I liked Obama’s speech. This will be among the most challenging times in US history by all accounts and I think we were right to pick somebody who can speak and act powerfully dealing with both the rich and the poor here and also around the world. We often do not realize how important our international image can be as a strategic advantage against the enemies of the USA, and Obama’s confidence earns a lot of respect internationally and will earn us alliances we would not otherwise get. More importantly his overall sensibilities turn moderates away from extremists and towards our more human approaches to international politics and internal human rights issues.
Although I was hoping for more specifics in this speech I think the Obama team must have felt the country needed a shot of spirited pride and enthusiasm more than an economic lecture. We probably need more of both, and we certainly need a stimulus plan that focuses more directly on massive job creation rather than what I think will be in phase one far too much Govt busy work that does not add enough productivity to justify the costs. Many critics think the plan is to use this crisis to bring in the new health care system and other things that will cost huge sums and I think there is some justification for that. Of course it is incredibly hypocritical for many to only now start jumping on the anti government spending bandwagon. As Obama critic Charles Krauthammer suggested yesterday the Republicans abandoned their core value of fiscal restraint long ago, and have a long way to go to regain credibility in that area.
I’m a fan of Louisiana Governor but his talk last night was almost a charicature of the alternative way forward even though I think on balance his approaches are probably more in line with my own thinking on how to dig ourselves out of the hole – ie work more within our means and with an eye to smaller government.
Joe Duck 
Jindal has it right Joe. It’s too bad we don’t more hardworking, honest people like Jindal in our government. We would get back to basics and back to a system that rewards those that choose to do the “right” thing instead of punishing them and rewarding the leeches of our great country.
I fully agree with Krauthammer as well…George Bush and the Republicans at some point decided to join the Democratic party and start spending like there is no tomorrow and in fact this level of spending will pretty much ensure there is no tomorrow.
I think it is as much of a result of the systemic corruption in our current system. How can someone be willing to compromise their core principles so easily and eagerly and still call themselves a fiscal conservative – answer – you can’t unless you are corrupt in one form or another.
How can it be possible? Obama’s approval rating after his first month in office is lower than W’s was?
This administration is supposed to be the most internet savvy ever elected…here is a glimpse of just how savvy they are:
Do you know the website number? Come Joe…try the number for that diner that you referenced that hasn’t been in biz for over 20 years…ROFL.
The fraud continues…
Naive is now defined.
President Obama offered to consider scrapping plans for a missile defense shield in Europe if Russia helps rein in Iran’s nuclear program, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.
The article said Obama wrote to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to tell him Russia’s aid in resolving the threat from Iran would make the missile shield plans unnecessary, according to an account from Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Now how is it possible that someone would actually believe that Russia would actually do this? So much for the campaign promise of not allowing a nuclear Iran. Obama is a disaster.
What a nightmare…
Joe do you like this?
The leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization says he is “deeply disappointed and concerned” after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.
“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. “He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.”
The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, “This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ‘ to care for him who shall have borne the battle’ given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm’s way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America’s veterans!”
This president is beyond clueless…no wonder Biden et al are all talking about reinstating a draft…we will need it with these idiotic ideas from our just brilliant Obama.
Geesh…How disgusting to even think this is a good idea after these people put their lives on the line for our freedoms…oh yeah Obama and the raging left loons don’t believe in our freedoms so this is probably no surprise to the idiots that support Pelosi!!!
In Obama’s world we give scumbag criminals unlimited health care and we do the same for illegals in this country.
So the lesson from Obama is NEVER do the right thing or you will pay the price on way or another.
This naive raging left loon is going to cause a civil war in this country…his policies are beyond rational comprehension.
While we are on the topic of Obama’s brilliance let’s add some more to the on the job training heap.
So Obama wants to block AIG from paying those bonuses…
So let’s get this straight…to hell with contracts in this country. The contract you sign with an employer doesn’t mean anything because our government will intervene. To understand this is a non-starter most high school students could figure out the impact of this…but not the constitution and law shredding president.
Then Dodd says let’s put extra taxes on the bonuses…another brilliant move from the soon to be indicted congressman who helped defraud America with Barney Frank and Chuckie Schumer.
AIG should have NEVER been given the money to begin then this whole bonus issue would have never even surfaced.
Too bad there is NO ONE in our government actually interested in solving problems especially corruption facing our country so we could have actually gotten some decent change.
I first thought Obama’s approval rating would go negative around June but I don’t even think it will stay positive by the end of this month.
He will go down in history as the worst President this Republic has ever seen.
Pelosi/Reid/Obama have been working on even more spending wait until you hear what they are planning…
More fascist activities by the raging left…
http://www.eightmaps.com/
This is just simply unbelievable. Hopefully someday we can map out on Google ALL the people that voted for Obama so we can know who to hold accountable for the bankruptcy of our country…I guess what is good for the left should be good for the right?
The very thought that someone thought this was a good idea just shows how insane the raging left loons are…
Glenn Beck on is FOX show today had an excellent discussion on the history of AIG, Clinton, Schumer, Cuomo, Frank, Dodd, and Bush.
JCH loves to say that Bush was responsible for the explosion in sub-prime but the actual increase he pushed through was less than half of what Cuomo and Clinton had done. In fact Bush’s involvement at most would amount to a 6% increase.
When you realize just how AIG was forced and influenced by the Government it is no wonder we are where we are today with this.
Did you know that AIG has given out over 60% of their bail-out money to foreign countries? That is just completely insane.
Go and research AIG and understand just how this came to be and it all links back to the disastrous CRA that Carter first started. Go back and look at the money trail and see which politicians benefited from campaign contributions, etc from AIG.
The list will actually not be a surprise and you will see the raging hypocrisy of the VERY GUILTY politicians THAT ARE SCREAMING TODAY about the bonuses. This is just a red herring to throw you off what really has been happening.
We need full investigations of these politicians. Man the Democratic party is full of corrupt leaders…it’s truly mind numbing just how bad these people really are.
And NOW WE HAVE THE PROOF OF THE ULTIMATE FRAUD THAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN WITH THE CENSUS…
The U.S. Census is supposed to be free of politics, but one group with a history of voter fraud, ACORN, is participating in next year’s count, raising concerns about the politicization of the decennial survey.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now signed on as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau in February 2009 to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States — currently believed to be more than 306 million people.
A U.S. Census “sell sheet,” an advertisement used to recruit national partners, says partnerships with groups like ACORN “play an important role in making the 2010 Census successful,” including by “help[ing] recruit census workers.”
I can tell you this…if ACORN sends a volunteer to our neck of the woods…aye yi yi…
After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings.
Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.
