There was less wow in the address that preceded [singer Kelly] Clarkson. Obama teased the crowd with a theme of unity: “Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people.” But his “we the people” theme turned out to be more of a campaign retread. “We the people […]

What a spot-on article Run 75441’s piece, “Healthcare Reform; Socialism or Fascism?” is. And what an informative Comments thread.  (Wow, Cynthia, who knew? I sure didn’t.) And, folks, don’t miss this takedown of Mackey, called “Dear Whole Foods CEO, This Is What a Fascist Looks Like,” by Thom Hartmann and Sam Sacks, via ReaderSupportedNews.   […]

This was a throw-down-the-gauntlet speech.   We have ourselves a leader.   —-UPDATE: E.J. Dionne equates this speech with FDR’s second inaugural speech and Reagan’s first one, in its importance. I hadn’t thought of Reagan’s–and of course the substance of today’s speech was the mirror image, the opposite, of Reagan’s–and I wasn’t alive for any […]

Oh, do tell us, Rep. Ryan, what exactly you think our spending priorities should be in order to avoid default if the debt ceiling isn’t increased.  Pleeease.   Might they be similar to the priorities of the National Review’s editors?

Today, in another step forward, the National Review calls on Republicans to take the threat of default off the table: Republicans should recognize that the prospect of default is the Democrats’ chief weapon in their campaign of avoidance. That prospect is not a source of Republican leverage in the debt-ceiling fight; it is the primary […]

Okay.  There’s no way to do justice to Washington Post centerist columnist Dana Milbank’s column today about Obama’s “presser” yesterday by just summarizing it or quoting a sentence or short paragraph from it.  And justice for that column, titled “President Congeniality talks tough,” is what I want. So here are the first six (blessedly short) […]

The issue here is whether America pays its bills.  We are not a deadbeat nation.  … This is the United States of America. We can’t manage our affairs in terms of the way we pay our bills? … I don’t think anyone would consider my position unreasonable. — President Obama, today So President Obama does […]

Either that or he means that the public understands what the debt-ceiling statute actually is, and will never support Congress’s authorization of payment of already-incurred expenses earlier authorized by none other than Congress itself. Obama and the congressional Dems should take the ball Walden has handed them and run with it.Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of […]

From a website called Daily Writ today, in a post called “Likelihood of a Petition Being Granted”: There are a lot of numbers thrown out about the likelihood of a cert. petition being granted. The number I’ve always heard is 1%, but I sometimes hear numbers as high as 5%. According to statistics from the […]

[I]sn’t it paramount the president explain to the public what the debt ceiling issue actually is, rather than allowing the Republicans to keep misinforming the public that it’s an increase in budget allocations rather than a payment for budget allocations already made?  This quirk in the law–the requirement that Congress authorize payment of costs already […]