"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Breakthrough (Michael Tomasky) from the [Manchester] Guardian
"The Pentagon is unveiling its plan to repeal don't ask, don't tell next week."
Likelihood of passage is not good.
Two Cheers for Obama on Foreign Affairs (Robert Dreyfuss) from the Nation
"It was a pleasure to listen to a State of the Union address, especially after eight years of his predecessor's alarmist warnings and warlike thundering, in which war, terrorism, and "rogue states" went almost unmentioned."
Who Will Be the Next Secretary of State? from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Now that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she can't imagine herself serving another four years after 2012, the obvious question becomes: Who might replace her?"
The President Obama We Voted For (Joan Walsh) from Salon
Obama's Q&A with House Republicans on Friday may end up being the more important talk he gave this last week.
"Like a lot of people in both parties -- especially the House GOP aides who set it up and let the TV cameras roll -- I was honstly blown away by Obama's performance. Like a lot of Democrats, I was very happy to see him engage and question and answer -- and at times kick some ill-informed and obstreperous GOP ass."
Obama vs. the House: Best TV Ever (Mike Madden) from Salon
"[The pamphlet] had a catchy title: "Better Solutions." The pamphlet may not be an ideal blueprint for governing -- it only takes 30 pages to wrap up everything from economic stimulus to national security to financial reform -- but, as it turned out, it did make for a pretty good prop. Which Obama demonstrated about an hour into what was easily the most entertaining program C-SPAN (or any cable news network, really) has aired in a long time."
The Obama I Remember (Melissa Harris-Lacewell) from the Nation
Some interesting insight into the Obama during his days in Chicago.
"I remember the first time I saw him campaign. He was running against Bobby Rush for a congressional seat on the Southside of Chicago. He could barely fill a community center room with 25 people. Hardly the teeming crowds who now stand in lines for hours in inclement weather to hear him speak or who braved bitter cold to see him inaugurated."
A Change in Attitude After the '08 Election from the Washington Post
"Adults kept telling them: "There is finally a man in the White House who looks like you." ¶ Their parents emphasized repeatedly: The election of Barack Obama was "historic! Historic! HISTORIC!" The comments seemed too enormous to grasp for young people who hadn't lived through segregation, the civil rights movement, the black-is-beautiful movement and the start of affirmative action. ¶ But a year after the inauguration, there is evidence that the election has had an effect. "
Economy in US Grew at 5.7% Pace, Most in Six Years from the Bloomberg News Service
"The 5.7 percent increase in gross domestic product, which exceeded the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, marked the best performance since the third quarter of 2003."
A Very Productive Congress, Despite What the Approval Ratings Say (Norman Ornstein) from the Washington Post
"There seems to be little to endear citizens to their legislature or to the president trying to influence it. It's too bad, because ... this Democratic Congress is on a path to become one of the most productive since the Great Society 89th Congress in 1965-66, and Obama already has the most legislative success of any modern president -- and that includes Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson. "
HERE, HERE!! I suspected that this was going on! It simply showcases how terrible the Dems' and Obama's political messaging has been.
Obama's Banking Proposals Are a Good First Step (Joseph Stiglitz) from the Washington Post
"In the last two weeks, President Obama finally proposed tough new restrictions on the big banks, and then he underlined them in his State of the Union speech. It's a start."
Obama Sticks Firmly to His Guns from the Editorial Board of the Financial Times [of London]
"In many ways this show of resilience was admirable, and should have been expected. Mr Obama has shown coolness under fire before. And politically it may turn out to be wise."
Poll: Obama's Speech Resonates with Swing Voters from Democracy Corps
"Obama’s strong words for the banks clearly resonated and generated some of the strongest scores on our dials of the night from Democrats, Republicans and independents."
Supreme Court Ruling Spurs Huge Wave of Good-Government Efforts from the Huffington Post
"On the Hill, there are currently at least seven separate pieces of legislation in the works to prevent an unprecedented flood of corporate money in the upcoming midterm elections. And in his State of the Union address on Wednesday night, President Barack Obama jumped on the bandwagon, making the unusual move to scold the Supreme Court to its face."
Obama Gets His Grove Back (Robert Shrum) from The Week
"In his State of the Union address, Obama offers no retreat on his agenda, and no place to hide for the Republicans."
Obama's Plan to Split the GOP (Richard Wolffe) from the Daily Beast
"Friday’s showdown with House Republicans marked a new White House drive to force the GOP off the sidelines—and drive a wedge between fiscal conservatives and the Tea Party crowd."
We'll see -- execution has been a serious problem over the last year.
Pew Poll: Americans Pretty Clueless About Politics and the World from Raw Story
"Half of Americans don't even know that Stephen Colbert is a comedian."
BOOK NUGGET!!
The Race Against Race (Richard Posner) from the New Republic
Reviews of the books, What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America by Peggy Pascoe; Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell by Paul A. Lombardo; on the complex history of miscegenation law.
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