Time to give up on Obama and think long-term

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Monday January 25, 2010 · 7:56 PM PST

2010/01/25 · 19:56

As Jed Lewison's front-pager already makes plain, Obama's decision to institute a discretionary spending freeze at just the time when we need to maintain and increase stimulus spending to reduce unemployment is the stupidest, most reactionary thing he could possibly have done. I'll say a bit more about that below.

This is it. If this, and turning tail on the rest of his agenda, is what he calls a progressive agenda -- if this is how he responds to a loss in MA in which the Obama voters he lost, who either stayed home or voted for Brown, said they wanted more change and stronger health care reform and more action to improve the economy and rein in Wall Street from Obama -- well, I for one now give up all hope for the man.

So what do we do now? It is time to forget about great and inspiring men and start thinking about how to build a long-term movement.

kenm

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Sunday January 24, 2010 · 11:53 AM PST

2010/01/24 · 11:53

Fighting Democrats could beat the fillibuster, and more generally beat the Republican's "41-59 majority" and turn it back into the 59-41 majority it's supposed to be. Turn it back to where the Dems could do what they were elected to do. Of course, we don't have very many Dems willing to fight, but suppose they decided to fight. How could they do it?

Here's a strategy based on 3 insights that I got from reading Congressional Quarterly's "Congress 101", on the fillibuster and on the legistlative process:

kenm

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Tuesday October 07, 2008 · 2:42 PM PDT

2008/10/07 · 14:42

George Packer has an interesting article on working-class whites in Ohio and the Dems and Obama. Now I know that Obama has made massive gains in Ohio and other industrial-belt states recently, so the article is already a little old.

Nonetheless, the article has really interesting ideas as to why Dems have had trouble with these voters ever since the 70's, and continue to have trouble. The basic idea: it's not the cultural and wedge issues making them vote against their economic interests (the Thomas Frank theory). Rather, as argued in a study by 4 sociologists from U. Arizona last year,

"Beginning in the mid-to-late 1970s, there was increasing reason for working-class whites to question whether the Democrats were still better than the Republicans at promoting their material well-being."

More after the jump.

kenm

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Sunday September 21, 2008 · 8:52 PM PDT

2008/09/21 · 20:52

Remember those tax cuts for the rich? Well, how much do you think those gave to the top 1% -- those making more than $462,000/year in 2008, with an average income of $1,485,000/year? You guessed it -- $715 billion over the ten years of the tax cuts, 2001-2010. (Source: this pdf from Citizens for Tax Justice.) Of course, we've also spent about $700 billion on the Iraq War, much of which was giveaways to defense contractors. So this is the 2nd or 3rd time, depending on how you look at it.

If the Dems had any guts, they would demand that the tax cuts on the top 1% be rescinded now to help pay for the bailout, or else no bailout. Let the Republicans explain why they'd rather bring down the economy than undo their tax cuts for the rich.

One other point on the bailout: tell your Senators/Congresspeople to support Jack Reed's amendment! (more below)

kenm

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Wednesday September 10, 2008 · 8:56 AM PDT

2008/09/10 · 08:56

Although the Nazis were singular, and of course no one can be compared to them, actual human beings acting today (e.g., Republicans) may have learned similar things about the pursuit of power and human psychology as were learned by this singular and incomparable group. For example, the power of
The Big Lie:

"... the broad masses of a nation ... in the primitive simplicity of their minds ... more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world ..." -- Hitler, Mein Kampf

kenm

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Wednesday September 03, 2008 · 8:24 AM PDT

2008/09/03 · 08:24

The money quote for Dems for describing McCain's problem with impulsive decisions is from McCain's own 2002 autobiography, "Worth the Fighting For", where he says of himself:

"I make them (decisions) as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can. Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint."

(Source: this NYT article.) Living with the consequences of his own mistakes is fine, but can the country afford to live with the consequences of what even John McCain describes as the mistakes that often result from his hasty decision-making?

kenm

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Wednesday August 13, 2008 · 8:52 AM PDT

2008/08/13 · 08:52

I, and probably many of you, believe that a sharp, hard-hitting, fact-based ad campaign to define McCain is critical to electing a Democratic president. For whatever reasons, the Obama campaign doesn't seem to agree. The netroots have the power, the organizational savvy and the fund-raising ability to pull this off. Why not do it? It's our job not just to follow the directives of a leader like Obama, as MoveOn unfortunately is doing, but to act as an independent movement to achieve change. It would take a lot of resources and organizational skills to pull this off; it would take a group of netsroots leaders to decide to do it to make this happen, I think. Think of this as a petition to netsroots leaders.
[Updated: title shortened so it won't be cut off before "McCain" in list of diaries]

Poll

32 votes Show Results

Should Netroots Leaders Organize This Ad Campaign?

