Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Clinton Says Margaret Thatcher Wasn’t Part of Britain’s Establishment Because She Was a Woman

Okay, what she actually said is that she can’t be part of the establishment, because she is a woman.  Because by definition, women aren’t part of the establishment. Shucks! No one told all those corporate folks who paid her $225,000 to hear her reminisce to them about how stressful it was to advise President Obama on whether he should approve the raid on […]

No, Sanders is not trying to boot moderates out of the Democratic Party and erect a progressives-purity test. He just objects to Clinton’s misrepresenting herself as a progressive Democrat when she is, by her own fairly recent and proud description, a moderate Democrat.

I’ve been a fan of New Republic senior editor Brian Beutler dating back to his days as a Salon writer, but in a piece today called “Bernie Sanders Will Be Unelectable If He Keeps This Up” he misinterprets the essence of Sanders’s current criticism of Clinton as a fair-weather progressive in a way that I […]

Is it just me, or is the Clinton campaign’s take on how to appeal to African-American voters really demeaning?

It’s worth noting that Clinton has an interesting built-in advantage here. Clinton is campaigning as the candidate of continuity, at least in the sense that she is promising to build incrementally on the Obama agenda, while Sanders is implicitly arguing that the change of the Obama era has been woefully insubstantial when compared with the […]

Why I think Clinton did not win the Iowa caucuses: The spread between Clinton and Sanders remained at 49.8 to 49.6 percent for soooo long, increased a bit, a few times, but always returned to 49.8 to 49.6, never quite getting to 49.7 to 49.7. And Des Moines was at 83% percent for evvvvver. Until REALLY LATE.

Clinton received 49.8 percent support and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) received 49.6 percent support, according to the Iowa Democratic Party’s website. — Talking Points Memo, 1:11 p.m. Okay.  I do not think Clinton won the caucuses.  I watched the entire count, on my computer, on the New York Times website, which had a map of Iowa, […]

Recession Mania

January 17, 2016 Marcus Nunes posted on the views of a possible Recession The “Plunging Economy.” Marcus asks the Question; What to make of these trends? Do they justify the “recession mania” that is taking shape? The Fed believes otherwise about the possibility of recession and clings to the only thing not plunging.

Clinton Claims She Was Secretary of State in … the Bush Administration. (I think that’s what she’s claiming, anyway.)

Clinton put her presidential experience in stark terms by telling detail-laden stories about her political life, including one about dealing with a terrorist threat around President Barack Obama’s first inauguration from the White House’s Situation Room. “I was able to bring my years of experience to the forefront,” Clinton said about having to decide whether […]

Sighhhh. [Addendum added.]

Sarah Kliff has a very helpful account of Vermont’s attempt to create a state-level single-payer health care system, and why it failed. It’s a bit like the old joke about the farmer, asked for directions, who says “Well, I wouldn’t start from here.” The point is not that single-payer is a bad idea. It is that given […]

What If Thomas Friedman Had Decided Not to Claim In the Opinion Pages of The New York Times That Bernie Sanders Is a COMMUNIST?

What if our 2016 election ends up being between a socialist and a borderline fascist — ideas that died in 1989 and 1945 respectively? — Thomas Friedman, What If?, New York Times, today What if Thomas Friedman had decided not to claim in the Opinion Pages of The New York Times that Bernie Sanders is […]

Clinton’s Bizarre Attack on Her Husband’s 1992 Credentials to Be Elected Commander in Chief

The Clinton campaign is set to air this new, minute-long ad in Iowa and New Hampshire that has the feel of a closing argument: [picture from ad of a very solemn-faced Secretary of State Clinton standing next to Obama at the funeral of a fallen soldier or marine, and a link to the ad.] — […]