Warren talks presidential politics on NECN

Meredith Warren served as a Republican political analyst on this evening's edition of Broadside with Jim Braude on NECN.

Speaking opposite Democratic analyst Sheila Capone, Warren talked about today's news regarding President Obama's birth certificate and last night's vote in the Massachusetts House of Representative regarding collective bargaining rights for public employees.

Please click on the image above or this link to watch the video online.

FY2012 Budget Deliberations Start Today

Today marks the start of the Fiscal Year 2012 budget debate on Beacon Hill as the House of Representatives begins its budget deliberations at noon.

As is tradition, matters having to do with state revenue (in other words, proposals to raise or lower taxes) are up first. Revenue matters are taken up first so officials know how much money is on the table for allocation later on in the week. Special rules adopted by the House allow for discussion of Lottery revenue as part of this process, but any discussion about other forms of gaming (casinos, slot machines, etc.) is specifically prohibited.

We're not expecting anything significant to happen today on the revenue side... but you never know. We'll post any updates we hear on this page. Until then, stay tuned...

Let the games begin!

Meredith Warren talks presidential politics on NECN's Morning Show

Meredith Warren was the special guest on NECN's Morning Show today, talking presidential politics and discussing the current Republican field of candidates.

Please click here or on the image above to watch the video on NECN's Web site.

Barack Obama: In a Relationship with Facebook, But It's Complicated

Yesterday, America's rock star president took his message to the streets once again with a visit to Facebook's headquarters for a "town hall meeting."

Obama's money line from the gathering: As leader of the free world, he claimed a legion of 19 million friends on Facebook - but that still puts him behind Spongebob Squarepants.

Cute comment. Ba da bing.

What's interesting to us is that the President is getting a lot of coverage for his Facebook visit mostly because of the medium he chose, not the message he delivered. (For those who are interested, here is a link to the President's official remarks.) It's interesting because, with over 500 million devoted users worldwide, Facebook simply isn't a novelty anymore. Really, it's approaching the status of a public utility.

Donald Trump is burning up pop culture news with rumors of his intentions to run for president, and he's collecting enormous criticism and scorn in the process. But seeing America's novelty president sitting next to social media icon Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook's headquarters and having it live-streamed online really isn't any different from watching Donald Trump on reality television.

It ought to take more than cute comments like the Spongebob line to get re-elected President of the United States -- particularly with a nationwide unemployment rate at over nine percent, a record-breaking $14 trillion budget deficit, and a series of foreign policy troubles.

The question is: will it? We think that remains to be seen.

After all, it's soaring rhetoric, lofty promises and dramatic production value that got President Obama elected in the first place.

We assume that the President will be placed under greater scrutiny this time around as voters rate his actual performance in office, not just his ability to deliver a good speech. But we're not sure if that will happen, or if voters will be convinced that the President it trying really hard to solve long-term problems and that he needs more time to finish the job. After all, that's basically what happened here in Massachusetts with Governor Deval Patrick, who was re-elected convincingly last November despite high unemployment figures and a mounting state debt load.