Bob Lord

Bob has mostly wound down his 39-year career as a tax and business lawyer (with a 1-year interruption to run for Congress in 2008 (CD3), when he tried to unseat John Shadegg. Bob now serves as the senior advisor on tax policy for the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans who believe the light taxation of America's rich is destabilizing our democracy, and as an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Bob has been writing for Blog For Arizona since late 2011, concentrating mostly on federal issues, with an occasional foray into Arizona state politics.

Carefully Scripted Debate Answers Don’t Cut It, Part III

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This one is easy, and short. You can’t say that you’re proud to have the pharmaceutical industry as your enemy, yet have received more campaign contributions from that industry than any candidate in either party. From The Hill: Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has received more campaign cash from drug companies than any candidate in … Read more

Carefully Scripted Debate Answers Don’t Cut It, Part II

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The perception that Hillary “won” the debate is growing. The latest polls from New Hampshire show a noticeable shift in her favor. However, what’s not being reported is that Hillary has been on an advertising binge in New Hampshire, so who knows what’s actually caused the shift.

And, hopefully, who cares. What should count is the information we received on Tuesday night.

One clear difference between Hillary and Bernie (and O’Malley) was their respective position on the repeal of Glass Steagall, the New Deal law that required a separation between commercial banking and investment banking. Bill Clinton repealed it in 1999. Sanders and O’Malley (and Elizabeth Warren for what that’s worth) want Glass Steagall re-instituted. Hillary opposes re-institution. Wall Street also opposes re-institution. Guess which candidate is hauling in the Wall Street cash?

Progressives, other than Hillary, who became a progressive Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to being a moderate, strongly favor re-institution of Glass Steagall.

But Hillary was not without a carefully scripted answer. 

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Carefully Scripted Debate Answers Don’t Cut It, Part I

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The Hillary supporters have their chests fully puffed out.

She was poised and she was “smart in her answers” I’ve read.

One of her “smart” answers was how she wanted to “wait and see” what happened in the states before moving forward on marijuana legalization. Yes, it’s a “smart” answer, if you care more about winning votes than you do about human lives, both Mexican and American. It won’t trouble the folks who are pro-legalization that much, and it also won’t scare the “we’ll all go to pot” crowd. And her supporters, even those who favor legalization, are so quick to point out how the states are incubators for democracy.

A real “progressive” who knows how to “stand her ground,” huh?

The trouble with Hillary’s answer?

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If You Were Listening Closely Tonight…

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I don’t know who “won” the debate. That’s more a matter of style than of substance. I thought O’Malley did, but the consensus seems to be otherwise.

But I did notice one very clear and critical difference between Clinton and Sanders in their framing of the issue of inequality. You had to listen carefully. A lot of what they said sounded the same. Their subtext, however, was radically different. 

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Driving While Musing

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By Ed Farmilant

[Cross-Posted, with permission from the writer, an Arizonan, from Daily Kos]

[Note to readers: If you run for office, and you’re lucky, you’ll meet an Ed Farmilant or two along the way. I met Ed in 2008 and we’ve stayed friendly since. He has a wonderful perspective, which this guest post gives me the opportunity to share. Hope you enjoy it!]

 

The bumper sticker on the car slightly ahead and to the right of me said something like “The Constitution: vexing liberals since 1789”.   My first thought was doesn’t the driver know about the ACLU?

But, then I realized that even if he did, (and how could he not?) it wouldn’t matter; this level of what is called cognitive dissonance has to be high for him to think that message made sense.

Although I try not to profile, as I pulled even with him, I saw that he was a gray haired white man, with a determined look and absolutely no joy in his face.  So I knew all about him.

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