Visual source: Newseum
NY Times:
Whatever the long-term effects of the Occupy movement, protesters have succeeded in implanting “We are the 99 percent,” referring to the vast majority of Americans (and its implied opposite, “You are the one percent” referring to the tiny proportion of Americans with a vastly disproportionate share of wealth), into the cultural and political lexicon.
WaPo:
All along, everything has gone according to Mitt Romney’s plan. His strategists didn’t believe that Tim Pawlenty would catch on. They were confident that Michele Bachmann would fade. They were prepared for Rick Perry. They never thought Herman Cain would pass the commander in chief test.
But they didn’t count on a late and strong rise by Newt Gingrich.
...
At a time when Romney intended to be showing momentum and closing the deal with voters, his campaign has been on the defensive. The candidate appeared rattled in a Fox News interview Tuesday when he was pressed by host Bret Baier to explain his changing positions on some issues.
Romney remains an empty suit with a flawed business plan. And Gingrich remains a phony baloney politician-for-rent. Some choice.
EJ Dionne:
Two politicians from different countries and with very different political pedigrees made news this week. Both spoke difficult truths and reminded us that we shouldn’t use the word “politician” with routine contempt.
The better-known story is the retirement of Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who was never afraid to make people angry — or to make them laugh. But more on Frank in a moment. Far too little attention has been paid on these shores to a remarkable speech in Berlin on Monday by the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski.
He offered what may be the sound bite of the year: “I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity.”
Linda Greenhouse:
In the current race to the bottom to see which state can provide the most degraded and dehumanizing environment for undocumented immigrants, Arizona and Alabama have grabbed the headlines. But largely unnoticed, it is Florida, home to nearly one million Cuban refugees and their descendants, that has come up with perhaps the most bizarre and pointless anti-immigrant policy of all.
Beginning last year, the state’s higher education authorities have been treating American citizens born in the United States, including graduates of Florida high schools who have spent their entire lives in the state, as non-residents for tuition purposes if they can’t demonstrate that their parents are in the country legally.
The Fact Checker (different than Politifact) manages to nail Romney's flip flops while still working on a Kathleen Parker rationalization:
Romney admits he changed his mind on this critical social issue. The question is whether you think he did it for political reasons or because he genuinely changed his mind because of what he learned during a debate over stem-cell research. Our colleague Kathleen Parker looked into the story and concluded “this was at least a flip-flop of the highest order.” National Public Radio came away with a more skeptical take.
In any case, this is true and the DNC’s earns a rare Geppetto’s Checkmark.
The entire concept these columns is sketchy and based on subjective interpretation. Nonetheless, the DNC ad attacking Romney's flip-flops gets three self described "rare" Geppetto's Checkmarks for accuracy on nailing him for being for abortion before he was against it, being against Reagan before he was for him, and being against a no-tax pledge before he was for it.
