The Commentariat -- October 24

Christina Romer, who recently quit her job as Chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers so she could help her son with his schoolwork (right!) is now available for speaking engagements & has fit in the time to write an "economic view" in the New York Times advising that now is not the time to cut the deficit.

Frank Rich never disappoints. "No matter how much Obama talks about his 'tough' new financial regulatory reforms or offers rote condemnations of Wall Street greed, few believe there’s been real change.... The loftiest perpetrators of this national devastation got get-out-of-jail-free cards, that too-big-to-fail banks have grown bigger and that the rich are still the only Americans getting richer. This intractable status quo is being rubbed in our faces daily during the pre-election sprint by revelations of the latest banking industry outrage...." ...

... Here's A. O. Scott's review of "Inside Job," the documentary "about the causes & consequences of the financial crisis of 2008," to which Rich referred in his column. Here's the trailer:

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Although he will not say so, there is at least a plausible argument that [President Obama] might be better off if they lose. The reality of presidential politics is that it helps to have an enemy." ...

... AND Mark Leibovich of the New York Times compares President Obama's 2008 & 2010 campaign speeches.

David Graham of Newsweek: "... the latest NEWSWEEK Poll (full results) shows that [Democrats] remain in a close race with Republicans 12 days before Election Day, while the president’s approval ratings have climbed sharply. The poll finds that 48 percent of registered voters would be more likely to vote for Democrats, compared with 42 percent who lean Republican.... President Obama’s approval ratings have jumped substantially, crossing the magic halfway threshold to 54 percent, up from 48 percent in late September...." ...

... BUT Nate Silver, who is never wrong, writes, "Republican chances of taking over the House are now up to 80 percent, according to the FiveThirtyEight forecast model; they had been 75 percent two days ago."

"Boot the Bluedogs." Ari Berman of The Nation argues in a New York Times op-ed that "Democrats would be in better shape, and would accomplish more, with a smaller and more ideologically cohesive caucus":

A smaller majority, minus the intraparty feuding, could benefit Democrats in two ways: first, it could enable them to devise cleaner pieces of legislation, without blatantly trading pork for votes.... (As a corollary, the narrative of 'Democratic infighting' would also diminish.) Second, in the Senate, having a majority of 52 rather than 59 or 60 would force Democrats to confront the Republicans’ incessant misuse of the filibuster.... -- Ari Berman

So What Is the Tea Party? Amy Gardner: "a new Washington Post canvass of hundreds of local tea party groups reveals an ... organization ... that is not so much a movement as a disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings that do surprisingly little to engage in the political process.... The breadth of the tea party may be inflated." ...

... Know what the tea party's foreign policy platform is? No? they don't know either. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Among the more than 100 candidates who claim Tea Party support, opinions about foreign policy range from severely isolationist to unapologetically assertive of America’s role in the world. And in between are many candidates who appear to have spent little time at all thinking about such issues."

CW: Reader Lisa just turned me on to 82-year-old Helen, who blogs with Margaret, her friend of 60 years. A good place to get started is this post: "I can see November on my TV ... so I turned it off."

"A Bill Cosby Liberal." John Gerstein of Politico: "Fox News commentator Brit Hume is charging that race played a role in National Public Radio's decision to fire Juan Williams last week after he made a comment on a Fox show about being concerned when he saw airline passengers in 'Muslim garb.'" Here's the video:

** Stephanie Simon & Stephanie Banchero of the Wall Street Journal: "As budget pressures mount, legislators and governors are increasingly demanding data proving that money given to colleges is well spent."

Being Dick Cheney Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry, Part 2. Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post. Dick Cheney never apologized to Valerie Plame for revealing her CIA covert status. (Part 1 is here, way at the bottom of the page.)

Nicholas Kristof examines the plights of Afghan women & concludes that "we’re [not] doing favors for Afghan women by investing American blood and treasure in an unsustainable war here. The road to emancipate Afghan women will be arduous, but it runs through schools and economic development — and, yes, a peace deal with the Taliban, if that’s possible." ...

... "DIY Foreign Aid." Kristof has a long piece in the Magazine on American women who are working to improve conditions in underdeveloped countries.

Supremely Bad Judgment. Maureen Dowd makes sport of the Thomases, Clarence & Ginni, much to my delight.

I was surprised by how delusional her account was, but I think she was so desperate to offer some explanation to her devoted followers. -- Nicolle Wallace, John McCain's campaign press secretary, on Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue

I mean in hindsight, she never should have done any interviews. I wish she’d just Tweeted. She should have been our Twitterer. But at the time, I grossly overestimated her capacity to answer questions about world affairs, about how her personal points of view were shaped. -- Wallace on Palin's brain

David Fallis of the Washington Post: In the D.C. area, one gun store, Realco, has sold guns tied to 2,500 crimes, more than four times as many as to the next-highest store. "The Post investigation found that a small percentage of gun stores sells most of the weapons recovered by police in crimes.... For the most part, these sales are legal, but an unknown number involve persons who buy for those who cannot ... in a process known as a "straw purchase." Such sales are illegal for the buyer and the store.... But cases are hard to prove. Law enforcement officials rarely prosecute gun stores, deterred by high bureaucratic hurdles, political pressure and laws that make convictions difficult." There is a related series of videos here, that self-load.

Valerie Elverton Dixon in the Washington Post: Jesus could not be elected to Congress.