Eleven Things That Are Probably True

On a secret ballot, the bailout bill would have passed the House.

85% of House members read the bailout bill.

75% of House members comprehended the bill.

10% of House members never read any bills.

25% of House members gave no thought at all to the merits of the bill.

97% of House members–bill or no bill!-- believe their constituents are extremely fortunate to be represented by such as themselves.

The pusillanimity of Congressional Democrats during the Bush years has made it impossible for the public to take them seriously during a crisis.

On economic matters, responsible Republicans are almost extinct. "Free market" ideologues and the remnants of Delay’s K Street gang are fighting for control of the party.

A Democratic president who thinks he can pass good legislation by working closely with Republicans is misguided.

Members of Congress, for a period of one year, should refrain from making any public statements referencing the wholly imaginary legislative prowess of their colleagues. The following words and phrases are particularly grating in this context, and may not be used: stellar, outstanding, "reach across the aisle," tireless, thankless, bipartisan, nonpartisan, "through the wee hours," stalwart, extraordinary, "the American people," hard-working, "strong leadership of ____," stewards, "We’ll stay here as long as it takes," selfless, backbreaking, and yeoman.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is incompetent. She can’t count votes and she can’t give a good floor speech. Who’s next?

Mississippi Debate: Not Quite a Draw

Barack Obama won.


For voters who watched only the first half-hour, it was a knockout. John McCain has yet to figure out how to fold his "reform" message into his economic message. It’s a mess. Last night, lacking the stomach to mount a vigorous defense of boneheaded Republican economic theory, he babbled on about earmarks so relentlessly that Obama finally had enough, pointing out that his opponent was obsessing about budgetary chump change. (It’s about time a Democrat took this tack. $18 billion? That’s it? Pork barrel spending is the price of representative democracy. I’d like to see more of it, if it would facilitate good legislation on the big stuff.)

When Lehrer turned to foreign policy, McCain evened things up by projecting strength and reminding voters of his experience. Obama looked presidential enough, but his mastery of the material almost worked against him. Fewer facts and more focus on the big picture would have been more effective. (But thankfully, we’re long past 2000, when the media spin-meisters decreed that Al Gore’s sighs and whispers trumped his intellectual qualifications. Eight years of watching Dubya govern by the seat of his running shorts has made intelligence acceptable again.)


I was glad to see Obama stand fairly strong when Lehrer pressed him on what he would sacrifice on the altar of the Big Bailout, but I would have rather he had said, essentially: Nothing, Jim. The Washington media is always looking for another Paul Tsongas. They won’t be satisfied until Social Security is privatized or gone. Let’s take a lesson from the Republicans. They never give an inch on their tax cut promises, no matter how many wars they start or budgets they bust. That’s why they’re the tax cut party. We need to stand on our solutions, not shrink from them.


I have a lot of problems with Barack Obama. I don’t like the way he obtained the Democratic nomination, and I have doubts about his commitment to fulfilling his promises. But he looked good last night.


I hope he thanks Hillary Clinton for the mortal combat she provided in the primaries. He wouldn’t have won the debate without her.

Step One

As Barack Obama might say. . .Let's be clear.

The wingnut "free market" outrage over the Paulson/Bernanke bailout is 99% phony. Modern Republicans--having long ago abandoned Eisenhower's sensible capitulation to the New Deal--are oligarchs. It's not really their fault. That's just the price of admission to their party. Trickle-down now, trickle-down forever! Just service the people who do the trickling, and prosper!

Most Republicans are simply trying to bullshit their way through the current crisis so they can go back to business as usual--tax cuts, deregulation and corporate welfare. Democrats need to act accordingly.

Krisis Kids

Bush, McCain, Obama. Is this the best we’ve got?


You know you’re in trouble when Dubya looks like the competent one. At least he was smart enough to stay in the gym and let Henry Paulson try to save capitalism.


Newly-minted populist avenger John McCain blustered his way across the stage like an angry-mad Lear, contradicting himself hourly and scaring the horses. Barack Obama gave us more of his tinny campaign rhetoric before finally posing--in fine "Where’s Waldo?" fashion--in a reunion tableau of Bill Clinton’s old economic advisers, saying nothing. (Wasn’t Obama supposed to have turned the page on Clintonism? Oh, never mind.)


Neither of these guys is ready to win a debate on the economy.

MSNBC: Emergency Executive Intervention!

I was on vacation when Keith and Chris totally jumped the shark on Obama.

