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Well, it surely is on.  Presidential quote of the day?:


Obama also mocked the tea party, without mentioning it by name, and Republican candidates who sign anti-tax and other pledges.

“I take an oath,” he said. “I don’t go around signing pledges.”

Jim Kuhnhenn – Obama Holds Town Hall Meetings As Bus Tour Rolls Through Illinois Huffington Post 17 Aug 11

Well said, sir.  And a reminder the search for a commander-in-chief is already well under way and we are sure gettin’ a big vaccination dose of Governor Rick Perry:


The governor angered even some Republicans after he said Monday night it would be “almost… treasonous” for the Fed to expand the money supply to try to improve the economy. He also said things could get “ugly” for Mr. Bernanke back in the Lone Star State.

“Threatening the Fed chairman is probably not a good idea,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday.

The Perry campaign suggested Tuesday the governor is getting used to a national campaign after building a public persona in Texas that includes antagonizing Washington with eyebrow-raising remarks. “There are always new things to learn,” Ray Sullivan, the governor’s communications’ director told Washington Wire. Mr. Perry was noticeably more soft-spoken Tuesday during campaign stops in Iowa.

Danny Yadron – Perry: ‘I Got in Trouble Talking About the Fed’ WSJ 17 Aug 11

Though insider opinion was that Perry would rather be talking about that than the initial criticism he immediately received from the Right.  Michele is lighting up the tubes with the fact-checking on recent remarks she would have easily breezed over in the past.  And one of her Ames facilitators turns out to be a spooky sort of Christianist mercenary in a past Ugandan incident.  Santorum defends the honour of the Federal Reserve.  Paul supporters decry their lack of earned media, though everyone seems to get it they are a “mile deep and an inch wide.”  Huntsman turns out to be a “climate change” non-sceptic (so 2016).  Rove tells us, belatedly, that we are not a “Christian nation.”  And Obama, bless his retail heart, is on a bus tour.

All candidates’ staffers cleaning straw and cow-flops off the shoes of their respective charges?  Check.  The campaign has begun.

The criticism of Obama’s bus tour seems to be a bit uncharitable.  Everyone else gets a swing and his is the bully pulpit we have heard so much about:


Obama agreed that the tense, last-minute negotiations over lifting the debt ceiling had sapped consumer confidence. “It was inexcusable,” he said.

Jim Kuhnhenn – Obama Holds Town Hall Meetings As Bus Tour Rolls Through Illinois Huffington Post 17 Aug 11

One guesses.  Right…  Into the lists.  Let the Devil take the hindmost and loose the dogs of politics.  Can’t say Obama’s been caught napping.


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78 comments

  1. HappyinVT

    Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman attracts only 3 percent support from voters. The former U.S. ambassador to China has been polling near the bottom of national surveys, but his focus has been on New Hampshire. He visited the state last week, but the Magellan survey shows a plurality of voters in the state — 47 percent — have an unfavorable opinion of him. Twenty percent say they like him while 24 percent say they don’t know enough about him to make a decision. http://www.realclearpolitics.c…  

    I get that Huntsman is trying to get his name out there and get ready to contrast himself with the nutjobs in 2016 but there’s got to be an easier, cheaper way to do it.

  2. Shaun Appleby

    Then:


    This afternoon, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) gave a “sharply worded” speech full of “verbal assaults” directed at Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). At one point, McCain asked, “Who is the real Barack Obama?” A member of the crowd yelled out, “a terrorist!”

    Ali Frick – McCain offers no response to supporter who yells out that Obama is a ‘terrorist.’ Think Progress 6 Oct 08

    Now:


    LIMBAUGH: Tea party guy was off prompter. Anyway, I’m going to have to translate all this. Ryan Rhodes said I would like to understand why your vice president is calling us terrorists. Obama: OK, I’ll explain it right now, he didn’t call you guys terrorists.

    Limbaugh And Hannity Report Biden’s Alleged Comments As Fact Media Matters 16 Aug 11

    So we were defending ourselves from charges of terrorism then and you are now?  Advantage Democrats.

