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- There are a couple of ways you could analyze Obama's declining poll numbers on health care. You could observe that the reduction in support from liberals is the big underreported element of the story. Or you could ask whether Obama's numbers were artificially inflated in the wake of his inauguration and have come back down to more realistic numbers. If you're the editors of Politico, however, you would talk to your sources in the White House, come up with a hazy theory of the administration's legislative goals, and then pronounce that in the opinion of you and your Beltway buddies, Obama has bitten off more than he can chew and soon the whole edifice is destined to come crumbling down.
- The administration is expected announce tomorrow that the ten-year federal budget deficit projection will be $2 trillion higher than originally anticipated, bringing the total to approximately $9 trillion. Before this becomes political fodder, it's helpful to read The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities "Five Keys" to understanding the deficits, particularly number five: "The only clear conclusion that should be drawn from the new deficit estimates is the continued need for action on long-term deficits."
- Paul Krugman responds to the revival of the idea that the left was "reflexively" anti-Bush by 2004 -- and thus not making rational or credible criticisms of the president -- by noting the list of demonstrable lies that had already been pushed by administration on everything from tax cuts, energy and environmental policy, and especially the Iraq war and its aftermath. "Given all that," Krugman writes, "it made complete sense to distrust anything the Bush administration said. That wasn’t reflexive, it was rational."
- If I possessed the re-animation powers of a Dr. Frankenstein, I'd be tempted to resurrect Hannah Arendt solely for the purpose of lecturing theatrical provocateurs like Glenn Beck and vainglorious pseudo-intellectuals like Jonah Goldberg on what totalitarianism actually is, and that their willingness to cheapen it for their own gain is an insult to all who have actually lived and died under such regimes. Such analysis is on par with this gentleman ranting about Nancy Pelosi and swastikas.
- Weekend Remainders: Chris Matthews thinks it's 2002 and pajama-clad bloggers are ruining serious journalism; meet Senator Max Baucus, political enigma; it seems like every week that somebody is totally demolishing an argument from Megan McArdle; apparently Mike Huckabee is some sort of expert on sci-fi weaponry; thankfully, Republicans weren't willing to let the government make decisions about the life or death of Teri Schiavo...wait; and it's a good thing we have health care experts Joe Lieberman and John McCain to give us some straight talk about, respectively, recessions and death panels.
--Mori Dinauer
