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	<title>Swampland &#187; Michael Grunwald &#124; TIME.com</title>
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	<description>Political insight from the Beltway and beyond</description>
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		<title>Swampland &#187; Michael Grunwald &#124; TIME.com</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com</link>
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		<title>A Bump on the Road to Green</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/a-bump-on-the-road-to-green/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/a-bump-on-the-road-to-green/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 14:48:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95449</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Fisker Automotive may be kaput. But my friend Dave insisted that before I joined the parade of writers comparing the failed electric-car company to Solyndra, the other California&#8211;based manufacturer that went bust after landing a federal clean-energy loan, I had to borrow his curvaceous Fisker Karma. It’s been described as the most beautiful sedan ever built, and I must say that Dave’s sparkling ocean-blue model—there’s crushed glass coated with sterling silver in the paint—looks particularly cool. As I cruised through Miami’s South Beach, tourists kept giving me thumbs-up and taking pictures with their phones, which rarely happens when I drive my Honda Odyssey. I aired out the Karma on the highway too. It’s a pretty sweet ride. So now I’m more qualified to conclude that yes, Fisker has a lot in common with Solyndra. And that’s nothing for the government to be embarrassed about. President Bush signed the loan program into law in 2005. He let it languish, but President Obama expanded it and started handing out cash to solar manufacturers, wind developers, fuel-efficient-car makers and other clean-tech businesses in 2009. The goal was to commercialize cutting-edge green technologies that could reduce the U.S.’s foreign-oil -addiction and carbon emissions while creating jobs in tomorrow’s industries. Everyone knew some loans would go bad. The hope was that some loans would change the world. Fisker probably won’t, but that doesn’t mean it was a dumb bet all along. An exhaustive Republican investigation found no wrongdoing connected to the Solyndra loan, and there’s no reason to think the Fisker loan was shady either. Like Solyndra, it was once considered a game-changing example of American innovation. Like Solyndra, Fisker raised a billion dollars from private investors. But like Solyndra, Fisker couldn’t cut it in the marketplace. The $100,000 Karma broke down on the Consumer Reports test track. Its display panel is a mess; I couldn’t get the radio to work. Fisker had awful production problems and ultimately sold only about 2,000 Karmas before suspending operations. Its second model, which was supposed to revive a<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95449&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Energy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/energy-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ap968108038296.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Henrik Fisker, founder of Fisker Automotive, right, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 24, 2013.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Tread on Me: The Case for Freedom From Terrorist Bombings, School Shootings and Exploding Factories</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/23/tread-on-me-the-case-for-freedom-from-terrorist-bombings-school-shootings-and-exploding-factories/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/23/tread-on-me-the-case-for-freedom-from-terrorist-bombings-school-shootings-and-exploding-factories/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:30:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Viewpoint]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=93756</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We’re often told that our liberties are under assault. The right warns that our Big Government nanny state is plotting to seize our guns and our Big Gulps, while strangling our economic freedom with taxes and regulations. The left rails against our Big Government security state — the drone warfare, indefinite detention and electronic surveillance that make the war on terrorism sound like an Orwellian nightmare. The National Rifle Association had just finished bellowing about background checks violating our Second Amendment rights when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) started shrieking about the FBI violating the Boston bombing suspect’s Miranda rights. America was born from resistance to tyranny, and our skepticism of authority is a healthy tradition. But we’re pretty free. And the &#8220;don’t tread on me&#8221; slippery-slopers on both ends of the political spectrum tend to forget that Big Government helps protect other important rights. Like the right of a child to watch a marathon or attend first grade without getting killed — or, for that matter, the right to live near a fertilizer factory without it blowing up your house. Our government needs to balance these rights, which is tough sometimes. But not always. Requiring gun owners to pass background checks and restricting access to high-capacity magazines would be a minuscule price to pay to help avoid future Newtowns and Auroras. If the FBI waits a few days to read Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the Miranda boilerplate he’s already heard a million times on Law and Order, the Republic will survive, and the authorities might learn something that will help prevent another tragedy. (In fact, if America&#8217;s ubiquitous surveillance network hadn&#8217;t captured Tsarnaev on video, he might still be at large.) Even in a free-enterprise system — especially in a free-enterprise system — a factory owner’s right to run his business without government interference is trumped by the public-safety rights of the local community. In the Obama era, Tea Party Republicans like Senator Rand Paul have portrayed the U.S. government as a threat to individual liberty, an oppressive force in<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=93756&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/23/tread-on-me-the-case-for-freedom-from-terrorist-bombings-school-shootings-and-exploding-factories/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Viewpoint</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/miscellany/viewpoint/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ap693791092152-copy.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Mike Murphy</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Rubio and Immigration Reform: Will He Stick or Scoot?