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Thursday 11.08.2012
Hope, Change & Gold
BY ADRIAN ASH - FinancialSense.com
Gold doesn't mind a bit of hope or change. It doesn't care about anything much, what with being just an inert metal and all.
But those people who buy gold tend to fear for the future, and they fear the change it might bring. At the very least they are anxious. Gold offers insurance, whether to Western savers trying to second-guess interest rates or the stock market, or to Asian households suddenly able to make discretionary savings each month from their small, but growing income.
Four more years of precious metals
as the top performing asset class?
By: Peter Cooper - GoldSeek.com
With President Obama safely back in the White House investors in precious metals can justly feel that the president's promise that 'the best is yet to come' is aimed at them. For gold and silver outperformed every other asset class in his first term, and there is nothing like political continuity.
Investors in precious metals have pretty much doubled their money since Mr. Obama was first elected. In that same timeframe US equities have been on a roller-coaster ride to nowhere. Bonds have done better but nowhere near as good as gold and silver.
We're Not in 1980 Anymore
Obama didn't win on turnout alone. Our country has changed.
By AARON GOLDSTEIN - Spectator.org
For months, conservatives have been likening the conditions of the 2012 presidential race to that which saw the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. The American Spectator's own Jeffrey Lordproclaimed that President Obama could be beaten handily "because the past four years really have been Jimmy Carter's second term."
Victor Davis Hanson of National Review Online put it this way:
What does 1980 tell us about 2012? Barack Obama, like Carter, can run neither on his dismal four-year stewardship of the economy nor on his collapsing Middle East policy.
Obama's Victory Should Settle a Bitter Argument
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. - Trughdig.com
WASHINGTON—President Obama's re-election was at once a deeply personal triumph and a victory for the younger, highly diverse and broadly progressive America that rallied to him. It was a result that ought to settle the bitter argument that ground the nation's government to a near-standstill.
The president spent much of the year fighting the effects of a stubbornly sluggish economic recovery and facing implacable opposition among Republicans in Congress who made defeating him a high priority. He fought back by undermining Mitt Romney's major asset as a private-equity specialist and by enlisting Bill Clinton as his chief explainer.
Re-elected President Obama and Fiscal Cliff
BY DAVID KOTOK - FinancialSense.com
The almost interminable season of acrimony is over. We have the results. The Obama-led wing of the Democrat party will continue leading the nation in finance, economic matters and social direction.
One hopes the nation sets aside the meanness that we have witnessed and becomes serious about compromise. Issues need to be addressed. This process starts in the lame duck session of congress.
Obama back at the wheel as US economy heads for a fiscal cliff
Barack Obama has less than two months to broker a deal with the Republicans to prevent crippling budget cuts
By Larry Elliott, economics editor - The Guardian
Politics in the US is about to go from knife-edge to cliff-edge. The closely fought battle for the White House is over but the battle to prevent the US economy nosediving back into recession is about to begin.
Barack Obama has less than two months to broker a deal with the Republicans on Capitol Hill to prevent budget cuts worth $607bn (£380bn) of national output kicking in on 1 January.
Victory cements President Obama's first-term legislative legacy
By Amie Parnes and Niall Stanage - TheHill.com
CHICAGO — President Obama's reelection on Tuesday night elevated his place in history — no matter what happens in his second term.
A defeat would have allowed GOP opponent Mitt Romney and Republicans in Congress to roll back Obama's healthcare overhaul and the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
Boehner opens door to higher taxes on the wealthy
Boehner, Reid show willingness for deal to avoid fiscal cliff
By Robert Schroeder - MarketWatch.com
House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday each left the door open to striking a deal over taxes as a way of avoiding the impending "fiscal cliff." But hard bargaining lies ahead if the U.S. is to avoid the automatic spending cuts and the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts set to take place in January.
Senate Democrats are sticking to their guns on raising taxes on the wealthy as part of a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, even as markets were badly spooked on Wednesday.
Quick pivot after election - Boehner "gets it";
demographics have changed the American matrix.
Boehner opens door to 'new revenue' to curb debt
By Lori Montgomery - WashingtonPost.com
Quickly pivoting the political conversation from President Obama's reelection to Washington's looming budget battles, House Speaker John A. Boehner on Wednesday offered a potential path to compromise, saying Republicans are "willing to accept new revenue" to tame the soaring national debt and avert an ugly battle over the approaching "fiscal cliff."
