Hi, everyone. I’m Michael Grunwald from TIME Magazine, and Josh has generously invited me to blog this week about my new book, The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. It’s the story of President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus bill, which–wait, don’t click away!–was one of the most important and least understood pieces of legislation in modern history. The much-mocked Failed-Stimulus was actually a remarkable success. It was also the purest distillation of what Obama meant by change. And the story of the stimulus is the best way to understand the president, his policies, his approach to politics, his achievements, and his problems marketing those achievements in a city that’s gone bonkers. It’s also the best way to understand his enemies; The New New Deal documents how Republican leaders secretly devised their strategy of all-out obstructionism before he even took office. Read More
Chris Matthews gets what the GOP is up to with its new appeal to “cultural themes.”
All Isaac warnings and watches have been dropped for Tampa Bay.
In the flurry of other news, a major strategic decision from the Romney campaign has emerged in a series of reports over the weekend. In brief, the dismal economy won’t be enough to boot President Obama from office, the Romney camp has decided. Something more is going to be necessary. And the ‘more’ is going to be the ‘culture war’, specifically a new campaign angled on race and President Obama as an alien presence in American life. In other words, for the sprint to November 6th, get ready for Birtherpalooza with a hard-edged focus on race, President Obama as a foreign threat to American values and so much more. Read More
A leaked draft of the GOP platform reveals the Romney/Ryan plan to turn Medicare into a no-guarantee voucher program.
In other words, it’s the Medicare equivalent of ‘private accounts’ for Social Security — switching from a defined-benefit to a defined-contribution program.
Let’s be honest: very few working political journalists have any grasp of basic policy details like or particularly care about them. So there’s a decent chance the significance of all this will be almost entirely ignored. But these are mammoth changes which phase out Medicare over a handful of years and replace it with a coupon to buy as much health are as people over 65 can get.
Pennsylvania Senate candidate Tom Smith says his daughter’s decision to give birth to a child conceived out of wedlock is “similar” to deciding to give birth to a child conceived from rape.
Isn’t that kind of ridiculous? “Put yourself in a father’s position, yes, I mean it is similar,” said Smith.
A federal three-judge panel today began considering whether South Carolina’s voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act, and TPM’s Ryan Reilly was there.
For more background on creeping voter IDism, we put Ryan in front of the camera to explain.
From TPM Reader RP …
What Akin said was tremendously stupid and disqualifying, but ultimately based on a misunderstanding of the mechanics of conception from rape. Tom Smith’s statement is pure condescension to rape victims. If faced with a woman impregnated by a rapist, who doesn’t want to carry the rapist’s child, Tom Smith says, “I empathize, my family’s been in a similar situation. My daughter’s boyfriend got her pregnant.”