Miscellany

January 25, 2006

A few things of interest…

* Think Progress put together a really good web video in advance of Bush’s upcoming State of the Union address (Tuesday, Jan. 31). Think Progress, not surprisingly, found that “a review of his previous State of the Union addresses demonstrates that Bush often includes lofty, promising rhetoric but falls short on his pledges.” It’s very well done and worth checking out.

* On a related note, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid delivered a very effective “prebuttal” to Bush’s SOTU at the Center for American Progress yesterday. The text of the speech as written is here, and a video of the remarks is here.

* Here’s a fun contest for creative types: “Do you enjoy Rumors on the Internets, Mr. Pibb + Red Vines, and brilliant political strategy? Do you have what it takes to create the next JibJab, Numa Numa Dance, Detroit Project or Black People Love Us? The Huffington Post Contagious Festival is a unique opportunity for talented designers, political activists of any persuasion, filmmakers and comics to reach millions of people with creative, viral online work.” Winners get fame and fortune. Take a look.

* By popular demand, I’m recommending Molly Ivins’ latest column. Ivins is always a national treasure, but this week, she offers Dems some sound advice.

Cobra Dowd has advice also: http://www.trueblueliberal.com/2006/01/25/delusion-and-illusion-worthy-of-dickens/#more-3194

  • “The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.”

    Do you really think we’d win with a platform of higher taxes, less defense, and socialist medicine? Sure, it might be good policy, but I think that these abstract poll numbers are really misleading when it comes to what people would really support in the end. I think Drum’s post on this issue was a great one.

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_01/008039.php

  • I long ago began referring to bush as “The Ironic President”, not only for his manner of attaining the office in the first place, but more for his penchant for saying one thing and then doing the exact opposite.

  • Re your first item – Holy mendacity, Batman! You mean George Bush’s words are at a variance with what he actually does? Who figured this out, someone whose ears were connected to his brain?

  • I’m sick of the argument that running on a true liberal agenda is guaranteed political suicide. What is and has been political suicide is allowing the right to define our position and our issues. Everybody in the country knows that our health care system is a disaster, even for those who supposedly have insurance coverage. Again and again majorities have said they would support a single-payer insurance plan backed by strong public-sector involvement. And yet, when the right screams, “SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!!!! COMMIES!!! COMMIES!!!” we either don’t respond at all, or we try to reason with them. “Well, it’s not exactly socialized medicine blah blah blah.” Until we can learn to attack, to define/frame the issues to illuminate the underlying greed, selfishness, and yes, racism that underlie the so-called radical conservative rhetoric, we’re doomed to living with guys like Bush in the White House, guys like DeLay in the Congress, and guys like Alito on the highest courts in the land. If Molly Ivins had the resume to run for President, I’d sooner vote for her than most of the obvious Dems.

  • I agree with you, Jim Strain. “Socialized medicine” is such a tired old boogeyman. Call it “public medince” (like “public parks” or “public water works”). At the same time call the present system what it is: “Corporate medicine” or “What-the-traffic-will-bear medicine” or “Selfish medicine” or “Screwed up medicine” or “the only medicine system in the industrial world which leaves millions of people to fend for themselves and millions of others without any medicine at all”.

  • The point wasn’t to say single-payer was bad, but pushing it along with defense cuts is not going to be the key to dem success. Single-payer as an idea has been around a long time, starting in 1912, and yet we’re no closer to it. There have been some political savvy presidents (Clinton and Nixon) with majority support that have not been able to get it through. Instead of single-payer, we ended up with Newt. Putting single-payer and defense cuts at the heart of our campaigns isn’t going to result in big wins, whatever the polls say. Maybe being credible on foreign policy for once is a better place to start.

    My real point is that these polls can show a majority for anything and that we should stop pretending that the whole country would be with us if only the GOP stopped lying and the press starting listening.

    From the Note today. Do these polls mean Tony speaks for all of us?

    The radio ads, which were recorded by FRC President Tony Perkins, state: “Seventy-six percent of Americans support the posting of the 10 Commandments on public property. Eighty-two percent believe prayer should be allowed at public school graduations and ninety percent say the phrase ‘Under God’ should remain in our Pledge of Allegiance. With such overwhelming support why is there such a fight on these issues?”

    • Comments are closed.