With Obama's decisive electoral victory and Republicans' hold on the House, with a slightly smaller majority, Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday's election amounted to a plea from voters for the parties to lay down their weapons of the past two years and "do what's best for our country."
House Speaker calls for 'down payment' on 'fiscal cliff'
By Russell Berman and Erik Wasson - TheHill.com
In the wake of the GOP's disappointing election, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday signaled a willingness to accept higher tax revenues as part of a deficit cutting deal.
The fast-approaching deadline to stop a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts left Boehner and other leaders with little time to digest Republican Mitt Romney's defeat on Tuesday.
Wall Street Casts Its Vote: The Market Is Going Down
By Patti Domm - CNBC.com
Fears that President Barack Obama's re-election could send the U.S. economy and country over the "fiscal cliff" helped trigger a major stock market sell off and sent investors into the safety of Treasurys.
With a wary eye on Europe's continuing debt drama, investors also reacted to warnings, first from Fitch, then Moody's that the rating agencies stand ready to cut the U.S. triple A credit rating if responsible fiscal actions are not taken. Standard and Poor's already took action on the rating in 2011.
New battle follows hard on Obama win
Emergency negotiations with Congress over fiscal cliff
By Richard McGregor in Chicago - FT.com
Barack Obama returned to Washington on Wednesday after his convincing electoral victory over Mitt Romney, braced for emergency negotiations with Congress over the budgetary impasse that threatens to send the US economy back into recession.
Mr Obama's comprehensive victory , secured by his sweep of seven battleground states stretching from Virginia to Nevada, demoralised Republicans and is set to spark a bitter debate within the party over its hardline positions on issues such as immigration, tax and abortion.
Now Comes America's Real Test
By Lionel Barber, Financial Times
There have been lower and meaner presidential election campaigns: Richard Nixon's "amnesty, abortion and acid" jibe against George McGovern in 1972 comes to mind. Even so, this was a gruelling and ill-tempered contest
President Barack Obama faces an immediate test of leadership, not merely to overcome the divisions between Democrats and Republicans that have largely paralysed Washington. The greater challenge is how to rekindle a spirit of can-do optimism in a nation beaten down by the global financial crisis.
Wall St. ready to reconcile with Obama
By Peter Schroeder - TheHill.com
Financial firms are looking to regroup and adjust to a new political landscape in Washington that will bring one of their harshest critics to the U.S. Senate.
Big banks will have to spend the next four years working with a president they tried to oust in favor of Republican Mitt Romney, and are preparing to deal with a familiar adversary in Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
As Barack Obama clinches victory,
his task as president is clear:
fight for America's middle-class
If Warren Buffett is moved to complain that he pays less tax proportionately than his cleaner, something must be rotten in the modern United States
By JAMES MOORE - Independent.co.uk
British businessmen often look across the pond with a glint of envy in their eyes. America, you see, is in love with the cult of the entrepreneur, and with moneymaking generally.
The Republican heartland has been referred to as Jesusland, but they worship Mammon with the same fervour as they worship the Christian prophet in the Bible belt. When people venture to protest about the excesses of the wealthy, of the "1 per cent" over there, Republicans accuse them of indulging in "the politics of envy" while promising more tax cuts for the wealthiest in American society so they can "create jobs" and protect "America's special place in the world".
The New Barack Obama
By Robert Wright - TheAtlantic.com
We have a new president! I mean, not in the sense of the president being someone other than Barack Obama. But in the sense of the president being a second-term Obama rather than a first-term Obama. That makes a big difference. There's a tendency to emphasize the negative part of the difference -- as in "lame duck." But there's a kind of liberation that comes from being a lame duck, and that can bring a lot of good.
The good flows from two things: Worrying more about legacy -- about how posterity will judge you -- and worrying less (in fact, not at all) about getting reelected. Right now, shortly after Obama's triumph, I may be feeling too optimistic about how much good can come from these things. But I'm sure some good can come from them. In any event, here are some issues that I hope will benefit from a liberated Barack Obama:
25 problems facing Obama, Congress
By Erik Wasson - TheHill.com
A slew of thorny issues awaits President Obama and Congress in the lame-duck session, ranging from taxes to defense to Medicare.
Obama's victory increases the chances that the lame duck will be productive, but it remains to be seen if the president and leaders on Capitol Hill can break the gridlock that has gripped the 112th Congress.
