Subscribe to the Magazine. . .

. . . for $1.99 and you can read my latest story about the Democratic obstacles that Obama faces as he tries to get his legislative agenda through Congress. The nut:

Despite Obama’s early legislative victories — including passage of the largest stimulus bill in history — the new President has learned how limited his power can be, even when the Democrats control Congress. While much of the political chatter continues to focus on the waning Republican opposition, Obama’s real challenge comes from within his own party. With increasing frequency, Democrats have been scratching away at the promises Obama made during his campaign, watering down reforms, removing possible revenue sources and protecting key constituencies.

Really just $1.99 cents for six months weeks. Or you can just click here and read it online, blah, blah, blah, but if you do remember this: It’s still more fun to hold the magazine in your hands. And, no, my employer did not instruct me to become a pitchman. I just think all this doom and gloom sometimes forgets to acknowledge the obvious.

Related Topics: Uncategorized
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    Obama Stumbles? Why the President’s Right to Talk About Bain

    The meme of the day in journo-world is that President Obama has stumbled at the outset of the general election campaign. The evidence for this? Well, uh, there isn’t very much, really–except that a few Democrats have criticized his campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital and that Obama’s fundraising is merely humongous, instead of obscenely humongous. The two phenomena are linked, of course: Obama isn’t getting the usual haul from Wall Street because he has outrageously–outrageously!–tried to regulate the bankers who did so much to crash the economy in 2008. The handful of Democrats squawking are people who either (a) get money from private equity firms or (b) have retired and joined Mondo Casino. But there is another side to this story:

  • hotbbq

    Six months for $1.99 would be fantastic. Too bad its only for six weeks. I still look forward to reading it while on the couch or other less savory places.

  • plukasiak

    At the end of April, a dozen Senate Democrats helped hand Obama his first major legislative defeat by voting down one of the President’s big campaign pledges, a plan to allow bankruptcy courts to restructure the mortgages of strapped homeowners. So infuriated was Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, one of Obama’s close allies, that he accused his colleagues of bending to the will of bank lobbyists. “They frankly own the place,” he told a Chicago radio station. The White House, by contrast, made no public comment on the defeat.
    _
    Obama hasn’t actively the kind of agenda items that got him elected… he didn’t go out and try and raise public support for the bankruptcy provision, and acted as if it didn’t matter to him whether it was passed or not.
    _
    Don’t blame congressional Democrats for voting for their deep pocket sprecial interest supporters when the President isn’t providing the leadership needed on key issues — the “defeat” on clawback happened because Obama did not get his supporters to call their congresscritters, and put the heat on them.
    _

  • dmittleman

    You got me to sign up. They should give you 10% of my buck ninety nine.

    And hotbbq is correct – it is just six issues, with automatic re-enrollment for six months at about $20 (still under a dollar an issue). Good deal, but not the one you claim.

    And now I won’t have to drag my laptop to the unsavory places hotbbq alludes to.

  • http://smoothlikeremy.blogspot.com/ sgwhiteinfla

    President George W. Bush’s legacy was tarred by his unwillingness to challenge the GOP leadership on its flagrant spending sprees.

    .
    Did you type that with a straight face? Bush and GOP leadership were n lockstep in their spending sprees. Can you name something that Bush was allegedly against that he didn’t veto? Can you name some spending that Bush proposed that the GOP objected to? Neither Bush nor GOP leaders in Congress had any hangups about big spending until Jan 20th of this year.

  • stuartzechman

    RT
    .

    Stuart_Zechman@michaelscherer Buy hard copy? “fine American”? WTF? Have Time.com code “contribute” button next to your name on each of your posts,I’ll buy
    .
    22 minutes ago from web in reply to michaelscherer

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    It’s still more fun to hold the magazine in your hands.
    .
    You clearly fail to realize that if I’m holding the magazine in my hands, I’m also listening to piped in classical music in an over-air-conditioned waiting room with odd hissing noises coming from the next room AND I’m missing lunch. Dedfinitely NOT a pleasant experience.

  • Commenter 2B named later

    Your words say “buy the print edition,” but all those hyperlinks in the post say “have fun flipping pages back and forth to find what you’re looking for, suckers!”

  • Matt

    Michael, do you really want to destroy the Earth?

    http://www.political-buzz.com/

  • rustyreturns

    I will get my thrill of “holding” your “article” in my hands, Michael while I am also waiting to have my teeth extracted when I make my next dental appointment. (snark)
    .
    I just can’t imagine spending a buck 99 on anything Time.Com has to offer, especially when Bill O’Reilly has such great stuff on his web-site to buy such as his book, “Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity” or the “Patriots Welcome” mat I just purchased for my front door.
    .
    But, thank you anyways for the gallant try at absconding my money none-the-less.

  • Dee in Columbia MD

    MS that ship has sailed, now ask me to subscribe to online access because I’m not going backwards because your business model is flawed.

  • 53_3

    Paul Dirks:
    .
    “…over-air-conditioned waiting room with odd hissing noises coming from the next room…”
    .
    Only if you have medical insurance!

  • 53_3

    “…especially when Bill O’Reilly has such great stuff on his web-site to buy…”
    .
    I guess Rusty already has Mein Kampf

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    Of course, you’re article accepts as a premise that Obama has and agenda that’s capable of being watered down. With the exception of the health care reform, I think your creating expectations that he doesn’t feel any need to share. I think he’s considerably more satisfied with incremental progress than you’re willing to let on.
    .
    Your points about spending however are spot on but it’s not fair to single out Congressional Democrats as solely responsible for the problem. Our entire Constitutional structure guarantees that House members in particular are sensitive to pressure from local, rather compact Congressional District voters. The desire to deliver Federal spending is irresistable to ALL Congresscritters. It’s simply part of the deal that they signed up for.

