This Washington insider is usually on the mark!--T.R.
FROM Mike Allen's POLITICO PLAYBOOK on line.
TIME magazine dubs Obama “MR. UNPOPULAR”-Michael Scherer: “White House aides explain this change as a largely inevitable reflection of the cycles of history. Midterms are almost always bad for first-term Presidents, and worse in hard times. “The public is rightly frustrated and angry with the economy,” says Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's communications director, explaining the White House line. “There is no small tactical shift we could have made at any point that would have solved that problem.” In more confiding moments, aides admit that the peak of Obama's popularity may have been inflated, a fleeting result of elation at the prospect of change and national pride in electing the first African-American President. As one White House aide puts it, 'It was sort of fake.'” MOST INTERESTING "THE PROSPECT OF CHANGE" AND "SORT OF FAKE" views from inside the White House itself. Maybe we should dust off "Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism" to get up to date--tr
THE BLACK SHIRTS ARE COMING (tr): "FIRST LOOK: Kate Zernike, a national correspondent for The New York Times, is out Sept. 14 with “Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America” (243 pp. Times Books. $25). $16.50 on Amazon http://amzn.to/9AX3RW Cover image http://amzn.to/b5Rwxz
