Consider: after watching the utter failures of the budget negotiations, the debt-ceiling battle, and the congressional "super committee," Americans sent the same fractious crew back to tackle the so-called "fiscal cliff" negotiations.
Why? Because, outside the most ideologically vehement partisans, most Americans don't favor one detailed set of policies or another. They don't even think they know the best ones. And they don't want anyone who does think they have all the answers — left or right — to have an unchecked path to implement them.
>>DBERNSTEIN[a]PHX.COM:: @DBERNSTEIN
IS MENINO CALLING IT QUITS? Pundits at the Globe and WBUR certainly seem to think so. Bernstein weighs in at thePhoenix.com/talkingpolitics.
Related:
Little things, Seeing things, What happens if they hold a city election and nobody notices?, More 
- Little things
In the midst of the new Republican majority's mania to reduce the size and cost of state government, I offer some advice and a warning.
- Seeing things
Early last week, US Senator Scott Brown claimed to have seen pictures of the dead Osama bin Laden, which he implied were shown to him in briefings. Hours later, his office put out word that the photos Brown had seen were not "authentic."
- What happens if they hold a city election and nobody notices?
The past few years, Boston has been almost continuously wrapped up in big, attention-getting elections.
- Obama's rebirth
It was a good weekend for the president.
- Generation X: Letters to the Boston Phoenix Editor, January 7, 2011
Your article, “ Gen X Goes to Washington ” (November 26, 2010) was great. I’m glad this topic is finally being discussed.
- Rating the campaigns
When reporters are trying to get info on candidates to share with voters, campaign staff hold the keys to the kingdom.
- Thrill and Agony
The vote totals that poured in through the state secretary's office November 6 provided one set of winners (Elizabeth Warren, John Tierney, Joe Kennedy III, medical marijuana) and losers (Scott Brown, Richard Tisei, medical suicide). But there were plenty of other victories and defeats in Bay State politics last Tuesday.
- Budging Forward
The nation has just suffered through fiscal-cliff negotiations that left nobody, on either side of the aisle, happy with the results or the process.
- Smoke signals
The Massachusetts Medical Society's strident opposition to medical marijuana helped prevent passage in the legislature, but could not defeat the ballot initiative.
- A Statesman Too Late?
The congressional debt "super committee" has begun its work, and already there are signs that its task is hopeless.
- Whatever happened to Danville's giant mystery monkey?
The giant monkey of Danville was my symbol, back then, of the fin-de-siècle nadir in media fluffery, thankfully obsolesced in one grim morning.
- Less
Topics:
Talking Politics
, campaigns, Talking Politics
