8.19.12: The Big Questions

As we mentioned in last week's column, the Republicans seem to feel that this is a last ditch chance to have control of the White House potentially for a long time.  Looking at the possible re-election of Barack Obama and then if Hillary Clinton runs in 2016 and then also wins re-election, that would be 16 years of Democratic control of the White House.  And because of the GOP's lack of courting minorities to it's party along with the changing demographics (the statistical facts) of the country, the future does not bode well for Republicans in terms of overall voter support.

With that in mind, the election comes down to the two big questions that were outlined in today's program.  One, what should should Medicare be structured and, even larger, what should the roll of government be?  With the vice-presidential selection of Paul Ryan, these two questions come into acute focus.

Governor Bob McDonnell (R-VA) described Mr. Ryan as a guy with real solutions, but those solutions need to be examined.   The governor said that the Medicare Trust Fund is going broke and hence something needs to be done.  Mr. Ryan's budget plan reduces spending on Medicare by eventually turning into a voucher system where seniors are given an allotment of money and are encouraged to then use that money to find their own private insurance.  The question of whether it would effect seniors right now, the answer is technically no, at least not anyone over 55 years of age.

However, also in Mr. Ryan's budget is the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, known to all as Obamacare.  This would effect seniors right now. Under the Affordable Care Act, the doughnut hole for prescription drugs for Medicare recipients will be closed so seniors will not have to pay extra out of pocket for medication that should be covered in the first place.  On it's face, the prescription drug benefit that the Bush Administration put in place never made sense.  The federal government, under Bush, provides a huge windfall of cash for the pharmaceutical companies, creating a deficit that it didn't put on the books and the result was that seniors had to pay more. 

Given what Mr. Ryan's budget would do to fundamentally alter the federal government's relationship with its citizens, we find that calling his selection to the Republican ticket 'admirable,' as Peggy Noonan did, very odd to say the least.  Mr. Ryan's budget plan disproportionately shifts the burden of the deficit to the middle class while asking no sacrifice from the wealthiest in the system.  It's not a secret who would benefit the most from Mr. Ryan's policy proposals.

It comes down to whether you believe that a country's government should have some responsibility to help its people in economic ways.  The Democrats believe that a government should provide assistance and the Republicans not so much.


Round table:Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed (D-GA), Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, Wall Street Journal Columnist Peggy Noonan, NBC's Political Director Chuck Todd, and Congressman Ted Cruz (R-TX)

8.12.12: The Pick - Paul Ryan

Cutting to the chase - Mitt Romney finally doesn't have to discuss his tax returns.  Kidding aside, he made a good pick for his vice-presidential running mate in Paul Ryan, the 42 year-old congressman from Wisconsin.  We agree with the general consensus of all the guests on today's program that in choosing Mr. Ryan, it creates a stark difference in which the direction the country will go.  What we do take issue with today's guests are the respective rationale's for what it means in terms of policy.  In terms of today's program, we have a serious problem with some of the discourse coming from some.

"Gaming changing" in terms of picks is now firmly in the American political lexicon.  It may have always been there but now, it is a requisite measure.  RNC Chairman Reince Priebus asked if it's a game-changer - yes.  Governor Scott Walker (R-WI)? - yes, game change; and even David Axelrod, Mr. Obama's s Senior Campaign Advisor, couldn't disagree that it was.

But it's not, because a game-changer changes the outcome and that's not quite clear right yet. Right now, we say it doesn't because President Obama still has the upper hand.  What the pick gives Mr. Romney is a vision to attach himself to, one that he lacked in the campaign up to this point, specifically an economic one.  As chairman of the House Budget Committee, Paul Ryan has created an economic plan, as we know, that is quite polarizing.  Namely, as heavily discussed on today's program are the changes to Medicare and turning it into a voucher system.

In defense of this plan, Mr. Priebus said (twice) that the President stole $700 million out of medicare to pay for the Affordable Care Act, and clarified that it was not a transfer or re-direction of funds, but that he stole it, and has blood on his hands because of it.  Reince Priebus is an embarrassment to our political system and discourse.  This column does provide harsh criticism to both sides, but Mr. Priebus is an exceptional case and his comments today reinforce that.  If you were to ask him if the President literally stole this money, he would say, unequivocally "yes." So why wouldn't you push for criminal charges and impeachment proceedings?  The inability to answer that question simply illustrates how ridiculous the charge, but this is accusing the President of the United States of being a criminal.  He's just part of the problem of our political discourse so when he does , in fact,  bring up a valid point such as the President said that he would cut the deficit in half in his term and hasn't done it, we can not take him seriously.

When Mr. Priebus and Wisconsin's second representative guest, Governor Scott Walker, were asked if Mr. Ryan's plan changed Medicare fundamentally, they both countered with that it wouldn't effect any person of age 54 or older - your benefits would stay exactly the same.  The implications of this point have been understated in the media, but are profound for this election.

This election is like a last-ditch chance for the larger Republican agenda, which is to change the government's relationship with its people in terms of assistance.  [Conversely, one could argue that they want to increase funds in terms of our relationship with everyone else in the world unless they intend to start using the military internally. A discussion for another time.]  On the other hand, the Democrats feel they are in a full-prevent defense of social problems and ultimately taking the profit motive out of healthcare.  This is what makes the '54 and older' clause so important politically.

Seniors vote and promising  them now that their Medicare will not be touched could sway their support because the reality is that most will vote for themselves, not for future generations, on this point.  This is if the Republicans can sell it.  If they can, then it would just prove that there is no 'me generation,' it's the me-time that we've created.

