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Voters Think New Jersey's Christie Can Beat Obama
Tweet Share on Facebook March 24, 2011 Comment (75)New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the populist union-critic, has finally made it to the top of the heap. In a new IPOBE Zogby Interactive survey, one-in-five likely Republican voters say he would have the best chance to knock off President Obama 2012.
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5 Reasons Why the Federal Budget Is Doomed
Tweet Share on Facebook March 24, 2011 Comment (3)Sorry kids, but the Baby Boom generation is about to suck you dry and create havoc for the federal budget. According to a new Government Accountability Office report, boomers are to blame for two of the five upcoming fiscal disasters crashing into the federal budget as they dip into Social Security and Medicare.
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Gay Republican Is First to Challenge Obama
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2011 Comment (1)After months of high-profile hemming and hawing by potential 2012 Republican hopefuls, one man is taking action. Fred Karger, a Republican and the nation's first openly-gay, major-party presidential candidate, is now the first to officially throw his hat in the ring for the chance to run against President Obama. [Read more about the 2012 presidential election.]
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New Report Shows Young Reporters Feel Overworked
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2011 Comment (32)The sorry financial state of the media, especially among newspapers, which demand high productivity with little or no added pay, is burning out younger reporters, copy editors, and page designers. The scholarly report Journalism reveals that 75 percent of reporters and editors ages 34 and younger, while proud of their work, “express intentions to leave” the field, in part because they feel overworked. “With high levels of cynicism and climbing rates of exhaustion, journalists are moving closer to reaching burnout,” says the report.
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Pelosi’s ‘Green the Capitol’ Campaign Worked
Tweet Share on Facebook March 22, 2011 Comment (3)Say what you want about the “Green the Capitol” environmental initiative Nancy Pelosi pushed as House speaker, but the facts are that it saved tons of money. Capitol officials reveal that they mostly met her demands to cut energy usage by more than 5 percent a year. In House office buildings, says Stephen Ayers, architect of the Capitol, energy use was slashed 23 percent over 30 months for a $3.3 million annual savings. Some simple things did the trick, like installing 30,000 efficient lights and fixtures and 2,700 low-flow bathroom fixtures in House buildings.
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Sen. Burr Wants to Consolidate EPA and Energy Department
Tweet Share on Facebook March 22, 2011 CommentFor years, Republicans have talked about dismantling the Education Department. Well, the new push for substantial budget and spending cuts has the GOP thinking even bigger. North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr suggests that the Environmental Protection Agency be dumped into the Energy Department. “We ought not to stop right there,” he tells the centrist Republican Ripon Society. He wants to combine Labor with Commerce and give the Education Department back to Health and Human Services. The result could be $4.1 trillion in savings and a cut of some 300,000 federal workers.
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Obama's Chief Government Manager Lives in a 'Zoo'
Tweet Share on Facebook March 22, 2011 CommentAfter two decades of business experience as a CEO, entrepreneur and management consultant, Jeff Zients, deputy director for management and chief performance officer in the White House's Office of Management and Budget, knows how to run a tight ship. And he better. Zients is now one of the government's top organizers, tasked with making the vast and bureaucratic federal government as productive and efficient as it can be.
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Obama's Polls Echo Those of Reagan, Clinton
Tweet Share on Facebook March 21, 2011 Comment (2)President Obama's Gallup daily public approval tracking polls have been stuck in place since May of last year. But that might not be a bad thing. The reason: His polling is similar to former Presidents Reagan and Clinton and both won reelection despite holding steady below 50 percent approval like Obama. [See a slide show of 5 Reasons Obama is the Same as Bush, Clinton.]
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White House Aide Ron Kirk Disses LeBron James
Tweet Share on Facebook March 21, 2011 CommentAs the United States trade representative who dreams of being the next NBA commish, Ron Kirk knows something about trading and basketball. If he ever gets the gig, look out LeBron James. When we asked him why he’d like Commissioner David Stern’s job, Kirk’s first thought was about James and his shocking decision last year to leave his Cleveland Cavaliers to jump to the rival Miami Heat. “My wife is from Cleveland. I cannot tell you the harm that it did,” says Kirk. While he doesn’t begrudge “King James’s” move, he thinks that the star should have stayed and helped the Cavs get better. “I know my memories are richer because Magic Johnson and Larry Bird went to bed every night thinking, ‘How can I beat this guy?’” he says. Of course, the former Dallas mayor has one exception—for his beloved Dallas Mavericks. Kirk says if he was the NBA commissioner, “maybe then I could jury-rig the rules to get LeBron James and Dwyane Wade at the Dallas Mavericks, and just once
in my lifetime, I could see the NBA trophy hoisted.”
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Ben Quayle is Almost Just Like His Dad Dan
Tweet Share on Facebook March 21, 2011 Comment (1)You could say that Ben Quayle was destined to follow in the footsteps of his dad, former Vice President Dan Quayle. Consider: He was born just three days after Dan was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1976. As a kid, he often accompanied his dad, by then a senator, to the White House to meet with President Reagan, who liked to fill the kid’s hands with jelly beans. And now, as the young Arizona Republican gets his sea legs in his own first term in Congress, the elder Quayle is offering a guiding hand when needed. “He’s always there as a sounding board,” says Ben. “I’ll run things by him every once in a while,” he adds. Usually the message is a simple one: “Stay true to your core convictions, and base your votes on those, and listen to your constituents.”
