The Colbert Report final scene featured scores of cameos, including President Bill Clinton, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Gloria Steinem, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Willie Nelson, Tom Brokaw, Barry Manilow, George Lucas, Jeff Daniels, Keith Olbermann, Henry Kissinger, Bryan Cranston, Randy Newman, Cyndi Lauper, Big Bird, James Franco, Sam Waterson, Katie Couric, Sir Patrick Stewart, and oh so many more.
Delaware’s unemployment plunged almost a half of percentage point in November, according to the state Department of Labor. It is now 6 percent statewide, down from 6.4% last month.
Delaware’s job growth over a 12-month period from last November was 2.9 percent. That rate is unchanged from October when a study released by the political website Governing.com found that the First State’s year over year job growth rate ranked fourth in the nation. Only North Dakota, Utah and Texas ranked higher.
All three of Delaware’s counties saw big dips in their unemployment rates. Kent and New Castle counties both saw their rates drop from 6.1 to 4.9 percent. Sussex’s jobless rate fell half a percentage point to 5.3 percent.
Credit is due to Rand Paul, whom the Hill reports “is hitting back against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Cuba in a preview of a possible debate between two presidential hopefuls,”
“In a series of tweets at Rubio on Friday afternoon, Paul called the Florida senator an ‘isolationist’ for opposing the opening to Cuba announced by President Obama on Wednesday, turning a label often used against himself around.”
Politico: “Obama’s turnaround in recent weeks – he’s seized the offensive with a series of controversial executive actions and challenges to leaders in his own party on the budget — can be attributed to a fundamental change in his political mindset, according to current and former aides. He’s gone from thinking of himself as a sitting (lame) duck, they tell me, to a president diving headlong into what amounts to a final campaign – this one to preserve his legacy, add policy points to the scoreboard, and – last but definitely not least – to inflict the same kind of punishment on his newly empowered Republican enemies, who delighted in tormenting him when he was on top.”
I am going to take much pleasure in that.
More Politico: “He needs to run, to compete – or more to the point, he needs someone to run against,” a former top Obama adviser told me.
He’s got that now, in a Republican-controlled Capitol Hill. Obama, a political counterpuncher who often needs a slap in the face to wake up, got a gut-shot in November. The Democrats’ staggering loss in the midterms – like his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate against Mitt Romney in 2012 – seems to have jolted him to the realization that he’ll have to act boldly to preserve what he’d assumed was a settled legacy.