Speculation is stirring; the mentioners are mentionning. Despair about the lack of a Democratic bench is giving way to thoughts of who may really be "out there" as potential contenders for opposition party candidates for President in 2020. So there it was, in this morning's Boston Globe, front-page speculation about a potential 2020 presidential bid by …
Tag: The New England Council
How Trump is succeeding in his first 100 days
Don't snicker at Donald Trump's high unfavorable ratings and lack of legislative achievements. He's doing better than you think. Trump may not have succeeded yet on his promise to repeal/replace the Affordable Care Act. He may not have succeeded in building a wall or ending immigration. He may have reversed himself on the Export-Import Bank, …
Continue reading How Trump is succeeding in his first 100 days
Charlie Baker: the vision thing
For Democrats hoping to unseat Republican Governor Charlie Baker in 2018, my advice is: hang onto your day job. Would-be opponents will charge that Baker may be an okay manager, but he lacks vision. Making the charge stick will be difficult, if not impossible. Baker's immediate goals upon taking office may have lacked rhetorical flourish. They were: rebuilding relationships …
Elizabeth Warren: be in this fight!
Life under Donald Trump resembles what I would imagine a bad LSD trip to be. Psychedelically shocking news one day. Excruciating news the next. Today we awoke to an executive order ending a regulation that officials consider climate change when making decisions. But on which front should critics rally? "You can't shoot at everything that moves," senior Senator …
Walsh positions Boston in the vanguard
"We face a new reality in our relationship with the federal government," and mayors, city councilors, state legislators, the public and the business community have to tackle the challenges together, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told the business community Thursday at a meeting of he New England Council. In a focused and forcefully delivered speech, the …
Moulton takes North-South Rail Link to New Level
Decades ago, a rumpled state rep from Brookline would go from event to event, largely Democratic political gatherings and journalist venues, and tout the concept of a North-South Rail Link, connecting North and South Stations and hence the entire northeast corridor from Maine to Virginia. He was dismissed as a crank. People would say yeah, it …
Continue reading Moulton takes North-South Rail Link to New Level
Make it in America should be a bipartisan issue
"How many parents here want their kids to grow up to be welders?" House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer asked yesterday morning's gathering of The New England Council. Not a hand went up. But Hoyer had a point to make. Many welders are enjoying six-figure incomes and making things that matter. That's a lot better than what …
Continue reading Make it in America should be a bipartisan issue
Charlie Baker: Massachusetts infrastructure champion?
Tom Menino, the self-styled urban mechanic, held the office of Boston Mayor an historic 21 years by making the city work for people, at least for most people. Charlie Baker, whose favorability ratings as governor of Massachusetts reach easily into the 70's, wants to make state government work. Transportation will be a key test of whether …
Continue reading Charlie Baker: Massachusetts infrastructure champion?
The milkman’s son rises to the top
Ed Markey's 40+ year political career has come a long way. His biggest state legislative accomplishment (a bill eliminating part-time district attorneys) incurred the wrath of then-House Speaker Tommy McGee, who threw Markey off the Judiciary Committee and moved his desk into the hall. Markey, a tall and skinny 29-year old two-term state rep from Malden, went from …
Dems debate: a well-kept secret
All three Democratic Presidential contenders were at the top of their games on Saturday night, but, given the time slot the Democratic National Committee had agreed to, relatively few people saw them. Early ratings indicate that only around eight million viewers watched the debate in real time, far fewer than the 18 million who tuned in …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 