I defy anyone to watch more than ninety seconds of this.

Markos Moulitsas Gets Tough

He helped take down Hillary, but that was just a warm-up. Now he’s itching to sink his brass knuckles into some soft Republican face-flesh.

I'm not about to revert to writing puff pieces about Obama thinking that his magic "new politics" bullshit will carry us to victory. He may or may not believe that crap, but I don't. We're going to win this thing the way campaigns are won -- by playing hardball. Politics is a blood sport. Republicans understand this and never flinch from flinging the shit. We won't win until we learn to fight back in kind. And I'm more than happy to get down in the mud with our friends on the Right so Obama doesn't have to.

Recent history vindicates the "tough and aggressive" path. We went toe to toe against Rove and his machine in 2006, and our math beat his. I have no doubt we're in for a two-peat this year, and it'll happen because we won't back off from exposing the GOP for the den of lies and corruption it has become.

Very gallant, Markos. There’s just one problem: 2006. Back then, I was with you every step of the way, and what did it get us? Nancy "9%" Pelosi.


The voters have since taken a dim view of Democratic spinelessness. They’re not going to elect a Milquetoast. (That's why McCain is one debate away from living in the White House.)


Obama will have to fight his own battles.

Live-Blogging Hardball: Same As It Ever Was

Lest anyone think that a chastened Chris Matthews has decided to attempt serious journalism, take note of his gratuitous slamming of the Clintons for not supporting Obama to his satisfaction.

Matthews' crazy agenda will always come first on Hardball. Can't MSNBC find anybody better? His act is so 1998.

Wanted: Low Information Voters

But it depends on what information they’re low on.


When Barack Obama was battling Hillary Clinton, a "low information voter" was defined by the media as either: a) a woman who liked Hillary, or b) a struggling member of the white working class who wasn’t satisfied with Obama’s rhetoric on the economy and was probably a racist anyway.


Meanwhile, Axelrod was coasting to victory by deploying his own army of low information voters. For the Obama campaign, the only essential information a voter needed was the recognition that Barack was the greatest change agent in human history. That was enough to make you respectable.


But now John McCain, in predictable Rovian fashion, has kneecapped Axelrod by going at Obama’s strength. He’s running as Change Agent Emeritus, and–so far–it’s working.


Obama’s response–when he’s not getting sidetracked with dumb attacks on Sarah Palin–is to roll up his sleeves and talk incessantly about what he’s going to do to make people’s lives better. I’m sure he’s sincere, but–to put it bluntly–he sucks at it. He comes across as the poor man’s Hillary Clinton.


My advice, Barack: Stick with what you’re good at. Put your jacket back on, round up an audience of true believers, and give the voters more "soaring rhetoric." Let Joe Biden and your other surrogates do the heavy lifting.


Allowing Republicans to dictate your strategy isn’t the way to win.

Sharing the Blame--Not!

Digby writes:

For a time it was considered an act of heresy to even suggest that running a campaign purely on the basis of when you "came to Obama" might not hold up over the long haul. (And that's not to say that running the campaign on "the sisterhood of the traveling pantsuit" would have been any more successful ---the same problems existed for Clinton.) Democrats decided to take their shoe-in and turn it into a nail biter because they wanted a huge symbolic victory for either African Americans or women. I took pride in that --- it's a bold gamble. But I've never thought there wasn't a cost.

And I always felt that Democrats should have run hard against conservatism itself so that a majority of voters would reject the GOP brand no matter who was wearing it. Instead we saw airy campaigns rife with symbols of liberal progress and the promise of some new post partisan agreement that only one side had signed on to. Indeed, they have all spent way too much time for the last year extolling the other side, genuflecting to their icons and pretending that there was some national consensus that everyone wanted Democrats to stop their vicious partisanship --- when they hadn't lifted a finger. It's been maddening to watch.

Wrong. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been in the cross-hairs of the Republican Party for most of her adult life. She’s the most famous Democrat in the world! She couldn’t run a "post-partisan" campaign if she wanted to. That’s Obama’s contribution to the annals of Democratic stupidity.


Hillary did get tired of being called a racist by the Obama campaign and a bitch by the media, and she fought back with a little female solidarity. Barack might now be finding that useful had he been self-confident enough to put her on the ticket.

Lazy-Ass "I Told You So" Post

No one knows what’s going to happen in November, but I wrote the following on another blog back in February:

Thus far, Barack Obama has been subjected to virtually no media scrutiny and--much more importantly--has been the target of no Republican attacks. It is therefore ludicrous to make any claims about his ability to defeat John McCain. It's like saying the Dolphins will beat the Patriots provided the Patriots don't take the field.

