Reuters: President Barack Obama takes his “fiscal-cliff” campaign to the home of a family in Northern Virginia on Thursday (1:35) to illustrate the impact of letting taxes go up on the middle class….
With about three weeks remaining before steep tax hikes and budget cuts that comprise the so-called fiscal cliff are set to begin, the White House said Obama would visit the home of a family that responded to a presidential Twitter request for real-life stories about the burden of a tax increase on the middle class.
Greg Sargent: Public opinion gives Dems all the leverage: Here’s another reason Republicans may have to accept the above way out: A new Quinnipiac poll finds that Americans are solidly on the side of Obama and Democrats in this battle. Voters say by 53-36 they trust Obama and Dems more than Republicans on the fiscal cliff mess. And by 51-43, voters say Republicans won’t make a “good faith effort” to cooperate with Obama on issues important to them.
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Twitter meltdown of the week:
Politico’s Ben White was in a monster, well, huff because he wasn’t included in Huffington Post’s ’32 Economics Journalists You Should Be Following On Twitter’ list. But, instead of being sensible and ignoring the OUTRAGEOUS snub, what does he do? Yep, he whinged about it endlessly on Twitter.
The tweet above caused a good giggle – talk about revealing your politics. But then, he does work for Politico.
Greg Sargent: Why GOP will buckle on tax rates for rich: Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times has a very good overview of the situation: Republicans know that going over the cliff won’t be that damaging in the short term; they know Obama is prepared to go over it without a deal to raise tax rates on the rich; and they know they’ll have to yield sooner or later. It’s good to see more news outlets getting it right on the basic dynamic here.
Dick Armey left the deep-pocketed tea party group he helped build over a clash with a top lieutenant …. [he] received an $8 million buyout….
Remember, the tea party is a grass-roots movement, a spontaneous uprising of ordinary Americans against the snooty, coffee-drinking elite.
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ThinkProgress: …. Sen-elect Elizabeth Warren, a dogged consumer advocate whose critique of Wall Street excess was a centerpiece of her campaign, will join the Senate Banking Committee. Wall Street spent boatloads of money to prevent Warren’s election, but now she will have oversight of the rules and regulations under which banks operate….
…. Several Senate candidates supported by Wall Street wound up losing. As a member of the Banking Committee, Warren will have the opportunity to stand against both the watering down of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and new misguided efforts to reduce limits on Wall Street.
Liberal Librarian (The People’s View): …. it’s also part and parcel of the modern Republican Party: its narrow-mindedness; it’s utter lack of regard for anyone not of its circle — and often not even them; its disbelief in any kind of common humanity which binds together the world’s peoples. A convention which has been US domestic law for 22 years becomes suspect when it returns from the foreign recesses of the UN. A health care law which incorporated many once-mainstream Republican ideas becomes the greatest tyranny ever faced by the nation when translated into action by a foreign usurper.
And that’s just a taste of the international reaction to the Snow poll.
Yes, Snow won – in an avalanche.
But because it’s playing havoc with some people’s browsers – just like last year – there’ll only be the occasional sprinkle. “So what was the flippin’ point in having a snow poll,” I hear you ask. Eh, good question. 😕
President Obama meets with members of the Governors Association Executive Committee, including Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, December 4
(Judging by other pics, PBO was looking at Scott Walker in this one …. me likes the ‘four more years’ grin)
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Wednesday:
10:50: President Obama delivers remarks to members of the Business Roundtable and answers questions
3:05: Delivers remarks at the 2012 Tribal Nations Conference at the Department of Interior
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Kevin Drum (Mother Jones): Here is PPP on their finding that 49 percent of Republicans think ACORN stole the election for Obama….
This is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn’t exist anymore.
…. In other news, they found that 25 percent of Americans claim to have an opinion about the Panetta-Burns plan, which they just made up. Fun times.
Charles Pierce: …. the senior members of the Republican party reminded us today that, no matter how much lipstick they slather on the pig in order to fool the more credulous members of the courtier media, the heart of their party is still black and withered and smells of death and corruption.
…. This is what prevails when you scratch down beneath the pretty surface — a party so completely fking unhinged that it thinks that a treaty on the rights of disabled people is some sort of one-world plot to steal the liberty of a third-rate moron like Jim Inhofe. …. They simply do not care. Their prejudices and their paranoia must have pride of place over any help to be given to the less fortunate among us….
