Seemed like a quiet week to me, unless I'm missing big things. Syria leads the international news, I suppose.
At home...hmmm...I wrote a lot about the Ryan budget, but I don't think it will have major consequences. Sticks a few more Members of the House with another tough vote, but they all voted for it last year, so while worth mentioning it's not exactly a big deal. I'm also a skeptic that "Etch a Sketch" will matter much, although it will likely be with us for a while, giving a name to something that people were going to be talking about anyway.
We finally got a bit of a stampede in the GOP presidential race post-Illinois. Romney was going to win anyway, but now it's less likely that he'll have to fight hard in April through June.
This was the week that the Trayvon Martin case became a major national story.
What else? What do you think mattered this week?
Saturday, March 24, 2012
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Hmmm, I don't know about the Ryan budget. On one hand it's true that all the Republicans voted for it before, so it isn't anything new. On the other hand, as the recent discussions of ACA and its effects on Democrats in 2010 show, Congressional races are low info things, and so a more recent vote on these matters may shape the mood. Then again, there is the effect of the Presidential race to consider, and how Ryan budget issues will or will not play into that. I would point out that Mr. Bernstein himself said this week that these kind of unpopular policies flirt with electoral oblivion. If that is the case, then at some point votes like this HAVE to matter. But, like I say above, it isn't as if the Democrats don't have the ammo already.
ReplyDeleteFor me, this week would come down to Apple computer, the GOP primary essentially being over, and the Trayvan story and a reminder that if you are a young African-American male in this country you may be more vulnerable than most people realize.
ReplyDeleteWith Apple, the new iPad coming to stores, the announcement of Apple offering shareholders dividends (making it a more normal company and perhaps past the days when such cash flow can be plowed back in to make more amazing new products), and the way This American Life handled the Mike Daisy story which bordered on extraordinary in terms of the lessons it offered for truth-telling and journalistic expectations.
The fact that Romney did so well in Illinois and whatever momentum Santorum might have gotten from earlier wins never seems to last long seems to no longer be a challenge to Romney. The Jim DeMint efforts, practically an endorsement, I think, matters a lot in starting to end the determination of the GOP nominee. Lets add the Ryan plan which Ryan is probably trying to inject into the campaign which, if its a backdrop, will be an important one (not that it will become the law of the land if Romney is elected but given the reaction to Newt's comments about the last Ryan plan). I also think the efforts to go back on the deal with the White House shows that the tea party is wagging the GOP's tail rather than the likely presidential candidate.
And finally, the Trayvon Martin killing and the national outcry and focus it puts on the dangers of being a young African-American I think can't not be important as a backdrop that just because we have an African-American president doesn't mean we've overcome our race problems and predispositions to judge others based on more than soley their actions. Thanks.
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ReplyDeleteWhoops... Interesting citation. I hope the implications are as important as you suggest they might be.
ReplyDeleteFor me, this week would come down to Apple computer, the GOP primary essentially being over, and the Trayvan story and a reminder that if you are a young African-American male in this country you may be more vulnerable than most people realize.
ReplyDeleteWith Apple, the new iPad coming to stores, the announcement of Apple offering shareholders dividends (making it a more normal company and perhaps past the days when such cash flow can be plowed back in to make more amazing new products), and the way This American Life handled the Mike Daisy story which bordered on extraordinary in terms of the lessons it offered for truth-telling and journalistic expectations.
The fact that Romney did so well in Illinois and whatever momentum Santorum might have gotten from earlier wins never seems to last long seems to no longer be a challenge to Romney. The Jim DeMint efforts, practically an endorsement, I think, matters a lot in starting to end the determination of the GOP nominee. And I think the Ryan plan which Ryan is probably trying to inject into the campaign seems important, at least to me.
And finally, the Trayvon Martin killing and the national outcry and focus it puts on the dangers of being a young African-American I think can't not be important as a backdrop that just because we have an African-American president doesn't mean we've overcome our race problems and predispositions to judge others based on more than soley their actions. Thanks.