Mori Dinauer

The only thing the new Washington Post/ABC News poll tells us about the midterm elections is that the public is politically schizophrenic. The president, Democrats, and Republicans all fare poorly in the “trust” category, but the public still trusts Democrats more than Republicans on the economy and to “make the right decisions.” Naturally, this means […]

Is Wall Street on a hiring spree in “Anticipation of an Economic Recovery?” Annie Lowry says no, based on two pieces of data. First, the crash of 2008 eliminated a lot of the competition, and those firms that have weathered the storm are now that much more profitable. Second, low interest rates mean firms can […]

I think what gets revealed when Rand Paul says the poor don’t have it so bad in America or when people freak out over the salaries of bus drivers is how tenuous their commitment to “capitalism = freedom” really is. It must be convenient to believe that those beneath you are there because of some […]

I have no idea what Obama‘s political team thinks they’re going to accomplish by conceding to deficit hawks. It’s not as if the public gives a damn about the deficit; they want jobs. And it’s not as if voters are going to the polls in November thinking, “Well, the president made his case for job […]

As I understand it, conservatives are freaking out about the recess appointment of Don Berwick to head the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services because a) he has spoken favorably about the British National Health Service, and b) the recess appointment itself is unseemly because it circumvents a public vetting that only the U.S. can […]

Bradford Plumer‘s response to Jim Manzi on climate change addresses my No. 1 complaint about conservatives who, while not denying climate change is real, think the threat is exaggerated. The do-nothing analysis is that the economic impact of pricing carbon or curbing emissions will be so great that it will be worse than doing nothing. […]

David Plouffe believes that the “prospect of a Republican takeover” will help Democrats with “turnout and some of this enthusiasm gap.” Maybe he’s right, but looking at new Pew data, what Democrats really need is to boost turnout relative to Republican enthusiasm. Democratic enthusiasm at this time in 2006 was only four points higher than […]

The key to understanding why some on the right misinterpret economic statistics — or focus on comparing rates of growth in the public vs. private sector, or are obsessed with cutting “spending” — is that these things matter more to them than 10 percent unemployment. So when Ezra Klein points out that conservatives are wrong […]

More tidbits from the Elena Kagan hearings revelations of Republican Id: Charles Grassley asks whether the almighty had a hand in our gun rights; Jon Kyl denies that the Roberts court always sides with business over people; Tom Coburn thinks Kagan is “ignorant” for putting a higher premium on precedent than “original intent”; and John […]

It’s difficult to muster interest in judicial confirmation hearings in this era of blank-slate nominees, but the Elena Kagan hearings at least provide us a look into the mind of Senate Republicans. For instance, Jeff Sessions comparing Citizen’s United to Brown v. Board of Education. Or how Republicans pejoratively invoked Thurgood Marshall but were unable […]