One of the great ironies of this week’s primaries, which brought a level of democracy to the Democratic nominating process unlike anything we have ever seen before, is that the result may have been to put the choice into the hands of party hacks. In this week’s dead-tree TIME (timenotdotcom), my story looks at the road ahead, and occasional Swampland intern Michael Duffy explores the prospect of a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket.
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Congressional Budget Office: Yeah Guys, Jumping Off the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Is as Bad as It Sounds
Breaking up partisan budgetary knife-fights can be perilous business, so in its new report on a cluster of expiring tax breaks and scheduled spending cuts, the Congressional Budget Office, home to Capitol Hill’s weary fiscal referees, exercises restraint. While most Washingtonians call it “Taxmageddon,” the CBO bean-counters refer to the event, set to take place January 1 if Congress doesn’t act, as “the Fiscal Restraint That Is Scheduled to Occur in 2013.” Catchy. But the stakes are high and the CBO’s warning is dire, so just for a second, they really let their inhibitions go:
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Iran Nuke Concession?
The New York Times is reporting that Iran may be about to open its Parchin military facility to international inspections. This is a biggish deal, but not a complete breakthrough. Parchin is where Iran may have been conducting experiments on weaponizing its nuclear fuel; there has been speculation that the facility housed a chamber to test nuclear triggering devices. No doubt, if the inspections are allowed at Parchin, there’s not going to be anything there to inspect. (Although if uranium was present in the past, it will be detectable.) This is part of a flurry of Iranian activity on the eve of the next round of nuclear talks in Baghdad tomorrow.
