The central political question raised by Michael Cooper’s piece is why people aren’t convinced they got a tax break with the Recovery Act. One possible answer that has popped up again and again with not just the stimulus, but health care and other Obama initiatives is that there is something fundamentally wrong with how the [...]
With predictions of 50-seat gains and chamber sweeps abounding, TIME took a closer look at what threats remain for the GOP. This interview with our Washington bureau chief, Michael Duffy, breaks down the dark lining to the Republicans’ silver cloud, as he sees it.
Two Republicans who have provided some intellectual leadership for the GOP have signaled in recent days that “defunding” the Affordable Care Act may sound good on the surface, but won’t really work in practice. On Friday, the American Spectator published an interview with Rep. Paul Ryan, in which the GOP ranking member on the House [...]
Joe, I agree that David Brooks wrote a thought-provoking column which forces us to step back and challenge our assumptions. I’d add another small critique to your list : Brooks argues that advertising from independent groups gets lost in the crush of ads by the candidates and parties themselves. But my sense is that the [...]
Two links this morning for people still trying to make sense of that massive political pinata, the $787 billion stimulus plan. One is a Times article focused on something I’ve posted about before, which is the fact that precious few Americans understand that the stimulus contained plenty of tax cuts (about 40 percent overall, including [...]
I pretty much agree with David Brooks’ column today about the overstated importance of money in political campaigns–with two exceptions. Yes, the number of ads become wallpaper after a while; and yes, the reason for the Democrats’ troubles this year has more to do with the economy and the perceived deficiencies of the Congressional leadership [...]
Jimmy McMillan, who is running for Governor of New York on the Rent Is Too Damn High Party ticket, kind of stole the show at last night’s debate, and not least because he was seated between the two people who actually have a shot of winning, Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino. Some highlights: It’s a [...]
He lacks the flowing mane of that guy from the UPS White Board ads, but there is a certain declarative authority, and simplicity, to his presentation. Expect more of this to come from Obama’s new chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, who happens also to be a celebrated college professor, a college debate champion, [...]
Iran is participating in the Afghan contact group talks in Rome. There is precedent for this: Iran participated in the Bonn talks that created a new Afghan government in 2001–to good effect, I’m told. That might have been the beginning of a beautiful friendship, but the Bush Administration was more interested in constructing an Axis [...]
