the country could suffer another recession if the wrong policies take hold .... An ideological assault from the right has started to undermine the vital health reform law passed in 2010. Those forces are eroding women’s access to health care, and their right to control their lives. ...... Astonishingly, even the very right to vote is being challenged. ..... Mr. Obama has impressive achievements despite the implacable wall of refusal erected by Congressional Republicans so intent on stopping him that they risked pushing the nation into depression, held its credit rating hostage, and hobbled economic recovery. ........ Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has gotten this far with a guile that allows him to say whatever he thinks an audience wants to hear. But he has tied himself to the ultraconservative forces that control the Republican Party and embraced their policies, including reckless budget cuts and 30-year-old, discredited trickle-down ideas. ...... approaches the election clearly ready for the partisan battles that would follow his victory ...... he would challenge the Republicans in the “fiscal cliff” battle even if it meant calling their bluff, letting the Bush tax cuts expire and forcing them to confront the budget sequester they created ........ Obama’s many important achievements, including carrying out the economic stimulus, saving the auto industry, improving fuel efficiency standards, and making two very fine Supreme Court appointments. ...... Obama has achieved the most sweeping health care reforms since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The reform law takes a big step toward universal health coverage, a final piece in the social contract. ...... Starting in 2014, insurers must accept all applicants. Once fully in effect, the new law would start to control health care costs. ....... Obama prevented another Great Depression ...... Stimulus should come first, and deficit reduction as the economy strengthens. ..... At the last debate, Mr. Romney talked about funneling arms through Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are funneling arms to jihadist groups. .... Obama, who appointed the impressive Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor ..... The extraordinary fact of Mr. Obama’s 2008 election did not usher in a new post-racial era. In fact, the steady undercurrent of racism in national politics is truly disturbing. ...... Romney .. says he is not opposed to contraception, but he has promised to deny federal money to Planned Parenthood, on which millions of women depend for family planning.
Sotamayor is a Minority Female. That is like being Dalit in India.
Old white men like Newt Gingrich have always occupied the White House until now. They have always been the only people on the Supreme Court until recently. The Supreme Court has never had a Minority Female. The old white men still overwhelmingly dominate the Congress. What's wrong in the picture? Until recently there was no bathroom for women on Capitol Hill.
There have been times when I have admired Newt Gingrich. He comes up with ideas. I am a big fan of market solutions to long standing problems. Where I differ is when he thinks market solutions are the only solutions.
But on social issues Newt is a dinosaur.
As late as 2005, late into 2006, the Dems looked so irrelevant. So I am one of those to think the Republicans are going to have a comeback down the line. That is how democracy works. But such pendulum swings are not automatic. The Republicans are going to have to stop being the party of old white men if they are to have any shot at reoccupying the vital center of American politics.
In The News
The Typecast Party Newsweek The Republicans are a party in search of an identity, and the incendiary language surrounding the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has shown just how far off track they've gone. Sotomayor is better qualified in terms of her legal credentials than anybody currently on the court. .......... the over-the-top remarks from Newt Gingrich and Tom Tancredo created a backlash that Senate Republicans are still trying to dig their way out of with Hispanic voters and women without offending the party's Southern-white-male base. ......... A USA Today/Gallup poll this week found a third of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of their own party. ........ "She's boring," says a liberal activist. ......... She hasn't had to address guns, gay rights, abortion. ..... Sotomayor can't be stopped, and that could embolden Obama to be even more aggressive with his next appointment. ..... The expectation is that if Ginsburg steps down, her replacement would almost certainly be a woman ....... "Free this nation from this Obama oppression," Voight intoned at the GOP dinner. ...... If only Obama could hand down affordable access for all to health care on a stone tablet. GOP risks loss of respect if it goes after Sotomayor, poll findsMiamiHerald.com
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