Interesting Times

16 Sep, 2010 by Kathleen McKinley

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To say these are interesting times in politics is a vast understatement. I am loving it.

Lots of juicy stuff today. Let’s get to it.

It looks like First Lady Michelle Obama doesn’t really like the job:

(CBS/AP) French first lady and former model Carla Sarkozy-Bruni is quoted as saying in a new book that Michelle Obama told her life as a president’s wife was “hell.”

According to the book, Sarkozy-Bruni asked Mrs. Obama what life was like for her since husband, Barack Obama, won the U.S. presidency.

“Don’t ask. It’s hell. I can’t stand it,” Sarkozy-Bruni claims Mrs. Obama responded.

The DNC has a new logo. Appropriately enough, it’s a target.

The one thing I am not loving is the unemployment rate. Obama brought us change, but it wasn’t the change we expected:

The Associated Press reported Monday that demographers expect the poverty rate to jump nearly two points to 15 percent, the largest single-year increase since the government began keeping track.

Obama’s massive $787 billion stimulus bill didn’t work, and now they think throwing another $50 billion will? Alan Greenspan begs to differ:

The former head of the Federal Reserve said fiscal stimulus efforts have fallen far short of expectations, and the government now needs to get out of the way and allow businesses and markets to power the recovery.

“We have to find a way to simmer down the extent of activism that is going on” with government stimulus spending “and allow the economy to heal” itself, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan told a gathering held at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Wednesday.

At this point, “we’d probably be better off doing less than more” because “you’d be far better off to allow the normal market forces to operate here,” Greenspan said. That’s largely because stimulus spending is not proving as effective as many had hoped. “To the extent the evidence suggests very large deficits concurrently crowd out capital investment, there is a debit to the stimulus program that is somewhere between a third and a half of what the gross stimulus is,” he said.

The NRCC is expanding it’s “Young Guns” list, which are Republican candidates picked to be heavily backed by the NRCC.

The latest additions include Republicans who won competitive primaries Tuesday in races that have long been considered GOP targets for the fall, including Randy Altschuler in New York’s 1st district, Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta in New Hampshire’s 1st district and former Rep. Charlie Bass in New Hampshire’s 2nd district.

But the list also includes several candidates in races that haven’t been considered competitive until recently. They include Republicans Ryan Frazier in Colorado’s 7th district, state Rep. Scott Tipton in Colorado’s 3rd district, state Rep. Mike Keown in Georgia’s 2nd district, state Rep. Austin Scott in Georgia’s 8th district and sportscaster Harold Johnson in North Carolina’s 11th district.

Other Republicans who will achieve Young Guns status Thursday are Randy Demmer in Minnesota’s 1st district, Bob Gibbs in Ohio’s 18th district, Vicky Hartzler in Missouri’s 4th district, Dan Kapanke in Wisconsin’s 3rd district, Spike Maynard in West Virginia’s 3rd district, Jeff Miller in North Carolina’s 11th disrict, Ilario Pantano in North Carolina’s 7th district, Reid Ribble in Wisconsin’s 8th district, Bobby Schilling in Illinois 17th district and Van Tran in California’s 47th district.

And finally, one of my favorite Republican Congressional candidates, Allen West, gives another great speech that illustrates what the problem is and how we will solve it.