…. I can hardly wait for the next Beltway hummer in which Rubio is promoted as “the changing face of the Republican party.” They can’t stand up to the lunatic base because the lunatic base is all they have.
Steve Benen: Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole made a rare Senate appearance this morning, sitting in a wheelchair just off the floor so that members would have to see him as they entered the chamber. Why? Because they were poised to vote on ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and Dole hoped to send a message.
It didn’t work. The Senate killed the treaty this afternoon, with a final vote of 61 to 38, which seems like a lopsided majority, but which fell short of the two-thirds necessary for ratification. Eight Republicans broke ranks and joined Democrats in support of the treaty, but the clear majority of the Senate GOP voted to block it.
Charles Pierce: “Mike Huckabee …. the de-bloated god-bothering whackaloon who is occasionally mistaken for a nice guy.”
Bob Costas responds to Fox News attacks: “Sometimes The Quality Of The Thinking Of Those Who Oppose You Speaks For Itself.” (See video at Media Matters)
…. Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades said as soon as Ryan and Romney started campaigning together, during his daily calls with Romney “it was like talking to your buddy who just met a girl and is giddy.” Romney pollster Neil Newhouse said when he saw the chemistry of Ryan and Romney together, he thought, “it was like a bromance.” (Lynn Sweet)
A Palestinian boy during a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Nov. 29 to support a resolution at the U.N. to upgrade their observer status to “non-member state.”
BBC: The UN General Assembly has voted to grant the Palestinians non-member observer state status – a move strongly opposed by Israel and the US.
…. Hundreds of Palestinians celebrated on the streets of Ramallah, in the West Bank, after the result was announced.
….. “For the first time, there will be a state called Palestine, with the recognition of the entire world,” Amir Hamdan was quoted as saying …. “Today the world will hear our voice,” he added.
It’s a delicate chess game, I know, so deep breaths today, no hysteria about the US’s UN vote, depressing and miserable as it was – but truly, I’ll die happy if President Obama works towards bringing justice to the Palestinian people in the next four years.
For me, that’s the single greatest legacy he could leave.
Stupidly, I’m heartbroken by the Obama administration’s stance today, even though we all knew it was coming.
President Barack Obama talks with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan before the United Nations General Assembly reception at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, N.Y., Sept. 24, 2012. First Lady Michelle Obama is pictured in the background. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama on Monday will deliver his deficit-reduction speech at 10:30 a.m. from the White House’s Rose Garden, according to an administration release.
Later on Monday, the president and First Lady Michelle Obama will travel to New York City for the UN General Assembly and a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings. While in New York, he’ll also deliver remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative. The president is scheduled to return to Washington on Wednesday.
Tuesday: Meeting the chairman of Libya’s governing council, and a high-level meeting on Libya; then, a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one with Brazil’s president, and a session with Turkey’s prime minister to talk about Syria and Israel
Wednesday: Obama’s speech to the General Assembly to “address dramatic change” since last year’s meeting, like in South Sudan; then a meeting with Japan’s premier, a luncheon with the U.N. secretary general, a speech to the Clinton Global Initiative, a meeting with Britain’s David Cameron and then France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, and possibly a meeting with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.
President Obama arrives to make a statement authorizing limited military action against Libya, March 19
UK Independent: The Paris summit yesterday of the 10-nation coalition of the willing, including the Arab League, backed by a United Nations resolution authorising the use of force to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, marks a triumph of diplomacy.
Inevitably, it is marred by the besetting fault of such negotiations: it has taken too long for the world community to come to this point …. but that is the price of unity. Far better to have the Arab League call for a no-fly zone and the UN respond than to have the rich Western nations of Nato decide what is good for north Africa.
…Barack Obama made it clear last week that US troops would not be deployed in Libya and the UN resolution specifically excludes “a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory”. President Obama, incidentally, has been criticised in recent weeks for his apparent uncertainty and lack of assertion. We do not join in that criticism. It is wise that the United States should allow European and Arab states to take the lead in the Mediterranean theatre, while supporting the rule of law under the aegis of the UN.
…The no-fly zone may seem inadequate to the task of protecting the Libyan people, but, however difficult it may be to accept, it may be that the best we can hope for is that the international community blunts the worst excesses of Gaddafi’s brutality.
The Obama Diary 
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