I was pulling my hair out this morning reading this Washington Post piece. Titled “Despite his roots, Obama struggles to show he’s connected to middle class,” it’s one of those classics of Washington political journalism where the thesis is unsupported by any hard evidence and where the anecdotal evidence is embarrassingly off-point, irrelevant, or insubstantial — or, in this case, all three.
But in this case, it’s even worse. The Washington Post‘s own polling data don’t just undermine the premise of the piece; they refute it. Read More
Yesterday I did a handful of posts about how Hill Democrats seem much less adept as mixing politics and policy together than their Republican counterparts. And this seems especially the case in the House where control of the Speakership is a uniquely powerful political tool because it allows the majority to hold votes on their own terms, one which unify the majority party and split the minority party. But a number of people have responded by saying: that’s a distraction. The reason the Democrats are in such trouble is because of the lousy economy.
But truly this is a non-existent debate. Read More
When you have two billionaires facing off for the Republican nomination for governor of California, you have to figure it’s going to get weird at some point — and now it has, with complaints to the FBI and claims of mental instability. Evan McMorris-Santoro has our report.
Health care reform is upgraded from critical to serious condition.
Extraordinarily close elections last night in both the Republican and Democratic primaries for governor of Illinois. That and the day’s other news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
The Obama administration and the FBI are making a big push tonight to rebut criticism of trying Abdulmutallab in American courts rather than submitting him to torture and a military tribunal by revealing that he has been cooperating with investigators for days. The claim, which is not that surprising, is that it has been precisely the use of traditional and legal investigative techniques that they’ve been able to gain his cooperation. Indeed, the intervention of his family, has apparently been key.
“One of the principal reasons why his family came back is because they had complete trust in the US system of justice and believed that Umar Farouq would be treated fairly and appropriately,” a “senior official” told ABC. “And that they would be as well.”
It’s definitely a full court press. Here are the write-ups in the NYT and from ABC.
One of the sadder spectacles to watch since Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts has been House progressives suggesting that now is their chance to ram a public option through the Senate. Nancy Pelosi tried to give a reality check on that point today.
Jenny Sanford, soon-to-be-ex-wife of disgraced Gov. Mark Sanford, says that when the two were married Mark insisted on excising the promise of fidelity from their wedding vows.
At a town hall style event in New Hampshire a short time ago, President Obama acknowledged that cap and trade might have to be cleaved from the energy bill in the Senate and passed separately, which is to say, not passed at all.