Calling Obama Socialist 'Won't Stick:' Jeb Bush

(NEWSER) - Republicans think they’ve found one chink in President Obama’s armor: public fear over rising national debt. Some 51% of Americans disapprove of Obama’s efforts to control federal spending, according to a recent poll. In every other area, Obama enjoys positive ratings. “The president is still popular, but his policies are catching up with him,” Sen. Lamar Alexander told Politico. “When that happens, it helps us make our points.” More»

It's OK Obama's 'jamming a lot of change down the system'

(NEWSER) - Bill Clinton has a hopeful exhortation for Congressional Democrats trying to push through health care reform. “The president's doing the right thing. It is both morally and politically right,” Clinton tells Esquire. “I wouldn't even worry about the Republicans,” who are just “sitting around waiting for us to mess up,” he says. “I'd worry about executing.” Clinton sees parallels between Obama’s first year and his own, with one caveat. More»

Krugman: It's a 'disaster' for the country, and shows he'll surrender again

(NEWSER) - President Obama caved deeply in a debt deal that made the Republicans big winners, with both Andrew Leonard and Paul Krugman arguing that he "surrendered." Their take:

• “In the end, President Obama had to admit surrender,” writes Andrew Leonard in Salon , detailing “a smashing victory for the Tea Party and a crushing defeat for Democrats.” In Obama’s defense, he “had to choose between an awful deal or an outright catastrophe.” But he made a mistake in trying to sell it as a compromise. "The president said it was not 'the deal I would have preferred.' He should have said it's a bad deal that does not address the pressing needs of the nation," but one that he had no choice but to sign.

Even though 'there is no deal' yet

(NEWSER) - The House must move to raise the debt ceiling by Wednesday, John Boehner told a closed House GOP meeting. First, of course, a deal must be struck, and as yet, “there is no deal. There is no agreement in private,” Boehner told the press, and leaders aren’t “close” to one. The House, however, has “done its job” in seeking agreement, he said, and the Senate needs to do its part, the AP notes. Meanwhile, progress reports continue to conflict sharply. More»

'Dysfunctional' party is pointing the nation toward something like Armageddon

(NEWSER) - One thing we’ve learned from the debt ceiling debate: Republicans are no longer behaving rationally. They’ve been revealed as a “dysfunctional” party “whose conservative wing is behaving less like a mainstream electoral force than an ultra-left sect being advised by a petulant 2-year-old,” writes Gary Younge in the Guardian . “It is simply not economically feasible to cut the US deficit without raising taxes.” More»