MICHAEL BARONE ON OBAMA AND MEMORIES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION:

Why did Roosevelt’s second term turn out so poorly? Basically, because his policies were so unpopular. His 1935 labor act led to violent sit-down strikes in auto, steel and rubber factories, in which union victories were resented by the wider public.

His high tax rates on high earners — the great white whale of the Ahab-like Obama — plus something called the excess profits tax and the threat of onerous new regulation discouraged business investment, leading to what some called a capital strike.

In that setting, many liberals, as historian Alan Brinkley writes, “reached the pessimistic conclusion that stagnation had become the normal condition of modern industrial economies.” Sounds like Bill Clinton’s argument: No one could do better.

Republicans gained 80 House seats in the 1938 off-year elections. A conservative coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats dominated Congress for most of the next 20 years.

Polling in the run-up to the 1940 election showed Roosevelt and the Democratic Party in nothing like the dominant position they held in his first term. Gallup polls showed that most voters wanted a Republican as the next president.

Roosevelt was saved by war. Will Obama be?

HOW’S THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Chinese Protesters Chant “Down With US Imperialists”, Attack Car Of US Ambassador In Beijing.

IS IT JUST A COINCIDENCE? Only 47% back Obama in new AP Poll.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “The article you link does not reveal the sample bias. To see those numbers, one must download the PDF from the AP page and scroll all the way to the last page to see Democrats at 32% and Republicans @ 21%. Indies @29%.” Most of ’em seem to be coming down that way. Are there really that many people willing to admit they’re Democrats at this point?

ROLL CALL: Rand Paul Threatens to Keep Senate in Session for Vote on Pakistan Aid. “Paul says he will filibuster any effort to expedite Senate business until he secures the votes. That could delay the Senate’s departure until the coming weekend because it is not scheduled to hold a cloture vote on taking up the six-month stopgap spending package until Wednesday. If Reid and Paul remain at loggerheads, the timeline for finishing the CR could be pushed as late as Sunday. The measure itself is not in jeopardy; it got through the House easily last week, 329-91.”

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Romney’s Right: Palestinians Have Rejected Peace. Well, yes.

THAT’S RICH, COMING FROM A GUY WHO’S WRITTEN OFF THE “BITTER CLINGERS” AND THE ENTIRE WHITE WORKING CLASS: Obama to Romney: ‘You have to work for everyone’ as president. The next day Obama works for me will be the first.

HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY! All I can say is: Arrh!

BRINGING NEW MEANING TO THE TERM “SILENT MAJORITY:” Robopoll Records Silence As Support For Obama.

REVISIONIST CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY:

The myth that blacks were categorically barred from citizenship and political participation at the time of the Founding was popularized by defenders of slavery in the nineteenth century, most notably Chief Justice Roger Taney in his majority opinion in Dred Scott; Taney advanced this idea to justify his claim that, at the time of the Founding and under the Constitution, blacks “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” In the twentieth century, ironically, Taney’s argument was recycled by some left of center critics of the original Constitution. The disreputable proslavery origin of this theory does not prove it wrong. But the historical evidence does.

Funny about all the proslavery stuff — like the “one-drop” rule — that has been adopted by people on the left.

JOURNALISM: Reporters haven’t asked about Sebelius breaking law in W.H. briefings.

Reporters covering the White House don’t seem to have many questions about Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who was last week found in violation of federal law against engaging in political activity while on the job.

A review of transcripts by The Daily Caller indicate that no questions have been asked by the reporters who cover the president about Sebelius during official White House briefings or gaggles since Sept. 12, when the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said in a report that the cabinet secretary violated the Hatch Act earlier this year.

It’s still up to President Obama whether Sebelius should keep her job or face some sort of punishment after being found in violation of the Hatch Act.

Democratic Party operatives with bylines.

COMPETENCE: Inspector General: IRS Fails to Return Telephone Calls of 70% of Taxpayers Being Audited.

WHAT IT MEANS when you’ve lost Jonathan Chait. “Did Chait actually suggest it is wrong to have contempt for looters and moochers?”