The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots.
This looks like completely unnecessary harassment of the pilots. The 12,000 Federal Flight Deck Officers, the pilots who have been approved to carry guns, are reported to have the best behavior of any federal law enforcement agency.
Yes Obama is making us safer every day. Don’t you feel like are being set up for another attack or even an invasion?
And now Carol Browner the socialist who Obama put in at Environmental Czar…she was a member of an international socialist group (that website just took her off once she was nominated and they removed her speech), anyway she just quoted in a magazine article that she cannot wait for the smartgrid to be in place in America so that people cannot waste energy with improper settings on their thermostats.
So that means you can’t control your A/C or heat if she decides the temperature you want doesn’t match her extreme environmental position.
Gee let’s look how well that works…in the heat wave of 2003 in mostly socialist Europe – 35,000 people died…ah…America’s future looks so bright with the raging left loons at the helm.
She also worked directly with communists and other wonderful people that love to control people and limit their freedoms.
Here is a link to Google cache…so you can see for yourself. Now why would Wiki and these socialist sites be wiped clear of Browner if this just wasn’t another fraud being pushed on the American people.
Click to access browner_si.pdf
Senator Chuck Schumer today expressed a desire to target specifically the recipients of the AIG bailout with a targeted tax rate of 100% on their bonuses. This is clearly unconstitutional and Schumer is well aware of the illegality of his proposal. Article I, Section 9, paragraph 3 of the constitution provides that: “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law will be passed.”
For those who may be unclear on exactly what this means we can refer to the Federalists papers and James Madison. He wrote the following, “Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligations of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation.”
In fact if Congress adopted what Schumer has suggested we would in fact be a socialist country. We would be in a situation where the very core of our commercial system would completely fail. The Constitution clearly states that any binding and legal contract cannot be interfered with by the Government and that is why they work and that is why people enter into contracts.
It just goes to show how far these criminals will go to undermine the very fabric of our country and literally suspend our Constitution.
Dark days are a brewing…we all need to take heed.
The eye-popping national debt surpassed $11 trillion Monday, the largest in U.S. history.
The new Treasury Department figures on the national debt were released as the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to project that the annual budget deficit will be higher than previously estimated by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. The debt, which refers to the cumulative amount of money the government owes, hit $10.9 trillion on Friday.
The whopping number has major ramifications for President Barack Obama, who is trying to push through a raft of big-ticket bills on health care, energy, education and climate change — while also attempting to stabilize the swooning economy.
WASHINGTON — President Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan, where top Taliban leaders are orchestrating attacks into southern Afghanistan.
According to senior administration officials, two of the high-level reports on Pakistan and Afghanistan that have been forwarded to the White House in recent weeks have called for broadening the target area to reach the Taliban and other insurgent groups to a major sanctuary in and around the city of Quetta.
Yeah he is so different than Bush…where is Cindy Sheehan now? Why aren’t the libs calling for impeachment? Mark my words if Obama screws up Pakistan the consequences will be huge.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/world/asia/18terror.html?_r=1&ref=world
Attorney General Eric Holder said some detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may end up being released in the U.S. as the Obama administration works with foreign allies to resettle some of the prisoners.
Mr. Holder, in a briefing with reporters, said administration officials are still reviewing individual cases of the approximately 250 detainees to determine which will be put on trial and which may be released to comply with plans to close the detention facility by next year.
Yeah this is just brilliant. So what should we do when these scumbags are back in society and kill more Americans right ON OUR SOIL.
So let’s get this logic straight…we let these terrorists out into our neighborhoods…for what? So they have better access to kill us? How come more and more every day I feel like we are being set up by the idiots in this administration?
I hope the people that voted for Obama realize what is going on here…nightmare…
The beginning of the trade war with Mexico…their first salvo…
Mexico has released the list of U.S. products that will see tariffs of 10 percent to 45 percent. The move is in retaliation for the U.S. scrapping a test program allowing Mexican trucks to deliver goods beyond a U.S. border zone.
Among affected goods are certain fruits and vegetables, wine, juices, sunglasses, toothpaste and coffee, according to a government statement. Most tariffs are 10 percent to 20 percent, with unspecified fresh products subject to a 45 percent charge. The tariffs will apply to $2.4 billion of goods and take effect today.
Seriously these raging left loons are doing everything they possibly can to ensure we can’t get out of this depression.
Wait until China gets going now…
This video says it all…
Yeah Barney Frank is just such a nice guy…
Congressman Barney Frank, originally from Bayonne, NJ, is profiled in a piece by Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker, and among the more interesting revelations is that Frank’s father, Sam, was a Genovese crime family associate:
“Because Bayonne was such a sleazy place, nobody knew whether Barney was going to wind up in Congress or in jail” [said lawyer Alan Dershowitz]. According to Frank, his father was involved with the Mafia. “[Alfonse Frank] Funzi Tieri, a big-time gangster with the Genovese family, came to my brother David’s bar mitzvah, when I was twenty-three,” he said. Sam Frank died at the age of fifty-three, while Barney was an undergraduate at Harvard, and Barney took a year off to help resolve the family’s tangled financial affairs.
“The Mafia guys were very helpful to me at the time,” he said.
Wow…Now Obama is making jokes about the disabled in this country. This must be the beginning of his campaign where he wants to ration healthcare for the disabled – that was tucked in the stimulus plan.
In a world where now we can’t call 9/11 a terrorist act, according to the Obama admin it now must be called a man-made disaster but he can go on Leno and make jokes about the disabled.
Obama is just a fool…and a disgrace…
(20) Joe of course CNN and NBC aren’t reporting the disgraceful insult on Leno…LOL…
We will see how long it takes for someone to report on his water head comments too…that is urban for mentally disabled as well…
Obama…Obama…Obama
What a joke!
I am not opposed to all of Obama’s economic proposals, yet in terms of media-presence ObamaCo does seem slightly mob-like–and politicians from Chi-town have that reputation. He sounds like a trash-talking gangsta at times (like on Leno, Inc.)
The Demos are historically the party of the mafia, really, though since Reagan many mobsters moved into GOP. Joe Kennedy was not much different than like Caponay and the Five Points gang, at least until he made his millions, and send the kids to Harvard and Yale.
Most Americans don’t quite understand that a big chunk of American history involves Mobs of various types: whether in terms of Hollywood, or Vegas (the Beatty flick Bugsy indicates that), unions, loansharking (as with Countrywide, actually started by some italians with “suspected” mob ties as they say), the restaurant biz, etc.
The old Teddy Roosevelt republican, or even Nixon type opposed to demo racketeering, corrupt union practices, mob connections, prostitution/gambling, and so forth may be a thing of the past, given BushCo’s own corruption and sleaze.
