With the passing of George McGovern, remember he was a man who wanted America “to turn away from cursing and hatred and war to the blessings of hope and brotherhood and love.” It is a sentiment men have entered political office understanding yet ignored. Instead, they have turned coward when it came time to act upon this kind of very human idealism. They have governed as empty suits. They have become submissive to the constraints of the system, even when tacitly acknowledging these constraints are what plunges the country into deeper ruin.

President Obama just wrapped up his speech on the Ryan budget, and Jed Lewison has a couple live-blogs about it. He was quite pleased with the speech.

Why is it that us poor, dumb ordinary folks can figure out how to cut the deficit without screwing over the poor, the sick, or the elderly, but all those big brains we elected to represent our interests in this big ol’ complicated world are completely stumped?

What journalist Matt Bai and Virginia’s junior Senator Mark Warner choose not to understand is that centrism is an ideology even more stubborn than the left or right they love to attack, but an ideology that got us into the mess we’re in now, both fiscally and electorally.