Tag Archives: republicans

Bill Clinton’s alternate, unbelievable reality – Bill Clinton – Salon.com

10 Nov

Not even the Big Dog hisownself could hunt in this mess:

One could reasonably argue that Clinton would have done a much better job facing down McConnell, Boehner and Cantor on the debt ceiling and government shutdown showdowns. But his program for smart governmental intervention in the economy would have constituted exactly the same kind of anathema to a Republican Party determined to prevent him from accomplishing anything as everything hitherto proposed by Obama. Clinton would also have discovered that when you come into office on the heels of a fiscal quarter in which the economy contracted by almost 10 percent, while facing a Senate opposition determined to filibuster your every move at a historically unprecedented rate from Day One, recovery would be slow and painful and politically costly. Furthermore, any notion that Bill Clinton might have been tougher than Obama on the banks or Wall Street, while fighting for his beloved middle class, seems especially dubious.

via Bill Clinton’s alternate, unbelievable reality – Bill Clinton – Salon.com.

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This is what GOP brand poisoning looks like – Opening Shot – Salon.com

9 Nov

Has the wacko fringe of the Republican Party reached too far? Will they get a smack-down in 2012? Stay tuned.

In other words, most voters went to the polls in 2010 feeling a strong desire to vote out Democrats and felt little reason to fear the GOP. But after a year of headlines about shutdown and default brinkmanship in Washington and laws like SB-5 at the state level, the GOP’s overall favorable rating has dropped by 12 points. Democrats now have a clear advantage in this area; the same Quinnipiac poll that gave Republicans a 28/57 percent favorable/unfavorable score gave Democrats a 36/39 mark. Which suggests at least the possibility that voters who might otherwise be ready to cast out Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats will think twice before doing so in next year’s election.

via This is what GOP brand poisoning looks like – Opening Shot – Salon.com.

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The myth of the progressive city – Media Criticism – Salon.com

7 Nov

Though Taibbi was writing about Bloomberg specifically, his words aptly sum up what the American cityscape has become — yet more scorched earth in the successful assault of Limousine Liberals and Crony Corporatists on Lunch-Pail Liberals and Progressive Populists. In political terms, it represents the broader success of the transpartisan moneyed class in fully redefining “liberal” exclusively as “social-issue liberal” — without regard for economic agenda.

via The myth of the progressive city – Media Criticism – Salon.com.

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Missing the Populist Moment – NYTimes.com

2 Oct

This cycle of populist disappointment has probably raised the Republican Party’s odds of taking the White House in 2012, by making a swift coronation for Mitt Romney more and more likely. (So long as a certain New Jersey governor doesn’t lumber into the race, that is.) But it’s a missed opportunity for American conservatism. Republican primary voters deserve a better class of right-wing populist, and the country does as well.

In many ways, the ideological divisions between populist and establishment Republicans have narrowed since the days of Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford….

But amid the bombast and identity politics, it’s still possible to discern a serious populist critique of how the Republican establishment does business — one that links Pat Buchanan’s primary campaigns in the 1990s to figures like Palin, Huckabee, Cain and Ron Paul today.

via Missing the Populist Moment – NYTimes.com.

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The GOP’s unremarkable special election stunner – War Room – Salon.com

14 Sep

Are the Democrats sharp enough and resilient enough to Wake Up?

But if you can get beyond the fact that it technically played out within the confines of New York City, there really isn’t much that’s remarkable about the victory that Republican Bob Turner achieved on Tuesday night.

Mainly, it tells us what a simple look at President Obama’s job approval numbers (or the economic indicators that are largely responsible for them) would tell us: Voters are frustrated and eager to register their displeasure with him and his party. This is true everywhere, but particularly in areas like the 9th District, where voters already had clear reservations about Obama even before he did anything as president — back when his approval ratings were still stratospheric.

via The GOP’s unremarkable special election stunner – War Room – Salon.com.

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