Congressional Budget Office reportedly predicts budget will produce $9.3 trillion in red ink over 2010-19 — $2.3 trillion worse than White House predicted.
Disaster…Horatiox there is NOTHING that Obama has done right so far. This administration is a fraud and a farce and he will go down in history as the absolute worst President or should I say TOTUS that we have ever had. A fitting legacy for the raging left loon and their cronies…
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/03/20/top_10_gaffes_by_barack_obama_and_joe_biden_
lol
Mr. Glenn I’m deleting you from the Obama Fan Club VP slot.
IMO Obama’s doing great so far despite historic challenges, but as he himself says he will be judged on the results of all this and we don’t know how things will shake out yet. If the economy does not recover he and the Dems will be out with the next tidal wave of fickle public opinion.
Pakistan/Afghanistan will be Obama’s huge challenges. As Adm Mullen suggested on Charlie Rose last night things could get ugly very fast in Pakistan if a hostile Govt takes over the nukes. I don’t envy trying to untangle that hornets nest.
I saw the Leno interview – the crack was tame and trivial. It’s almost unbelievable to me that people think little comments like that have any meaning. Obama’s always under attack for non-events, but I’d rather have inappropriate remarks slip out now and then rather than wonder what he’s really thinking. I give GW credit for doing that well – he usually said what he meant even when it was …. poor quality analysis and thinking.
Joe,
You have the patience of a saint. To think I had to boot from my blog the one guy on this thread (other than you) who sounds totally reasonable, at least in contrast to the one who so ironically refers to the “raging” opposition.
It must drive Obama haters into apoplectic rage to read “Obama’s doing great so far despite historic challenges” so I guess I’ll just have to repeat it…
Obama’s doing great so far despite historic challenges.
Wow, to think, banned from Max’s Scientologists and Chiropractors for Obama. I disagree with the Glennster’s politics, usually, but he does not make the mistake–common to naive liberals—of seeing all demos with white hats, and all GOPers with black.
They’re nearly all wearing black hats–evidenced by Billy Bob Clinton’s agreements to the Gramm/Gingrich GOP de-reg and privatization plans, which definitely was a factor in the lending crisis. Note that many of Clinton’s peoples –including Hillary, first and foremost– returned with BO as well, as did some of St. Gore’s eco-crats. Those who consider Hillary a model of progressive politics are about like the CA DINOs who voted for Schwarzi.
That said, gas prices came down with Kid Obama’s ascension: probably not due to him, but maybe to some of his pals in OPEC or something. As with most Demo administrations, his policies will most likely benefit the poor and working class, trade unionists, and public employees. They won’t please all, even in middle class (certainly not in the investing class).
If you think Obama/Pelosi/Reid/Geithner/Rangel/Frank/Dodd/Schumer, etc..etc..etc.. are doing a good job then you are just blinded by the left lane ideology.
The amount of spending that Obama is doing is completely irresponsible and the only place any of this is going to end up is in war and the war is going hit while our country is about to boil over into civil war.
Nothing that they are currently doing is going to create positive impact for you, me or anyone else in this country.
The problem with Obama, Bush, et al…they are all cut from the same cloth of corruption and it is the corruption that must be handled and handled completely before we can get our country on a reasonable course and strong future.
Every minute you continue to support ANYONE that is currently elected is a vote for corruption, greed and ultimately the elimination of your freedoms and rights in this country.
Take a close look at how well the countries are doing with U.N. influence and you will see our future.
It is too bad the MSM doesn’t have the balls to report the truth of what is really going on, not only here but in other countries as well.
(25) Joe Obama and the far left have defined the hypocrisy of the political correctness.
I have a niece in the Special Olympics, also a cousin. They have more passion, optimism than Obama could ever even dream of having even through his father. Quite frankly they achieve more than Obama has ever achieved and they do it honestly…they know the score and the hand they have been dealt and yet every day they wake up and handle life with dignity and a smile on their face.
It just would be nice for the left to treat themselves the way they treat everyone else…must be way too hard to look in the mirror though.
Vendredi 20 mars 2009 OBAMA PREFERS CHIRAC !
Barack Obama does not seem to know that in May 2007, French voters elected Nicolas Sarkozy to the French presidency, to succeed Jacques Chirac who had been president for twelve years.
Yesterday, we told you Sarkozy is irritated because Mister O. refuses to tell him if he will accept to meet him personally in the next few months.
Strangely, we have just learnt this surprising piece of news :
Barack Obama wrote a letter to Jacques Chirac to tell him about his desire to “work with him” for the next four years ! In a letter described by Chirac as “very nice,” Obama wrote, “I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world.” The use of the word “peace” was taken to be an indirect reference to Chirac’s stance against the US intervention in Iraq, which Obama had also opposed.
http://europumas.over-blog.com/article-29271371.html
So now we have Clinton given Russia a button that says overcharge…we have Obama giving Brown DVD’s from region 1 that he can’t even play, he meets with Gorbachev…and now writes to Chirac to say he looking forward to working with him over the next four years.
The list goes on…but let’s agree on one straight-forward thing…smart people just DO NOT make mistakes this big…
Oh yeah the Obama administration snubbed the Israeli general last week too.
In Fiscal Year 2008, the U. S. Government spent $412 Billion of your money on interest payments* to the holders of the National Debt.
How much do you think our interest payments are going to be now?
Do you realize that if we start in the hole $1 trillion dollars before dollar one is spent…that we will never get out of this cycle? Do countries go bankrupt? When they do what happens?
If you understand debt service you understand that what the Government is doing right now is completely insane.
Our interest payments are more than we spend on the military per year while we are at war!
This is YOUR money, not the governments! If you had a relative that you were constantly bailing out and they kept digging the hole deeper at what point would you say: No!
At some point our government is going to need a financial reset or all of us will be paying 70% or more of our hard earned money just trying to keep some level of service in this country.
In principle, Democratic policies–whether in terms of economics, foreign affairs, the environment, etc.–are preferable, and more in line with the ideals of the Founding Fathers. For that matter, I don’t think the Dems as a whole are quite as guilty as the BushCo administration– though some may be, such as Hillary, and say Dame Feinstein, both outdoing even CheneyCo in terms of war profiteering (tho’ Di Fi does it in Bay Area DINO-sleaze style via underhanded contracts to her husband’s companies).
The Demo leaders, however, routinely betray and mock their own ideals, as with the bailout itself. The Bailout was bipartisan all the way–sort of a corporate-socialist joint endeavor, arranged by Paulson, and GOP, along with the conservative Dems (including Reid, who has consistently moved to the right–). I doubt even FDR would have approved of raising taxes on lower/middle class to help bail out bankrupt and corrupt financial institutions, as well as the auto industry (Obama’s real bosses).