So David Axelrod and Democratic strategist should be careful what they wish for, Wisconsin is duly in play with the Ryan pick.  Republicans have been chipping away in that state for a while, actually the chips are more like chunks, and they want to make it red.  Mr. Axelrod said that it 'clarifies the choice' of whether you're for Medicare of not and how we manage tax policy.  But the 'Medicare or not' argument could be clouded if, again, the Republicans can sell it to seniors... admittedly a big 'if.'  We appreciate that Mr. Axelrod also gave us another piece of foreshadowing as to where they'll go with their attacks against Mr. Ryan - that he, to use Mr. Axelrod's term, 'rubber stamped' of all of Bushes policies.  When Mr. Greogory asked Mr. Preibus earlier in the program about this point with Paul Ryan himself admitting that he was embarrassed by some of those decisions, he had an inadequate defense, none actually.

But Paul Ryan could still very well sell his plan to the American people, and Chuck Todd who broke the announcement, described it as Romney re-launching his campaign. Bill Bennett stated that Paul Ryan had a way of presenting a winning argument.  However, the Romney campaign has precious little time to argue Mr. Ryan's economic philosophy along with  all the others that they have to tackle as well.

On Medicare in particular, Rich Lowry from the National Review insisted that the campaign should go on the offensive, also mentioning the $700 million sum.  When he challenged Rachel Maddow on this, she couldn't come up with a response, instead pointing out Mr. Ryan's supply-side economic philosophy.  He point may be true, but it didn't counter Mr. Lowry's point.  Unfortunately, she was more bombast today than effective counter balance.  She could have mentioned that the $500 million of bi-partisan agreed upon waste out of Medicare that the Obama Administration cut.

Rightly, before making the panel discussion all about Ms. Maddow, Mr. Gregory thankfully cut off the tit-for-tat between them.  But offense on Medicare will be tough as Dan Balz pointed out because many Republicans aren't on board with Mr. Ryan due to political risk.  Chuck Todd outlined Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Florida as states with the most seniors and Republican congress people have to go back to those states and break the bad news about Medicare while trying to get re-elected at the same time.

It's certainly a 'new phase of the campaign,' where Mr. Romney has gotten a temporary reprieve from talking about Bain Capital and tax returns, but it will only last for a short time.  The verocity of the upcoming Democratic attacks against Mr. Ryan's economic plan that Dan Balz wondered about will be furious, and starting when?  Like right now.


Round Table:  MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow; NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd; Editor of the National Review, Rich Lowry; the Washington Post’s Dan Balz, and author and radio talk show host Bill Bennett, for whom Ryan was a speechwriter while Bennett was Secretary of Education.

6.24.12: Supreme Court Decisions

David Gregory played the May 1st tape to Senator Rubio in reference to his last visit and his answer with regard to being a potential vice-presidential choice of Governor Romney.  In that May 1st interview, Mr. Rubio said that he had no desire to be the vice president, but his answer differed today.  It wasn't a reversal, but you can tell he's in the running and is interested.  He said that he wouldn't discuss anymore at this point, and while that would strike someone as a reversal of thinking, we this answer along with all his other answers of the issues as non-committal, even vague in some places, as if he's triangulating his answers so that they don't fall outside of Governor Romney's positions.  Politico's Jonathan Martin used the term 'cautious.' The problem with this is that Mr. Romney himself is yet to fully explain his positions on key issues, such as immigration.

This week the Supreme Court will rule on two major cases, one being the constitutionality of the Arizona immigration law and the other on the Affordable Health Care act.  On the former, Senator Rubio said that the Arizona law is constitutional, meaning that law enforcement has the right to demand proof of citizenship if the person is stopped and suspected of wrong-doing.  While he thinks this is good for Arizona, he also said that he didn't think it was right for Florida.  One of his reasons that he thought it was necessary in Arizona because it's a security matter and then laid the blame at the feet of the federal government for not enforcing the laws.

The Senator's answers are confusing at best.  By saying it's right for Arizona, but not Florida, seems to indicate that he's for state solutions, but then he blames the federal government for failure on immigration.  But what is the Obama Administration's failure?  Mr. Rubio stated that the legal system of immigration is broken so how can we improve the situation for illegal immigrants?  The problem with the Arizona law is that it opens up a situation in which law enforcement can demand citizenship proof from anyone - citizen or not - on the spot, and if you can not prove it, you could be detained.  We think that most Americans would have a serious problem with someone asking to see 'your papers.' This plays into the general premise that Republican lawmakers are creating legislation that isn't big government, but resembles big brother.

And what of the Dream Act?  Mr. Rubio is against it because he says it's 'too broad,' but like Romney, then has no answer as to what to do with the illegal immigrants that are already in this country.  Neither politician has offered a solid alternative to the Dream Act to address the ultimate status of these people.  Self-deportation, as Mr. Romney has suggested, is not an adequate solution.  The core problem, right now, for Republicans is that immigration policy requires temperance and that's something that the core of the party won't bend on.  It's a hardline stance that makes it so difficult for Senator Rubio, or Governor Romney who is trying to tact back to the middle on this, to answer honestly.  Because of the build up of hardline rhetoric on the side of the Republicans, coming down off of that position for any conservative politician is not viable, hence there can be no compromise.

Mr. Rubio is, in fact, working on a comprehensive immigration bill, but it isn't ready yet.  Keeping this in mind and considering his statement today when he said that if he doesn't have every answer to every question on the bill, it's loses credibility, and we respect that kind of thinking.  However, in advance of said bill, there are two flags that we'd like to raise.  One, the bill needs to be detailed.  Unlike Congressman Paul Ryan's budget bill, it must contain specifics.  It's why we don't agree with Mr. Ryan's plan - there aren't any specifics.  For example, he said that his plan would close loopholes in the tax code, but he doesn't specify which ones.  Secondly, and this speaks to the Republicans' tendency to fall into lock-step, the bill should have more than one name attached to it, hence opening it to wider debate.  Paul Ryan constructed a budget bill and all Republicans are for it, all of it.  Then there will be the Rubio Immigration Bill, and all Republicans will be for all of that.  No bill is perfect through and through but by denying openmindedness to amendends, Republicans would have you think differently.

