US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

http://www.newpatriotjournal.com/PostImages/974e37c9-607c-4c24-8f6e-d72f6add6fd5.jpeg

At the risk of creating false equivalences, what did Walter Mondale, Dukakis, and Gore have to offer as "substance"?

Gore certainly had a little and that little was more than his opponent.

LOL at Trojan horse of socialism.

the trojan horse with apparently no space to actually hide anything inside lol

There's a copy of "Das Kapital" and Mao's Little Red Book in there iirc.

I was gonna comment on that photo but I've been in the bread line all morning long and now I'm just too cold and tired to think of anything to say.

And a Che t-shirt. xp

the palin "writing notes on her hand" thing seriously has me wondering if she's like a deep cover operative for tina fey

Shelby lets go of most of his holds.

Kind of heartened by BTL comments under the piece, like for once in my life. Also, friend's appointment back on track!

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b6b4700a-10fb-11df-9a9e-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

Clemons also thinks that the Chicago team sucks
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2010/02/core_chicago_te/

"Any serious survey of the Obama administration's accomplishments and setbacks over the last year has to conclude that the administration is deeply in the red.

If current trends continue, this once mesmerizing Camelot-ish operation will be be seen in the history books as the presidential administration that -- to distort slightly and inversely paraphrase Churchill -- never have so many talented people managed to achieve so little with so much."

newsflash there

to distort slightly and inversely paraphrase

Really reaching for that namedrop.

that is terrific

Satire, people:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62RgDII17M0

wow who woulda thought a campaign team wouldn't be suitable for governing

lot of anonymous sourcing in that article

"Any serious survey of the Obama administration's accomplishments and setbacks over the last year has to conclude that the administration is deeply in the red.

If current trends continue, this once mesmerizing Camelot-ish operation will be be seen in the history books as the presidential administration that -- to distort slightly and inversely paraphrase Churchill -- never have so many talented people managed to achieve so little with so much."

― I Am Lord Al's Bitch aka the Village Idiot (Dandy Don Weiner), Monday, February 8, 2010 11:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

just... *rmde* at this. any "serious" survey? if by "serious" u mean... not paying attention then i suppose so yes

just throwing this out there--if martha coakley had run a halfway decent campaign, or if ted kennedy had held on another 6 months those articles would be celebrating rahm emanuels abilities and barack obamas 1st year

haven't read the article yet, but . . . the media narrative that the obama administration is incompetent and bumbling is silly.

I'd heard c. inauguration that Kennedy was already on borrowed time, but if Republicans want to think 'hey, meet my truck' is a good campaign slogan, let them.

yeah im not um blaming kennedy for dying

Where was that suggested? Dude was very lucky and well-cared for to stretch the end of his life out as long as he did. There seems also to be an agreement amongst commentators that women trying to get elected to the Senate or as governor in MA have a much tougher time than male candidates, due to Masshole bloc vote. Coakley ran a shitty campaign too, such a bonus.

the media narrative that the obama administration is incompetent and bumbling is silly

Sure, just look at this track record! It's like Aragorn has cometh.

HEY MAYNE HE TOOK TIL THE THIRD YEAR TO GIT ER DONE

even elrond doubted him in year 2 iirc

srsly Daniel, Esq., they planned for things to go this swimmingly? You pep squad members always top yourselves.

I would argue that Obama's administration has been impotent rather than incompetent, knowing that arguing about semantics is really just an exercise in avoiding doing work.

i know no one cares but they have accomplished a hell of a lot, and the only reason people are saying otherwise is because scott brown won MA and hcr hasnt been passed yet

the other team gets to play too

and i say that w/out passing judgment on the things that have been accomplished--just saying that pretending that obama hasnt done anything (thanks either to 'impotence' or 'incompetence') is... willfully buying into a not-particularly-true narrative

Let's add "narrative" to the list of banned words like "rescr**ned."

I don't think that saying they've been impotent in accomplishing everything they've wanted to do is the same as saying they've accomplished nothing.

Hooray, more work avoided!

k thats fair

It sucks but even preserving the status quo re. the distribution of wealth in the USA is an "accomplishment", as opposed to the wholesale redistribution of wealth the GOP will continue to enable should "we" give them the reins again.

yeah it's pretty important to compare not only how the dems are doing w/r/t what was promised, but also w/r/t how the GOP would be doing.

To truly do a thorough job of comparing, let's rescreen the narrative.

Let's not. The optics are bad.

I don't think that saying they've been impotent in accomplishing everything they've wanted to do is the same as saying they've accomplished nothing.

^^^^ This.

(in response to Dr. M's question to me, above)

I mean, given everything talked up during the campaign, a letdown was inevitable. However, I wish Obama had been more willing to spend political capital and had focused more on one thing; normally I appreciate people who are willing to tackle multiple problems at once but the amount of headway made hasn't been worth it, IMO. He still could have done the multiprong strategy had he gone after something that apparently would have been pretty simple to propose and push through (DADT: the response from the military heads has pretty much convinced me that Obama could have just said "okay, stop this shit" and they would have been like "FINALLY! COME BACK, GAY LINGUISTS!" with open arms) and that success would have reminded the Democrats that it is possible for them to win, delaying the inevitable slide back into whiny bitchdom by at least another year.

(to be clear I'm talking about the Democrats in Congress there)

read me a bedtime narrative

ATTENTION DADT ADVOCATES: http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/02/09/Dan_Choi_Back_in_Active_Duty/

RAD. Rock on, Dan Choi!! Highly impressed ever since he guested on Maddow. Score one for the good side.

Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, and Tim Geithner were not part of the campaign but they are part of the problem.

Word. Summers and Geithner are clowns.

DADT really is toast, isn't it? And sooner than anyone ever thought this administration would get there.

Now with healthcare there's apparently this thing where Congress people are to be inundated with calls on 24/25 February, before the televised meeting. I am all for listening to what GOP have to say, but it will have to stop at some solid point, rather than this line-in-the-sand crap. Listen, then lead. It's very simple.

I think this push on campaign-mode pieces is a managed narrative. Obama v. teatards is a rewrite of high-school social bullying tactics on the part of the latter which any mature person would advise another to 'just ignore' in real life but in politics, nobody advises that course. As to staff, I really don't know what Summers is doing but after his dumb sexist comments of a few years back, I was disappointed he was appointed at all; am willing to give Rahm props for now - he's from the House and they did at least offer a public option in their healthcare bill. Geithner's dad worked with, and was a friend of, Obama's mother - for that amongst a host of other reasons, Geithner probably around for awhile. Agreed that he probably shouldn't be.

The Republican talking points on health insurance these days are we do too have ideas---1.Tort Reform and 2. Buying Insurance across state lines. But no one ever confronts them on these. I heard an NPR story that Tort Reform was passed in Texas and has not lowered health insurance costs, and anyway it is a tiny portion of health care expenditures (plus most people do not sue). But the Republicans continue to push tort reform as the greatest thing ever and insist only trial lawyers object to it. Obama failed to confront it and opened the door to it by proposing a study.

Buying insurance across state lines will require regulators within states to become familiar with more plans and will encourage the growth of plans that do not provide much.