The New Republic

As Lois Griffin would say when she ran for Mayor of Quohog, "9/11". Other Republican legislative titles: "The Removal of the Job-Killing Democratic Evolution Theory from High School Textbooks Act" "The Repeal of the Job-Killing Abolition of Slavery Fourteenth Amendment Act" "The Abolition of the Job-Killing Direct Election of Senators Act" ...

- icarusr

January 21, 2011 at 3:49pm

So you teach, icar? You should be doing stand-up in a fire-hazard of a night club in Peoria.

- liberalref

January 21, 2011 at 3:53pm

Sure, it's kind of funny, but when the Democrats let Republicans define a bill as "job killing", it usually gets painted that way, permanently, in the public conscience. The initial protests focussing on the use of the word "killing" in a post-Tuscon environment weren't encouraging either. When (If?) Democrats get honed in on the message and beat the GOP in the daily message game the ACA will do just fine. Until then I'm not laughing.

- stanalama

January 21, 2011 at 6:16pm

The Republicans know how to win a war. You simply stand on the flight deck below a sign that says, "Mission Accomplished."

- Nusholtz

January 21, 2011 at 6:42pm

Same old spin -- new topic For months Chait has spun that all liberal ills are driven by exogenous events -- namely the economy. Of coure he was wrong about the election -- the best model he put forward had 45 seat loss -- it turned out to be 63. And he is wrong about healthcare. But he is wrong in a way that helps conservatives. I hope Dems take his advice -- it will quicken the pace of liberal demise FWIW, Obama is moving away from the crazy liberal policies espoused by Chaitless and his ilk -- he signed the Bush tax extension, is making overtures to business, and is sounding less like a liberal every day. And his poll numbers are going up. But we have long memories.

- mr_rationale

January 22, 2011 at 7:22pm

Mr. Irrational....you NEVER disappoint! Always the frothing-at-the-mouth-Ayn-Randian idealogue.

- desertdog

January 23, 2011 at 2:21pm

I just saw the January 'Commentary' cover story on the Health Care legislation and the election. They think this is a long term mistake for the Democrats. Commentary is not exactly a right wing ideologue magazine. Pretty even handed. And they have nothing good to say. Is Commentary now part of the VRWC?

- CRS9TNR

January 23, 2011 at 2:53pm

CRS9TNR, you're kidding, right? No one here is using the conspiracy label, but to claim that Commentary isn't a right wing ideologue vehicle is pretty laughable. It's edited by the Podhoretzi, after all.

- miceelf

January 24, 2011 at 10:04am

mr._r: "For months Chait has spun that all liberal ills are driven by exogenous events -- namely the economy. Of coure he was wrong about the election -- the best model he put forward had 45 seat loss -- it turned out to be 63. "And he is wrong about healthcare." As usual, no data to back up these assertions. And as a matter of logic, just because Chait's (and many other) predictions were on the low side doesn't mean that the economy wasn't the driving force behind the results. It's hard for me to imagine that Democrats would have done so badly had unemployment been at 6%, but maybe mr_r has a more active imagination than the rest of us. And the polls about health care show that some of the opposition to the law comes from the left who would not support wholesale repeal--a fact conveniently omitted by conservatives. As for Obama, he's where he's always been: a pragmatic liberal-centrist. He was very clear that he agreed to the upper income tax cuts only because it was the only way to get the other stuff he thought was important. And he's been so anti-business that they've been posting record profits. But ideologues never let the facts get in the way of a good narrative.

- dsimon

January 25, 2011 at 1:24am