This Beltrami County voter cast their ballot for Al Franken, but also put "Lizard People" as a write-in candidate, not only in the U.S. Senate race, but for several others. The county auditor/treasurer ruled that the vote should not be counted because it's considered an overvote. Representatives for Franken challenged that decision. (MPR Photo/Tom Robertson) —Minnesota Public Radio

In the mythology, Clinton's decision to raise taxes and cut spending led to an investment boom. This boom led to a surge in productivity growth. Soaring productivity growth led to the low unemployment of the late 1990s and wage gains for workers at all points along the wage distribution.

At the end of the administration, there was a huge surplus .... The moral of the myth is that all good things came from deficit reduction.

The reality was quite different. There was nothing resembling an investment boom until the dot-com bubble ... a surge in productivity growth beginning in 1995, but this preceded any substantial upturn in investment ... [the surge was] the long-predicted dividend from the information technology revolution.

Rather than investment driving growth during the Clinton boom, the main source of demand growth was consumption. ...

The dollar was pushed upward by a combination of Treasury cheerleading, worldwide financial instability ... and the irrational exuberance propelling the stock bubble ... In the short-run, the over-valued dollar led to cheap imports and lower inflation. It incidentally all also led to the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs ...

Rather than handing George Bush a booming economy, Clinton handed over an economy that was propelled by an unsustainable stock bubble and distorted by a hugely over-valued dollar. ... Because President Bush refused to abandon the high dollar policy, the only tool available to boost the economy was the housing bubble. ...

While the Bush administration must take responsibility for the current crisis ... the stage was set during the Clinton years. ... For this reason, it was very discouraging to see top Clinton administration officials standing centre stage at Obama's meeting on the economy.

—Dean Baker

Interlude. Realizing that list is exclusively male, I spent a few minutes googling for female political cartoonist. I found Signe Wilkinson, who wrote:

Editors also seem touchingly comforted by a breadth of humor that ranges from Jay Leno all the way to David Letterman monologue material. It’s humor that whacks Newt today, then Bill tomorrow, with just a touch of naughtiness. For example, if the news is filled with wild leaks about White House interns, a cartoon showing the first dog Buddy next to the first shrubbery and a lot of excited reporters racing over yelling “Another White House leak!” would be appropriate.

Anyway, two Mr Fish cartoons have really stood out this year since I started reading him daily. They aren't especially funny. The first one is apropos these very moving times of "Si se puede", and the second one I repost for Veterans Day.

2:09 CST: [Sean] Lynn Sweet and Obama joke about her injury (which apparently took place when she was running to his speech in Grant Park), then she asks about what kind of dog Obama's going to buy, which Presidents he's spoken to, and where his girls will go to school. Obama jokes he's only talked to "living" presidents, and it's not a "Nancy Reagan type seance situation." But has re-read Lincoln. Dog is very important, Obama says, a "major issue." —fivethirtyeight.com

Update: A more complete transcript reports that Malia is allergic, so the First Dog will have to be hypoallergenic. Corgis shed prodigiously and continuously, so I guess they are out of competition.