Start with Obama’s abysmal record

[Vi-Jay 218]

Source

Published: Friday, June 10, 2011

The Republicans swept November's midterm election by making it highly ideological, a referendum on two years of hyper-liberalism — of arrogant, overreaching, intrusive government drowning in debt and running deficits of $1.5 trillion annually. It's not complicated. To govern left in a center-right country where four out of five citizens are non-liberal is a prescription for electoral defeat.

Which suggested an obvious Republican strategy for 2012: Recapitulate 2010. Keep it ideological. Choose a presidential nominee who can best make the case.

But in the last few weeks, the landscape has changed. For two reasons: NY-26 and the May economic numbers.

Last month, Democrats turned the race for the 26th Congressional District of New York into a referendum on Medicare, and more specifically on the Paul Ryan plan for reforming it. The Republicans lost the seat — after having held it for more than four decades.

Problem was, their candidate was weak, defensive, unschooled and unskilled in dealing with the issue. Republicans have a year to cure that. If they can train their candidates to be just half as fluent as Ryan in defending their Medicare plan, they would be able to neutralize the issue.

But that in and of itself is a tactical victory for Democrats. Republicans are on the defensive. Democratic cynicism has worked. By deciding to do nothing about debt and entitlements, and instead to simply accuse Republicans of tossing granny off a cliff, they have given themselves an issue.

And more than just an issue. It gives President Obama the perfect opportunity to reposition himself to the center. After his midterm shellacking, he began the (ostensible) move: appointing moderates such as William Daley to high White House positions; making pro-business, anti-regulatory noises; even offering last month a token relaxation of his hard line against oil drilling.

Ostentatious but not very convincing. Now, however, the Obama pitch is stronger: Leftist? On the contrary, I bestride the center like a colossus, protecting Medicare from Republican right-wing social engineering.

It's not that the ideological case against Obama cannot be made. Obamacare with its individual mandate remains unpopular. The near-trillion-dollar stimulus remains an albatross. Even the failed attempt at cap-and-trade — government control of energy pricing — shows Obama's determination to fundamentally transform America. And he is sure to try again to complete his coveted European-style social-democratic project if you give him four more years.

Medicare has nonetheless partially blunted that line of ideological attack. Yet, just as the Democrats were rejoicing in the fruits of their cynicism, in came the latest economic numbers. They were awful. Housing price declines were the worst since the 1930s. Unemployment rising again. Underemployment disastrously high. And as for chronic unemployment, the average time for finding a new job is now 40 weeks, the highest ever recorded. These numbers gravely undermine Obama's story line that we're in a recovery, just a bit slow and bumpy. Continued...

_________________________________

Well.., article speaks for itself but.., I'm hearing REO Speedwagon in the back of my head...,

"I know it hurts to say goodbye but it's time for me to fly. I've got to set myself free. It's time for me to fly."

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Why don't we start with Krauthammer's abysmal fail to grasp reality? The Obama administration inherited an economy that shed three quarters of a million jobs a month. Let us remember that more than half of the 8MM jobs lost during the Great Recession were lost before Obama ever took office. Let us remember that it wasn't Obama's policies that got us into this Great Recession to begin with - it was the GOP's "concentrate wealth, borrow and build bubbles" economy that did it. Private household debt was at about 70% of GDP when Mr. Bush took office. It then ran up to 98% of GDP. At this point, consumer debt is at 92% of GDP - still way too high but surely a better situation than what was left to Obama to deal with. The stimulus? Well, some 40% of that oh so toxic stimulus was what the GOP wants to double down on - tax cuts for individuals and businesses. The rest kept police on the streets, teachers in the classrooms, the states from raising taxes on the people and some long needed and much neglected investments into this country's future.

But yes, let us pretend that more tax cuts - which Krauthammer and the GOP quite obviously hate and love at the same time - will somehow balance the budget. They have never done that in the past. Ever. Nor have they ever created any job. The first decade of this century saw huge tax cuts - 4 trillion dollars worth of them - and the worst job creation and worst economic performance on record. They have FAILED. But the insane - Krauthammer and Co. along with this insane club known as the GOP - want to repeat this FAILURE allegedly expecting a better outcome. Only the insane would ever buy into that.

Edited June 11, 2011 by Mr. Big Dog

[웃 910]

No emoticons :no::yes:

[Vi-Jay 218]

No emoticons :no::yes:

Bigot.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Who cares? Barry said he'd fix all that. He didn't say he might fix it; he said he'd fix it.

Hope, change, yes we can.

No, he didn't.