Time to take your head out of the sand and really start to understand what is REALLY happening with Geithner & crew.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/216311/Part-I-Geithner%27s-Plan-%22Extremely-Dangerous%22-Economist-Galbraith-Says;_ylt=AuV9Q6nqcY4uTD9_CY1LmIa7YWsA?tickers=gspc,dji,c,bac,jpm,WFC?sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=TBD&ccode=TBD
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/216480/Part-II-Geithner-Obama-Kowtowing-to-%22Massively-Corrupted%22-Banks-Galbraith-Says;_ylt=AhDENZdONEUhuy9A7ZWP3da7YWsA?tickers=XLF,FAS,SKF,C,BAC,JPM,DJI?sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=TBD&ccode=TBD
(32) Horatiox…that has got to be the most outrageous statement I have ever heard anyone say…
The founder fathers would view our government today just like they viewed the British government when they revolted.
The very core of the founding fathers is the Constitution and no one can say either party in our country supports the Constitution as our founding fathers intended. Our government tramples the constitution every single chance it gets. To many liberal Democrats the Constitution is just a stupid piece of paper that gets in their way.
George Washington would never support our form of government or a two party system. He himself refused to join a political party.
Thomas Jefferson arguably the most wise of the founding fathers on many occasions made it very clear how he feels the government should operate:
“What more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens–a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our
felicities.”
If that doesn’t sound like a conservative I don’t what does?
Adams with his Alien and Sedition Acts pretty much makes him look like our last failing President. Who knew the an early version of the Patriot Act was created so long ago. I am friends with direct descendants of John Adams and they do not support the liberal viewpoint of this country.
But one thing is for certain. The founding fathers has vast wisdom on what it took to make our country great…and yet for some reason we continue to disregard their lasting advice. If we followed the constitution more closely we would have far less problems in this country than we do now.
Take some time and read Thomas Jefferson and your eyes will open to the blueprint that made our country great and ask yourself how many things in the blueprint have we destroyed…
“History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.”
“those who do not study history are doomed to repeat its mistakes”
“We’re looking for supporters,” said DeHaven of Hoover, one of the event’s organizers. “We’re not looking for a fight. That will come later, when we have an army.”
That was from one of the organizers supporting Obama and his reckless policies.
But we aren’t talking Brown Shirts…no not at all.
Jefferson had a libertarian aspect, but was essentially a classical liberal. He favored secularism, separation of church and state, and some govt. intervention in economy when necessary; So did Adam Smith for that matter. The FF’s were not all laissez-faire.
I doubt Jefferson would approve of modern Demos (though Gary Hart sort of Jeffersonian sort, as was the younger Clinton), but the GOP hawks and financiers are hardly in the Jeffersonian tradition. It might be recalled that Jeff. fought against Hamilton’s finance schemes, and the early supreme court: Il Duce Scalia’s like the direct opposite of the Founding Fathers, even the more conservative like Hamilton.
Jefferson actually was somewhat PC, worldly (spoke French, italian, latin, etc.), and fairly tolerant in regards to natives, and immigrants, and favored abolition (at least in the long run).
Does this Administration do anything right?
http://www.publiusforum.com/2009/03/23/vp-bidens-union-friend-video-taped-and-arrested-for-pickpocketing/
VP Biden’s Union Friend, Video Taped and Arrested for Pickpocketing
(36) Horatiox I think they should all be voted out. The two party system should be abolished along with the corrupt electoral college.
We need to once again elect people to “serve” not rule. We need to eliminate the possibility for corruption that our current system rewards.
The inconsistency and hypocrisy of Democrats (politicians, and citizens) should offend us. The typical leftist blogger pays no mind to Feinstein’s war profiteering, her support of all the FISA stuff, her cronyism; he refuses to discuss Obama’s role in Bailout, or the problems with the “vetting”.
A “Max” might make some comment about “Obama haters,” yet at the same time, he’s friends with extreme Obama haters and religious conservatives (Mormons, in fact), their hate even exceeding the Glennster. He’s cool with the Mitt Romney crowd, and tries to ban the Jeffersonians.
(38) Horatiox you are confusing hatred with frustration and anger. A lot of people bought into the kool-aid spewing Obama during the campaign and their hope was replaced with fear mongering, stiff armed tactics and a complete left turn on America.
The polls are very clear on this. America is really disappointed and the disappointment is growing faster than for any other President in history. This is not good for Obama and is not good for America.
Geithner has been systematically destroying our economy since with the NY Fed and his current plans are horrible. Only the political class is buying his spin – the American public is clearly not.
Have you seen Stiglitz’s comments?
The U.S. government plan to rid banks of toxic assets will rob American taxpayers by exposing them to too much risk and is unlikely to work as long as the economy remains weak, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Tuesday.
“The Geithner plan is very badly flawed,” Stiglitz told Reuters in an interview during a Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s plan to wipe up to US$1 trillion in bad debt off banks’ balance sheets, unveiled on Monday, offered “perverse incentives”, Stiglitz said.
The U.S. government is basically using the taxpayer to guarantee against downside risk on the value of these assets, while giving the upside, or potential profits, to private investors, he said.
“Quite frankly, this amounts to robbery of the American people. I don’t think it’s going to work because I think there’ll be a lot of anger about putting the losses so much on the shoulder of the American taxpayer.”
People are just not going to take very much more of this. The anger and frustration in this country is gaining extreme momentum and no matter how good the TOTUS it is not going to be able to sway public opinion for very much longer.
The hypocrisy factor is so over the top now as exemplified by the AIG outrage by the ever so fake politicians. Have you noticed since the beginning of this crisis it is the same exact people that are spewing the most garbage and the majority of it is intended to deflect and distract away from themselves?
Most Americans want the government to do a decent job but they want it done honestly. That just isn’t happening and the cracks are getting better every day. There is NO trust anymore. Without trust America just doesn’t work unless your a socialist or communist country because trust isn’t needed there – you are just stuck with what you get.
