News & Politics
Tim Tebow Ad
MOLLY SCHOEMANN: The already-infamous ‘Tim Tebow Anti-Abortion’ Superbowl ad hasn’t even aired yet, but it’s already stirred up plenty of controversy.
JEFF MORROW: The Tebow ad sounds like a rare piece of abortion-related advocacy that earnestly tries to persuade. For a pro-life ad, that’s pretty pro-choice.
Bookstores: Independent, Used and Massive Chains
AKIE BERMISS: I love me some books. No I really do. When I walk into a bookstore, I expect to come back out significantly poorer than when I walked in. If there’s any one thing that I’m easily distracted by — its probably books. And, unlike many people, I’ll never enjoy buying them online. I don’t feel satisfaction when a graphic of a book goes into my “shopping-cart” and then a week later a box shows up in my mail. No joy.
I need to go to the store. I need to see them in their element. I need to pick them out. And I need to take them home with me.
HOWARD MEGDAL: Like Akie, I do acknowledge a love for the Big Box Bookstores. But to cast aside the many other ways to acquire books- yes, I share his obsession with all things bibliorific- is an astonishing limitation I simply do not share.
ZOË RICE: While I was away at college, Barnes & Noble opened its first Brooklyn store, four blocks from my parents’ house. Park Slope, Brooklyn, was decidedly not a chain store neighborhood–the Starbucks wouldn’t come until later, and no, I still haven’t recovered–and here was a massive store, two levels, popping up right in my backyard. We had independent stores: Community Bookstore (still living), Booklink (no longer with us) and Booklink II (the first to go). Park Slope was known for being quite literary, with loads of editors and artistic types. B&N would not do. But then I visited it. And I realized Park Slope needed a Barnes & Noble.
Charlie Crist: Democrat?
JESSICA BADER: Despite the persistent rumors and suggestions that Florida governor Charlie Crist will switch to the Democratic Party, I don’t think this is an option for Crist.
CHRIS PUMMER: The reality is that Crist doesn’t have any good options right now. He’s in a tough fight no matter what, and it’s not one he can back out of without suffering the perception that he was pushed out of the race by Rubio.
Obama and the GOP Retreat
CHRIS PUMMER: If the new fiery rhetoric is what it takes to push Republicans deep enough into a corner that governing might be done this year, Obama needs to bring more of it. Because action is required unless he want to see Republicans bring the house down on him in November.
AKIE BERMISS: I don’t mean to say that Obama’s stint at the GOP Retreat last week fielding questions and answering them with wit, aplomb, and gravitas is going to tear our whole society asunder. But I do think that, when we look back on this administration and talk about what it was truly known for: this will be it. Friday was a return to something politics has been missing for quite sometime: intellect.
State of the Union Reactions
HOWARD MEGDAL: There is much that President Obama did well in tonight’s speech, though how much the speech succeeded will ultimately be determined by legislative action and the voters in 2010. But the most vital part of President Obama’s speech Wednesday night was placing the Democratic Party on the side of regulating Wall Street.
JESSICA BADER: The thing that struck me the most about Barack Obama’s first official State of the Union address was how comfortable, how in his element, he seemed while giving it. Even knowing what a gifted speaker the President is and the sense of calm he projects even when the going gets tough, I would have expected some amount of nervousness to seep through as he delivered this speech that will supposedly determine the fate of his presidency (at least until the pundits determine another pivotal moment to fixate on). Instead, he was witty and self-deprecating, not afraid to riff off of the reactions of the audience immediately in front of him even as he was explaining his agenda to the audience watching on a screen.
State of the Union: What Is Wanted/Expected?
JESSICA BADER: As we gear up for Barack Obama’s first official State of the Union address (the speech he gave to a joint session of Congress around this time a year ago wasn’t technically a SotU as it came so soon after his inauguration), one of the major legislative priorities of his first year in office hangs in limbo.
CHRIS PUMMER: Demonstrating the resolve to continue pushing for your beliefs not only convinces the public the president has strength of character. It also reassures people that the man in charge believes the nation is on the right course, even if the road right now seems bumpy. That’s what Obama has to do on Wednesday.
HOWARD MEGDAL: Regardless of his tone or specific policy proposals beyond it, Barack Obama can only succeed in putting his party in position to at least minimize losses if he is seen as finally battling Wall Street. There is no other path to victory in 2010.
JEFF MORROW: After a difficult, potentially fruitless year of legislative wrangling, people really want to know whether President Obama and the Democratic Congress can actually govern. By its nature, that can’t be demonstrated at the podium.
MA-Sen: What Happened, and What Now?
HOWARD MEGDAL: You’re going to hear, over and over, for the next ten months, that Barack Obama had something to do with Martha Coakley’s shocking loss to Scott Brown in the race to succeed Ted Kennedy Tuesday night.
Don’t you believe it.
JESSICA BADER: I’m sure that at least some pundits will (if they haven’t done so already) remark on the “irony” that Ted Kennedy’s death may have indirectly taken his most cherished cause to the grave with him. As long as the freakout among Congressional Democrats can be contained, those pundits will be proven wrong.
CHRIS PUMMER: If House Democrats muster the votes to pass the Senate version of the healthcare bill — which is looking like the only way it will happen now — then Coakley’s loss isn’t as devastating in practice as it appears to be optically right now.
Byron Dorgan, Hanukkah and The Race to a Real 60
JEFF MORROW: Dorgan’s retirement should bring Democrats not sadness, but a joyous reminder of the seemingly impossible: Since 1987, every single federal legislator from North Dakota has been a Democrat. That it lasted as long as it did, and long enough to provide a supermajority, is shocking.
HOWARD MEGDAL: As Jeff correctly points out, it simply wasn’t realistic to expect North Dakota to produce an all-Democratic delegation in the U.S. Senate (and the House, too!).
However, such a group of 60 doesn’t seem all that far off. Consider that there is already a core group in the United States Senate of progressives largely in tune with their states. From Daniel Akaka to Ron Wyden, there are Senators across the board that reflect their own state’s progressive beliefs.
Randy Johnson and The Sexual Innuendo All Stars
As the great (and brand-new Perpetual Post Contributor!) Emma Span wrote Tuesday night, following Randy Johnson’s announcement that he is retiring:
“I don’t think there’s been nearly enough discussion of the fact that this man is actually named RANDY JOHNSON — and nicknamed The Big Unit. In my book he’s a Hall of Famer for that alone.”
Toomey Or Not Toomey
CHRIS PUMMER: While Pennsylvanians have strong strains of conservatism, they are overall moderate and pragmatic. Patt Toomey appears to be neither of those thing, preferring instead to brand himself as an extreme conservative ideologue.
HOWARD MEGDAL: Chris’s analysis of Pennsylvania is spot-on. But that is merely the playing field, and other dynamics point to Pat Toomey having a far better shot than he typically would- in 2010, Toomey may indeed have a friend in Pennsylvania.