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by Amy Garner, Washington Post
After being pummeled for days at the Republican National Convention for his remark that business owners “didn’t build that,” President Obama heads to the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina this week facing mounting questions about how he will respond to charges that he is hostile to free enterprise.
On Sunday, senior Obama advisers suggested that they will not address the anti-business allegations directly but will instead try to turn the tables on their GOP rivals by accusing them of being dishonest about what Obama meant. David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser, said in an interview Sunday on ABC News that Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign is engaged in a broader pattern of dishonesty and is “built on a tripod of lies.” Plouffe cited accusations that Obama has gutted the work requirement for welfare and “raided” Medicare to pay for the nation’s new health-care law as other examples of untruths coming from the GOP.
The Obama team thinks that it has effectively dealt with the “build that” attacks and that the issue is overblown — the “drill, baby, drill” of 2012, a rallying cry for the right but ultimately one with limited appeal in the broader electorate.
Nevertheless, there are signs that they see a vulnerability. Obama has not repeated the words that sparked the controversy, and he has toned down the broader argument — that government help is essential to business success — in the six weeks since he ad-libbed the line near the end of a long campaign swing. His speeches have been shorter, with fewer references to wealthy Americans. He is more cautious about portraying the choice that he quite forcefully described that night between Romney’s worldview and his own... [MORE]
With cunning, contempt, and catechismal fervor, the super-rich have argued on behalf of supply-side economics: the economic philosophy that contends that money should move to the top, where it will...
The Wall Street Journal noted in 2009 that the Bush tax cuts led to the "worst track record for jobs in recorded history." 25 million people remain unemployed or underemployed, with 30 to 50 percent of recent college graduates in one of those categories. Among unemployed workers, nearly 43 percent have been without a job for six months or longer. For the jobs that remain, most are low-paying, with the only real employment growth occurring in retail sales and food preparation.
Perhaps, instead, they're building businesses on their own? No. Only 3 percent of the CEOs, upper management, and financial professionals were entrepreneurs in 2005, even though they made up about 60 percent of the richest .1% of Americans. A recent study found that less than 1 percent of all entrepreneurs came from very rich or very poor backgrounds. They come from the middle class. That deserves repeating. Entrepreneurs come from the middle class.
(Reuters) - A modest bump in popularity for U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney from this week's Republican Party convention looks to be short-lived, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Democratic President Barack Obama regained a narrow lead on Saturday by 44 percent to 43 percent over his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Romney, in the latest daily installment of the four-day rolling poll.
Though seen as a transformational figure by both sides, Obama's presidency has been conventional.
It's getting tougher to be a Republican in some parts of the country while also fully accepting the practice of Islam. In Tennessee, an incumbent in the U.S.
BY NICHOLAS THOMPSON, The New Yorker
It has no bearing at all on the republic how fast Paul Ryan runs a marathon. But in another way it is important: Is the potential Vice President the sort of person who lies congenitally? In that sense it matters.
Here’s the transcript of what Ryan said to Hewitt:
H. H.: Are you still running?
P. R.: Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or [less].
H. H.: But you did run marathons at some point?
P. R.: Yeah, but I can’t do it anymore, because my back is just not that great.
H. H.: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best?
P. R.: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.
H. H.: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University...
P. R.: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.
What's striking about the exchange is how he responds to Hewitt's “Holy smokes.” A four-hour marathon, for a twenty-year-old, is not something that elicits a “holy smokes.” It’s entirely average; in fact, for the race that Ryan ran, it was below average. In the marathon in question, he finished in nineteen hundred and ninetieth place, out of just thirty-two hundred and seventy-seven male runners. (A 2:55 would have had him at a hundred and thirtieth.) But Hewitt’s reaction didn’t set off any alarm. Instead, Ryan could tell that he had just impressed his host, and he reinforced it, saying “I was fast when I was younger, yeah.” ...
Runners - and Ryan says he continues to be one - also just don't forget race times. They talk about them with their friends; they think about them when running. If they’ve just missed breaking four hours, it probably bothers them a little bit. It probably bothers them particularly if their brothers run faster. People also ask about marathon times often. Note the ease with which Hewitt queried Ryan’s time. The congressman, who talks frequently about fitness, has surely been asked the same question dozens, or hundreds, of times. When did he stop answering “four hours” and start saying “a two hour and fifty-something”?
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With a treasure chest of government-supplied benefits readily available, a taker mentality has become part of our way of life, writes Nicholas Eberstadt.
"Whats on Your Mind?" Every Monday evening we open the phone lines to whatever America wants to talk about. Politics, Environment, Culture, Social Issues, Local, National, even International. The direction of the dialogue is up to you!
by David J. Rothkopf, Washington Post
Condoleezza Rice has had quite a summer. First, she delivered such a powerful address to a campaign retreat for Mitt Romney that she stirred up veepstakes buzz. Next, she became one of the first two women admitted to the Augusta National Golf Club. And this past week, she delivered a show-stopping speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, outshining the other speakers, triggering standing ovations, and leaving journalists and commentators on the left and right tripping over themselves to praise her dignity and thoughtfulness.
