“why don’t I know about this deal?”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confronted White House budget director Jack Lew during a Thursday afternoon meeting about secret talks on a deficit-reduction deal between the president and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

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“Ron Paul may be a long shot to win the Republican presidential nomination, but he runs competitively with President Obama right now.”

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Paul picking up 37% of the vote, while the president earns 41%. The Texas congressman joins Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachmann, and Rick Perry as candidates within hailing distance of the president at this time.

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“I hope I’m wrong about all this. But when has Obama given progressives any reason to believe they can trust him?”

Paul Krugman, The Conscience of a Liberal

Amanda Marcotte is right: of course the big problem is the craziness of the GOP. That said, I am among those in a state of suppressed rage and panic over the president’s negotiating strategy.

I’d like to believe that it’s all 11-dimensional political chess; but at this point — after the midterm debacle, after the big concession on taxes without even getting a raise in the debt limit — what evidence do we have that Obama knows what he’s doing?

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“I’m going to see who going to the Republican nominee. I’m going to be looking at the economy. If the economy continues to do badly, which I think it will, because the administration does not know what they are doing. If the economy continues to do badly, and if the Republicans pick somebody that I think is the wrong person and isn’t going to win, I would seriously consider running as an independent. The reason I have to do it that way is because as you know what I’m doing doesn’t allow me to run sooner than May.”

Donald Trump talking to Greta Van Susteren

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“It’s as hot as the devil’s dick out there.

Doug Mataconis

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