Category Archives: Politics

Overkill

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

Barack Obama approved this message? Really?

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Obama to Campaign at UMiami on Thursday

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

President Obama is coming back to U. Miami to speak at the Bank United Center here on campus this Thurday. Doors open at 1pm, the event should start just before 3:30:

PRESIDENT OBAMA TO CAMPAIGN IN CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA

CHICAGO— On Thursday, October 11, President Obama will deliver remarks at a grassroots event in Coral Gables, Florida at the BankUnited Center at the University of Miami.

While in Florida, President Obama will continue to speak directly to voters about his vision for an economy that grows from the middle out, not the top down, and discuss his detailed plan for restoring middle-class economic security by creating jobs, expanding opportunity and ensuring our economy is built to last. He will continue to underscore the clear contrast between himself and Mitt Romney, who has grown increasingly misleading in how he talks about his own plans – because he knows his policies would take us backward and are extremely unpopular with middle class families.

Actually, when you stop and think about it, what are the signature Obama domestic policy proposals for his next term? There’s an end to the Bush tax cuts for the top 4% (families with incomes over $250,000). There’s the Grand Bargain to cut Social Security, but they are not talking about that. Continue to roll out Obamacare. There are plans to spend a bit more on new energy sources, on teachers, maybe some cops. But there are actually surprisingly few Obama domestic promises for next term other than not letting Mitt Romney destroy the economy, undo health care, trash civil rights for gay people, and further inflate the defense budget beyond the high levels we already enjoy.

There is one major Obama promise on foreign policy: end the war in Afghanistan. Romney’s position appears to be that he’ll formulate a position within a 100 days of taking office.

Posted in 2012 Election | 1 Comment

Bird Bained

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

via Daily Kos: UPDATE: For those who don’t think Romney’s ‘Big Bird’ moment is a major thing …

Related video:

Bonus Related images

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A Simple Way to Vastly Reduce Lying in Presidential Debates

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

Last night’s debates were striking both for the President’s flat performance and for his challenger’s breathtaking and repeated mendacity. I loved one of the post debate spinners who described Romney’s talk of taxes as “eat all the cake you like, you won’t get fat”.

But it’s not anywhere near the first time that a candidate has told serial porkies on the Presidential debate stage. And if we keep on structuring debates in more or less the same way it will happen again: The form seems to if not invite lies, at least make them too easy.

Can something be done to prevent lying in Presidential debates? I have a simple suggestion that will greatly reduce the opportunity for lies, admitting that nothing can eradicate them completely: The moderator’s key questions on the issues should be released to the candidates and the public 48 hours in advance of the debates.

It is silly to think that the element of surprise adds value to these events. Allow the candidates to do scripted talks and then have the surprises be the back and forth as they interact and ask each other followups. Allow followups from the moderator if you trust him or her to be less milquetoast than the hapless Jim Lehrer. But if you must have surprise as to the basic questions, reduce it to a fraction of the event.

Releasing at least a substantial fraction of the questions in advance will unleash the fact-checkers on all sides. It will promote debate. It will allow campaigns to set up web sites in which they give backup for their claims. In a more perfect world than we actually have, we could aim for a week in advance, and hope that a consensus dataset would evolve in real rather than nominal dollars, but I know that is just an academic pipe dream. It won’t happen, and a week is a long time in politics anyway.

But even 48 hours will allow the mobilization of enough external expertise that it would put candidates on notice that there are limits to what they can reasonably hope get away with.

My picks for winners and losers:

Pre-debate winner: James Fallows, who called it pretty well.

Post-debate winner: Paul Krugmann, A Test of the System and Romney’s Sick Joke

Post-debate losers: Jim Lehrer and all the rest of us too.

Posted in Politics | 9 Comments

Vote NO on Florida Constitutional Amendment 4

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

Just in case you were wondering, proposed Amendment 4 to the Florida Constitution is a Really Bad Idea.

Have a look at this analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Florida’s “Amendment 4” Would Cause Tax Rate Increases and Deep Local Service Cuts, Likely Harming the State’s Economy.

Vote No on 4 — in fact, if you don’t want the details, just vote NO on all the proposed constitutional amendments this year.

If, on the other hand, you’d like some nuance when looking at what the Legislature has wrought, please see my analysis of the 2012 Florida Constitutional Amendments. The bottom line is you should vote No on all of them except 11 & 12. I can understand why someone would vote for 2 & 9, but I’m not sure you should encourage this pandering tendency of the legislature.

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Letters We Never Finished Reading Dept.

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

Posted in 2012 Election | 1 Comment