"This is a shocking chart."
Vox
NY Times:
Mayor Bill de Blasio, confronting the gravest crisis of his young administration, has been by turns composed and defiant, empathetic and indignant, urging calm in one moment and lashing out in frustration the next.
In other words, he has acted like himself: a confident but mercurial leader whose singular political style has not wavered, even in the face of a potentially career-defining flash point over the police and race.
Politifact:
Our ruling
Giuliani said Obama has said "that everybody should hate the police."
Throughout all of his comments since August, when the latest unrest over racial disparities in the criminal justice system began, Obama has continuously encouraged working with police to find solutions and make change. He has also repeatedly emphasized the importance of law enforcement in communities of color and the fact that police officers have a dangerous job.
Giuliani’s claim is an outlandish distortion of what Obama actually said. We rate this Pants on Fire.
Fact Checker:
The Pinocchio Test
Giuliani has a point that there is growing animosity among protesters toward police officers. That may have contributed to the actions of individuals such as Brinsley. But the burden of proof rests with the speaker. We combed through Obama’s speeches and can find no evidence of “propaganda” that “everybody should hate the police.”
Perhaps one could fault the president, as some conservatives do, for failing to more forcefully rebut violent demonstrations against police. But that’s an absence of rhetoric. Instead, Giuliani suggested that the president actively launched and promoted anti-police rhetoric — and that is simply Four-Pinocchio false. We would have liked Giuliani’s direct response and will update this column if he responds to our request for an interview.
No, this isn't just politics as usual. Rudy (unsurprisingly) stepped over a line he should never have stepped over.
When living in NYC in Rudy years, always marveled there was 10% or so who thought he was too soft on crime. Who were these people?
— @stuartpstevens
More politics and policy below the fold.
Elias Isquith:
Rudy Giuliani crosses line on race: Why GOP must finally push back on his recklessness
Blaming the murder of two NYPD officers on President Obama isn't just stupid — it's delegitimizing and obscene
Sally Goldenberg:
Lynch's fight with the mayor began in May over a labor contract dispute that is now in the hands of a three-person arbitration panel.
In recent months, it has heated up.
Lynch accused the mayor of "throwing [the NYPD] under the bus" when he recalled advising his biracial teenage son Dante to "take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him."
De Blasio insisted he was not criticizing the police, so much as speaking about his own experience as a parent.
After another series of verbal follies, Lynch encouraged his members to sign an online petition asking de Blasio, and City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, not to attend officers' funerals.
De Blasio called the move "just plain divisive and unacceptable."
And on Saturday night his spokeswoman referred to Lynch's words as "irresponsible, overheated rhetoric."
De Blasio later said, during an appearance with his wife on The View, that Lynch does not speak for all of his members. The P.B.A. represents 24,000 rank-and-file officers.
If you think contract negotiations have nothing to do with PBA leader Pat Lynch's big mouth, you have no understanding of NYC politics. See also older articles
here
The mayor did not name the two union presidents he is at odds with—Pat Lynch of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and Ed Mullins of the Sergeants Benevolent Association. They have lambasted him in the wake of Eric Garner's fatal arrest for rhetoric that they believe does not show sufficient support for police officers.
and
here:
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has boasted of his success in settling contracts with the majority of his workforce, has hit a roadblock with law-enforcement unions, many of which are angry over the prospect of one year of flat salaries as well as the recent controversy surrounding a top aide to the first lady.
Today, de Blasio's chief labor negotiator, Bob Linn, is scheduled to meet with one of City Hall's harshest critics—Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mulllins.
Mullins said he has low expectations for the negotiating session.
NY Times/ Julia Reichert and Steven Bogner on toy guns and shooting deaths:
These two cases have raised many questions about policing, race and justice. They have also prompted new legislation. Alicia Reece, an Ohio state representative, proposed a bill named for John Crawford that would require realistic-looking plastic pellet, airsoft and BB guns to clearly look like “toys.” As Ohio voters, we support this legislation, yet we know it won’t solve all the problems.
Ultimately, as gun violence and racial profiling continue to intersect with such tragic consequences, we’re left to grapple with a more troubling question: Was it the color of the gun that led to these deaths, or was it the color of their skin?
Paul Waldman:
The economic debate of 2016 will start in about a year from now. While there could certainly be a downturn between now and then, let’s assume for the moment that the momentum continues. How could Republicans make a case that although growth and job creation are strong, all is still not well? Even if that’s what Americans feel, it would be a difficult case for Republicans to make, because those top-line figures are what they generally point to when they discuss the economy. What else can they build their case on? They aren’t going to talk about the stock market or corporate profits, not only because those have both performed spectacularly during the Obama presidency, but because they know that ordinary people don’t much care.
And they aren’t going to talk about the things that really make people worried. The most important fact of the American economy in the past few decades may be its failure to produce rising wages, but that’s not something Republicans are particularly concerned with. Their economic focus is usually on business owners — the taxes they pay, the regulations they have to abide by, and so on. Even if you believe that helping those owners is the best way to help the people who work for them, you’re going to have a hard time finding Republicans who want to talk about something like wage stagnation.
Matt O'Brien:
And that brings us to the worst op-ed in history. On March 6, 2009, former George W. Bush adviser Michael Boskin offered whatever the opposite of a prophesy is when he said that "Obama's Radicalism Is Killing the Dow." Now let's set the scene. Obama had been in office for less than two months at that point, and in that time, stocks had admittedly fallen a lot as markets worried that the big bank bailout known as TARP wouldn't actually be enough to save the banks. It got so bad that Citigroup briefly became a penny stock.
CNN:
Improving views of the economy have helped hike President Barack Obama's approval rating to a 20-month high, a new CNN/ORC poll showed Tuesday, as markets climbed to record levels at news of an economy in overdrive.
More Americans still disapprove of the job Obama is doing as President. But at 48%, Obama's approval rating is at its highest point in CNN polling since May 2013.
The gains were driven by newfound backing among women, independents and millennials — groups where Obama's approval numbers jumped 10 percentage points from a month ago.