The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities are still calling the tax cuts and war expenses a “Bush Legacy” and attributing most of our current and future debt and deficit to GWB. They are simply not acknowledging the facts. The argument itself and the dubious premise are exactly the same as when first presented three years ago. What has changed are the facts about who is the author and owner of the policies they are tracking. And by ignoring these facts, the CBPP has moved from a dubious, “disingenuous” argument to outright misrepresentation and falsehood.

In the 1992 presidential campaign, James Carville’s motivational meme “It’s the economy, stupid.” perfectly encapsulated the key issue of the election. In 2012 “It’s unsustainable, tuip”. You may not like the Romney/Ryan plans for dealing with our unsustainable spending, debt and entitlements, but at least it is a substantive plan and they are willing to talk about it during this campaign. If the Democrats and the Obama administration have a sustainable fiscal plan for the United States government I don’t know what it is, and they sure seem reluctant to talk about putting anything meaningful on the table. The easiest thing for the President to do would be to embrace the Simpson-Bowles plan. It was his commission. It was his idea. If the 2012 presidential election comes down to a choice between a candidate with a serious plan to get us out of this morass vs. a candidate that appears to ignore it – the man with the plan wins.

The early call: The Republicans will keep the majority in the House. Senate majority is leaning Republican but it’s too close to call. If the Republicans win the White House it is virtually certain they will also take the majority in the Senate and One Party Republican Rule will again hold sway. Voters who prefer to avoid a return to the “good old days” of 2000-2006 cannot rely on the Democrats holding the Senate, leaving only one certain way to avoid that outcome. The Divided Government vote for 2012 is a vote to re-elect Barack Obama.

George Will’s latest column is a pitch perfect observation on how President Obama’s State of the Union address betrays a longing for an “unfettered executive” branch by his administration and among his supporters. Will’s column is not without false notes. He implies by omission that the desire for an unfettered executive branch is unique to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Not so.

Conventional Wisdom in both main stream and non-traditional media have passed judgement on both the debt ceiling legislation and the bipartisan deficit reduction super committee it begat. Conventional Wisdom informs us that we have seen this movie before and we know how it ends. Conventional Wisdom tells us the bipartisan Super Committee will fail. Problem being – Conventional Wisdom is wrong.

Americans Elect, backed by a bucket load of New York mystery money, is hiring petition gatherers, fighting expensive legal battles, and doing the hard grunt work necessary to get on the ballot in all fifty states. All in order to field a presidential candidate – To Be Named Later. So – if you are considering putting your idealistic heart and soul into this brave new political operation, make sure you understand exactly what you are getting into.

The compromise will include some formula for revenue increases, (probably in the form eliminating deductions while reducing rates), it will include cuts to the military, and it will include deep meaningful and substantial cuts in spending in the overall budget. And the compromise will be agreed on the brink of default to no one’s satisfaction. In the meantime, we have six weeks of Kabuki theater to enjoy while the eventual compromise is hammered out. Both tribes will have ample opportunity to point at the feckless hypocrisy of the other. Enjoy the show.

Truly a double header. Not only does the New York Times provide a reasonably accurate description of the virtues of divided, but we also get their graphic version of the tortured creature known to us fondly in these parts as the “Donklephant”.

Public Policy Polling has a couple of new polls out focusing on Virginia. So far, it’s all good news for the Dems.

It is an open question whether there is anything meaningful to be gleaned from polls 20 months out from an election. At least these polls offer a baseline set of numbers to watch when the campaigns kick off in earnest.

For me, The most interesting element of the PPP summary is the highlighted question “…could there actually be a group of independent voters that go Obama/Allen in the interest of divided government?”. Regardless of how you would answer, it is significant that the question of whether independents are consciously making divided government voting decisions is even being asked. As you might expect, I offered my answer in the comments on that post

What seemed likely last fall is now a virtual certainty – the Republicans will retake the Senate majority in 2012. The only way to retain our happily divided government and avoid a rerun of One Party Republican Rule in 2013, will be to re-elect Barack Obama.