IT REALLY IS INSTRUCTIVE TO SEE how many among our elites are perfectly comfortable with censorship — so long as there’s a Democrat in the White House, anyway. “I call on Lewis to repudiate Chayes’s use of his words. He can’t possibly agree with her opinion, can he? There’s a way an interviewer can lead a person along until he gives her the quotes that she wants. I note that Lewis is elderly (85). This appropriation of his reputation is embarrassing for him. But if he actually agrees and wants to put that out there: Make it clear. (And present. And dangerous.)”

SPENGLER ON THE MIDDLE EAST: “If a contrarian thought might be permitted, consider the possibility that all-out regional war is the optimal outcome for American interests.”

ABUSE OF POWER: College suspends professor for allegedly attempting to force students to vote for Obama.

A college professor has been placed on leave after she allegedly forced her class to sign a pledge to vote for President Obama in the upcoming elections.

Early last week Professor Sharon Sweet at Brevard Community College (BCC) allegedly told students to sign a pledge that reads: “I pledge to vote for President Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket.”

The pledge was printed off of GottaVote.org, a website funded by the Obama campaign.

Sad, but not really surprising.

FASTER, PLEASE: Warp Drive Might Be Less Impossible Than Previously Thought.

A WHILE BACK, I CHARACTERIZED MYSELF AS JUST LEAVING “LATE YOUTH” IN PREPARATION FOR ENTERING VERY EARLY MIDDLE AGE. AND I WAS RIGHT! Middle age begins at 55 years, survey suggests. It’s science. You don’t want to be a science-denier, do you?

FASTER, PLEASE: Growing Replacement Parts Inside The Patient’s Body. “So far Dr. Grikscheit has concentrated on growing rat, mouse and pig intestinal tissue in laboratory animals. But she has recently had success in growing human intestinal tissue, using donor cells, and is beginning to study how to develop the technique for human patients. There are many hurdles, and human testing is still years away, but she has a surgeon’s confidence that the technique will work.” Like I said, faster, please.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in point-and-shoot digital cameras.

PROF. JACOBSON: Empowering people who start fires to define freedom of speech is how freedom of speech dies. For some people, that’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

MOE LANE: The cyber-libertarians discover that liberals are not cyber-libertarians. Some of us figured this out a while ago.

WHY MAC’N’CHEESE HAS OUTPERFORMED FACEBOOK:

The day Facebook (FB) went public, its shares closed at $38.23, just pennies above the initial asking price of $38. That same day, shares of organic mac ‘n’ cheese maker Annie’s (BNNY) closed at just a little less than that at $36.39. If you’d bought Annie’s that day, your shares would be up by nearly one-third right now. Facebook shares, meanwhile, are down more than 40 percent.

You’d be even better off if you’d gotten in on the ground floor of the Annie’s IPO in March, when shares were priced at $19. You would have nearly doubled your money on that first day of trading alone. In what kind of world does a company that makes bunny-shaped pasta go public and get a dotcom-style pop, while a social media juggernaut that has fundamentally changed the way humans communicate turns into one of the great stock market stinkers?

A world in which bubbles are bursting all over. Also, it’s good mac’n’cheese. But the question is, are we moving to a time when not just mac’n’cheese stock, but actual mac’n’cheese, will be your best investment?

WHAT AN ECONOMIC MELTDOWN LOOKS LIKE: In Argentina, PayPal Users Can No Longer Make Domestic Transactions. “Last year the Argentine government announced restrictions on the purchase of U.S. dollars. It has led to an increase in currency sales on the black market — but Paypal’s exchange rates are better. Locals were setting up two accounts under different email addresses and transferring money between the two, exchanging local currency pesos for dollars in the process.” Currency controls are pretty much always stupid, but government caught in the web of their own stupidity can’t seem to resist them.

DISGRACEFUL: Debt Collectors Find Partner In Prosecutors. “The letters are sent by the thousands to people across the country who have written bad checks, threatening them with jail if they do not pay up. They bear the seal and signature of the local district attorney’s office. But there is a catch: the letters are from debt-collection companies, which the prosecutors allow to use their letterhead. In return, the companies try to collect not only the unpaid check, but also high fees from debtors for a class on budgeting and financial responsibility, some of which goes back to the district attorneys’ offices.”

Tar. Feathers.

15 CANADIAN CARS you can’t buy in the United States.