How the bane of our political system made Bain Mitt’s Albatross. With the possible exceptions of Grover Norquist, Karl Rove and Roger Ailes, no one man has done more damage to the American political system than Newt Gingrich. But that was back when he was relevant, more than a decade ago. In the last year, Newt’s campaign for President re-imagined […]

Politicizing 9/11 is terrible. But using it as a premise to invade the wrong country is cool. Hi. I’m one of those death penalty hating, rule-of-law loving American progressives who cheered the death of Osama bin Laden a year ago today. Without a trial, the personification of Al Qaeda was summarily killed and dumped into the Indian Ocean. And I, […]

How the GOP plans to punish Barack Obama’s success. If you’re a homophobe, if you’re a health insurer who spends less then 80-85% of your revenue on actual health care, if you’re a member of Al Qaeda, the answer to the question “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” is simple. No. If you live in […]

Thank you for your support. Hint. Hint. Today is the final day of our quarterly fundraiser and the last time we’ll ask you to pitch in a bit to support the work we do — for a while. As I pointed out before, I was an Eclectablog supporter before I became a contributor. And if you’ve been debating about whether […]

Learning is not fundamentalist. What did the GOP learn from eight disastrous years of George W. Bush and the worst financial crisis in a half-century? Nothing good. If we’d followed their advice to shrink government spending dramatically, the US line in the chart below would be flat—much like Europe’s and the UK’s. It might even be nosediving as Italy’s is. […]

He’s like Reagan, if Reagan were about to lose California by 20%. If you’re wondering what kind of governor Mitt Romney was, just look at the polls in Massachusetts, the only place he has ever held elected office. The President leads Romney by an average of 18.5%. These are the voters who know Mitt best. Steve Benen examined Mitt’s unpopular […]

Piss off a Republican. Support bold progressives. Before I started writing for Eclectablog, I contributed a little cash to the effort. Why? Even though we are in an election season where a variety of local, state and national candidates need our support, I see what Eclectablog as an essential progressive voice for three reasons: 1. Chris Savage has gills that […]

He who controls the uteri should be she. We all know this: If you want to prevent abortions, you make sure everyone has health care, a high school education and birth control. Not the exact opposite. Then why do the people who purport to want to stop all abortions seem to favor almost every policy that makes them inevitable? Egyptian-American […]

You know you’re in trouble when you’re looking for some of that George W. Bush glow. The last two “businessmen” to serve as president: Herbert Hoover and GW Bush. And we know how those worked out. nyti.ms/x2iMGi — Steve Sanders (@SteveSSanders) January 16, 2012 Mitt Romney received some encouraging news last week. His favorable/unfavorable rating improved to +1, 44/43. That […]

It’s not keeping Palin out of the White House, but that’s close. Can I share with you the most offensive thing I’ve read since I last accidentally read chyron on the Bill O’Reilly show? David Greenberg writes in The New Republic: Because Barack Obama has accomplished relatively little in his first term—boxed in by a recalcitrant Republican opposition, the sluggish […]

Millionaires to be blissfully unaffected. During last week’s debate on the Buffett Rule, the GOP complained again and again that the rule was a political ploy because it would only raise a few billion dollars every year. Also it would hurt the economy and possibly turn Grover Norquist into Grover Norquist HULK who bashes Republican brains with primary challengers made […]