Following a close 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in Chicago that expanded an individual’s Second Amendment right to own a gun, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel guest-hosts Both Sides Now radio show with former Bush White House aide Mary Matalin and former New York City Public Advocate Mark Green. While Matalin feels the decision encourages citizens to defend themselves, vanden Heuvel says there’s a lot of discretionary judging going on. She says that in this court session, "the losers were judicial restraint and the winners were corporate campaign handlers and gun dealers and owners."
On the economy and jobs, Matalin says that Obama’s stimulus efforts are not so stimulating and that all his policies—including health care and energy reform—are “porno economics, actually, or artificial stimulation." Vanden Heuvel laughs and says, "if that is porno recovery or economics, let me have at it." She continues, "Obama’s recovery helped keep this country from going into free fall… We’re not growing fast enough because business ain’t spending. Consumers don’t have the money to buy and government is the last resort."
—Melanie Breault
