The New Malaise

The malaise obviously has several causes, some of which are beyond our control. One major cause, however, is entirely our doing. We do not spend enough time focusing on our actual economic problems.


We are too often occupied with distractions, rather than trying to answer a simple question: What works? What economic policies have succeeded before and are most likely to lead to the best life for the largest number of people? Instead, we’ve effectively decided that because the United States is the richest, most successful country in the world, it is guaranteed to remain so.


David Leonhardt - Lessons from the Malaise - NYT

How Much Will the 2010 Election Cost

...this election cycle, which is on track to hit $3 billion by the November election, breaking the previous highs of roughly $2.7 billion in 2008 and $2.4 billion in 2006.

As of last week, spending for federal candidates had already hit the $223 million mark, $90 million more than the $133 million spent by the same point in the 2006 midterms, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which monitors political advertising. State candidates, meanwhile, have already poured almost $380 million into their television buys, $68 million more than they’d spent at this point in 2006. Those candidate numbers don’t include political ads bought for this campaign by special interest and issue advocacy groups.

Spending on Campaign TV Ads Expected to Break Record - The New York Times

Who is paying for this? And do they think they are creating a healthy public debate about the issues?

And since we know the answer to these questions are: largely corporation/special interests and no, what can we do to put an end to this?

Thoughts for Bleak Political Times

First off, I don't care about which party wins or loses congressional seats or governorships in November. The inside-the-beltway story of the day seems beside the point.

Instead, I'd like how this country can face some major issues that aren't really being debated in this hyper-partisan hysterical cable news twitter echo chamber.

The United States is at an inflection point on several critical issues:

1 - Economic growth, most critically jobs.

2 - The environment, energy policy and climate change (let's link these together).

3 - The long term structural debt. (note "long term" so that we don't get bogged down in stimulus or TARP)

4- Health care costs. (Contributing to the bad news in #1 and #3 above).

5 - Our two wars.

So the question is, can we as a nation of citizens turn off all the wedge issues and actually compromise to solve these problems?

Axelrod/Stewart

Stewart throws good questions to the most-inner circled Obama person around. Compare it to the uselessness of the questions thrown at axelrod on the Sunday talk shows and you must thank god for Jon Stewart.


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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
David Axelrod Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
David Axelrod Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Kabuki Democracy

From the Nation, via politico...

Face it, the system is rigged, and it's rigged against us. Sure, presidents can pretty easily pass tax cuts for the wealthy and powerful corporations. They can start whatever wars they wish and wiretap whomever they want without warrants. They can order the torture of terrorist suspects, lie about it and see that their intelligence services destroy the evidence. But what they cannot do, even with supermajorities in both houses of Congress behind them, is pass the kind of transformative progressive legislation that Barack Obama promised in his 2008 presidential campaign.

Kabuki Democracy: Why a Progressive Presidency Is Impossible, for Now

Byrd's Senate

Reading about the life of Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, I'm struck by his longevity (of course!), and also his deep, self-taught respect for the U.S. Constitution.

Over 50-plus years in congress, he came to be a protector of the history and institutions of government.

Here's his 2003 speech protesting the Bush Administration's march to war in Iraq, where he talks about these ideals, and how the institution of the Senate should fight to stop it.

He really lets it rip in part 2.

Obama's Rallying Speech

I was having a discussion with my friend Rajat the other day and we discussed the perceived slump that President Obama's public approval has fallen into over the last few months.

I think it is because his initiatives are not tied together!

With appologies to Tom Friedman, who occasionally writes the speeches that he would like to hear from our leaders, I offer you the outlines of speech that the President should give to start linking his major initiatives together.

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My fellow Americans, this summer marks just two short years since our economy underwent its most grave crisis since the great depression.

The great depression lasted a decade, and to get through it our nation had to unite around fundamental changes to how we solved our problems, how companies operated and how we protected our most vulnerable citizens. In the end, it took a united nation and World War to pull the nation back to prosperity.

So over the next several months I will be talking about how we as a nation can work together to solve our biggest challenges, and how we can position ourselves to be leaders in this globalized world, in this interconnected world.

Americans must overcome our small differences, and unite around this new American Century.

More important than anything else, there are tens of thousands of American soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan that are risking their lives to bring safety and stability to those countries, and to protect American interests. We must support our troops, and give them our prayers, and also enough time to achieve their mission.

