More fun
ArchPundit
Via Lawyers, Guns, and Money (I believe in the serial comma)
“Is it a mitigating factor if he plagiarized that condescending compliment from a Mississippi housewife describing Nat King Cole in 1964?”
Just let it fly in comments….
Obama
Not Like Bigger Thomas
That other black guy from Chicago.
Breaking
Joe Biden asks Obama to sing an old time spiritual.
Ala Harry Morgan as General Bartford Hamilton Steele
1995 Article on Obama’s Run for State Senate
Over at Tapped Mark Schmitt links to a Reader article on Obama as he was running for the 13th and discusses his background as an organizing. It’s good reading. Schmitt also links to a piece Obama wrote that I’ve linked to before on organizing that’s quite insightful.
Atrios Has it Another Way
Buh-Biden
Volumes could be written about all that was wrong with what Biden said about Obama, but I believe we’ve just witnessed the shortest presidential run in history.
There’s long been a meme that Obama had never run a tough campaign and couldn’t take punches. What has become apparent to me in watching his team work is that it’s more like some bizarre form of jujitsu where Obama is attacked, but the attack is used against the attacker making Obama look above the fray and people like Joe Biden look like the fools they are.
And Clean Too!–Today’s Tosser
Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
But—and the “but” was clearly inevitable—he doubts whether American voters are going to elect “a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,” and added: “I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”
Clean? WTF?
And, of course, Obama has been giving fairly detailed speeches on the war and a new strategy since at least November of 2005.
Daily Dolt
Perhaps Mr. Ailes Could Publicly Apologize
But most of all, Obama needs Fox News so he better play ball.
Let me remind everyone, Fox News reported a vicious and obviously false claim and have not issued a correction—they put it out there that Obama denied the report. There has been no apology and the best they can do is this:
So maybe there was no written apology, but at least John Moody, vice president for news at Fox, issued this missive to staff in his daily editorial note on Jan. 23: “For the record: seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does it mean it is ready for air on FNC. The urgent queue is our way of communicating information that is air-worthy. Please adhere to this.”
It’s time for a blogger ethics panel. Seriously, the WaPo is saying that at least….
I’ve screwed up on one particular story that was false and particularly damaging had it been true…I apologized and corrected it. Fox News apparently doesn’t have the high standards of even ArchPundit.
Some Senator from Illinois…
Is calling for a withdrawal from Iraq
Essentially it’s very similar to what he proposed in 2005 and even closer to 2006 with a couple notable differences.
First, it doesn’t allow combat troops to remain in the north as he previously would have allowed–and something a President should have flexibility for in a perfect world. Unfortunately, the delusional nature of the Bush administration precludes any sort of daylight on the issue.
Second, it shortens the time frame from his previous plans, but only a little bit. Pulling out quicker would likely be dangerous to our own troops and his estimates are approximately consistent with US military doctrine from what I’ve read.
I’ve been arguing this is the correct strategy for a relatively short time, largely because as Duncan at Eschaton has pointed out, the point isn’t to come up with a magical pony plan, but to change the debate from one of ‘in some magical world where we weren’t ruled by children’ plan to get the fuck out plan. This is a get the fuck out plan.
On Partisanship
Krugman ran an article last week suggesting that Obama’s discussion of partisanship isn’t helpful:
But he then went on to say that partisanship is why “we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions. And that’s what we have to change first.” Um, no. If history is any guide, what we need are political leaders willing to tackle the big problems despite bitter partisan opposition. If all goes well, we’ll eventually have a new era of bipartisanship — but that will be the end of the story, not the beginning.
Or to put it another way: what we need now is another F.D.R., not another Dwight Eisenhower.
You see, the nastiness of modern American politics isn’t the result of a random outbreak of bad manners. It’s a symptom of deeper factors — mainly the growing polarization of our economy. And history says that we’ll see a return to bipartisanship only if and when that economic polarization is reversed.
I wonder how Krugman feels about the following partisan rhetoric:
In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it – Social Darwinism, every man and woman for him or herself. It allows us to say to those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford – tough luck. It allows us to say to the women who lose their jobs when they have to care for a sick child – life isn’t fair. It let’s us say to the child born into poverty – pull yourself up by your bootstraps
But there is a problem. It won’t work. It ignores our history. Our economic dominance has depended on individual initiative and belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we’re all in it together and everybody’s got a shot at opportunity
And so if we’re serious about this opportunity, if we truly value families and don’t think it’s right to penalize parenting, then we need to start acting like it. We need to update the social contract in this country to include the realities faced by working women.
I believe if the American people could truly see what was going on here they would oppose this nomination, not because she is African American, not because she is a woman, but because they fundamentally disagree with a version of America she is trying to create from her position on the bench. It is social Darwinism, a view of America that says there is not a problem that cannot be solved by making sure that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It requires no sacrifice on the part of those of us who have won life’s lottery and does not consider who our parents were or the education received or the right breaks that came at the right time.
Today, at a time when American families are facing more risk and greater insecurity than they have in recent history, at a time when they have fewer resources and a weaker safety net to protect them against those insecurities, people of all backgrounds in America want a nation where we share life’s risks and rewards with each other. And when they make laws that will spread this opportunity to all who are willing to work for it, they expect our judges to uphold those laws, not tear them down because of their political predilections. Republican, Democrat, or anyone in between. Those are the types of judges the American people deserve. Justice Brown is not one of those judges. I strongly urge my colleagues to vote against this nomination.
Or This:
In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it – Social Darwinism, every man and woman for him or herself. It’s a tempting idea, because it doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity. It allows us to say to those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford – tough luck. It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job – life isn’t fair. It let’s us say to the child born into poverty – pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it is especially tempting because each of us believes that we will always be the winner in life’s lottery, that we will be Donald Trump, or at least that we won’t be the chump that he tells: “Your fired!”
But there a problem. It won’t work. It ignores our history. It ignores the fact that it has been government research and investment that made the railways and the internet possible. It has been the creation of a massive middle class, through decent wages and benefits and public schools – that has allowed all of us to prosper. Our economic dominance has depended on individual initiative and belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we’re all in it together and everybody’s got a shot at opportunity – that has produced our unrivaled political stability.
And so if we do nothing in the face of globalization, more people will continue to lose their health care. Fewer kids will be able to afford this diploma you’re about to receive.
and
That’s a pretty biting critique of the Republican Party, one that I think FDR could approve. But if you are determined to not listen and instead do what bloggers are supposed to despise the most–eating only the media narrative, there isn’t much that can be done.
I understand some of the worry about his speech calling for universal health care lacking details, but let’s remember, we are one year out from the first primaries and caucuses, he’ll have plenty of time to put together a plan.
Today’s Tosser
He gets in on the Halfrican label.
Wouldn’t you think people would be embarrassed by miscegenation jokes by now?