Republicans are already dancing on the grave of Solyndra, the solar panel manufacturer that received a $535 million federal loan in 2009 and collapsed on Wednesday. Here’s more music they can dance to: Sources tell me the Obama …
stimulus
Stop Whining About What Obama Hasn’t Said. Look at What He’s Actually Done.
I know President Obama is supposed to be an awful disappointment to environmentalists because he doesn’t talk enough about climate change, just like he’s an awful disappointment to progressives because he doesn’t say enough nasty things about bankers. But people who actually care about what Presidents do, as opposed to how they …
Facing Economic Headwinds, Obama Struggles Again to Find an August Storyline
August is always Barack Obama’s darkest month. Whether it’s a faltering campaign (2007), Paris Hilton comparisons (2008), town hall rebellions (2009), or an inability to stay on message just weeks before a midterm wipeout …
Don’t Mess With the Stimulus! It Had All Your Creamed Spinach and More
Oh, Joe, it is on! You can trash-talk me or my family or even my questionable taste in basketball teams. But how dare you take a backhanded swipe at my dearly beloved stimulus? You know, the poor thing has no one to defend it but me. And me again. And yet again. So, its infrastructure spending was too “rushed,” and sent cash to the …
Eat Your Creamed Spinach
The President was masterful, and prohibitively Cheshire catty, in his debt-ceiling press conference Monday morning. He was in the position he likes best: way above both parties, asking sacrifices from all, the grownup in a roomful of Congressional infants. He almost seemed to be enjoying himself, which is nice–he deserves a little …
June Jobs Number Threatens Debt Talks — and Obama
Friday morning’s miserable jobs report delivered a blunt-force blow to Obama’s overall economic approach and posed a serious threat to the country’s recovery. More immediately, it complicates the President’s already difficult debt ceiling negotiations with Speaker John Boehner by adding an urgent priority: getting another stealth …
Bachmann’s Keywords: Against, Won’t, Didn’t
In a new ad set to run statewide in Iowa, Michele Bachmann concentrates on the fiscal-conservative leg of her stool. Still in the early courting stages with Hawkeye voters, she regurgitates her biography first (Iowa-born, tax lawyer, mom), and then she speaks out against the bailouts, against the stimulus and against raising the debt …
Romney’s Recession Riddle
The political media is having fun with a new Mitt Romney flip-flop, namely that the former Massachusetts governor first said, last week, that Barack Obama’s policies made the great recession worse, then denied having saying said that*, and then repeated the original charge in New Hampshire on Sunday, saying that “the recession is deeper …
Tim Geithner Owns the Economy, Too
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the last remaining principal from President Obama’s original economic team, apparently may step down once the debt ceiling gets sorted out. The obvious point to make about Geithner is that …
Obama Bound
Mike Gerson has a pretty smart column in the Washington Post today about the President’s political dilemma, given the current economic doldrums. Gerson starts with the coincidence of Obama’s visit to a Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, …
Al Gore Attacks President Obama for Failing to Do Al Gore’s Job
Al Gore takes some shots at President Obama in a new Rolling Stone essay, grumbling that he has “thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change.” Wait: Isn’t that Al Gore’s job? The president’s job is the action, not the case-making. And while I don’t plan to spend all my time …
What Would Anthony Weiner Tweet About This Worthy Effort to Reduce Waste?
It’s a trivial matter, with no connection whatsoever to the obscene congressional tweets that demand our attention in these troubled times, but President Obama’s widely ridiculed stimulus bill has brought unprecedented transparency and accountability to federal spending, which is why it’s been virtually fraud-free. So now the …
For More Stimulus, Obama Has a Tough Sell and a Narrow Window
As I report in this week’s magazine, several current and former advisers to President Obama would like Congress to pass more short-term stimulus, but no one inside is quite saying that publicly just yet. “I don’t have any new …