Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by booklover on March 1, 2012 at 4:00pm

Lol Loren We have that quote by W on our fridge.  Not that we need a constant reminder of how dumb he is.  And Matthew we would cringe every time he pronounced nucular like that.  Didn't his idiot staff every tell him how stupid it made him sound???

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Permalink Reply by booklover on March 1, 2012 at 9:27am

He may be half white, but racists don't see all of his strengths and accomplishments. They only see the half black.

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on March 1, 2012 at 9:30am

PRECISELY!

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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on March 1, 2012 at 12:49pm

The simple fact is that the US would be in the dumpster if Obama was an ideologue. He inherited an economy that was arguably worse than the one that FDR stepped into - FDR didn't have two unnecessary wars to deal with.
But 30+ years of greed (with 8 years of acceleration) has eroded the middle class, looted the public’s wealth, sold the nations assets, ignored the country's vital infrastructure and sent American jobs off shore. All to the benefit of the extremely wealthy but to the detriment of the rest of us and the nation.
But despite that inheritance and a republican party that has stalled or delayed all of his efforts, the economy is steadily improving.

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Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on March 1, 2012 at 12:58pm

Jim, while i agree wholeheartedly about the state of things when Obama took office, i'm not willing to concede that the economy is steadily improving. 

 

i'm hopeful that a rising stock market is a leading indicator that we are indeed on the upswing, but i'm not convinced that it is.  individual companies are doing better, yes.  they have streamlined, cut labor costs, and have seen natural revenue increases over time, largely due to population growth.  how that translates to the average person is less clear. 

 

until true job growth is seen, and until housing prices bottom out, the overall economy will not improve.  most of the reduction in unemployment has to do with the process of counting.  Conservatives are right to question the unemployment rate as it does not tell the whole story.  the real unemployment rate is still north of 15% (counting those who are underemployed or no longer qualify for unemployment benefits). 

 

none of this is to say it's Obama's fault.  far from it.  i believe there is still a lot of work to be done.  i'm hoping for a major Democratic win in November, hopefully giving Obama a Congress he can work with and finally start to make real reform. 

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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on March 2, 2012 at 2:50pm

"Conservatives are right to question the unemployment rate"

That's true, but conservatives won't take the responsibility for their very significant role in creating the problem under the leadership of Dubya and Darth.  Nor have they contributed to a solution with anything except obstruction (heavily larded with stupid).

I'm at a loss to understanding how contraception and snobs that go to college impact the job market or the deficit … I must not have been paying attention to the clown car.

Obama has started to use his bully pulpit effectively (3 years late) and I believe he is setting the stage for his second term.  And, if we get a Democratic majority in both houses i hope he will strike bipartainship from his vocabulary.

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Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on March 2, 2012 at 3:06pm

i think what happens is this:  many of these folks run for office without any real background in anything but politics.  when elected on the heels of sweeping economic reform rhetoric they find themselves at a loss.  they don't have any big answers.  they haven't the first clue how to legislate their way out of a financial mess.    so they legislate on social issues where they feel they have a moticum of insight.  too bad their insight comes from their Bible and their priests. 

 

these are not our best and brightest.  those rare, successful, intelligent creatures want nothing to do with Congress, be it Federal, State, or Local.  and why should they?  they are business leaders who actually get things done at their companies.  they are Professors who love what they do.  they are executives of philanthropic organizations.  they are doctors and scientists.  why throw yourself into the pit with the ignorant pols who take their ball and go home whenever they don't get their way? 

 

we need a new breed of politician.  we need a 3rd or even 4th party to break the gridlock that is our polarized Congress.  we need campaign reform that makes sense.  we need to stop electing bumbling fools to our local offices.  most of all, we need reasonable, smart people to be running our country instead of the clusterfuck that calls itself Congress. 

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Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on March 2, 2012 at 3:25pm

hey, i just said that is what we need, not that it is realistic :) 

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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on March 1, 2012 at 12:58pm

I agree with you (ECHO ECHO Echo echo .....)  I certainly wish that the republican party, or conservatives, would come up with a viable alternative.  It's not good having one side being fairly reasonable and the other side being so strange.  Maybe that's just my bias.  But as it is, they just seem able to create one scary monster after another.  Now with Rickzilla santorensis, it's just too much to bear.

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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on March 1, 2012 at 9:47am

President Clinton was pretty thoroughly hated, leading Hillary Clinton to discuss the "vast right wing conspiracy".   Considering the hole that Obama has been digging us out of, I think he's one of the most gifted presidents in my lifetime.  It is true that the right wing is against many of the Obama ideals and policies, and I think their attitude is "power at any cost" as opposed to "I have ideals that can make America a better place, and make America better for Americans". I think they will use any tool, including racism, to achieve their goals.  In addition, having had a few unwanted conversations with tea partiers, at least the few that I spoke with were virulently racist.

