Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President has had a busy week. He's been out on the campaign trail sounding almost like the Obama of 2008. He's engaging and challenging the GOPers. And, he's even calling out John "the tan who would be Speaker" Boehner by name. We need to see more of that Obama. We could have used more of that Obama over the past twenty months. Wondering if the White House has finally figured out the Republicans don't care about bipartisanship. They've wanted to destroy the Obama presidency and get back in power.

I'm really worried about the legislation future of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell compromise, which is currently in the Senate's version of the Defense Authorization bill. It looks like the Senate won't be taking up the Defense bill in September after all. That's not good. The decision rests with Majority Leader Harry Reid. Delay will put consideration of the Defense bill into the lame duck session -- and that puts the DADT language at great risk. It's already a compromised bill. But, it's the best chance we may have for years if the GOPers take control of the House. If any of the professional Democrats (those true insiders like long-time staffers, pollsters, media consultants and senior staff at CAP) are wondering why the base isn't enthusiastic -- the failure of the Democrats to actually repeal DADT and to not even vote on ENDA provide clues from the LGBT community.

Today is Rosh Hashanah. In North America, Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, is tomorrow.