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MORNING MESSAGE: At CPAC, Inequality Dare Not Speak Its Name

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In my previous post, I wrote that I'm likely to hear an old favorite conservative talking point repeated over and over again while I'm at CPAC: Married cures poverty, economic inequality, and just about any other economic complaint you can name — especially for black folks. The 9th circuit court's ruling that California's Proposition 8 — which prohibited same-sex marriage in the state — is unconstitutional guarantees I'll hear a lot about same-sex marriage while I'm at CPAC.

What I won't hear at CPAC, besides any specific plans for job creation, is how declining marriage rates are not to blame for economic decline, but economic decline is really to blame for declining marriage rates. I won't hear that the best way to increase marriage rates is improve Americans' economic prospects by growing the economy and putting people back to work. I probably also won't hear that marriage would actually improve the economic standings of one group of Americans: gay couples.

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"You gotta have a J-O-B, if you wanna be with me."

- Gwen Guthrie, "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent"

I'm off to cover CPAC tomorrow, where — in light of a federal court ruling California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional — I'm likely to hear a favorite conservative talking point repeated: Marriage cures poverty, unemployment, and another economic problem. Ask any conservative, and they'll tell you as much — even though that particular talking point has no basis in reality.

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PBS NewsHour took a look at why Germany's economy is doing so well, while much of the rest of Europe is not doing so well.

Here are a few notable excerpts from the transcript:

With just a quarter of America's population and a quarter of its GDP, Germany exports more than the United States in total, notes Norbert Walter, the former chief economist of Deutsche Bank.

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Dear Self-Described "Producer": I received your hate mail this morning. Thank you for emerging from your self-creating illusion long enough to write it.. I particularly enjoyed your oblique references to the John Galt character in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, who isn't acknowledged enough nowadays for his special role: Galt may be the most long-winded and incoherent crybaby in literary history.

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Funny how things change. When Herman Cain and Rick Perry imploded in one week last November, Jon Stewart called Mitt Romney "the luckiest motherfudger on Earth." That was before last night's "shellacking," when Rick Santorum trounced Romney in Minnessota, Missouri, and Colorado — three states that Romney won in 2008. Whupped by the same guy who snatched away his Iowa caucus victory, it safe to say Romney is no longer "the luckiest motherfudger on Earth." That title may pass to another 2012 presidential candidate.

To his credit, Romney isn't taking this latest humiliation lying down. He's hitting Santorum with the "Washington Insider" label — and it's likely to stick.

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It was just one month ago when conservatives were complaining that ABC's George Stephanopoulos was displaying his "bias" while moderating a Republican presidential debate by being "obsessed" with cont more »

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• MORNING MESSAGE: CSI Missouri -- Foreclosure Fraud Indictments
• Settlement Status Murky
• Santorum Punctures Romney Inevitability
• GOP Refusing Simple Deal On Payroll Tax Cut
• Fed To Keep Rates Low
• Outsourcing Firm Scandal In Mexico
• Breakfast Sides

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As Election Day nears, President Obama is regaining his populist mojo. more »

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Co-written with David Reeves.

Several GOP presidential candidates have made competing claims to the Reagan mantle this election season. So in order to determine once and for all which candidates truly honor the Gipper’s legacy, we are submitting the following questionnaire to the remaining Republican presidential nominee contenders. (Except for you, Mitt-- you were more »

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