Saturday, January 30, 2010
126.1 (Populist, Ideologue and Slog Rainmaker)
(1) Obama v. the Supremes: Alito wins the oral, and factual, argument.
The President's claim about "foreign entities" bankrolling U.S. political campaigns is also false, since the Court did not overrule laws limiting such contributions. His use of "foreign" was a conscious attempt to inflame public and Congressional opinion against the Court. Coming from a President who fancies himself a citizen of the world, and who has gone so far as to foreswear American exceptionalism, this leap into talk-show nativism is certainly illuminating. What will they think of that one in the cafes of Berlin?
(2) The Obama Contradiction: Washington is sick and broken—and it can solve all our problems.
As the TV cameras panned the chamber, I saw a friendly acquaintance of the president, a Republican who bears him no animus. Why, I asked him later, did the president not move decisively to the political center?
Because he is more "intellectually honest" than that, he said. "I don't think he can do a Bill Clinton pivot, because he's not a pragmatist, he's an ideologue. He's a community organizer. He mixes the discrimination he felt as a young man with the hardship so many feel in this country, and he wants to change it and the way to change that is government programs and not opportunity."
The great issue, this friendly critic added, is debt. The public knows this; Congress and the White House do not.
(3) Don't Rejoice Over Higher GDP Yet: U.S. economy grows at 5.7% clip, but next few quarters will be a slog.
The consumer is essentially frozen, Egan added, and even those with jobs are looking over their shoulder and holding back spending. One of the results is that credit unions are seeing an increase in savings, which inched up a tenth of a point to 4.6% in the fourth quarter, as households look to strengthen their defenses against future crises.
The President's claim about "foreign entities" bankrolling U.S. political campaigns is also false, since the Court did not overrule laws limiting such contributions. His use of "foreign" was a conscious attempt to inflame public and Congressional opinion against the Court. Coming from a President who fancies himself a citizen of the world, and who has gone so far as to foreswear American exceptionalism, this leap into talk-show nativism is certainly illuminating. What will they think of that one in the cafes of Berlin?
(2) The Obama Contradiction: Washington is sick and broken—and it can solve all our problems.
As the TV cameras panned the chamber, I saw a friendly acquaintance of the president, a Republican who bears him no animus. Why, I asked him later, did the president not move decisively to the political center?
Because he is more "intellectually honest" than that, he said. "I don't think he can do a Bill Clinton pivot, because he's not a pragmatist, he's an ideologue. He's a community organizer. He mixes the discrimination he felt as a young man with the hardship so many feel in this country, and he wants to change it and the way to change that is government programs and not opportunity."
The great issue, this friendly critic added, is debt. The public knows this; Congress and the White House do not.
(3) Don't Rejoice Over Higher GDP Yet: U.S. economy grows at 5.7% clip, but next few quarters will be a slog.
The consumer is essentially frozen, Egan added, and even those with jobs are looking over their shoulder and holding back spending. One of the results is that credit unions are seeing an increase in savings, which inched up a tenth of a point to 4.6% in the fourth quarter, as households look to strengthen their defenses against future crises.
Labels: economics, obama, weekend
