The real case against the Bain style of capitalism. If I’d had a bit more space, I would have gone into the ways the current tax code could be modified to discourage the short-term profit-taking that has characterized the financialization of the past 50 years. Obviously, the “carried interest” loophole that enables players like Romney to …
Who Built I-80? Obama Talks about Public Works, Conservatives Fumble
There are, Lord knows, reasons to attack or criticize Barack Obama. The Republican Party seems unable to locate the President’s actual deficits, however, and continues to hammer him on dumb things. Like the notion that he isn’t really an American. Or they take things he says out of context. For example, this now semi-famous statement: …
Inconvenient Truths
Two important stories this morning in unlikely places. Jason DeParle of the New York Times, a liberal mainstream bastion, has a terrific piece about the terrible social and economic effects of having children out-of-wedlock. Irwin Stelzer of the Weekly Standard, a conservative mainstream bastion, has a smart piece about the depredations …
Bained
Back in June of 1988, Lee Atwater took me aside and showed me some stuff that Bush the Elder’s campaign had developed against Michael Dukakis, who was then enjoying a 17-point advantage in the polls. The “stuff” seemed laughable. …
A Friend Remembered
Kathleen Parker reminds me that five years ago our dear friend Doug Marlette was killed in an auto accident in Mississippi. Doug was a Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist, a writer and an all-world iconoclast. He had a dangerous, insidious, hilarious lovely mind. I can’t even begin to imagine the fun he’d be having with Barack Obama and, …
Guest Editorial
From William Kristol. I agree completely. And furthermore, if Romney actually told us what he favors–in detail, not the overly massaged claptrap sound bites his campaign has allowed him–Obama might be forced to speak in some detail about the programs he favors, like the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank (both desperately in need of …
You Say Tomato, I Call Bullpucky
Pete Wehner continues his relentless attempts to depict Barack Obama as a despicable human being by vamping on the President for calling the “tax” paid by people who don’t buy health insurance in the Affordable Care Act a “penalty.” Of course, Mitt Romney called this exact same payment a “penalty” in Massachusetts, (Add: and again today) …
And Now, How to Improve Obamacare
Obama could help himself if he leveled with voters about the law’s weaknesses
New Column
About trying to find the sane center when it comes to long-term deficit reduction
Accountable Health Care
Sally Pipes cites a recent poll that has 60% of doctors opposed to Obamacare. The reason? She thinks the doctors are opposed to Obama’s attempt to nudge them toward Accountable Care Organizations, where doctors are encouraged to use “best practices” that have been established by electronic data over time instead of fee-for-service …
Sister Souljah Trumpet
Here’s a thought: Is Mitt Romney’s appearance tonight with Trumpet a possible Sister Souljah redux, in which Romney takes the opportunity to denounce the sordid huckster for his birtherism? Romney could certainly use a courage injection. This might be the time…If not, all I can say is yecch.
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 …
Cherokee Zero
Apparently, Massachusetts voters don’t mind that Elizabeth Warren foolishly identified herself as a Native American early in her academic career–it was, apparently, a case of family pride and wishful thinking about a Cherokee ancestor. That’s good. Warren may be the best public figure when it comes to explaining the depredations of the …