Many things to say today about the passing of Margaret Thatcher. We’ll have a full obit moved momentarily. But one point that I suspect we’ll see on display today is that, like Churchill, Thatcher was far more universally acclaimed in the US than in the UK, where she remains a highly controversial, divisive figure.
Rand Paul goes to Howard University to talk GOP outreach to black Americans.
TPM Reader AD on Obama’s new fiscal gambit …
Since you’ve been posting about Obama’s fiscal straightjacket, I thought I’d give my take.
One notable thing about our president’s emphasis on budget deals is that the plays never change. People who pay attention know the delicate dance that is the president’s response to any kind of fiscal event: start out by dropping hints of a compromise that might or might not be an okay finishing point but is an abysmal starting point (hello, New York Times story about his budget proposal), admonish the GOP mildly about their priorities on taxes without going too far (e.g. Obama’s flaying of Ryan’s plan while Ryan was in the room a few years back, after which there was zero follow-up), insist on new taxes on the wealthy as a precursor to any deal, and then take it to the nation with a barnstorming series of speeches outside of the confines of Washington to build support for his plan. The pattern is happening again, of course, and it will continue until Obama is an ex-president. Also of note: it hasn’t had any success at all in bringing about Obama’s objectives.
State leaders from Washington and Colorado meet with Attorney General Holder to discuss implementation of their states’ marijuana legalization laws.
Earlier I noted that for the first time since the November election I’ve seen Republicans openly questioning whether they really need to get behind immigration reform. Or, to put it more concretely, whether the politics dictates that they need it to pass. But there’s something else going on too: Senate Democrats need to start seriously considering whether they’re getting played by the Gang of 8 charade. Read More
Are Republicans deciding they don’t want to do immigration reform after all?
Party elites speak through the traditional media while party bases register their opinions through voting and giving. This applies equally on both sides of the partisan divide. And I should add that I use ‘elite’ in this case not in a pejorative but purely in a prescriptive sense. That’s made it difficult to get a proper read on just where we are on the immigration reform debate and a host of other issues on which Republicans seemed inclined to move on after the November defeat.
But I’m sensing a shift. Read More
That’s what we’re discussing right now at TPMPrime. The dime version of my view is that as horrific as it is, I’m in total sync with the administration’s extreme reluctance to get involved militarily. I think it’s a bad, bad idea.
Police in Hamas-controlled Gaza doling out head-shavings and beatings for “indecent” hair.
From TPM Reader DS …
In your comment ‘Obama’s Dangerous Game’ you forgot to mention that the curbing of Social Security benefits will have no effect on the budget. They are separate accounts. Everybody KNOWS this. Boehner boxed Obama into a corner where to keep the dialogue going, he had to lose something. He chose to lose me, a poor senior. To a lie. To what end?