John Bolton Readies Bid For Tenth Place In Iowa Caucuses

by Stuart Shapiro

Newsweek is reporting (or more accurately, linking to a TPM report) that former U.N. ambassador (and warmonger extraordinaire) John Bolton is considering a run for the Republican nomination for president.

That’s right: the mustachioed former ambassador to the U.N. looks like he’s sorta, kinda serious about running for president. You may recall that he first floated this in an interview with the Daily Caller in late August. Then he doubled down, sort of, on Fox Business, and appeared via video at a rally at Ground Zero on Sept. 11. And now, TPM’s Jillian Rayfield reports, he’s …

The Delaware Senate Race May Get More Interesting

Mike Castle, the Delaware congressman who lost in GOP Senate primary to Christine O’Donnell, is considering a write-in campaign (via Political Wire).

The Delaware Republican said he “probably” would not run, but has not ruled it out “simply because it’s there, simply because I’ve had a number of people who’ve asked that I do that,” he told reporters outside the House floor following votes.

Castle says he’ll consider a run “right up until the final moment, which is 4:30PM, September 30, but he’s not yet leaning that way.…

Palin Says She’ll Run If “Nobody Else Were To Step Up”

In spite of the jockeying for 2012 that is already taking place among Republicans, Sarah Palin says she’ll run if no one else “steps up.”

Asked by Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren what “would be a reason to run” during an interview Wednesday night, Palin laid out her criteria:

“A reason to run is if nobody else were to step up with the solutions that are needed to get the economy back on the right track and to be so committed to our national security that they are going to do all that they can, including fighting those on the …

Why The GOP “Pledge” Is A Bust

Ezra Klein at WaPo put it best:

Their policy agenda is detailed and specific — a decision they will almost certainly come to regret. Because when you get past the adjectives and soaring language, the talk of inalienable rights and constitutional guarantees, you’re left with a set of hard promises that will increase the deficit by trillions of dollars, take health-care insurance away from tens of millions of people, create a level of policy uncertainty businesses have never previously known, and suck demand out of an economy that’s already got too little of it.

The Republicans complain about debt and …

Insurance Companies Drop Coverage For Children Ahead Of Reform Benefits Kicking In

By Yashwanth Manjunath

When the final health care reform legislation passed Congress back in March, I’ll admit I was slightly skeptical. I had serious doubts about 31 million new people being covered largely by the same private insurance companies that have been price-gouging and abusing the rest of the population. Now I’m no longer slightly skeptical; I’m 100% positive that this reform effort was not good enough. While some of the benefits are positive and make the law worth protecting from a Republican repeal attempt, the insurance companies are still largely free to do what they want. One of the …

Obama Blames Himself For Not Doing Better Selling Health Care Plan

President Obama is blaming himself for the public not embracing health care reform more enthusiastically. He spoke in the backyard of a private home in Virginia (pictured).

Obama ruefully told his listeners, “Sometimes I fault myself for not being able to make the case more clearly to the country.”

Still, he took on Republicans who want to repeal the law, daring them to tell that to a cancer patient covered by a new high-risk pool, or a parent whose child was able to get insurance despite a pre-existing health condition.

“It makes sense in terms of politics and polls,” Obama …

GOP Set To Roll Out “Pledge To America”

Hoping to relive 1994, the Republican Party is about to introduce its “Pledge To America,” the 2010 version of the “Contract 0n with America.”  The introduction says it’s time to “reclaim the government for the people.”  I believe it was actual “people” who elected Barack Obama in 2008 and put Democrats in control of both houses of Congress.  These “people” controlled their own limbs when they went into voting booths and pulled levers.

Some highlights:

The only hikes are actually reversals of the Bush cuts for the rich, which didn’t create jobs. Bush had fewer …

Joe The Plumber: The Humane Society Is Taking Away Your Constitutional Rights

It’s not wiretapping without warrants, throwing people in Gitmo without due process, or interrogating suspects in secret prisons that is ruining the Constitution.  It’s the Humane Society, “cowardly hiding behind animal cruelty, lying to our citizens and taking our constitutional rights away – one state at a time,” screams Joe the Plumber. This “radical” group is “slowly and systematically eliminating food production in the United States.”  Be very scared.

Their idea of utopia is a United States with NO animal ownership; NO meat to eat; NO pets; NO hunting; NO fishing; NO service animals.

And if you see someone …

And Which One Is The Muslim?

h/t Karoli at Crooks and Liars

…

Right Wing Upset That Obama Said, “We Can Absorb A Terrorist Attack” Even Though BushCo Said We Need That Capability

According to Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, President Obama told him, “We can absorb a terrorist attack. We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger.” This immediately drew criticism from the far right wing, with Liz Cheney calling this comment “alarming fatalism.”

“This comment suggests an alarming fatalism on the part of President Obama and his administration. Once again the President seems either unwilling or unable to do what it takes to keep this nation safe. The President owes …

On Wednesday’s Radio Show…

• Alan explains why President Obama is absorbing unfair criticism for saying “We can absorb a terrorist attack.”

• Are anti-mosque extremists a threat to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf? Alan speaks with the Imam’s longtime friend, Rev. James Parks Morton of the Interfaith Center of New York.

• “A Pledge To America”: Alan dissects the newly unveiled Republican agenda.…