Joseph Palermo: The Republicans think they believe that with enough SuperPAC money and stoking up the base, along with relatively high unemployment and gas prices and millions of underwater mortgage holders, they can win a close election.
The Sad Spectacle of Obama’s Super PAC
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Robert Reich: The sad truth is Obama has never really occupied the high ground on campaign finance. He refused public financing in 2008. Once president, he didn’t go to bat for a system of public financing.
Sarah Palin on Herman Cain: “Boys Will Be Boys”
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Julie Driscoll: Call me crazy, but shouldn’t the “morality and values” party believe that cheating and lying and deceit and trashing of marital vows and violations of who knows how many biblical rules and regs shouldn’t be reduced to Sarah Palin’s “boys will be boys?”
Occupy Wall Street: Separating Fact from Media
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Walter Brasch: Even the most oblivious recognize the protestors as a large cross-section of America. They are students and teachers; housewives, plumbers, and physicians; combat veterans from every war from World War II to the present.
Winning Through Acting Crazy
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Robert Illes: Time to do something utterly insane ourselves. And I hope Obama does just that on September 8th when Boehner finally allows him to speak before Congress.
Own It, Barack!
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Lucia Brawley: The more hard-hitting and direct you are the better. The more you own your critics’ ammunition against you and turn it on them, the more effective you’ll be.
Open Letter to President Obama Post-S&P’s Credit Rating Downgrade
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Lucia Brawley: I will fight for you in the upcoming campaign with everything I have, in order to prevent a Republican, or unthinkably, a Tea Party candidate from winning the presidency. But in order to fight for you again, I have to know you’re fighting for Bianca and me. Because if not you, then who?
What Brings Democrats and Republicans Together: A White President?
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Anthony Samad: The rise of the Tea Party wouldn’t have taken place had we had a white president. Blink if you want to…but the fact this has not happened to any other President has raised my “Race-dar,” beyond anything ideological battles could muster. Race(ism) has not disappeared in this country. It’s just been codified.
President Obama: MIA
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Walter Brasch: Good presidents do what is best for the country. Great presidents, however, do not only what is best for the people, but are also willing to speak to the courage of their beliefs, of their principles, even if it may be unpopular among many of their constituencies.
The Politics of Hate—and Hate Speech
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Walter Brasch: While most Tea Partiers are White, middle-aged or senior citizens who are angry but not violent, whenever there is violence, whenever there is racism, discrimination, or homophobia, there are Tea Party sympathizers present.
Sarah Palin: America’s Full-Time Professional Duelist
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Tina Dupuy: Palin is now our nation’s only full-time professional duelist. She fights with everyone. Her entire post-quitting career is centered on flame wars, most of which she starts.
Obama Can Learn From FDR
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Tom Degan: Is the president serious when he tells us that he plans on “working with” the opposition party in the next two years? Part of me has to believe that he’s not, that he’s merely taking on the guise of the good loser, holding his cards close to his vest.
What’s the Matter with America? The Big Disconnect
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Charles Hayes: If America is going to have a better future, we need to put our Stone Age feelings of exceptional identity aside and intellectually guard ourselves against emotional manipulation while reasoning our way forward.
What Center?
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Joseph Palermo: The political “center” of American politics is a moving target. And for the last thirty years it has moved in only one direction: Rightward.
Only in America
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Berry Craig: Like Reagan, Tea Party candidates are delivering what Tea Partiers want: simple answers to complex issues. Never mind that there never have been simple answers to complex issues.
Tea Party Surge Just a Bump in the Road?
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Tom Hall: Sure, the Tea Party will win this fall’s election cycle. Yes, they will do every thing they can to disrupt any progressive efforts of the President. But even now, before their election victories have been counted, they are already beginning to war amongst themselves. They are eagerly acting to disprove any belief in the “values” they proclaim. Their hypocrisy will be their undoing.
In Search of the Real Tea Party
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Denis Campbell: Almost all feared what looks to become the continual flip-flopping of the government every two years that will prevent a single problem from being fixed and create an even more polarized and angry electorate. Said Marilyn from Delaware, “This will be like Israel, where no one can agree and they just fight all of the time.”
Which Democrats Are Being “Divisive”?
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Paul Hogarth: Barack Obama and Joe Biden are upset at progressive Democrats. But which Democrats are being divisive?
Weapons of Masturbation
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Robert Illes: Christine O’Donnell; Her idiocy, past and present, has made her a national figure, with millions of dollars flowing into her campaign.
Clapping for Conservatism
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Steve Hochstadt: These days it seems like only political allegiance determines judgments about whether people are good or bad. I want to be judged by how I act, not how I vote, by whether I tell the truth, how I treat my neighbors, how I live in my community, how well I take care of my mother. (Hi, Ma.)
President John McCain’s First 18 Months in Office
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Ted Vaill: President McCain has urged that the United Nations move its headquarters out of the U.S., and he has proposed that the U.S. leave the UN, which he calls “useless and corrupt”. He also has refused to meet with most foreign leaders in the White House, or to travel abroad, except for heavily guarded and secret trips to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Reagan the Socialist, Nixon the Commie, Eisenhower the Quisling
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Ronald Reagan was a socialist. I didn’t say it. Bill O’Reilly got permission from Republican Party policy chief Rush Limbaugh to explain, on the air, the economic logic that drives the Republican Party to now condemn Reagan as a socialist. As O’Reilly explained Republican policy, anyone who wants our wealthiest citizens to pay as little [...]
Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream
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Few discoveries are more irritating than those which expose the pedigree of ideas. – Lord Acton The greatness of our nation can more easily be undone than you might expect. What I witnessed . . . only reinforced my view of how fragile our freedom is. – Samuel J. Wurzelbacher Not since the publication of [...]
GOP Chair Michael Steele Reaches Out to Hip-Hop Community for Hipper Supporters
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Chair Michael Steele, of Republican National Committee (RNC) fame, has announced that a first objective as newly elected leader of the GOP will be to reach out to the hip-hop community. He’s planning an “off the hook” public relations offensive by applying the party’s principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.” Translation? He wants to attract younger [...]
Enough of This Bipartisan Nonsense
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I started to laugh when I heard that Michael Steele was selected as the first African American to chair the Republican National Committee. I don’t think much of the “new” Republican Party, but then again, that doesn’t prevent me from writing about it. But don’t get me wrong, I think that the former Maryland lieutenant [...]
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Friday Feedback: Occupy Wall Street’s Gullible & Unsophisticated Protesters
Friday Feedback: This week, Hollis Steward comments on Joe Palermo’s article, “Occupy Wall Street’s “Gullible” and “Unsophisticated” Protesters,” followed by rejoinders by hwood007 and Cindy-Roy.