What’s your reaction to the angry people who are flooding your restaurant’s Yelp page with bad reviews because you hugged the president? You see the good and bad in people. That’s what’s wrong with our country. I tell people, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, he’s both of our president. He should be treated with respect,…
Category: News & Opinion
Romney’s Insensitivity To LGBT People: ‘I Didn’t Know You Had Families’
David Wilson and Julie Goodridge, two of the plaintiffs whose case led to the legalization of marriage equality in Massachusetts, described meeting with Romney to discuss their experiences. According to Wilson, “it was like talking to a robot. No expression, no feeling.” At one point, Romney remarked, “I didn’t know you had families.” Goodridge recalls…
Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong
I was calling education officials in search of a school that would let me spend time inside its classrooms. I was looking for a grassroots view of America’s latest run at school reform: How do we know when schools are failing, and why is it so hard to turn them around? Is the close to…
The GOP Throws a Tampa Tantrum
A major American political party, shorn of all moderating influence, has finally, unalterably, gone insane. The striking thing is how many of the estimated 15,000 journalists who were with me in Tampa for the 2012 convention were missing this story of a lifetime—one sixty years in the making. To be fair, the dramaturgy confused a…
Ann Romney Contradicts RNC Speech, Admits Privilege
A decidedly off-message statement from Ann Romney on Sunday’s Meet the Press was overlooked by the media, since everyone focused on Mitt Romney’s false claim that he would make sure people with prior conditions can purchase health insurance. Ann Romney made a noteworthy admission in the same interview, and the Progressive Change Committee is launching…
Romneys Shifting Stance On Health Law Makes Waves
The GOP presidential nominee’s comments Sunday that he would keep parts of the health law triggered questions about how he would cover those with pre-existing conditions, and reinforced doubts within his own party about his commitment to repealing the overhaul. Campaign aides attempted to clarify the comments. The New York Times: It Will Be Tricky…
Yelp flamewar breaks out over pizza owner’s Obama bearhug
The latest comments on Big Apple Pizza’s Yelp page aren’t about anchovies. After President Obama stopped by and received a bear hug from owner Scott Van Nuzer, comments started being posted on the pizza shop’s page on Yelp, a site for posting reviews of local businesses. With two 5-star reviews dating back to 2009, Big Apple…
STUDY: Obamacare Led To Record Drop In Uninsured Young Adults
According to the National Health Interview Survey, 33.9 percent of people between the ages of 19 and 25 lacked health insurance in 2010. The following year, after the Obamacare provision had taken effect, that number dropped to 27.9 percent. By the CDC’s estimates, that means 1.6 million young people gained coverage between 2010 and 2011,…
Obama Appoints As Many Women Judges In One Term As Bush Did in Two
Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Judge Stephanie Rose to a federal court in Iowa, making her the 72nd woman appointed to the federal bench by President Obama. Coincidentally, 72 is also the same number of women President George W. Bush appointed to the bench during his entire presidency — meaning that Obama accomplished in under one term…
The Health Care Law is Saving Americans Money
Last September, we also put in place new rules that ensure that every single rate increase of 10 percent or more is reviewed on either the state or federal level. For the first time, we have been able to guarantee Americans that no matter what state they live in, insurers will no longer be able…
Rick Scott Rejects Health Care Funds That Would Keep Disabled Kids Out of Nursing Homes
Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott loathes Obamacare so much that he turned down $40 million in federal health care funds that would keep hundreds of disabled kids at home with their parents, rather than warehoused in nursing homes. So says the Department of Justice, whose civil rights division recently investigated the situation in Florida. ABC News…
Romney Says He Supports Popular Obamacare Provisions On NBC, Quietly Reverses Hours Later On Conservative Website
This morning on NBC, Mitt Romney said that “there are a number of things that I like” about Obamacare and suggested he would retain: 1. The guarantee that insurance companies couldn’t discriminate against people with pre-exisiting conditions, and 2. The provision that allows young adults to stay on their parents plan. Watch it: Just hours…
Obama Fundraising Edges Out Romney In August : NPR
President Obama and Democrats pulled slightly ahead of Mitt Romney and Republicans in monthly fundraising in August for the first time in four months. Obama raised more than $114 million in August, and Romney brought in just over $111 million. The two campaigns announced their fundraising numbers early Monday. It’s a sharp increase for Obama,…
Case Will Test Constitutionality Of The Filibuster : NPR
The non-partisan advocacy group Common Cause has filed a law suit with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to get the Senate’s use of the filibuster declared unconstitutional. Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz speaks with Common Cause president Bob Edgar. MORE: Case Will Test Constitutionality Of The Filibuster : NPR.
15 Percent of Ohio GOPers Say Romney Deserves Credit for Bin Laden Raid
In what some (one guy on Twitter) have called “a stroke of comic genius,” Public Policy Polling decided to ask Ohio Republicans who they thought “deserved more credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden: Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. In what some (my colleague Tim Murphy) have called “the greatest thing ever,” a full…
Republicans, the Post-Truth Party
The acceptance speeches by Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney at the GOP convention were only slightly more grounded in reality than Clint Eastwood’s conversation with an empty chair. Ryan is infamous for his pack of lies, from the attempt to blame President Obama for the closing of a Wisconsin GM factory that began shutting down…
Michelle Obama’s DNC Speech Written at 7 Grade Levels Above Ann Romney’s
The First Lady’s speech Tuesday was written at a 12th grade level – the highest in history among the wives of presidential nominees and far above Ann Romney’s lowest mark of a 5th grade level Although her husband has delivered some of the simplest State of the Union speeches over the last 75+ years –…
GOP Nominee Ryan: I Didnt Vote For The Defense Cuts I Voted For
Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan has gotten in hot water before for criticizing President Obama for the very same defense cuts that he voted for in 2011. When confronted with this incongruity today on Face The Nation, Ryan simply denied that he ever voted for the cuts, telling an incredulous Norah O’Donnell that he didn’t actually vote…
A Tale of Two Conventions
Not too far from the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, a local art gallery is featuring an exhibit called “Divided State of America,” but it’s not necessary to trek to this space to contemplate the deep divisions within the nation. You need only spend a few nanoseconds at the Democratic presidential convention, after experiencing a…
Obama’s Rescue of the Auto Industry Starts to Pay Off
Speaking of things that President Obama doesn’t get enough credit for: Total auto sales for the month were just under 1.3 million, 19.9% higher than a year earlier. That would put the annual pace at 14.5 million vehicles, the best of any month since the federal “cash for clunkers” economic stimulus program in August 2009 and a…