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

is party discipline "more stringent" now? the democrats certainly don't seem to have good party discipline.

dems have poor discipline only in comparison to the GOP--and when you have huge majorities the way dems do its much harder to keep yr whole party in line (not to mention its easier to keep a party in line on the opposition).

but compare now to the first half of this century--big divisions in both parties, usually geographical

when you have huge majorities the way dems do its much harder to keep yr whole party in line

yeah, this is absolutely right. it's what's complicated the push for HCR.

Democrats and Republicans are essentially the same

anyway party discipline doesnt bug me--what bugs is that weve got parties voting, more or less, in lock step, but the mechanisms and procedures of (the upper house of) our gov't arent designed for that kind of parliamentary-style party-line voting

I haven't kept up. Did the "Miss me yet?" Bush billboard make an appearance on the thread yet?

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2010/02/bush_miss_me_yet_author_author.html

I saw the fucker when I was in MN last month. Made me rant all the way to the Twin Cities.

This is awesome: http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/exclusive-sarah-palins-debut-motivat

How lovely, and bonus karma points for the venue, the Toyota Center.

fox keeps playing this promo for tonight's hannity show "is sarah palin running for president? she isn't saying.." but every time it's been on, i've only heard it before looking at the screen to read the actual words, so at first i thought they said "is sarah palin running for president? she's insane."

fox & friends had a bunch of lingerie models on today, brian and steve were so embarrassing i had to turn the volume all the way down

so u could concentrate on the lingerie models

i secretly really like brian. i can't explain this. he's such a good sport about being silly on tv. doocy seems to have this not-so-well-hidden bitter, angry streak. not that i actually watch the show, at that hour i can only tolerate the npr.

brian is my fave by a long shot--steve is an asshole, plain and simple

gretchen is incomprehensible. the daily show segment on her was one of my favorite things theyve ever done.

so u could concentrate on the lingerie models

yes i would concentrate on the lingerie models

doocy seems to have this not-so-well-hidden bitter, angry streak.

totally. he's like the conservative gumby ("i'm doocy dammit").

the daily show ran a thing a while back about how steve & brian turned into drooling mongoloids when then had the lingerie football league players (iirc) on the show

yeah and then gretchen comes out like "this is the best thing ever on tv!!!!"

i was looking for that clip but this one is funnier
double entendres

so what do we make of this

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/clinton-voters-jump-ship

It means that whoever wrote this:

Reviewing the primary fight, Michael Barone noted that Obama got majorities “from whites only in his home state (Illinois), in states where the white Democratic primary electorate is unusually upscale and non-Jewish (Virginia, Vermont), and in mountain states where the cultural divide is not black-white.” This racial divide, Barone explained, was part of a larger, cultural divide between Jacksonians and academics. “In state after state, we have seen Obama do extraordinarily well in academic and state capital enclaves. In state after state, we have seen Clinton do extraordinarily well in enclaves dominated by Jacksonians.

...is an imbecile.

is Buchanan County really that important? serious question

Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Barone:

http://www.americainthebalance.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/w-michael-barone.JPG

seems like a good way for conservatives to stir up shit from the primaries (which a lot of people have not gotten over) by talking about 'clinton voters' and to do some pretty questionable analysis on three statewide races in which obama was not the candidate, the candidates themselves were not popular, some of them sucked at being candidates, the issues in the campaigns were different, and corzine's approval rating as governor was like in the low 30s because of NJ specific issues.

The Bush "miss me yet" is evidence towards my long-held suspicion that if W had the ability to run a third time he would actually have a good chance of winning. And yes I think that little of my fellow countrymen and women.

upon further reflection, and seeing the video of her checking it...

come on guys. The notes on the hand thing was mega stupid. Quayle stupid. So stupid that it's fair, not just "gotcha," to bring it up in the context of "is this person so fucking dumb/out of it that she's unelectable?"

Dont try to defend fox y fwiends. i assure you they are all repellant

I'm seriously thinking back on it now as dumber than anything quayle did/said.

Maybe in time it's gonna sink in?

Did the rightwing media do as good of a job of brushing off his idiocy as they do Sarah's? I remember in my youth thinking that he was just a joke and would never be a serious presidential contender, and that this was the accepted narrative.

Labor's lost year:

For American labor, year one of Barack Obama's presidency has been close to an unmitigated disaster....

