Month: October 2011

Was written by Joshua Keating:

Like Occupy Wall Street, there was no one leader of the anti-Mubarak movement. Mosa'ab Elshamy, a medical student and freelance photographer whose Twitter feed became a must-read for those trying to follow the demonstrations, says that a lack of central authority isn't an issue as long as everyone knows what they're there for…Watching the protests in New York, Elshamy says it "took me a while to figure out what their demands are." Although there have been a number of proposed manifestos circling online and a declaration of grievances, addressing topics ranging from tax and trade policy to the funding of elections to animal cruelty, it's still difficult to pinpoint what exactly would constitute a victory for the activists camped out in Zuccotti Park.

Drum-roll:

We're going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that have allowed some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary, and that's crazy. It's time we stopped it….

Obama is, in fact, channeling Reagan right now.

Not as many as you might think.

"Believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans," – Eric Cantor, on Occupy Wall Street.

Huckabee's dig at Romney as the man who laid you off has stuck. As Michael Scherer points out, the Buffet tax would definitely apply to Mitt:

Romney, a wealthy man whose income mostly comes from long-term investments, is exactly the sort of “millionaire and billionaire” that Obama likes to hold up for scrutiny, since the source of Romney’s income allows him to pay a lower percentage of his money to the federal government each year than many middle-class wage earners.

Romney is estimated to have paid 14% of his gross income in taxes in 2010, a lot less than the 35% rate that many Americans pay. Greg Sargent thinks it's one of Romney's unexplored vulnerabilities. Evan McMorris-Santoro doesn't see the issue going away:

Romney has been attacked over his wealth (and the way he made it) in the past. This time around, Romney’s still playing up his business credentials, but also casting himself as “unemployed” and a member of the middle class. He’s also hopped on the class warfare train as progressive protests on Wall Street and other places have spooled up. … And the estimated 14% tax rate Romney paid last year makes him perhaps the perfect foil for Obama’s populist push.

(Photo: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a town hall meeting at the Doubletree Miami Airport hotel By Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Greg Sargent translates the president's latest challenge:

Can we all stop pretending that eliminating the EPA constitutes a jobs plan?

Steve Benen adds:

The simple fact of the matter is, congressional Republicans don’t have a jobs plan. They don’t even pretend to. By all indications, nearly every aspect of the GOP approach to governance is predicated on the idea, at least in the short-term, of making unemployment worse.

Amid comparisons to Truman's 1948 campaign, Brendan Nyhan issues an important caveat: "Truman’s comeback was fueled by 'sizzling' growth in the year before the election." Nyhan doubts the current economy will rebound as dramatically. David Corn worries about a prolonged message war between Obama and the Republicans:

The real question is, can he sustain such a fight—the equivalent of a political ground war—for the next 13 months? It may be his only play, but it certainly will be hard for him to keep it fresh.

Benen is intrigued by a possible new strategy for "round two" of the jobs fight:

[I]f Republicans kill the legislation, Dems will then press GOP members to start also killing its component parts, one at a time. It’s one thing to reject a package deal; it’s more striking to force Republicans to vote against popular ideas, over and over again — no to infrastructure investments, no to small business tax cuts, no to saving teachers’ jobs, no to the jobs-for-veterans tax break, etc.

According to the NYT, some Republicans understand the political vulnerability of proposing nothing, not even rate-reducing, revenue-increasing tax reform, while a double-dip recession looms. Sure, $447 billion is a band-aid. Structural tax reform, entitlement cuts, Medicare cost control, and revenue increases are necessary to spur long-term growth .. but now? Recessions build on themselves, as demand circles the drain.

I note too how ill-suited Romney is to this climate. Obama's core weakness in a time of rage and populism is his calm and cool. But Romney is not exactly a tub-thumper either; and it's close to impossible to imagine him seeming like the man to redress inequality of sacrifice in this period of austerity. Meanwhile, Obama is slowly turning into a happier warrior, campaigning rather than governing, because, without the GOP, there is very little else he can do. Could Obama reinvent himself as a populist while Romney comes off as a corporate suit? Stranger twists in politics have happened.

Politically, Obama was once lethal as an insurgent. What if he becomes an insurgent again?

(Photo: President Barack Obama speaks in favor of his $447 billion jobs plan while addressing Coloradans in front of Abraham Lincoln High School on September 27, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in Denver three years ago, and Colorado is again considered a key swing state for in the 2012 election. By John Moore/Getty Images.)

Gotta question? askandrew@thedailybeast.com

Somehow Romney has pulled off something remarkable. He is less well-known than he was in the last election cycle:

Only 27 percent of Americans named Mitt Romney and only 28 percent named Rick Perry. That’s below the same measure taken four years ago in October 2007, when 45 percent could name Rudy Giuliani and 30 percent could name Romney. So, well into his second campaign for president, Romney is now less well-known than he was four years ago, when he ran the first time around. Not exactly encouraging.

I dunno. His entire candidacy rests on the promise of amnesia – both about his past and his party's. But it underscores the weakness of his candidacy – and limits of his political appeal.

Yes, gluten-free petite vanilla bean scones, sent to me by a reader all the way from San Antonio, Texas. And they say bloggers don't live the life.

For the record – and I am not just saying this out of good manners – they were better than the Starbucks brand I once had as a regular part of my late afternoon caffeine top-up. Less chalky and crumbly, more moist and sticky.

The recipe is here. Dish readers rock.

A final "fuck you" – and all the more powerful for being true.