[ Posted Monday, January 19th, 2015 – 18:14 UTC ]
Trying to predict what the next presidential election will "be all about" is usually a fool's game, especially when it's still so far in the future. The main theme of a national election can turn on a dime, due to a major world event or even due to the public's fascination with one unforeseen minor topic. But, at least for the time being, the 2016 election seems to be shaping up as a race centered on economic populism. This may change at any point, as I said, but I couldn't have been the only one who was utterly astonished to hear that Mitt Romney recently told a group of conservatives he might just run on a platform of helping the middle class and attempting to eradicate poverty in America. If even Mitt Romney (of all people) is now expressing Republican concern for the poor, then something has indeed radically shifted in our political debate. Up is now down, topsy is getting downright turvy, and Mitt Romney is now a populist!
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[ Posted Friday, January 16th, 2015 – 17:58 UTC ]
This was a busy week in politics, as the Republicans in the new Congress began a bout of legislating and President Obama ramped up his agenda in preparation for next Tuesday's big speech to Congress and the country. So let's just dive in to the week that was, shall we?
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[ Posted Thursday, January 15th, 2015 – 17:25 UTC ]
Even though I live and vote in California, there's a fact which keeps slipping my mind. I've written a number of articles already about Senator Barbara Boxer stepping down, and I never even took this fact into account while writing them, for instance (and for which I apologize, if I said anything flat-out wrong in them). This is nothing more than simple denial, I'll admit, because I dislike this new fact so much that I'm doubtlessly intentionally forgetting about it in the hopes that it will go away. I speak of the new primary voting system our state has instituted, the "top two" or "jungle" primary. Now that Barbara Boxer has announced she will not be running for another term as senator, the issue is about to get a little higher profile, because 2016 will be the first time the new system is used for an open Senate race.
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[ Posted Wednesday, January 14th, 2015 – 17:37 UTC ]
In less than a week, President Obama will give his State Of The Union speech to Congress and the nation. Sitting presidents usually get a bump in the polls immediately afterwards, since it is always the most-watched political speech of the entire year. But what's interesting to note, one week out, is that Obama is already enjoying somewhat of a bounce in his job approval polling. What's more, Obama seems poised to rise even higher in public approval, since the next issue teed up for a major political battle is one where Obama's stance is a lot more popular than the Republican position: immigration reform. All in all, ever since his forceful response to the midterm elections, Obama seems to be getting more and more popular.
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[ Posted Tuesday, January 13th, 2015 – 18:20 UTC ]
Looks like we have a winner for the prize of "first completely GOP-ginned-up Obama 'scandal' of the year," folks. Last night NBC News led their evening broadcast with the story, which they judged to be more important than "U.S. military gets hacked by terrorists." In other words, we're back to chasing shiny, shiny objects rather than reporting actual news. Happy new year, from Brian Williams!
The story, in case you don't know what I'm talking about, is that President Obama didn't jump on a plane and join in the march in support of Charlie Hebdo which happened over the weekend in Paris. This is a ridiculous non-story, but that certainly didn't stop the Republicans from assuming full-on freakout mode about it. The crocodile tears, in fact, fell like rain in Republican circles. This was nothing short of sheer opportunistic political hypocrisy, which was evident for the following reasons:
(1.) Republicans were complaining about President Obama over nothing, once again.
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[ Posted Monday, January 12th, 2015 – 16:31 UTC ]
The New York Times disclosed over the weekend that federal prosecutors have recommended that the Justice Department should bring charges against former general and C.I.A. director David Petraeus. Unless President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder (or his successor) want to be seen as flaming hypocrites, Petraeus must now be prosecuted.
Another president might have had some leeway. If this revelation had been made two weeks after President Hillary Clinton or President Jeb Bush got sworn in, they'd have a range of options to plausibly consider, which would include refusing to prosecute. Obama, as a result of his own administration's actions, doesn't really have this option available to him.
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[ Posted Friday, January 9th, 2015 – 18:13 UTC ]
Je suis Charlie. In fact, let's go even further: Nous sommes Charlie Hebdo. Because we are all Charlie, this week.
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[ Posted Thursday, January 8th, 2015 – 17:37 UTC ]
This isn't goodbye. It won't be for another two years. But upon hearing the news today that Barbara Boxer will not seek re-election in 2016, my immediate reaction was that she'll be sorely missed in the United States Senate.
But rather than go with a passive statement, today's title is uncharacteristically aggressive for me, because I'm not using the editorial "we" here (as I am often wont to do, especially on Fridays), but rather I am attempting to speak for millions of California voters who will all miss having Barbara Boxer represent us in the upper chamber of Congress. I'm speaking today (as I rarely attempt to do) for a lot of others, in saying we will indeed miss Senator Boxer two years from now, when she steps down.
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[ Posted Wednesday, January 7th, 2015 – 18:19 UTC ]
As dawn metaphorically breaks over the new 114th Congress, the inside-the-Beltway punditocracy is going through one of their periodic bouts of self-delusion over how wonderfully everyone is going to get along for the next two years. Sanity and comity will reign supreme on Capitol Hill, they blithely predict, and all kinds of stuff will get accomplished. The only real question is which side of the aisle will be signing melody and which will be harmonizing, as everyone joins in a rousing chorus of "Kumbaya." You'll have to forgive me for not being so easily convinced, mostly because I can accurately remember back past roughly two weeks ago, which seems to be the attention span for some of these pontificators.
I mean, not to sound overly cynical or anything, but I just don't see a wonderful future of legislative miracles being produced on a regular basis any time soon. Perhaps we'll get through an entire year without either the debt ceiling or the federal budget being held hostage by the Tea Partiers, but then again perhaps we won't. Even if we do, is that really all that much cause for celebration? The 114th Congress might be marginally more productive than the 113th Congress was, but that bar is set so low it'd actually be downright astonishing if they didn't manage to achieve a better track record than that of the last two years.
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[ Posted Tuesday, January 6th, 2015 – 17:39 UTC ]
Millions of Americans just got a raise. Their first 2015 paycheck will be substantially bigger in many states, as new minimum wages take effect. This is great news for those at the bottom of the pay scale, and it will likely generate some upward pressure on those making slightly more than minimum wage as well. The supervisors of minimum-wage earners will demand to be paid more than those they are supervising, and the managers of the supervisors will use the same logic. J.F.K.'s "rising tide" will lift a lot of boats, in other words. But there's an even bigger change coming soon for those in the middle class, which should help to rectify the problem of income equality for tens of millions of hard-working Americans. The big change that President Obama is going to soon unveil is an update of the mandatory overtime rule.
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