Gimme a Break | Palestinian state unobjectionable/ Josh Marshall Talking Points Memo

Talking Points Memo founder/editor Josh Marshall takes the standard Jewish progressive position: he believes in Israel, considers himself a Zionist, and supports the two state solution on the approximate lines of the 1967 border.

Gimme a Break | Talking Points Memo:

"Everyone is now in a flutter about this monumental non-crisis about whether or not the Palestinians, or particularly the Palestinian Authority, will go to the UN and ask the UN to call them a state. But it's not clear to me on what basis the Palestinians can be asked not to do this. The Palestinians want a state. The vast swathe of political and international opinion says they should have one, though the devil is very much in the details. So why can't they try to get one? Frankly, it's never been really clear to me why the Palestinians haven't already declared one, though arguably they did a long time ago."

'via Blog this'

Crossing the Rubicon | Talking Points Memo

Crossing the Rubicon | Talking Points Memo

It wasn't much, the narrow river that marked the border between Italy and Gaul.  but Caesar was told not to cross it.  He did and you remember his name, not the guy who lost.  Josh Marshall says that today's vote to embrace the Paul Ryan `let's end Medicare budget' -  by all but six House Republicans is a fateful, no turning back day.  
The Republican Party has just gotten carried away by their hostility to government and celebration of private enterprise.  It's a popular idea.  Nobody likes to go to the DMV.  But private enterprise also makes us very nervous.  Downsizing, plant closings, higher  health insurance deductibles, real estate bubbles and crashes - all make people worry.  "And now they want to take away Medicare" is the line the Republican Party just handed to the Democratic Party.  They have crossed the Rubicon.

Missing the boat

Two years ago  I posted a copy of my own email to my daughter Taisy brushing off her inquiry about Barack Obama as a candidate for President shortly after he declared.  A `learning experience' for the candidate was my take.


Now Josh Marshall - founder and editor of Talking Points Memo - confesses to a similar goof.  More noteworthy because he is a professional student of politics. He writes today:

I mentioned once before here that back in early 2004 the press person for a little-known state senator from Illinois named Barack Obama emailed me at TPM and asked if I could meet with the senator when he was next in DC. Because I always have my finger on the pulse of American politics and can magically sense what's coming next over the horizon, I never got back to them. I don't really remember whether I blew it off or simply forgot to get back to them. And as those who know me well can probably attest, it's often very difficult to distinguish the two.

But now it turns out I missed the boat on another brush with greatness.

Josh Marshall

Josh Marshall on the Opt-Out Compromise

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo thinks Sen Reid's Opt Out compromise is pragmatic: the public option will have enough mass to bargain effectively to keep costs down and to exert competitive pressure on private insurers.

HERE is his analysis.

Images: Josh Marshall and son, Sen. Harry Reid