politics

Via the pool report:

Pool was ushered into Harvey Weinstein's 5 story West Village town home for POTUS's remarks to the assembled donors. The ground floor room contained 8 tables of 8, covered in white linen with roses as a centerpiece.

Several White House staffers were seated at the tables including Dan Pfeiffer and Jay Carney. Patrick Gaspard was standing in the right side of the room (POTUS's) right.

Every discussion of gay marriage should begin with a recognition of its historical radicalness, its exceptionality. Heterosexual marriage has been the fundamental unit of human sociability for thousands of years, a common thread running through otherwise disjunctive cultures and wide-ranging ethnic diversity. Wherever one lands on the issue of same-sex marriage, there can be no gainsaying its extraordinariness.

Every discussion of gay marriage should begin with a recognition of its historical radicalness, its exceptionality. Heterosexual marriage has been the fundamental unit of human sociability for thousands of years, a common thread running through otherwise disjunctive cultures and wide-ranging ethnic diversity. Wherever one lands on the issue of same-sex marriage, there can be no gainsaying its extraordinariness.

For your weekend reading, Politico has a long Maggie Haberman piece on political rehabilitation. Her subjects are Mark Sanford and Anthony Weiner about whom some cannot get enough. Others undoubtedly believe that we know far too much already about both of these characters.  Still, Haberman writes:

To understand the American economy, you have to answer four questions. How can it be that unemployment remains high at the same time the number of job vacancies is rising? Will consumers keep buying cars and houses at anything like the current pace despite the recent increase in payroll taxes? How long will Ben Bernanke’s Fed keep printing money to keep interest rates close to zero? Finally, will Washington do what the president asks and get out of the way of an economy “poised for progress”?

In 2005, Steve Sailer wrote a cover story for the American Conservative theorizing that the divide between red and blue states was driven in large part by the cost of family formation. Sailer dubbed this the “Dirt Gap” (referring to the price of homes with yards), and his general thesis was that affordable family formation—and the attendant bourgeois life which it enabled—was the source of our political divisions.

In 2005, Steve Sailer wrote a cover story for the American Conservative theorizing that the divide between red and blue states was driven in large part by the cost of family formation. Sailer dubbed this the “Dirt Gap” (referring to the price of homes with yards), and his general thesis was that affordable family formation—and the attendant bourgeois life which it enabled—was the source of our political divisions.

Harry Reid announced today that there will likely be a gun vote on Thursday.

President Obama has never been shy about hitting up those "millionaires and billionaires" for the cash he needs to bash them and "fundamentally transform" things.  Up to now, they have been generous but patience, it seems, is beginning to fray.  The donors would like to see some more action and hear fewer pleas for money.

While the talk among the political class is of guns and gay marriage, the concern out in the country is, doubtless, about jobs and economic growth.

President Barack Obama raised campaign funds yesterday for the 2014 House elections. Visiting the homes of California billionaires, Obama touted Nancy Pelosi, as a primary reason for Democrats needing to win the next national election.