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E.J. Dionne
$20.95
By Steven Naifeh (Author), Gregory White Smith (Author)
$21
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AP / Saul Loeb
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So the official story here is that President Obama says he wants to cut the country’s corporate tax rate by seven percentage points, dropping it from 35 percent to 28 percent, which gives him a nice tax-related headline on a day when similar stories are cropping up about the competition.
Posted on Feb 22, 2012
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White House / Pete Souza
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Only she knows for sure, but Rick Santorum’s spokeswoman Alice Stewart claims she misspoke when she referred to President Obama’s “radical Islamic policies” on MSNBC when she really meant to say “radical environmental policies.”
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AP / Gerald Herbert
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It’s campaign season 2012, and how much is your favorite super PAC spending? The telltale signs of democracy in action these days include headlines like the one above, accounting for the giant sum racked up by the pro-Mitt Romney super PAC “Restore Our Future,” one of the monstrosities created by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.
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Mr. Fish
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By Mr. Fish — Is there no more convincing proof that there is nothing like a presidential campaign to demonstrate just how profoundly detached we are as a nation from recognizing why ours is a functioning democracy in reputation alone?
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Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Entirely missing from Foster Friess’ old-timey zinger about how the ladies did the contraception back when he was a lad, other than class, was any sense of male accountability in the procreation process.
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Being a Catholic himself, Stephen Colbert is able to break down for the layperson (read: godless liberal) the Vatican’s stance on contraception, which recently became a hot-button (read: wedge) issue for Campaign 2012.
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To hear House Speaker John Boehner tell it, as he does in this clip, the “political games” that were clearly happening in recent months over the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits bill that’s now en route to passage were all coming from the Democratic side.
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Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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The Hollywood Republican is an uncommon breed, and many specimens apparently feel that their chosen professional habitat does not allow them to proliferate as freely as their less conservative counterparts. But sightings are more common during election season. (Above, Vince Vaughn, a supporter of Ron Paul.)
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Daryl Cagle, Cagle Cartoons, MSNBC.com —
Posted on Feb 12, 2012
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jamiehladky (CC-BY)
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Something interesting happens when hardworking, fiscally minded Americans find themselves on the public dole: They resent the government that lends a hand and feel guilty for accepting help. A major article from The New York Times documents the anxiety, frustration and confusion of a growing class of dependent Americans.
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Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Although an easy answer to the question posed by the headline would appear to be something along the lines of nothing good, there are more subtleties to the issue that merit exploration, and Rick Santorum’s triple win Tuesday doesn’t necessarily add up to an ultimate victory against GOP front-runner Mitt Romney.
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AP / Tony Gutierrez
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Conservative power ranger Chuck Norris has come out swinging for the GOP once again—this time, he’s willing to lend his unique celebrity brand to give Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign a boost with a memorably worded endorsement only he could compose.
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The Huffington Post
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Those who caught the Super Bowl broadcast Sunday might have heard Clint Eastwood’s gravelly growl emanating from their sets during one of the big game’s coveted ad breaks.
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Our civil liberties and First Amendment rights are threatened by the Supreme Court’s decisions in the Julian Assange case; if Mitt Romney’s father was still around, he’d probably endorse Obama; meanwhile, Fox News is ruining the GOP. These discoveries and more after the jump.
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Bill Day, Cagle Cartoons —
Posted on Feb 4, 2012
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Wikimedia Commons / David_Vasquez
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Unless he crashes and burns in the next two days, or Newt Gingrich’s camp has some ammo we’re not aware of, Mitt Romney will be the winner of Saturday’s Republican caucuses in Nevada.
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Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Here’s an algorithm from the Annals of the Obvious: Conservative women commonly identify as values voters, responding to like-minded candidates and campaigns and bringing what are referred to in certain circles as traditional morals into the booths. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, while purporting to run on a family-friendly platform, has some blots on his personal record that would appear to contradict these ideals.
Posted on Jan 30, 2012
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Up for consideration on this week’s “Left, Right & Center” are such considerable topics as President Obama’s State of the Union address and the state of play in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. On board for the discussion are regulars Matt Miller and Robert Scheer, as well as guest panelists David Frum and Chrystia Freeland. You know you want to listen.
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Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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As Newt Gingrich chugs along on his improbable political comeback track, many have tried to slow his roll, but here comes The New York Times’ Timothy Egan with a scathing Op-Ed, calling the relentless GOP contender a demagogue par excellence while allowing that Gingrich has practiced his uniquely unctuous brand of politics to greasy perfection.
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Wikimedia Commons / Harald Dettenborn (CC-BY)
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Sorry, Ice-T, but while Hillary Clinton may in some circles be considered a “G,” she may not be up for the task of staying on the “high wire of American politics” much longer—at least not in her current position.
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World Affairs Council of Philadelphia (CC-BY)
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By Lena Groeger, ProPublica —
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released 550 pages of tax returns Tuesday and news organizations are making their way through them. ProPublica shows us where to look to make sense of the numbers.
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John Cole, Cagle Cartoons, The Scranton Times-Tribune —
Posted on Jan 22, 2012
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superman_ha_muerto (CC-BY)
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By Kim Barker, Politico —
Sure, there’s the GOP symbol, but the real elephant in the room has been the super PAC, the turbocharged political action committee able to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on political ads — as long as that spending isn’t coordinated with a particular campaign.
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AP / Mary Schwalm
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By Bill Boyarsky — The Affordable Care Act, the health reform signed into law by Obama, is now best known by the Republican label “Obamacare.” Romney hopes to ride that misleading word to the presidency.
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Rick Santorum likes it “hot and heavy and strictly missionary.” His truth, that is—get your mind out of the godless liberal gutter.
