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Must Read Op-Eds for August 26, 2011

PRESIDENT RICK PERRY?BY DAVID BROOKS NEW YORK TIMES Romney is going to have to prove his own toughness by taking Perry on directly...

PRESIDENT RICK PERRY?BY DAVID BROOKS NEW YORK TIMES Romney is going to have to prove his own toughness by taking Perry on directly... First, Romney could accuse Perry of being the latest iteration of Tom DeLay Republicanism... The man who sounds so right wing today was the Texas chairman of the Al Gore for President campaign in 1988... The second line of attack is to shift what the campaign is about. If voters think Nancy Pelosi is the biggest threat to their children’s prosperity, they will hire Perry. If they think competition from Chinese and Indian workers is the biggest threat, they will hire Romney. He’s just more credible as someone who can manage economic problems... Romney might be able to beat back the Perry surge. In the meantime, it’s time to take Perry seriously. He could be our next president.


BERNANKE'S PERRY PROBLEMBY PAUL KRUGMAN NEW YORK TIMES As I write this, investors around the world are anxiously awaiting Ben Bernanke’s speech at the annual Fed gathering at Jackson Hole, Wyo... But I’ll be shocked if Mr. Bernanke proposes anything significant... Why don’t I expect much from Mr. Bernanke? In two words: Rick Perry...I don’t mean that Mr. Perry is personally standing in the way of effective monetary policy. Not yet, anyway. Instead, I’m using Mr. Perry... as a symbol of the political intimidation that is killing our last remaining hope for economic recovery... [T]he Fed is suffering from externally induced paralysis. In effect, it has been politically intimidated into standing by while the economy stagnates. And that’s a very, very bad thing. DR. KING WEEPS FROM HIS GRAVEBY CORNEL WEST NEW YORK TIMES The age of Obama has fallen tragically short of fulfilling King’s prophetic legacy. Instead of articulating a radical democratic vision and fighting for homeowners, workers and poor people in the form of mortgage relief, jobs and investment in education, infrastructure and housing, the administration gave us bailouts for banks, record profits for Wall Street and giant budget cuts on the backs of the vulnerable... King weeps from his grave. He never confused substance with symbolism... We rightly celebrate his substance and sacrifice because he loved us all so deeply. Let us not remain satisfied with symbolism because we too often fear the challenge he embraced. KING, IN WORD AND STONEBY CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER WASHINGTON POST [H]owever much one wishes for a more balanced representation of King’s own creed, there is no denying the power of this memorial. You must experience it. In the heart of the nation’s capital, King now literally takes his place in the American pantheon, the only non-president to be so honored. As of Aug. 22, 2011, there is no room for anyone more on the shores of the Tidal Basin. This is as it should be. A DREAM STILL OUT OF REACHBY EUGENE ROBINSON WASHINGTON POST King and his fellow civil rights leaders understood the importance of good jobs that paid a living wage — and the social and economic mobility such jobs provide — in forging a nation that honors its promise of fairness and equality. If [they] were alive today, given the devastating blows that poor and working-class Americans have suffered, I’m confident they’d be planning a “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom II.”... King was a passionate advocate for economic justice, speaking not just for African Americans but for all Americans seeking to pull themselves out of poverty and dysfunction. On this score, we haven’t just failed to make sufficient progress. We’ve stopped trying. OBAMANONICS VS. REAGANOMICSBY STEPHEN MOORE WALL STREET JOURNAL ...What Reagan inherited was arguably a more severe financial crisis than what was dropped in Mr. Obama's lap. You don't believe it? From 1967 to 1982 stocks lost two-thirds of their value relative to inflation... There is something that is genuinely different this time. It isn't the nature of the crisis Mr. Obama inherited, but the nature of his policy prescriptions. Reagan applied tax cuts and other policies that, yes, took the deficit to unchartered peacetime highs. But that borrowing financed a remarkable and prolonged economic expansion and a victory against the Evil Empire in the Cold War. What exactly have Mr. Obama's deficits gotten us? THE IMPORTANCE OF JOBSEDITORIAL WALL STREET JOURNAL America has always managed to escape its economic difficulties, and to create new industries, because it has provided the likes of [Steve} Jobs with the freedom to pursue their dreams and the rewards for doing so. Their invention and drive can't be discovered by a loan committee at the Department of Energy or planners at the Pentagon. They are the result of human ingenuity and passion... The current economic malaise has made Americans doubt our ability to grow and prosper as the country always has. As long as we remember that the source of that prosperity comes not from government managers but from restless, relentless individuals like Steve Jobs, we will.