I don’t have any hatred toward anyone in this country. I believe it is wasted emotion with no end however I also know if you are angry and do not voice your opinion that is worse. There are so many sheeple not voicing their opinion right now and they need to because if they don’t the results will be horrible. At the same time when I see a fraud I have no problem pointing that out. Stating an opinion doesn’t mean it is hate. The whole concept of hatred has been spun by the politically correct as yet another weapon of demonization. When the politically correct are caught in their own hypocrisy it becomes “hatred” when it is pointed out.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29848741
We just never seem to learn in this country. We let the markets and the Fed create the dot.com bubble, we let the congress and the Fed create the housing bubble, we let the congress and the Fed create the credit bubble and now we are letting the Fed create the money bubble…
For some reason the sheeple now believe in the “bubble”. Every bubble bursts eventually and the bigger the bubble the bigger the bust. Unfortunately now the money bubble has completely set the American taxpayer has the risk holder and the benefactors are countries like China, etc which don’t always have our best interests at heart.
Peter Schiff…here he doesn’t get interrupted though. Very interesting speech.
The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.
The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.
Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president’s Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal Reserve and other regulators, according to the document.
Wake up America…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032302830_pf.html
Out in the heartland, yes, Obama’s viewed as like Apollyon–then so are even moderates like Reid or the Clintons. People in urban areas and even in ‘burbs (at least comfy PC ones like around the Bay, or LA) generally approve of Obama. so I don’t think your generalizions on popularity ratings and so forth hold much water.
Some investors–whether in GOP yacht club, or GOP Evinrude club–will probably stand to lose under Obamaocracy, but poor folks and union members stand to gain. That’s the nature of democratic politics: raw data, and aggregate generalizations don’t mean very much. LBJ brought many blacks out of poverty, yet raised taxes, funded programs, etc. and probably brought down the standard of living for upper classes. Conservatives of the time did not approve, yet many poor peoples did.
(43) Yeah I know several people that lived in the “projects” and they generally don’t have a very high view of what the “government” did to them under the guise of helping.
See the entire problem with the agenda of the political class is every good idea is saddled with “gotchas” from the special interests, etc…they literally ruin every good idea with the BS surrounding it to “pay off” the contributors to their campaigns and to further buy more future votes.
So if we didn’t have the government corruption that we constantly have I would agree that many of the “good” social ideas would work…but unfortunately because of the “gotchas” these programs typically hurt the people they are trying to help.
The government needs to provide “stepping stones” for people to climb out of bad situations…they government shouldn’t be the solution. People need to stand up by themselves and every now and then it is compassionate to provide a helping hand to give that nudge but to institute programs they way we do which “hook” people up to a government IV is only another form of enslavement in the name of “locking future votes”.
the government shouldn’t be the solution.
Yes, but the private sector has no magic solutions to economic problems. The libertarian or conservative GOP mantra of laissez-faire led to many of current problems–in the Silicon Valley, capitalism may seem rather efficient and even just. Drive a few dozens miles out into the San Joaquin valley–or even south San Jose–and capitalism doesn’t look so great.
We might dislike the urban poor or ‘hoodies, yet corporate America–and Education, Inc., really–has not succeeded in terms of providing real jobs and careers to all Americans–including the poor whites. Lacking planning and govt. intervention in the economy, unemployment will continue to increase, as will crime, violence, etc. So you either support some type of planning, job creation, or instead, build more prisons.
(45) Well the entire prison system and our “laws” for imprisoning people is way out of whack. Meanwhile we throw people in jail for owing money but we let pedophiles and multiple offenders out in the street.
Horatiox you will get no argument for me in regard to our laws and prisons…we need to radically change who goes to prison and those that go to prison should stay in prison until they have served their sentence…enough of these games.
Our biggest problem with our economy is the reasoning behind it. It is all “service” jobs now where we have built our foundation on the premise that we will never stop spending, that credit will always be available, etc…it was a pipe dream and just stupid. We need to build a real economy where Americans actually work to produce something. We need things to be connected to actual results, tangible items and have accountability. This whole continuing bubble game is going nowhere.
None of the stimulus “jobs” that we are currently doing are going to do anything. Building a bridge doesn’t produce revenue, all it does is keep people busy for a couple of years and wham they are back where they started from. If the government really wanted to do something they would invest in things that actually produce long-lasting revenue which in turn creates long-lasting jobs.
I would say Obama is no different than Bush only that he is spending way more than Bush ever even dreamed of.
We need to radically change the way the Fed manipulates us and the markets and we need to get to things based on sound and tangible principles and stop playing these stupid games.
This really kind of says it all.
BTW…take the time to watch the link for Peter Schiff it is really worth the time to watch.
This really says it all…ROFL
Steelers to forfeit half their Superbowl Trophies
Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the only team to win six titles, will soon be losing half of those trophies. After a meeting between NFL Commissioner Rodger Gadel and President Barack Hussein Obama, Obama decided to redistribute half of their Steeler Super Bowl victories and trophies to less fortunate teams in the league.
“We live everyday in the country that invented the Super Bowl.” said Obama “We are not about to lose this Great American tradition in the wake of these difficult times.” Obama’s plan calls for the Steelers, who are a successful NFL team, to give half of their Super Bowl trophies to teams that are not successful or have not been as successful as the Steelers. “The Detroit Lions are just as much a part of the same fiber of the NFL as the Steelers and they should, no rather will, be entitled to a Super Bowl Trophy as well.” Obama explains in his plan that he has imposed on Godel and the NFL.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, who by virtue of hard work, excellent team play, stellar draft choices, responsible investing of free agents, careful hiring of coaches and excellent community service and commitment to their fans, has prospered greatly during the past 30 years and have won six Super Bowl Trophies. But President Barack Hussein Obama’s plan calls for the Pittsburgh Steelers to carry the larger burden of the NFL’s less successful teams. Obama went on to further proclaim, “In these difficult times we are all in this to work together. We must reclaim the NFL Championship Dream for every team, for every city and for every fan.”
“My plan will not affect 31 of the 32 teams in the league.” Obama assures. That’s over 95 percent of the teams in the NFL will not have to worry about losing any Super Bowl Trophies. “The worst teams in the NFL and the teams that can’t seem to get a break and win a championship will no longer have to worry about going without a title.” Obama promises. “We are a country and league of hope. We all need to make a change. It does not matter the color of the teams uniforms, the personal decisions that the teams make or their performance but rather if they are a member of this great American league.”
The Super Bowl XLIII trophy will be redistributed to the 0-16 Detroit Lions. Through no fault of their own incompetence, the Lions could not manage a victory all season and this trophy will help ease the pain of their lack of performance and give them hope once again. The redistribution of Super Bowl XL trophy will go directly to the Steeler’s division rival the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals who also have fallen on hard times have never won a Super Bowl. This victory will bring a smile to hundreds of Bengal fans all over the world as they can now celebrate. Finally, one of the Steeler’s two Super Bowl victories over the Dallas Cowboys will go back to the Cowboys since the league needs to provide hope in the face of difficulty and provide hope in the face of uncertainty. This is a heavy burden for the Steelers but together we can all prosper.
