency-room cases requiring treatment anyway, we already obey that socialist principle—but in the most inefficient way possible. Making 44 million current free-riders pay into the system is not fiscally reckless; it is fiscally prudent. ......... Obama reversed Bush’s policy of ignoring Osama bin Laden, immediately setting a course that eventually led to his capture and death. And when the moment for decision came, the president overruled both his secretary of state and vice president in ordering the riskiest—but most ambitious—plan on the table. He even personally ordered the extra helicopters that saved the mission. It was a triumph, not only in killing America’s primary global enemy, but in getting a massive trove of intelligence to undermine al Qaeda even further. ........ where Bush talked tough and acted counterproductively, Obama has simply, quietly, relentlessly decimated our real enemies, while winning the broader propaganda war. Since he took office, al Qaeda’s popularity in the Muslim world has plummeted. ........ By hanging back a little, by “leading from behind” in Libya and elsewhere, Obama has made other countries actively seek America’s help and reappreciate our role. As an antidote to the bad feelings of the Iraq War, it has worked close to perfectly. ....... From the start, liberals projected onto Obama absurd notions of what a president can actually do in a polarized country, where anything requires 60 Senate votes even to stand a chance of making it into law. ....... A depression was averted. The bail-out of the auto industry was—amazingly—successful. Even the bank bailouts have been repaid to a great extent by a recovering banking sector. The Iraq War—the issue that made Obama the nominee—has been ended on time and, vitally, with no troops left behind. Defense is being cut steadily, even as Obama has moved his own party away from a Pelosi-style reflexive defense of all federal entitlements. Under Obama, support for marriage equality and marijuana legalization has crested to record levels. Under Obama, a crucial state, New York, made marriage equality for gays an irreversible fact of American life. Gays now openly serve in the military, and the Defense of Marriage Act is dying in the courts, undefended by the Obama Justice Department. Vast government money has been poured into noncarbon energy investments, via the stimulus. Fuel-emission standards have been drastically increased. Torture was ended. Two moderately liberal women replaced men on the Supreme Court. Oh, yes, and the liberal holy grail that eluded Johnson and Carter and Clinton, nearly universal health care, has been set into law. Politifact recently noted that of 508 specific promises, a third had been fulfilled and only two have not had some action taken on them. To have done all this while simultaneously battling an economic hurricane makes Obama about as honest a follow-through artist as anyone can expect from a politician. ......... the slow and deliberate and unprovocative manner in which it was accomplished made the changes more durable. ....... there are long stretches when Obama seems incapable of defending himself, or willing to let others to define him, or simply weak ........... remember whose strategy won out in the end. ...... This is where the left is truly deluded. By misunderstanding Obama’s strategy and temperament and persistence, by grandstanding on one issue after another, by projecting unrealistic fantasies onto a candidate who never pledged a liberal revolution, they have failed to notice that from the very beginning, Obama was playing a long game. He did this with his own party over health-care reform. He has done it with the Republicans over the debt. He has done it with the Israeli government over stopping the settlements on the West Bank—and with the Iranian regime, by not playing into their hands during the Green Revolution, even as they gunned innocents down in the streets. Nothing in his first term—including the complicated multiyear rollout of universal health care—can be understood if you do not realize that Obama was always planning for eight years, not four. ....... excising the cancer of torture from military detention and military justice ....... We’ve already elected the nation’s first black president and replaced a tongue-tied dauphin with a man of peerless eloquence. ....... Obama has steadfastly refrained from waging the culture war ...... the only way out of that deadlock is an electoral rout of the GOP, since the language of victory and defeat seems to be the only thing it understands. ........ a president who has conducted himself with grace and calm under incredible pressure, who has had to manage crises not seen since the Second World War and the Depression, and who as yet has not had a single significant scandal to his name

Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Bush Tax Cuts: Why There Are No Jobs In America

Image via WikipediaCreating jobs is no rocket science. The entrepreneurs in the private sector do it. But people in DC can get in the way in a major way. And they have been doing it. The single biggest reason why America does not have the jobs it needs would be the Bush tax cuts.

I am for a small, efficient government. Heck, I am a tech entrepreneur, I want the government out of my face as much as possible. And cutting taxes is one way to achieve that goal of small government. But you have to create surpluses first.

