Two new national polls are out this morning. Both show 7 point spreads for President Obama, though one of the two, the Reason poll, concluded on the 17th. Read More
This nonsense has been bubbling around in Republican circles for a while now (it’s partly what prompted Romney’s “off the cuff” remarks about the 47 percent). The idea is that everyone ought to pay at least a little in federal income taxes. It can even be a nominal amount. Even if just a dollar, Rep. Michele Bachmann has said. Skin in the game, they say. Almost a patriotic, community-building thing. And yesterday in the Virginia U.S. Senate debate, Democrat Tim Kaine said he was open to the idea.
But here’s the thing.
As simple and pleasant and harmless as it might sound on its face, what it shows is a blithe ignorance of how the tax code works — of how both parties have designed it to work — to help the working poor. It’s narcotic effect is predicated on that ignorance because let’s face it: most people, including most elected officials, have no idea how the tax code works.
Brian Beutler explains why the call for “skin in the game” is a terrible idea: impractical, self-defeating, and ultimately devastating for the working poor in particular.
The winners of the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest. Take a look.
Campaigns have a way of working like the health or infirmities of a body. Virtuous cycles build on themselves or one bad thing bumps into another and then suddenly the whole thing starts cascading out of control. Read More
Not quite sure what to make of this. And I’d take that question above as highly rhetorical. But I just noticed this from Lynn Sweet in the Sun Times …
I’ve learned that Mayor Rahm Emanuel met Thursday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak–who is delivering a message from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu–that he is not attempting to interfere in the U.S. elections on behalf of Mitt Romney.
Kyle Leighton looks at the state of the electoral map, after the conventions:
An old spoof photo of Obama with a pirate becomes fodder for right wing media.
Tommy Thompson explains his rapid fall in the polls in part on having to run with Mitt Romney at the top of the ticket. Read More
Harry Reid just canceled Senate votes for the rest of the day, claiming that Scott Brown was using pending Senate business as an excuse to dodge tonight’s debate with Elizabeth Warren.