Politico

A better way forward is a different way forward. The Axis of Arrogance--the Wall Street-Washington bipartisan alliance--seems determined simply to bludgeon the American people into supporting the bailout. President Bush was at it again, just this morning in the White House, bludgeoning away once again. What’s that old adage? If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, banging your head against the wall even again.

It’s a rare time in history that the elites are actively badmouthing the economy in order to win a policy dispute. But… more

...A recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll showed that 35 percent of voters said they had concerns about Obama’s patriotism. Only nine percent said they were worried about McCain’s. Eric Liu, a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton who co-founded the True Patriot Network with Hanauer, said Obama has not been forceful enough in conveying a message on patriotism. “It is not something that Obama has particularly, persistently, or effectively, really done,” Liu said. “What’s encouraging to us is… more

...In 1972, McGovern eloquently declared that now was the time for America to “come home.” His tag line in support of change was used to portray him and other Democrats as isolationist liberals for years thereafter.

By the same token, Mondale in 1984 promised change when he vowed to level with Americans and declared forthrightly that he would raise their taxes should he win the White House. Mondale’s words were “disastrous,” as author Michael A. Cohen argued, because they “served… more

...The issue undoubtedly “adds to the general mood of distress,” said the New America Foundation’s Michael Lind. And that hurts the Bush administration and, by implication, McCain.

But, he said, “it’s not like Enron. There’s no single villain to pin this on.... Everyone loved the jump in homeownership attributable in part to mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

“You can compare it to a financial 9/11. There was a truce after 9/11,” he said. “There was a bipartisan truce. It seems to me… more

In fall 2005, the Republican Party experienced a long, sleepless night. Concerned with Iraq, confounded by Katrina and cast into despair by Harriet Miers, party activists worried about the party’s future.

During this dusk, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam took to the pages of The Weekly Standard to urge Republicans to embrace the first light of a new era. How? By winning back working-class voters, or “Sam’s Club Republicans,” to use Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s phrase. In Washington, the article was… more

If McCain proposes an ambitious school voucher program, as he did in 2000, it will underline stark philosophical differences between the GOP and Democratic presidential candidates on education policy. . .

Clinton and Obama share many policy goals but often differ on the means to achieve them. For instance, both have committed to spending an additional $10 billion annually on programs for children under 5. That would mean doubling the current federal investment in early childhood education.

But their approaches… more