The Regrets of a GOP Hitman
November 20th, 2008“Consultant Roger Stone, the notorious political hitman who helped George W. Bush prevail in the 2000 Florida recount, tells The Daily Beast that he wishes he hadn’t.”
Obama Meets with McCain:
November 17th, 2008Obama and McCain issued the following joint statement after thier meeting ended at 12:45 p.m. CST:
“At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time. It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform, where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hardworking American family. We hope to work together in the days and months ahead on critical challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy, and protecting our nation’s security.”
There Are Still Three Active Senate Races
November 14th, 2008“Americans are going through election withdrawal, trying to adjust to life without poll numbers. Really, we’ve heard quite a bit of whining on this subject lately.
But there’s still Minnesota! The U.S. Senate race there is up in the air. You may want to consider becoming totally obsessed with it, jumping out of bed every morning and racing to the computer to check for the latest vote count.” - GAIL COLLINS
Alaska - Vote tally trend favors Begich for Senate
Georgia - National Dems Start Pouring Real Money Into Georgia Senate Runoff
Minnesota - Big News Page from Huffington Post
“The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too”
November 14th, 2008From the Author James K. Galbraith:
| Today, the signature of modern American capitalism is neither benign competition, nor class struggle, nor an inclusive middle-class utopia. Instead, predation has become the dominant feature—a system wherein the rich have come to feast on decaying systems built for the middle class. The predatory class is not the whole of the wealthy; it may be opposed by many others of similar wealth. But it is the defining feature, the leading force. And its agents are in full control of the government under which we live.
Our rulers deliver favors to their clients. These range from Native American casino operators, to Appalachian coal companies, to Saipan sweatshop operators, to the would-be oil field operators of Iraq. They include the misanthropes who led the campaign to abolish the estate tax; Charles Schwab, who suggested the dividend tax cut of 2003; the “Benedict Arnold” companies who move their taxable income offshore; and the financial institutions behind last year’s bankruptcy bill. Everywhere you look, public decisions yield gains to specific private entities. For in a predatory regime, nothing is done for public reasons. Indeed, the men in charge do not recognize that “public purposes” exist. They have friends, and enemies, and as for the rest—we’re the prey. Hurricane Katrina illustrated this perfectly, as Halliburton scooped up contracts and Bush hamstrung Kathleen Blanco, the Democratic governor of Louisiana. The population of New Orleans was, at best, an afterthought; once dispersed, it was quickly forgotten. |
[Video]
James K. Galbraith teaches economics at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin. He previously served in several positions on the staff of the U.S. Congress, including executive director of the Joint Economic Committee.
Obama To Meet McCain On Monday
November 14th, 2008From Barack Obama’s transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter:
| “On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain will meet in Chicago at transition headquarters. It’s well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality. They will be joined in the meeting by Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman Rahm Emanual.” |
Obama As FDR:
November 13th, 2008Time’s latest issue points out how Obama could forge a new democratic majority just as Franklin D. Roosevelt did.
[Video]
Palin’s Busy Week and Odd Press Conference
November 13th, 2008I’ve never heard of the losing Vice Presidential candidate doing anything like what Palin has been doing for the past week. Giving “exclusive” interviews with Today, CNN, and FOX. (When you’re giving interviews to anyone who will listen, is it still “exclusive”?)
Obviously, it’s bid for the 2012 nomination but as Republican Strategist Mike Murphy suggested on “Morning Joe”, Palin should go back to Alaska and try to be a good governor first.
Sarah Palin Press Conference:
Mike Murphy on Morning Joe:
Mike Huckabe: “Barack Obama Wasn’t My Choice But Come January 20, He Will Be My President”
November 11th, 2008In the current struggle for the future of the Republican party, the GOP would be wise to give Mike Huckabe a prominent seat at the table even though he’s not favorite among fiscal conservatives. Here is Huckabe commenting on his president Barack Obama.
[Video]
Obama’s Stance on Lobbyists
November 11th, 2008A summary of Obama’s transition policy regarding Lobbyists:
- Federal Lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.
- Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.
- If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.
- If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.
- A gift ban that is aggressive in reducing the influence of special interests.
How Obama Won
November 9th, 2008Ryan Lizza with The New Yorker gives insight into the Obama winning strategy.
| Last June, Joel Benenson, who was Barack Obama’s top pollster during his Presidential run, reported on the state of the campaign. His conclusions, summed up in a sixty-slide PowerPoint presentation, were revealed to a small group, including David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, and several media consultants, and, as it turned out, some of this research helped guide the campaign through the general election. The primaries were over, Hillary Clinton had conceded, and Obama had begun planning for a race against Senator John McCain.
There was good news and bad in Benenson’s presentation. Obama led John McCain, forty-nine per cent to forty-four per cent, among the voters most likely to go to the polls in November, but there was also a large group of what Benenson called “up-for-grabs” voters, or U.F.G.s, who favored McCain, forty-eight per cent to thirty-six per cent. The U.F.G.s were the key to the outcome; if the election had been held then, Obama would have probably lost. |