Cynthia Tucker

For those of you who are not captive to the rightwing media machine, for those of you who are interested in actual facts, Anderson Scott nicely debunked the wild reports about the cost of President Obama’s India trip, just as my colleague Jay Bookman did yesterday. Here’s the CNN video:

Continue reading Starship Enterprise protecting Obama in India? »

The chattering classes are focused on a confrontation between establishment Republicans and the new class of tea partiers in the next Congress. But that’s not where the first big conflict is likely to be.
The conflict will pop up between the Republican base — which wants to repeal health care — and the GOP’s Big Business backers — who don’t want to repeal health care.
The GOP did a good job of portraying the health care bill as a “job-killer” that will drown the taxpayers in red ink. But the simple fact is that major segments of the health care industry like the bill: health insurers like the mandate because it will bring them new customers; Big Pharma likes the bill because the industry cut a good deal with President Obama before the bill passed.
Dick Armey has warned that the GOP had better repeal health care or its base will be furious:

In a draft of a confidential memo to be distributed to all incoming House Republican lawmakers, Dick Armey, a former Republican …

Continue reading Here’s why health care won’t be repealed »

Republicans around the country are still celebrating their very good day on Tuesday. Who can blame them? Riding a wave of economic discontent, they captured not only a bigger House majority than they’ve had in 60 years but also state legislatures and governorships around the country.
Does this mean the country is now and always will be ‘center-right’? It means nothing of the sort. In fact, Republicans may be having their last big victory dance for decades. Demographic change suggests that they will not be able to sustain an electoral majority for long because they do not appeal to voters of color.
Look at what happened in Nevada. Sharron Angle is an extreme candidate, but she cleaned herself up pretty well for the general election, and commentators say she won a big debate against Harry Reid. Given Reid’s unpopularity, she should have won.
But Angle couldn’t resist demonizing Latinos, running a vicious ad in which she suggested all Latino immigrants are criminals. (See video …

Continue reading Without Latinos and blacks, GOP can’t build a permanent majority »

WASHINGTON — A somber President Obama stood behind a podium in the White House on Wednesday to acknowledge the obvious: The drubbing that Democrats got on Tuesday night “feels bad.”  He took personal responsibility for bitter losses in state houses and in Congress, a “shellacking” which handed Republicans more House seats than they have had since 1947.

“There is not just sadness, but there is a lot of questioning on my part: Could I have done something differently or done something more so that those (Democrats) would still be here? It’s hard,” Obama told reporters.

While he praised vanquished Democrats for showing “character” and “class” in accepting their losses, Obama knows that they paid a terrible price for supporting his policies: the auto bail-out, the stimulus package, health care reform, energy legislation. Those policies turned out to be wretchedly unpopular with the electorate, who viewed them as costly boondoggles or government overreach …

Continue reading Should Obama tack right? No, he should not »

It was a huge night for Republicans, who routed Democrats to take back the House of Representatives. It was also a pretty good night for Republicans of color: More black and Latino GOPers were elected to Congress than ever before.
In another historic first, South Carolina elected an Indian-American as its governor. Nikki Haley, whose parents are Sikhs who immigrated from India, had to overcome vicious slurs and personal assaults from her opponents; among other things, a Republican lawmaker who supported one of her opponents called her a “raghead.” (Haley, by the way, is Methodist.)
New Mexico, meanwhile, had its own first — electing a Latina Republican, Susana Martinez, as governor. That race had attracted national attention because it featured two women vying for the seat. Martinez defeated Democrat Diane Denish.
And last but certainly not least, two black Republicans and several Latinos will go to Congress. From AP:

“Color is becoming less of an issue,” said Richard …

Continue reading Inspired by Obama, Republicans of color win more seats »

Fox and CNN have just made the call for a Republican House, a prediction pollsters have been making for months. Now, it’s just a question of how big the Republican wave will be. The Republicans have every right to celebrate their big night, the crest of a wave that has been building steam for quite some time.
It seems likely that John Boehner, Ohio Republican, will assume the title of Speaker of the House. Boehner, as I noted in a recent post, has promised humility in running the house.

He won’t play mean like Gingrich or DeLay or Pelosi, he says.

“A lot of scar tissue has been built up on both sides of the aisle,” said Boehner, who says he would create an atmosphere in which Democrats wouldn’t have to resort to the kind of tactics he has used against them.

“If there’s a more open process, and members are allowed to participate, guess what? It lets the steam out of the place,” he said in a speech last month at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington. …

Continue reading If he’s House Speaker, Boehner promises humility, but that’s not likely »

In this election cycle, Republicans have made curbing federal spending a big part of their campaign. They’ve also pledged to cut taxes. And the two promises certainly sound good to voters.
So, if the GOP wins the House, as expected, what will happen to the deficit? Here’s my prediction: Two years from now, the deficit will be no smaller. It may even be larger. Why? Because Republicans won’t do much to rein in spending. And if they cut taxes, there won’t be enough revenue to fund the budget.
It’s simple elementary school math.
It might help to take a look at how the federal budget got to be such a mess. Justin Fox of the Harvard Business Review Group says:

In other words, the giant deficit is mainly the result of the collapse in tax receipts brought on by the recession, not the increase in spending. Nice to know, huh?

You can read more about Fox’s model here.
Republicans, aided by the rightwing communications machine, have persuaded voters of a couple of things that happen to …

Continue reading A prediction: Republicans won’t shrink the deficit »

In an era of unprincipled politicians, lying preachers and swindling CEOs, Jim Swilley stands out as a man of courage and principle, living genuine Christian values. He’s the pastor of a Conyers church, and he’s come out as a gay man.
He says he was inspired to do so because of the rash of suicides of young gays. “As a father, think about your 16-, 17-year-old killing themselves, I thought somebody needed to say something” an emotional Swilley said.

From WSB-TV:

Continue reading Jim Swilley’s courageous coming-out »

For generations, Americans have had an odd aversion to contraceptives. Even as the birth control pill launched the sexual revolution — forever changing sexual mores in the Western world — this country remained reluctantly to overtly embrace the use of readily-available contraceptives.
Only in the last few years have advertisers launched promotions of birth control pills on TV. Ads for drugs like Viagra dominated the airwaves before ads for the pill crept onto the air. That strangely prudish attitude helps explain why out-of-wedlock births in the US are so much higher than in Western Europe, where contraceptives are widely available and publicly embraced.
But the US approach could change with the passage of health insurance reform. From The WaPo:

Fifty years after the pill, another birth control revolution may be on the horizon: free contraception for women in the U.S., thanks to the new health care law.

That could start a shift toward more reliable – and expensive – forms …

Continue reading Health care reform could make birth control pills free »

Americans came from near and far — California, Georgia, Mississippi, Maryland — to the Jon Steward/Stephen Colbert rally to Restore Sanity And/or Fear. There were no political speeches but lots of political signs; no sermonizing, just lots of wicked satire. It was a diverse crowd of young, middle-aged and old, black, white and brown.
There will be plenty of time to fight over crowd size later. Suffice it say, for now, that a whole lot of people came out to express their disgust with fear-mongering, hate speech and incivility.

A few scenes snapped with my iPhone:

Alex Shirreffs of Bryn Mawr, Pa. with cousins Abigail Offner, 10, and Sarah Offner, 12, from Norcross, Ga

These women came from Mississippi to show sanity, Southern style

A couple of lads hoist flags

An un-tea-partier

RepubliCorp invested effort and money into their satire

Hassan Ahmad, an immigration lawyer, wants you to know he’s not a jihadist

Halloween a day early?

Now that’s sanity

Continue reading Scenes from “Sanity” »