  3. HappyinVT

    On the same day a report suggested that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is exploring a presidential bid, the ratings agency Fitch downgraded the state’s credit rating from AA to AA-.

    As the Wall Street Journal reports, the state’s budget needs more funding to meet growing needs of pension and worker-benefit liabilities:

       The ratings company said the pressure is exacerbated by New Jersey’s weak economic recovery, high debt burden, limited financial flexibility and persistent structural imbalance. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…  

  5. Shaun Appleby

    Looks like Michele has ruffled some feathers in the inner sanctums of the Republican establishment media:


    In less than two months since entering the 2012 race, Bachmann’s campaign staff has become embroiled in at least five unusually hostile encounters with the traveling media marked by pushing, shoving and, in one instance, the allegation of a threat of violence to a reporter.

    Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin – Michele Bachmann’s bouncers: Unnecessary roughness Politico 17 Aug 11

    Bouncers?  “Unnecessary roughness?”  Heh.  All is not well in Republicanland.  Michele is trespassing in sacred Right-wing burial grounds.  

  7. HappyinVT

    Christine “I’m not a witch” O’Donnell walked off Piers Morgan’s set today because he kept asking her questions she didn’t want to answer because she was on the show promoting her book (!) But she didn’t want to talk about everything in the book just the stuff she wanted to talk about that was in the book.  

  10. Shaun Appleby

    Just in:


    WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced on Thursday it will do a case-by-case review of deportations, allowing many undocumented immigrants without criminal records to stay in the United States indefinitely and apply for work permits.

    Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will send a letter on Thursday to Senate members who had asked for details on how the agency would prioritize its immigration enforcement. The policy change is meant as a framework to help prevent non-priority undocumented immigrants from “clogging the system,” senior administration officials said on a conference call with reporters Thursday.

    Elise Foley – New Policy On Deportations Allows Some Non-Criminal Undocumented Immigrants To Stay Huffington Post 17 Aug 11

    I would say we are off and running.  It’s going to be a long fifteen months.  How do you win an election with a tanking economy?

  11. Shaun Appleby

    Fancy that:


    On the heels of its historic downgrade of the U.S. government’s credit, Standard & Poor’s is the focus of a federal investigation examining the rating agency’s actions in the run-up to the financial crisis, The New York Times reported Thursday.

    The Justice Department’s investigation began before Standard & Poor’s reduced the nation’s AAA credit rating, the Times reported, but the revelation that it is being probed is certain to add animus to the already fraught relationship between the rater and the Obama administration, which was highly critical of S&P’s actions.

    The Times reported the investigation centers on alleged cases in which the company’s analysts sought to award lower ratings on mortgage bonds but had other S&P managers overrule them. The paper wrote that it did not know whether rating agencies Fitch and Moody’s, which each maintained the government’s AAA rating, are part of the probe.

    Reid J Epstein – Report: DOJ probing S&P Politico 17 Aug 11

    So 2008 prosecutions are a stick to beat with during elections?  I missed the memo but maybe this Chicago politics has some merit.

  13. jsfox

    Among us morose liberals, the story of next year’s election has already been written. It goes like this: Once upon a time, there was an extraordinary candidate named Barack Obama who, with a gentle kiss of rhetoric, woke us up from a decade of slumber caused by the curse of the evil George W. Bush. We were looking forward to living happily ever after, but then Obama took an unprincely turn. Instead of standing up to the tea-stained meanies who called him names and besieged his castle, he went weak. He tried to appease, and he ended up compromising his principles. He failed, according to a recent essay in the New York Times by psychologist and political consultant Drew Westen, to offer “a clear, compelling alternative to the dominant narrative of the right.” He let himself be bullied by a doctrinaire and dogged minority. And so, no matter how the majority of Americans vote come next November, our story already has an unhappy ending: We believed in Obama, and he has let us down.

    It’s a compelling story, but it’s also dead wrong. Obama hasn’t let us down; it’s we who have disappointed him.

    http://www.tabletmag.com/life-…

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