Obama: Regain 2008 Groove!

04 August 2011 |permalink | email article

JOBS were mentioned a dozen times by President Obama in the Rose Garden on Tuesday when he signed the compromise debt plan. The word has been endlessly repeated for more than two years by the White House because a pivot on job creation implies “stimulus,” generating an instant Republican brush back, and making it a critical reelection issue going into Campaign 2012.

During his 2008 presidential campaign Obama was unequivocal: “We’re going to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. “ In less than nine months, the president has twice tabled his pledge in contentious negotiations with congressional Republicans, upsetting Democratic lawmakers and liberal backers who believe he’s susceptible to backtracking. The Bush tax cuts would have expired last December but Obama agreed to extend them in a deal cut with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell during a lame-duck session of Congress. In exchange he got a payroll tax cut and other stuff but forfeited the big prize.

Prayer Day

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s overtly religious event, “The Response,” this Saturday might be a risky venture since it mixes a prominent government figure with religion and features controversial speakers. Almost certain to seek the GOP presidential nomination, the religious rally has attracted just 8,000 RSVPs for a stadium that seats 71,500 people.

Coast to Coast

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, the “Hardball” host, was seen dining at La Dolce Vita in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night. Nancy Reagan, who has difficulty walking, arrived later and slowly made her way to Matthews’ table….Melissa Harris-Perry, a Tulane University political science professor, who filled in for star Rachel Maddow, whose contract was extended, over four nights last week averaging just under 300,000 viewers, easily beating Piers Morgan on CNN each night.

Quotable

“Bless his heart. I have respect for Mitt Romney, but I do not have respect for what he has done through this debt increase debate.” – Sarah Palin, on Fox News, flirting with a queenmaker’s role in 2012 – damning the GOP front runner with faint praise while praising Michele Bachmann for opposing the debt limit increase.

House majority leader Eric Cantor, meeting with editors at the Wall Street Journal, said Americans must “come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many.” – echoing the discredited Republican plan dealing with exploding cost of health care to phase out Medicare and replace it with a system of subsidized private insurance plans for elderly Americans.

“The difference is the intensity here. The Republicans have the Tea Party, and the Democrats don’t have anything of comparable animation on their side.” – David R. Mayhew, a political science professor at Yale,
to the New York Times.

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