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By ESTHER CEPEDA
Wednesday, May 23 2012 11:05 PM
This far outside the Beltway, it's easy to see why regular people are so put off by politics -- our endless 24/7 stream of dysfunctional statecraft has become so toxic that it is even making politicians sick.
Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J., and a young, rising star among the Democrats, made the huge mistake of using a national TV appearance to say the same thing that's on most voters' minds: The negative tone of the presidential campaigns is "nauseating."
Booker was referring to reports that a rich, independent Republican activist was considering launching an attack on President Obama by resurrecting the controversy over his fiery ex-pastor, Jeremiah Wright. But Booker went bipartisan with his complaint, calling out the Obama campaign for ads condemning Republican challenger Mitt Romney for the money he made at private equity firm Bain Capital.
"This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides," Booker said. "It's nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright."
Oooooooh, I thought as I watched him tell it as it is, Cory Booker's gonna get in trou-ble!
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In a blowout presidential election, a few large issues dominate. In a tight election, a range of smaller concerns -- important to strategic constituencies in battleground states -- can end up being crucial.
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John Boehner thinks it's kind of funny. "It struck me as somewhat comical," he told reporters Thursday morning, "that, you know, people are looking to me like I'm the guy carrying a sword around town, I'm going to bludgeon someone."
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For me, the most difficult thing about a full week of news reporting and punditry regarding President Obama's historic embrace of same-sex marriage has been getting buffeted by worn-out stereotypes about how Hispanics will act on the revelation at the ballot box in November.
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Mitt Romney did not rise on the power of his rhetoric. At the Detroit Economic Club in February, his speech was swallowed by its stadium venue, overshadowed by a gaffe (his wife's "couple of Cadillacs") and weighed down by leaden language. Early in the primaries, Romney's attempts to wax poetic on the virtues of America -- often by quoting patriotic hymns -- were waxen.
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President Obama's long, tortuous metamorphosis on same-sex marriage finally reached its evolved state right in between stinky cheese and "General Hospital."
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Public policy wonks are always looking for magic bullets that have a shot at making a real impact. Every once in a while, one seems to come along.
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If there's any societal group today responsible for the future well-being of our nation that isn't being held accountable enough, it's parents.
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"We're not going back. ... We're going forward," said President Obama during his formal campaign kickoff in Ohio. This rallying cry was pedestrian, and appropriately so. Obama is no longer a leader on horseback. His campaign -- on the evidence of its first day -- will be a long, unimaginative, partisan march to the sea.
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I don't care about George Zimmerman's MySpace page. Granted, it was gratifying to read recently in The Miami Herald about his crude animus toward Mexicans ("soft a-- wannabe thugs") and his reference to a former girlfriend as an "ex-hoe." Given the way white supremacists and other Zimmerman supporters have exaggerated and manufactured evidence to paint Zimmerman's unarmed 17-year-old victim, Trayvon Martin, as a thug who somehow deserved shooting, this unflattering portrait offers the same satisfaction one feels any time the goose is basted with sauce that was prepared for the gander.
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This fall the Supreme Court will hear Fisher v. University of Texas, a case that could decide the fate of racial preferences in the college admissions process. And here's a perfect example of why education's affirmative action and diversity initiatives should focus on socioeconomic status rather than race and ethnicity: Elizabeth Warren.
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When Indiana Republicans go to the polls on Tuesday, they will do more than choose a candidate for the Senate. They will choose between party and country.
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Archimedes didn't say, "Give me a bad statistic, and I will move the Earth." But that was only because the ancient Greek mathematician wasn't familiar with the ways of Washington.
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