Here’s a story from me today about Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and his push to get financial regulatory reform done. Dodd’s taken a pretty unique approach to this bill from the get-go, assigning bipartisan teams to hammer out deals on the most senstivie topics; working with Banking Committee ranking Republican and then …
2012 Election
Sarah Palin’s Windfall: Outrage or Just Deserts?
Big fans of Adam Moss’s New York magazine (4 National Magazine Awards!) already know that he has put Sarah Palin on the cover this week, with a headline written like the FedEx logo, “PalinInc.” The point: The former Governor of Alaska is getting rich quick. “The Revolution Will Be Commercialized,” runs the headline inside. Then comes the …
In Search of Britain’s Swing Vote
While trapped in the United Kingdom by volcanic ash, I decided to visit one of the dozen crucial swing constituencies to find out what British voters are thinking ahead of next week’s general election. Over the past decade, I’ve canvassed thousands of voters in just about every swing state: I once spent two days in Pennsylvania exurban …
Morning Must Reads: Toward November
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll depicts a fiercely anti-incumbent mood with just 32 percent of respondents saying they would re-elect their representative. The internals have some positive indications for Obama though with job approval and issue-specific approval ticking …
Democratic Messaging, Financial Reform and the Midterms
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHtW0E2l-Tc]
The Democratic National Committee is going up on national cable and in the D.C. market with the above ad hitting Republicans for blocking debate on financial reform. There’s a clear nod to the midterms at the end of the spot and DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan says it’s just the …
If At First You Don’t Succeed
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this afternoon made a second pass at starting debate on financial reregulation but to no avail: the vote ended exactly as it did yesterday 57-41, mostly along party lines. The scene is starting to feel a bit like Groundhog Day: isn’t doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results the …
Strange Bedfellows in Arkansas
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_nFt6RcQEg]
While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is busy airlifting executives into Washington to protest Blanche Lincoln’s derivatives plan, it is also singing her praises on Arkansas TV.
(via Salon)
Morning Must Reads: The Show
President Barack Obama participates in a town hall meeting on health care insurance reform at Gallatin Field in Belgrade, Mont., Aug. 14, 2009. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)
–Obama departs on a two-day Midwest trip today with townhalls and business tours on the agenda. Jeff Zeleny writes it’s an effort to shore up …
Thank You, Sir, May We Have Another?
The cloture vote to stop a GOP filibuster on the Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd’s bill to overhaul just failed in the Senate 57-41. The vote took nearly an hour as Senators rushed through Washington traffic to make the first vote of the week. All Republicans voted Nay. Republican Senators Bob Bennett of Utah and Kit Bond of …
Financial Reform: Popular In Abstract And In Detail
One of the casualties of the bitter year-long Congressional battle over health reform was good public standing of the endeavor as a whole. While individual policy proposals within the Democrats’ framework remained popular, the country soured on the patchwork package those policies formed. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released today …
Up From The Comments: A Liberal’s Obama Lament
In the comments of my post below about President Obama’s 2010 campaign launch, Swampland commenter Square1 gives one personal summary of the reasons why Obama may have some trouble exciting the liberal base next time around.
For Obama’s defenders here is a list of what I consider to be the Obama administration’s “major deceptions”.
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Dead Girl, Live Boy, Failed Bank: Alex Giannoulias Makes His Play
The Illinois Senate race is playing out like an academic case study in crises management. Imagine this: Your client, a former chief loan officer for a local bank, is a Democrat heading into a Republican election year, in a state long stained by political corruption. Amid enormous public outrage over the damage wrought by bank excess, …
Morning Must Reads: One Hand
President Barack Obama meets with Rev. Billy Graham at his house in Montreat, N.C., April 25, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
–The first Senate procedural vote on financial regulatory reform is scheduled for late this afternoon. There’s no deal yet and top GOP negotiator Richard Shelby says reaching one today is …