</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/09/rubio-and-immigration-reform-will-he-stick-or-scoot/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/09/rubio-and-immigration-reform-will-he-stick-or-scoot/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:45:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Immigration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=92365</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight may release an immigration reform bill this week, but the question on many Washington minds is whether Marco Rubio, the most conservative member of the gang, really wants the legislation to pass. He has defied his Tea Party base by backing reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, but he has also demanded hearings, “triggers,” and a slew of other conditions he insists must be met for him to support the final bill. He’s still on the reform bus, but he’s left himself a Florida Turnpike worth of exit ramps. My cover story about Rubio’s personal and political journey on immigration issues anticipated this drama over the senator’s “impeccably nuanced positions.” He is a child of Cuban immigrants—his grandfather was undocumented for awhile, and I quoted his mother begging him not to harm the undocumented of today—but he is also a child of the conservative movement that sunk immigration reform in 2007. He’s clearly thinking about the White House in 2016, and it’s not yet clear whether helping to broker a bipartisan immigration deal will help his candidacy in a party that hates President Obama but needs Hispanics. As I wrote two months ago: “This shrewd political operator will have to decide how far he’s willing to bend to get a deal done with Obama, or whether he’s content just to get credit for trying.” (PHOTOS: Marco Rubio, Republican Savior) The bill’s opponents seem convinced that Rubio’s tough-talk demands—tight border security and an employment verification system first, an arduous path to citizenship later, and no law without a thorough and deliberate process—are just bones he’s throwing to his supporters on the right before his inevitable support for amnesty. By contrast, immigration advocates are clearly afraid that he intends to scuttle reform and then blame Obama and Big Labor for moving the bill too far to the left. I think he’s keeping his options open. He’s a political animal. He’d like to support a bill, but it will depend what the bill looks<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=92365&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Immigration</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/immigration/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/rtr3ezqo.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Senator Rubio of Florida speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor, Marylan</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Tailpipe Politics: The Lessons (So Far) of 2013</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/02/obama-clears-away-smog-advances-climate-agenda/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/02/obama-clears-away-smog-advances-climate-agenda/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:45:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Viewpoint]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=91878</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The EPA unveiled its new anti-smog rules on Friday, prompting the usual Republican complaints about President Obama’s war on free enterprise, along with the usual dire warnings of higher prices at the pump. The rules will raise gas prices, but less than a cent a gallon. Meanwhile, by 2030, they’ll avoid an estimated 2,400 annual premature deaths, prevent 23,000 respiratory illnesses in children, and reduce tailpipe emissions by the equivalent of taking 33 million cars off the road. I’m not too interested in the umpteenth fight between the president and the anti-environmental GOP. But it’s worth noting that one of Obama’s lasting legacies will be much cleaner cars on American roads. He doubled fuel efficiency standards for U.S. cars and trucks, the most important action ever taken to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. His 2009 stimulus bill jump-started our electric-vehicle industry—it actually created a domestic EV battery industry from scratch—as well as our advanced biofuels industry, while funding unprecedented research into the batteries, biofuels, and other clean-car technologies of tomorrow. And now this. (MORE: The U.S. Will Be an Oil Giant Again. But It Won’t Be Energy Independent) There are three lessons here: 1: Deeds &#62; Words. I still think the most important thing to know about Obama, who was often dismissed as a words guy when he started running for president, is that he’s turned out to be a deeds guy.  This is especially true when it comes to energy and climate, even though some Ivory Soap enviros will never be satisfied with 99.44% purity. For example, Obama didn’t say much about global warming in his first term, but he did double U.S. generation of renewable power, partly by investing $90 billion in wind, solar and other clean energy sources in the stimulus, partly by approving the first three dozen renewable-electricity projects on federal land. It’s not a coincidence that our oil imports and carbon emissions are at their lowest levels in two decades, or that Tesla Motors—which just turned its first profit—has announced it will repay its federal loan five<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=91878&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/02/obama-clears-away-smog-advances-climate-agenda/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Viewpoint</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/miscellany/viewpoint/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/obama1.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/obama1.jpg?w=200" />
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			<media:title type="html">U.S. President Barack Obama walks past a Chevy Volt electric car as he tours the Argonne National Lab near Chicago</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Obama, Give In to the Irrational GOP</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/21/give-in-to-the-irrational-gop/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/21/give-in-to-the-irrational-gop/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:45:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Magazine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=90928</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In a rational world, Republicans would get the blame for the budget mess in Washington. In the George W. Bush era, they frittered impressive surpluses into unprecedented deficits. In 2011 they threatened to force the U.S. government into default if President Obama didn’t accept massive spending cuts, essentially taking the global economy hostage; the current sequester was part of their ransom. And now, even though the deficit is shrinking, even though just about everyone agrees that the sequester’s haphazard cuts will damage a fragile economy, GOP leaders won’t even discuss an alternative that includes new tax revenue. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a rational world. The Beltway establishment recognizes the intransigence of the GOP, but the capital’s scorekeepers are incapable of blaming just one side. Their solution to the stalemate is just like Obama’s: a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes. But they still can’t resist pox-on-both-houses narratives. Why won’t Obama lead? The answer is that the president isn’t omnipotent; he can’t bend the opposition to his will through schmoozing or fortitude. And Obama has already compromised, agreeing to $1.5 trillion in spending cuts and even proposing modest entitlement reforms. The only way Obama could fulfill the punditocracy’s dreams of bipartisan agreement would be to drop his demand for new revenues and cave to the tax-phobic Republicans he thumped in November. So he should cave — not to appease the chattering classes, unify Washington or show the country he’s open to compromise. He should cave to ease pain, advance his agenda and improve the country in tangible ways. Forget the dopey spats over White House tours and Easter-egg rolls. The sequester will cause real harm, so the President ought to at least try to replace it. And the pursuit of new revenue, while a reasonable goal, is not as important as his other goals — like avoiding short-term austerity that could derail the recovery, promoting long-term prosperity through targeted investments and tax reform, moving the budget in a fairer direction and preventing the GOP from taking more hostages in the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=90928&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Magazine</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/magazine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/rtr3exw1.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">U.S. President Obama walks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington upon his return from a meeting with House Republicans on a budget deal</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/screen-shot-2013-03-20-at-12-24-43-pm.png?w=97" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Grunwald sequester breakdown</media:title>
