All-Purpose NuILX thread for American Politics

basically there's a difference between 'the numbers look better for us in colorado than ohio' and 'obama gives up on poor whites'. if anything the story is 'poor whites gave up on obama'.

http://takingnote.tcf.org/2008/11/digging-into-th.html

(also mostly didn't vote for him in 2008)

That NYT article just accepts the reality that Reagan Democrats are now Rush Republicans.

The New Deal Coalition — which included unions, city machines, blue-collar workers, farmers, blacks, people on relief, and generally non-affluent progressive intellectuals — had the advantage of economic coherence. It received support across the board from voters of all races and religions in the bottom half of the income distribution, the very coherence the current Democratic coalition lacks.

Yes, although FDR flip-flopped a bit too. If Obama and the Democratic Party had offered a strong and consistent and coherent economic message (lets pretend the blue dogs and the Goldman Sachs crowd didn't exist) would that have won back Rush Republicans, or just aggravated them more?

we haven't had rush republicans for a long time and there's good reason to believe that the reason goes beyond economics.

we = San Francisco?

oh I'm sorry were you not aware I am a registered democrat

lets call the next politics thread #heblowsalot

sounds good to me

Iatee, I know there are/were cultural and race issues as well and that one can trace things back to attacks on Dem candidate Adlai Stevenson in the 1950s for being an egghead, and later the Republican southern strategy, and hippie bashing...As the article noted:

In an interview, Greenberg, speaking of white working class voters, said that in the period from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, “we battled to get them back. They were sizable in number and central to the base of the Democratic Party.” At the time, he added, “we didn’t know that we would never get them back, that they were alienated and dislodged.”

Also, "we" still have blue dog Dems

Not that they help

2010 wiped out a lot of them actually

I naively dream that someday liberal/lefty ideas will win over the non-college degree demographic (and even win over the Democratic party too). It's all a dream...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/judge-rejects-sec-citigroup-settlement/2011/11/28/gIQA8KsH5N_story.html?hpid=z1

But this is real, and is good news (though slighly depressing but expected that Obama's SEC would push a weak settlement that only benefited Citigroup)

shd we start a separate Republican primary thread, because lol:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/28/politics/cain-accusation-affair/index.html

Just like black walnut ice cream, Herman Cain tastes good all the time. (stares at ILX and takes a thoughtful drag on his cigarette).

lol, herman cain.

pretty soon people will be able to set up a "6-degrees-of-herman-cain" game, based on your proximity to some woman, somewhere, who has been harassed or dated the man whose been screaming "999" into your television set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9njHHyRI7g

I don't know...effective, but too early, looks panicky. And in a poor economy, I think the flip-flop strategy will cause massive shrugging. I also suspect, as unfair as it may be, that for a number of voters, Democratic flip-flopper (i.e., Kerry) = weak, spineless, but Republican flip-flopper = pragmatic, has no choice but to head-fake all the wingnuts.

OK, we need a primary thread in this here sandbox.

seriously, i don't think it's a very effective ad. there are much better clips to highlight romney's flip-flopping, and might tighter -- and tougher -- ways to go about it. i think perry's team did a very good job with their first ad, for instance.

but of course, obama has a top-flight campaign organization. this leads me to believe that they're "holding their powder," and will hammer romney with the better stuff in the general election.

IF ROMNEY IS THE NOMINEE

http://www.mediaite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Newt_Gingrich.jpg

man that's begging for some homophotoshopping

<i>and much tighter -- and tougher -- ways to go about it.</i>

Agree with that. I think the biggest problem with the spot is that it's too jokey--the tone's all wrong.

Hertzberg's elegy to Barney Frank's house career.

...His press conference today, announcing his decision, was a fairly typical performance. He talked in his inimitable manner: fast, deadpan-humorous, lucid, sharp, delivering zingers in that gravelly voice of his, with its characteristic glottal L’s and fugitive R’s. He is a pleasure to listen to. Frank is frank. He does not bore. He does not condescend. He makes the complicated comprehensible. Going out, he’s as outgoing as he was coming in.

Frank may not have been simon-pure, but he was usually living in one of the better neighborhoods of politics and he was a pleasure to hear speak.

yup

In many ways you can judge him by the quality of his enemies.

Reviewing Justice Kagan's performances so far.

Lithwick also agrees with "most legal" experts that SCOTUS will uphold the AHCA by " a 6-3 or a 7-2 margin."

In many ways you can judge him by the quality of his enemies.

Nope. Wouldn't be all that hated if not gay. In the pocket of Wall St.

Frum's article in NYMag is pretty interesting: When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?

Much more honest than Chait's.

yeah, that frum piece was good.

In the aughts, Republicans held more power for longer than at any time since the twenties, yet the result was the weakest and least broadly shared economic expansion since World War II, followed by an economic crash and prolonged slump.

really can't beat this for a damning indictment of the GOP

that was barney frank's fault.

smile when you say that, mate

i am smiling.

http://www.billybobteeth.com/album/images/Barry1_jpg.jpg

obama shops at independent bookstore (albeit one that likely only exists because of its restaurant).

if he hadn't sold out, he'd have gone to politics and prose.

(fwiw bill clinton used to shop at borders)

Obama’s daughters Sasha and Malia picked up picture book Everyone Poops

aaaaaaahahahahahaha, right on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_Republican

Support for Obama from writers afflicted with conservatism

obv belongs in the amazing wiki facts thread but i don't think there's a sandbox version

Ruth Marcus lectures the girl who said Brownback sucked.

I always get the impression that Ruth Marcus gets her news from CNN Headlines and then writes her pieces in one quick draft just before they are due.

It's a shame her editor doesn't shoot her every time.

marcus does sound "alarmingly crotchety here," and utterly wrong. attempting to invoke the limited rights of schools to restrain free-speech is utterly absurd in this instance. and, while i expect civility and propriety in my own 10 year-old daughter, i think it's good to see a teenager motivated enough to tweet about politics at all (even tho it would be better for her to actually discuss, or even participate in, politics).

“Just made mean comments at ruth marcs and told her she sucked, in person. #sheblowsalot.”

i would have spelled "marcus" correctly and in full, but i was just over the 140 character limit.

daniel otm

...and the term "potty-mouthed" is a nauseatingly priggish one, anyway, esp. in reference to two words mild enough to be used on US broadcast TV.