Barth's picture

    Right and Wrong: The Post Election Edition

    When Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly were helping to define what news reported on television would mean determined that

    Decader's picture

    The Left Has No Foreign Policy

    I guess that's not a surprise.

    But after several years of blogging, with Dems in control for quite a bit of it, it's frustrating to see that we don't have an alternative to up-and-down in the Middle East.

    My biggest issue is NAFTA and China. Are they related? Kinda sorta. Mostly they're the swamp of our attention. (I saw House of Spirits last night, but won't bore you with where *THAT* takes me).

    CVille Dem's picture

    Republicans Don't Consider Barack Obama to be Our President

    How else can you explain the outrage of the President going on a State Visit?  Cost?  That is only the excuse.  I honestly think that these people object to this trip because there is an accepted "truth" among republicans that our President is just living in the White House, but he is not actually Our President.  How else can one explain the "Opt In" for students nation-wide to hear the message that President Obama gave in September?  Can anyone imagine anything equivalent with any former President?  Yet they get away with it.

    cmaukonen's picture

    Now What ?

    Sam Smith over at Progressive Review has some thoughts on what to do now. Give the whole thing a read. He has some good ideas.

    MSNBC: Worst person in the world.

    So, MSNBC decided to suspend Keith Olbermann. Why? Because he dared to participate in Democracy!

    I've made no bones about the fact that I think systemically the product produced by MSNBC is the same as all the other cable outlets in selling outrage over information - anger over reason. And as one of their flagship personalities, I've mentioned the way Olberman presents himself as an example.

    MrSmith1's picture

    What it was REALLY all about ...

    So ... you're wondering why the GOP felt it necessary to whip their followers into such a frenzy for the recent elections, and why they'd go so far as to funnel money from outside groups and foreign entities...  Thanks to taking over the House, the repubs now get to control ... GERRYMANDERING next year.

    http://washingtonindependent.com/102807/rust-belt-redistricting-could-bolster-gop-majority-in-2012

    Michael Maiello's picture

    The Mighty, Mighty Fed

    Yesterday, under the cover of darkness, while I was drinking bourbon, Deadman called me a lunatic for suggesting that the U.S.

    Obamacare/Obamamessage

    Had an appointment Wednesday with a doc who's a democrat.Very interested in politics, very smart. Husband is a reporter for the Times and one of her patients is the chief of staff of a well known very liberal dem.

    The doc told the C.O. S. she had studied the health care bill and is unable to understand it. The chief of staff said neither could he.

    Obama's perhaps fatal flaw is too much Adlai Stevenson and too little Ross Perot.  

    Take a Sentrist

     

    Tired of being too far left to make a difference?  Tired of the crazy Right having too many rights?

    Folks, step right up here (er, or, left up here) and join my new party.

    The Sentrist Party.  Stands for Sensible mixed with Centrist.  Get it?  If not, pay attention, folks, cuz you will.

    La Ronde

    The media are projecting dem losses when the newly elected republican governors preside over the redistricting.

    Maybe not.

    Mostly we've lost the State Houses where we had very few representatives to protect. Conversely there's an encouraging list of battleground states which had Republican governors in 2001 and will have a dem this time.

    cmaukonen's picture

    Prosperity American Style

    pros·per·i·ty  –noun, plural -ties.
    1. a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, esp. in financial respects; good fortune.
    2. prosperities, prosperous circumstances.

    TIME TO MOVE ON

    I can't keep myself upset 24/7 for the next two years about this upsetting election.

    I think A-man nailed a couple of points, hope I represent them correctly. It's about Independents, this election and the next. The key to Independents was the economy, jobs, they didn't like the progress. There was no populist outcry against Wall St. And IMO it was the reverse of populism, cronyism by Summers, Geitner, and thus inescapably, Obama.

    coatesd's picture

    The Morning After The Day Before

                The Monday morning quarterbacks are in full flow, and the post-mortem is already on. The alternatives are being immediately staked, and the relevant policy changes demanded. Depending on whom you read, the Democrats lost so many seats in the mid-term election because Obama wasn’t centrist enough or because he was too centrist.

