He's been a congressman for almost a decade, his face isn't 'new'

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World #2 bank in China raising capital

While we're quite familiar with rights issues like this in our battered Western banks, this doesn't sound very positive from what is supposed to be the economic leader of the moment.

China Construction Bank (CCB) said on Tuesday it would raise 61.62 billion yuan ($9.21 billion) in a deeply-discounted rights issue to strengthen its capital base.

The rights issue, first proposed in April, comes at a 41 percent discount to the theoretical ex-right price (TERP). The size of the deal is also bigger than an expected 75 billion yuan.

Chinese banks are to raise a total of some $70 billion to help meet tighter regulatory capital requirements.

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Politico is the latest publication to just make stuff up about liberals

If I read one more article that just assumes that the left is upset with Obama because we're all die-hard absolutists who don't understand the need for compromise...

The latest to stand accused is Roger Simon of Politico. Check out this nugget in a story about whether Howard Dean might challenge Obama in 2012:

But the big issue is compromise. Obama actually wants to get things done. Which means he has to compromise with Republicans and has to risk angering and losing his liberal base. That makes him vulnerable to attack from the left, which is where Dean now stands.

Just stop it. Seriously. Stop it.

No one, and I mean no one, is saying that compromise is unnecessary, evil, or unacceptable. What we are saying, what we have been saying all along, is that President Obama has this thing about giving away the shop as his opening move in a negotiation, and then when the Republicans don't budge, he gives away some more until his proposal is a shell of its former self, then the Republicans all vote against it anyway.

Let me repeat, Mr. Simon. The big issue isn't compromise. It's weakness. It's the notion that appeasement works. The naive idea that when negotiating in politics, the best thing to do, right out the gate, is to cave. It's not. Sometimes you can fight for things and actually win.  And finally, if you find you really can't win by fighting alone, then you compromise.  But you don't unilaterally disarm and expect the other guy to do the same out of some bizarre sense of genteel reciprocity.  That's what the President does, and that is why so many of us are so annoyed with him.

So please just stop it. Read More......

Aetna insurance profits rise sharply

Take a guess who stands to do even better under the GOP? How exactly does a business like this report such stunningly positive numbers in this economy?

Health insurer Aetna posted a sharp rise in third-quarter net income on Wednesday, helped by lower member use of healthcare services, and raised its full-year profit forecast.

Net income rose to $497.6 million, or $1.19 per share, from $326.2 million, or 73 cents per share, a year earlier.

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ThinkProgress: GOP entering class is a bit nutty

ThinkProgress:

Here is a snapshot of the GOP Class of 2010’s extremism:

ENVIRONMENT

- 50% deny the existence of manmade climate change
- 86% are opposed to any climate change legislation that increases government revenue

IMMIGRATION

- 39% have already declared their intention to end the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship
- 32% want to reduce legal immigration

TAXES/SPENDING

- 91% have sworn to never allow an income tax increase on any individual or business – regardless of deficits or war
- 79% have pledged to permanently repeal the estate tax
- 48% are pushing for a balanced budget amendment

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15% drop in gay support for House Dems from 2008 to 2010

Percent of gay voters who voted Democratic in House races:

2006 House races: 75%

2008 House races: 80%

2010 House races: 68%

It's a 12 point decrease from 2008, which is a 15% drop. More on AMERICAblog Gay.

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'How Obama lost his voice'

LA Times op ed by Marshall Ganz, who is "credited with devising the successful grassroots organizing model and training for Barack Obama’s winning 2008 presidential campaign":

And, as is the case with leadership failures, much of the public's anger, disappointment and frustration has been turned on a leader who failed to lead.

Obama and his team made three crucial choices that undermined the president's transformational mission. First, he abandoned the bully pulpit of moral argument and public education. Next, he chose to lead with a politics of compromise rather than advocacy. And finally, he chose to demobilize the movement that elected him president. By shifting focus from a public ready to drive change — as in "yes we can" — he shifted the focus to himself and attempted to negotiate change from the inside, as in "yes I can."

On assuming office, something seemed to go out of the president's speeches, out of the speaker and, as a result, out of us. Obama was suddenly strangely absent from the public discourse. We found ourselves in the grip of an economic crisis brought on by 40 years of anti-government rhetoric, policy and practices, but we listened in vain for an economic version of the race speech. What had gone wrong? Who was responsible? What could we do to help the president deal with it?

And even when he decided to pursue healthcare reform as his top priority, where were the moral arguments or an honest account of insurance and drug industry opposition?