The second decision coming this week, possibly tomorrow, from the Supreme Court is on the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act, specifically the individual mandate.  First, just set aside what we know, and that is that Republicans are against the act and Democrats are for it.  The debate was highly contentious to say the least, but the bill was passed... by Democrats, and they feel it should be the law.  If the roles were reversed, Republicans understandably, justifiably would feel the same way.  The problem here is that the Supreme Court is about to make law.  Some would say 'no' that's not the case, but the perception is clearly there and in today's media world perception often supplants fact. 

During today's panel, the possibility was raised that the Court could strike down the individual mandate, but uphold other parts of the law.  They could do that, but that's called legislating.   If the court strikes down the individual mandate, they are striking down the law, the entire law and that's how it should be.  Then everyone will have to adjust to the consequences of the Supreme Court determining law.  What we also find little odd is that everyone seems to feel that the law will indeed be struck down, which just reeks of cynicism, sending the message that everyone understands that the court is partisan and will employ that partisan advantage to a result. The writers of the Constitution did not design the Court to operate in that capacity, but here we are. Governor Richardson got it exactly right, the Supreme Court shouldn't strike down any of the law and shouldn't be making political decisions.  And that should stand for both sides. 

It's moments like these that remind us of a key phrase Judge Roberts used during his confirmation hearings and that was that he was going to 'call balls and strikes,' implying that there would be no political agenda at work when making decisions.  As chief justice, the court's decisions reflect on him and so far, his court has a very high profile, a controversial one that the Supreme Court should absolutely not have.  If it were acting in a manner that consistent with calling balls and strikes, then they should keep the same profile as an umpire.  We see them on the field, we respect their decisions, but we don't know their names.


Round Table:  Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Former Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM); POLITICO’s Senior Political Reporter Jonathan Martin; and NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

Postscript: We really haven't commented on Mr. Romney's potential vice-presidential running mate too much, though we do have our opinions on it. However, does it matter so much to speculate in this column and devote time to it?  Not really.  We do feel compelled to comment because after all, this column is based around what is said on Meet The Press and they do discuss the topic.  With that in mind, Governor Richardson said that Romney needs a person who would make a splash.  That person would be someone such as Condoleezza Rice, who Jonathan Martin said was all the buzz recently in Utah.  But we don't see Mr. Romney going that way. The most reasonable, safest pick would be Governor Tim Pawlenty.  He governed the moderate state of Minnesota and has a good solid conservative record.  He was also an early, vocal Romney supporter, who many thought got out of the race too soon.  Aside from the few brief comments, we're content not to speculate and hold for the examination when the choice is finally made. 

6.10.12: The Off Week

Call us creatures of habit that we had to write a post today even though this week's Meet The Press did not air due to French Open coverage.  If you're a follower of politics you certainly know that this week was a bad one for the President.  Starting with the weak jobs report then moving on to a big Democratic loss in Wisconsin to the President himself making the verbal gaffe by saying that the private sector is fine to the finale of being out fund raised by the Romney campaign by 17 million dollars.

But what may not be so evident is that this week's happenings are a peak at what's to come to come for the United States down the road,  and for the sake of off-week candor, it's not good for the American people.  Because if you take these incidents and extend them out a bit further, here's what you might see. 

In the case of the gubernatorial election in Wisconsin, Scott Walker retained his seat as governor and more significantly, what people are calling it is a death blow to public unions.  What Wisconsin showed us is that the unions don't have the muscle anymore to stand up to corporate energy.  If you look at the statistics over the past 30 years, you'll see that as union jobs decline so has middle class income.   The goals of the Republican Party's corporate benefactors are to crush unions in the private sector to maximize profits, profits that were used to outspend the Democrats approximately 9 to 1.  And though Governor Walker exempted the police and firemen from the slashing of negotiating rights (virtually rendering the unions ineffectual), but it's just a matter of time to when they will not be exempt.  Eventually, the police and fire unions disappear as well... then what?  Following the corporate tact to a farther conclusion, these organizations will become inefficient as Republican politicians advocate for privatization.  A for profit police force would be devastating to our culture.  Think about it, prisons today have a financial incentive to have more people in prison because they are privately owned with shareholders - the more prisoners, the more profits.  So imagine if the same company owned the local jail and the local police force.

Secondly, corporate money is decidedly behind the Republican party.  The showed their hand in Wisconsin and then it was proven with the windfall of cash that the Romney campaign received and we think it's only going to get worse.  Now that Republicans are beginning to rally around the single candidate, this solely unique candidate that is a representative of the consolidated money hence power structure, the distance in sums will become greater.

And though some say that the money that was injected into the Wisconsin race would have been legal even if the Citizens United Supreme Court case went the other way, Citizens United opened up the flood gates to for corporate entities to operate without having to disclose, hence political agendas with no checks and balances. 

A short yet a bit dire column, we know, but we believe the ultimate success of the United States is in striking the right balance between private control and public control of the country's general welfare.  And what is most disconcerting is that this balance is being irrevocably damaged, permanently tilting to the side of the private where money and not the general welfare, will be the goal.

6.3.12: What's Fair Game

In this week's critique, some would say that it's an utter failure that this latest jobs report only shows 69,000 jobs created, but we would contest that people's perspectives are out of proportion.  If this is an utter failure, what do you call losing 2.6 million jobs in the last year of your term as it did when George Bush was in office.  Anyone, reading this column that would criticize that line of questioning, would most probably say that you 'shouldn't look backward, bringing up President Bush is a tired strategy,' or it's simply 'unfair.'  Kevin Madden, Mr. Romney's senior adviser used this defense in today's round table discussion saying that Democrats are using the same Bain attacks on Romney today that they did in 1994 when Mr. Romney ran against Ted Kennedy.  Additionally, the unemployment rate ticked up a .10 of a percent to 8.2.  The reality of which is that more people are re-entering the workforce looking for work, but understandably this is overshadowed by the unemployment number going up, and means that enough jobs haven't been created, and enough hasn't been.  The stock market drop is more of a product of the uncertainty of Europe's fiscal problems, not ours.

