McCain mentions Obama’s pricey new helicopter; Obama says he doesn’t really want it

4 comments February 23rd, 2009

POSTSCRIPT: A little more about that helicopter HERE.

TPM does the day in 100 seconds

Add comment February 23rd, 2009

Poll: 61 percent side with Obama over GOP on economy; 26 percent favor Republicans

16 comments February 23rd, 2009

 

President Obama and the Democrats are doing pretty well in NEW POLLS released today by Gallup and ABC News/Washington Post, respectively.

In the WaPo survey, big majorities support both the stimulus bill and the mortgage proposal.

That same poll shows that Americans prefer the Democrats over Republicans, by a margin of almost 2-to-1, to handle the “big issues” over the next few years.

UPDATE: There’s more good news for Obama in another NEW POLL released tonight, this one from NYT/CBS. My favorite part of the story says this:

“About three-quarters of those polled, including 61 percent of Republicans, said Mr. Obama has been trying to work with Republicans. But only 3 in 10 Americans said Republicans are doing the same, with 63 percent saying that Republicans opposed the economic stimulus package primarily for political reasons rather than policy concerns.”

UPDATE II: HERE’s a Reuters story distilling the results of the ABC/Washington Post and CBS/New York Times polls.

Graphing 60 years of U.S. debt by president

6 comments February 23rd, 2009

Read more about this HERE, and then tell me which party’s presidents have shown greater fiscal responsibility. (Hint: The correct answer does not start with “R.”)

Do we want the truth about our economic problems? Or do we prefer whistling in the dark?

4 comments February 23rd, 2009

 

 Frank Rich WONDERS whether we really want to know how far down the economic hole we might be headed. 

 Mind you, Rich isn’t saying we’re doomed; he’s just sugggesting that Americans historically “must hear warning signs repeatedly, for months and sometimes years, before believing the wolf is actually at the door.”

An outrageous case of hanging crepe

7 comments February 23rd, 2009

 

 While hospitalized with a potentially serous ailment about 20 years ago, I received a darkly funny get-well card from a lovably scampish nephew.

 The front of the card read: “Sorry to hear you’re sick.”

 Inside it said: “Hope you don’t die.”

 That card somehow came to mind when I read today that U.S. Senator Jim Bunning, the Kentucky Republican, PUBLICLY PREDICTED over the weekend that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be dead from cancer within nine months.

 Unlike my nephew in the case of my illness, Bunning offered not a hint of sympathy for Ginsburg or hope that all would turn out well for her. Rather, his context was a reiteration of his support for conservative justices on the high court. Ginsburg is a liberal.

 (By the way, Ginsburg was expected BACK AT WORK today after undergoing surgery a few weeks ago.)

 Imagine the howls we would have heard from right-wingers if some Democratic senator had similarly hung crepe when Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, SUFFERED a seizure at his summer home a couple of years ago. We would have never heard the end of it.

 But I’ve yet to hear any strong condemnations of Bunning from our right-wing friends.

 Bunning, as you might surmise, has never been known as the brightest bulb in the pack (he almost seems to think that a conservative could be named to replace Justice Ginsburg, as if Barack Obama didn’t win the presidential election), and his fellow Republican senators apparently wouldn’t mind if he retired (as it says HERE.)

 I, too, would like to see Bunning take a hike.  But I don’t wish him dead. I’m not that cold.

George Will favors taking away your right to elect U.S. senators and giving it to state legislators

3 comments February 23rd, 2009

 

Prior to 1913, U.S. senators were elected not by popular vote but by state legislators, per the U.S. Constitution.

The Seventeenth Amendment, which changed the arrangement, was adopted because of corruption in the old system.

That amendment, OPINES conservative columnist George Will, should be repealed.

If I were a betting man, and I am, I’d wager a farthing or two that repeal of the 17th amendment has as much chance as Dan Quayle winning a spelling bee.