All hope is not lost for Pittsburgh fans; Barack Hussein Obama has another plan in place. Obama has met with MLB and commissioner Bud Selig on a similar plan. The New York Yankees will redistribute two of their World Series trophies to the Pittsburgh Pirates as a supplement to their losing 16 straight seasons and counting. This plan will help stimulate the Pirates and enable them to regain the American Dream. Barack Hussein Obama will be meeting with the NHL and Michael Phelps in the upcoming weeks as this issue is high on his agenda for “Hope and Change.”
Jefferson had a libertarian aspect, but was essentially a classical liberal. He favored secularism, separation of church and state, and some govt. intervention in economy when necessary…
Yes, all very important points. There is a very odd tendency for “new” conservatives to think they are acting as the founders would have wanted. This is generally a nonsensical view as the founders would not have related well to either current party. They would have disapproved of how much religion and corporate lobby interest now control the Republican party and continue to spin in graves over massive Government which Republicans like and Democrats absolutely adore.
Amusing hypothetical, but in a sense, professional sports and entertainment also reveal some of the problems with laissez-faire, if not capitalism as a whole, do they not Glennster? A-Rod will make what a few dozen million this year; I wager the average Joe Varsity or frat boy (whether Demo or GOPer) of similar age will make under a hundred thousand, even way under.
Ever see like Kobe Bryant’s LA pad (actually, he has a few ), or the Ferrari he drives to Staples for the big game? Kobe made it through like one or two semesters of college, (–the same for billionaire Steve Jobs–though he passed like a BASIC class, reportedly. Larry Ellison about the same). Of course Kobe could shoot some mean hoops, and so he’s a millionaire. Some citizens might say that seems a bit injust, regardless of all the business provided by the Lakers (or AppleCo).
In many cases the market functions about like a casino–I am not therefore suggesting a socialist alternative, but something like distributive justice does usually relate to economic analysis, whether academic or armchair. Galbraith understood that.
(49) Joe…well said…that is why I always chuckle when JCH links me to the GOP…both parties suck.
We need to seriously revisit the entire idea set forth by the Founders. Obviously the formula worked and for some reason these parties are trying to continually fix things that aren’t broken just to support special interests, etc…
That is corruption and it needs to be stopped. Can’t ALL Americans agree that we must stop the corruption? Wouldn’t that be a great way to bring America together?
(50) Well I think it is easy to demonize those that make a buck of something. You can’t blame a Tiger Woods for creating a solid brand around his persona and as long as the market is there for his services he should be able to command as much money as possible. I don’t see anything wrong with that at all.
Those dollar amounts come down to what the fans are willing to pay for the game, whether is be paying $60 for a video game of a pro sport, buying a jersey or attending a game.
It’s funny people will spend as much to go to a 2-3 hour sports event but Disney can give you 8am until midnight for the same buck. It all depends on what your passion is.
If you want players to have more reasonable salaries then the fans need to make that happen. My father gave up professional golf many years ago because there just wasn’t the money in it back then – he got a normal job and basically slaved for a company for 30 years and then through the ingenious practice of pension raiding he was laid off because his pension was too large.
So you have to take the good with the bad and greed unfortunately seems to drive all aspects of our country down these paths of bad and unfortunate decisions. We will never rid the country of greed however we need to make sure the “downside” of greed is “allowed” to happen or our generations will never learn the lesson of the ultimate failure of greed.
What the government is doing right now is exactly the wrong path for that very reason? People that were greedy are being rewarded for their bad choices on all levels, in government, on wall-street and consumers. Those that made bad choices based on greed should be hammered right now.
What do we do instead…we reward them and tell all the people that were not greedy…oh well…you all have to write a check for the greedy.
It is unethical, immoral, and when America fully realizes this when they continue writing checks…it will get very ugly. Obama’s spending to date now has a price tag of over $116,000 for EVERY family of 3 in this country. Think about it…you have just been given a second mortgage you are responsible for by the government to pay the greedy and you can’t even write off the interest.
This is no different than getting mugged.
I don’t think the bailout will cost middle class consumers that much. Though if ObamaCo had any spine (and authentic Demo principles), they would file anti-trust on some Corporate giants, even the PC/IT sort like Google, Yahoo, MS, or Apple. Google seems like a de facto monopoly to many of us. Have Eric Schmidt & Co and Steve McJobs bankroll the bailout: that’s unlikely to occur of course. (For one, AppleCo was a leading contributor to the Obama campaign, and to Raum Emmanuel as well).
(52) Horatiox that number per family of 3 is based on the current non-partisan CBO figures. That number will hold if the economy does as well as Obama is predicting. If the economy doesn’t do what he is predicting that number could be double.
I don’t think there is a chance in hell that Geithner’s approaches are going to work. Obama/Bernake/Geithner are going to make Bush/Greenspan look like they did a good job…lol.
This is going to be a financial disaster for every American by the time this is done.
Have Eric Schmidt & Co and Steve McJobs bankroll the bailout
No, please don’t tax my Google buddy:
(55) Joe I think congress should tax their salaries at 99%…another 99 cents to the bottom line!!! LOL.
Chris Dodd…aye yi yi…
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/02/24/how_politics_works_senator_christopher_dodd_and_his_cosy_irish_cottage?fark
Glenn I don’t worry about Congressional perks and salaries – these folks are making the most important decisions on earth and by that measure are hugely underpaid. When they use their influence for personal gain we need to slam them, though I think a much, much bigger problem is the *legal* influence of lobbies and campaign financing.
Joe what exactly are you guys smoking in Oregon?
A House Rep serves five years and he gets full boat for the remainder of his life. That includes full salary, health benefits, social security and COLA every year.
So let’s take an example of a House Rep elected at age 30 and lives to age 70.
He will receive $6.7 million in salary for 5 years. He receives a lifetime of health benefits and social security. BTW…health benefits include full health care, dental, vision and life insurance.
You seriously think these guys are way underpaid.
They are in session between 130 and 190 days a year average probably around 140 days.
How many days do you work?
Joe maybe we should tie their pay to the results of their job performance. At this point ALL congressmen should return ANY and ALL monies from AIG, not the AIG employees returning their bonuses.
Joe our elected officials are HORRIBLY OVERPAID for what we get.
Remember they are elected to serve not the voters serving them.