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		<title>Ryan&#8217;s Latest Budget: Wrong Problem, Wrong Solution</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/13/ryans-latest-budget-wrong-problem-wrong-solution/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/13/ryans-latest-budget-wrong-problem-wrong-solution/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:45:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Viewpoint]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=90303</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you’re not too interested in budget details, which is to say you’re a normal person, here are the basics of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s latest plan: He wants deep cuts in Medicaid, the health program serving the poor, the near-poor, the disabled, and nursing homes. He wants to transform Medicare from an entitlement for senior citizens into a voucher program, but only starting in 2024, so the changes wouldn’t affect the 55-and-over set that tends to vote Republican. He wants to rein in general spending, except for military spending. And he wants to slash tax rates for wealthy individuals and corporations to 25%, while making up the lost revenue with unspecified “reforms.” If this sounds a lot like the plans Ryan unveiled in 2009 and 2011—with a hint of the Romney-Ryan budget plan from 2012—well, it is. Ryan is under no obligation to revise his plans just because a majority of the electorate rejected them, although it is amusing to see him claim (p. 5) that “most Americans” share his dystopic view of the nation’s current path. My beef with Ryan 3.0&#8211;like my critique of the “radical document” that was Ryan 1.0, and my screeds about the media gushfest over Ryan 2.0&#8211; is that it gets the problem wrong and the solution wrong. It would hurt people who need help and helps people who don’t. And while Ryan deserves some credit for taking some political risks, his budget is still brimming with the dishonesty and hypocrisy that often characterizes the modern Republican Party. A few specific examples: “The Current Mess.” (p. 4) In his introduction, Ryan argues that his plan, designed to balance the federal budget in 10 years, is needed because America is going to hell. He identifies the problem as an out-of-control deficit created by out-of-control spending. If we don’t act now, he says, we’ll have a “debt crisis,” followed by “debasement of our currency,” and a parade of horribles: “Our finances will collapse. The economy will stall. The safety net will unravel.” His budget is “an exit ramp from the current<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=90303&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Viewpoint</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/miscellany/viewpoint/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/163556569.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan Unveils House Republicans&#039; FY2014 Budget Resolution</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">House Budget</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/screen-shot-2013-03-12-at-10-41-03-pm.png" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">House Budget</media:title>
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		<title>The Sequester Is a Republican-Inflicted Wound</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/04/the-sequester-is-a-republican-inflicted-wound/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/04/the-sequester-is-a-republican-inflicted-wound/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:45:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Viewpoint]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=89516</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The sequester is here, with an initial $85 billion worth of haphazard and economically destructive spending cuts, a Washington wound almost universally described as “self-inflicted.” Let’s be clearer: It’s Republican-inflicted. It is a direct result of the insistence by GOP leaders in the summer of 2011 that they would not raise the federal debt ceiling unless President Obama agreed to dramatic spending cuts. One can argue that the growth of the debt or the size of the government justified that insistence; I’d disagree. But it’s simply a fact that every budget crisis of the last two years—the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, the failure of the “supercommittee,” the fiscal cliff, and now this—stems from Republican debt-limit brinksmanship. This is what makes all the Beltway back-and-forth about who came up with the sequester, and who moved which goalposts, and what Gene Sperling said to Bob Woodward, so annoying. The origin of this mess is absolutely clear. It was created by the Budget Control Act of 2011, the ransom Republican leaders received for agreeing to let the U.S. government pay its bills. (MORE: The Sequester Fight Was the Pregame. Here Comes the Main Event) Traditionally, the debt ceiling had been a symbolic cap, an opportunity for members of Congress in the minority party (including a certain Illinois Senator Barack Obama back in 2006) to grandstand about the fiscal irresponsibility of the majority party before the limit was increased. (In Obama’s semi-defense, the irresponsibility of tax-cutting, big-spending Republicans in the Bush era was truly breathtaking.) After their big congressional wins in the 2010 midterms, though, GOP leaders declared that the debt was out of control, so they would not raise the debt limit without an equivalent amount of spending cuts. They threatened to force the U.S. government into default—essentially, to crash the global economy—unless Obama accepted a massive rollback of the welfare state. Let’s pause for a moment to discuss that threat. Republican leaders like House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t really want the Treasury to default<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=89516&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Viewpoint</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/miscellany/viewpoint/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/pol-boehner-0303.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Speaker of the House John Boehner leaves a press conference on sequestration on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 28, 2013.