In addition to this, we must stop borrowing for these wars and start paying for them. Starting in January, we will begin phasing in a gasoline tax to pay for these wars. While it will start small to protect everyday americans, the tax will eventually pay for the two wars and also be a down payment on our new energy economy. More on that in a moment.

To position America to lead the world economy, we must solve the problems that confront our economy. These are out of control health care costs that we all pay for, record deficits and a financial system that is out of control.

Good news! Congress has already passed health care reform, and over the next year everyday americans will see improvements to their health services. But this is only the beginning, because we will all have to work together to stamp out health care waste. The more we save in health care, the more your employers will be able to send to wage increases, and the more the government will be able to return in lower taxes. We are setting up a web site where everyday americans can report medical system waste and propose new savings.

There is more good news, because I will be signing the a financial reform package next month that will start to bring balance to an out-of-control banking system, that rewarded risk but didn't punish wall street bankers that were reckless. Our new regulatory agency will protect consumers and will make sure no bank takes risks with your savings, or with taxpayer dollars.

Out government budget is out of control, spending more than it takes in. In november a bipartisan commission will publish recommendations on how to bring the system under control. Their recommendations may be controversial to many-- they will likely tell us that we need to cut some budgets AND raise taxes to put our government on solid footing for out children and grandchildren. I say bring it on, because I didn't become president to be popular. I became president to bring common sense to washington, and I will challenge democratic and republican leaders in congress to enact the commission's recommendations.

The horrifying oil spill in the gulf of mexico is a reminder that our energy system in America is as out of balance as our wall street system is. I call on the Senate to return to washington at once to take action on this problem. There is a comprehensive energy bill that the House of Representatives has passed, but which is held up by special interests in the Senate.

To the United States senate, I say it is time to get to work. America demands that you enact comprehensive energy reform, so that we take control of our energy system, and so we never see a spill like the one in the gulf of Mexico again. Comprehensive means we encourage cleaner energy and we discourage energy that pollutes, and we work to create an innovative new green energy manufacturing economy for American workers. Pass the bill!

The 20th century is sometimes called "The American Century" by historians. If you join me in taking back control of our government and our future , I promise you that American will lead the world for the new Century.

Have a great summer, and may God bless America.

Why the Republican Rump is Bad for Everyone

...the loss of both Congress and the White House left a power vacuum in a party accustomed to top-down management. At this point Newt Gingrich is what passes for a sober, reasonable elder statesman of the G.O.P. And he has no authority: Republican voters ignored his call to support a relatively moderate, electable candidate in New York’s special Congressional election.

Real power in the party rests, instead, with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (who at this point is more a media figure than a conventional politician). Because these people aren’t interested in actually governing, they feed the base’s frenzy instead of trying to curb or channel it. So all the old restraints are gone.

In the short run, this may help Democrats, as it did in that New York race. But maybe not: elections aren’t necessarily won by the candidate with the most rational argument. They’re often determined, instead, by events and economic conditions.

...In California, the G.O.P. has essentially shrunk down to a rump party with no interest in actually governing — but that rump remains big enough to prevent anyone else from dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis. If this happens to America as a whole, as it all too easily could, the country could become effectively ungovernable in the midst of an ongoing economic disaster.


Paul Krugman - Paranoia Strikes Deep - New York Times

When Taxpayers Abandon their Principles

The recent state budget cuts to higher education and the 32% increase in tuition due next fall are indicative not of an economic downturn, but of the wholesale abandonment of taxpayer and the legislative committment to civic and economic growth in California.

The state’s higher education budget has been slashed by $2.8 billion this year, including $813 million from the university system — about the equivalent of New Mexico’s entire higher education budget.

“Dismantling this institution, which is a huge economic driver for the state, is a stupendously stupid thing to do, but that’s the path the Legislature has embarked on,” said Richard A. Mathies, dean of the College of Chemistry here at Berkeley, long the system’s premier campus. “When you pull resources from an institution like this, faculty leave, the best grad students don’t come, and the discoveries go down.”

A Crown Jewel of Education Struggles With Cuts - New York Times

California, and the nation, must confront the implications of knee-jerk anti-tax policy that have been hurting us for the last 30 years. But how?