(58) Plus we haven’t taken into account that huge budgets they have on the taxpayer back for their own staff, etc…
So you think $170k for less than half a years work, bad decisions, etc…plus outrageous budgets for staff (that do ALL the work), etc…
you think they are underpaid…
Joe here are those silly moderates in Iran that Obama is trying to appease…
http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/2059.htm
The news conference was a farce…
SOURCE: Reporters were told in advance if president was going to call on them. Senior Administration Officials notified reporters from Stars & Stripes, Univision and other news outlets that they should have question ready. Several reporters moved up in assigned seats as result..
Let’s get some of the facts straight from tonight’s staged circus performance.
Easing dependence on foreign Oil?
If that was one of the President’s objectives he would allow the exploitation of America’s Oil resources. Notice Obama said he wants to make sure that alternate forms of energy are the cheaper form of energy. What he doesn’t tell you is the only way to do that (without using nuclear) is to raise the cost of petroleum products.
More Cow Chip Than Blue Chip.
Remember when Obama promised that his assumptions were consistent with what blue-chip forecasters projected. The Blue Chip projection that has been distributed with the CBO projections sees deeper contraction this year than the administration does (1.9 percent versus 1.2 percent). It also projects growth of only 2.1 percent next year (Obama’s projection is 3.2 percent) and less than 3 percent in the next three years, the administration projects over 4%.
Funky Math.
Now follow this he blames blames Bush for doubling the deficit, by the end of the next fiscal Obama will have tripled Bush’s deficit. But, he says he will then halve Bush’s deficit by the end of his first term “even under the most pessimistic estimates. ” But that’s not true if you use the Non Partisan Congressional Budget Office’s projection. They project that Obama will have a deficit of $672 billion by the end of 2013 which is about $150 billion above “halving the deficit.”
Cheating Charity.
The President said that the reduction of the the charitable deduction won’t hurt charities, besides that no the reason people give to charity..It’s not gonna cripple them. Not True. Why does he think that major charities make some of their strongest fund raising efforts in December? Its not really for the Christmas Spirit, its to convince people to give one more “tax deduction” before the end of the year. And while people will still give if they are so inclined, they won’t be able to afford to give as much with the lower deduction.
As I posted here several weeks ago I mentioned watch who gets tapped to run the Cap & Trade exchange and that it would be a friend from Chicago.
This is finally seeing the light of day. This entire Cap & Trade is a complete scam and most environmentalists are now seeing these carbon trading schemes do absolutely nothing for emissions and ultimately nothing for the environment.
This is just another example of the corruption within our government and in this case the President himself.
In 2000 and 2001, while Barack Obama served as a board member for a Chicago-based charitable foundation, he helped to fund a pioneering carbon trading exchange that is likely to fill a critical role in the controversial cap-and-trade carbon reduction scheme that President Obama is now trying to push rapidly through Congress.
During those two years, the Joyce Foundation gave nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself “North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide.”
One of those gases is carbon dioxide, the most ubiquitous greenhouse gas and the focus of the most far-reaching — and contentious — efforts to combat “climate change.” On Monday, Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency declared carbon dioxide a public health threat.
The President of the Joyce Foundation in 2000, when the foundation made its first grant to the Climate Exchange was Paula DiPerna, who is now executive vice president of the Chicago Climate Exchange, in charge of corporate recruitment and public policy, as well as president of CCX International.
DiPerna left the foundation in November 2001 and joined the Exchange. It was the same year in which the foundation gave its second and much larger grant to the exchange. The Exchange finally launched in 2003.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/25/obama-helped-fund-carbon-scheme/
If that was one of the President’s objectives he would allow the exploitation of America’s Oil resources.
The republican politicians repeat this ad nauseum, and most out in LimbaughLand repeat it. What the GOP politicians really mean is, allow drilling everywhere–national parks, offshore, urban areas–because their bosses at Exxon/Mobil/Chevron/Occi. want to continue to line their pockets from the profits from American crude. Let’s not forget that Exxon and most other petroleum corps. saw record profits during the Bush years, as did speculators in the crude/energy markets. Some drilling in protected areas may be necessary at this stage, but the oil execs giving directions to the GOP congress and Senate (and Demo blue dog types as well) are not thinking of consumers, but of their own profits.
Glenn if people believe in an approach to an environmental problem it’s no surprise that they wind up working for leaders in that field. The association between Chicago / Cap and Trade / Obama / Friends doesn’t suggest anything odd at all – of course Obama’s going to appoint a lot of Chicago folks as he knows and trusts them.
The main problem now with appointments is that Obama’s set the “lobbyist restriction” bar so high it’s hard to find people who are not failing those tests.
But many of these issues are chump change compared to health care which is the 8 trillion pound gorilla in the budget room. In the same way we all failed to focus enough on the stock and real estate bubble problems *before* the sh** hit the fan, we are not spending nearly enough time deciding how to massively change health care before the costs sink our whole ship.
It’s easier for us to rant against AIG bonuses which are annoying but trivial and the severely unbalanced budget which is significant but still small compared to the super humongous looming debt load, projected to blossom in the coming decade. Bringing US health care costs dramatically down may be the single most important economic issue of all time. If we fail it’s not clear how the US can economically survive.
Glenn have the Republicans (or anybody) actually proposed an itemized balanced budget? It’s frustrating to me that the Republicans railing against Obama’s deficits but clearly *totally favor* a deficit spending plan – they just want less of a deficit.
Yesterday somebody was suggesting that Republicans have sort of gone “all in” in their criticism because they know they won’t get credit if Obamanomics works well, so they might as well be able to say “we told you so” if it fails.
(67) Joe it isn’t the Republicans that are rallying against Obama…it’s America. The Republicans are clueless too.
However you want to keep making excuses for Obama, there is always a rationalization for something he does…whether it is breaking a campaign promise, etc…etc…etc…
Obama is a fraud and history will show it that way.
Serious bad news today with the bond auctions. It’s all over boys…
In regard to the AIG bonuses…no one should be upset with any of the AIG executives they should only be upset with Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, etc…just follow the money trail.
Look at the AIG protests this weekend in front of the AIG homes…those protest buses were paid for by ACORN, the protesters were paid by ACORN to go hold signs and it was done probably with taxpayer money.
When are you going to wake up and see what is happening here…
The Whitehouse calls the reporters who are going to called upon, Obama needs a teleprompter for a press conference, he asks for massive expansion of the governments ability to seize industries, etc…this doesn’t sound like America to me.
The Obama presidency is imploding more and more every day.
None of you that voted for Obama could possibly be happy with his performance so far…even the far left pundits are all turning on him now.
(66) Joe the people that are pulling all the strings right now are the exact same people that turbo-charged our bubbles and fought fiercely against any review/regulation, etc that could have help manage the problem.
