Please note the up-front article in the Dispatches below -- I'll be curious to see if any major news organization follows up on what might be a MAJOR story.
Obama Aims to Close 'Trust Deficit' with Allies on Taliban Plan from the Bloomberg News Service
"President Barack Obama will aim to dispel mutual mistrust as he meets his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts at the White House today and urges them to step up the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban."
Memo to Bishops: No One is Listening from the Washington Post
"During the 2008 presidential campaign, there was a steady drumbeat of opposition to Barack Obama from some U.S. Catholic bishops, which only increased after his election. But despite the attention these attacks received in the media and on Internet blogs, polls show that the Catholic people are not listening."
GOP Rebound Requires Outreach (Charlie Cook) from the National Journal
"So half a year past a second-consecutive devastating election for Republicans -- in which they went further in the hole in the House and Senate and lost the presidency -- are they any better off now? Are there any signs of a rebound? The short answer would appear to be "no.""
The Republicans are Against It! Whatever it is. (Mike Madden) from Salon
"Led by Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, the GOP is already preparing to oppose President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court as a radical leftist -- whoever he or she is."
The GOP's Identity Politics (Amy Walter) from the National Journal
"The reality of being the out party is that you win elections not for who you are, but who you aren't. Sure, having a messiah appear and begin converting voters would be great, but the hard reality is this: For the GOP to succeed in '10 and '12, it needs President Obama to fail."
My FIRST lengthy comment/editorial at Daylee News! This is in response to Amy Walter's article above.
from Jared@CMU:
The conventional thinking in Washington is what Walter lays out above. The GOP especially seem to be banking on that Obama losing=GOP winning. The difficulty is that this is what I would call pre-2008 thinking (or pre-recession thinking). Where they should be coming from is "Americans in deep economic distress" thinking -- such as how Americans behaved politically during the Great Depression. Americans at the time were coming out of a similar era of conservative orthodoxies and economic complacency.
By the mid-1930s, what you saw was a SIGNIFICANT POLARIZATION of the electorate -- a polarization only deepened by the "Roosevelt Recession" of 1937-1938, perhaps a corollary to an "Obama losing" scenario. One thing you DID NOT SEE was a return to the old orthodoxies or some resurrection of the old GOP of the 1920s! The electorate fractured and went in THREE distinct directions (1) towards socialism & communism [remember, the 1930s was the high water mark for American communism; it was largely these folks who later got hung by HUAC & McCarthy] (2) American versions of fascism such as the Liberty League; the German American Bund, Father Charles Coughlin et al., with episodes such as the mysterious "Business Plot" of 1934 [look it up -- it's really interesting!] and finally, radical populism best represented by Huey Long and his Share the Wealth campaign. What sets this brand of populism apart from earlier versions is its intense antipathy to the Washington establishment and especially all things Wall Street.
How does all this relate to now? In my view, you see the same three-way fracturing going on now. Recent polling showed that something like 30% of Americans were favorably disposed towards socialism. Most media types struggled with how to explain this. Look for an even further movement to the left, particularly IF OBAMA FAILS.
The hard right (the corollary to the 1930s fascists) are [and you may disagree with me on this] showing up in the likes of Michelle Bachmann [just as an example], and those battling to pull the GOP further to the right than it already is. The rhetoric there is unmistakable: the hyper-patriotism, the paranoia, the kinds of attacks being leveled against the Obama administration [socialist, communist, etc.], etc.
The radical populism is everywhere to be seen, the reaction to the bailouts and the recent tea parties being the most recent examples. It was no accident that certain GOP figures who showed up at these events were booed or, as in Michael Steele's case, pointedly told not to come. Sarah Palin has some resonance with this crowd but they are still looking for a real focus for their anger. These folks are as likely to attack Republicans, particularly those form the Wall Street branch of the party, as anyone.
For the first time in my memory, these three extremes all seem quite emboldened by current conditions, and it certainly is a concern of mine the barely contained violent rhetoric that has surfaced beginning last year.
Anyway -- what got me going on this subject was Walters' column and the GOP's sense that they will win if Obama loses. My sense is IF OBAMA LOSES, and the economy continues to tank, the three types of political extremism I have laid out will be the winners -- not the GOP!
Nobody Can Compete with Obama for Cool from the Daily Nation [of Kenya in English]
"Nobody can compete with Obama for cool. Not the saxophone-playing Bill Clinton, and certainly not the early-to-bed, teetotal George W Bush."
Mama Sarah Going on a Hajj to Mecca from the Daily Nation [of Kenya in English]
"The businessman behind the takeover of English Premier League side Manchester City Football Club has pledged to sponsor Mama Sarah Obama, the grandmother of US President Barack Obama, to the Hajj pilgrimage later this year."
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