The Commentariat -- September 4
Maureen Dowd: "Just as Obama miscalculated in 2009 when Democrats had total control of Congress, holding out hope that G.O.P. lawmakers would come around on health care after all but three senators had refused to vote for the stimulus bill; just as he misread John Boehner this summer, clinging like a scorned lover to a dream that the speaker would drop his demanding new inamorata, the Tea Party, to strike a 'grand' budget bargain, so the president once more set a trap for himself and gave Boehner the opportunity to dis him on the timing of his jobs speech this week."
Frank Bruni: "Who's smarter? Barack Obama or Rick Perry? "Instead of talking about how smart politicians are or aren’t, we should have an infinitely more useful, meaningful conversation about whether we share and respect their values and whether they have shown themselves to be effective. Someone who rates high on both counts is someone to rally unreservedly around. Right now, neither Perry nor Obama fits that double bill."
** I've posted a Dowd-Bruni comments page on Off Times Square, but if you want to comment on something else, feel free.
** Economist Bob Reich, who was Labor Secretary during the Clinton Administration, writes a very good short history of American fiscal policy in a New York Times op-ed: "During periods when the very rich took home a much smaller proportion of total income — as in the Great Prosperity between 1947 and 1977 — the nation as a whole grew faster and median wages surged. We created a virtuous cycle in which an ever growing middle class had the ability to consume more goods and services, which created more and better jobs, thereby stoking demand. The rising tide did in fact lift all boats." ...
... The New York Times Editorial Board outlines what President Obama should say in his jobs speech. CW: fat chance. ...
The DeLong Confession. Economist Brad DeLong tells of giving top Obama Administration officials a talking-to in early 2010 -- you know, explaining Econ 101 to them -- and they didn't get it. DeLong admits, "... I think of my confidence in December 2008 and January 2009 that the Obama administration understood that you needed not economic policies that sounded good and polled good but economic policies that actually worked, and I wince." CW: this is a very readable post. Apparently Krugman has had the same conversation with some of these same usual suspects, with the same results. They -- and the President -- as I've said before, are not all that bright.
Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "The Republican field is entering a pivotal stage as candidates increasingly move beyond criticizing and start to run against one another. The outcome of three debates in the next three weeks — starting Wednesday night, the first time Mr. Perry, Mr. Romney and Mrs. Bachmann will face each other — will influence fund-raising, shape strategy and set perceptions as the candidates hurtle toward the start of voting early next year. In both parties, there is now a sense that the president’s political frailty, underscored by the report on Friday that showed zero net job creation in August and new projections that unemployment will remain elevated until Election Day, is even greater than it appeared at the start of the summer, injecting additional energy and urgency to the Republican primary race."
"What Was He Thinking?" Juliet Eilperin & Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "President Obama’s controversial decision last week to suspend new anti-smog standards offered hints — but not the full road map — of how the White House will navigate politically explosive battles with congressional Republicans over which industry regulations to sacrifice and which ones to fight for this fall.... Most notable in the smog decision was that Obama made it himself — undercutting his own Environmental Protection Agency leadership and siding with industry officials.... And yet ... advocates on both sides are left wondering what broader strategy may be guiding the White House...." ...
... Leslie Kaufman of the New York Times: "... representatives of ... environmental groups saw the president’s actions [to drop new ozone pollution standards] as brazen political sellouts to business interests and the Republican Party, which regards environmental regulations as job killers and a brick wall to economic recovery. The question for environmentalists became, what to do next?" John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group based in New York, said "his group would resume a smog lawsuit against the government that it had dropped because it had been lulled into believing that this administration would enact tougher regulations without being forced to do so by the courts.” ...
... AND Steve Benen asks, "... even if West Wing officials sincerely believed these ozone standards would be bad the job market, why not keep this realization close to their chest, and then trade it to Republicans in exchange for something else? Why not use the rules as a bargaining chip?
