It’s been a giggle this week watching Democrats paint Rush Limbaugh as the “bloated, drug-addled” head of the Republican Party, as Paul Begala put it the other day. It’s been even more of a giggle watching Republicans contort themselves into rhetorical knots as they try to deny Limbaugh’s stature without offending the man himself.
Democrats have been playing a lot of winning hands lately, and this is another one. They’ve learned the trick that Republicans used throughout the Bush years: When there’s a leadership vacuum in the opposing party, focus your attention on the person whom voters will find most unpalatable. Hillary, then Nancy Pelosi were the GOP’s bogeywomen. Now, since positively no one is afraid of Mitch McConnell or John Boehner, since no one has yet stopped laughing at Michael Steele or Sarah Palin, and since Bobby Jindal still needs to find a grown-up first name (if not a persona to match), Democrats smartly have anointed Rush as (to borrow a phrase) The One.
To the extent that the Dems can encourage Americans to equate Limbaugh with opposition to President Obama’s grand schemes – and to the extent that they can keep us more disgusted with Limbaugh’s oft-stated hope that “Obama fails” than we are concerned about the fiscal ramifications of Obama’s potential success – they will have played this game of misdirection brilliantly. But let’s not pretend that it’s anything more than a game. (more…)
Val Kilmer wants to be the next governor of New Mexico. In fact, as he told the Associated Press in a recent 
Phelps is a 23-year-old with pockets full of dough and time on his hands. He’s part of the Pineapple Express generation, for crying out loud! How many of his peers, much less their ’60s-bred parents, really care if his idea of blowing off steam involves sucking down illicit smoke? A recent survey quoted no fewer than 42 percent of Americans who said they’ve tried pot, and the nation’s marijuana laws are steadily becoming as flaccid as the stuff supposedly renders its male users (I have no direct evidence, of course). Why is this a big deal?
One of the hoariest clichés out there is the notion that politicians “campaign in poetry, but govern in prose.” Both Obama and John McCain campaigned last fall with uplifting calls for bipartisanship – McCain because he needed to overcome the Republican brand, Obama because he wanted to run up the score and break through the “50-percent-plus-one” nightmare of the Bush years. But even now that Obama has achieved that breakthrough, he’s still governing (at least for the moment) in poetry, and Monday’s visit to the Hill was nothing if not poetic.
As the news about the global economic downturn goes from bad to worse, we’re at a point where government inaction is not a palatable option. Something needs to be done, and countermeasures against further slippage into recession need to be implemented with all deliberate speed. Most other countries in the grip of this recession are doing the same, and now, it seems, the United States is poised to spend an amazing amount of money to prime the pump to revive the economy. And since private enterprise is doing everything in its power to weather this storm the only way it knows how (i.e., by cutting overhead, reducing spending, and laying off employees), the importance of government action is magnified, because it’s seemingly the only option left.
With its brevity, its already-clichéd title, its lack of hardback-itude, and its Inauguration-friendly release date, Between Barack and a Hard Place bears all the earmarks of a cash-in. But Wise should be forgiven the indiscretion, because in recent years his authorial career has suffered from exquisitely poor timing. White Like Me first hit bookstores in early 2005, and (after not exactly flying off the shelves) was already headed for the remaindered racks when Hurricane Katrina suddenly shone a brilliant light on the struggles of poor blacks in our major cities – and white America’s inattention to those struggles. Sensing that the book had just barely missed its historical moment, Wise’s publisher offered him, in effect, a mulligan: a second edition that would incorporate an “open letter” to his fellow whites about Katrina. The new version, as fate would have it, was published in late December 2007 – just a week before a gaggle of honkies caucusing in Iowa launched the Obama campaign toward the presidency. 
The optimistic adage that a rising tide floats all boats is less sanguine when one contemplates the obverse. As the Great Recession of 2008 spills over to 2009 with what some are predicting is going to be far worse than what we experienced in 2008, the tools government has at its disposal to address global economic crises may not be strong enough to combat the ills that ail us. In the United States, the housing bust that affected the financial markets — and is now affecting the retail sector — has global consequences. No one knows this more than people who spend their entire careers watching, examining, analyzing and writing about economic issues.
In the end, however, electing Barack Obama and ending the Bush era didn’t require violence, or even civil disobedience. All it required was the force of our better ideas, the inspiration of a great young leader – and the resolve to stand steadfast against a stream of vitriol from politicians (and their dwindling core of followers) who couldn’t believe their house of malfeasance and misanthropy was at long last crumbling around them. American democracy finally proved capable of withstanding even Bush and the modern GOP – assuming, that is, that Bush and Dick Cheney actually vacate their residences on January 20.
Of course, Obama’s big crowds were never a perfect measure of his qualities as a candidate. They certainly did bear witness to his charisma, and his strength as an orator. More than that, though, I believe they were a testament to Americans’ pent-up desire to express ourselves politically, to participate in the act of changing this country, simply by virtue of Showing Up. It was a spirit of urgency and, yes, patriotism that also led millions of us to click a button on the Internet and send Obama another $10 or $100 every couple of months, and led many thousands to volunteer in campaign offices, on the phone and around our neighborhoods.