Inside Palin's Politics

September 5, 2008

Wednesday night I did a CBS Webcast with Katie Couric and sparred with Republican strategist Barbara Comstock over Sarah Palin -- what she represents and where she would lead the country. Old-fashioned as I may be, I argued that "this is a big election about big issues. And while Palin's story is compelling... at the same time on the core issues so central to millions of women in this country -- Sarah Palin talked about 'every woman should have the opportunity to go through every door' -- well, you don't if you adopt the agenda of John McCain and Sarah Palin." You can watch the entire webcast here:

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The Sarah Palin Smokescreen

September 4, 2008

"Here's the deal: Palin is the latest G.O.P. distraction," Bob Herbert wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Tuesday. "She's meant to shift attention away from the real issue of this campaign--the awful state of the nation after eight years of Republican rule. The Republicans are brilliant at distractions."

Herbert's right on target. Barack Obama honed in on that point in Denver too, "If you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things."

On cue, Sarah Palin attempted to paint an absurd caricature of Obama in her speech at the Republican Convention last night: "What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world."

An Open Letter on Behalf of Amy Goodman

September 3, 2008

Dear Pro-Democracy Colleagues,

We join with you in condemning the arrest and harassment of Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and members of her crew on the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. These arrests were a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists and an assault on our constitution.

Goodman was arrested for simply questioning police about the unlawful detention of producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar who were covering street demonstrations in St. Paul. All three were roughly handled.

When the GOP Met Gustav

September 1, 2008

The campaign website of Senator John McCain declares that the arrival of Hurricane Gustav is a moment for "Serving a Cause Greater". (Whatever that means.) The GOP--which for eight years demonstrated what columnist Paul Krugman described as "an ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good" --has now reshuffled its convention, talked of fundraisers, phonathons, and volunteers--and told America it's above partisan politics and is putting the country first.

On Monday, the McCain campaign website ran a quote from the candidate himself smack-dab on the homepage: "I pledge that tomorrow night and if necessary throughout our convention, we will act as Americans and not as Republicans because America needs us now."

Darn right--you better not act like Republicans if you want to help America.

Taking On Poverty and Inequality

August 27, 2008

The theme at the Democratic Convention in Denver yesterday was "Renewing America's Promise"--the Democrats' plan to grow the economy and restore fairness so that it works for all of us. The 2007 Census data on poverty, income and health insurance was also released yesterday and it showed just how tall an order Senator Obama and the Democrats face in reversing eight years of failed Bush economic policies - policies we will continue to pay a price for in 2008 and beyond.

While the 2007 numbers don't even include the devastation wrought by the housing and credit crisis, and high energy costs, they nevertheless paint a bleak picture with poverty on the rise and working people's pay stagnating despite increased productivity.

Robert Greenstein, Executive Director of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities said, "Though 2007 was the sixth (and likely the final) year of an economic expansion, 4.4 million more Americans were poor, the median income of non-elderly households was $1,100 lower, and nearly six million more Americans were uninsured than in 2001 - even though the economy was in recession that year.... Never before on record has poverty been higher and median income for working-age households lower at the end of a multi-year economic expansion than at the beginning. The new data add to the mounting evidence that the gains from the 2001-2007 expansion were concentrated among high-income Americans."

Sisterhood of the Travelling Pantsuits

August 27, 2008

Hillary Clinton knocked it out of the park Tuesday night.

It was a speech defined by grace, feistiness, sly wit, generosity toward her former rival and by a powerful nod to the history her forewoman/bearers made --and which she carried forward with her unprecedented run for the presidency, winning more primaries and caucuses (23) than any woman in history.

On the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, Hillary Clinton powerfully linked the fight for women's rights and civil rights, and spoke for those who have been invisible--and for an America whose women, of all races, have defied the odds and fought for a fairer and freer world.

An Economy that Works for All

August 25, 2008

As the Democratic party gathers in Denver one issue that should be front and center is the staggering inequality of our times. And one of the most damning symbols of our New Gilded Age is exorbitant executive pay.

In 2007, the average S&P 500 CEO's pay package was $10.5 million, 344 times greater than the typical US worker.  The top fifty private equity and hedge fund managers pocketed an average of $588 million--19,000 times greater than the typical US worker. Thirty years ago, the average executive salary was just thirty to forty times greater than the average American worker's pay.

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain both propose greater shareholder say over CEO pay.  But when it comes to taking real action to close the loopholes that subsidize these obscene, reckless, and super-sized salaries neither candidate is aggressive enough.

Joe Biden and the Myth of Foreign Policy Experience

August 24, 2008

The conventional wisdom is that with a new cold war looming and global conflicts upon us, Barack Obama needed a Vice-President with foreign policy experience. Most establishment pundits buy the view that Joe Biden provides it.

But on one of the key issues relating to US-Russian relations, Biden has been wrong. He has been a fervent champion of NATO expansion, a bipartisan policy whose disastrous consequences we witnessed in the recent and ongoing Russia-Georgia conflict. It is a policy that has done more to damage US-Russian relations than almost any other policy between the two countries.

When Biden traveled to Tbilisi during the conflict in August--presumably to flex and highlight his foreign policy credentials for the Obama campaign--he presumably told Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili of his support for that country's early admission to NATO. (The New York Times reports that the conflict did in fact boost Biden's veep prospects.) What does this say about Biden's foreign policy judgment that he would immediately reward Saakashvili's reckless behavior with a promise of early admission to NATO?

A People's Convention?

August 22, 2008

After a historical and exhilarating primary season, with unprecedented voter turnout and grassroots activism, some great venues at the Democratic Convention in Denver next week will offer the kinds of ideas for change that people want to believe in.

The Nation will be there, moderating daily forums on issues like Iraq, healthcare, economic justice, and immigration reform with progressive leaders such as Representatives John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey, Keith Ellison, Robert Wexler, Hilda Solis, Jim McGovern, and others.

Campaign for America's Future will rally to "Take Back America" with the likes of Senator Sherrod Brown, Representatives Jan Schakowksy, Barbara Lee, and Donna Edwards.

A Fateful Crossroads for America

August 19, 2008

As I wrote last week, the Georgian-Russian conflict has led to a humanitarian tragedy in the region that demands a careful and calibrated response--not a reaction that heightens existing geopolitical tensions. But the latter is exactly what we have seen. The conflict has morphed into a justification for a renewed cold war by the mainstream media, John McCain and his neocon brethren, and it threatens to add fuel to a new arms race. Yet crises also present opportunities, and we should seize this moment to rethink our approach to national security and US-Russian relations.

Since the end of the cold war, US policies toward Russia have done more to jeopardize the security of the people of both nations--and those living in nations of the former Soviet Union--rather than enhance it. It's time to pursue an alternative, more sane and effective course. Instead of expanding NATO to Russia's border, shredding arms control agreements, and generally hyper-militarizing relations between our two nations, we need leaders who have the moxie to lay out a just foreign policy for the region.

There are three key elements to such a foreign policy: