Go read the rest on Main Street Liberal:
Filling in for Lawrence O’Donnell last Wednesday on MSNBC’s The Last Word, Christopher Hayes held a fascinating discussion (transcript here, video, from Ari Berman’s herdingdonkeys.com, below) with Ari Berman, Adam Green, and Roger Hodge, author of “The Mendacity of Hope: Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism.” Midway through, Hodge commented:
But, I think that, again, going back to what made his candidacy special, it was so cynical. I mean, looking back, I just think there‘s no question that he identified his gift, he identified his angle. He came up with this beautiful rhetoric, but it was ultimately empty.
And if he does pick a fight on the tax cuts, I will be blown out of my chair. I just don‘t believe he will do it.
It looks like Hodge won’t need to get up off the floor. Arthur Delaney writes in The Huffington Post
Obama first asked lawmakers to reauthorize extended unemployment benefits at the beginning of October, but Congress has failed to prevent the benefits from lapsing at least temporarily. Now it looks as though a deal crafted by the four members of Congress tasked with compromising on tax cuts may be the only way to save the jobless aid….
One might think he decided in advance that letting unemployment lapse was protective cover for extending the millionaire tax cuts he wanted to pass, anyway!
