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TPMDC Morning Roundup

Obama Jokes About ASU Honorary Degree Flap
When delivering the commencement address last night at Arizona State University, President Obama joked about the university's decision to not grant him an honorary degree. "I learned to never again pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA bracket," said Obama. "And your university President and Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS."

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama will hold a town hall at 12 p.m. ET, at Rancho Rio High School in New Mexico, where he will discuss proposed credit card reforms and consumer protections. He will depart from Kirkland Air Force Base at 2:15 p.m. ET, and is scheduled to arrive back at the White House at 5:50 p.m. ET.

Biden's Day Ahead
Vice President Biden and his wife Jill are traveling to San Diego today, where they will visit with U.S. Sailors and their families at the Naval Base Coronado. At 3:15 p.m. ET, Biden will deliver remarks to the Sailors and their families on the USS Ronald Reagan. He and Jill will then eat lunch with the Sailors. Vice President Biden will tour the base and meet with Navy SEALs, while Jill will meet with military spouses and community volunteer groups.

WaPo: Republicans Wince At Cheney -- But Won't Say So
The Washington Post reports that many Republicans are unhappy with Dick Cheney's role as the party's major spokesman -- though they won't say so openly. "The fact that most people want to talk [without attribution] shows what a problem it continues to be," said a Republican strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Cheney continues to be a force among many members of our base, and while he is entirely unhelpful, no one has the standing to show him the door."

Congressional Dems Pack July Agenda
The Hill reports that Congressional Democrats are planning a very busy July session, with issues including annual spending bills, climate change, health care and a Supreme Court nomination. "It's a lot, but we're determined to get it done," said a senior Senate Democratic aide.

Senate GOP Finds Unity In Decreased Ranks
CQ reports that Senate Republicans have found in their decreased numbers a new sense of unity, and the knowledge that if they are to have any effect it must be through a single front to pass amendments or block Democratic action. "We've recognized that we have to band together when we can" said Sen John Thune (R-SD). "It's not going to happen every time, it's not going to happen on every issue, but I think there's a realization that we're a lot stronger when we operate as a team."

Poll: Americans Confident In Obama's Eventual SCOTUS Picks
A new CBS poll finds that Americans are confident President Obama will pick good Justices for the Supreme Court, by a margin of 55%-35%. As can be expected, Democrats are confident 83%-10%, Republicans are not confident at 26%-66%, and independents correspond pretty closely with the top-line numbers at 49%-38%.


30 Comments

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Liz Cheney Defends Dad: 'He Waterboarded Me Too'
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=7137

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Obama's ASU speech was brilliant. Loved how he took lemons and made lemonade about the honorary degree flap.

Eventhough he didn't say this but Obama has a degree from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Who gives a shit about an ASU honorary degree.

However, what Obama DID say was perfect. He made a funny joke and than talked about how someone's title even as great as "President of the United States" doesn't mean that that person should stop trying to achieve and grow.

Just brilliant!!!

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When a President makes a joke like that it is explicitly to show "He guys I know, I am in on the joke, I am connected to reality." Bush actually did the same a few times, it's pretty masterful stuff.

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He's also receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame despite all the right wing objections from newly minted Catholic Newt and company. Good for the Notre Dame brain trust for giving the Catholic hypocrisy crowd the large finger. Obama did win Indiana after all. He did not win Arizona.

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His speech was *amazing* -- inspirational, yes, but also teaching the students to think through choices.

And yet, the only headings both HuffPo and TPMDC could find are about the "teasing" -- if even the blogosphere is always imitating cable chatter on pursuing trivial trappings, what is the point, really?

They (HuffPo and TPMDC) could have drawn attention to the real shaming he heaped on the people in power, both in DC and Wall Street, the beautiful way in which he wove in the dire times we live in with the opportunity it affords to remake the world, the validity of criticism (even if it is as inane as the lack of the "body of work" ASU cited) and the importance of addressing it, the power of idealism, and on and on. There was so much else to talk about...

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Were you there? Perhaps you could write a post about it, and we could all recommend it. That way we could help solve the problem of the focus on fluff. (Really, I'm serious.)

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Yes, if you wqish to raise the level of discourse, discourse! Clearly you are thoughtful and articulate, something lacking in the media today.

"Yes we can" includes you. Obama is clever that way. :-{)>

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In response to both RedShift and you, touche!

That said though, there is a certain onus on people who do have front page privileges and editorial prerogatives. My diary will receive far less attention than a regular feature on the front page.

Also, I was not even asking for more substance, but highlighting the tease part of the speech was just too cable-newsy. TPM is the news org, not me...

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Adding, :-)

Really, your (my responders', that is ;-) points *were* well taken :)

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It took me months to get readership, but persistence paid off and I get read by a few regularly. A lot if it has to do with timing. What I found, which is kind of funny that I need a national stage to do this, is that the writing helps me to clear my head about things. So I impose some of my brain waste on others, but sometimes one man's waste is another man's gold, ...or woman's. I believe my writing has improved over time as well, making my posts more readable/interesting.

Go for it! You have a keen insight we would all appreciate. But it will take time to get people on board.

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I am thinking of doing a daily series on blogosphere headlines (and possibly content of the articles too) that could have been done better or should have been abandoned altogether, something like that.

Kind of like a one-woman blogosphere ombudswoman...

