There's been a lot of talk latetly about whether Krugman is making his forecasts for the press or out of sincerity, just as there has been a lot of talk about whether Geithner is qualified for the gig.
When is the GOP going to stop blaming the failed economy on Obama? They won't. They can't. They see this as their only oppurtunity to change the story, but unfortunately for them, most Americans haven't finished the old one. That being, the failed GOP-run economy.
The GOP isn't fooling anybody. The people clearly know who's to blame and it's not Obama. Americans seem to understand something that the GOP doesn't: It takes awhile for the economy to recover. A fact that I imagine the right used to understand and who are trying to exploit their own mess for votes in 2010.
Most Americans remain confident that the U.S. economy will be stronger in five years than it is today, but most also expect very little to change in the next 12 months.
The numbers are largely unchanged from early January.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans say the economy will be stronger in five years than it is today, while just 17% think it will be weaker by then, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
They are not going to assume that the current state is a result of failed Obama policies. They remember the last 8 years. They know where this came from. So when quacks like this guy...
It is no wonder that markets are imploding around us. Obama is giving us the War on Business.
Imagine that some hypothetical enemy state spent years preparing a “Manchurian Candidate” to destroy the U.S. economy once elected. What policies might that leader pursue?
He might discourage private capital from entering the financial sector by instructing his Treasury secretary to repeatedly promise a brilliant rescue plan, but never actually have one. Private firms, spooked by the thought of what government might do, would shy away from transactions altogether. If the secretary were smooth and played rope-a-dope long enough, the whole financial sector would be gone before voters could demand action
...claim that it's Obama's fault, the American people are not listening.
But when will they start to blame Obama?
Now, match that to when economists think the recession will be over.
If that plays out, it'll be a huge win for Obama. Since people have such low expectations for the economy, they understand that it'll take some time. Compare that to most economists and it appears that Obama will easily weather this storm and it'll mount to another EPIC FAILURE by the increasingly obsolete GOP.
Another day and another failed posturing attempt by the waning GOP.
McCain, the Arizona Republican who was Obama's rival for the White House in last year's election, questioned the president about the cost of the new helicopter fleet on Monday.
"Your (proposed new) helicopter is now going to cost as much as Air Force One," the presidential airplane, McCain said. "I don't think that there's any more graphic demonstration of how good ideas … have cost taxpayers an enormous amount of money."
Of course, Barack Obama (who has cancelled the order) did not order those planes.
President Bush put in the order for new high-security presidential helicopters in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States
Let's hope he sticks to this statement from 60 Minutes:
Kroft: There are a number of different things that you could do early pertaining to executive orders. One of them is to shutdown Guantanamo Bay. Another is to change interrogation methods that are used by U.S. troops. Are those things that you plan to take early action on? Mr. Obama: Yes. I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm gonna make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world.
This would be such an excellent way to start bridging the gap that Bush put between us and the world.
While progressive apathy or indifference might prove to be a hindrance on a left shift in the electorate, there is no shortage of the conservatives in the nation who refuse to let go of their mindless detestation and narrow-mindedness.
The AP and other news organizations have been reporting on "threats" and "plots" directed towards Obama and his family, but have not really delved into anything beyond catchy phrases like "Racism looms" or "Traces of racism still remain in the South". I guess that's one way to dismiss a serious rift in the American electorate, but when I read stories like this one; I start to think that the media’s handling of these "threats" is actually overlooking the significance of such behavior since they’re choosing to report them with no insight, alarm or action.
Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars. Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America. From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.
When I read that second graders are chanting "Assassinate Obama!" it raises some serious questions regarding education. However, that can be answered here:
“The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama's victory.”
This is a time that the nation should be in deep self-reflection on what our past has been and where we can take it now. This type of behavior is inexcusable and the AP and MSM better get there shit together before their fluff pieces on race-relations translate into tangible violence.