Not bad for one of the marquee names of an administration that left office with a deeply damaged reputation, particularly on foreign policy.
The rehabilitation of Rice is just part of a broader restoration of the Bush brand and of those who worked with our 43rd president. Fewer than four years after George W. Bush left office, his team members are back in high places, their reputation is being reconsidered, and the Bush name is regaining its old luster and then some.
Among those joining Rice at Romney’s June retreat for top donors were former top Bush administration officials such as Karl Rove, who also addressed the 800 attendees; former homeland security czar Michael Chertoff; former Florida governor Jeb Bush; and even luminaries from the George H.W. Bush administration such as former secretary of state James Baker III. Jeb Bush was also a GOP convention headliner, delivering a well-received speech on education.
Particularly striking is the degree to which Bush 43 foreign policy players have assumed leading roles in shaping policy for Romney. John Bolton, Bush’s U.N. ambassador and an especially combative member of the neoconservative contingent so closely linked with that administration, has been part of Romney’s inner circle throughout the year. [MORE]
Harvard political scientist Theda Skocpol’s new book might be called Obama and America’s Political Future, but it’s the Tea Party and the Republicans’ rightward slide that cannot be underestimated.
THE claims of Representative Todd Akin that women don’t get pregnant from “legitimate rape” now live in infamy. But a few things you may not know: ...
By Pat Garofalo, Think Progress
Paul Ryan's speech before the Republican National Convention was riddled with lies, including a tall-tale blaming President Obama for the closure of a GM plant that announced its shutdown in June 2008. On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Matthew Dowd, chief political strategist for former President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, criticized Ryan’s for its many falsehoods, saying, “at some point, the truth should matter”:
DOWD: Paul Ryan, what he did in his speech, I think so stretched the truth. And I like Paul Ryan, have a lot of great respect for Paul Ryan, but the elements that he said about closing the GM plant which closed before Barack Obama took President [sic], about the Simpson-Bowles bill which he opposed and then all of a sudden he faults Barack Obama for. At some point, the truth should matter...He was trying to convey that Barack Obama was responsible for the closing of that GM plant and that isn’t true.
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Mid-wage jobs vanished by the millions during the recession. They've been replaced by retail, fast food, and temp work.
By JORDAN WEISSMANN, The Atlantic
When we think about what the economy has lost since the Great Recession, we tend to consider it in terms of simple addition and subtraction. We said goodbye to more than eight million jobs in the downturn; we've added around four million back. It's easy and dismal math.
But there's another painful dimension to this recovery that's gotten far less attention than the lingering jobs deficit. It's the fact that most of the jobs we lost offered decent pay, while the ones we're adding are mostly low-level, service sector positions. Middle class jobs have been replaced by McJobs. ...
This isn't just the familiar story of how blue-collar, male-dominated fields such construction and manufacturing were decimated. As NELP notes, many of the worst hit mid-wage occupations have been office workers; there are now around 345,000 fewer secretaries and administrative assistants and 108,000 fewer insurance claims clerks, for instance. These are jobs that have likely been made redundant by better technology, and the recession became an opportunity for companies to shed weight. Just like factories have reaped productivity gains by laying off workers and investing in machines, some white collar industries have trimmed their payrolls by relying more on IT and temps.
In that sense, what's happened during the recession and its aftermath is really the extension of a longer-term pattern, where technological change and globalization have shaped an economy that creates new work at the top and bottom, but very little in the middle. As this graph, also from NELP, shows, the housing boom helped arrest that trend a bit. It resumed right after the bust.
The middle layer of our economy was hollowed out in the recession. We've barely begun to fill it back in.
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from the Jackson sun.
It has been three years since our nation’s economy crashed into the Great Recession. The greatest burden from the economic meltdown has fallen on the shoulders of American workers and their families. Wages are down, jobs have been lost, unemployment benefits and savings are nearly exhausted. Sadly, this Labor Day finds American politics little focused on jobs and economic recovery. Instead, the November election is dominated by finger pointing, fringe issues, candidate attack ads and deception. American workers need and deserve solid leadership and specific plans from the White House and Congress dedicated to fixing the economy and strengthening the job market.
There are a lot of big boasts in this campaign, and not all of them are about the budget.
In earlier campaigns, he decried the influence of big donors in elections.
by Rick Ungar One of the key talking points consistently mouthed by opponents of the Affordable Care Act is their declaration that the law wrests control of healthcare out from the hands of the consumer and places it squarely under the control of the federal government. And yet, the meme—like so many others employed by dedicated Obamacare bashers— is simply not true. Now, we can prove it. You have likely never heard about the section of the ACA that provides federal loans to help launch consumer owned and controlled health insurance plans. The money is available for insurance plans showing a reasonable chance for success, are owned by the membership (people like you and I) and operated by a board of directors where members comprise the majority -not passive investors looking to make a buck. It is health insurance by the people and for the people.
Daily BeastGOP-Backed Voter Fraud Laws Aim To Disenfranchise StudentsDaily BeastLast September, the University of Maine senior received a letter (see below) from Maine's Secretary of State, Republican Charles Summers, questioning her right to vote...
