Thursday opinion.
Gail Collins:
Still, it was a disappointment. I was hoping for a call to arms, a national mission as great as the environmental disaster that inspired it. After the terrorist attack, George W. Bush could have called the country to a grand, important new undertaking in which everyone sacrificed personal or regional advantage for the common good. The fact that he only told us to go shopping was the one unforgivable sin of his administration.
O.K., also attacking the wrong country. And creating the deficit. But I digress.
All we got from President Obama was a vague call for some sort of new energy policy. Plus a Gulf Coast Restoration Plan, an oil spill study commission, a reminder that the secretary of energy won a Nobel Prize in physics and 17 references to God, prayer, blessings or faith.
Ezra Klein:
Unemployment may be at 9.7%, but the Senate is moving on
Or, at the least, they care about the deficit more. By a vote of 52 to 45, the Senate rejected a jobs package that would've extended unemployment insurance, offered some tax breaks to individuals and businesses, kept doctors in the Medicare program and more. "$77 billion or more of this is not paid for," said Sen. Ben Nelson, "and that translates into deficit spending and adding to the debt, and the American people are right: We've got to stop doing that."
No, sir, they're wrong, and we don't. It's hard to say this loudly enough, but it really doesn't make sense to offset stimulus spending, at least in the short term. The point of the money is to get the economy moving faster, to give people cash to spend.
Greg Sargent:
New meme: Spill proves Obama isn't manly enough
So here's where we're headed next. The subtext of some of the criticism in the wake of last night's speech is subtle, but unmistakable: Obama's inability to halt the spill calls his manhood into question.
Behind the Numbers (WaPo):
Network exit polls from the 2008 presidential contest suggest that new voters around the Gulf were less likely than those in the rest of the country to vote for Obama. The polls showed that of the 28 states around the country where exit pollsters reported the views of new voters, only in Louisiana did Obama lose to Republican nominee John McCain (51 percent of first-time voters in the Pelican State backed McCain, 47 percent Obama). In Florida, Obama held a 59 to 40 percent advantage among new voters, small compared with national figures (nationally among new voters, Obama won 69 to 30 percent).
In LA, we don't like him, we never liked him, and we're not going to like him. Keep that in mind when you ask us what we think of his Gulf spill response.
The Week Opinion Brief:
Is Sharron Angle dangerous? The Nevada Republican once invoked the idea of armed insurrection against the government. Are critics twisting Angle's words or is she a not-so-secret extremist?
The remarkable thing is that there are a substantial number of defenders of this whackjob willing to stand up and count themselves crazy.
AP:
A new Associated Press-Gfk poll finds public support for President Barack Obama's health care law has risen to its highest point to date.
Yet the nation remains divided over the new law, with 45 percent in favor and 42 percent opposed.
Still, that's a significant change from May, when supporters were outnumbered 39 percent to 46 percent. And it's the strongest backing for the overhaul since the AP-Gfk poll began asking in September.
But that's impossible. Just ask the pundits.
Dr. Otis Brawley on writing up results from scientific meetings:
Successful promotion of positive findings through meeting abstracts and press releases can double or triple a small company's share price. But observers note a troubling trend. It is a shame that the desire to pump up a stock price often leads to over-promotion and exaggeration of paltry scientific findings.
Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame):
When I heard that BP was destroying a big portion of Earth, with no serious discussion of cutting their dividend, I had two thoughts: 1) I hate them, and 2) This would be an excellent time to buy their stock. And so I did. Although I should have waited a week.
People ask me how it feels to take the side of moral bankruptcy. Answer: Pretty good! Thanks for asking. How's it feel to be a disgruntled victim?