With that said, the overarching (non)debate issue here is if Mr. Romney's time at Bain Capital is fair game, and for that matter is his religion.  Bain Capital is completely fair game.  Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) noted that Bain was very good at creating wealth, not jobs.  Whether you agree with that statement or not, it's right to debate that merits of that when the person responsible is seeking the office of the President.  If Bain Capital also created a lot of jobs, then the debate should also be, something that is not discussed, is what kinds of jobs are those? If creating only jobs that pay the minimum wage, what kind of future is in that?  All of these things should be on the table.  With regard to Mr. Romney's Mormon religion, it would only be appropriate to debate it if he is making decisions solely based on his religion, theocratic policy making which goes against the Constitution.  Otherwise, America is all about believing what you want in terms of religion.

Mr. Patrick brought up another good point that Governor John Kasich (R-OH) took exception, in which is that the President hasn't done enough according to Republicans, the same people that say that the government should do less.  Translating Mr. Kasich's argument, the President hasn't done enough to get out of the way and the examples he cited were the over-regulation of the financial industry (Dowd-Frank), the uncertainty of tax policy, and the over-zealous EPA.  In the face of such rhetoric, the Democrats are soft in poking holes in the Republican argument.  Dowd-Frank was enacted because the financial industry, left to its own devices, made bad bets and never considered the larger repercussions as the money rolled in.  Governor Kasich, in regard to tax policy, said that we should cut taxes and eliminate loopholes in the code, but the reality of what Republicans want to do, or won't allow to happen, is in fact the closing of tax loopholes because they have been indoctrinated with the idea that closing loopholes is a tax increase.  To this point, Governor Patrick is correct in that Republicans' ideology is being placed ahead of what is the overall good for the country.

And lastly, we feel that Republicans simply don't understand the necessity of the EPA and the longer-term win we would have with the EPA playing a vital role.  The EPA should regulate hard to keep our air and water clean, which would translate into lower long-term healthcare costs, and over-time save us money.

Contrary to a prominent American, corporations are not people, and the United States should not be run like a business, and here's why - it's pretty simple.  In the Constitution it says that the United States government is to provide for the general welfare of the people.  Corporations have no such obligation - the obligation for them is to their shareholders, hardly the general welfare. And corporations are not democracies.  So running the United States like a corporation will essentially violate the Constitution in that it will cease on trying to achieve one of its central mandates, providing for the general welfare. 

Governor Kasich really had no answer for Mr. Gregory with regard to the fact that Mr. Romney didn't support the auto bailout.  Mr. Kasich honed the message as best he could in that he said that there were only 1,800 direct jobs created in the Ohio auto industry sector.  The key word there is 'direct.'  He's referring to how many jobs the auto makers themselves created... probably.  But its the part suppliers and makers, the repair and body shops that have also benefited from the bailout. 

Evident in the views of Governor Patrick and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed (D) are that government can do good by investing - yes stimulating - in the economy, specifically in infrastructure.  However, it is unrealistic that it can be done without any way to finance it.  If Republicans truly favor closing loopholes, then we should do that and with the money set up an infrastructure bank - something where there could be consensus, unlike the auto bailout.

Mr. Kasich said that what he's seen during this campaign is that because President Obama doesn't have a plan, he resorts to just attacking Mr. Romney.  He went on to say that he was not happy with how the Republicans blew up the budget when he left Congress, but there needs to be an executive in the White House.  But George Bush was to be that executive and failed because he tried to run the United States as a business and not a country.  Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, during today's round table, answered ever question in these terms, and explained that the President is pitting Americans against each other, but that's not the case.  It's really about the unfair influence that big corporations have on our politics.  It's what former Senator Bill Bradley was talking about at the end of the program.  'Corrosive' is the word he used, but what it doing is destroying the democratic ideal and transforming our system from what is now a shadow corporatocracy into an overt one.  When Governor Kasich says that Washington is dysfunctional, it's not because of Democrats, it's because of the lobbied and monied interests that have unequaled influence in the Capitol, which by the way the Republicans vociferously defend.  And we'll just say it right now, because Mr. Castellanos said it twice today, do not use Moses and Mitt Romney in the same sentence.  That analogy is disgustingly flawed on many levels, especially when you think that Moses lead his people out of bondage, then applying this analogy in contrasting Mitt Romney to Barack Obama? Please.


Romney Senior Adviser Kevin Madden, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, President of the Center for American Progress Neera Tanden, and Atlanta’s Mayor Kasim Reed (D).

5.20.12: Performing Triage

When you have Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) as guests you ger a clear picture of the respective Democratic and Republican collective personalities encapsulated in two individuals.  Senator Durbin's stands are more in line with what the American people want but can not argue the case effectively.  On the other hand, Congressman Ryan's proposals are actually very unpopular but he sells them well.

For example, when Mr. Ryan says that in his budget plan they would eliminate tax shelters and loop holes in the tax code, which sounds great.  However, he never specifies which ones.  Additionally, do subsidies have implied inclusion or are they not part of the mix?  It doesn't seem so since the Republicans recently defeated a bill that would end subsidies for oil companies.  But you see, the Ryan budget isn't actually a 'budget.' Budgets contain numbers outlined specifically as to what they are attributed.  Mr. Ryan doesn't do that in his document, and if it is a road map, as he calls it, then we'd be lost if we actually tried to use it to guide us.

Mr. Gregory posed the question of "Can Washington Govern?" According to Mr. Ryan, the Senate under Democratic control has not passed a budget since Mr. Obama took office.  We get annoyed at such statements simply for the fact that we now have to go back once again and point out that a simple majority in the Senate gets nothing done, unlike the House where it does.  Is this the kind of math that Mr. Ryan ignores?  If you need 60 votes and you only ever have 53 (a majority) to try and pass a bill, it will never pass and in knowing that why propose the thing in the first place.  To feel good about yourself?  That is what the Republicans have been doing in the House with bills they know will not make it through the Senate.