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>I&#8217;m with the Tree Huggers</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/28/im-with-the-tree-huggers/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/28/im-with-the-tree-huggers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Feb 2013 10:45:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Magazine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Viewpoint]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=89188</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The activists fighting the Keystone XL pipeline are radical-and right The respectable center has recognized that climate change is not only real and man-made but also a genuine emergency. The scientific evidence has become too stark to indulge denial or dithering. The earth is hotter; Arctic ice is melting at a terrifying rate; staid institutions like reinsurers and the CIA are sounding dire warnings about rising seas and extreme droughts. There&#8217;s an emerging consensus that fossil fuel apologists are on the wrong side of the battle of the century. But there&#8217;s also an emerging consensus-among newspaper editorial boards, respectable-centrist pundits, even the magazine Nature- that the rabble-rousing activists who have tied themselves to the White House gate and clamored for President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline are picking the wrong fight. Stopping Keystone, these critics point out, wouldn&#8217;t prevent catastrophic warming. It might not even prevent the extraction from Canada&#8217;s dirty tar sands. It wouldn&#8217;t cut emissions as much as new coal regulations or clean-energy subsidies or carbon pricing. Meanwhile, approving the pipeline would create jobs and reduce our dependence on petro-dictators while signaling that Obama isn&#8217;t as radical as the tree huggers protesting outside his house. TIME Graphic Well, I&#8217;m with the tree huggers. The pipeline isn&#8217;t the worst threat to the climate, but it&#8217;s a threat. Keystone isn&#8217;t the best fight to have over fossil fuels, but it&#8217;s the fight we&#8217;re having. Now is the time to choose sides. It&#8217;s always easy to quibble with the politics of radical protest: Did ACT UP need to be so obnoxious? Didn&#8217;t the tax evasion optics of the Boston Tea Party muddle the anti-imperial message? But if we&#8217;re in a war to stop global warming &#8212; a war TIME declared on a green-bordered cover five years ago &#8212; then we need to fight it on the beaches, the landing zones and the carbon-spewing tar sands of Alberta. If we&#8217;re serious about reducing atmospheric carbon below 350 parts per million, we need to start leaving some carbon in the ground.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=89188&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/28/im-with-the-tree-huggers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Magazine</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/magazine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/keystone-xl-pipeline-2.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Keystone XL Pipeline</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/ddcaf430de0f1a59f27cc4ad614221d9?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/picture-110.png" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Keystone XL Pipeline</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">Keystone XL Pipeline protester</media:title>
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		<title>Yes, Rubio and Obama Mostly Agree on Immigration. No, That Doesn&#8217;t Mean Reform Is Inevitable.</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/20/yes-rubio-and-obama-mostly-agree-on-immigration-no-that-doesnt-mean-reform-is-inevitable/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/20/yes-rubio-and-obama-mostly-agree-on-immigration-no-that-doesnt-mean-reform-is-inevitable/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:45:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Immigration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=88531</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s true that Senator Marco Rubio’s stated principles for comprehensive immigration reform are quite similar to President Obama’s. It’s also true that when Rubio attacks the president over reform, as he did after a White House legislative draft leaked last weekend, he’s signaling to his fervently anti-Obama base that he’s still a solid Tea Party Republican. As I wrote in my Rubio profile, “some of this is Beltway theater; reform could become toxic to Republicans if it’s perceived as Obama-friendly.” This is why smart restrictionists like Mark Krikorian of the National Review as well as smart reformers like Benjy Sarlin of Talking Points Memo seem to agree that Rubio is just posturing, that what really matters are the similarities between his principles and the president’s, that the partisan theater is designed to reduce Republican resistance to bipartisan reform. Well, maybe. Obama did call Rubio in Jerusalem Tuesday night, and both sides expressed ritual optimism. But there are some real differences between Rubio and Obama on immigration. Sure, Rubio’s rhetoric could help make reform politically palatable to Republicans, and even help move reform substantively to the right. But it could also help lay the groundwork for Rubio to scuttle reform, accuse Obama of overreaching, and claim credit for trying to forge a bipartisan solution. Beltway theater can have real consequences, and the more Rubio threatens to walk away from any deal that doesn’t include everything he wants, the more pressure he will face to walk away when the deal, inevitably, doesn’t include everything he wants. Nobody but Rubio knows how far he is willing to bend to cut a deal few of his supporters want with a president most of his supporters despise. (MORE: If Immigration Reform Stalls, Federal Courts Could Have A Say) Remember, in interviews with right-wing talkers like Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, Rubio has drawn a series of lines in the sand, pledging to oppose any immigration bill that doesn’t reflect conservative principles. He said he wouldn’t support any legislation that doesn’t secure the border (whatever that<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=88531&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Immigration</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/immigration/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/rubio1.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Rubio</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/ddcaf430de0f1a59f27cc4ad614221d9?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Marco Rubio Responds to Obama&#8217;s State of the Union</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/13/marco-rubio-responds-to-obamas-state-of-the-union/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/13/marco-rubio-responds-to-obamas-state-of-the-union/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:45:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marco Rubio]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[State of the Union]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state of the union]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=87929</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Let’s just stipulate that the response to the State of the Union is a lousy assignment. There’s no audience, no applause, no podium where you can stash water within easy reaching distance. You inevitably look like you’re filming a hostage video, or an ad for your local car dealership, or a podcast in your basement. You have to respond to a speech you haven’t even heard, and your role is strictly partisan; your job is to attack the president, who can look like a statesman because he doesn’t have to stoop to attack you. You basically have to predict doom, and it’s tough to do that without sounding like you’re rooting for doom. (WATCH: Liveblogging Obama&#8217;s State of the Union Address) So considering the circumstances, Florida senator Marco Rubio did OK. It was nowhere near his best speech, but it was nowhere near the clueless-dweeb disaster that turned Bobby Jindal into a Kenneth the Page punchline in 2009. As usual, Rubio was most compelling when he talked about his working-class parents, his student loans, and his modest bedroom community; on policy, he mostly rehashed familiar anti-Obama talking points about big government, tax hikes and Solyndra. He can be mesmerizing talking optimistically about free enterprise and American exceptionalism and the American Dream; he sounded sour and defensive whining about Obama’s suggestions that Republicans protect the rich. He barely talked about immigration, the issue where he had such interesting things to say in our cover story this week. But Rubio didn’t embarrass himself. He got to introduce himself to millions of Americans who missed his Republican National Convention speech because they were still in shock over the Clint Eastwood fiasco. He talked about the middle class, while reminding the country that he’s part of it. And the media hubbub over his awkward lunge for his Poland Springs bottle—Watergate!