Coyote Gulch

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Obama for president?
Barack Obama announced his candidacy officially today. He wants the younger generation to eliminate the partisanship of the Baby Boomers.

Update:
Here's the link to the video of Senator Obama's speech today from Springfield, Illinois.
"2008 pres"
4:34:15 PM

Economy: Wage inequality
Ben S. Bernanke (Chairman of the Federal Reserve): "Although average economic well-being has increased considerably over time, the degree of inequality in economic outcomes has increased as well. Importantly, rising inequality is not a recent development but has been evident for at least three decades, if not longer. The data on the real weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers illustrate this pattern. In real terms, the earnings at the 50th percentile of the distribution (which I will refer to as the median wage) rose about 11-1/2 percent between 1979 and 2006. Over the same period, the wage at the 10th percentile, near the bottom of the wage distribution, rose just 4 percent, while the wage at the 90th percentile, close to the top of the distribution, rose 34 percent. In 1979, a full-time worker at the 90th percentile of the wage distribution earned about 3.7 times as much as a full-time worker at the 10th percentile. Reflecting the relatively faster growth of wages of higher-paid workers, that ratio is 4.7 today. The gap between the 90th and 10th percentiles of the wage distribution rose particularly rapidly through most of the 1980s; since then, it has continued to trend up, albeit at a slower pace and with occasional reversals.

"The long-term trend toward greater inequality seen in real wages is also evident in broader measures of financial well-being, such as real household income. For example, the share of income received by households in the top fifth of the income distribution, after taxes have been paid and government transfers have been received, rose from 42 percent in 1979 to 50 percent in 2004, while the share of income received by those in the bottom fifth of the distribution declined from 7 percent to 5 percent. The share of after-tax income garnered by the households in the top 1 percent of the income distribution increased from 8 percent in 1979 to 14 percent in 2004 (Congressional Budget Office, 2006). Even within the top 1 percent, the distribution of income has widened during recent decades."

Read the whole speech.
"2008 pres"
7:42:38 AM

? for president?
Craig Crawford (via CQPolitics.com): "As the presidential contenders from both parties start being placed by conventional wisdom into two camps, top tier and second tier, the Republican and Democratic front-runners seem most notable these days for what they all have in common: Each of them has at least one glaring flaw, and that presents plenty of opportunities for the others to move up from also-rans in the most wide-open race for the White House in eight decades. It's tough to tell if this is an unusually deficient crop of major contenders or whether the intense focus on their shortcomings is just a natural part of the early hustings in modern presidential campaigns. Either way, the foremost hopefuls are each battling grave enough concerns about their chances that you have to wonder if they are really up to the challenge of this extraordinarily momentous election. Already, the 2008 campaign is historic because of its lack of an heir apparent; 1928 was the last time when neither the president nor vice president was in the hunt for the top job. Even President Harry S Truman was on New Hampshire's Democratic primary ballot in 1952, despite already having decided not to run again. After finishing second to Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, he made his non-candidacy official and his vice president, Alben Barkley, briefly sought the nod before being rebuffed by party leaders."

Thanks to Political Wire for the link.

TPM Cafe: "In advance of her trip to New Hampshire this weekend, Hillary Clinton has clarified her Iraq war vote in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader -- and she says that her vote for the 2002 resoltuion was not automatically a vote to go to war."

Political Wire: "Sen. Hillary Clinton received a bounce in her presidential poll numbers following the launch of her presidential campaign, according to the latest Zogby International poll. In Iowa, Clinton moved into a dead heat with John Edwards to lead the race, with both now with 24% support of likely Democratic caucus-goers. Sen. Barack Obama finished in a strong third position with 18% support. In New Hampshire, Clinton topped last month's leader Obama, winning support from 27%, compared to Obama's 23%. Meanwhile, Edwards slipped to 13%."

Political Wire: "The Albuquerque Journal is running an excellent five part series on New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and what ultimately led him to announce his presidential candidacy. The first three parts were published, with remaining parts coming over the next two Sundays."
"2008 pres"
7:14:14 AM

Iraq
Dave Winer (Quoting the New York Times): "A report by the Pentagon inspector general has finally confirmed that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's do-it-yourself intelligence office cooked up a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda to help justify an unjustifiable war."
"2008 pres"
6:59:38 AM