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AP / Elise Amendola
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At Saturday’s Republican debate, Mitt Romney got creative with the number of jobs generated during his tenure at Bain Capital, Ron Paul called MLK a “hero” after being questioned about a newsletter of his that trashed the man as a “world-class adulterer,” and Rick Santorum told the audience that social class doesn’t exist in America.
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RobinDude
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By Thomas Frank, TomDispatch —
Dear Tea Party Movement: You should get behind Mitt Romney, the charging Massachusetts RINO, because—in a certain paradoxical way—he may turn out to be the truest of all the candidates to the spirit of your movement.
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Republicans, start your engines. With the Iowa causues in the rear-view mirror and New Hampshire and South Carolina up next, the GOP primary field has pretty much narrowed to Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. What might the great minds of “Left, Right & Center” think of these presidential wannabes?
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Obama dodges Netanyahu’s attempts to suck the U.S. into a war against Iran; Stephen Colbert’s many fictional faces are interfering with real world politics; meanwhile, the Argentine LGBT community is combatting the country’s deep-rooted stereotypes. These discoveries and more after the jump.
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AP / Charles Dharapak
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Fresh off his historically narrow victory in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential pageant favorite Mitt Romney beefed up his attack rhetoric against his would-be opponent, Barack Obama, on Thursday by lashing out against the president’s latest big appointments.
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AP / Carolyn Kaster
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Because this is one of the things he can do from the Oval Office, President Obama pulled what his Republican opponents will no doubt characterize as a fast one by forcibly installing Richard Cordray on Wednesday as his chosen leader of the recently configured Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while Congress was on recess.
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White House / Pete Souza
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It’s expected that the people who brought you President Barack Obama, including the commander in chief himself, would be shifting into attack mode in preparation for the height of campaign season, and their main target is looking a lot like Mitt Romney.
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AP / Jim Cole
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The contest for the Republican presidential nomination just got a little less kooky with the subtraction of Michele Bachmann from the mix. On Wednesday, after the previous night’s Iowa caucus results found Mitt Romney in the top spot, the Minnesota congresswoman and staunch anti-socialist announced she was bowing out of the race.
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Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Although there’s already been some infighting among the ranks of this election cycle’s Republican presidential hopefuls, it’s going to get only crazier from here on out. And with candidates’ fates shifting as quickly as they have this time around (Herman who?), you can bet that rival GOP camps are going to do their darndest to stir up the drama.
Posted on Jan 3, 2012
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It’s Iowa Caucus Day, everyone—can you feel the excitement? Now, you’ve probably heard a lot of white noise coming from certain other outlets that shall remain nameless about the GOP’s big campaign 2012 kickoff extravaganza, so here’s some welcome commentary to cut through all that from some smart people who do have a clue.
Posted on Jan 3, 2012
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Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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As of Monday morning, just a tad over 24 hours before Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, the balance of power among the top GOP presidential candidates had once again shifted. Most surprising was the reemergence of Rick Santorum—remember him?—as an actual contender.
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Occupy Des Moines protesters decide it’s high time to occupy the Democratic headquarters, and they won’t be the last; Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” gets more viewers than Fox News; and one of America’s most visible poets fell out of grace thanks to a racist poem. These discoveries and more after the jump.
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Does America need a third political party? The backlash against Obama on the left and the tepid support for Romney (the “anyone but Romney” vote has gone from Bachmann to Perry to Cain to Gingrich) would seem to make this a fine time for an independent party to emerge.
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Robert Grossman —
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Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons —
Posted on Dec 24, 2011
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AP / Jim Cole
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By Bill Boyarsky — While the Iowa Republican caucuses might not tell us much about who will win the party’s presidential nomination, they already reveal plenty about how the new world of unlimited campaign contributions is corrupting politics.
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Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons —
Posted on Dec 22, 2011
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Sure, he’s tall and suave (for a Republican), and fine, his politics resonate on at least an acceptable level in GOP circles, except for that whole health care thing, but Monday, presidential hopeful Mitt Romney faced one of the biggest litmus tests for today’s politician: cracking wise on late-night TV.
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The Donald has managed to stir up a sideshow for himself again, having briefly flirted (and hinted anew) about running for the nation’s highest office, but yet again he’s backed out by calling off the debate that all but a couple of GOP candidates had withdrawn from themselves.
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The GOP’s remaining presidential candidates had yet another debate on Saturday night, just in case there was anything any of them still needed to comment about at length that might tip the balance in their quest for the Republican nomination.
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RJ Matson, Cagle Cartoons, Roll Call —
Posted on Dec 10, 2011
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Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Although it’s still early in the presidential campaign season, this go-round has already brought some surprises, especially from the GOP. We’ve seen Rick Perry’s debate debacle and the end of the Cain Train, but Newt Gingrich’s unlikely rise also befuddles many politicos.
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Flickr / Matti Mattila
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Those dastardly Republicans have done it again. First they blocked President Obama’s original choice, the esteemed Elizabeth Warren, to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and now Senate Republicans have shot down another stellar candidate, Richard Cordray.
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Um, how did we miss this? Maybe you meme-savvy readers out there already caught this hilarious “Bad Lip Reading” spoof video of Ron Paul doing his best to win voters over by declaring, “I helped a fuzzy dude cut a piece of fruit,” among other absurdities, but it’s a must-see for sure.
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Forty Two. (CC-BY)
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In the ongoing, hitherto successful, conservative-led effort to divert education money to corporations, Republican lawmakers in Michigan are exploiting the economic downturn to push a set of initiatives that would outsource teaching jobs, curtail collective bargaining rights and defang teachers’ unions. (more)
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