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Not Even Bush Can Save Democrats From the Failing Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook August 26, 2010 Comment (21)He’s baa-aack. No, not Brett Favre, I’m talking about George W. Bush. With the Obama administration’s “Recovery Summer” looking like the most inappropriately named thing since a Jersey Shore season shot in Miami, Democrats are resurrecting their favorite villain in the push up to the November elections.
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Is Obama Planning a Bush Tax Cut October Surprise?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 26, 2010 Comment (14)There is a feeling in Washington—perhaps even a fear—that President Barack Obama will, as an "October Surprise," call for legislation extending most but not all of the Bush tax cuts.
With the Republicans still hashing out their agenda for the fall, the thinking goes, a push to keep taxes from going up on all but the so-called "wealthiest Americans" will throw the GOP for a loop. A fall campaign based on class warfare, some Democrats believe, should bring out enough Obama voters to blunt the impact of the tide expected to swamp the majority in the upcoming congressional elections.
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Bristol Palin a Good Role Model for Teens
Tweet Share on Facebook August 26, 2010 Comment (19)At first blush, I have no problem with a shelter for young Christian moms paying Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol $14,000 for a speech. Yes, that's a lot of money to hear from a young woman who has done precious little with her life other than have a baby out of wedlock. But Bristol has, most of the time, been disarmingly honest about the effect of unmarried, teen pregnancy on her life. She has said she chose to keep her child because she is prolife, but she has also been outspoken about what that decision has cost her. So in that sense, she is a good role model for teens. "Don't do as I did" is the general message one gets from Ms. Palin's interviews, not, “It's great and fun and you can still party."
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The 'Palin Effect?' Not in Murkowski's Alaska Senate Primary
Tweet Share on Facebook August 25, 2010 Comment (6)There's a lot of talk today about "the Palin effect" in the wake of yesterday's primaries, especially in the Alaska GOP Senate race. Joe Miller, who had been endorsed by Sarah Palin, came from behind and is leading incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski. (The two are within 3 percentage points of each other, but thousands of absentee votes are still being counted.)
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The Media Whiffs on McCain, Quayle, Palin, Murkowski, and Rubio
Tweet Share on Facebook August 25, 2010 Comment (6)This year’s August primary night will go down as the night the media took it on the chin. The returns from Arizona, Alaska, and Florida provide proof that the purveyors of wisdom, housed in studios in Washington, D.C. and New York, still don’t “get it.”
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Alan Simpson Is Right: Government Is a Giant Milk Cow
Tweet Share on Facebook August 25, 2010 Comment (20)Alan Simpson is right. America has become a "milk cow" with 310 million teats. We all feed off the government--from big commercial cotton and sugar farmers to Wall Street financiers to General Motors to the fabulously, obscenely rich folks for whom John Boehner, the Republican House leader, wants to give a big, permanent tax cut.
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14th Amendment Repeal Push Is Un-American
Tweet Share on Facebook August 25, 2010 Comment (29)Call it "The Blame Game." People are out of work, losing their homes, and it’s gotta be somebody’s fault, right? Some liberal Democrats blame George W.; some conservative Republicans are still blaming Bill Clinton! (Hello, it’s 2010!) But there is a growing wave of conservative Republicans, especially in Congress, blaming … babies! Of course, those children who are born here to illegal parents, or “parent” if you look at the actual statistics, it’s their fault. This is purely ridiculous.
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Biden's Boehner Attack Shows White House Hitting Panic Button
Tweet Share on Facebook August 25, 2010 Comment (8)Who would have thought that this month would turn out this way for Democrats? August is usually the time in Washington where Congress goes home and campaigns. People either catch up on work or go on vacations before the post-Labor Day election roller-coaster begins. It is also the time when many of us wonder what the media will cover and drag out to fill up vacant news space. This is one of the periods that the White House and majorities in Congress try to anticipate and plan a message around with the hopes that the media will gravitate towards it.
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Obama Demagogues Campaign Finance and Disclose Act
Tweet Share on Facebook August 25, 2010 Comment (5)In his weekly radio address President Barack Obama called on the Republicans to allow a vote on a campaign finance bill written in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the landmark Citizens United case.
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Ideology Provides Few Answers on the Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook August 24, 2010 Comment (7)In his New York Times column today, David Brooks argues that we all need to think more like David Brooks: that is, less rigidly, more self-critically, and with a healthy dose of epistemic humility.