You don't engage in a trillion dollar war in Iraq a-n-d spend another trillion dollars on tax cuts with borrowed money. That is like saying the small government agenda in America is China's responsibility.

The single best thing DC can do to create jobs is to balance the budget. And so getting rid of the Bush tax cuts is going to have to be the center piece of the Obama 2012 effort. If you want to keep the Bush tax cuts, vote for someone else, vote for Arizona Palin, or whoever. Because Barack Obama is for eliminating the irresponsible Bush tax cuts and creating jobs for the American people.

The US Military Budget Needs To Come Down To 100 Billion From 600

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Americans Are Fat

Image via WikipediaThe obesity epidemic in America more than anything symbolizes what is wrong with this country, and how it has gotten itself off the tracks. Michelle Obama more than any other single person in this country has managed to hit the nail on the head, although her efforts need some major scaling.

The obesity epidemic in America and the debts and deficits as far as the eyes can see are both deeply correlated. A people that can not eat right are not capable of voting for elected officials who can make the right decisions for them in public matters like the budget.

Barack Is Going To Need Me All Over Again
Obama 2012 Is On
Michelle Obama Is Just Fabulous

The trimming of the national budget has to start with the voters' waistlines.

The number one reason the job market in America is so bleak is because the national budget is out of control. You erase the deficit and you will start creating jobs. And both parties have been focused on the tiny slivers of the budget. I mean, come on, if defunding Planned Parenthood might have balanced the budget even I might have supported the move.

You balance the budget by looking at the military budget. You take one hard look at the entitlement programs. And the Bush tax cuts are so very offensive. The Bush tax cuts are probably the number one reason why there are not plentiful jobs in America.

The US Military Budget Needs To Come Down To 100 Billion From 600
I Fixed The Budget, You Can Too

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Precisely The Time For Progressive Fervor

Image via WikipediaIn 2008 progressives used to make it sound like registering people to vote was revolutionary, getting people to show up and vote was the grand stand, calling voters up was Gandhi's Salt March. By 2010 the standards should have been raised. Where is the organization that has a one point agenda to take the minimum wage to $10? That organization should have been going toe to toe with "the American Family Business Institute, which is dedicated to abolishing the inheritance tax." Instead of building such organizations the people who stand to lose the most are planning on sitting out this election. It is not easy to organize the poor and the powerless, but in this day and age you would think it would at least be easier.

Citizenship is a near daily responsibility. It is not a vote once and watch Barack walk on water proposition. Even dictators who engage slave labor to build roads and bridges have needed a minimal of cooperation from the people. But in a democracy the people have to offer willful, fervent cooperation if they want big things to happen.

A crowd that wants a tax cut for the super rich that would be as big as the stimulus bill was but complains the stimulus bill happened is borderline insane. But the insane will carry the day if the common sense people will let them. People responsible for unpaid wars to the tune of trillions long lost their right to preach fiscal responsibility. And they know they did. That is why they have now climbed down to downright economic illiteracy. The dogma they are preaching is coherent, but it is as coherent as the gold standard. The name Tea Party is no accident. This is not a longing to kick out the British: there are no British. This is a hearkening to the slavery era.

The billionaire sponsors of the Tea Party drama got pawns running up and down the streets. The previous administration turned record surpluses to record deficits. It went into two unpaid wars. It blew up another trillion on tax cuts. It did not give drugs to the seniors. It gave a give away to Big Pharma.

That the government has to spend big when families and businesses are stepping back on their spending is elementary economics, it is quite basic. It is like demand and supply. Even George Bush knows that. But once you get the economy back on track, then you bring down the deficit which is not hard to do at that point because the revenues are coming in. Deficit spending in a recession is not only a good idea. It is the only idea.

Since Ronald Reagan real wages have not much gone up. There were a few years of anomaly in the Clinton years. But otherwise the no movement has been the norm. Barack Obama has to set the tone for a generation. He has to put into place a worldview whereby it is a rising tide lifts all boats kind of thing. And so you can't have the political pendulum swing the other way right now.

Those who have the most to lose seem to be the least interested in fighting even when they have at their disposal the mightiest political office ever created in the history of humanity. The apathy of the powerless is mesmerizing.

