Healthcare for Christmas?

I'm so glad I sat out talking head post-election madness yesterday. I didn't watch any of it because I knew my head would pop off. It seemed like a million people and their brothers and sisters uselessly analyzed the statewide elections up and down, inside out. If only really important issues could be covered with such enthusiasm and diligence.
I like politics, just not stupid politics.
Anyway, it's back to healthcare. It may come wrapped in a red bow:

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Tea Partier Supports Sarah Palin Jim DeMint Ticket

Good golly, I can't think of anything more frightening.
We have to work on educating the next generation. Tea Partiers Everett Wilkinson and Allen Olson respond to Chris Mathews on climate change and the Iraq war.
For the record, I never supported the war in Iraq. Not on 9-12-2001 and not after Bush used weapons of mass destruction to sway people. I never for one teeny tiny minute fell for it.
It's difficult to understand tea partiers but I think first and foremost, they are motivated by fear. They're fearful of god, education, things they don't know, things they don't understand, things that are outside of what Beck calls their "white culture." They have a narrow view of patriotism. They're fearful of government. Sarah Palin doesn't offend them because they don't believe government is even necessary. Another thing, intellectualism is viewed by the tea partiers as a negative. I also think many of them are inclined to believe that the end is year. When you believe rapture is coming, your priorities are different.

We Could have Ourselves Another Birther

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A President With Interests

I don't normally post Chris Matthews' commentary but this is funny:

Fleischer Defends Bush: Obama Should be Thankful

Good grief. Bush goons are trying to rewrite history and republicans are trying to say Obama created the economic catastrophe.
Chris Matthews goes after Ari Fleischer, former Bush press secretary, feeding us more spin.

Limbaugh Being Used by Democrats

Sorry about the gross photo

Rush is playing into the democrats web. He is so insecure, he can't help himself.

My spider and fly theory seems to be playing out. The more people associate Rush Limbaugh with the republican party, the worse off the party will be. Now they're eating each other.

Today Rush accused RNC head Michael Steele of being a wimp after Steele leveled Rush to "entertainer." Limbaugh and Steele are both poor representatives of the party and this kind of nonsense paints the whole party the fool.

CNN: "Why do you claim to lead the Republican Party when you seem obsessed with seeing to it President Obama succeeds?" Limbaugh addressed Steele.

"I frankly am stunned that the chairman of the Republican National Committee endorses such an agenda. I have to conclude that he does because he attacks me for wanting it to fail," said Limbaugh.

Late last week, Steele told CNN's D.L. Hughley that Limbaugh is an "entertainer" whose comments are "ugly."

Also on his radio program Monday, Limbaugh said Steele is being used by the "liberal media."

Watch Rush tear Steele apart and other experts weigh in on Rush:

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Obama Has More to Worry About Than Trolls Under the Bridge

Trolls under the bridge is how Chris Matthews described republican antics. Frank Rich describes how serious our problems are and the sense of denial we have, despite.

I don't think any of us in "real America," to borrow a phrase from the republicans, are in denial. Just those who tried to keep up with the Joneses. Those of us in real America watched our neighbors pile on debt and we had to struggle against the temptation to do the same.

Ultimately, we knew it was a house of cards but we couldn't do anything about it except work, save what we could and watch. What we didn't know is that our neighbors' practice of keeping up with the Joneses would also bring us down -- our home values (many of us resisted the easy bake home), our 401Ks, our jobs. Now, as pointed out by Ranting Rick Santelli, many people are livid.

But the fact is, we have to prop up the debtors and those who didn't know any better -- we are a nation in need of financial literacy training --  for the sake of the whole.

NYT: No one knows, of course, but a bigger question may be whether we really want to know. One of the most persistent cultural tics of the early 21st century is Americans’ reluctance to absorb, let alone prepare for, bad news. We are plugged into more information sources than anyone could have imagined even 15 years ago. The cruel ambush of 9/11 supposedly “changed everything,” slapping us back to reality. Yet we are constantly shocked, shocked by the foreseeable. Obama’s toughest political problem may not be coping with the increasingly marginalized G.O.P. but with an America-in-denial that must hear warning signs repeatedly, for months and sometimes years, before believing the wolf is actually at the door.