Palin and Facebook

Sarah Palin is using Facebook more effectively than just about any media brand is these days. And whatever you think of Palin, in her post-elected-office and pre-campaign-for-the 2012 republican presidential nomination mode, she is very much a media brand. So it's worth looking at how she's getting the word out.



She's certainly hitting all the right old media spots to promote her book, but more often than not she's using facebook to rally her rogue base. She's collecting "friends" or "fans" on facebook, the better to keep them abreast of everything she's doing. As of this morning she's got just shy of 1M "friends" who keep tabs on her via Facebook.

One you collect fans on facebook, you need to give them content, updates if you will. And for that Sarah Palin is using Facebook's blogging feature to toss red meat and lob grenades at enemies, all without anyone asking any questions of her.

Today she's attacking the old-line-New-York-journalism establishment, which breaks my heart but which is the way right-wing politicians like to discredit their opponents:

Amazingly, but not surprisingly, the AP somehow nabbed a copy of the book before it was released. They're now erroneously reporting on the book's contents and are repeating many of the same things they spewed during the campaign and afterwards. We've heard 11 writers are engaged in this opposition research, er, "fact checking" research! Imagine that – 11 AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book, instead of using the time and resources to "fact check" what's going on with Sheik Mohammed's trial, Pelosi's health care takeover costs, Hasan's associations, etc. Amazing.

And here's Mrs. Palin's analsis of the Obama Adminstration's decision to try Al Queda conspiritors in a court of law. (Don't read it if you have heard of something called due process)

Facebook is effective for Mrs. Palin in two important ways. First, it lets her push out her something (like any blogging software would do) and just as importantly, it collects and distributes these ideas to her connected audience.

So say what you want about the content of her message and her role in the national debate, what's most interesting to me today is that Facebook is the platform for this commentary. It says an awful lot about how effective Facebook is at getting information out to your friends.

Health Reform Passes a Big Test, With Obama's Aid - NYT

But, those present said, he urged them on, saying, "When I sign this in the Rose Garden, each and every one of you will be able to look back and say, 'This was my finest moment in politics.' "

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/health/policy/08health.html?_r=1&hp

Denialism

is the word that Michael Specter uses to describe a new breed of logic that is being increasingly used in complex policy debates in this country. This book, which takes it's title from the word, sounds interesting in a Times book review this morning.

The term “denialism,” used by Mr. Specter as an all-purpose, pop-sci buzzword, is defined by him as what happens “when an entire segment of society, often struggling with the trauma of change, turns away from reality in favor of a more comfortable lie.”

In this hotly argued yet data-filled diatribe, Mr. Specter skips past some of the easiest realms of science baiting (i.e., evolution) to address more current issues, from the ethical questions raised by genome research to the furiously fought debate over the safety of childhood vaccinations.

Among the toes on which he stomps: those of Prince Charles (cited for presumption and ignorance in his advocacy of organic farming), Dr. Andrew Weil (whose promotion of vitamin supplements is equated with snake-oil salesmanship), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (accused of writing an antivaccine article “knit together by an almost unimaginable series of misconceptions”) and The Huffington Post, “which has emerged as the most prominent home for cranks of all kinds, particularly people who find scientific research too heavily burdened by facts.”

It's helpful to have a label for this cable-tv and internet-fueled phenomena. Once you're attuned to it, you see it everywhere.

"That upset needs to be directed to Sacramento"

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said Tuesday that his campus will be admitting as many as 600 fewer "unfunded" California students a year to offset a 20 percent cut from Sacramento. Those slots will instead go to out-of-staters.

The problem is that the state picks up much of the university's cost of educating California students - only it's not paying for as many students as it used to. Nonresidents, on the other hand, pay their own, higher tuitions that actually cover UC's cost of educating them.

Birgeneau said he understands that people will be angry that Berkeley will be freezing out Californians in favor of students from elsewhere. But, he said, "that upset needs to be directed to Sacramento."

UC Berkeley to admit more out-of-state students - Matier and Ross - SF Chronicle

Good Snowe Job!

“Is this bill all that I would want?” Ms. Snowe asked. “Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls. And I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time.”

Senate Panel Clears Health Bill With One G.O.P. Vote

"On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.”

Those old windbags in the Senate still now how to surprise you.

Specter To Switch Parties - New York Times Caucus Blog

“Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats,” Mr. Specter said in a statement released in the early afternoon. “I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”

He said he has experienced a change of heart since the response to his vote for the stimulus legislation.