32 votes Vote Now!

Should Netroots Leaders Organize This Ad Campaign?

Yes, we need this campaign and the netroots are the ones to do it

28 votes

No, this campaign is a bad idea

3 votes

No, we need this campaign but somebody else should do it

1 vote

At Last: A Strong Response From Obama

kenm

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Saturday August 02, 2008 · 2:28 PM PDT

2008/08/02 · 14:28

Obama said McCain's campaign had been taken over by former aides to President George W. Bush who were clearly planning a negative campaign.

"They are very good at negative campaigns. They are not so good at governing," he said of McCain's team. "We have seen this movie before."

Source

This is the sort of response we need to hear, loud and clear and every day.

Full quotes after the jump.

kenm

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Thursday July 03, 2008 · 8:49 PM PDT

2008/07/03 · 20:49

It's deeply disappointing because he didn't address the real issues that FISA-bill opponents have raised. He glided over them, stated his positions without addressing the reasons many of us feel betrayed (details after the jump).

That's what politicians do. They figure out their positions and repeat their talking points. They don't engage in honest dialogue. They avoid the difficult points.

We all hoped that Barack was something unusual: the politician who stood on principle to the maximum extent possible, who was as honest with us as a winning politician can be. Who was committed to a genuine dialogue with his supporters, to building a real movement for change from the ground up in which we could really trust him as a leader. But if he doesn't address the real problems people on the ground raise, if he ducks those issues, then he's not that guy.

I'll vote for him. I'll probably even give him money and work for him. I'll still hope for him to do something great. We desperately need a Democratic president. But if he won't take us on honestly, he's not that guy. And that's why his statement is so goddamn disappointing.

kenm

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Tuesday April 29, 2008 · 8:49 AM PDT

2008/04/29 · 08:49

This post gives a simple graphical view of the electoral vote maps put together at electoral-vote.com.
Any way you cut it, the graphs make clear that Obama is in a much stronger position than Clinton.

This is, in essence, a graphical view of a recent post from Markos about the electoral-vote.com maps. Quick synopsis of his post: the Clinton folks have been pointing to the apparent result that Clinton wins against McCain and Obama loses, but in fact what the data shows is that (1) Obama has a stronger base than Clinton, and McCain a weaker base against Obama than against Clinton, and (2) Obama puts many more electoral votes in play than Clinton.

The graphs and explanation of them are below the fold.

kenm

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Sunday January 21, 2007 · 2:42 PM PST

2007/01/21 · 14:42

From the NYT:
Four Iraqi men were killed May 9 by US troops who

"turned them loose and killed them as part of a staged escape attempt ... the fourth Iraqi man killed in the assault was 70 years old, unarmed and not a legitimate target. After the raid, several soldiers noticed blindfolds and plastic handcuffs on the bodies of three of the men who were killed."

How did this happen? The orders were given by a Colonel Steele:

"Several soldiers have said in sworn statements that Colonel Steele told them to kill all military-age males."

The military's investigation determined, according to the Times, that

"The colonel improperly led his soldiers to believe that distinguishing combatants from noncombatants — a main tenet of the military’s standing rules of engagement — was not necessary during the May 9 mission."

So how was Colonel Steele punished? He was "formally reprimanded".

kenm

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Thursday June 22, 2006 · 7:43 PM PDT

2006/06/22 · 19:43

From Wednesday's NYT story on Republican Iraq strategy:

Republican took to the Senate floor to offer an unambiguous embrace of the Iraq war and to portray Democrats as advocates of an overly hasty withdrawal that would have grave consequences for the security of the United States....
Republicans acknowledged that it was a strategy of necessity, an effort to turn what some party leaders had feared could become the party's greatest liability into an advantage in the midterm elections....
A senior adviser to Mr. Bush (e.g., Rove?) said the White House had concluded that it was better to plunge aggressively into the debate on Iraq than to let Democrats play upon clear, public misgivings about the war. "This is going to be a big issue in this election," said the adviser, who was granted anonymity in exchange for agreeing to describe strategic considerations about the war. "Better to shape and fight it -- as good and strongly as you can -- than to try to run away from it." (emphasis added)

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Time to give up on Obama and think long-term

How to beat the 41-59 majority

Dem problems with working-class whites

This is the 2nd (3rd?) time Bush handed out $700 billion to the rich

The Big Lie

McCain describes his own impulsive decision problem

The netroots should run an ad campaign to define McCain -- Obama won't do it

At Last: A Strong Response From Obama

Why Obama's FISA statement is deeply disappointing

Obama, Clinton, and Electoral Votes: Who's More Electable?

Punishment for ordering civilians killed in Iraq? A reprimand. [Updated]

Karl Rove has good advice for Democrats