    We're making it too complicated

    If unemployment had been 4.5% Tuesday Pelosi would be Speaker next session. No matter what Obama had done during the last two years.

    If it's 9.5% two years from now it will be a Republican sweep no matter what he does during the next two.

    Anyone disagree?

     

     

    MrSmith1's picture

    Take the CEO Challenge

    The CEO (Confounding Extrapolists Organization) is issuing a challenge to our fellow Dagbloggers.  We believe Tuesday night's results are our permission slip to become 'imagineers', working in the field of political extrapolation. 

    In other words, we can have the thrill of poking all the Republicans and Tea Partiers with pointed ideological sticks for the next two years.

    cmaukonen's picture

    The American Dream

    The American Dream. Here is what Wikipedia says about it.

    Jamie Friedland's picture

    Ok, GOP, Let’s Talk About Compromise

    I made the mistake of turning on the TV this morning.  Ms. Generic Correspondent was interviewing triumphant supporters from John Boehner’s district in Ohio about what their win means for America.  What I heard floored me.  This was live and I was too stunned to think to record it, so I’m paraphrasing:

    OHIO RESIDENT:  “For the last 2 years, it’s been Obama’s way or the highway.  Finally we’ll get some compromise in this country.”

    REPORTER: “You really think this election will result in more compromise?”

    Barth's picture

    Wins and Losses

    There will be more from this corner this weekend, but it would be worth hearing from those who share my general views about these things:

    1. A “movement” built on the votes of young people will never succeed, since young people tend to vote for personalities before governmental operations and outlook and will not stick to it.

    2. The President was right to get what he could when he could get it. There would be no chance for health care reform if it was not done in 2009/2010.

    Thoughts on How to Go on Offense

    The modern-day GOP (since around 1980) has never had any reservations about interpreting Democratic victories in whatever the hell way they want to.  They have never ceded sole rights to defining any electoral mandate to the Democrats when the Democrats have won elections.  Nor have they felt any obligation whatsoever to concede a single thing to either a newly elected Democratic President or a recently elected Democratic Congressional majority. 

    tmccarthy0's picture

    After the The Smoke Lifts, What Should Dems Do? Don't Be Shy, Tell Me

    I suppose there are a variety of reasons that Dems were massacred in the middle of the country, flyover country as  the pundits call it, but what happened and what do Democrats need to do to develop some sort of coherent message to present to Americans at the end of 2011, hell maybe they should start now! At this point it seems obvious democrats don't have a coherent message and they haven't for a while, and this seems to be their biggest problem.  I have to say, I am not sorry Blanche Lincoln lost, but I am not thrilled with Republicans having more power either.

    we are stardust's picture

    Banish the Blues, Peeps; it’s Voting Day! Enough with the Bummers and Crabbies Already!

    Whatever you do today, make GOTV calls, stay glued to your computer, go to work and sneak some peaks at your computer, take some time to celebrate Voting Day.

    We may know what tomorrow may bring, partially because there may races whose outcomes we won't know for WEEKS. 

    A-man will be live-blogging from 7EST (Standard?) here; DemocracyNow! will livestream election results starting at 8 EDT.

    Barth's picture

    The President's Call for the Day

    Less than two years after taking office, with many criticizing the efforts undertaken to recover from the economic condition of the nation as it was when he took the oath of office, the President said:

    Richard Day's picture

    JON, WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

    File:Gadsden flag.svg

    Harold Evans at the Beast discusses the stimulus package; explaining what it has accomplished.

    In Evans’ mind, the stimulus worked and is working. There just were not enough stimuli.

    Now this is the standard Krugman liberal approach when examining the current state of the economy.

    Michael Maiello's picture

    Friedman Forever!

    The last couple of weeks have been quite interesting in the world of Friedman.  On October 24th he wrote an insulting column where he exhorted Americans that “We’re in the age of “extra,” and everyone has to figure out what extra they can add to their work to justify being paid more than a computer, a Chinese worker or a day laborer.”

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