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- Obama's Oval Office speech will not move his poll numbers or magically compel Congress to support climate change legislation. But it should have been a chance to express his position on energy policy, and on that score, Obama failed. If you want to tackle climate change, you actually have to acknowledge it. Perhaps Obama was laying the groundwork for an "energy summit" to ensnare Republicans?
- Yesterday, House Republicans failed in an attempt to repeal the individual mandate portion of health reform, prompting David Weigel to wonder whether the GOP could pick up enough votes for such actions this fall. It's not inconceivable, but as Weigel notes the seats up for grabs could be those that voted in favor of repeal.
- There's something to this notion that the Tea Partiers are reacting to the fact that they have to rely on government at all, but Kevin Drum is right that the demographic evidence isn't there. More damning, of course, is that this movement came into being as soon as a Democrat took the White House.
- Remainders: In a sane political environment Jeff Merkley's energy proposal would have been adopted decades ago; nothing denotes an argument's seriousness like bashing the metric system; I'm glad Greg Sargent has the stomach to monitor vapid Beltway memes so we don't have to; and the Republican commitment to "limited government" and "freedom" is all talk.
--Mori Dinauer