But can Mr. Durbin argue this effectively?  No, because simply saying the Mr. Romney, if he were elected President, would return us to Bush-era economic policies is a boogie-man type tact without giving an anecdote that American can relate to.  He doesn't explain why we should bring back the Simpson-Bowles recommendations and why they would work.  Because there is a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases - means testing for Social Security recipients but increases in education.  Mr. Ryan said he didn't vote for Simpson-Bowles because it didn't address health care.  There are two points with that.  One, he didn't vote for it because it calls for some tax increases - something (stupidly) no Republican can vote for, and two, it does address health care but not to his liking.

Mr. Ryan is mentioned as a Vice-Presidential candidate for Mr. Romney but we'd advise the Governor not to select him.  The reason is that no matter where Paul Ryan goes, he can not talk about anything else except for defending his budget, which is only not as controversial as 'Obamacare' because Paul Ryan isn't on a national ticket.  However, as Newark Mayor Corey Booker accurately pointed out later in the program that while 'Obamacare' remains controversial with the American people, several components are quick popular.  Mr. Ryan's defense is weak, and will remain so if he can not give any specifics.  And with Mr. Romney endorsing the Ryan plan, it only helps him with the Republican base - he's one of the guys, but with independents, it doesn't help him at all.  Coming onto the national political scene with policy controversy already around you isn't good for the Republican ticket.

Paul Ryan said that we have a narrow window in which to get the debt crisis under control, hence we have to act now.  This is just our take on things, and it touches on something we said last week, but the small window he's taking about is more a reflection of being able to pass Republican ideological policy, the narrow window does in fact reflect the debt crisis but when he's discussing it, it also refers to the changing population demographics of this country and the Republican Party's shrinking ability to pass legislation that erodes social programs.  And this is why you see tactics such as Mr. Boehner repeat threats of not raising the debt ceiling, hence shutting down the government because their negotiating window is shrinking and they have to employ every threat/tactic they can.  Again, playing into the question of whether or not Washington can govern, the answer is not like this.  What you have is the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States is engaging in a type policy blackmail.  This is poor leadership, so when Mr. Ryan says that the Republicans will have to pass stop gap measures because of poor White House leadership has also has to turn that looking glass on his own party as well.  We're sorely missing this function of government and it doesn't help when Vice-President Joe Biden says that if we're re-elected there won't be compromise.

Yet, here we are that in some polls, as Mike Murphy pointed out, Mr. Romney is ahead of Mr. Obama because the economy hasn't bounced back quickly enough.  But as Mayor Booker rightly said, the mess that was created, it going to take more than 4 years to correct. Americans can not seem to deal with this fact. But they have to remember that we started 2 wars and didn't put them on the budget, then handing out a tax cut that did little for the middle class (we put our $600 check in the bank, and then paid a credit card bill) to further the deficit spending.  At the time, Dick Cheney said that deficits didn't matter, but now they do. With the Ryan plan, deficits will increase sharply at the beginning, but in 40 years, we'll have a balanced budget - just the notion of that doesn't seem realistic. 

 Given the closeness of the polls, will the election solve anything or get anything done - the question Mr. Gregory posed to the panel.  The answers were mixed, amongst which was  Ms. Strassel, from the Wall Street Journal, banally saying that if there are majorities throughout there would be changes.  However, if you were to strictly listen to this week's panel, and not look at the polls, you come to the conclusion that Mr. Romney's chances are not good.  They talked about 'framing' the candidates, but most focused on Mr. Romney.  Mr. Obama, even given the resurgence of talk about Jeremiah Wright the controversial minister, remains very likeable to the electorate, and his last three years in office has been a sufficient amount of time to make a judgement.  Mr. Romney, on the other hand, is being defined as we go, and not just by the other side, but by every one except by the candidate himself.

Surprisingly, it was CNBC's Jim Cramer that delivered the harshest definition of Mr. Romney saying that the Bain Capital narrative of the candidate will stick and that Mr. Romney is a job destroyer.  It's really Mr. Romney's fault that Bain will stick because 1) he doesn't talk about his time at Bain in any detail, 2) he can not talk about his time as Governor of Massachusetts, and 3) on the stump when he speaks about a personal journey, he always talks about his father, not himself.  Not to mention that we wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Booker when he assessed that the Super PACs that exist on both side want this campaign to go into the gutter of personal attacks and stay there, an inevitability.  Later in the segment, after Mike Murphy weakly tried to mitigate the criticism of Mr. Romney's position with regard to bailing out the auto industry, Mr. Cramer mocked the role he played, saying that he would have only performed triage. 

At this stage of the Presidential campaign, it seems like every one is having trouble with triage, no one, media included, can determine what is most important to the American people while the respective camps rip band-aids off the trivial.


Roundtable: Mayor of Newark, NJ, Cory Booker (D), Republican strategist Mike Murphy,  CNBC's Jim Cramer, and the Wall Street Journal's Kim Strassel


Postscript:  The G8 Summit and the economic crisis in the Euro-zone were only briefly mentioned at the end of the program.  We didn't touch on it here because it deserves a separate column which is coming.  However, Mr. Cramer did say that there would be a run on European banks and we agree simply for the fact that that is exactly what is happening in Greece now.

Postscript 2: The 'Corey Booker/Chris Christie' Ad - Why all the attention beside the fact that it is really funny?  Because it shows a Republican and a Democrat of the same state having a laugh together, something so sorely missed in Washington these days - the simple notion that we live here together and are allowed to like each other.

