Obamacare-bashers are not going to like Rick Ungar’s Forbes article (flagged at Kos), “The Real Numbers On ‘The Obamacare Effect Are In-Now Let The Crow Eating Begin,” signifying the awakening of the reality-based business community.
Democratic strategist Bob Shrum argues that Dems should run hard on Obamacare. As Linda Feldmann reports in The Monitor: “And the right way, he says, is to play up all the popular aspects of the law: barring insurers from denying coverage to unhealthy people; a ban on lifetime limits; a ban on charging women more than men; allowing adult children up to age 26 to stay on their parents’ plan; and enhanced drug coverage for seniors.”
From The Fix: More evidence that the tea party is spinning wheels.
Hotline on Call’s Karyn Bruggeman explains why “Why Pot Won’t Help Democrats In 2014.” She acknowledges, however, that “Pot earned its reputation as a Democratic turnout trick in 2012, when measures to expand access to it appeared on the ballot in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. In those states, turnout among voters between 18 and 29 spiked, increasing the youth share of the electorate between 5 and 12 percentage points from 2008. Nationally, the share of youth turnout grew by just 1 point between the two elections, from 18 percent to 19 percent.”
At The Progressive Ruth Conniff reports that progressives are bringing the heavy linguistic artillery to Wisconsin, framing wizard George Lakoff, to do battle with Scott Walker and his Republican minions in the state legislature.
Donna Brazile’s “3 lessons Democrats must learn after Florida loss” at CNN Politics notes that “Public polling in the run-up to Election Day showed that the electorate was going to skew toward Republicans by around 10%. The actual Republican margin of victory? About 2%….Luckily, we’ll have another chance to win this seat back in November — and with more people voting, we’ll have an even better shot at picking up the seat.”
For a graph-rich analysis of the historical relationship of the war on unions to accelerating economic inequality, read Colin Gordon’s Dissent article “The Union Difference: Labor and American Inequality.”
Here’s hoping that Democrat Jason Carter, running for Georgia Governor, and Michelle Nunn, running for U.S. Senate read the report “America Goes to the Polls: Voter Participation Gaps in the 2010 Midterm Election,” which notes “Black turnout – 44% in 2010 – continues to trail white turnout, with the gap widening during midterm elections… In several states, most notably Georgia and Alabama, the black turnout rate exceeded the white turnout rate.”
Neocon Chickenhawk gets TOLD.