The Editors of the American Prospect have “A Strategic Plan for Liberals,” a forum with 11 contributors including: Jan Schakowsky; Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson; John Podesta; Heather McGhee; Thomas Mann and others.
James S. Hohman reports at Politico that “A survey of 800 Obama voters, conducted last month by Global Strategy Group for the moderate Democratic think tank Third Way and shared first with POLITICO, finds that 96 percent believe the federal deficit is a problem and that 85 percent support increasing taxes on the wealthy.”
The New York Times is running a mini-forum on “Do Filibusters Stall the Senate or Give It Purpose?”
On MTP Sen Claire McCaskill aptly described the dilemma the Speaker of the House is facing — and a question the media should keep asking: “…I feel almost sorry for John Boehner. There is incredible pressure on him from a base of his party that is unreasonable about this, and he’s got to decide, is his speakership more important or is the country more important?”
Nader does what he does best: Making the case for conscientious consumerism, this time with respect for holiday shopping. Might it also be a good idea for all Dems to make a commitment to buy a couple of gifts with a union label?
Paul West’s “Crunching the numbers: How big was Obama’s win?” at The L.A. Times has a couple of interesting stats: “Overall, the popular vote fell by about 3.5% from 2008 in most of the country — the 42 states that did not feel the full effects of campaign advertising and organizing (turnout, as a percentage of the vote-eligible population, was off by even more). But the popular vote total rose by 2% overall in the eight most heavily contested swing states (Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire), all of which Obama won…Obama is likely to become the first presidential candidate since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 to gain at least 51% of the popular vote in two consecutive elections. And as votes continue to be tallied, his margin over Romney is gradually expanding.”
Norquist is working overtime, badgering the media with his “tea party 2.0” meme, which they are eagerly parroting. At New York magazine, Jason Zengerle explains “Grover’s Best Trick: How he herds reporters.”
In his WaPo op-ed column, E.J. Dionne, Jr. argues that “Democrats could use their own Grover Norquist.”
NYT’s Peter Baker takes a look at President Obama’s tougher negotiation strategy, explaining that the bend-over-backwards conciliatory pose the President took in ’09 is over: “The president is not going to negotiate with himself,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “He’s laid out his position, and Republicans have to come to the table.”
At the National Journal, Ronald Brownstein reports that “The Senate’s Democratic Coalition Is Growing More Unified.” Says Brownstein: “…Almost all major Democratic Senate candidates did a better job than their Republican rivals of unifying their base and attracting more crossover voters. That pattern allowed Democrats to virtually sweep the Senate races in the states Obama that won and to triumph in four states that Romney carried decisively–Indiana, Missouri, Montana, and North Dakota.”