In his transactional leadership mode, the president chose compromise rather than advocacy. Instead of speaking on behalf of a deeply distressed public, articulating clear positions to lead opinion and inspire public support, Obama seemed to think that by acting as a mediator, he could translate Washington dysfunction into legislative accomplishment. Confusing bipartisanship in the electorate with bipartisanship in Congress, he lost the former by his feckless pursuit of the latter, empowering the very people most committed to bringing down his presidency.

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Arianna: Obama underestimated how broken the economy was

And even if he understood, he simply doesn't have what it takes to be bold. America needed a bold leader these past two years. We don't have one. And for all the talk of Obama not getting to be another Bill Clinton, taking on the Republican House - when have you ever seen Barack Obama take on the Republicans, post-election? It's not in his nature. Read More......

Obama's post-election press conference

The President is holding a day after press conference. Here's the livestream:

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

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Half of all conservative Blue Dog Democrats lost last night

So much for them being the saviors of the party.  Interesting that the Blue Dogs helped cripple Health Care Reform and climate change legislation, yet they still lost.  So why did the Democratic leadership and the President listen to these people?

As we've always said, even if you try to appease the Republicans by voting their way, by cutting back your proposals and making them more conservative, they'll still call you a dirty f'g hippy by the time the next election rolls around. Read More......

Business and GOP prepare to block everything for the next two years

The party of no and the businesses that prefer the US to operate like a Third World country are teaming up to set the country back a few more years. Let's see how voters respond to their backwards policies. By failing to drive home the reality that the problems of the day were created by and owned by the GOP, the Democrats paid a heavy price. Yes, Clinton and his team worked closely with the Republicans and they have their fair share of ownership of the problem but how does one miss the fact that this economic crisis is the end result of decades of poor policy? Bloomberg:

The Republican gains in Congress mean U.S. companies from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Wellpoint Inc. may be able to weaken or block what they consider President Barack Obama’s anti-business policies on health care, the environment, taxes and financial reform.

Republicans will use their perch as the new majority in the House of Representatives to try to eliminate funding for parts of Obama’s health care bill opposed by business as well as curb regulations and government spending, Jay Timmons, senior vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, a Washington-based lobbying group, said in an interview before the election.

“Americans voted for jobs and economic growth” and “resoundingly rejected” Obama policies, Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest business lobbying group, said in a statement last night.

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Bennet wins Senate race in Colorado

Some good news this morning. That Democratic margin in the Senate got a little better. Michael Bennet won in Colorado:

Appointed U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet will be elected to the U.S. Senate after pulling ahead of challenger Ken Buck this morning.

Long after most Coloradans -- including the candidates and their supporters -- had gone to bed, returns from Denver and Boulder moved Bennet past Buck and into the lead, 47.5 percent to 47.1 percent.

A recount would be required if the difference between the two candidates' vote totals is less than one-half of 1 percent of the highest vote total, or about 3,900 votes based on current tallies.

Bennet leads by nearly 7,000 votes with an estimated 30,000 still to be counted in Boulder County.

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Adam Green on why Dems lost: 'weak, watered-down change - and weak Democratic leaders'

What Adam says:

"What the average voter saw of Democrats was weak, watered-down change - and weak Democratic leaders who cut deals with the very Wall Street banks and insurance companies they are supposed to be fighting," Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said in a statement.

Green said Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold, who lost his re-election bid Tuesday, was "dragged down in a national rejection of Democratic Party weakness."

"Progressives will be stepping up and insisting that the Democratic Party be bolder, not weaker," Green added, saying his group's mission is now to "save the Democratic Party from its own incredible weakness that savaged Democratic candidates in 2010."

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The day after.

So, since I went to bed, way too late, we still don't know who won in several key races, including the Senate contests in Colorado, Washington and Alaska. While "write-in" won in Alaska, we don't know if the specific write-in candidate, Lisa Murkowski, won. We won't know that for weeks. But, it sure looks like Joe Miller lost. And, bottom line, Democrats still control the Senate. But, they couldn't do much with 59 members of their caucus. Just saying.

On the gubernatorial front, still unclear who the victors are in Maine (looks bad), Illinois (surprisingly looks good), Oregon (bad), Florida (bad) and Minnesota (looks promising).

There will be a Speaker Boehner. It looks like the GOPers picked up around 60 seats. Not sure the American people fully grasp what they elected. But, as my grandmother used to say with her very thick Irish accent, "They choosed it."

The President is holding a press conference this afternoon. Last night, Peter Daou tweeted:

I don't want to hear anything about Obama being conciliatory tomorrow - how about throwing down the gauntlet and challenging GOP to deliver

I agree. I don't expect it, but I agree.

As anyone who watched cable coverage last night saw, there's a lot of talk from GOPers about spending cuts, but no specifics. They can't deliver.

So..... Read More......