I'm welcoming myself back from a self-imposed break that was much needed and totally taken advantage of. I understand that the timing was somewhat peculiar. Why would I write about the election for over a year and then stop abruptly right before the election? Well, the morning of October 12th, I sat down to do my usual thing where I rail into the farce that was the McCain-Palin ticket and offer praise to my ticket and it hit me. I had become nearly mechanical in my support for the Obama-Biden ticket. To be fair, Obama ran a watertight campaign and I did and still do ardently support him. Still, I lost all ability to fairly scrutinize the ticket. I looked back at some of my primary posts and the tone was much different then. I couldn't figure out why though and that caused some serious derision within me which of course shattered all ambition to write about the election.
It wasn't until recently that I grasped what my problem was. There was this idea that if Obama won this election, we would be living in a new world. It would be a world where the issues of the past would be laid in their proper place. It was as if an Obama win (not an Obama presidency) would purify the nation of its sometimes malevolent past. I, too, had become so fanatical with an Obama win, that I stopped seriously thinking about his presidency.
McCain's "The One" ad comes to mind. Of course McCain was trying to paint an Obama as the anti-Christ, but there was some precision in there. People seemed to believe that an Obama win would be an end-all to their problems. They were anticipating some gust of wind to blow through the ghosts of their past life and open a new door where "hope" could subsist in the absence of empathy.
I remember when Bill Clinton said that Obama’s message was the "biggest fairy tale [he'd] ever heard” -that being, the idea that bipartisanship and most of Obama's campaign mantras would come to a head. He was right. It was a fairy tale prologue. Everything from the speeches to the supporters to the tears and finally the victory was a Cinderella story. Well now, we have all read the story, fallen asleep, had wonderful dreams and it's morning again.
Take this song by will.i.am. released on November 5th.
It's quite a positive song that highlights the remarkable progress that Americans seemed to have made with this election, but the line "I've been fighting for tomorrow for all my life" is particularly interesting to me. It sums up my fear that people were "changing" and "progressing" with Obama for November 4th and that the "tomorrow" he was referring to might not be the future, but simply the feeling of victory on the 5th. Obama was not calling for people to blindly accept his message and candidacy. He was not asking people to vote for him because of the historic nature of this election either. He was asking people to seriously support a progressive agenda and, in effect, help mark the end or at least diminution of American conservatism.
It is a brand new day in American political discourse. Let's just hope some recovering sheep like me stay focused on the message that we so fervently accepted and truly fight for an open and progressive America.
Obama has come out strong in his insistence to continue on with the debates. He has been clear, and like always, is far ahead of McCain in popular opinion. People want to hear from the candidates and like Obama said, the President is going to have to deal with more than one issue at a time. McCain has made himself look quite weak.
I'm pumped up for the debates and I know that both McCain and Palin are terrified. I would love it if McCain refused to debate and Obama showed up. McCain would pretend that he was busy in Washington, but it won't work. Since Palin was thrown at the Media, they have been much more vigilant in what they accept as fact.
We haven't heard hide nor hair of Sen. McCain in these negotiations," said Schumer, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. "He has not been involved except for an occasional, unhelpful statement, sort of thrown from far away, and the last thing we need in these delicate negotiations is an injection of presidential politics."
Rex Murphy doesn't seem to understand why Obama is acting like a comabative partisan.
"His acceptance speech in the Olympic-style stadium could not gather the inspirational energy of his earlier arias. Of late, the flash supernova of U.S. politics is seen "competing" with a second-on-the-ticket female governor of a remote state. There's more than a gap between the "audacity of hope" and "lipstick on a pig." The mouth that spoke the first phrase should not be capable of the second.
He has shrunk into a combative partisan. He crowds his own screen, leaves less space for projection. Others are not writing his narrative now - he's inscribing his own."
Right. This guy obviously forgot what happens when you don't fight: Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry...
Nate over at 538 reminds us to forget about Palin and focus on McCain.
"The Sarah Palin Phenomenon is not about facts – it’s about an emotional gut reaction to someone who has charisma and reflects something essentially common and real about themselves."
