While Michele Bachmann seemed to get the better of poor Seth Myers Tim Pawlenty in last night’s Republican debate, I suspect her moment in the sun is about to wane. If you wish to be President, you just can’t get away with the gratuitous hooey she was slinging (which, indeed, is a well-established Bachmann pattern). No, Pawlenty did not …
Viewpoint
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 …
The Fed’s Impotence Would Be Funny If It Weren’t So Tragic
Persistent unemployment is tragic, not funny.
The Federal Reserve is boring, not funny.
The Fed’s impotence in the face of persistent unemployment is scary, not funny.
But the newsy statement from the Fed’s meeting …
Lame Obama
I suspect that this piece by Drew Westen is going to cause a ruckus. Certainly, it will crystallize the concern in the Democratic Party about Barack Obama. A lot of us have been picking around the edges of the problem of Obama’s curiously unsatisfying presidency–I’ve written more than twice about the President’s failure to directly take …
Standard & Poor’s Downgrades Itself
Given its fabulously incompetent and quite possibly corrupt performance in the events leading up to the 2008 financial collapse, it takes a fair amount of chutzpah for Standard and Poor’s to downgrade US treasuries, especially after the debt ceiling deal proved that back-against-the-wall compromise can still be had in American politics, …
CNN
Right now, as I write this, CNN is interviewing Donald Trump about the debt ceiling deal. This is the same dude who pulled everyone’s chain last spring, “running” for President to boost his reality-show’s rating, by saying some of the most outlandish stuff imaginable about the President. And CNN is consulting him as someone who might …
Profile in Cowardice: Mitt Romney Rejects the Debt Deal
Mitt Romney demonstrates, yet again, why he lacks the character for higher office:
“As President, my plan would have produced a budget that was cut, capped and balanced – not one that opens the door to higher taxes and puts defense cuts on the table. President Obama’s leadership failure has pushed the economy to the brink at the
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Krugman Quibble
I agree with most of what Paul Krugman has to say about the debt deal–with one crucial exception. He’s right that Obama should have included raising the debt ceiling in last December’s tax deal…but he’s wrong, I think, about the President using what we’ll call “constitutional means”–the 14th Amendment–to blow past this silly, …
The Debt Ceiling Deal Deconstructed
The ever-rational Matt Miller nails it. We are a joke.
Republicans’ Debt Ceiling Charade Is Downright Dangerous
Let us not put too fine a point on it: Thursday’s House vote on Speaker John Boehner’s debt ceiling proposal is a joke. If it passes the House, Harry Reid has said it is dead on arrival in the Senate. If it somehow passes the …
Still True Today: Frequently Forgotten Facts of the Debt Debate
If the debt-limit debate had anything to do with reality, every story about it would include a few basic facts. Starting with: President Obama inherited a $1.2 trillion budget deficit. And: Republican leaders supported the tax cuts and wars that (along with the recession, another pre-Obama phenomenon) created that deficit. Also: …
Two Compromises
Another awful week for the Republic–and some interesting decisions by the President. He chose to compromise in his deficit reduction negotiations with the Republicans…and got nowhere. He chose to compromise by not appointing Elizabeth Warren the director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau…and got nowhere.
You’re expecting …
The FAA Funding Standoff: Hostage-Taking We Can Believe In
I’ve repeatedly criticized Republicans for holding the global economy hostage to try to force President Obama to adopt their right-wing fiscal agenda. For consistency’s sake, I suppose I should criticize Republican Congressman John Mica for holding a routine extension of the Federal Aviation Administration’s funding hostage to try …