Why don't we start with Krauthammer's abysmal fail to grasp reality? The Obama administration inherited an economy that shed three quarters of a million jobs a month. Let us remember that more than half of the 8MM jobs lost during the Great Recession were lost before Obama ever took office. Let us remember that it wasn't Obama's policies that got us into this Great Recession to begin with - it was the GOP's "concentrate wealth, borrow and build bubbles" economy that did it. Private household debt was at about 70% of GDP when Mr. Bush took office. It then ran up to 98% of GDP. At this point, consumer debt is at 92% of GDP - still way too high but surely a better situation than what was left to Obama to deal with. The stimulus? Well, some 40% of that oh so toxic stimulus was what the GOP wants to double down on - tax cuts for individuals and businesses. The rest kept police on the streets, teachers in the classrooms, the states from raising taxes on the people and some long needed and much neglected investments into this country's future.

But yes, let us pretend that more tax cuts - which Krauthammer and the GOP quite obviously hate and love at the same time - will somehow balance the budget. They have never done that in the past. Ever. Nor have they ever created any job. The first decade of this century saw huge tax cuts - 4 trillion dollars worth of them - and the worst job creation and worst economic performance on record. They have FAILED. But the insane - Krauthammer and Co. along with this insane club known as the GOP - want to repeat this FAILURE allegedly expecting a better outcome. Only the insane would ever buy into that.

[peejay 327]

Who cares? Barry said he'd fix all that. He didn't say he might fix it; he said he'd fix it.

Hope, change, yes we can.

No, he didn't.

The biggest problem with Obama and his slavish worshipers is that increasingly the general public is growing weary of their "blame it all on Bush" rhetoric well after Bush has been gone. Obama talked a lot of sh*t to get elected and the results have not matched the promises. About all he has done is shove a few usual liberal social issues up the arses of a center right country while he had his majority and point fingers elsewhere on everything else.

[Vi-Jay 218]

The biggest problem with Obama and his slavish worshipers is that increasingly the general public is growing weary of their "blame it all on Bush" rhetoric well after Bush has been gone. Obama talked a lot of sh*t to get elected and the results have not matched the promises. About all he has done is shove a few usual liberal social issues up the arses of a center right country while he had his majority and point fingers elsewhere on everything else.

Yep. Never hear about all the good OM has done for the country.

Wonder why?

Edit:

Silly me.., it's 'cause OM has done..,

Good for the country.

Edited June 11, 2011 by Vi-Jay

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The biggest problem with Obama and his slavish worshipers is that increasingly the general public is growing weary of their "blame it all on Bush" rhetoric well after Bush has been gone. Obama talked a lot of sh*t to get elected and the results have not matched the promises. About all he has done is shove a few usual liberal social issues up the arses of a center right country while he had his majority and point fingers elsewhere on everything else.

What is it you feel he has not done that he promised to do?

[scandal 951]

To govern left in a center-right country where four out of five citizens are non-liberal is a prescription for electoral defeat.

Keep telling yourself that.

Here’s a cartogram – where the geographic counties are shown to scale with their population. That is, a county with 100,000 people will be ten times the size of a county with 10,000. This is what our country looks like, politically.

[^_^ 5,021]

Keep telling yourself that.

Here’s a cartogram – where the geographic counties are shown to scale with their population. That is, a county with 100,000 people will be ten times the size of a county with 10,000. This is what our country looks like, politically.

The electoral college skews things where small states seem a lot more important than warranted by their actual human (livestock doesn't count) population, while states like California or Texas seem less important than warranted by their actual human populations.

Edited June 11, 2011 by \

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Americans are generally more to the right than people in Europe.

[peejay 327]

What is it you feel he has not done that he promised to do?

I don't want to write a book, but what are we still doing in Afghanistan and Iraq while getting into more sh*t in Libya? Why are we continuing to dole out gobs of foreign aid and not getting much in return for it. Why is America hauling the major load on NATO obligations while the country goes broke? I'm sure the usual suspects will harp that it is only a few billions and is miniscule when you look at the big picture, but....

In a nutshell...where is the "CHANGE"? It's the same old sh*t with the predictable liberal bullshit tossed in to add to the misery. No thanks...I'll pass on more of Obama's "CHANGE".

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

You shouldn't get hung up on slogans

[B_J 2,752]

I don't want to write a book, but what are we still doing in Afghanistan and Iraq while getting into more sh*t in Libya? Why are we continuing to dole out gobs of foreign aid and not getting much in return for it. Why is America hauling the major load on NATO obligations while the country goes broke? I'm sure the usual suspects will harp that it is only a few billions and is miniscule when you look at the big picture, but....

In a nutshell...where is the "CHANGE"? It's the same old sh*t with the predictable liberal bullshit tossed in to add to the misery. No thanks...I'll pass on more of Obama's "CHANGE".

But at least we closed Gitmo. Plus, unemployment is back around 5%, the housing problem has turned around and we no longer have a deficit.

[Vi-Jay 218]

But at least we closed Gitmo. Plus, unemployment is back around 5%, the housing problem has turned around and we no longer have a deficit.