“Since then, I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion,” his statement said. “It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.”

...Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who also supported the Obama administration’s economic stimulus legislation, said Mr. Specter’s decision reflected the increasingly inhospitable climate in the Republican party for moderates.

“On the national level of the Republican Party, we haven’t certainly heard warm, encouraging words about how they view moderates, either you are with us or against us,” Ms. Snowe said. She said national Republican leaders were not grasping that “political diversity makes a party stronger and ultimately we are heading to having the smallest political tent in history for any political party the way things are unfolding.”

Two Moderate Republican Senators open up over at Politico

"I don't want to be a member of the Club for Growth,” said Graham. “I want to be a member of a vibrant national Republican party that can attract people from all corners of the country — and we can govern the country from a center-right perspective.”

“As Republicans, we got a problem,” he said.

The Medium is the Message

Taking advantage of the flexibility that comes with not having any well-developed ideology...

Aiming to stake his claim to the tech-savvy young voters who helped elect President Obama, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, 41, today took to the new media to formally announce he's running for governor - by directly addressing hundreds of thousands of supporters simultaneously via YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

The gubernatorial candidate's announcement video, which premiered on his Web page, GavinNewsom.com, utilizes three languages - English, Spanish and Mandarin - as well as images of solar technology, schools and health care facilities.

Whether you like it or not.



via the San Francisco Chronicle

Haperin's 15 Things About the Presidential Address Last Night

I think Mark Halperin's political blog is just so-so. It's on top of everything, but the punchy insidery voice of his old The Note is still missing.

He can still come through from time to time, as he did last night in Fifteen Things We Learned (Or Relearned) About Barack Obama and His Presidency. So insightful is this read of President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress (nee State of the Union), that I will post it here in full.

1. He smartly plans to ignore the media's fetishistic obsession with how he balances optimism and realism.

2. Michelle Obama (and her popularity) will not go unused by the administration as a valuable asset.

3. He appreciates Joe Biden, even when he wants to muzzle him (which is often) – and Biden is gamely taking to his role as public comic sidekick.

4. The president has a good ear for the level of populist outrage he needs to exhibit to satisfy the public's anger over Wall Street shenanigans.

5. If Republicans weren't sufficiently worried about the size and reach of Obama's megaphone before Tuesday night, they should ramp up their concern now.

6. Obama truly believes he is at the beginning of four-year teaching moment for the American people – and that his students are mature enough and interested enough to actually learn.

7. He's Mr. Cool, then, now and forever.

8. He knows that confidence is key – as much for him as for the country.

9. Like his predecessor, he feels no need to be loved by members of the Washington political power structure (but unlike his predecessor, he's not hostile to it).

10. He's doing his homework and he knows his history.

11. He's well aware of the audience(s) in the room and the audience(s) at home (and how those bodies interact and dovetail).

12. Education is the sleeper issue of this administration.

13. He seems genuinely inspired by the power and opportunities of the presidency (and has not become overwhelmed by the responsibilities, despite the overwhelming circumstances).

14. Youth + competence = a refreshing antidote to these exhausting times.

15. The man can give a heck of a speech – and has a close to perfect record of delivering at big moments.

A Unifying Moment

Bush, negotiating with congress? Rank and file lawmakers wielding influence?

It does feel like the nation is coming together for a moment, to work to avert economic disaster.

To the Candidates: raise the level of campaign from this moment on. I hope that Friday's debate is held as scheduled.

Eight Weeks

Tomorrow marks 8 weeks until Election day.

The Republican Party, headlined by John McCain, will try and convince us that Barack Obama is wimpy.

The Democratic Party, headlined by Barack Obama, will talk economics, and call attention to the fact that the Bush and McCain economic policies are the same (they really are, for better or worse).

If I were advising Obama, I would drive just two messages:

1) The Nation must invest in economic growth, through green industry (see Thomas Friedman for more on this), and that we can not stand for 4 more years of disastrous economic stewardship.

2) John McCain has been in the U.S. Senate for 21 years. He's fought some admirable legislative fights, but isn't what the nation needs to confront the challenges of the 21st century.


To hell with everything else, it's about the economy and change. And neither of these are solid turf for the Republican Party.

Teddy Still Thrills 'Em