I love it when Dem ads are just as brutal and tricky as GOP ads. The shot of Rush rocking the Nazi salute. The little blonde white girl on the suburban carpeted steps as the picture of a "rape victim". Classic. Great stuff. Viscious and negative and probably a little unfair, but I'm cool with that.

I'm praying he runs and I'm praying he wins the nomination. Please, God, I don't ask for much...

Sure. I "acknowledge that images and appearances are pretty important in politics". I do not, therefore, think that means Peter Orzag should fire his driver and hoof it. Thanks for playing.

Kings is dreck. You know the source material is fancypants Bible stories. You know Ian McShane is dope. The camera work is nice. So you're tricked into thinking this is "good television". But if you actually listen to that dialogue and watch that show scene by scene, it is laughably dumb. David and whatshername the completely forgettable daughter girl with their dowy eyed "meaningful" stares. The show is pure hokum. The King has no clothes. The last show like it was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. All full of self-regard and impressed by its own pseudo-intellectual BS.  It's M. Night Shyamalayanish. It just goes to show how utterly crap most TV is that anything vaguely imaginative and ambitious gets lauded and adored even if it's not actually entertaining, coherent, or worth your time.

good one

What the fuck are you people talking about?

I hate beets too!

I think Geithner and Summers could do themselves a world of good by making some sort of gesture to show they are at least listening to the nationalization crowd. Invite Paul Krugman and Nuriel Roubini to the White House for a meeting. Something. Charlie Rose ain't going to cut it.

I'm dubious of Congress tapping into the pitchfork and torches vibe. Mobs are fickle and just when you think they're on your side, they have a habit of turning against you. They also tend to burn down houses and lynch people, so you know, maybe everyone should just calm down a bit. I think rather than pretending these people are evil pirates who we need to put in jail, we should put our energy into using this moment to try to reform big-C capitalism so it's less risky and more equitable. Executive compensation is our version of "earmarks". It's easy to rile up people about it, but it's not the cause of the problem. The reason people are pissed about the economy is not that other people are rich who don't deserve to be. This is the land of Britney Spears, we have come to terms with talentless imbeciles getting piles of money. People are angry because they don't have houses, healthcare, transportation, etc.

Today's GOP doesn't want an Eisenhower. They want a Pinochet.

Just sayin'

I thought the Republicans were a right-wing populist party

America's not a democracy. Forget about Jim Crow, what about the Electoral College or the Senate or the two party duopoly?

It's not that he got bad press, it's that the press is bad.

Would you rather have an active progressive making sure the Commerce department is working or a 60 seat Democratic majority in the Senate?

It'd be a synch to turn "Bi-partisan Commerce Guy From the Obama Administration" into a cushy gig somewhere. "Loser Ex-Senator From New Hampshire" not so much. Unless he's demonstrated a career of hardcore loyalty to his party, I don't see how any rational actor would turn down Obama right now in order to side with the rotting husk of the GOP. If he does, than he's obviously completely nuts, and thus "Loser Ex-Senator From New Hampshire" is exactly the job he deserves.