A second term –
and a second chance at the greatness he promised
By DAVID USBORNE - Independent.co.uk
Barack Obama emerged early yesterday from the mincing machine of the presidential election, bruised but politically intact after decisively dispatching Mitt Romney and thus securing a second chance at becoming the transformative leader he had always promised to be.
After weeks of suspense that saw Mr Romney surge from behind to what seemed like grasping distance of the keys to the White House, Mr Obama finally ground out a victory in the Electoral College tallies, with none of the overwhelming margins or sense of grand destiny of 2008.
What an Obama Victory Means for the Middle East
By Claude Salhani - OilPrice.com
Memo to the Arab World: Good news and bad news with the re-election of Barack Obama to the White House.
The good news is that a victory by the Republican candidate Mitt Romney would have given Israel and its current leadership a free hand at continuing a policy of arrogance that will lead the region towards greater mayhem. Romney's lack of experience in foreign affairs compiled with his extreme pro-Israeli stance could have encouraged Israel's hawkish government towards military adventurism rather than to seek solutions through diplomacy and dialogue, the latter being the only way anything will ever get resolved. Perhaps Obama, who sees things somewhat differently, might help keep Mr. Netanyahu's government in check until there is a change in Israel's political landscape.
No need for a Plan B here either...
No 10 rejoices as Mitt falls short
Cameron congratulates his 'friend' on election victory
as he continues tour of the Middle East
By ANDREW GRICE - Independent.co.uk
Although Downing Street kept out of the US election – in line with tradition – there was genuine relief at No 10 yesterday that David Cameron would not have to forge a relationship with Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate.
Cameron aides were privately scathing of Mr Romney when he visited Britain this summer and united the political class against him by suggesting London was not ready to host a successful Olympics. Relations would have been repaired if he had won, continuing the "special relationship" over which UK prime ministers obsess, much to the White House's bemusement. But Cameron aides were very happy that their US election Plan B remained in the bottom drawer.
Greeks clash with riot police
as politicans pass austerity measures
Greek parliament on Wednesday narrowly approved a new austerity package demanded by EU-IMF creditors to keep the country's economy afloat.
Telegraph.co.uk
Conservative and socialist lawmakers from Greece's three-party coalition government voted to adopt the €18.5bn budget cuts by 2016 despite protests earlier in the day by more than 70.000 people who massed outside the parliament.
Violent protesters threw fire bombs and rocks at police, who responded with stun grenades, tear gas and the first use of water cannon in Greece in years.
Hundreds of thousands more jobs to go, EU warns
BY ANDREW RETTMAN - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - About 730,000 more people will lose their jobs in the EU before the economic crisis starts to ease off, the European Commission said on Wednesday (7 November).
The grim outlook, part of the commission's regular economic forecasting, is based on a prediction the jobless rate in the Union will go from 10.6 percent today - already a record number - to 10.9 percent next year before dropping to 10.7 percent in 2014.
Angst returns on German recession fears and US fiscal cliff
Stock markets skidded across the world and investors retreated to safe-haven assets on fears that Europe's festering crisis has spread to Germany and a bitterly-divided Washington may struggle to avert a fiscal crisis.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank's president, warned that Germany is no longer insulated from the slump in southern Europe. "The latest data suggest that these developments are now starting to affect the German economy," he said, triggering an immediate sell-off on Europe's bourses and pushing the euro down to almost $1.27 against the dollar.
Germany's industrial output dropped 1.8pc in September and orders fell 3.3pc, far worse than expected. Spanish industrial output fell 7pc. Annalisa Piazza from Newedge said it was a shocking upset and implies that Germany may be in recession already.
EU to be federalised in the long run, Merkel says
BY VALENTINA POP - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS AND BERLIN - The EU commission will eventually become a government, the council of member states an "upper chamber" and the European Parliament more powerful, but fixing the eurozone problems is more urgent for now, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told MEPs on Wednesday (7 November).
Back in the European Parliament for the first tim since she chaired the rotating EU presidency in 2007, Merkel laid out her vision for Europe, which Germany feels "deeply committed to" ever since its re-unification 22 years ago.