5.13.12: You Can't Erase History

Aaron Ross Sorkin accurately said today that one of the problems for the banks is not that they're too big to fail, something that Jamie Dimon said did not support, but too big to manage.  The question is how can one Mr. Dimon, who is regarded as one of the best in his business, miss what he called a major mistake.  He went farther by saying that, "We know we were sloppy, we know we were stupid, and we know we used bad judgement."  Yet, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said this was an example of how the Dodd-Frank law didn't work, meaning that we need to get rid of it.  We would conclude that he means that we would replace it with nothing, hence making the effort by investigators now looking into the bank's actions unnecessary in finding out why the bank lost $2 billion by trading credit derivatives and were designed to hedge against financial risk.

But if the CEO of JP Morgan Chase said that his company was sloppy, that means that they don't have a handle on or a proper way to monitor the traders that work for there.  It's an industry that has little time or interest in policing itself, but at the same token doesn't want to be regulated.  Our feeling is that you can not put blame on the banks for tanking the economy in 2008.  The rules at the time were that there were essentially no rules, and traders' obligations are to the bank and making money, not to a single home owner in Florida.  If we do not want to see another crisis like this again, then the government for the general welfare of the people have to put rules in place as prevention measures.  Of course the financial industry isn't going to like it, but as Mr. Dimon said, he supports large parts of the Dodd-Frank law.  However, he has also been critical, of course, so let's not deem Mr. Dimon with too many magnanimous-type adjectives,  especially when he talks about how the industry is in favor of letting the Bush tax cuts expire and raising the rates on capital gains. 

What we saw on today's show was a banker speaking more responsibly about the overall good of the the American people than a political party representative, the representative.  The logic is if a part doesn't work, you fix or replace it with something stronger, not to get rid of the part and then hope the thing still works without it.  But that is what Reince Priebus was advocating for today. Get rid of Dodd-Frank and replace it with nothing, and you will see a financial boom, but only in the short-term until the same thing happens all over, but not with housing, but some other industry next time.  Playing for the short-term is popular, instant gratification is now a core American trait, and that's the promise that Republicans carry with them.  However, it does nothing for the sustainable economic health of the country.  The cycle that we're seeing - Republicans delivering us 'high' times followed by a complete bust; then Democrats getting into office to try to clean up the mess, causing people, spurred by the Republican rhetoric, to become impatient for more high times; and then the Republicans, hoping the public forget the details of why they caused the problems in the first place, ask for control again and claiming that the law has made things worse. As Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) said, the war is within Washington.

Then you come to moments like these, 7 months before the election, with the RNC Chairman on Meet The Press taking cheap shots at the President saying that Mr. Obama is in love with the sound of his own voice and hasn't fulfilled the promises that he set.  All Republicans say that, and they all leave out the second part, which is that we're going to block every effort on his part to make good on those promises. 

[With all this stinging commentary, we as a column must officially go on record (again) to say that we're no fan of Reince Priebus and he does the Republican party, even in its currently radicalized state, a disservice as its foremost spokesperson.]

 But make no mistake, Mr. Priebus, the Republican Party and their corporate backers know that the country's demographics are changing to a more Democratic viewpoint and if Republican want to have their way and serve its interests, the time is now.  This is why you see a Republican House passing all kinds of bills that won't become law. It's like throwing darts at a board with your back turned, over the shoulder.  It's awkward and consistently miss the mark, but by chance you might hit it once.  That's what Republicans hope to accomplish in this instance. 

Economically, Republicans would like to return the country to Bush-era policies, we all know this, but the key word here is return, but we can not go back.  From this point, banks need to build their business given the rules in place because they have proven to be irresponsible [think Mr. Dimon's "We know we acted stupidly."]. 

What we said above translates to the marriage equity debate in as much as that Republicans should not be concerned with being on the wrong side of history (the short-term), but being history (the long-term).  They have to be willing to adapt or risk irrelevance. 

Last week, a funny thing happened on Meet The Press.  Usually, a historic act makes news, this time making news prompted a historic act, and after Vice President Joe Biden said he was 'comfortable' with gay marriage, the President came out and said that he personally was for it as well.  (Legislatively, he would leave it to the states to decide.) Chris Matthews found it interesting why the Administration would want to publicize the friction in the White House caused by Mr. Biden being out front on the issue.  We think that's the reason, the Obama Administration is stern when it comes to people knowing who exactly drives the boat, and that's Barack Obama.  It's not some kind of Bush-Cheney situation where the joke.. urrrr reality... was that Cheney really called all the shots.

Refreshingly, on today's program, the Chairman of the American Conservative Union Al Cardenas said that he was surprised by people's surprise. "A lot to do about nothing," he said.  We wouldn't dismiss it like that, but he does have a point.  People shouldn't be that surprised.  However, he also said that he thought this would cause an uprising of social conservative in November the likes of which we haven't seen for 20 some odd years.  Here, we would disagree because from 20 years ago to now, too many people's attitudes have changed, as well as demographics, and the impact he's suggesting will not come to fruition.

However, as Jonathan Capeheart noted, this is not a slam dunk for President though it has buoyed millions psychologically.  Within the body politic of Washington, the lines are being drawn, and not in sand.  People are looking for the permanent marker as we head down the stretch of the Presidential election, and Republicans are trying to figure out a way to ultilize the President's historic stance on gay marriage against him beyond this one issue because they can not erase it.


Round Table:  Lt. Governor of California Gavin Newsom; Chairman of the American Conservative Union Al Cardenas; Washington Post columnists Kathleen Parker and Jonathan Capehart; and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.

4.29.12: Criticism of the Criticism

Despite having to cut through some respective twisting of facts, we always find having campaign representatives, and specifically Ed Gillespie (R) and Robert Gibbs (D), highly informative because their answers provide insights to what political tact each campaign will take on a particular political issue.