—might help distract from his generic rehash of Mitt Romney’s policy playbook. If Republicans believe that they lost in 2012 because Romney was a boring rich white guy who alienated Hispanics, they got to see<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=87929&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Marco Rubio</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/congress/marco-rubio/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/ht_marco_rubio_mi_130212_wg.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Marco Rubio Republican National Address</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Marco Rubio: The Rest of the Story</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/11/marco-rubio-the-rest-of-the-story/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/11/marco-rubio-the-rest-of-the-story/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:00:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marco Rubio]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=87674</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I’ve gotten a lot of interesting feedback about my Marco Rubio cover story, most of it about stuff that wasn’t in the story. I heard from “birthers” upset that I didn’t question Rubio’s eligibility for the presidency, which I guess proves that some kooks are capable of intellectual consistency. I heard from Florida Democrats upset that I didn’t delve into Rubio’s awkward history of personal finance; it just seemed small-bore to me, even his mini-scandal involving personal expenses on a political credit card. And some readers asked why I didn’t mention that back when Rubio was a hopeless Senate candidate polling 30 points behind then-Governor Charlie Crist, I wrote a story explaining why he was going to win anyway. OK, OK, nobody really asked about that. I just enjoy bringing it up. But I did want to discuss two actual omissions from the Rubio profile in a bit more detail. The most common complaint was that I didn’t say enough about Rubio’s right-wing views—his foreign-policy neoconservatism, his tax-policy ultraconservatism, his hard-line opposition to the Violence Against Women Act, the repeal of don’t-ask-don’t-tell, Obamacare, Wall Street reform, raising the debt ceiling, and so on. As a few readers pointed out, I had just written a column warning that Tea Party purism was dooming the Republican Party, yet here was a relatively sympathetic profile of a Tea Party purist. As a Florida resident and a clean-energy obsessive, doesn’t it bug me that my junior senator opposes climate action? Well, yes. All I can say is that my story was about an issue where Rubio isn’t a purist, immigration, and the fascinating personal and political journey that has led him into the forefront of that issue. Rubio is the perfect front man for a party that believes its main problems are messaging and Hispanic outreach, a party that believes the only policies it needs to tweak are its immigration policies. I don’t believe that, but TIME has written a lot about the GOP, and so have I, here and here, here and (back<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=87674&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Marco Rubio</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/congress/marco-rubio/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/pol_marcorubio_0211.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Marco Rubio</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Immigrant Son</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/07/immigrant-son/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/07/immigrant-son/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Feb 2013 11:01:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marco Rubio]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=87447</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Oriales García Rubio knows how it feels to want more. When she was a girl in central Cuba in the 1930s, her family of nine lived in a one-room house with a dirt floor. Her dolls were Coke bottles dressed in rags. She dreamed of becoming an actress. Instead she married a security guard, moved with him to the U.S. and found work as a hotel maid. Her husband got a job as a bartender while starting a series of failed businesses—a vegetable stand, a dry cleaner, a grocery. They never had much. But their house had a real floor. Their daughters had real dolls. They sent all four of their children to college to chase their own dreams. That’s why on the morning of Dec. 21, she called her youngest son, Marco Antonio Rubio, the 41-year-old Senator from Florida and great Hispanic hope of the Republican Party—or, as she calls him, Tony. She got his voice mail. “Tony, some loving advice from the person who cares for you most in the world,” she said in Spanish. “Don’t mess with the immigrants, my son. Please, don’t mess with them.” She reminded him that undocumented Americans—los pobrecitos, she called them, the poor things—work hard and get treated horribly. “They’re human beings just like us, and they came for the same reasons we came. To work. To improve their lives. So please, don’t mess with them.” (PHOTOS: Marco Rubio, Republican Savior) Rubio comes from a family of immigrants and married into another family of immigrants and lives in a neighborhood of immigrants, West Miami, the bilingual bedroom community where he came of age and began his dazzling ascent from city commissioner to state house speaker to U.S. Senator. Now, just two years after he arrived in Washington, the charismatic conservative often hailed as the Tea Party’s answer to Barack Obama has emerged as the most influential voice in the national debate over immigration reform. He’s also the key player in his party’s efforts to make up to Hispanic voters after a disastrous 2012<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=87447&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Marco Rubio</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/congress/marco-rubio/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/1500_wrubio_0218.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">1500_wrubio_0218</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>What&#8217;s Wrong With the Republican Party?