Beijing Sinking Teeth into Western Turf in Asia
By Daniel J. Graeber - OilPrice.com
Representatives from Russian energy company Gazprom met this week with Kazakh officials to discuss the natural gas potential in the region. Gazprom said delivering gas from Kazakhstan to members of the Commonwealth of Independent States topped the agenda. In nearby Turkmenistan, meanwhile, Western supporters of a $9 billion natural gas pipeline are pressing their case as part of a broader economic initiative for the region. Gazprom, through its joint venture in Kazakhstan, aims to exploit the 116 trillion cubic feet of estimated natural gas reserves there. With little international support of their own for the project in Turkmenistan, Western powers risk losing their grip on a once hotly-contested part of Central Asia.
China's Communist leadership set for change
By William Wan - WashingtonPost.com
BEIJING — China's once-a-decade leadership transition began Thursday with all the pageantry, security and behind-the-scenes political intrigue befitting the secretive Communist Party's most sensitive event.
The usually crowded Tiananmen Square had been cleared, giving it an eerie, post-apocalyptic feel. Activists had been chased out of the capital, and buildings across the city were draped in flags, flowers and signs, all colored communist red.
Bureaucracy could Kill the U.S. Shale Gas Industry
By Marin Katusa - OilPrice.com
On May 11, 2012, the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published proposed regulations governing "Oil and Gas; Well Stimulation, Including Hydraulic Fracturing, on Federal and Indian Lands." BLM is a latecomer to this party. Its belated meddling lacks practical or economic justification. Instead, the proposed BLM rule would drive oil and gas developers off federal and tribal lands. Complying with the rules is too complicated and costly. Producers can realize a much faster and much better return on their capital investment by developing oil and gas reserves on adjoining private lands.
John Kerry among frontrunners to replace Hillary Clinton
Competition to become US secretary of state is between former presidential candidate and ambassador to UN, Susan Rice
By Julian Borger - The Guardian
Hillary Clinton's departure from the state department opens up a vacancy for the US cabinet's highest ranking post, and the competition has been quiet but intense.
The two frontrunners are Senator John Kerry and the ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, with the lead apparently swapping hands more than once if Washington conventional wisdom is to be believed. Rice, a veteran diplomat and foreign policy scholar, was widely seen as the favourite for much of the year, but was seen to stumble in the final stretch over the attack in September on the US consulate in Benghazi in which the ambassador was among those killed.
America's Third-World Politics
By Dani Rodrik - Project-Syndicate.org
CAMBRIDGE – With its presidential election over, the United States can finally take a breather from campaign politics, at least for a while. But an uncomfortable question lingers: How is it possible for the world's most powerful country and its oldest continuous democracy to exhibit a state of political discourse that is more reminiscent of a failed African state?
Maybe that is too harsh an assessment of Africa's nascent democracies. If you think I exaggerate, you have not been paying close attention. The pandering to extremist groups, the rejection of science, the outright lies and distortions, and the evasion of the real issues that characterized the most recent election cycle set a new low for democratic politics.
The Real Road Forward
PatriotPost.com
"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death." --Thomas Paine
Patriots, as the sun rose this morning on the remains of a battle lost, the odds we face in our quest to restore Liberty and the Rule of Law enshrined in our Declaration and Constitution, may seem insurmountable. However, I ask you find strength and encouragement in these words from the most noble of Founding Patriots, George Washington.
In 1777, at a very dark moment amid defeats in the first quest for Liberty -- and just before the fall of Philadelphia and the brutal Winter at Valley Forge, Washington wrote one of his generals: "We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times."
The Second Coming of Barack Obama
By Kemal Derviş - Project-Syndicate.org
WASHINGTON, DC – The race was tough, but US President Barack Obama has won re-election. The question now, for the United States and the world, is what will he do with a fresh four-year term?
To win re-election with a still-weak economy and unemployment close to 8% was not easy. Many leaders – Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero come to mind – have been swept away by economic discontent in recent years. Although the financial disaster erupted on George W. Bush's watch, after eight years of a Republican presidency, Obama had to carry the burden of an anemic recovery.
The Special Interests Won Again
By Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org
The election that was supposed to be too close to call turned out not to be so close after all. In my opinion, Obama won for two reasons: (1) Obama is non-threatening and inclusive, whereas Romney exuded a "us vs. them" impression that many found threatening, and (2) the election was not close enough for the electronic voting machines to steal.
As readers know, I don't think that either candidate is a good choice or that either offers a choice. Washington is controlled by powerful interest groups, not by elections. What the two parties fight over is not alternative political visions and different legislative agendas, but which party gets to be the whore for Wall Street, the military-security complex, Israel Lobby, agribusiness, and energy, mining, and timber interests.