Before getting into other issues, it was a good first tackle by Mr. Gregory to discuss whether or not the assassination of Osama Bin Laden is being politicized and whether it should be. [Let's take a time out by saying that this subject is and was tied into NBC's Brian Williams' special program on the one-year anniversary of the operation.]  To answer the first part, it is certainly being used for political gain as evidenced by what Vice President Joe Biden has been saying on the campaign trail. "Bin Laden is dead, and GM is alive." The key part what he follows it up with, "Could Mitt Romney use that as a slogan," and then he goes on to explain why.  It's a bit of a stretch to say that Mitt Romney, if President, wouldn't have taken steps to get him given actionable intelligence, even though he did say it wouldn't have been a priority to get Bin Laden.  Mr. GIbbs stopped short saying that it is not clear as to whether he would have or not.  For President Obama, on the other hand, it was a priority and the success of the mission proved to be significant, especially in the psyches of a younger generation who spent most of their informative years living under the shadow of a post-9/11 world.

It was an vital get.  The killing or capturing of Osama Bin Laden should have always been a priority. That President Bush didn't put a priority on it, and in fact didn't get him in the ensuing 7 years of his Presidency was a error in judgement, and given that, it's fair game for Mr. Obama to tout the fact that his administration conducted the successful mission.  However, prominent Republicans, Senator John McCain as Mr. Gregory noted, said that the ad in question had gone over the line.  Mr. Gillespie said that the President turned a national triumph into a divisive partisan political attack against Mr. Romney, the 'sign of a desperate campaign.'

For Mr. Gillespie, here's where his argument falls down.  When Mr. Gregory asked him if the country was safer now, Mr. Gillespie said that the United States isn't as strong as it should be, and he repeated the phrase again for lack of a credible counter because he certainly can not say that the United States is not safe, without causing a stir, but on the other hand, he can not say that we're safer because that would be giving credit to President Obama.

[As for the second part of Biden's slogan, Mr. Romney is on record saying that he would have not helped General Motors with a bailout, and where he didn't level with the American people when saying that the government should not bail out private companies, he's not addressing the big picture that no saving G.M. would have been the killing of an industry - that's how key General Motors is to the entire equation.]

Going further on foreign policy, there were conflicting opinions on our relationship with Russia.  Mr. Gillespie said the 'reset button' diplomacy is not working.  Conversely, Mr. Gibbs said that the United States, under President Obama, was able to get them to go along with sanctions against Iran.  Well, neither the 'reset button' or the 'I saw into his soul' approaches have been effective.  It's difficult to say from what we've heard today who has done better, but should we keep Russia in a subordinate role to China (a role reversal from the height of the Cold War)?  Absolutely.

What was definitive and insightful came with the discussion of how women are being and would be treated under Republican leadership versus Democratic leadership.  Mr. Gillespie, countering the presumed charge that Republicans have a 'war on women,' explained the women are economically worse off under President Obama since he took office, citing a few statistics.  Mr. Gibbs, for his effort, noted women's health care restrictions Republicans are proposing.  The argument is on two different plains. But it distills down to this, and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos explained the strategy inadvertently during the panel when verbally jousting with Rachel Maddow saying that the subject wasn't the states but the federal government.  To deflect the conversation away from the unprecedented amount of legislation Republicans have introduced limiting women's reproductive rights on a state level, Mr. Romney will try and keep the focus on the economy and how that has effected women.  It's not quite saying one thing and doing another.  It's more of a matter of saying one thing while others do another thing that we won't talk about.

One has to realize that the economy has been difficult on women because of what has been done on the state level by Republicans in their cutting of education budgets, a move that disproportionately negatively effectives women.  Mr. Gillespie stated that the work place has become hostile toward women under President Obama.  This is simply a political platitude, for which the President's record doesn't reflect, starting with his signing of the Fair Pay For Women Act aka Lilly Ledbetter.  Then there is the clip of Speaker John Boehner from the floor of the House saying the so-called 'war on women' is something that the Democrats are simply using for political gain.  Yes, that is correct, but why?  Because Republicans have tried to institute policies not favorable to women so what does he expect?  Mr. Boehner's pompous indignation that Democrats would challenge these policies, making a political issue, given what's on record, shows some pretty thin skin.

Lastly, we like the succinct description Mr. Gibbs put on the Republicans' criticism of the Administration's handling of the economic - that we didn't clean up your mess fast enough.  One reason why we like it is because it plays into Mitt Romney's criticism that the recovery hasn't been fast enough.  The reason for that is political gridlock. [Quick Aside: For good or ill, depending on what political side you're on, simple Senate majority needs to be put back in place as a rule.]  It's an effective criticism of the criticism because by all indications Republicans want to repeal all the economic policies put into place by the Democrats under President Obama, returning us to the policies of the Bush Administration which created the Great Recession, essentially trying to clean up the mess by making more of a mess.

[On a program note, during today's program, there were two extended promotions for other programing on the network and as we touch on earlier in the column, they were woven into the topics discussed.  There was a promotion for Brian Williams' special on the killing of Osama Bin Laden and an interview promotion for Saturday Night Live.  This has been somewhat of a trend on the program, and it's inappropriate for the 'program of record' as we like to refer to Meet The Press.  There is too much to discuss and Meet The Press is a serious program which required every minute to be focused on the topics at hand.  There is plenty of other airtime on the network to promote programming.]


Round Table:  Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen is back to weigh in on the campaign.  Also joining us: Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos.

4.15.12: How Will History Judge?

Representative Michele Bachmann stated during her debate segment with Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) that health insurance costs have risen 9% in the past year under 'Obamacare,' and that families (women) pay $2,000 dollars more in gas per year under President Obama, and that these are the real issues that women should be concerned about.