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Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on March 2, 2012 at 4:54pm

Matthew, I was an Obama enthusiastic during his campaign and liked the position he took on all the issues, including women's health, environment, labor relations, banking and finance, I liked the advisers he chose for his campaign, I liked his attitude, his strength and determination, and integrity ... I could go on, but you should have the picture by now. I voted for him with great glee and extremely happy that the color barrier had been broken.  

After the election and inauguration on Jan 20, 2009, when he started naming his cabinet, I knew I had been punked!   

I wrote this on Mar 31, 2009

Obama's Financial Advisors

March 31, 2009

Ben Bernanke:

Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

System

a South Carolina macroeconomist

Pete Peterson:

businessman, investment banker, fiscal conservative, author, and

politician

United States Secretary of Commerce,

Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations,

Senior Chairman of the private equity firm, the Blackstone Group.

In 2008, he was ranked 149th on the "Forbes 400 Richest

Americans" with a net worth of $2.8 Billion.

In 2008, he established The Peter G. Peterson Foundation

Henry Paulson:

74th United States Treasury Secretary,

International Monetary Fund Board of Governors, Chairman and

Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs.

Time magazine named Paulson as a runner-up for its Person of

the Year 2008, saying, with reference to the Global Financial

Crisis of 2008: "if there is a face to this financial debacle, it is now

his".

Franklin Delano Raines:

former Fannie Mae CEO, received $50 Million bonus, White

House budget director under President Bill Clinton

His role leading Fannie Mae has come under scrutiny.

Jim Johnson:

former Fannie Mae CEO, received $35 Million bonus

managing director with Lehman Brothers,

An Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO)

report[1] 2004 found that, during Johnson's tenure as CEO,

Fannie Mae had improperly deferred $200 million in

expenses. This enabled top executives, including Johnson

and his successor, Franklin Raines, to receive substantial

bonuses in 1998.[2]

A 2006 OFHEO report[3] found that Fannie Mae had

substantially under-reported Johnson's compensation.

Originally reported as $6-7 million, Johnson actually received

approximately $21 million.

Vice chairman of the private banking firm Perseus LLC,

board member at Goldman Sachs,

KB Home, a home construction firm,

Target Corporation,

Temple-Inland,

UnitedHealth Group.

Chairman of both the Kennedy Center for the Arts and the

Brookings Institution,

member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,

the American Friends of Bilderberg,

the Council on Foreign Relations,

the Trilateral Commission.

Johnson a source of controversy when it was reported that he

had received loans directly from Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of

Countrywide Financial, a company implicated in the U.S.

subprime mortgage crisis.[6] Although he was not accused of any

wrongdoing and was initially defended by Obama on the grounds

that he was simply an unpaid volunteer, Johnson announced he

would step down from the vice-presidential vetting position on

June 11, 2008, in order to avoid being a distraction to Obama's

campaign.[7]

Rahm Emanuel: White House Chief of Staff to President Barack

Obama.

served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm

Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the

troubled agency and the board failed to spot "red flags,"

entire board was later accused by the Office of Federal

Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) of having "failed in its

duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention."

Democratic member of the United States House of

Representatives, representing Illinois's 5th congressional district,

chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

during the 2006 mid-term elections

chairman of the Democratic Caucus

member of the New Democrat Coalition.

noted for his combative style and his political fundraising abilities

he articulated his view on the role of government as a positive

force to face difficult challenges and solve national problems,

notably combating global warming through green energy policies

and completely restructuring the healthcare system.

Citigroup executive at the center of the current

meltdown.

Chris Dodd: #1 recipient of Fannie Mae contributions

Larry Summers who pushed the repeal of the Glass-

Steagal Act,

Tim Geithner: who masterminded the bank bailout,

Robert Rubin: a disgraced Citigroup executive at the

center of the current meltdown.

Peter Orszag

Jason Furman

Alan Greenspan

Looks a bit out of balance to me

Every single one of these men had fingerprints all over the banking and financial market crimes!

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Permalink Reply by Sandi on March 4, 2012 at 7:36am

I was in a store yesterday when the owner of the store piped up to another customer that he was going to put a sign out the front that said 'If you love Obama, don't bother stopping here'.

So I used my Aussie accent to explain that I was a visitor here and why would you say that?.

He replied: "That nigger shouldn't be my President. He ain't christian, he's a muslim terrorist. My father voted Republican and so did my grandpa and so will I. Obama is the ruination of our got-dang country".

I replied with an "Oh ok...." because I didn't quite know what else to say. I have never been so close to such a hateful racist before and I didn't even want to ask what Republican candidate was a better choice than Obama right now, really I just couldn't even be bothered having any kind of debate with this monkey.

Needless to say, we left and I didn't give that guy any of my Obama loving money. And it isn't as though I am an Obama lover per se, I just didn't want the guy to 'earn' any money with thoughts like that.

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