Democrats keep grasp on control of Senate
By Dave Boyer-The Washington Times
Republicans fell short Tuesday night of their goal of winning control of the Senate, after a campaign beset with weak candidate recruitment and self-inflicted gaffes in some of the GOP's most promising races.
From Massachusetts to Montana, in 10 competitive Senate contests, Republicans in late returns were poised to pick up as many as three Senate seats from Democrats. But Democrats also picked up at least three seats from the GOP, allowing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and his troops to maintain their control of the chamber.
A SILVER LINING AND A CONUNDRUM
By John Hinderaker - PowerlineBlog.com
I can see only one good outcome from yesterday's election: the fact that Barack Obama will be the president who inherits the mess left by Barack Obama. The economy is in awful shape; it won't get much better given Obama's policies, and may get worse. Many billions of dollars in capital that have been sitting on the sidelines, awaiting the outcome of this year's election, will now give up on the United States and go elsewhere. Plants will be built in Korea and Brazil that would have been built here if the election had gone differently. The chronically unemployed–a group that is larger now than at any time since the Great Depression–aren't going back to work. Nor are the millions who have signed up for permanent disability. Incomes will continue to stagnate. I don't understand why anyone would vote for four more years of unemployment and poverty, but that is what the American people voted for, and that is what they are going to get.
How Obama Won Four More Years
He became a street fighter.
And he had a better team that ran a first-rate campaign.
By John Dickerson - Slate.com
In the end, it wasn't close. Barack Obama won re-election handily over Mitt Romney with 303 electoral votes (so far), well more than the 270 electoral votes needed. Of the nine battleground states that were up for grabs, Obama won seven of them, losing only North Carolina (Florida remains to be called). But while Obama won those states, he didn't crush it; he won instead, a string of precise narrow victories. He didn't win because his leadership during Hurricane Sandy blew all those swing votes his way (though it may have helped). The president won because he ran a permanent campaign, keeping his offices open in the battleground states from his 2008 campaign, tending his coalition assiduously, and because he relentlessly defined his opponent. His was the better campaign. The Democratic candidate of "hope and change" beat the big business Republican in the trenches, in one state after another.
Obama and progressives:
what will liberals do with their big election victory?
With fights over social security, Medicare, ongoing war, and other key progressive priorities looming, what will they do with their new power?
By Glenn Greenwald - Guardian.co.uk
The greatest and most enduring significance of Tuesday night's election results will likely not be the re-election of Barack Obama, but rather what the outcome reflects about the American electorate. It was not merely Democrats, but liberalism, which was triumphant.
To begin with, it is hard to overstate just how crippled America's right-wing is. Although it was masked by their aberrational win in 2010, the GOP has now been not merely defeated, but crushed, in three out of the last four elections: in 2006 (when they lost control of the House and Senate), 2008 (when Obama won easily and Democrats expanded their margins of control), and now 2012. The horrendous political legacy of George Bush and Dick Cheney continues to sink the GOP, and demographic realities – how toxic the American Right is to the very groups that are now becoming America's majority – makes it difficult to envision how this will change any time soon.
Mitt Romney's Reality Check
By Jonathan Schell - Project-Syndicate.org
NEW YORK – There is a kind of war underway in the United States nowadays between fact and fantasy. President Barack Obama's re-election marked a victory, limited but unmistakable, for the cause of fact.
Events in the days leading up to America's presidential election provided a stark illustration of the struggle. Among senior aides to Republican challenger Mitt Romney, a belief developed that he was on the cusp of victory. Their conviction had no basis in poll results. Nevertheless, the feeling grew so strong that aides began to address Romney as "Mr. President."
After Romney's loss,
Republicans need a rethink but not reinvention
In the wake of Romney's defeat, some GOP soul-searching is inevitable. But don't mistake a flawed candidate for a failed party
By James Antle - Guardian.co.uk
It is easy to make both too much and too little of the Republicans' defeat in the 2012 elections.
The presidential contest was only a crushing disappointment to the GOP because Mitt Romney managed to revive his flagging campaign late with a strong first debate performance. Before that, it looked like Barack Obama might win re-election by six points nationally. When all the votes are counted, Obama may have won by less than two.
The Twilight of the GOP Establishment:
Who Will Save Republicans, Now?
