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POPSPaul Krugman: The politics of spite More: How did one of our great political parties become so ruthless, so willing to embrace scorched-earth tactics even if so doing undermines the ability of any future administration to govern? The key point is that ever since the Reagan years, the Republican Party has been dominated by radicals — ideologues and/or apparatchiks who, at a fundamental level, do not accept anyone else’s right to govern. Anyone surprised by the venomous, over-the-top opposition to Mr. Obama must have forgotten the Clinton years. Remember when Rush Limbaugh suggested that Hillary Clinton was a party to murder? When Newt Gingrich shut down the federal government in an attempt to bully Bill Clinton into accepting those Medicare cuts? And let’s not even talk about the impeachment saga.… It’s an ugly picture. But it’s the truth. And it’s a truth anyone trying to find solutions to America’s real problems has to understand.
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POPSBillions in aid go to... mostly the same places as usual
No evidence that it's being steered to Obama-voting areas. More: About a third of the $17 billion, or $5.5 billion, in contracts that the federal government has signed for projects ranging from repaving runways to cleaning up nuclear waste has gone overwhelmingly to counties that supported McCain. Jake Wiens, an investigator with the non-profit Project on Government Oversight, says it's too soon to draw meaningful conclusions about whether the type of aid in the stimulus favors Obama's constituents. But, he says, "it will be important to pay close attention as the data come in to ensure that political favoritism plays no role." The imbalance didn't start with the stimulus. From 2005 through 2007, the counties that later voted for Obama collected about 50% more government aid than those that supported McCain, according to spending reports from the U.S. Census Bureau. USA TODAY's review did not include Alaska, which does not report its election results by county.[/quote
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POPSMAI ELOQUENCE: LET ME SHO U IT! Like a lot of people who love language, George Bush's inarticulence and sloppy thinking (as expressed in his speech) over the last eight years have been excruciatingly painful to me. Obama's a fine speaker by any standard, and in comparison to Bush... heaven!
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POPSA 2008 post-election promise More: No presidential candidate in my lifetime has inspired me as much as has our new President-Elect, Barack Obama. On election night, in the spirit of unity and conciliation, he asked us to “resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics”. He asked us to remember the values we all share, and he promised that he would be the leader of all Americans, not just the ones whose support he already has. In this same spirit, I wish to refrain, at this historical moment, from pointing out that your first major prediction for the post-Obama world — that angry coloreds would riot in the streets — has utterly failed to come true. Now is not the time for blame. Now is the time to put one another at ease, not to put one another on edge.
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