The New Yorker: October 25, 2010: Harry Reid And Sharron Angle Square Off In Nevada: The third group was the American Family Business Institute, which is dedicated to abolishing the inheritance tax....... “Our Contract with America is the Constitution”; “I want Harry Reid to stop doing more for Nevada—we can’t afford it!” ..... repeal the health-care-reform bill; liquidate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal home-mortgage agencies; oppose the Administration’s lawsuit aimed at overturning Arizona’s immigration law. ...... the anti-tax Club for Growth, the Tea Party Express, and American Crossroads, the new conservative organization co-founded by Karl Rove...... Nevada is in such bad shape that comparisons to the Great Depression are justified. It has the highest foreclosure rate, the highest bankruptcy rate, proportionally the highest state budget deficit, and the highest state unemployment rate in the country....... Congress passed more major pieces of progressive legislation in one session than it has in decades. ....... Nevada .. the most nationally powerful politician in its history....... she has called for abolishing the Departments of Energy and Education and the Environmental Protection Agency, and for privatizing Social Security, Medicare, and the Veterans Administration....... “Man up, Harry Reid!” .... Reid plainly had gone into the debate with the idea that he could demonstrate that Angle is “extreme,” but nothing seemed to stick....... some of the distinctive aspects of American life in the twenty-first century (loosening of social bonds, soaring hope in new ventures, rootlessness, risk, debt) have been cultured ...... more recently, he has called Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York, the “hottest member” of the Senate ..... Everybody in Nevada politics has a story about the brusque telephone calls he makes at all hours..... Charged with cleaning up the casinos, Reid faced down the real-life versions of the Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci characters in “Casino.” ...... only once in his long career has he won more than fifty per cent of the vote in an election. He’s a will-power politician...... He took personal umbrage at George W. Bush. “I have made no secret of my antipathy toward the second President Bush,” he wrote. He added that Bush “is an ideologue who has done incalculable damage to the government, reputation, and moral standing of the United States of America.” He twice publicly called Bush a liar, explaining, “When one lies, one is a liar.” Late in his Presidency, Bush summoned Reid to the White House and tried to appease him. “I never went to Kennebunkport as a kid,” Reid recalls. “I never went anywhere. And I’ve got no blue blood in my veins, just some desert sand. So as he and I sat there in the Oval Office, I said little in return.” ...... practically the only good thing that ever happened in the life of his father was joining a union ...... “The American government is the greatest force for good in the history of mankind”; Social Security is “the greatest social program since the fishes and loaves.” ..... most establishment Republicans in Nevada, is backing Reid over Sharron Angle ...... “Social Security unites all Democrats. It’s the founding principle of our party” ..... he had spotted Barack Obama as a comer and given him a prominent assignment ..... Without the barest hint of braggadocio or conceit, and with what I would describe as deep humility, he said quietly: ‘I have a gift, Harry.’ ...... Reid’s gift—relentlessly working the Senate Democratic caucus, member by preening member—is one that Obama lacked any interest in during his four years in the Senate..... Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist, and Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut almost-Republican ..... In the partnership between the Obama White House and the Reid Senate, Obama supplied the eloquence and grace and originated the policy ideas. Reid’s role was to get it done. Between Obama’s Inauguration, in January, 2009, and the congressional recess early last month, more consequential liberal legislation passed than at any time since the Great Society: health-care reform, the economic-stimulus package, financial regulation, a big education bill, the rescue of the auto industry, and the second phase of the rescue of the big banks. Others (a large expansion of protected public lands, funding for universal broadband access) didn’t get the attention they normally would have......... Reid would explain that each senator is a “brand”: Maria Cantwell, of Washington, is high-tech ...... respecting the power of committee chairmen helps to win their loyalty..... In 2005, Reid decided to establish an early Presidential caucus in Nevada, like Iowa’s..... Reid had the wit to become actively involved in the Republican primary campaign, so as to get the opponent he wanted in the fall...... She is unlike Reid in almost every way except in her relentless determination..... she and Reid are in a dead heat in the polls ...... Reid, a teetotaller who doesn’t gamble ..... beginning in 2007, and escalating in 2008 and 2009, Nevada went spectacularly bust. Last year, the state lost population for the first time since the Great Depression. Next year, the state legislature will meet to balance a budget that, on a two-year cycle, has a three-billion-dollar deficit, on total spending of less than seven billion dollars. The construction industry—Nevada’s second-largest, after casinos, during the boom years—has nearly disappeared. More than half the students in the Clark County public school system are eligible for the federal school-lunch program........ “You had a large group of people from California who took advantage of the system. Come here, buy a house, no money down, take out a HELOC—a home-equity line of credit—use it to buy another home, get a second mortgage, get some cash. And then they’re gone—poof. They all came at the same time and they all left at the same time....... MGM is not just Nevada’s largest employer and taxpayer; it is proportionally among the largest single taxpayers in any state, supplying eleven per cent of the budget of Nevada’s government. ....... Angle’s campaign ignores what would seem to be a basic rule of elective politics: that you have to promise to deliver government services to your constituents, especially in hard times. ...... European governments get into trouble by overloading on pensions and other expensive benefits; American governments get into trouble by practicing a kind of casino liberalism, in which credit flows too easily, everybody goes too deeply into debt, and if the growth ever stops, everything crashes.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Wayne Barrett: Suspicious Package