Newt Gingrich nailed it: "If you're not going to be competitive with Latinos, with African-Americans, with Native Americans, with Asian-Americans, you're not going to be a successful party."
By David Rohde - TheAtlantic.com
Within hours of President Obama winning re-election, two faces of the Republican Party emerged. One impressed me enormously. The other deeply troubled me. Liberals, meanwhile, rejoiced at having averted what they saw as a national calamity.
The time, though, is not for gloating. It is for supporting the Republicans who can rein in their party's far right and help us all. For me, Fox News, of all places, was a hopeful sign.
At Romney headquarters, the defeat of the 1 percent
By Dana Milbank - WashingtonPost.com
BOSTON
It was a victory party fit for the 1 percent.
Over in Chicago, the Obama campaign had invited 10,000 to fill the floor of the McCormick Place convention center. But here in Boston, Mitt Romney favored a more genteel soiree for an exclusive crowd.
Romney's election-night event was in a ballroom at the Boston Exhibition and Convention Center that could accommodate a few hundred. Most men wore jacket and tie; women donned dresses and heels. Secret Service agents blocked reporters from mixing with the Romney supporters as they sipped cocktails and nibbled canapes.
Tea party leader: GOP establishment is the big loser
By Seth McLaughlin-The Washington Times
BOSTON — Slamming the Republican Party establishment for tapping Mitt Romney as its standard-bearer, the co-founder of the nation's largest tea party group said Wednesday the lessons learned from the 2012 presidential election will strengthen the grass-roots movement, making it an even more important part of the GOP's future.
Jenny Beth Martin, of the Tea Party Patriots, said Mr. Romney's loss to President Obama Tuesday serves as a stark reminder that "conservative" candidates lose if they do not fully embrace the limited government principles that the grass-roots movement embodies.
The GOP Needs a Economic Plan
For More Than the White Establishment
Republicans have a choice. They can blame their messaging.
Or they can blame their message.
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
Last night, with the reality of Obama's reelection coming into focus, Bill O'Reilly spoke from his heart.
"The white establishment is now the minority. And the voters, many of them, feel that the economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. You are going to see a tremendous Hispanic vote for President Obama. Overwhelming black vote for President Obama. And women will probably break President Obama's way. People feel that they are entitled to things and which candidate, between the two, is going to give them things? ...
"The demographics are changing," he said. "It's not a traditional America anymore."
How Could the Republicans Have Been So Stupid?
By Bill Boyarsky - Truthdig.com
What was so striking about this election was the nation's rejection of the Republican attacks, both open and subtle, against ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians and all women.
In giving President Barack Obama a second term, the country has spurned Republican lies, protection of the rich and scorn for Latinos and African-Americans. Instead, the election assured a continuation of decent health care, fair taxation and protection of the rights of immigrants.
Little to Show for Cash Flood by Big Donors
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and JESS BIDGOOD - NYTimes.com
At the private air terminal at Logan Airport in Boston early Wednesday, men in unwrinkled suits sank into plush leather chairs as they waited to board Gulfstream jets, trading consolations overMitt Romney's loss the day before.
"All I can say is the American people have spoken," said Kenneth Langone, the founder of Home Depot and one of Mr. Romney's top fund-raisers, briskly plucking off his hat and settling into a couch.
Take the Money and Lose
Why did Republican super PACs
waste so many millions on bad TV?
By David Weigel - Slate.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio—For the past few weeks, whenever an Ohioan left his TV on for too long, he would see Sen. Sherrod Brown's head on a cartoon body. He would see this more often than he saw Brown himself. The Now or Never PAC, funded by two Missouri millionaires, spent $1.2 million on a commercial in which a googly-eyed Brown stole money from families and coal plants. Another big buy, from Associated Builders and Contractors, portrayed Brown as a demented cartoon, sitting at a desk with an "I Love Taxes" coffee mug, rubber-stamping documents with an Obama campaign logo.
Geographic shift seen in House races
By Alexandra Jaffe - TheHill.com
Democrats appear likely to pick up seven seats in the House of Representatives when all the races are counted, which is nowhere near the 25 the party needed to regain a majority but is at the upper end of the number they were projected to win this cycle.
With eight seats up in the air as of late Wednesday evening, The Associated Press called 193 seats for Democrats and 232 for Republicans.
Republicans face murky political future
in increasingly diverse U.S.
