Sunday Reading - Saying Goodbye

Looking back and looking forward this morning.

The New York Times, saying that biases "blinded many Americans to their own good fortune, fortune that flowed from policies set in motion by this president," recounts some of the President's achievements in the face of Republican party- before- country nihilism.  Here are two of the biggest:

... The Obama stimulus, which staved off a 1930s-vintage economic collapse by pumping money into infrastructure, transportation and other areas, passed the House without a single Republican vote. [snip] 

... Driven by ideology or envy, or maybe both, Republican leaders have now pounced upon the demonstrably successful Affordable Care Act of 2010, a law that has improved the way medical care is delivered in the United States, providing affordable care for millions and driving the percentage of Americans without insurance to a record low 9.1 percent in 2015. Despite the law’s clear successes, Mr. Trump and Republican congressional leaders have nevertheless declared it a failure, hoping to justify a repeal that would rob an estimated 22 million people of health insurance. The point of following this destructive course can only be to destroy a central Obama legacy — even though doing so will drive up costs and cause havoc in the lives of the newly uninsured.

Leonard Pitts at the Miami Herald looks at the many pluses (and a few minuses) of the Obama presidency which accelerated the derangement of right- wingers:

... By simply existing, by acting as if winning two elections actually entitled you to be president, you drove them crazy. You made them reveal — even revel in — the ugliness, hatred and fear that have always undergirded so-called conservatism where race is concerned. It is telling that the folks who grasped at every untruth and exaggeration to make you out as an America-hating Other now watch in feckless silence as Donald Trump plants sloppy kisses on the autocratic thug Vladimir Putin.

Mike Luckovich (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) puts it this way:

Administration Releases Ambitious "Clean Power Plan"

The announcement today:

The "Clean Power Plan" is the final version of regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency, which President Barack Obama called "the biggest most important step we've ever taken to combat climate change," in a video released by the White House on social media Saturday night.

Under the plan, the administration will require states to meet specific carbon emission reduction standards, based on their individual energy consumption. The plan also includes an incentive program for states to get a head start on meeting standards on early deployment of renewable energy and low-income energy efficiency.

"Power plants are the single biggest source of harmful carbon pollution that contributes to climate change," Obama said in the video. "Until now, there have been no federal limits to the amount of carbon pollution plants dump in the air."

In addition to a fact sheet, the Administration also released this video:



Meanwhile, the utilities, fossil fuel industry and big business are fighting the regulations, and naturally their contribution-loving pals in the Republican Party are urging states not to comply.  Here's a handy reference from the Natural Resources Defense Council that rebuts many of the climate change deniers' talking points.

Obama Outlines Budget Approach

Well, this is better than we had any reason to hope for. Obviously, we'd like to see more details emerge. But let's not start negotiating with ourselves right out of the box this time, o.k., please?

Monday Morning Reading

E.J. Dionne wraps it up very nicely this morning: "The Tea Party is Winning." Yes, thanks to a large assist by the "mainstream media" (always dependable, unquestioning carriers of Rethug water) and incompetent and/or faint-hearted Democrats (including the Obama administration's political team, who never met a message they didn't screw up). If Washington Democrats can't win the argument against this collection of clueless nitwits, here's hoping some Cheeseheads can do the work for them in Wisconsin!

Losing the Message Battle Again

Two interesting, and related, pieces by Robert Reich and Dean Baker today. Both make the hard-to-argue-with case that once again, as in the health reform debate, Obama has ceded the terms of the budget/deficit debate to the Rethugs and their enablers in the "mainstream media." In losing the message battle, the war over the proper role of government in the economy and society is also being lost to the reactionaries and oligarchs that comprise the Rethuglican Party today. As you read these articles, see if you get the same feeling we get that this is a President who has an unerring knack for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.

Reich argues simply that the budget cutting debate is "the wrong debate about the wrong thing at the wrong time." Baker says Obama, unlike teller of tales St. Ronnie of Hollywood, has missed the opportunity to tell the true story of how it's not government social spending, public employee unions and the deficit that are responsible for the economic mess we're in.

The GM Bailout Success

With the close of the NYSE this afternoon, it was clear that the Obama Administration's tough decision to "bail out" General Motors is turning out to be a success on several fronts: over 1 million jobs saved, a major manufacturing company (and perhaps an entire industry) saved, and the taxpayers poised to receive more than their $50 billion investment back. GM stock was offered at $33 a share, and closed at $34.19. The NYSE was also up sharply (173 + points) on the GM offering, as well as on increasing confidence that Ireland will resolve its debt crisis.

The only thing down? Rethugs/teahadists who've been railing against this "gummint takeover" and would've been happy to see GM - and a large part of the American manufacturing sector -- collapse on Obama's watch.

