leo's blog

If you think, like I do, that Florida will play an important role in who wins the presidential election in November, then wouldn't it make sense for Romney to nominate Florida's own, Marco Rubio?

I always thought one of the big mistakes of Al Gore in 2000 was to pick Lieberman (Conn.) over then Senator Bob Graham of Florida. With Graham on the ticket, Gore might have won a few more votes in Florida, making his victory all the more indisputable.

Actually the title reads, "Romney Allies Outspend Obama 2-1 This Week".

Just '2-1'? Naturally that's where the Democrat currently is enjoying the benefits of incumbency. What happens when this isn't the case, say in 2016, and the floodgates really do open? 10-to-1 may be 'low-balling' the advantage.

Weird thought: maybe Romney's holding back on revealing his tax returns because they're so bad, if they got out, he'd have to do an Eagleton.

Bob Schieffer made this throw-away comment before moving on to more important matters:

"We need health care reform, but I'm a long way from believing the president's plan was the best way to go about it."

Anyone got any idea what Bob Schieffer's preferred solution is beyond making it to 65, taking advantage of Medicare and having CBS make up the difference?

Eric Holder, a great Attorney General by the way, came out and called Voter ID laws for what they are, namely, nothing but a poll tax.

He's right. But he was referring to the cost in money of getting one of these IDs. There's also the cost in time -- you got to get the paperwork together, take time off of work, go down to whatever agency hands these things out and then wait in line for God knows how long -- just for the sake of voting every other year.

Always a fun time (even at 100 degrees)!

This segment points to everything that is wrong with 'reporting' (yes, in scare quotes) from the PBS News hour.

Paul Solman focuses on nuance and whether what Krugman is saying is 'partisan' or not, to which Krugman wisely replies:

"Except it's true, right? And people like me have been right so far."

I don't have a driver's license -- because I don't drive. But why should voting be built around being able to drive?

I think if the GOP is serious about this, they'll require everyone -- and not just those without driver's licenses -- to make a special trip to get specially bonafide voter ids.

If one person has to make this trip, then all should! It's only fair.

Martin Wolf:

It is often forgotten, not least in Germany, that the rise of Adolf Hitler to power was preceded not by the great inflation, which occurred a decade before, but by the great depression and the austerity of Heinrich Brüning, in response. Thus, votes for the Nazi party jumped from a relatively insignificant 810,000 in 1928, to 6.4m in 1930, and 13.7m in July 1932. Deep economic collapses are dangerous.