What you can appreciate about this debate is that the two representatives from their respective sides elevated it beyond the misplaced comments by the CNN contributor Hilary Rosen. However, the two spoke on different planes. When asked about women, Mrs. Bachmann, as previously mentioned talked about the economic impact on women whereas Mrs. Gillibrand spoke about womens' freedom to make health care choices. When Mrs. Bachmann finally weighed in on the points that the Senator was making, her argument completely fell down. Congresswoman Bachmann said that HR1 was a law designed to have women make their own health care choices, but that's simply not the case - it was an abortion restriction bill, which has been followed by 90 state bills that have been passed restricting a woman's choices with her doctor. As we've said before, legislating womens' bodies is the ultimate in big government control over an individual, more so than a health care mandate ever would be. And speaking of the mandate, the reason why health care costs have gone up 9% is not because of 'Obamacare,' which hasn't been fully implemented yet, but instead it is because that private insurance companies are trying to reap as much profit as possible before it kicks in when they won't be able to charge what ever they want, taking advantage of people.

So when Mr. Gregory challenges Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the strength of the economy and the recovery that is still underway, of course he's going to say is still pretty tough. And the reason that it's still tough right now, as it applies to this country, separating out for a moment Europe's financial situation and the effect it has on the stock market, is that President Obama and the Democrats put in place rules such as Dowd-Frank and the Affordable Health Care Act to rein corporate excess. Of course one person's excess is another person's extra profit.

In between the lines you can distill the different strategies. The Obama Administration is looking more long term, while Republicans are looking for the politically and economically expedient. This bears out with regard to the debt and deficit. Mrs. Bachmann stated that in 15 years our economy will collapse under the weight of our debt if we stay on the trajectory we're on, to which Mr. Geithner disagreed. But even if this collapse were inevitable, the Republican answer in the form of the Paul Ryan budget plan doesn't head this off. His budget, if enacted, would not balance the budget until 2040 - 28 years from now.

Despite the anemic job growth numbers, Secretary Geithner stated that by all indications, the policies the administration has put in place are having a positive effect. He cited the growth in business and manufacturing and an increase in consumer confidence. With a weak dollar, manufacturing will pick up hence businesses will grow which is all good, but a weak dollar doesn't help consumers so why the increase in confidence? It's a false label, it's not that consumers have more confidence, it's just that they've had to figure out how to buy things with less money and that took some time to figure out - get out of your house, take the second job, sell a few things, and only now are people starting to buy things again, specifically, for example, women and moms.

"Ridiculous," was the word Mr. Geithner used to describe Mr. Romney's statement that 92% of the jobs lost belonged to women. That's not even a real news maker because no one has really come to believe anything that Mitt Romney says, the core realization that the public will come to and the primary reason why he will not be elected President. Calling Mr. Romney out like that doesn't require any political courage, and where Mr. Geithner could have exercised some was when he rightly mentioned teachers losing their jobs and that a high percentage of those positions are held by women. Where he came up short was that he didn't explain that those teacher job losses were the product of Republican state houses cutting their public budgets and shifting the dollars to tax cutting. He didn't go there. Nor did he mention, as Mrs. Gillibrand correctly did, the Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act that President Obama signed into law. How does Mrs. Bachmann defend, for example, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's decision to repeal that law on the state level. She can't and she has to change the subject as she did today because it's not OK that an employer can just decide to pay a woman 75 cents on the dollar for an equal amount of work - simply.

Then there is the whole 'still blaming George Bush' debate and if it's still valid to do so, as Mr. Geithner did today in the context of the tax cuts, with which Mrs. Bachmann took umbrage. Well, in a way as far as continued Bush blame - no, but ultimately in a way - yes. No, because the Obama Administration has not done a good enough job of controlling government waste in medicare and medicaid and has not cut the defense budget at all. However, we're still debating the Bush tax cuts. And if we really want to get rid of the 'blame George Bush' game, then we have to eliminate the tax cuts that carry his name. If you're a Democrat that means raising the rate back up to what it was in the Clinton era. If you're a Republican, that means replacing the namesake (insert Romney or Ryan) and providing an even larger permanent cut.

That's the choice going forward now that the general is effectively on, and as Mike Murphy said during the round table, it's going to get nasty, quickly - no one seemed to disagree. How could anyone in the stratosphere disagree with that? Thirty-five million dollars was spent between Mr. Romney's campaign and his surrogates on attacking Rick Santorum, in the primary. That figure will balloon to about $300 million in the general, not to be outdone by much by Mr. Obama. Ironically, Chuck Todd said that Mr. Romney was getting tagged with Santorum rhetoric. Mr. Romney had to go too far to the right in our estimation to get the votes over his opponents and in some cases, too far from which to recover. This is why Mr. Gregory illustrated the disparity in respective support from women votes - 57% for Mr. Obama, 38% for Mr. Romney. Also, a costly factor in the election. Voter turnout, as Mr. Todd, mentioned will be negatively effective, especially on the Republican side if Mr. Romney starts walking any hard right statements back to the middle, combined with the negative advertising.

And instead of debating whether or not Mitt Romney should make an appearance on Saturday Night Live, how about we give a little thought to what Mr. Geithner said during his interview, which was that history will judge what President Obama has done, is doing, and what he will do favorably. After all, Mike Murphy said that the election would be a referendum on each individual - stick with that. Some would argue that history will not be favorable given the $5 trillion in debt that has accumulated under the Obama Administration so far. They'll be correct if Mr. Obama wins a second term and doesn't focus on deficit reduction once the health care act is in full effect. If Romney wins the election, Mr. Obama's policies will be looked upon as even more favorably because Mr. Romney will throw back the country into a deep recession and then people once again long for fiscal sanity.


Round table: former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN), Republican strategist Mike Murphy, and NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd.


Postscript: Mr. Gregory's interview with Bill Cosby (excerpted during the program) provided nice closure to the program despite some frivolous conversation during the panel. We agree with Mr. Cosby that the Trayvon Martin shooting should be more a conversation about the gun instead of race. Sadly, there is nary a politician with the political courage to speak up about it. We would also agree that it is un-American to route for the failure of the President because in essence, hoping for that is hoping that America fails, and that just sucks.