Name Ohio "McKinley" -- and don't stop there!

Republicans, particularly Ohio Republicans, are of course up in arms about the Obama administration's announcement that it would use its executive authority to restore Mount McKinley (named in 1896 by a gold prospector who heard of the president-to-be's nomination) to its historic name, Denali, "the high one," as it had been known for centuries. Alaskans have requested the change for decades (and changed the name themselves via the state Board on Geographic Names in 1975), and (Republican) Senator Lisa Murkowski recorded a video thanking Obama for the change, but never mind.*  John Boehner, whose district is in Ohio, is "deeply disappointed" that McKinley's "great legacy" is losing a monument. Senator Rob Portman bemoans the diss of a "proud Ohioan" (while erroneously deeming the McKinley naming a post-assassination honor).

These complaints are disappointingly circumspect. It's time for presidential candidates to up the ante against the pandering president. Why focus on mere isolated slags of stone? Scratch a bit, and it seems a bunch of squish multiculturalists got hold of state naming boards when this country was young. Why not name all these states that ignore our European heritage and great legacy after (GOP) presidents?**

Alabama (Muskagean)
Alaska (Aleut)
Arkansas (Sioux)
Connecticut (Algonquian)
Hawaii (Polynesian)
Idaho (Comanche)

Good riddance to Grand Bargain

As far as I can tell, the Washington Post's blow-by-blow of the disintegration of the "grand bargain" Obama was negotiating with House GOP leadership this summer does not change the basic outline of what we already know.  Obama was getting close to signing off on a horrendous deal with grossly insufficient new tax revenue; the Gang of Six rode in with the outline of legislation closer to the Bowles-Simpson mold than the deal in progress; many GOP senators made approving noises; the $1.5 trillion over ten years in new revenues called for by the Gang of Six outline highlighted the unpalatability of Obama's deal for Democrats; he tried to boost the headline revenue in his deal from $800 billion to $1.2 trillion; Boehner and Cantor recoiled; Obama retracted the new ask and expressed willingness to sign off on the prior deal contours, but Boehner left him at the altar.

The account, in my view, simply highlights old unaswerables:

Obama's uncertain trigger finger, cont.

It is perhaps a measure of Obama's poor negotiating track record that as I read both Republican and Democratic assertions that Democrats have all the leverage in the fight over the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits extension, I worry that Obama will find a way to cave.

Nate Silver, who asserts that Obama's recent poll bounce is likely due more to economic upticks than to his more confrontational stance over the last two and a half months, provides the rationale for another 'hostage negotiation':

Obama to cash in his "compromiser" chips?

Back in August, in response to Drew Westen's denunciation of Obama as a spineless rollover to the Republicans, I wrote:

in a fearsomely stressed and politically polarized country, Obama's relentless refusal to demonize an extremist opposition may yet win the day by means of contrast. Perhaps it will prove in the long run to be the political equivalent of the nonviolence of Martin Luther King...

Let's not forget that many African Americans at times regarded King as an appeasing sellout, much as many progressives now see Obama as one.    The Panthers and the Nation of Islam were more satisfying to many. King called out his adversaries, but he never shrank from engaging with them. Neither has Obama -- though the results have not always been what his base could have wished.

Now, after two and a half months of relentlessly calling out the GOP for refusing to stimulate the economy or raise taxes on the wealthiest, the moment may have arrived  when he cashes in his "nonviolent" chips. His poll numbers are spiking -- by a widening margin, Americans trust him more than the GOP to protect the interests of the middle class. Having blessed a Senate compromise over the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefit extension -- the fiscal heart of his September stimulus package -- he is refusing to negotiate further as Boehner once more reneges and lets the House extremists scotch the placeholder deal.  Now, having convinced Americans over the course of a year of bloody partisan conflict that he is the one willing -- too willing -- to compromise, he is poised to in his civil way to KO the House holdouts over their rejection of a deal that Boehner blessed and the Senate approved 89-10. He made his first strike today:

Better late than never? Obama ramps up the attack

Well, the transition is complete. Hope it ain't too late.

A few weeks ago, Democrats waited desperately for Obama to start calling out Republicans in Congress, instead of just "Congress" or "Washington," for blocking action on jobs and deficit -- or, back, then, on deficit and jobs. And the change did come, in the runup to the jobs bill rollout. On September 3, in the weekly address, it was the same old pablum: Congress failed to pass a clean extension of the transportation bill. On Labor Day, he named them that (till then) must not be named (when criticizing):

But we’re not going to wait for them.  (Applause.)  We’re going to see if we’ve got some straight shooters in Congress.  We’re going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party.  (Applause.)  We’ll give them a plan, and then we’ll say, do you want to create jobs?  Then put our construction workers back to work rebuilding America.  (Applause.)  Do you want to help our companies succeed?  Open up new markets for them to sell their products.  You want -- you say you’re the party of tax cuts?  Well then, prove you’ll fight just as hard for tax cuts for middle-class families as you do for oil companies and the most affluent Americans.  (Applause.)  Show us what you got.  (Applause.)

Since that moment, week by week, day by day, the attacks have grown more focused, more direct, more confrontational, more sustained.

September 8, when he rolled out his jobs bill, he tweaked a Republican article of faith without naming names:

The arguments haven't changed, but the opponent is named

Greg Sargent cheers Obama's newfound fighting spirit:

This has to be the clearest sign yet that Obama has taken a very sharp populist turn as he seeks to frame the contrast between the parties heading into 2012. During his remarks this morning, Obama directly responded to Republicans accusing him of “class warfare,” but rather than simply deny the charge, he made the critical point that the act of protecting tax cuts for the rich is itself class warfare, in effect positioning himself as the defender of the middle class against GOP class warriors on behalf of the wealthy.

Sargent has put his finger on the key difference between Obama today and Obama this summer: direct confrontation.  It's worth noting that Obama's arguments have not changed -- nor really have his proposed policies. All through the summer, he argued repeatedly tht deficit reduction had to be "balanced," that it was unfair to ask people to accept reduction in Medicare and Social Security without asking "millionaires and billionaires" to "pay their fair share" via higher taxes. He won that argument in the court of public opinion but lost the negotiation that produced the debt ceiling deal.   Moreover, in his deficit reduction plan in April, Obama called for Medicare cost savings broadly similar to those proposed today. According to Ezra Klein, he called for roughly the same amount of increased tax revenue over today's rates -- $1.5 trillion over twelve years -- as he did today -- though the language in the plan outline was studiously vague and I never could see how it amounted to more than $1 trillion over twelve years, i.e., the amount gained by letting the Bush cuts for the top 2% expire.