Obama just had to get involved in the NY-Sen primary to clear the field for one-term backbench Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand. She must be so popular that the general election will be a total walk, right?
In what could be one of the most hotly contested Senate races in 2010, former New York City Mayor and [...]
Robert Reich:
Our private, for-profit health insurance system, designed to fatten the profits of private health insurers and Big Pharma, is about to be turned over to … our private, for-profit health care system. Except that now private health insurers and Big Pharma will be getting some 30 million additional customers, paid for by the rest [...]
“A Senate Democratic Chief of Staff” writes in to TPM:
So, what we might end up with is a Senate Democratic Caucus that holds 98% of its members but still fails to pass healthcare reform,1 AND a mob of angry progressives who are screaming for the heads of “the Democrats.”2 This isn’t fair,3 but more importantly, [...]
Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in the special congressional election in New York’s 23rd district, obviously decided a few days ago that he hadn’t yet made a complete fool of himself.
So he seems to have started taking the necessary steps to do so. Make a complete fool of himself, that is.
On election [...]
It’s interesting to see what spin is being put on the significance of today’s elections by different media organizations.
Reuters pitches it a test of Obama’s influence:
Republicans seeking a comeback from recent losses may pick up the governor’s seats in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday in campaigns that tested the limits of President Barack Obama’s [...]
Health care: Most wouldn’t have public option – SF Chronicle (10/29/09):
…lost amid the ideological battle for or against a public option is a key overlooked fact: The vast majority of Americans would have no access to a public option even under its most expansive versions.
House and Senate bills limit the option to the smallest [...]
Old joke around here, still hilarious:
Recently your newspaper published a letter from state Rep. Bakari Sellers attacking U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and his opposition to congressional earmarks.
There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking [...]
Pollster Tom Jensen on NJ-Gov and VA-Gov:
“Republicans are winning these races not because they’re winning anyone over, but because they’re planning to vote at a much higher rate than Democrats this year. The truth is if the same set of voters who showed up in 2008 showed up next month Creigh Deeds and Jon Corzine [...]
Schumer: Opt-Out Public Option Gaining Steam – TPMDC (10/8/09):
We’re chasing the ball on a new idea (is it a trial balloon? is it the magic answer?) to pass a health care bill with a public option that states–likely small, and conservative states–could choose not to participate in.
The velocity on this story seems to be on [...]
Grijalva Hits Baucus and Obama, Remains Firm on Public Option – TPMDC (9/28/09):
In a new op-ed, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus blasts the proposal written by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) saying it’s “all about the insurance industry’s bottom line: no teeth in enforcements and regulations, endless patent hoarding for the [...]