John McCain and Hillary Clinton have been around for a long time. They have rich, compelling and complicated biographies full of many successes and not a few failures. The public knows who they are. Democrats who think they can turn McCain into a flip-flopper or Hillary into Miss Congeniality are living in a fantasy land. A few things can be done at the margins, but these candidates cannot redefine each other. They will try, of course, but the public will soon tire of it. A McCain-Clinton race will end up being more about issues than personas. The Democrat will win that race.

Barack Obama's campaign was going nowhere until Obamamania spread throughout the land. There's a very good reason for this--when the spotlight was on him alone, he couldn't deliver. His paper-thin resume and lack of a coherent agenda made people wonder what all the fuss was about. Only when he became bathed in the reflected light of his supporters' adoration did he become viable. His campaign has now reached the stratosphere, but it's the political equivalent of a Ponzi scheme. It's fundamentally about nothing--by design.

Obamamania will weaken. The media and the Republicans are going to put the spotlight back on the candidate. He has defined his movement, but he has not defined himself. I don't know what he's going to come up with, but it had better be good.

Just for the record.

Taylor Marsh Chimes In

Riding shotgun on the caboose of the Obama Train hasn’t jarred loose all of her smarts. She knows it’s time for the menfolk to help with the dishes:

Some say Hillary should step in. Not going to happen. It's why I've been writing the posts I have about Palin. There is no way Clinton is going to mix it up with a woman who has a fraction of the experience, gravitas, and years of political time put in. HRC will focus solely on McCain - Bush.

Palin is Biden's job. It comes with the added burden of schooling the press between now and the vice presidential debates on what a man can say to a woman when he's in a political dogfight with her. Right now, given what I've seen and read, it's doubtful Dems have a clue. Because Palin doesn't just represent some vice presidential nominee. McCain's team has hooked her to the future of the Republican Party itself and the base has bought in all the way.

Taylor’s right to be concerned. Joe Biden’s partisan gearbox has two positions: Overdrive (when he’s on the campaign trail) and Park (when he’s questioning Sam Alito).


Smash-up on Palin Street?

Sarah Palin's Sure-Fire "Gaffe Repellent" (Extra-Strength “DUBYA” Formula!)

George W. Bush is the Michael Phelps of cluelessness, but have any of his idiotic statements ever landed him in hot water? No! And it’s all because he takes "staying on message" a lot more seriously than he takes the PDB.


Here's how it works:


Prior to any interrogatory situation, our President stocks his addled brainpan with about a dozen "answers," plus a few random quips and smart-sounding sentences. Subsequently, upon hearing a question, he quickly scans this Liliputian database and emits whatever pre-approved response seems appropriate. And though his dyslexia often scrambles his syntax (making him sound stupid), and his ignorance often causes him to choose an inappropriate response (making him sound incomprehensible), Bush’s strict adherence to a rigid system of message management makes it virtually impossible for him to "gaffe-out."


Extremely knowledgeable politicians like Joe Biden get cocky and get into trouble. Bill Clinton at the top of his game could wing it. Everybody else needs to buckle down. (Barack Obama has learned the value of staying on message. Early in the primaries he thought he could bullshit his way through anything. That got old quick. You haven’t you heard him declare war on Pakistan lately, have you?)


Nobody can compete with Bush when it comes to regurgitating his talking points. He is, after all the Decider, and, like Stephen Colbert, he’s proud of "thinking with his gut." (Words are a nuisance and of no importance.) But if Sarah Palin employs some variation of the Bush formula during her debate with Biden–and she really doesn’t have time to do much else--only Democrats will need to hold their breath.

Woman's Work

Sarah Palin makes Axelrod nervous. TPM to the rescue!

Where's Hillary?

Well, she's--

Not on the ticket. Not asked to be on the ticket. Not vetted.

Not doing enough!

Meltdown

Matt Stoller this morning:

This party is aroused by a raw primal screeching bitterness. I don't know if independents see Rudy's prime time speech like I see it, but what I see is a vicious white mob who laugh and sneer at people losing their homes in the name of small town American values and who hate community organizers standing up for those people.

If Stoller's candidate is going to make his experience as a community organizer the centerpiece of his resume, when the candidate himself is emphasizing the importance of overhauling our foreign policy, he'd better expect to get hammered.