This phenomenon could be seen in two TV exposés of the mortgage crisis broadcast on the eve of the stimulus signing. On Sunday, “60 Minutes” focused on the tawdry lending practices of Golden West Financial, built by Herb and Marion Sandler. On Monday, the CNBC documentary “House of Cards” served up another tranche of the subprime culture, typified by the now defunct company Quick Loan Funding and its huckster-in-chief, Daniel Sadek. Both reports were superbly done, but both could have been reruns.

Obama's fine line:

Pity our new president. As he rolls out one recovery package after another, he can’t know for sure what will work. If he tells the whole story of what might be around the corner, he risks instilling fear itself among Americans who are already panicked. (Half the country, according to a new Associated Press poll, now fears unemployment.) But if the president airbrushes the picture too much, the country could be as angry about ensuing calamities as it was when the Bush administration’s repeated assertion of “success” in Iraq proved a sham. Managing America’s future shock is a task that will call for every last ounce of Obama’s brains, temperament and oratorical gifts.

The difficulty of walking this fine line can be seen in the drama surrounding the latest forbidden word to creep around the shadows for months before finally leaping into the open: nationalization. Until he started hedging a little last weekend, the president has pointedly said that nationalizing banks, while fine for Sweden, wouldn’t do in America, with its “different” (i.e., non-socialistic) culture and traditions. But the word nationalization, once mostly whispered by liberal economists, is now even being tossed around by Lindsey Graham and Alan Greenspan. It’s a clear indication that no one has a better idea. Read the rest.

Palin's Perfect Career: Talk Show Host

Palin probably burned her bridges in Alaska, and I doubt she's going to make it to the White House, but she'd make a great talk show host.

Joe Biden on Hardball

Go Joe! Joe says McCain Palin over the edge. The Swamp wonders what would happen if Palin was on Hardball.

Who is the Undecided Voter?

NoBamas at Convention: Obama Went to Muslim School

An Obama supporter tries reason.

Ed Rendell Still Sore

Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania, has said he's voting for Hillary at the convention but he's backing Obama. That's just weird. Here he is once more showing his devoted Hillary love: 

Politico:

"Ladies and gentleman, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing," said Rendell, in the ballroom at Denver's Brown Palace Hotel. "It was embarrassing."

Rendell, an ardent Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter during the primaries, now backs Obama in the general election. Brokaw and Rendell began debating campaign coverage, including the on-air comments by Lee Cowan, and when MSNBC came up, Rendell went after the cable network.

“MSNBC was the official network of the Obama campaign," Rendell said, who called their coverage "absolutely embarrassing."

Chris Matthews, Rendell said, "loses his impartiality when he talks about the Clintons.”

At that point, PBS's Judy Woodruff, who was moderating the moderators event, said: "Why don’t we let Governor Rendell sit down."

That was met with applause from the crowd of big-time media figures, which included Arianna Huffington, Gwen Ifill, Al Hunt, and Chuck Todd.

Wall Street Will Rebound Under Obama

On the Chris Matthews Show this morning, Jim Cramer said investors are tired of the economy and under Obama, the market would rebound. Wahoo!
Cramer would make a great Meet the Press moderator. Either he or Chris Matthews, but they'd have to develop another show to replace Matthews' show.
Through the election, Tom Brokaw will be the Meet the Press moderator.
Jim Sullivan, from The Atlantic, said Tim Pawlenty will be McCain's veep. He wasn't sure about Obama but said it would be someone boring.

Obama on Hardball: Shape Don't Ignore

unlike cheney who ignores public opinion, obama says government should shape public opinion and shape it with the truth. good video, one of the best. hardball host chris matthews and pennsylvania college students ask some great questions.