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Category: Democrats (Page 15 of 57)

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigns

September 4, 2008 /

This is good news for Barack Obama. He has a small lead in Michigan, which he needs to win, and the drama with the Detroit Mayor was dividing Democrats in Michigan. This will help to settle things down so Democrats can focus on delivering Michigan for Obama in November.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has pleaded guilty, ending a nearly eight month drama that has transfixed the region, paralyzed much of city business and halted a political career that once held such promise.

The deal calls for Kilpatrick to plead guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice by committing perjury, agreeing to serve four months in jail, pay up to $1 million in restitution, and serve five years’ probation. He also agreed not to run for office during that five-year span.

The mayor will turn over his state pension to the City of Detroit, which paid $8.4 million to settle two whistle-blower lawsuits three former cops filed against the city. The mayor was charged with eight felony counts ranging from conspiracy to perjury to misconduct in office to obstruction of justice after the Free Press revealed that the mayor lied on the witness stand during a police whistle-blower trial and gave misleading testimony about whether he intended to fire a deputy police chief investigating allegations of wrongdoing by members of his inner circle.

Good riddance. This guy is a disgrace.

Democrats, President 2008

Democrats are better for the US economy

September 2, 2008 /

Republicans love to claim that their tax policies lead to better economic growth. The facts, however, do not back up that claim.

I call the first fact the Great Partisan Growth Divide. Simply put, the United States economy has grown faster, on average, under Democratic presidents than under Republicans.

The stark contrast between the whiz-bang Clinton years and the dreary Bush years is familiar because it is so recent. But while it is extreme, it is not atypical. Data for the whole period from 1948 to 2007, during which Republicans occupied the White House for 34 years and Democrats for 26, show average annual growth of real gross national product of 1.64 percent per capita under Republican presidents versus 2.78 percent under Democrats.

That 1.14-point difference, if maintained for eight years, would yield 9.33 percent more income per person, which is a lot more than almost anyone can expect from a tax cut.

The next time someone tells you that we need to cut taxes for the wealthy in order to grow the economy, you can explain to them that the opposite is true.

Also, income inequality is greater under Republican presidents than under Democrats. So, the economy grows faster, and the poor are better off under Democrats.

Democrats, Economy, Republicans

Obama gets his bounce

August 29, 2008 /

So far, we’re seeing a nice bounce out of the Democratic convention. The Gallup tracking poll jumped from even to 6 points yesterday, and then moved to 8 points today. This covers three days of the convention but still doesn’t factor in Barack Obama’s speech from last night.

The spectacle from last night was huge, so we’ll see if that further increases the bounce.

We’ll see how the McCain pick of Sarah Palin works out, but the timing was brilliant, as the McCain campaign will blunt the impact of Obama’s speech.

Democrats, President 2008, Republicans

Reactions

August 28, 2008 /

Andrew’s take:

It was a deeply substantive speech, full of policy detail, full of people other than the candidate, centered overwhelmingly on domestic economic anxiety. It was a liberal speech, more unabashedly, unashamedly liberal than any Democratic acceptance speech since the great era of American liberalism. But it made the case for that liberalism – in the context of the decline of the American dream, and the rise of cynicism and the collapse of cultural unity. His ability to portray that liberalism as a patriotic, unifying, ennobling tradition makes him the most lethal and remarkable Democratic figure since John F Kennedy.

What he didn’t do was give an airy, abstract, dreamy confection of rhetoric. The McCain campaign set Obama up as a celebrity airhead, a Paris Hilton of wealth and elitism. And he let them portray him that way, and let them over-reach, and let them punch him again and again … and then he turned around and destroyed them. If the Rove Republicans thought they were playing with a patsy, they just got a reality check.

Democrats, President 2008

John McCain’s temperment

August 28, 2008 /

The talking heads on MSNBC are bringing up a good point – by referencing McCain’s temperment, Barack Obama has indicated he will not hold back if McCain continues his patriotism attacks.

It’s well known that many Senators who have served with John McCain, including Republicans, are terrified at the thought of John McCain as president. The concerns rest with whether he is too unstable or volatile to be commander-in-chief.

For anyone paying attention, it should not be a surprise that Obama went right after McCain tonight. Expect this to continue.

Democrats, President 2008, Republicans

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