US Politics Analysis: Obama Invokes the Spirit of Teddy Roosevelt --- But How Far Will He Go?

Theodore Roosevelt, 1910Obama may not go as far as Theodore Roosevelt did in his Confession of Faith when he stated, “We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers.” But, if he does continue with this Rooseveltian-like journey to the Left through 2012, this populist turn may be of significance not November.

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Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond) Analysis: The Tea Party Is Outraged, Mocking...and Worried

Occupy Wall Street last night outside Cipriani's, where New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was at a gala dinner (Photo: J.B. Nicholas/Splash News)

See also Occupy Wall Street Special: Canadian Caption Writer Goes Rogue and Takes Down Celebrities
Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond): Is It Now "We are the World"?

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Understandably, various Tea Party and conservative groups have looked on in alarm the last few days as the Occupy Wall Street protests threaten to displace them as the "authentic" voice of citizens' dissatisfaction with politics as usual in the US.

For more than two years, the Tea Party has been able, with some justification, to claim it is speaking for a "forgotten" America, but the emergence of groups throughout the country representing the “99%” of  Americans has called into question what the Tea Party were beginning to regard as their unchallenged mandate to change Washington.

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US Politics: Getting Serious on the Federal Debt?

The stakes involved in America's debate over the country's debt crisis were significantly raised last week. Senior lawmakers, and some of the figures involved with the President's deficit reduction commission, have decided that a passive role on the sidelines is no longer a winning strategy for forcing Congress and the White House to get serious about talks designed to solve the debt problem. In an appearance before the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday, Alan Simpson --- one of the co-chairs of the commission --- warned that if the United States did not attempt to deal with the debt burden immediately then, sometime within the next two years, the nation would face its worse economic crisis in history.

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