United Liberty

James Carville, a Democratic strategist who is known for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns, apparently likes what he sees from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), though he doesn’t agree with him on politics.

During the roundtable on ABC’s This Week, Carville said Cruz is the “most talented and fearless politician I’ve seen in the last 30 years.” While he didn’t specifically mention Ronald Reagan’s name, that is inferred from the comments made.

“People love Ted Cruz because he’s taken on his own party, his own leadership, he’s taken on the other party,” explained Jim DeMint, a former Senator turned President of the Heritage Foundation. “He’s trying to rock the boat to get us to stop moving towards this cliff we’re heading for as a country. I’ve been in about 25 cities in the last few months. All you have to do is mention Ted Cruz and people get on their feet.”

“I think he is the most talented and fearless Republican politician I’ve seen in the last 30 years,” added Carville. “I further think that he’s going to run for president and he is going to create something. I’m not sitting here saying he’s going to win, and I think Senator DeMint is right. I’ve listened to excerpts of his speech in South Carolina, he touches every button. And this guy has no fear. He just keeps plowing ahead. And he is going to be something to watch.”

Carville wasn’t done there. When discussing debates for the Republican presidential nomination, Mary Matlin explained that the dynamics could be interesting, to which Carville said, “And I’m telling you, get in there, Ted Cruz is going to each their lunch,” adding later that he doesn’t agree with him on policy or politics.

With the economy still struggle to keep up the pace, James Pethokoukis notes that Wall Street is cutting growth forecasts for the year, further adding to worries that we may be heading into yet another recession:

Back in August 2010, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote the following New York Times op-ed: ” … a review of recent data on the American economy shows that we are on a path back to growth.”

The piece was titled ”Welcome to the Recovery.”

And, indeed, the White House thought the economy had shifted into high gear. GDP had expanded at an average pace of 3.8% over the previous three quarters. And the road ahead looked just as promising. In the Economic Report of the President in February of that year, the Obama economic teams predicted the economy would grow 4.3% in 2011, 4.3% in 2012, 4.2% in 2013 and 3.9% in 2014. Welcome to the Boom.

But Geithner and the White House economic team were dead wrong. In the seven quarters since, the U.S. economy has grown at an average annual clip of just 2.1%, including just 1.7% last year.

And right now, 2012 looks like more of the same. GDP expanded at a mere 1.9% pace in the first quarter.

And after a weak retail sales number today, Wall Street economists have been slashing their second-quarter GDP forecasts:

– Goldman Sachs cut its forecast to 1.6% from 1.8%.

– Bank of America/Merrill Lynch cut its forecast to 1.9% from 2.4%.

– Macroeconomic Advisers cut its forecast to 1.8% from 2.0%.

– CIBC World Markets cut its forecast to 2.0% from 2.3%.

Over at Real Clear Politics, Sean Trende notes that despite some signs of recent hope(!) for Democrats, the mid-terms in November could bring devastating results:

[W]hat we are currently looking at is a 10-point generic lead for Republicans among the likely electorate. This would represent historic gains for the GOP. This would be larger than the 52-45% edge that gave the Republicans 230 seats in 1994 or the 52%-44% win that gave Democrats 233 seats in 2006. A ten-point win would be more consistent with the 53%-43% edge Democrats had in 2008, which gave them 257 seats - 80 seats more than Republicans presently occupy.

And it’s not clear that things are going to get any better for Democrats in the next 100 days. Political scientists don’t agree on much, but they do generally agree that midterm elections are driven heavily by Presidential job approval . President Obama’s approval and disapproval numbers seemingly hit a plateau around January of this year, at roughly a 50-50 split.

Recently, though, the President’s disapproval numbers have spiked again, and his approvals have fallen. There is now a near-majority of voters disapproving of him, the highest number in the history of the RCP Average. This also means that there are probably around 100 House Democrats running for re-election in districts where the President’s approval rating is upside-down. If this trend continues, it could be potentially catastrophic for Democrats, driving their generic numbers down even further.

All signs are pointing towards a Obama Cabinet divided between two heavyweights, Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Bill Richardson. The inclusion of either is not a surprise when each situation is looked at individually, but bringing both together the resulting combination is bound to bring about epic intra-administration ideological and power struggles. For example one of Clinton’s top surrogates James Carville said (to the NYT) in regards to Richardson’s Obama endorsement earlier this year-

“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,”