Brent Budowsky, writing in The Hill, plays "If Al Gore Had Been Inaugurated": "A recent poll by '60 Minutes' and Vanity Fair found that a majority of Americans, and a majority of Democrats, do not believe things would have changed much if Al Gore had been inaugurated president in January 2001.... The Gore v. Bush poll is breathtaking." After Budowsky compils a laundry list of stuff Gore would have done differently from Bush, he writes, "It is a sad commentary about Democrats today, especially but not only President Obama, that Democrats feel so depressed and let down that they cannot tell the difference between eight years of President George W. Bush and eight years of President Gore." CW: An interesting commentary; in other words, Obama has tarnished the reputations of all elected Democrats, including Al Gore.
Oh, Great. Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "At least one in seven Afghan soldiers walked off the job during the first six months of this year, according to statistics compiled by NATO that show an increase in desertion.... At one point this summer, the pace of desertions climbed to an annualized rate of 35 percent, though it has since declined.... Afghan and U.S. military officials also said poor leadership is a main reason soldiers desert the ranks."
A New Twist in the Strange Case of Abdel-Hakim Belhadj. Patrick McDonnell & Ken Dilanian of the Los Angeles Times: "A few years ago, documents show, Belhadj was a wanted Islamic militant whom the CIA handed over for 'debriefing' to the government of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, then an ally in the fight against terrorism. Today, Belhadj is a top military commander in the provisional Libyan government and Kadafi is on the run, his government toppled, in part, by U.S. and allied airstrikes."
Right Wing World
Kevin Sack of the New York Times: "The three most prominent current or former governors running for president — , and — are firmly united in their commitment to repealing ’s health care law. But that unanimity masks a broad divergence in their approaches to the issue while in office, spanning the spectrum of Republican positioning.... Each of the governors has vulnerabilities, and they have sought thus far to credential themselves less by their own past records than by their current opposition to what is officially known as the Affordable Care Act."
Local News
What's Wrong with This Picture: Jennifer Gollan & Sydney Lupkin of the Bay Citizen: California has been spending more and more on prisons & less and less on higher education. The result: the state now spends more on prisons than on university education. The picture:
Graphic by Bay Citizen.
News Ledes
President Obama visits New Jersey, where power still has not been reconnected since Hurricane Irene, & flood damage is rife:
... New York Times: in Paterson, New Jersey, ", surveying some of the most crippling flood damage from , vowed on Sunday that budgetary wrangling in Washington would not delay federal aid to stricken communities."
AP (via the NYT): "The center of Tropical Storm Lee lurched across Louisiana's Gulf Coast early Sunday, dumping torrential rains that threatened flooding in low-lying communities in a foreshadowing of what cities further inland could face in coming days." The Times-Picayune is carrying this story by the National Weather Service; includes related links. Here's the Weather Channel's main story.
New York Times: "The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation this month over a plan by to seek recognition as a state at the , but it may already be too late, according to senior American officials and foreign diplomats."
Al Jazeera: "Libyan fighters outside Bani Walid, a key city still controlled by supporters of toppled leader Muammar Gaddafi, have told Al Jazeera that efforts to negotiate a peaceful handover have ended. An official for the National Transitional Council (NTC) said fighters were preparing to take the town by force after talks ended on Sunday." With video. AP story here. ...
... New York Times Update: "Rebel forces in said Sunday that they were on the verge of winning a peaceful surrender of Bani Walid, one of Col. ’s last remaining strongholds, as thousands of rebel fighters converged on the town."
Guardian: "Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday night in Israel's biggest ever demonstration to demand social justice, a lower cost of living and a clear government response to the concerns of an increasingly squeezed middle class. About 430,000 people took part in marches and rallies across the country, according to police. The biggest march was in Tel Aviv, where up to 300,000 took part." Haaretz story here.
New York Times: ", the former head of the and onetime hopeful for the French presidency, returned to his native land early on Sunday morning, in a low-key coda to the international furor that erupted when he was arrested in mid-May and charged with sexually assaulting a New York hotel housekeeper."
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