Obama vs. Romney: A Debate Over Government
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 23rd, 2012 11:08 pm by HL
Obama vs. Romney: A Debate Over Government
John Harwood, NY Times
The currency of political persuasion is emotion — and the way President Obama and Mitt Romney are spending it crystallizes their starkly contrasting appeals.An Obama campaign video shows the president’s national political director, Katherine Archuleta, tearfully crediting Mr. Obama with having saved her daughter’s life. She portrays the president as a hero of government whose health care law assures her daughter, a cancer survivor, insurance coverage forever.
In Memoriam: Obama the Uniter
Matt Negrin, ABC News
The 2004 version of Barack Obama, who captured the nation with a dazzling speech about unity and went on to win the presidency on a message of hope, died on Monday. He was 8 years old.The cause of death appeared to be a bitter realization that he needed to win reelection in an increasingly partisan political environment, a cancer that he had been battling for months if not years.Obama's illness got the best of him late Monday, as he announced that his campaign for four more years in the White House would be based not on optimism, but rather the shady corporate record of his opponent,…
Does Portman Have the Edge in VP Sweepstakes?
Erin McPike, RCP
Rob Portman has been preparing for this for years.Although the Ohio senator offers the standard line that he doesn't expect to be picked as Mitt Romney's running mate, the trajectory of his career and his political conduct in Washington have made nearly everyone in politics almost certain that he'll be plucked for this year's Republican presidential ticket.Bob Paduchik, a veteran consultant who ran George W. Bush's re-election effort in Ohio as well as Portman's Senate campaign in 2010, bottom-lined it: "Rob Portman is uniquely qualified to do the job on…
Peace Process Harmed Israel’s Reputation
Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe
‘What happened,” asks Michael Oren, “to Israel’s reputation?”The Israeli ambassador to the United States, a noted historian, combat veteran, and bestselling author, raised that question in a Wall Street Journal essay last week. Writing on the 64th anniversary of Israeli independence, Oren began by quoting from Life magazine’s salute to the Jewish state on its 25th birthday in 1973 — a 92-page special issue that honored modern Israel, an island of enlightened democratic courage flourishing against all odds amid a sea of Arab…
Why Deficit Hysteria Sells
Steve Kornacki, Salon
One of the themes I’ve been emphasizing is the role of context in the presidential race. President Obama’s reelection prospects depend on swing voters considering not just the current state of the economy, but also the factors that led us here and the economic vision that Mitt Romney would bring to the presidency. Romney’s hopes, on the other hand, depend on those same voters either ignoring or rationalizing away the context that Obama tries to introduce and simply voting him out because of their profound economic anxiety.