If Romney wins, he'll govern according to the whims of the radical right.
by SALLY KOHN, Salon
If you had not paid any attention to the presidential election until Mitt Romney’s convention speech, you might be left with the impression that he is a thoughtful and friendly guy who sure looks presidential and is a reasonable, moderate alternative to President Obama. And my hunch is that, in fact, this might not be far from the truth. In a vacuum, it is distinctly possible that Mitt Romney would prefer to run as a moderate Republican in a campaign focused on honest and substantive disagreements and not nasty attacks and lies. But unfortunately for Mitt Romney and our country, he is running in a Republican Party hijacked and controlled by right-wing extremists. The Tea Party is the real Republican candidate for president of the United States. Mitt Romney is just their puppet.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way for Republicans. The vast majority of the conservative rank and file desperately wanted a strong social conservative to win the nomination. But given President Obama’s strong favorability and the slow but steady economic recovery, the conservative clowns who threw their hats in the ring were weak candidates at best even before being shot to pieces by the circular firing squad of the campaign. Mitt Romney was no one’s first choice. He was just the last one standing. [MORE]
by Roger Simon, Politico
Mistakes were made. Hopes dashed. Change crushed. We were all so eager for Barack Obama to succeed. Especially the Republicans. Yes, it is true. They say so.
McManus quotes Samuel L. Popkin, a political scientist at the University of California San Diego, as saying: “From 1984 until now, a plurality on almost every survey — and sometimes a majority — has said the next generation would have it worse than this generation.”
Popkin, who devised the “worse off” question for the CBS/New York Times poll, noted that, “In October 1984, during the recession of the first Ronald Reagan administration, a whopping 63 percent said they thought the next generation would be worse off. [MORE]
by Egberto Willies, EgbertoWillies.com
Mitt Romney’s convention speech had a lot of mistruths and distortions, but one of his central appeals to undecided voters was built on a fundamental lie. The truth is that since day one, President Obama’s political opponents — including Congressman Ryan — have been working to make him fail.
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A major third party movement, even if it is not successful on Election Day, can create the conditions for the changes that we're talking about to ultimately be implemented.
Rocky Anderson: Our nation has been transformed in extraordinarily tragic ways in the past dozen years. The rule of law has been utterly eviscerated during the Bush and Obama administrations. We've engaged in wars of aggression, wars for which there has been no coherent explanation. Our debt is completely out of control. We have a military-industrial complex with a stranglehold on our government. And at the core of almost every public policy failure, all we have to do to find an explanation is follow the money, because our Congress and the White House have been purchased lock, stock and barrel by wealthy corporate interests.
The Republican and Democratic Parties have colluded in creating the corrupt, perverse system that has led our nation to this point today. And there is now no question in my mind that we need a major new alternative. There are some great third parties in this country, but none of them have a history of winning elections. They simply don't resonate with a broad enough political base either to succeed in winning or in helping create a long-term, sustained movement for significant change in this country.
For a fictional show (based on actual events), this is the truest news story you have ever seen. From Episode 10 of "The Newsroom" by Aaron Sorkin.
When I was a kid and we were deciding what games to play and how to play them, our slogan was "the majority rules." That constant and lofty principle ranked right up there with "loser walks" after a touchdown in sandlot football. The bullies and the brats who stamped their feet to get their way did not make the rules. We carried the concept of majority rule into our adult lives and assumed it applied to government as well, but apparently that is no longer the case. Some of our elected representatives would bring down this country in pursuit of their own jihad. The majority no longer rules, and we are all losers as a result. When have we ever had a statute enacted when so many legislators voted their approval and simultaneously voiced their disapproval? The country is in a state of despair -- and for good reason. The stock market has obviously given the debt-ceiling "compromise" and the debate leading up to it a flunking grade as has Standard & Poor's.
Wiser voices have spoken about the consequences of the legislation saving the country from its credit default. I am interested and concerned with the process. The undisputed fact is that a minority of the country has taken over its control. Although the cabal may not share blood oaths or secret handshakes, they have their intractable pledges and fanaticism that makes them willing to destroy this country's and possibly the world's economy to achieve their ends. By holding up a vote on what had been a traditional rubber stamp for decades by both political parties to raise the debt limit, they sought to extort compliance with their own demands irrespective of the destruction that might ensue if their demands were not met. This conduct strikes at the very foundations of our democracy and the future of our country.
The same is true of the use, or rather the abuse, of the filibuster rule and need for a super-majority. The filibuster rule was enacted and reserved for those rare occasions when the minority was so incensed or outraged by legislation or appointments proposed by the majority or the president that it used this rule to defeat them. For years, an actual filibuster was required. Now, no one need stand in the well of the Senate and actually filibuster, the mere threat is sufficient, and the rule is used in a trivial manner to defeat or delay virtually all important legislation or appointments proposed by the majority. (I have previously expressed my ambivalence over the survival of 60 vote rule.) ...
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Republicans, even House challengers, are distancing themselves from the proposed Medicare cuts in Paul D. Ryan's budget plan, even as he and Mitt Romney urge them to embrace it.
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