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- The biggest problem with the GOP's economic illiteracy is that it virtually guarantees that the United States will be ungovernable for the foreseeable future. I have no idea what's preventing Democrats from making a bigger deal of the fact that Republicans believe tax cuts, especially tax cuts for the rich, pay for themselves and generate growth and jobs. They might also note that Republicans have taken the position that the unemployed are just lazy bums who refuse to take jobs that are just waiting for them.
- Michael Hais has an excellent article offering advice to Democrats this election year: Forget about wooing "independents" and "centrists" and focus on mobilizing the rank-and-file Democratic vote. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that independent voters, particularly whites, hold the key to electoral victory, it's clear that the only way Democrats will minimize their losses is by turning out their base in November.
- It's interesting to try to determine how much economic conditions affect presidential approval ratings, but isn't the more interesting question why Barack Obama has maintained an approval rating in the low- to mid-'40s with 9.5 percent unemployment that few Americans believe will change any time soon? I don't have an answer, but surely it has to do with how much confidence Americans have in the president's handling of the economy, which tracks pretty close with his approval rating.
- A billboard in Iowa comparing the president to Hitler and V.I. Lenin went up and came down faster than you can say "24-hour news cycle." But let's stop to appreciate the sign's warning, brought to you by the North Iowa Tea Party: "Radical leaders prey on the fearful and naive." Funny, they were actually right about that part.
- Good news, but wow: "A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a new Nebraska law requiring mental health screenings for women seeking abortions." Mental-health screenings? I guess in Nebraska the consensus is that all those flighty women frequently go insane, what with the lunar cycle and menstruation. The fair sex certainly can't be trusted to evaluate whether they want to incubate new life under those conditions.
- Remainders: Finding the consensus in budget-deficit simulations; a public option -- and an employer mandate -- are working in San Francisco; if I'm reading this right, the libertarian answer to renewable energy is "do absolutely nothing"; some right-wingers still can't accept that we have a black man as president; and Republicans debate the big ideas in Colorado.
--Mori Dinauer