Image via WikipediaVillage Idiot Wayne Barrett

Wayne Barrett has a track record of doing the bidding for the Maloney 2010 campaign manager dude. Barrett puts out hack articles on behalf of whoever this campaign manager dude might be working for at any particular time. It is okay to do paid blog posts, but when you do the FCC requires that you make it clear it is a paid blog post. Wayne Barrett has violated the FCC rules, and the same people who are going after Rangel, and should be but are not going after Maloney need to now go after this Wayne Barrett guy. (Rangel And Maloney Need To Vacate The Premises And For The Same Reasons) This guy is a disgrace to journalism in this city. I hereby report this asshole Wayne Barrett as a suspicious package. Like Bush said. Where is President Bush when I need him? (Bush: Genius? Visionary?)

What Maloney 2010 and its lackeys like Wayne Barrett have been saying for months since the start of this race is Reshma Saujani's weakest point is actually her strongest. This country's biggest crisis right now is its 10% unemployment rate. That kind of unemployment sustained for too long could lead to social unrest and potential domestic terrorism. A high unemployment level is a security threat. Mending the frayed relationship between Wall Street and Main Street to get the private sector to invest two trillion dollars into the creation of new jobs has got to be this country's very top priority. When she is in Congress, Reshma Saujani is going to be best positioned of all people in Congress to bring that mending about.

To say Reshma Saujani's Wall Street experience is a bad thing is to say Howard Dean's being a medical doctor is a bad thing. You can list me all the names of all the departments and Wall Street firms that Reshma worked for and that does not change a thing. It takes me one split second to decide not only does Reshma have Wall Street knowledge but that she was entrepreneurial. In tech you could go work for a big company like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel or Google, or you could go work for a small startup. On Wall Street Reshma had a tendency to go work for small startup types.

Goldman Sachs paid a huge fine to the SEC. That does not make all workers of Goldman Sachs criminals. One of Reshma's former bosses was indicted for something. You can't rope in Reshma into that. That is not how justice works in real life, or in Hollywood, and it should not on the campaign trail.

Hedge funds were supposed to be these small, agile, innovative entities. Perhaps they still will be. A lot of dot coms flamed out in the late 1990s. I would know. I was part of a few of them. That does not make me a criminal.

Candidate Reshma has always been for Wall Street reform. Actually she feels like the reform did not go far enough. Candidate Reshma has not taken a dime in corporate PAC money from Wall Street or any other industry. People who think individuals working on Wall Street no longer have a right to make their individual contributions to political candidates are one step away from denying the Bill of Rights to the people working on Wall Street. That is not Wall Street reform. That is Wall Street demonization. And this country can not afford to pay the price of Wall Street demonization.

Congress made Wall Street bad behavior possible. That Congress has not been reformed. There is a direct relationship between Maloney voting for deregulation in 1999 and the Great Recession 10 years later. Maloney should be indicted. If not, she needs to be voted out.