</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/31/whats-wrong-with-the-republican-party/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/31/whats-wrong-with-the-republican-party/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:45:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Republican Party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gop]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=86577</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I’ve often banged my spoon on my high chair about the reality-defying extremism and chronic obstructionism and borderline surrealism of the modern Republican Party. Its journey to wackadoodleland is, in my view, the most important political story of the last two decades. In this week’s magazine, I have a column about the post-election GOP freakout, and how the party can adapt to an electorate that is getting less demographically Republican (more diverse, less rural, more educated, less evangelical) as well as less ideologically Republican (less hostile to gays, gun control, and government). The answer, I suggest, is not to try to change the electorate with voter-ID laws and Electoral College-rigging schemes. And it’s not what the party elites seem to think it is: These days, the party line is that Republicans need to change their approach to politics—message, tone, technology, strategy. They shouldn’t make repulsive comments about rape, question Obama’s birth certificate, brag about their unwillingness to compromise, or suggest that 47% of their fellow citizens are moochers. They should repair their relationship with data, so they won’t be flabbergasted when election night doesn’t ratify the predictions of their pundits. They need to use Skype, improve minority outreach, and stop behaving like crotchety reactionaries who scream “You lie!” during presidential speeches to Congress. Again, this is progress. But while it may be comforting to blame salesmanship rather than product, their salesmanship has been quite impressive. No, the main problem is the product. As I try to explain in the column, it’s outdated and it’s bogus. So how can the GOP fix it? Um…er…that’s another problem. &#160; For Michael Grunwald&#8217;s column in this week&#8217;s magazine, click here. MORE: Viewpoint: The GOP Searches for a New Strategy — in All the Wrong Places &#160; &#160;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=86577&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Republican Party</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/republican-party/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/1500_cgrunwald0211_0211.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Road to Nowhere</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>The Subtext of Obama&#8217;s Speech: My Critics Are Un-American Reactionaries!</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/21/the-subtext-of-obamas-speech-my-critics-are-un-american-reactionaries/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/21/the-subtext-of-obamas-speech-my-critics-are-un-american-reactionaries/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:52:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=85769</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[President Obama’s second inaugural address is being hailed (and attacked) as the most progressive speech he’s ever given, a full-throated game changer that suggests an aggressive new vision for his second term. I don’t know. I thought it was kind of boring. It seemed like a rehash of his we’re-all-in-this-together campaign themes, with some familiar shots at you’re-on-your-own Republicans. Then again, I’ve always been less impressed than most by Obama’s words — I thought his 2012 convention speech was a dud too — and more impressed than most by his deeds. I saw the speech as an extension of Obama’s divide-and-conquer legislative strategy, trying to break pragmatic Republicans — the kind who understand that “we cannot mistake absolutism for principle” — away from rejectionist Tea Partiers. The President repeatedly described a broad national consensus, then repeatedly claimed that his harshest critics are outside it: antigovernment extremists who don’t want to build railroads, educate children or protect the vulnerable; reactionaries who “still deny the overwhelming judgment of science” regarding climate change; neocons who don’t understand that “enduring peace and lasting security do not require perpetual war.” He also implied that Republicans pushing for deep cuts in entitlements during the current round of fiscal negotiations are so far out of the mainstream they believe “that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.” Here he is twisting the knife: We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other — through Medicare and Medicaid and Social security — these things do not sap our initiative. They strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers. They free us to take the risks that make this<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=85769&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/bk-inaug-20130121-2170.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Spectators wave America flags on the National Mall during President Barack Obama&#039;s  ceremonial swearing-in on Jan. 21, 2013 in Washington, DC.</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/ddcaf430de0f1a59f27cc4ad614221d9?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Man of His Word: Obama Likely to Deliver on His Inaugural Promises (Again)</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/21/man-of-his-word-obama-likely-to-deliver-on-his-inaugural-promises-again/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/21/man-of-his-word-obama-likely-to-deliver-on-his-inaugural-promises-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2013 10:30:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Inauguration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inaugural addresses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[policies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[President Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[promises]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[republicans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[second term]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stimulus bill]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=85643</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Unlike most inaugural addresses, President Obama’s first was kind of a bummer. The media expected him to focus on the feel-good story of his racially historic election, but instead he dwelled on national drift and economic collapse, “a sapping of confidence across our land.” And unlike most inaugural addresses, Obama’s first detailed his immediate policy plans for the troubled country:             We will act not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its costs. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. My insta-response on TIME’s live-blog was: “This is the weak part of the speech. It’s a lovely laundry list, but it’s a laundry list. Save it for the State of the Union.” But as I later explained in my book about change in the Obama era, the State of the Union would’ve been too late. (LIST: Obama’s Inauguration: Who’s Who in the Ceremony) That’s because Obama and his transition team were already putting together an $800 billion stimulus bill that would keep all those promises during his first month in office. It did create jobs at a time when the U.S. was shedding 800,000 a month, triggering the biggest quarterly employment improvement in 30 years in the spring of 2009, and it did begin to lay that new foundation for growth, the Change We Can Believe In that Obama had talked about on the campaign trail. It included America’s largest infrastructure investments—not only roads and bridges but a smarter electric grid and digital broadband lines—since Eisenhower. It included unprecedented federal investments in scientific research. It poured an astonishing $27 billion into health information<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=85643&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Inauguration</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/miscellany/inauguration-miscellany/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/obama_inauguration_0120.