Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Election

It's James Carville's axiom all over again: it's the economy, stupid. People aren't voting FOR Republicans; there's nothing there to vote for, in that the Republicans haven't put forth any actual solutions. People are voting against the state of the economy and unemployment figures. Which is understandable.

The problem (if you want to call it that) with Obama's accomplishments are most of them are long-term investments whose greater benefit will be felt down the road: health-care reform, financial reform, the energy and education investments of the stimulus bill. And people aren't capable of looking five minutes down the road, let alone five years. We're all about immediate gratification, and what's immediate for the American people is 'I don't have a job.' That and who's on Dancing With The Stars tonight (I think it's Bristol Palin).

9 comments:

Clark said...

Obama only failing is that he is spending trillions we don't have on unconstitutional government programs that can only be passed without telling people what is in them. He is exposed as a lazy incompetent Marxist. Other than that he is doing a good job as a leader. But as the writer of this blog states, Obama is too brilliant for this population.

tomlichtenheld said...

To Gary's earlier point, most of the overspending is due to waging two ill-founded wars. Why aren't they part of the debate?

Clark said...

Well, Obama has not ended the two wars in two years. And we are on track to be there for the next several years - with Obama as President. Guantanemo is still open, and he just approved intrusive new electronic monitoring plans that are highly invasive of personal privacy. He shoots terrorists down with drone planes instead of respecting their rights and giving them public trials. They are just dead.

Obama's increase of Bush's $400B deficit to somewhere between $1.5 and $2.0 trillion per year deficit is not based on the wars. It is based on huge wasteful domestic spending including 1) wasted stimulus spending of about $700B to $1 trillion, 2) bailouts of GM and Chrysler, 3) bailouts of AIG, Citibank, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, FDIC, FHA 4) federalizing the student loan program, and lots more wasteful spending.

Obama is spending a few hundred million per day taking his entourage to India for the next two weeks. Great example as the Fed Reserve is now printing money to buy our own debt (quantitative easing).

Another factor - in case you had not noticed - Obama spends a lot of time insulting and abusing private business. He does not like the business world. So he punishes business with high taxes and tyrannical regulations. This of course causes companies to shift jobs outside the US to countries that don't hate business.

Obama would be a better President if he didn't hate the US. And the Constitution. And the people who work for businesses. Of course if he did have all this hate he would not be Obama.

Rick Hamann said...

I think I am in love with Clark.

Don Draper said...

How is Brand Obama doing?

G.D. said...

Brand Obama isn't doing great, but this is still worth checking out:

http://www.whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com

Roland Burris said...

The website is good - if you have an infantile interest in politics. If you actually know things, the site is a joke. If this is what passes as a notable critique of Obama, and how he is doing, and what he has really accomplished, it bodes well for Republicans next time around. But I must say, I did really like the one about his achieving "transparency in government". From the guy who signed the bill that nobody read before voting for it. And the guy who doesn't use cabinet heads except for show, but appoint "czars" because they don' have confirmation hearings.

Karnak said...

There is successful brand somewhere in politics. And one that influenced the elections.

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/11/03/the-winner-rush-limbaugh/

Milton Friedman said...

So Obama believes he can create new jobs and make the economy healthy by having the Federal Reserve print lots of new money. That is considered an economic growth plan.

These are the kind of ideas that become reality when you have people who have never had real jobs take over the levers of government. We will pay for this infantile approach to economics and government for years to come. But at least we can console ourselves that we were "fashionable" and voted for the "cool guy" who had a good brand. While we are eating dog food.