Tuesday Open Thread [2.10.15]

NEW HAMPSHIRE–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–Bloomberg Politics/Saint Anselm New Hampshire: Bush 16, Paul 13, Walker 12, Christie 10, Huckabee 6, Carson 6, Rubio 5.

E.J. Dionne Jr. at The Washington Post writes Obama’s Christian humility:

President Obama’s speech to the crowd on Thursday did not seem terribly controversial when I first listened. […] Who knew that denouncing religious extremism and calling on people of all faiths to guard against “a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith” would prove to be so controversial?

Attention Christians, especially you American Evangelical Christians who should really call yourselves Evangelical Old Testamentians rather than Christians since your religion does not, in any way, at all, follow the teachings of Jesus Christ,the Son of God… even today, there are those who kill and terrorize others in the name of the Christian religion and Jesus Christ and his Father. And in our history, hundreds of thousands if not millions will killed in the name of the Christian religion and Jesus Christ. It is long past time you all grew up and realized that, like Jesus said, we are all sinners, and we are all guilty.

Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic writes:

People who wonder why the president does not talk more about race would do well to examine the recent blow-up over his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. Inveighing against the barbarism of ISIS, the president pointed out that it would be foolish to blame Islam, at large, for its atrocities. To make this point he noted that using religion to brutalize other people is neither a Muslim invention nor, in America, a foreign one:

Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.

The “all too often” could just as well be “almost always.” There were a fair number of pretexts given for slavery and Jim Crow, but Christianity provided the moral justification. On the cusp of plunging his country into a war that would cost some 750,000 lives, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens paused to offer some explanation. His justification was not secular.

Indeed, the Bible contains approving references to slavery. And you get your moral code from the Bible do you? That explains a lot. Seriously, when I went to Catholic School, I was taught that to be a true Christian, we had to throw away every we knew about the Old Testament and simply follow the words and teachings of Jesus. It is amazing how many Christians don’t do that.

Voters in three key swing states are enthusiastic about President Obama’s plan to tax rich people in order to give the middle class a break. According to the Quinnipiac poll I have been linking to over the last few days, voters in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio support the idea by 20-point margins. In Florida, 58 percent of voters support “increasing taxes on higher income earners to reduce the amount of taxes paid by the middle class,” while 36 percent are opposed. In Ohio, it’s 61 percent supporting and 35 percent opposed, and in Pennsylvania, it’s 62 percent to 33 percent.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) “has a plan: Do for the country what he’s done for Louisiana. Cut taxes and cut the government workforce and the economy will bloom, he promises. It’s a message he’s peddling as he lays the groundwork for a presidential run,” Politico reports.

“But here’s what Jindal doesn’t say: Louisiana’s budget is hemorrhaging red ink, and it’s getting worse. He inherited a $900 million surplus when he became governor seven years ago, and his administration’s own budget documents now show the state is facing deficits of more than $1 billion for as far as the eye can see.”

Rod Dreher, writing for the American Conservative offers a refreshing honest take on Jindal:

“I keep telling my friends in the national media that if you think Bobby Jindal has a chance in hell of becoming president, send a reporter down to spend a few days in Louisiana, seeing what condition he’s leaving his state in.”

Yes, but Rod, Jindal has done nothing different than follow conservative principles. Like Brownback in Kansas and every Republican everywhere, it turns out following conservative fiscal, economic and social policies destroys societies, economies and cultures.

According to a new poll, 51% of Americans approve of President Obama’s handing of unemployment. 47% approve of how Obama is doing his job, compared with 41 percent in December, and 51 percent approve of his handling of unemployment, compared with 44 percent before.

Nearly half say the economy is good now, while 41 percent thought that in December. In December 2013, only one-third called the economy good.