Will Obama Take a Stand?

The evidence so far, as summarized nicely by Paul Krugman, is "Outlook not so good." Should he continue to be unable to take a stand for progressive principles and stick with it, we see reelection in 2012 as "Very doubtful."

Sunday Afternoon Reading

Jon Meacham in the Kaplan Daily says about Obama:

"He's had his share of bad luck, and his notable inability to convince the country that he is leading a comprehensive economic turnaround is one of the most significant leadership failures in the modern history of the presidency. Still, the White House's tactical mistakes do not excuse the rest of us for ignoring our own history, a history that helps us gain perspective on the president's problems...Obama is not surprised that the kingdom of heaven has failed to arrive in his first two years. A more historically minded country would not be, either."

Having a media that was responsibly, actively debunking the false, destructive memes of the right might've helped in that regard, Jon.

BREAKING: Blind Squirrel Halperin Finds Nut

Unless his blog's been hacked, Time's Mark Halperin, noted wanker and McCain BFF, has a remarkably upbeat piece about President Obama today. It's worth a read, even though we question some of its assumptions and characterizations. It might be noteworthy also in the fact that Halperin is a notorious adherent of the Beltway Conventional Wisdom, so this might be an indication that the prevailing media narrative over the past year or so, wherein "Real Americans are mad as hell and the Dems are going down," might be undergoing a course correction.

Saturday Morning Reading

First, the good news. Two of our favorite fringe-right punching-bags, teabaggers and the American Taliban, are now starting to go after each other. Seems as though the American Taliban (led by the likes of Tony "Psycho" Perkins) can't abide the fact that most teabaggers are far-right libertarians who couldn't care less about American Taliban issues like abortion and gay marriage, but rather are deranged about Big Gummint, taxes and health insurance reform. Some on the right hope the cracks are superficial and temporary. We say any cracks in the crackpot right are to be welcomed -- and exploited!

Second, the better news. As we've thought and said, the Rethug tide may have crested sometime last quarter (not to say the Dems won't lose seats in Congress this fall - just maybe it won't be the calamity the brain-dead Villagers have been yakking about for months). Bob Shrum has an article worth reading about Obama's coming resurgence.

"Dukakis Without the Administrative Skill"

That's one of Drew Westen's biting critiques of President Obama and his administration in a must-read HuffPo posting. Can't say I agree with absolutely everything in the posting, but jeez it sure hits a lot of the right notes for me, and for a lot of progressives* (unfortunately). My fondest wish is that Obama is shown this article, reads it and takes it to heart.

*As we write, Naomi Klein continues the pile-on.

"Squandered Summer"

That's how the NY Times' Frank Rich characterizes the Summer of '09 in his op/ed today. As usual, fine reading. As Rich writes, letting "the hard-core base of a leaderless minority party drive the debate only diminished his [Obama's] stature." Let's hope the White House has learned something.

"No Public Option, No Support"

That's what the rallying cry for all progressives should be who are concerned about Democrats negotiating (with themselves) the public option away. As it happens, it was voiced by Rich Trumka, the soon-to-be head of the AFL-CIO. Unfortunately, the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party doesn't seem to be in charge at the White House or in large swaths of Congress. The latest bullshit from an "unidentified Administration source" (Rahmbo?) is that the White House might want to screw progressives, just to show "independents" that Obama can buck his own party "to get things done." What makes us think of Rahmbo you ask? Isn't this the same kind of triangulation the Clintonistas thought they were so clever about -- abandoning traditional Democratic principles in the process? How'd that work out for ya?

Now if that isn't the most asinine, self-defeating "strategery" we've ever heard, not to mention a gratuitous slap at the folks who brung you to the dance, we don't know what is. One can only hope these are trial balloons, in this case filled with someone's fiddle farts, because if this turns out to be the "thinking" going on, the predictions of some wingnuts that the Obama Administration will most closely resemble Carter's might not be so far off.

(Photo: Rich Trumka, AFL-CIO)

Health Care Wednesday

We have two items for your consideration today - HuffPo's Jason Linkins on the anonymous White House aides dissing progressives about the public option. Now, to these craven asshats, we're the "left of the left," which in the real world makes them... Rethugs. These geniuses were shocked! shocked I tells ya' to find out the public option is more than Obamas's "sliver" in the overall reform package. To paraphrase Barney Frank (below), what planet were these people living on for the past 6 months?

In another take, the Onion reveals the direction our "leaders" are taking us (h/t to Germantown correspondent Brian - your check is in the mail!).

To Everything There Is A Season

As long as we're using musical symbolism for the passage to the Obama era, here's a favorite that also speaks to the times. Kick it!!