The Meaning of Michael Steele
It's hard to remember the last time a party chairman's race has been so closely followed, but the reality is that Steele's win really doesn't mean much.
On Friday, President Obama, a onetime organizer, had more words to say about unions, and they were the kind of explicit endorsement that we literally haven't heard from a president since FDR's day. His stunning declaration of support came at the White House announcement of a Task Force on Middle Class Working Families headed by Vice President Biden. If Obama is serious, he can take a leaf from FDR's book, and use government's extensive contracting power to actively promote unions.
It's hard to remember the last time a party chairman's race has been so closely followed, but the reality is that Steele's win really doesn't mean much.
Having a president who is a serious hoopster is great public diplomacy -- but the man needs a decent place to play. The current outdoor court on the White House grounds doesn't cut it.
As the newspapers have faithfully recorded, the Davos sessions have provided little in the way of strategic direction out of this black hole. Instead there have been lots of rather hapless suggestions.
"The Cardinals really tore it up last night," said Mr. Phelps, who said he saw almost the entire game until he got "a wicked attack of the munchies" late in the fourth quarter.
That fact that Steele won the RNC chairmanship is a hopeful sign that the GOP has begun to confront its shameful exploitation of race as a national political strategy.
Doesn't the best online journalism still depend on old media outlets? What happens when we lose all those print reporters, the ones who file history's first draft?
Since I didn't care one iota about the game itself, a lot was riding on the Super Bowl halftime show tonight. This apparently was true for Bruce Springsteen himself.
Ordinary Americans who work hard every day have a hard time justifying why the very people who caused the economic disaster deserve to be paid millions and millions of dollars.
Magazines are awash with our fear- and debt-ridden mess, with lots of profiles of key players -- and then there's ShopSmart, a wonderful potpourri of smart consumerism.
Today, public figures justify past drug use as "youthful indiscretions" and the matter is dropped. But the reality of drug arrests creates a justified perception economic and racial bias.
There's an old maxim in business: you've got to spend money to make money. That's where we are now as a country. We've exhausted the possibilities of the buy-everything-you-can-on-the-planet school of economic thought.
The Obama administration, at least in some of these cases, should be lauded, not excoriated, for ignoring its own rules.
There were two World Economic Forums happening in Davos: the old order watching the world crumble and another where groups like the Young Global Leaders are storming at the gates of power.
If we move on now without fully documenting and acknowledging the betrayal of our values under the Bush administration, we cannot help but validate all that has gone on before.
For too long, bonuses have been offered as extravagant entitlements, fattening not only bank accounts, but establishing and publicizing hierarchies of power and status.
GOP Senators are now pretending they'll vote for the economic recovery package if only those unreasonable Democrats would toss them a bone or two. For the most part, they are lying.
This is a milestone and another significant step towards the goal of judging our leaders on their abilities and their character, rather than on superficial distinctions.
I'd like to pay tribute on a day so male-oriented to a woman who could have been a man in manners and reputation. I'm talking of course about Bette Davis.