Werthless wrote:I don't like how Brooks defines (or fails to define) the "educated" position.

The state senate will vote on marriage equality legislation on Thursday, Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) announced today.

Mark Halperin's list of five things President Obama did well in his first year and five things Obama did poorly in his first year is quite a document. As others have noted, the five things Obama did well, according to Halperin, amounted to "governing the country." The five things that Obama did badly (aside from Halperin's critique of the White House's internal policy process) are mainly about image management. To wit: "Managing his public image." The most egregious, though, is "wooing official Washington."

Politically and personally, the First Couple and their top aides have shown no hankering for the Establishment seal of approval, nor have they accepted the glut of invitations to embassy parties and other tribal rituals of the political class. In the sphere of Washington glitter, the Clintons were clumsy and the Bush team indifferent, but the Obama Administration has turned a cold shoulder, disappointing Beltway salons and newsrooms whose denizens hoped the über-cool newbies would play.

Apparently, the administration -- which is governing during one of the most crises-laden periods in recent history and which is still operating without a number of its key officials -- should be spending more time partying. The charitable interpretation is that Halperin thinks this prioritization is making Obama's life unnecessarily hard: The White House could be getting better press coverage, and more support from established powerbrokers, if it was fanning out to more embassy parties, and that would make governing easier.

You wonder, however, whether Halperin recognizes the rot and corruption he's suggesting in "official Washington." The same goes for his item on Obama's media failures, which argues that Obama's "image makers have not been deft enough in finding a happy medium that allows Obama to be Obama while neutralizing some of the more poisonous, potentially indelible story lines."

Official Washington consists mainly of people who are paid to understand American politics. They shouldn't need to be feted at parties. Indeed, if their conclusions are being changed by glimpsing Larry Summers at the British Embassy, they're doing a terrible job. Either Obama is governing well and is worthy of respect or he isn't, but the assessment can't be that he's governing well but not coming to enough parties. At least, not unless we're in some serious "Fall of Rome" days here in Washington.

jerseyhoya wrote:The political media's equivalent of not voting someone into the Hall of Fame because he didn't give good post game interviews. Except possibly worse w/ the incestuous corruption angle.

jerseyhoya wrote:Byron Dorgan is retiring

Hell yes

jerseyhoya wrote:I read this book today for my fake job. It sucked. I have a new dislike for Sen. Dorgan. What a dope.

jerseyhoya wrote:“If baseball is America’s pastime, then why isn’t it in every state of America? I’ll tell you why: Because professional sports teams want big money and want to be in big population centers. ... I think we should move the Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Vikings to Bismarck and Fargo, but I’m not holding my breath.” - Senator Byron Dorgan

jerseyhoya wrote:I really dislike Dorgan too. Raving protectionist, economically illiterate moron. He's bff with Lou Dobbs.

Rococo4 wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:Byron Dorgan is retiring

Hell yes

if there ever should be a pickup, this is it

also rumors swirling that CO GOV Bill Ritter wont run for reelection

jerseyhoya wrote: Dodd retiring a huge, huge blow for us picking up an otherwise unwinnable seat.

TenuredVulture wrote:On Brooks point--Werthless misconstrues it as equating liberal with educated. Especially on trade. Educated people love free trade, while tea partiers are probably much more likely to be protectionist. Also, I suspect most tea partiers are isolationist, which doesn't really map neatly on a conventional liberal/conservative spectrum.

Werthless wrote: His position might have had more force if he only chose, you know, examples where the tea partiers reflexively or ignorantly reject a reasoned position.