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Obama Promises</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>A New Report Says Change Happens From the Outside. But in the Obama Era, It&#8217;s Happened on the Inside.</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/18/a-new-report-says-change-happens-from-the-outside-but-in-the-obama-era-its-happened-on-the-inside/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/18/a-new-report-says-change-happens-from-the-outside-but-in-the-obama-era-its-happened-on-the-inside/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 2013 13:24:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=85453</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Harvard professor Theda Skocpol’s long report on why health care reform passed but cap-and-trade failed is getting a lot of attention this week, and deservedly so. Skocpol explodes many common critiques of the environmental movement, while offering some provocative new ones. She also eviscerates the myth that more “vigorous” or “engaged” presidential leadership is what’s needed to get legislation like cap-and-trade (or a public option, or, for that matter, an assault weapons ban) through Congress. And she recognizes that the radicalization of the Republican Party—its intransigent obstructionism as well as its hostile relationship with reality&#8211; is the most important development in modern politics, correctly concluding that President Obama had virtually no hope of getting GOP votes for his top priorities no matter what speeches he made or arms he twisted. It’s an interesting and thought-provoking report, with the kind of lively prose you don’t see much in academic research, so I hope everyone reads it. But it’s wrong. At least the main thesis is wrong. Skocpol’s big takeaway is that health care reform passed because of the outside game, a popular movement led by a group called Health Care for America Now, while cap-and-trade failed because enviros relied on the inside game. In fact, health care reform, like Obama’s other major legislative achievements, passed because of the inside game. It was a triumph of ugly compromises and backroom deals and procedural shenanigans. The difference between the two bills was that White House eventually managed to persuade all 60 Democratic senators to vote for Obamacare, while a bunch of Democratic senators from coal and oil states were never going to vote for cap-and-trade. And as Skocpol points out, GOP senators were never going to help Obama on either one. I wrote a book about the change Obama engineered through an inside-game strategy—here’s an essay&#8211;about Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the irony of a change-the-system campaign producing a work-the-system president—so I was skeptical of Skocpol’s suggestion that grass-roots activism made Obamacare a reality. After all, I’m old enough to remember when Obamacare was<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=85453&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/sipausa_1119704701.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Health Care Ruling</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>The Trillion Dollar Coin Fantasy: GOP Extremism Can&#8217;t Be Wished Away</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/15/the-trillion-dollar-coin-fantasy-republican-extremism-cant-be-wished-away/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/15/the-trillion-dollar-coin-fantasy-republican-extremism-cant-be-wished-away/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:45:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt ceiling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[platinum coin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[republicans]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=84946</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After I spent the last two weeks explaining that the Treasury would mint a second Joe Biden before it minted a trillion-dollar platinum coin, that President Obama would make Kim Kardashian his chief of staff before making the coin fantasy a reality, it would be easy for me to gloat. So I will! The coin was a self-evidently wackadoodle idea, and the pundits who fell in love with it should have remembered Obama isn’t in vaudeville. But there’s more to say about the coin farce than my four favorite words. (Count &#8216;em: I…told…you…so.) The debt ceiling disaster that the coin was supposed to avoid through metallic magic still looms. And the understandable impulses that led otherwise smart coiners to crusade for a WTF policy are producing equally muddled thinking about the next round of fiscal negotiations. The idea of a trillion-dollar platinum coin was not quite as insane as it sounded. It was a response to the insanity of congressional Republicans, who have refused to raise the debt ceiling and let the U.S. pay its bills unless Democrats agree to massive cuts in Democratic priorities. The GOP is holding the economy hostage, using the threat of a confidence-destroying default to try to extract a policy ransom. The coin would have been an accounting trick designed to allow Obama to ignore the debt ceiling and keep fulfilling obligations Congress had already incurred. I could explain how, but it’s complex, which is why it was such a lousy idea; no politician wanted to explain why his response to a tough fiscal situation was to create a magic trillion-dollar coin out of thin air. Fortunately, now that the Obama Administration has officially rejected the coin, I don’t need to explain it. (MORE: Is a $1 Trillion Coin a Good Way to Avoid Another Debt-Ceiling Impasse?) It was always unrealistic to imagine that Obama could sidestep Republican extremism and obstructionism through a kooky loophole in monetary regulations. Big ideological battles don&#8217;t get settled through technicalities. But especially on the left,  there is still a<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=84946&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/sl-trillion-coin-0114.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">image: The Federal Reserve building stands in Washington, Oct. 23, 2012.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Obama and the Liberals, Part Two: Progressives Should Focus on Progress</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/10/obama-and-the-liberals-part-two-progressives-should-focus-on-progress/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/10/obama-and-the-liberals-part-two-progressives-should-focus-on-progress/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:33:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Viewpoint]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Congress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=84738</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s understandable that some liberals expected President Obama to lead America into a progressive Era of Good Feelings, to use the power of his bully pulpit and his grass-roots supporters to force Washington partisans to set aside childish things and come together for the common good. It’s understandable because he basically said he would during the 2008 campaign. Well, he didn’t. Faced with an economic freefall and an obstructionist opposition, he decided it was more important to try to change the country than to try to change the capital. It’s fair to say that he overpromised, although the inherent problem with promising bipartisanship is that the other party can make you a promise-breaker by saying no. It’s fair to say that