"In a year in which Democrats have a lead of 11 million registered voters over Republicans, and have been adding to that advantage through a robust field operation, are pollsters over-sampling Republicans?"
Thanks Palin. You're unfounded red-meat speech gave Obama a record day. Whoops!
Barack Obama's campaign for president has raised $10 million since Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke Wednesday night, the campaign announced, calling it a "one-day record."
Palin, the governor of Alaska, launched harsh attacks on Obama, accusing him of being two-faced and a political lightweight with no significant legislative accomplishments.
"Coverage of the Palin attacks on the news this evening just pushed us over $10 million," Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in an e-mail to reporters Wednesday night.
How much did she raise for her ticket?
The Republican Party announced earlier in the day it had raised $1 million in the wake of Palin's speech.
Roger Simon (of the AP believe it or nto) says it the best...
On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry. On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry. We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.
We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?
We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?
Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.
It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn’t be. To hear from the pols at the Republican National Convention this week, our job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.
Sarah Palin hit the nail on the head Wednesday night (and several in the audience wish she had hit some reporters on the head instead) when she said: “I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.”
But where did we go wrong with Sarah Palin? Let me count the ways:
First, we should have stuck to the warm, human interest stuff like how she likes mooseburgers and hit an important free throw at her high school basketball tournament even though she had a stress fracture.
Second, we should have stuck to the press release stuff like how she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere (after she supported it).
Third, we should never have strayed into the other stuff. Like when The Washington Post recently wrote: “Palin is under investigation by a bipartisan state legislative body. … Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but this week she hired a lawyer to fight to move the case to the jurisdiction of the state personnel board, which Palin appoints.”
Why go there? What trees does that plant?
Fourth, we should stop making with all the questions already. She gave a really good speech. And why go beyond that? As we all know, speeches cannot be written by others and rehearsed for days. They are true windows to the soul.
Unless they are delivered by Barack Obama, that is. In which case, as Palin said Wednesday, speeches are just a “cloud of rhetoric.”
Fifth, we should stop reporting on the families of the candidates. Unless the candidates want us to.
Sarah Palin wanted the media to report on her teenage son, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007, and soon will deploy to Iraq.
Sarah Palin did not want the media to report on her teenage daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and unmarried.
Sarah Palin thinks that one is good for her campaign and one is not, and that the media should report only on what is good for her campaign. That is our job, and that is our duty. If that is not actually in the Constitution, it should be. (And someday may be.)
The official theme of the convention’s third day was “prosperity,” but the unofficial theme was “the media are really, really awful.”
Even Mike Huckabee, who campaigned for president this year by saying “I am a conservative, but I am not mad at anybody,” discovered Wednesday night that he is mad at somebody.
“I’d like to thank the elite media for doing something,” Huckabee said, “that, quite frankly, I didn’t think could be done: unify the Republican party and all of America in support of John McCain and Sarah Palin.”
And could that be the real point of the attacks on the media? To unify the Republican Party?
No, that is simply the cynical, media view.
Though as Lily Tomlin says, “No matter how cynical I get, it’s just never enough to keep up.”
I couldn’t resist that. For which I am sorry
I don't like quoting the entire article, but it was too good. I know the Right has no idea what journalism is and that's why the constantly call it "liberal" when it reports something that is critical of the Right, but what were they expecting the public to do?
There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.
Maybe the Media won't eat it up.
He's right. They tried to make it "Poor Sarah", but they lost that line tonight.
The thing that is funny about this whole thing is that McCain has always been the Media Darling. They loved him UNTIL he sold himself out. And now he has sold them out. He's biting the hands that fed him and I doubt the coverage is going to get better.
As I said in my live-blog post, she crossed the line when she attacked community organizers and Roland hits it on the head...for once.
And even the GOP celeb, Ben Stein is worried...
Here is her line by the way,
"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities. "
BBB Ad Released!
-
The Bottomless Bottle of Beer!
JUST RELEASED!!!
NOW ON SALE!!!
On behalf of International Authors I am happy to announce the publication
of The Bot...
Posts
