“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.
Paul Krugman: Not Enough Inflation
A few days ago, Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, spoke out in defense of his successor. Attacks on Ben Bernanke by Republicans, he told The Financial Times, are “wholly inappropriate and destructive.” He’s right about that – which makes this one of the very few things the ex-maestro has gotten right in the past few years.
But why are the attacks on Mr. Bernanke so destructive? After all, nobody in America is or should be immune from criticism, least of all those – like the chairman of the Fed – who, by the nature of their positions, have immense power to make our lives better or worse. And while there is an unmistakable thuggishness to the campaign against the Fed, most famously Rick Perry’s warning that the Fed chairman would be treated “pretty ugly” if he visited Texas, surely the bad manners of the critics aren’t the most important issue.
New York Times Editorial: How to Expand the Voter Rolls
A country that should be encouraging more people to vote is still using an archaic voter registration system that creates barriers to getting a ballot. In 2008, 75 million eligible people did not vote in the presidential election, and 80 percent of them were not registered.
The vast majority of states rely on a 19th-century registration method: requiring people to fill out a paper form when they become eligible to vote, often at a government office, and to repeat the process every time they move. This is a significant reason why the United States has a low voter participation rate.
The economy added only 120,000 jobs in March — down from the rate of more than 200,000 in each of the preceding three months. The rate of unemployment dropped from 8.3 to 8.2 percent mainly because fewer people were searching for jobs — and that rate depends on how many people are actively looking.
It’s way too early to conclude the jobs recovery is stalling, but there’s reason for concern.
Remember: Consumer spending is 70 percent of the economy. Employers won’t hire without enough sales to justify the additional hires. It’s up to consumers to make it worth their while.
Richard (RJ) Eskow: Want Jobs? Rescue Homeowners — and Spend, Baby, Spend
Now we know: The jobs situation is bleak, and it will continue to be bleak until we face up to the fact that we need more stimulus spending — lots more — and we have to relieve millions of homeowners from their indentured servitude to Wall Street so that they can help restore the economy, too.
In other words spend, spend, spend — and provide some principal reduction for underwater homeowners.
Bad News
We won’t recap all the employment figures in today’s jobs report, since they’re available elsewhere. We’ll stick to the highlights:
A key figure is essentially unchanged: There are 12.7 million unemployed people in this country.
Eugene Robinson: Handicapping the Veep Stakes
Washingotn – Playing second fiddle to Mitt Romney won’t be easy, but somebody has to be his running mate. Let’s handicap the field:
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio: The choice who offers the biggest potential reward — for the biggest risk.
The telegenic young Cuban-American could potentially shore up three of the Romney campaign’s weaknesses: He is an unambiguous conservative, elected with tea party backing, who would temper Romney’s “Massachusetts moderate” image among the disgruntled GOP base. Rubio’s groundbreaking candidacy could lure back some of the Hispanic voters driven away by Republican policies. And he happens to come from a huge swing state that Romney has to win in order to have a chance at the White House.
Gail Collins: Godfathers, Caterpillars and Golf
Republican to-do checklist:
1) Pooh-pooh all the talk about a war on women. [..]
2) Seek out news about the mood of the womenfolk. [..]
3) Make Rick Santorum get out of the race. [..]
4) Keep Mitt on script. [..]
5) Watch the Masters golf tournament. [..]
6) Prepare for the next big primaries. [..]
7) Prepare for the convention. [..]
8) Try to figure out what to do for the four months in between. That’s enough time to run an entire season of a TV series.
Alexander Cockburn: Mitt Romney Flip-Flops His Way to the Top
Mitt Romney will be the Republican to face President Obama in the fall. Tuesday night was the clincher, as the former Massachusetts governor won in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington D.C. He may stumble on, but the Catholic zealot Rick Santorum is finished, wiped out by Romney’s vast financial resources.
Eight years ago, Romney began his bid to win the Republican nomination, only to be crushed by John McCain. In that campaign, he was tagged as a crypto-liberal former governor of Massachusetts and author of a health plan derided by Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
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