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Adding :-) this is in response to your (serious) suggestion to do it myself, if I wanted it done well :)

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Taking it upon yourself to criticize other posters is unlikely to bring a following, although it does sound useful in many ways. I am more interested in your original comment, a remark underscoring the news that was missed by the MSM. Obama said a lot of important things at his speech other then his jab at the Board of Directors at ASU.

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I think commentary on blogosphere headlines would be very helpful. Apparently advertisers pay blogs based on how many hits the blogs get--is that why Huffington Post, especially, often has headlines "worthy" of National Enquirer??

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Great speech last night how he was able to shape his entire speech around such a negative situation. I imagine those behind the decision to not give the honorary degree must have been shrinking in their chairs last night as Obama speech began to take form. I'm sure they realized as the speech went on not only should they have given him the degree because they were in the presence of a gifted individual, they probably felt like just going ahead and renaming the school The Obama University in Arizona State.

Also, I've been thinking about this Republican defense of putting Pelosi out there in regards to what she knew when. By suggesting she was a part of "it" aren't they insinuating "it" was something that was wrong?

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It's like the torture photos (bad call on Obama's part by the way.) The right also tries to have it both ways on that- if release of the photos would be so damaging to the national interest, doesn't that mean that the actions depicted in them were damaging to the national interest?

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Hi, mike f.A.! So I changed my avatar (again!). Hey, I'm gonna look for that ASU speech, in light of your praise.

And it's a shame how people can take a notion to things, you know? Some might jump to an intemperate conclusion that their not awarding him of their queer honorary degrees was in part because of, um, bigotry. Golly, the things people will say, my my! :) (Makes me wonder, though, if any of the decisionmakers had a recording of that adorable Barack-the-Magic-Negro ditty in their I-Tunes.)

On Pelosi, they're caught red-handed. So they can't say they didn't do it, and their point thus is, everybody does it so what can anybody really say? All them folks in Washington could use a good shake up from the likes of Sarah Palin anyway, and Republicans sure aren't perfect but at least they kept us safe ('cept for that one day, o'course) and just thank heaven they're not socialists or selling away their children's future to shady mid-East types, etc. and anyhow they kept us safe if they didn't mention and the best thing to do is make those great Bush tax cuts for the rich permanent and further deregulate finance institutions.

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"Cheney continues to be a force among many members of our base, and while he is entirely unhelpful, no one has the standing to show him the door."

No one has the "standing"? How about the balls?

PEACE

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This is what happens to authority, personality-driven movements. Even though they claim to have banished Bush for failing conservatism, the Republicans invested everything they had in the man until his failures could not be denied (even now, they criticize him for things unrelated to his plummeting popularity).

Once you've committed body and soul to someone or something, if that person or thing suddenly disappears, you're left without direction or meaning in your life. That lack of direction, combined with the fact that the wreckage caused by Republicanism is everywhere ordinary Americans look, should ensure that they don't get their "mojo" back for several election cycles.

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It's also the authoritarian mindset in general. When your entire orientation is top-down authority, there's no one who can get rid of the guy at the top, no matter how badly he screws up. They can't even conceive of how it might be done, except to have someone else acknowledged as "leader" who could then tell him to go away, and they can't even speak of that except in anonymous whispers.

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Yeah,it's too bad they do not understand democratic ideals, or can defend their own freedom of speech in an intra-party conflict.

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you took the words right out of my mouth.

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"Every American, whether you're a Republican, Democrat or independent, would agree that before critical decisions are made about national security of the nation, we ought to have a full and fair debate."

Yeah right, cheer me up Liz, that debate was fully allowed during the your father's time.

And:

He recently told Stephen F. Hayes of the Weekly Standard that he remembers how, during the Iran-contra scandal in the Reagan administration, senior officials often ran for cover, leaving "the little guys out to dry."

Awesome, please bring up Iran-Contra again, we've been missing that.

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I think the Iran-Contra reference reveals something that hasn't gotten a lot of coverage. (Keith certainly missed the implications.) Everyone has noted how hypocritical the remark about the "little guy" is, since the administration left all the true "little guys" to hang while covering up their own role, but the Iran-Contra reference tells us who Cheney thinks are the "little guys" -- lower level Executive Branch officials like Scooter Libby.

To Cheney, anyone below that isn't a even little guy, they don't exist except as numbers in a war game, cannon fodder. Whatever they suffer in the service of Important People is automatically acceptable, it's what they're there for.

Way to "support the troops," Dick!

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In the latest instance of up is downism on Faux News, Bill Orally thinks that Cheney is winning the debate on torture.

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Does it matter what Bill O'Reilly says?

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For comedic purposes it does.

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Of course he is. Bill O'Reilly commonly mistakes bluster for power, and his ego depends on this. Cheney is louder, therefore he's winning.

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The GOOPers are afraid of Cheney because he has Limbaugh on his side and Rush will do the dirty work on his daily rant.
It's the "What's the matter with Kansas" phenomenon. People make political choices against their better interests for fear and narrow culture war goals.
Cheney is the last gasp of Nixonianism.

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Cheney is NOT the head of the Republican Party. Everyone knows that's RushLimbaugh's job. Cheney payed hommage to Rush over Colin Powell just this weekend. Everyone in the GOP bows to Rush, or they go slithering up to apologize later. He's the highest paid corporate/party operative in the country, I believe.

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