he didn’t live up to the hype, although as far as I can tell the only thing on this earth that lives up to the hype is parenthood. And it’s fair for liberals to criticize some of his less liberal policies, although he never claimed to agree with them on issues like education reform, drone strikes, or long-term deficit reduction. OK, that’s enough fairness. I don’t just mock the Obama-bashing utopians of the left for fun, although it is fun. My beef with Ivory Soap liberals, Choose Your Own Adventure Liberals and Heighten the Contradictions liberals is that they’ve missed the point of the Obama era. They’re such committed progressives that they’ve lost interest in progress. (SPECIAL: 2012 Person of the Year: Barack Obama, the President) Obama ran on an unusually detailed policy agenda in 2008, pledging changes in the way we approach energy, health care, education and the economy. The media didn’t pay much attention to that agenda, partly because they were more interested in his race and his crazy pastor and his pretty promises about post-partisanship, partly because it was mostly the basic Democratic agenda of reversing the Bush era and investing in the future. The untold story of Obama’s first term—well, I tried to tell it in my book—is that he largely did what he said<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=84738&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Viewpoint</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/miscellany/viewpoint/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/2012-10-17t041712z_10550659.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Political Photos of the Week</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Obama and the Liberals: Three Quarters of a Loaf Is Never Enough</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/09/obama-and-the-liberals-three-quarters-of-a-loaf-is-never-enough/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/09/obama-and-the-liberals-three-quarters-of-a-loaf-is-never-enough/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:45:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=84426</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I pledged awhile back, after a certain media mogul trashed President Obama for failing to solve global warming, that I would not spend all my time ridiculing the Obama-bashing disillusionment addicts of the left. (Pretty good week for that mogul, huh?)  I mostly kept my word for 18 months, until their whiny response to the fiscal cliff deal inspired me to launch a Twitter tirade about Ivory Soap liberals, Choose Your Own Adventure liberals, Heighten The Contradictions liberals, and progressive utopianism in general. Now that I’m back from vacation, I thought I’d try to explain in more than 140 characters what I meant. Tomorrow I’ll try to explain why it’s important, and not just for the next round of budget talks. First, a few words on the substance of the deal. Republicans wanted dramatic spending cuts, on discretionary programs as well as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They got none of that. Obama wanted to preserve the Bush tax cuts for the poor and middle class, and restore Clinton-era rates on income above $250,000 a year. He got almost all of that; the Bush tax cuts remained in place up to $450,000 a year. Obama also wanted to extend tax credits for the working poor, the wind industry, and college students, plus benefits for the unemployed. He got all that, too. And the mini-deal spared the economy from the draconian austerity measures that would have kicked in if we had gone over the cliff. On the other hand, some of those measures were merely delayed for two months, so the Washington brinksmanship isn’t over. And the mini-deal did not raise the debt ceiling, which means that Republican hostage-takers can once again threaten to force the U.S. government into default if they don’t get what they want during the next round of negotiations. (MORE: The Next Cliff: Another Round of Debt Brinkmanship Looms) Still, I’d say it’s a good deal. Liberals have (correctly) argued that protecting the recovery—and protecting the vulnerable—is more important than reducing the deficit at a time when<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=84426&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/158838193.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Obama: Fiscal Deal in Sight But No Solution Yet</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>A Tragedy Like Newtown Should Be Politicized, But Changing Anything Will Take Different Politicians</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/12/17/tragedies-are-times-for-politics-not-just-hugs-but-this-tragedy-wont-have-a-different-result-without-different-politicians/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/12/17/tragedies-are-times-for-politics-not-just-hugs-but-this-tragedy-wont-have-a-different-result-without-different-politicians/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2012 10:30:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gun Control]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=83486</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I haven’t read any stories about the innocent children and teachers whose lives were cut short because they went to school at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday. I couldn’t read about the innocent victims who died because they went to a movie in July, either. It’s just too hideous. It would make me too angry. I know that at times like this I’m just supposed to hug my kids and think about the fragility of life, but you know what? I hug my kids all the time. I’ve been thinking about politics. I explained after the Aurora movie-theater murders why I think this kind of tragedy ought to be politicized. Politics is serious business. At least it ought to be. The kind of people who believe politics is inappropriate at times like this tend to be the kind of people who believe politics is trivial entertainment. But politics matters, even though it’s typically covered like a game. I think Mike Huckabee’s remarks blaming the Newtown murders on restrictions on God in schools were absurd, but I agree with him that public policies have consequences. Now is a time to debate them, not to STFU. (MORE: Full Transcript – Read the President&#8217;s address) I’ve noticed that after the latest horrifying massacre, Beltway pundits (and not just liberal gun control advocates, the usual targets of the don’t-politicize-tragedies crowd) seem more receptive than usual to the idea that it ought to spark a policy discussion. To me, the carnage in Aurora seemed just as horrifying, the fates of the slaughtered at that Christian college in Oakland (no restrictions on God at that school, Governor Huckabee!) and Virginia Tech just as unfair. But apparently the specific targeting of small children makes this particular abomination different. Now it’s apparently OK to talk politics, even gun politics. Well, here’s what I’m thinking: The politics of this particular abomination probably won’t be different at all. I explained last year after a psychopath shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and a bunch of bystanders in Tucson why Congress was unlikely<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=83486&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Gun Control</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/gun-control-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/158436846.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">image: mourners hold candles at a memorial for victims on the first Sunday following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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