The primaries are over. Deal with it.

As for "raw primal screeching bitterness," I guess Stoller doesn't read the comments on the Obama blogs.

Organizing and Governing

For his most fervent acolytes, Barack Obama’s experience as a community organizer in Chicago is at the core of what makes him so special. But Republicans are likely to cast it as a waste of time:

"When I started organizing, I understood the idea of social change in a very abstract way," Obama told me last year. "It was to some extent informed by my years in Indonesia, seeing extreme poverty and disparities of wealth and understanding sort of in a dim way that life wasn’t fair and government had something to do with it. I understood the role that issues like race played and took inspiration from the civil-rights movement and what the student sit-ins had accomplished and the freedom rides.

"But I didn’t come out of a political family, didn’t have a history of activism in my family. So I understood these things in the abstract. When I went to Chicago, it was the first time that I had the opportunity to test out my ideas. And for the most part I would say I wasn’t wildly successful. The victories that we achieved were extraordinarily modest: you know, getting a job-training site set up or getting an after-school program for young people put in place."

So Obama went to law school and then began a political career during which he has never stopped anywhere long enough to accomplish very much. (It seems he’ll wait until he becomes all-powerful.) Much of the sound and fury emanating from Denver last week was designed to obscure a skimpy resume. He doesn’t need to bring attention to it now by dissing Sarah Palin for being mayor of a small town and governor of a big state. (Size matters. Just look at the map--very impressive on TV.)


And this is just stupid.



Dan Quayle was never taken seriously, but his boss, George H. W. Bush, had no trouble beating Michael Dukakis senseless. Sarah Palin may turn out to have problems, but if the Democrats aren’t careful, they’re going to get blamed for all the increasingly gratuitous piling-on by the media.


Alaskan folk heroes are made, not born.

Notes From Outside The Loop

Massachusetts is no left-wing "People’s Republic." (It’s been a long time since Nixon/McGovern.) In the Commonwealth's radio landscape, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting Rush Limbaugh or some homegrown, faux-populist, Republican tool. Right-wing broadcasters are still a force to be reckoned with, particularly with Sarah Palin now on the scene to push their manly buttons. Expect the wingnuts to turn up the volume on the Attack Machine to "11" as the campaign gets hotter.


Barack Obama had a good convention (from the little I saw of it), but he remains very beatable. He needs to make this election entirely about John McCain’s unacceptability. When the afterglow of "Thursday Night in Denver" has faded, the transcendent awesomeness of Obama-as-Savior will only be observed from within the friendly confines of Keith Olbermann’s skull. It's going to be trench warfare in the real world.


Is Hillary Clinton off the media’s shit list? Though many who watched her amazing speech ended up feeling depressed that the best woman had lost–and lost unfairly!–the pundits were beside themselves with joy as they witnessed the spectacle of their favorite female punching bag shoveling dirt (at least temporarily) on her own uppity aspirations. If Obama goes down to McCain, it’s hard to imagine Chris Mathews and Company having the stomach to blame Hillary for it. (Bill, on the other hand . . . He’s still white trash, and he makes no secret of his contempt for his beltway betters.)


By traditional standards of what constitutes "experience," we now have two tiers of candidates: Biden/McCain and Obama/Palin. Democrats would be well advised to just leave Sarah alone. Let her make her own mistakes. And does Obama really want to see Joe Biden, of all people, have to help deconstruct her resume? Is there any chance that the venerable Gaffe Master can avoid wading hip-deep into the rancid stream of sexism that runs through the Democratic Establishment? (Obama's Blogger Boys are already there.)


John McCain was actually quite effective with Chris Wallace on Sunday. He’s using Sarah Palin to take the tarnish off his old maverick image--they'll run as the dynamic duo of change--and he might get away with it. On Friday, I was sure he'd trot out Romney so he could tap into the Mittster’s proven ability to sell Republican economic snake oil, but now I suspect that McCain might, at long last, have become disgusted by his own craven flip-flopping on Bush’s disastrous tax cuts. With Wallace, he kept mumbling his way through his "keep taxes low" pledge as if he knew he'd have to raise them. McCain is going to serve only one term. Perhaps, as part of his legacy, he wouldn’t mind restoring some fiscal sanity to the Republican Party. In any case, Democrats need to keep pounding him on economic fairness. He doesn’t want to talk about it.


Finally–is this guy a piece of work? He was ubiquitous during the Obama selection process touting the wisdom of the party elders. Now he just needs to get lost.