Howard Gleckman calls out partisans on the left and the right for selectively reading the deficit draft proposal:
[I]f Bowles and Simpson could just get the left to recognize that the plan is in fact a significant tax increase and convince the right that it cuts income tax rates more than at any time since Reagan, maybe they could get somewhere.
Hillary wins friends in Australia. Obama charms the Indonesians. Better than the shoulder rubs of the past.
Tom Jensen finds some good numbers for Palin in multiple states:
Romney's ahead [in a PPP Florida poll] with 28% to 22% for Palin and 15% for Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee. It should be noted that although Romney does have the lead, it's a much less lofty one than what he posted in a March PPP poll of the state when he had 44%. The only other candidates included in that poll were Palin and Huckabee and we're finding more and more as we do these polls that when new folks are added into the mix it tends to hurt Romney more than anyone else. His support is less solid than Palin's and Huckabee's so even though he looks like a very nominal front runner at this point, he's also the candidate most likely to see his support collapse as things heat up.
"I realize that we won't have teabaggers running across the countryside lopping off people's hands with machetes. But the sentiment that drives people like Beck and Limbaugh isn't all that different, even though the worst we've seen are spit spewing screamers at Townhalls and a few cases of head stomping and false arrest. So far. This cannot end well," – Digby, comparing right-wing media to facilitators of the Rwandan genocide.
(Hat tip: Serwer)
A vintage gay tumblr.
Tongue in cheek, Larry Sabato and Alan Abramowitz mock pundits predicting that Obama will lose re-election:
Historically, incumbent presidents who have sought another term have won them by a two-to-one margin. Those aren’t impressive odds. How many of us would bet on a horse with minimal chances like that? Since 1900 only one incumbent president whose party captured the White House from the other party four years earlier (Jimmy Carter) has been beaten. The other incumbent losers—Taft, Hoover, Ford, and the senior Bush—were from a party that had held the White House for two or more consecutive terms. But the key is that Carter and Obama are practically twins; both won the Nobel Peace Prize. Enough said. Moreover, the present moment is unprecedentedly perilous for an incumbent president. There’s really no comparison in the existence of the American Republic, save for about a dozen crises like the Civil War, economic panics, the Great Depression, world wars, and 9/11.
Avent echoes Yglesias:
Some of the recommendations are problematic, but they're generally fairly sensible. But the reaction to the report makes one thing perfectly clear—the bipartisan commission has done absolutely nothing to create either the will or the bipartisan consensus to make any progress on the deficit. And I think it was pretty silly to expect that it could have.
America is not Britain.
Its government is a minefield of checks and veto-points. To pass big budget changes, and especially changes that will cause short-term pain to concentrated, organised interests (like pensioners) Congress must be driven by and allowed to blame a real economic urgency. And right now, there is no urgency. The 10-year Treasury yield currently sits at 2.6%. It hasn't been above 5% since 2007. It hasn't been above 6% since 2000. In 1994, when the big budget-balancing deal was cut, it was close to 8%. The world has a thirst for safe assets, and American government debt is just about the safest on offer.
I think is is too convenient an excuse for inaction. To refuse to endorse a sensible proposal to address a real problem because there's a lack of political will for it is circular. One reason there is no political will is because the public hasn't forced it; and the only way to get the public on board – if you are a blogger – is to raise consciousness, make the arguments and do your best. Defeatism on something this important is, well, defeatism. Especially since this president is in such an excellent position to gain real political traction from endorsing this. And soon.
Seriously, even with a gun at my head, I doubt it:
Damon Root says it's time to stop saddling states rights and local decision-making with the baggage of slavery and civil rights:
…there’s nothing inherently liberal or conservative about making an appeal to federalism. It’s a legal and rhetorical tool used—sometimes correctly, sometimes not—by both sides of the political aisle. Unless liberal critics like Wilentz, Zernike, and Olbermann will also admit to hearing the “echo of slavery” in state-level consumer advocacy campaigns, or in the many ongoing state and local efforts to legalize gay marriage and medical marijuana, they should stop smearing federalism and start evaluating the merits of the actual issues. That might not be as easy as tarring your political opponents as closet white supremacists, but it does have the advantage of being intellectually honest.
United States Marine Corps Capt. Jill A. Leyden visits the grave of her friend USMC Major Megan McClung on Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery November 11, 2010 in Arlington, Virginia. Leyden and McClung served in Iraq, McClunk died there in 2006. By Win McNamee/Getty Images.
The Dish 