Maloney owns BP stocks. Don't tell me that has not swayed her votes on the oil industry. She was with Bush-Cheney on the Iraq War, on the Patriot Act, and on oil industry legislation. Blaming Maloney for the Gulf Oil Spill is not political sleight of hand. It is like adding two plus two and saying the answer is four.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Rangel Has Gone Radioactive

Image by azipaybarah via Flickr

New York Times: Guest List for Rangel's Birthday Bash Shrinks

One New York representative said he could not make it because he had to march in a local firefighters’ parade. Another said that, as much as she wanted to go, she had to visit family out of town. Yet another just sent his regrets, saying he would be traveling that day — in Connecticut.

In Search of a New Playbook the Democrats have been failing to delineate the differences between themselves and Republicans, to remind voters what Republicans would do if returned to power and how little their policies have changed from those during the two terms of President George W. Bush. ...... Recently, this has started to change. President Obama has become uncharacteristically combative, delivering a series of ardent speeches that other Democrats would do well to imitate. .... They don’t have a single idea that’s different from George Bush’s ideas — not one. Instead, they’re betting on amnesia.” .... Protections for patients against insurance companies. Rules keeping adult children on health policies, and requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions. A new consumer financial protection bureau to fight lending abuses. The preservation or creation of nearly three million jobs, averting Depression-level unemployment. ...... For most voters, the only real issue is high unemployment, and it is here that Democrats seem to have set aside bold thinking and fallen into the Republican trap of placing deficit fears ahead of job revival. ...... the myth that the deficit is causing unemployment, and advocate using government in ways that might re- inspire voters.....As the economy recovers, there will be money available for sane and careful deficit reduction, territory the Democrats know far better than their opponents. A House or Senate controlled by Republicans, leading to longer stalemates and years of political posturing, is not the way to get there. Instead of shrinking from their accomplishments, Democrats should use their remaining time to build on them.

The Clintons

Bill Clinton Has Left The Building
Bill Clinton Had Icecream For Lunch
Hillary In Person
DL21C Annual Summer Bash: Barack Won The Straw Poll
Hillary's Bobby Kennedy Comment: Bitter Heart, Bad Taste
Obama, Reshma
Charlie Rangel: Motherfucker

New York Times: Guest List for Rangel's Birthday Bash Shrinks Organizers reserved the gilded main ballroom at the Plaza Hotel, booked Aretha Franklin to serenade Mr. Rangel and sent out an elaborate video invitation featuring a testimonial from Bill Clinton (who, as it happens, was also invited but said he had to be in Arkansas that day).

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Ed Koch And Carolyn Maloney: Bush Democrats

Panchatantra The Story of The Blue Jackal

One day when the blue jackal was holding court, he heard a gang of jackals howling. Thrilled by the sound of his own ilk, Kakudruma began loudly responding in his natural voice. The lions and other animals immediately recognized that their king was after all a jackal and not a Godsend.

I have been saying at this blog time and again that the essence of Maloney is that she is not a blue jackal, I mean she is a Bush Democrat. And today she proves me true. She howls.

Rep. Maloney gets Koch's blessing‎ - The Hill (blog) Koch.. backed George W. Bush’s reelection in 2004
Koch: I'm voting for Bush
Patriot Act Divides Maloney From Saujani | That's My Congress
Revisiting McCarthyism in the Patriot Act Era : NPR

Maloney voted for the Patriot Act that turned the entire country into one big Arizona. That was Maloney showing apartheid tendencies.

Maloney Is Too Ordinary To Be Representing District 14

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Gun Toting Protestors: Racist

They did not show up for either Bush, Clinton, or the elder Bush. So this is not partisan. They did not show up for FDR, so this is not to do with the Great Depression's grand cousin, the Great Recession that we are ploughing through right now.

This is about race and racism. This is guttural. This is about some guys showing up with knives at a Hillary health care rally in Oregon in 1994. That was about gender, like Newt Gingrich told Bob Reich back then, "Tell the president, we like him, but his wife should not be making policy."

You can be thrown in jail for putting in writing that you intend to harm the President Of The United States, but you are okay if you show up for his rally with a gun? This makes absolutely no sense. The news is not that they are showing up, but that we are putting up with their showing up with their guns.

Granted the secret service keeps cordons around the POTUS, but how long before some nut mows down about 10 people in the audience before we cry Columbine? The political damage would be huge.

Pages

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Related articles

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Related articles

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Related articles

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Related articles

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Related articles

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Related articles by Zemanta

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Related articles by Zemanta

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Related articles by Zemanta

Tuesday, September 08, 2009