By Peter Wallsten - WashingtonPost.com
Republican leaders awoke Wednesday to witness their grim future. And then promptly began what promises to be an extended period of internal strife over how a party that skews toward older, white men can compete in an increasingly diverse America.
President Obama's decisive victory over Mitt Romney served as a clinic in 21st-century politics, reflecting expanded power for black and Hispanic voters, dominance among women, a larger share of young voters and even a rise in support among Asians.
Grand Old Party in search of brand-new message
Defeated right torn in two and seeking broader base
By Lionel Barber and Stephanie Kirchgaessner - FT.com
Mitt Romney's decisive defeat will unleash another bout of soul-searching in a Republican party torn between conservative purists and a moderate rump aware that the Grand Old Party must broaden its appeal to have any chance of regaining the White House.
Amid signs of recrimination that the richly endowed Romney campaign had failed to take advantage of a feeble economy to oust Barack Obama, Republicans had to swallow a bitter truth: for five out of the past six presidential elections they have failed to win the popular vote.
GOP is faced with identity crisis
By Justin Sink - TheHill.com
BOSTON — Republicans were in a soul-searching mood Wednesday, pondering their political future after President Obama won a resounding victory despite the stagnant economy and an approval rating routinely south of 50 percent.
The 2012 election seemed to underscore the point many in the GOP most feared in 2008: Without improving numbers among Hispanic voters and women, and with a younger population becoming more socially liberal each year, the Republican Party risks marginalization in future presidential elections.
Five things the Republican Party must do
Commentary: If you can't beat Obama,
you're doing something wrong
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Four years ago, the Republican Party set as its No. 1 goal the ruination of Barack Obama. Nothing was more important than making sure that Obama was not re-elected.
The party failed miserably in its task. Now it's time for the Grand Old Party to take a cold hard look at itself.
If the Republicans couldn't win this election — against a Democratic president who's presided over such a pathetic economic recovery — you have to wonder when they'll ever be successful.
Mich. voters reject pro-union amendment
By Andrea Billups-The Washington Times
DETROIT — Michigan voters handed organized labor a setback in Tuesday's voting, rejecting a closely-watched measure that would have enshrined union collective bargaining rights in the state constitution.
Proposal 2 was defeated handily, 58 to 42 percent, with 94 percent of precincts reporting, even as President Obama and Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow scored comfortable wins in the state.
Colorado, Washington blow smoke in feds' face
by OK'ing pot for fun
By Jerry Seper and Jim McElhatton-The Washington Times
In passing amendments in Colorado and Washington state for the first time legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, voters may have placed themselves in the cross hairs of the federal government — which steadfastly has maintained that possession of the drug remains a federal crime.
The amendments, which allow those 21 and older in Washington state to purchase an ounce of marijuana from a licensed retailer and in Colorado to possess an ounce of the drug and grow as many as six plants in private, set the stage for a possible showdown with the Obama administration and a demand for action on the question by Congress.
Waiving Freedom
Is this what the re-election of Barack Obama will mean?
By THOMAS SOWELL - Spectator.org
Among the objections to Obamacare, one that has not gotten as much attention as it should is the president's power to waive the law for any company, union, or other enterprise he chooses.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution provides for "equal protection of the laws" for all Americans. To have a law that can cost an organization millions of dollars a year either apply or not apply, depending on the whim or political interest of the President of the United States, is to make a mockery of the rule of law.
TEPCO Doubles Estimate
for Fukushima Clean Up to $125 Billion
By Charles Kennedy - OilPrice.com
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has said admitted that the cost of cleaning up after the Fukushima disaster and paying off the compensation claims made may double from the five trillion yen it had estimated back in April, to ten trillion yen ($125 billion).
The company released a statement today that said, "there is a view that we may need the same amount (again) of additional money for the decontamination of low-level radiation areas and costs of temporary facilities for storing waste."
Netanyahu Rushes to Repair Damage With President
By JODI RUDOREN - NYTimes.com
JERUSALEM — Over the past several years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has on several occasions confronted or even undercutPresident Obama, taking his message directly to the Israel-friendly United States Congress, challenging Mr. Obama's appeal to the Arab world, and seeming this fall to support his opponent, Mitt Romney.
Mr. Netanyahu woke up Wednesday to find not only that his Republican friend had lost, but also that many Israelis were questioning whether he had risked their collective relationship with Washington.
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