John Cassidy's Blog, page 57

It’s Time for Democrats to Embrace Obamacare

Paul Begala is right. “Democrats shouldn’t try to spin this loss,” Begala, a veteran political consultant, tweeted after it became clear that the Republicans had won a keenly contested special election for a vacant seat in Florida’s 13th District, which runs through Pinellas County, on the Gulf Coast. “We have to redouble our efforts for 2014. Too much at stake. #noexcuses.” The Democratic contender, Alex Sink, a former gubernatorial candidate, had experience and strong name recognition; the Republican, David Jolly, was a little-known former lobbyist. Despite the endorsement of Begala’s former boss Bill Clinton and other leading Democrats, Sink came in second—largely because her opponent, with the aid of well-financed Republican groups, portrayed her as a poster child for the Affordable Care Act.

...read more

Snowden’s Solution: More Encryption, Better Watchdogs

Having been edged out by Pope Francis as Time’s Person of the Year, Edward Snowden, the N.S.A. whistle-blower in exile, suffered another minor indignity during his appearance, via Google Hangout, at the annual South by Southwest technology conference, in Austin, Texas, on Monday. “Line around the block for Lena Dunham panel. Walked right into the Edward Snowden panel,” Doug MacMillan, a technology reporter for the Wall Street Journal, tweeted shortly before both events started.

...read more

Extend Jobless Benefits Now!

The employment report for February, released on Friday morning, was decent enough. The payroll figure, of 175,000 new jobs, was a bit higher than expected, although I wouldn’t attach very much significance to that. Given the statistical margin of error of plus or minus 90,000, it’s not clear that job creation was any different in February than it was in January, which had a revised payroll figure of 129,000.

In any case, the report confirms that employment creation has slowed down over the past three months. From January, 2013, to November, 2013, the payroll figure averaged about 200,000. Since then, the average has been about 130,000. Some of that decline was almost certainly owing to the frigid weather; precisely how much, we don’t know. But as temperatures rise over the next couple of months, the job figures are likely to pick up again. The stock market rose modestly after the report came out, and it’s widely expected that the Federal Reserve will continue its policy of gradually drawing down the amount of money it is pumping into the economy.

...read more

Mitch McConnell’s N.R.A. Moment

What on earth was Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, perhaps soon to be Senate Majority Leader, doing this morning when he walked onstage at a conservative gathering in Washington brandishing a musket rifle above his head, John Wayne-style?

Was he sending a message to Vladimir Putin? You Russkies might show off your weaponry in Crimea, but we Americans get to do it right here at home, at the annual CPAC conference. Or perhaps the seventy-two-year-old Kentucky stalwart was trying to outdo the previous speakers, who included Senator Ted Cruz, the 2016 hopeful, and congressman Paul Ryan, the right’s designated hitter when it comes to rationalizing tax cuts and government cutbacks.

...read more

Putin, Tilting at History

In his first public comments since ordering Russian troops into Crimea, Vladimir Putin gave a long and characteristically pugnacious explanation for his actions on Tuesday. Much of what he said was fanciful; some of it was acute. Bits of it were reassuring; other bits were threatening. All in all, the Russian leader gave the impression that he is comfortable with the situation his forces have established on the ground, that he is unlikely to buckle to Western protestations, and, ultimately, that he is tilting at history.

The morning news from the Kremlin was that Putin, at least for now, has ruled out a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and has ordered tens of thousands of Russian troops who were on exercises near the Ukrainian border back to their barracks. But Putin did not rule out further military measures. “We will not go to war with the Ukrainian people,” he said. “If we do take military action, it will only be for the protection of the Ukrainian people,” and it will be “the very last resort.” That was enough to calm the global financial markets, which are more concerned with the immediate prospect of violence than with whether Putin was lying when he described the heavily armed soldiers patrolling Crimea as local self-defense forces.

...read more

Ukraine Crisis: Keep Your Eyes on Angela Merkel

With the Moscow stock market down by more than ten per cent, and the ruble hitting a historic low, the Western effort to make Vladimir Putin pay for sending Russian troops into Crimea is under way. Speaking from Kiev on Monday, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, repeated the Obama Administration’s message to Putin, saying that Russia will face “significant diplomatic and economic costs” unless it reverses course.

John Kerry is planning to travel to the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday. At a moment when Republicans, including his old pal John McCain, are busy claiming that Putin’s military gambit reflects weakness on the part of the Obama Administration, we can expect more heated rhetoric from the Secretary of State. Having already called Russia’s troop movements an invasion of Ukraine and “an incredible act of aggression,” he seems unlikely to confine himself to more diplomatic language at this stage.

...read more

The U.S.’s Putin Dilemma: Talk Tough and Then What?

A day after Russia confirmed that it has ordered its troops to secure airports, government buildings, and other strategic sites in Crimea, U.S. officials stepped up their criticisms of Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, but stopped short of any immediate actions. Appearing on the Sunday talk shows, Secretary of State John Kerry used the sort of language rarely heard from a diplomat, especially one who, only last summer, pulled off a deal with Moscow that averted a U.S. military strike on Syria.

“It’s an incredible act of aggression,” Kerry said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “It is really a stunning, willful choice by President Putin to invade another country.” On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Kerry raised the prospect of Western countries imposing economic sanctions on Moscow, including freezing Russian-owned financial assets—a tactic that has been used against Iran. “We are now discussing all the options,” Kerry said. He went on to accuse Putin of indulging in “nineteenth-century behavior,” adding, “You don’t invade another country on a phony pretext to protect your interests.”

...read more

The U.S.’s Putin Dilemma: Talk Tough And Then What?

A day after Russia confirmed that it has ordered its troops to secure airports, government buildings, and other strategic sites in Crimea, U.S. officials stepped up their criticisms of Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, but stopped short of any immediate actions. Appearing on the Sunday talk shows, Secretary of State John Kerry used the sort of language rarely heard from a diplomat, especially one who, only last summer, pulled off a deal with Moscow that averted a U.S. military strike on Syria.

“It’s an incredible act of aggression,” Kerry said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “It is really a stunning, willful choice by President Putin to invade another country.” On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Kerry raised the prospect of Western countries imposing economic sanctions on Moscow, including freezing Russian-owned financial assets—a tactic that has been used against Iran. “We are now discussing all the options,” Kerry said. He went on to accuse Putin of indulging in “nineteenth-century behavior,” adding, “You don’t invade another country on a phony pretext to protect your interests.”

...read more

Can Money Rescue Ukraine?

With all eyes on the Crimea, from where there are unconfirmed reports of Russian troops occupying airports, and on Moscow, where Viktor Yanukovych, the country’s former leader, has called for a restoration of his government, the world’s attention is focussing on the immediate political crisis, and whether Ukraine is about to break up. But underlying these alarming developments is a deepening economic crisis that also needs to be resolved rapidly if the country is to have a decent future.

...read more

Joe Biden for President?

Vice-President Joe Biden is running for President in 2016.

That is, he’s thinking about it seriously. That is, he’s not going to let Hillary Clinton, her fearsome political machine, or Jim Messina, his boss’s former campaign manager, make his decision for him. That is, he considers himself more than a match for Hillary, but he’s not oblivious to the polls showing her way, way ahead of him. That is, what the heck, he’s seventy-one, he’s still full of energy, he’s served President Obama loyally, he loves the game, and he thinks—pundits and pollsters be damned—that this might be the moment for an old-school, shit-kicking, hand-grasping, mouth-running, stick-up-for-the-working-stiff pol like himself.

...read more