By my count, this marks the fourth time in the past half-century that labor's efforts to strengthen workers' ability to organize have been deferred by the Democratic presidents and the heavily Democratic Congresses they supported. In 1965, about the only piece of Great Society legislation not enacted was the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act provision that gave states the power to block unions from claiming as members all the employees in workplaces where they had won contracts. In 1979, as American management was beginning to invest heavily in union-busting endeavors, the first effort to reform labor law failed to win cloture in the Senate by one vote as President Jimmy Carter stood idly by. In 1994, President Bill Clinton responded to a similar labor-backed effort by appointing a commission to recommend changes in labor law to the next Congress -- which turned out to be run by Newt Gingrich. And last year, by asking his labor supporters to wait, Obama ensured -- unintentionally, of course -- that the next effort to revive organizing must wait until the next overwhelmingly Democratic Congress....

What will life be like in an America with almost no private-sector unions or collective bargaining? We had a glimpse of that during George W. Bush's presidency, in which the unionization rate was already so low that median household incomes declined even as gross domestic product rose. It's also apparent that a deunionized private sector won't readily support -- politically or economically -- a unionized or expansive public sector....

No nation has ever been home to a middle-class majority absent a sizable labor movement. In their failure to advance labor's prospects, the Democrats condemn themselves to a future of fewer Democratic voters and their nation to a future of mass downward mobility.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/09/AR2010020902465.html

I remember in my youth thinking that he was just a joke

Same here. I was 6-9 years old when he was VP, but even then, just by occasionally observing NBC nightly news in the background, I thought that he was a complete idiot.

anybody who cites michael barone's analysis of anything approvingly, well, good luck to you

Quayle represented the statistical means of intelligence for a veep.

you're right about labor getting a shitty deal, and you'd also be right to blame the worst institution in the US, the senate, again:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-09/becker-labor-board-nomination-held-up-after-senate-cloture-vote.html

The capper on the whole hand-note thing is how she wrote "budget cuts" and put a line through "budget" and wrote "tax". Not only is it something a C-student would do when writing a paper in high school, it demonstrates the how little she has mentally invested in her policies.

Like she's presented this MADLIB: "Republicans have long stood for _______ cuts" and she writes budget. Despite the fact that she campaigned as the republican vice presidential candidate! She doesn't believe any of it, which is why she couldn't remember the easiest political MADLIB in the book!

It also displays the imagination land that the GOP platform resides in, which is something Obama pointed out at the Q&A when reading from their health care reform package. You can cross out "budget" cuts and put in "tax" cuts and somehow there are no fiscal consequences. I want to see their math!

If anything, the hand notes incident will probably just help Palin rather than harm her. I think a good portion of the country has moved from wanting a leader who is not an "elitist" to wanting someone who is demonstratively unintelligent and who goes to great lengths to show it. At this point, the more foolish and ignorant she looks, the more her profile goes up.

"Last night Piper asked me to tell her a bedtime story and I said 'YOU BETCHA,' let me tell you about two brothers named Abel and Cain..."

want something horrible to happen to this lady and fast

sorry but it is true

if you wish that, she can't be the GOP nominee in 2012. think of all the lozls that would be lost.

sorry, "lols." all the lols are yearning to be free.

nate silver with some data: first look at palin's primary math

Why are all the nerds doing this lady's homework for her?

haha yeah i had the same reaction when i read that post, "hmm veddy interesting mistah silvah, now i must destroy you lest this plan fall into the WRONG HANDS"

i don't think palin has a chance, even if nate silver became part of her staff

Also am trying to LOL at Sullivan going apeshit about Palin instead of joining him in an o_0 at her whole end times/prosperity gospel bullshit.

Being a journalist/writer/whatever, I do think it would be fairly impossible to elect someone who wasn't prepared (either in the homework or the attitude sense) to take difficult questions from the press. It's not possible to hide from the media forever, even when a network is helping you.

Palin is so fucked - I look forward to her being a drag on the Republican Party for years to come

wish i had your confidence. i'd rather she just go away.

she's like Perot, a spoiler figure. she has limited appeal, she's an idiot who won't be able to run a decent campaign, a majority of the public already hates/distrusts her, the GOP establishment doesn't like her - how many obstacles in her way are enough for you?

i have to say, though i agree palin is a spoiler figure who will never hold elected office again, that one of the things that troubled me the most about the whole sordid john edwards affair saga, is that the national press corps knew something was up, and sat on it or didn't pursue it.. that, and hearing commentators like chris matthews say that he always thought edwards had no substance. really? you thought that & thought it was a-ok that he is able to present himself via the media, to the american public, as someone who is qualified and knowledgeable?

what does having an affair have to do with "substance" anyway?