It could have been so good, if we had McCain/Palin.
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Very well put.
I’d argue that some of his early positions (e.g. lobbyist restrictions, call for bipartisanship) were borne of equal parts uncheck idealism and arrogance and I suspect he’s learned from it. While it’s great to paint broad brushstrokes, fact of the matter is that some lobbyists have deep, beneficial knowledge. As for bipartisanship, well, the Republican Party actually has to offer up some sort of quo for the quid…
Not saying McCain was a great option. Just the lesser to two evils in my opinion.
My point is that there are a large number of voters that had no idea what Barry stood for or what he planned to do. They were swept up in the emotion of the election. Some voted strictly because of race. Some voted because of his age (as opposed to McCain’s). Others just wanted change for the sake of change. These are the people I am referring to. They really didn’t cast an educated vote, thereby some are probably surprised by what they are getting.
What kills me is the people, many on this board, that actually are surprised, or had hoped that he would be more centerist. WHAT THE FUCK! By many accounts, he had the most liberal voting record in the senate. Ah, but then again, I guess we can always hope.
Currently I am hoping that Kelly Carlson (AH, Kimber, I love you) comes into my office, crawls under my desk and proceeds to pleasure me. Unfortunately I am stuck with the belief that its pretty damned unlikely to happen in this lifetime.
edit: The string of tax cheat nominations was a disappointment. Obama ultimately owns those failures, and rightly accepted the blame. Two steps back, one step forward, I guess.
Beyond the first bit this isn’t really in response you - just where I jumped in:
No one is printing money and I don’t think anyone is seriously suggesting it. We are borrowing it - probably from China. US society has lived on credit the provision of which has outgrown real economic growth. Now the providers of that credit are temporarily out of the game the choice is pretty stark - let everyone who is out of their depth go bust or find a new lender (China), roll the loans and hope you can steer society into earning more than they borrow and generating a surplus that can be used to pay our new lenders back over time.
Like most people living in the US who are financially prudent it irks me to see condo-flippers getting mortgage relief and people who lived a better lifestyle than me on a much smaller paycheck getting stimulated when I’m not…but, what I can’t understand is why so many people on this board are intent on beggaring their neighbour for the moral victory when there are bigger issues at stake.
Doing nothing would certainly ensure that all those irresponsible flat-screen tv buyers that the media loves to gnash about would get their desserts as would all the supposedly fat-cat bankers on Wall Street. People need to think hard if that’s what they really want though. I pay my credit card every month but I still want one. I want to buy my first house in the next two years and no amount of price corrections is going to have me paying in cash. We need a functioning credit market and we need consumers to spend. If you want to burn it all down and start again fine, but it’ll take longer that you or I will live so how about we try correcting things instead? Sweden did it, Japan did it even the US has done it so why not this time?
I agree with you . Nobody expected Johnson to become known for Civil Rights Legislation or Nixon to go to China. Things to happen from time to time that do defy the odds. This isn’t one of those times apparently.
**As a left-leaning centrist (or center-leaning leftist, depending on who’s keeping score), I haven’t been surprised or disappointed by any of his actions as president. I am, however, disappointed in how both parties in congress have handled themselves during this period of time. Not surprised, but disappointed. The Dems showed no backbone in seating Burris; Pelosi & Reid continue to be, well, Pelosi & Reid, meanwhile the Repugs continue to remind me why they deserved the beating they took last November. **
Well said. Washington is broken and Congress sucks.
So, what can we do about it?
No one is printing money and I don’t think anyone is seriously suggesting it.
See below. This is not a forecast. This is happening now. The little blue line spiking is what has gone on the last 4 months. We are printing more money and will continue to print more money. Glenn Beck did a good piece on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNS8IY_Td14
How does this not disturb anyone?
There is a difference between (i) printing dollars to represent the receipts from dollar-denominated loans made to you by foreign countries and (ii) printing money without backing which is inflationary and the thing that people are actually concerned about. The two are not mutually exclusive because there will come a point ,possibly soon, when the rest of the world will not be interested in US Government debt and there will be devaluation. That has nothing to do with “printing money” though.
I couldn’t follow your link and that Fox guy? seriously? He identified a spike in printing when people pulled their money out for Y2K! It hardly bears worth pointing out that people choosing to hold more of their cash under the matress than in the bank is never, ever going to be inflationary. Same for 9/11.
I fixed the photo above.
I’m not clear on what you’re saying. Can you point me to a link that provides more detail?
Thanks
So, what can we do about it?
Vote for change?
(infer pink at your own discretion.)