  • rustyreturns

    Oh Phifty-three you are so witty I swear. Perhaps you could let me borrow your copy of the Communist Manifesto, or does Barack still have it?

  • Jon

    Hi, Mike–

    Great way to increase the people reading you would be to reverse the terrible decision to truncate the RSS feed. I’m sure it wasn’t your decision, but I can tell that my Swampland reading has plummeted ever since you guys started doing this.

  • spob

    Pay to be indoctinated? You’re kidding, right? Time Magazine lost me when it did a story on a white kid going to Crenshaw in LA and mentioned casually that a black teacher had made references to “white devils” in a class that he was in. Now, it’s patently obvious that had the races been reversed, TIME would not have made such a casual reference, but would have been fulminating at the mouth. Now, even assuming that black racism isn’t as bad as white racism, etc. etc., the bottom line is that a child shouldn’t have to bear any of that nonsense. But it was unremarkable to Time that a white kid would have to be exposed to that. I guess that explains why Barack got a free pass for exposing his kids to the racist clap-trap that Jeremiah Wright spewed forth from his pulpit.

  • 53_3

    It’s ok, Rusty.
    Your problem is that you are unable to understand that being conservative doesn’t require bigotry.
    .
    You’ve done well to be more constructive in your dialogue, but you still have a bad habit of trying to inject hate into the picture under the radar.
    .
    Maybe it would be better to just accept that all of us are Americans, turn your back on those that hate, save yourself a heart attack*, and enjoy being conservative in a constructive manner.
    .
    After all, the “sleeping White Giant” has already spoken…
    .
    *Many links exist relating anger and stress, hate and anger, and heart attack and stress. Google ‘em!

  • 53_3

    spob:
    .
    You are so inverted…

  • spob

    53_3, so it’s acceptable for a child to be subjected to that? I guess so. Apparently, you and Time see eye-to-eye on the point.

  • rebecca74

    Can’t read off a paper anymore…am so used to reading the “screen” be it my desktop, laptop or bberry.

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    Reading the dead-tree edition is OK I suppose, but the cutting, pasting and italicizing when I want to comment is a real bear!

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    And did I mention that my scrapbook gets even less traffic than my blog?

  • kathy

    The best thing about a hard copy of the magazine is that I find things to read that I never would while browsing the web site.
    .
    But I agree. Charge me, say, 2 bits a month to read it online and I’d bite.

  • juniusredivivus

    for $1.99 you can read my latest story about the Democratic obstacles that Obama faces as he tries to get his legislative agenda through Congress
    ……

    1) I can write your latest story on this tired theme with my eyes shut. But then, so does every Beltway hack.

    2) Can’t you manage a soft paper, tear-sheet edition? At least that way, the publication might be of some value.

  • Cliff

    Unless the paper edition comes with commentary, I’m not biting.
    .
    Also, why buy the cow when I can get the mind-rotting pablum for free?

  • afguy

    2) Can’t you manage a soft paper, tear-sheet edition? At least that way, the publication might be of some value.
    .
    juniusredivivus,
    .
    I’m pretty sure I know the use which you have in mind – as a functional accessory for that “special waiting room” previously mentioned, right?
    .
    Might I further specify that it have extra absorbancy and non-smearing ink? I know it’s an engineering challenge for them but I promise I would put it to good use.

  • dunedweller

    I recently spent a few days pool-side in Palm Springs with my girlfriends, and must say nothing could’ve replaced the fun we had passing around, reading aloud and laughing about silly stories and photos in cheezy magazines. One of the few times a kindle, laptop or iphone could not have produced an equal amount of joy.

  • 53_3

    “3_3, so it’s acceptable for a child to be subjected to that?”
    .
    I don’t think that you are really interested in what Obama’s children are exposed to. I think this is the best approach to take since you’re trying to achieve a “racial gotcha”.
    .
    The problem is, you know absolutely nothing about the Black community, it’s history, the history of the church in the Black community, nor the values and moral issues addressed therein.
    .
    So getting back to the point, I notice that you have spent an enormous amount of time trying to create an image of Obama being racist, which is clearly not true. This can be seen by how he conducts himself, the ethnographic cross section of his staff, and the things he has already said innumerable times about Rev. Wright.
    .
    It’s not even worth arguing here.
    .
    Like I said before, and will leave at this point out of respect for other posters is clearly, unambiguously this:
    .
    You are not old enough, nor are knowledgeable enough, to have anything of value whatsoever to contribute to Civil Rights in this country.

  • jcapan

    “…over-air-conditioned waiting room with odd hissing noises coming from the next room…”
    ~
    … which is the bathroom, the hissing noises coming from my bowels, dead-tree Time bunched up in my hand to …
    ~
    Paying to read would make it harder for us to deny we’re paying your wages, Michael

  • spob

    The point is, of course,, 53_3, Time’s coverage of the incident.

  • 53_3

    In retrospect, Racheal Maddows’ commentary on the introduction of flies to control the fire ants in Texas:
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30733185
    .
    Might be more postscient than prescient.
    .
    Pay particular attention to the last half of the ‘Do Ask/Do Tell’ video. Quite grotesque, but the answer to her rhetorical question at the end, I propose this one:
    .
    “More Dittoheads”

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