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Thursday, January 29, 2009

News Nuggets 85


Next Year's Model: Tennessee through Vermont from Daily Kos
"As part of an ongoing series of preliminary analyses of the 2009 and 2010 US Senate elections, we turn this week to Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Vermont."

The Big Fix from the New York Times Sunday Magazine
"The main lesson from other crises of the past century is that governments tend to err on the side of too much caution — of taking the punch bowl away before the party has truly started up again."

Democrats: The Party of Business (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"Obama shows his skill at stimulus politics, addressing an admiring crowd of CEOs while the GOP postures and makes itself increasingly irrelevant."

For GOP, a Case of Misshapen Identity from the Washington Post
"Into this new world order, ... , that a steadfastly loyal group of Republicans descend this week, skidding into an iced-over landscape and holing up at the Capital Hilton beginning yesterday for a four-day winter meeting of the Republican National Committee."

"It’s the Obama Touch — the squeeze on the biceps, the pat on the shoulder or the tap on the back that signals the displeasure of the commander in chief. Let others turn on the deep freeze or lose their cool when they’re annoyed. Obama prefers to deal with problems by taking them in hand — literally."

"Although his presidency is barely a week old, some of Mr. Obama’s work habits are already becoming clear."

On a Downtown Train (Howard Fineman) from Newsweek
"As glorious as it was to elect an African-American to the presidency, the political breakthrough with more street-level significance is that we've just sworn in our first modern Metropolitan President. Barack Obama has the right background to handle this economic crisis because the pain is concentrated in cities—in industries such as banking and finance—and it's where the revival, led by new energy efficiencies, might be most easily generated."

Where Did All the Republicans Go? from the New York Times
"The results, ... , show that only five states have a statistically significant majority of voters who identify themselves as Republicans."

"In both developed and developing autocracies, the election of a minority candidate stands as a powerful example of the American democratic model.  But what concrete steps will Mr. Obama take to promote democracy?"

Obama's Fresh Start: Substance Over Showbiz (Joe Klein) from Time Magazine
"But the groups Obama lavished his attention on were an unlikely bunch: diplomats, Muslims and Republicans. The gestures involved a geographic humility that was a clean break from the presidential past."

US Leadership, Barack Obama Style from La Jornada [of Mexico in English]
"Obama offered urgently needed realism and common sense after the bellicose and genocidal paranoia with which neoconservatives had undermined Washington’s foreign policy. … in his first day on the job, the new president provided a sign of his leadership, and that data is reassuring."

A very funny (and TRUE) list!
"Obama has done everything reasonable, and more, to move toward non-P-partisanship.  The overwhelming impression he's leaving for voters is one of reasonableness and accommodation."

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