CatherineRhodes.com

Scene from the October Working World Job Fair in Los Angeles. Yes, companies are hiring!

The Jobs Report is out and numbers look good: businesses hired 159,000 people in October. This represents four straight months of job growth at over 100,000 per month. According to ABC News, this is the first time in more than four years this has happened.

The best part of the news is that there is an increase in temp hiring, which is a bellweather to economic recovery. Companies test the waters with temporary workers before committing to full-time employees.

The only bad part of the report is that it came out after election day. PLEASE politicians, what we are doing is finally working. Now it’s only a matter of time and we MUST stay the course. Do not let Boehner and his reactionaries succeed, whose only agenda item is overthrowing Obama.

Let’s do what’s right for the country, not what’s needed to stroke the egos of the Republican elephants like Rove and Limbaugh.

The smartest guys in the room

Much has been made about JS calling the leader of the free world “Dude,” but the truth is that these two men are peers and the casual reference did not seem inappropriate. They’re 47 and 48-years-old and each is operating at the top of his game. Interesting that they both from groups that historically have been discriminated against. Sure, BO has the edge being POTUS, but a recent survey of 500,000 on Askmen.com ranked Jon Stewart as the Number 1 most influential man in America. (Mr. Obama came in at 21.) During the interview on his show, Stewart articulated precisely the question so many true believers want to ask — Namely, was the hope and change platform a sham? IMHO, Jon Stewart put himself on the map with the Jim Cramer interview, and the show just keeps getting better.

There’s a buzz surrounding Ms Elizabeth Warren as a possible Supreme Court nominee, to which I emphatically say, NO! We need the smartest woman in the country managing the communal bankbook.

Meanwhile, over in the “real America” Caribou Barbie just won’t shut up. She uses her folksy charm as a way to hide the fact that she knows NOTHING. Here’s what she said to Hannity regarding nukes in Iran.

No administration in America’s history would, I think, ever have considered such a step that we just found out  President Obama is supporting today. It’s kinda like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face and I’m not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.’

Striking the perfect note, POTUS responded in the media with a smash to the net that was witty yet classy. Here is President Obama in an interview with ABC News:

The last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues …  if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I’m probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin.

This was the same week that POTUS signed a nuclear ban with Russia. Meanwhile, back in wingnut land, Ms. Palin has found her soulmate.  From the Wall Street Journal, on meeting Rep. Michele Bachmann, part of the lunatic fringe from Minnesota.

I knew that we’d be buddies when I met her when she said, ‘Drill here, drill now.’ And then I replied, ‘Drill, baby, drill’ and then we both said, ‘You betcha!’

1854 Pres. Pierce vetoes a national health bill saying it would be unconstitutional to regard health as anything but a private matter.

1912 Teddy Roosevelt campaigns on a platform calling for a single national health service. He is defeated.

The Brits have had universal healthcare since the 1930s

1939 A proposal by Pres. Franklin Roosevelt for national health insurance fails as Southern Democrats align with Republicans.

1948 Pres. Truman’s plan for government-run healthcare fails after the AMA criticizes it and Republicans compare it to communism.

1954 Pres. Eisenhower proposes a $25M plan to provide healthcare to uninsured Americans. Congress rejects it.

1971 Sen. Edward Kennedy offers his national health insurance plan calling for a single payer.

1974 Pres. Nixon’s proposal for universal coverage dies in Congress.

1979 Pres. Carter proposes expansion of health insurance for the poor and a “public option.” It dies in Congress.

1993 Pres. Clinton proposes healthcare overhaul. It dies in Congress.

2009 President Obama proposes universal healthcare, setting off more than a year of debate, with Republicans universally resistant.

March 21, 2010 Yes we can!

I’ve always admired Kucinich for his stand on universal coverage, but now he realizes it’s “crunch time” for Obama’s healthcare reform plan and the perfect can’t be the enemy of the good. In other words, he’s become a pragmatist.  God, let’s get the votes and get ‘er done.

Yes, that's really his wife

Campaign workers called him the "black messiah"

Reading Game Change, which is a guilty pleasure, made all the more pleasurable by the fact that I was there through all the twists and turns of the race, working on the campaigns, checking out poll numbers. The book gives the back story to the events we saw on TV only after the candidate’s smiles were pasted on. Was talking with my friend Garth at Patina last night about it before the symphony, about how we were both so mesmerized by the election that we watched the primary returns from each state. In years past I may have watched the returns from California or maybe Iowa, but certainly not New Hampshire, South Carolina and split screens on Super Tuesday.

In this section of the book, Bill Clinton has just released his memoir for which he was given an advance of close to $10 million. Overscheduled, he arrived late to an Obama fundraiser in Chicago “exhausted, cranky and feeling every bit his age” but then rebounded to offer newcomer Barack Obama an introduction.

Clinton gave a juicily Clintonian introduction for Obama, praising his potential to the heavens. When Clinton was done, Obama stepped up and responded with a self-deprecating reference to his meager income relative to the piles of dough that Clinton’s book was hauling in: “My life would probably be a lot better if I was just finishing up this book tour,” Obama deadpanned.

Clinton laughed and then, being Clinton, reclaimed the floor.

“Sonny,” he declared, “I’d trade places with you any day of the week.”

A month later Barack Obama gave the triumphal keynote address at the Democratic National Convention and Bill Clinton had a heart attack.

A real insider

Great roundtable on This Week, George Stepanopholous’s old Sunday morning news show. Terry Moran is doing a great job as moderator. Whereas G.S. had a command over the conversation, he was a neutral observer whereas T.M. inserts himself a little more into the fray. Moran has my vote for replacement, although nobody will ever fill the shoes of Tim Russert over at Meet the Press. I digress. The table was discussing the CPAC convention, where the tea party crazies lead by lunatics Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck got riled up about the government. This exchange too place.

MORAN: The president’s loyalists seem to be disheartened.

BRAZILE: No, I don’t think they’re disheartened. They’re just asleep, and at some point, they’ll wake up. I’m an optimist.

All relationships are a constant process of damage and repair, and ours with our president is no different. Some of us had felt abandoned by him. We volunteered our time and donated money to help him win the election and little of his platform seemed to get done. Instead, he authorized 30,000 more troops for Afghanistan and let healthcare reform wither. Our great communicator seemed to have been absorbed into Washington. Last night he explained himself. He thought that if he kept his head down and worked on policy he didn’t need to be in front of the TV cameras. As my BFF Jon Stewart said, who does he think we are? We’re the ones who pushed the timeslot of the president’s annual speech to Congress to make room for the premier of “Lost.”

All that aside, last night, Mr. President, you made me remember why I spent Sunday mornings doing my volunteer booth in Larchmont — because you WILL bring hope and change to Washington. It will just take time.

Nice slam on the Supremes and overturning 100 years of precedent with their shocking ruling on corporate money. Sitting there smugly in their robes, not emoting, hopefully smarting.