So now we have the very same people that created one bubble after another…still creating bubbles and now we have this enormous money bubble that Geithner/Obama/the Fed are creating together with no oversight, no check and balance…doesn’t it bother you that Geithner has not filled any of the positions in the Treasury yet? That is a huge red flag.
In regard to Chicago…I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone connected to the political machine there that isn’t corrupted…it is statistically improbably considering all that goes on there and now we have it executing at a national level.
This country and economy is now screwed way more than it should have been. Nothing these guys are doing makes any sense unless of course you are making a play to nationalize industries.
Joe you saw the graph for the deficits…there is no way anyone can look at those numbers and not understand where this is going to go…it is a disaster of unimaginable proportions.
There will be no middle class tax cut, the extreme environmental agenda will only further damage the economy and tax 100% of America any which way they can…they will usher in ridiculous scams to line their pockets and the American worker gets stuck with the bill.
We deserve better than this.
Joe we will see how it goes at G20…next is going to be a nightmare week for Obama…America will finally see how the world really see Obama.
Glenn it’s like we are on different planets with respect how we think “average Joes” think about Obama. Leaving aside that I like him and you don’t, the polls remain in his favor by strong margins. He’s not as popular as he was but still, by any national measure, is “popular” and certainly is popular internationally and remains so. You are reading too deep into some polling down trends as if that’s a sign he’s out of favor.
But popularity is not effectiveness and I think everybody agrees that if Obamanomics fails he and the Dems will suffer at the polls in 2010 and 2012.
Glenn what would your short question be for Obama if you could get it on national TV?
FYI here is the RCP average on Obama popularity. RCP is by far the best polling source online.
His approval rating remains very strong with approvals at about 60% though his “unpopularity” is rising from very low to medium levels, I assume as the questionable massive debt and spending plans continue to offend fiscal conservatives.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html
Political approval ratings are about like favorite celebrity polls, Glennster. A politician’s success does not hinge on the Vox Populi. Demos may be more guilty of this, but now with Obama at the helm, the GOPers tend to engage in this sort of pseudo-argument: BO’s popularity ratings are going down, ergo, he’s failing! That’s not really valid, anymore than saying Britney Spears is superior to Beethoven because her latest bubblegum hit outsells a recent CD of Beethoven’s 9th by millions.
That said, BO’s budget proposals do seem rather mega-bureaucratic. Instead of burdering the middle class with further taxes, the BO Admin. could raise some money by restoring the original inheritance/capital gains tax rate (pre-2002), slashed by Bush (and supported by a few DINOs).
Joe Rasmussen is the most accurate…is time and time again.
Over 60% of the average Joe’s consistently poll that America is going in the wrong direction.
What you all want to do is bury your heads in the sand and not look at any of the facts…
Go research the SEIU and what they are doing to this country.
They contributed 30 million to Obama’s campaign and helped raised over 500 million for Democratic congress re-election.
They are heavily funded by Soros and they are also deeply connected to ACORN.
The SEIU and ACORN are criminal organizations – PERIOD.
Joe you call yourself a fiscal conservative…there is NO WAY that is true. Obama is destroying our country financially.
(73) Horatiox the polls give you trend indication which is useful and the only two items I look at in polling are: What percentage thinks the country is on the right track? (that hasn’t been above 35% since before 2004) and what is the delta between those that strongly approve and those that strongly disapprove which currently waivers between +4, +5 which is one of the lowest ever for a President at this time.
We even have France and China saying we are going to far.
China is not willing to buy up additional debt at our current rates or the UK. Who are we going to borrow money from? Right now the Fed is buying up our debt…but where does the Fed get their money?
This entire administration is a sham and we are getting royally screwed for one reason…to lock in votes for future elections…this is a downhill ride from this point forward.
Just follow the money and look at the real numbers – our future is not bright with our current path.
Glenn not sure what you mean by low support for President Obama.
Even Rasmussen shows a pretty steady Obama approval of 56%. Sure it is down somewhat, but not much from highest on Jan 21, day he took office, when it was 65%.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history
This is Rasmussen’s own summary at Twitter:
35% Say US heading in right direction… little change in recent weeks… way up since last fall..
http://tinyurl.com/RR0019
So basically people are still concerned but much happier with Obama than Bush. If the economy and markets keep improving we’ll see this go way, way up.
(76) Joe think about that for one minute. 33% agree with the direction. So think about the logic for a minute. You have 1/3 of the population with you (that is pretty much the Democrats in this country). You decide to spend trillions upon trillions of dollars on things that have NEVER EVER worked in the past.
Does that logic make sense to you?
What do you think happens in a country when things really start to backfire like they are now?
What happens when 5% think the direction is the right one and the political class keep spending out of control and irresponsibly?
That is where we are going. You should watch the daily tracking poll. Typically the strong approve and strong disapprove indicators are your best indication of feeling. Typically the people in those groups influence the rest. Yesterday was +4, today +5, at this same time after the second election of Bush he was +11. You know how you felt when Bush won the second term. Now Obama is sitting at half that.
Here is a hypothetical for you. Couple of assumptions: 1) You are responsible for a country. 2) You have no corruption.
Would you hire Nancy Pelosi, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Harry Reid, etc…for a 6 year contract that paid them all $1 million each per year and you had to promise them a lifetime of healthcare, etc…etc…etc and keep in mind since you have NO corruption their connections don’t matter.
Would you hire any of them?
I think if we asked America that question…what percentage would say yes?
That is the real crux of the problem here.
These distractions and game play that is going on is only going to be effective for so long.
Eleanor Cliff said it best…who would have thought this early on in Obama’s Presidency would we be asking the question: How much did he know, when did he know, etc…?
Unless Obama radically changes his agenda this administration is going to completely implode and end up impotent when we are at a time when we need real leadership based on principles not ideology.
Glenn I agree with Rasmussen (and I other unbiased pollsters) on the key points below. You are in the 30% or so who think Obama’s terrible. That’s OK, but you seem to think it’s a majority view and it’s not at all. In terms of his policies people are waiting to see what happens. You’re judging this stuff before it’s even had a chance to work.
1) Obama’s approval remains fairly high – that’s the point we started with. 56-65% positive.
2) Although most people *still* think the country is moving in the wrong direction we’re seeing a change towards right direction. These numbers were so very low during GW’s final year that it’s hard to interpret what this means, though Rasmussen clearly thinks it’s a positive-for-Obama trend since the happiness is rising not falling. Also as Horatiox notes this is a very fickle measure. I think you’d get similar numbers by asking about personal economic well being which is still for most a point of great concern.
Now, I think we agree that the spending plans which include classic Washington porkbarrelling on a bigger scale than ever – are not a long term good idea.
(78) Actually Rasmussen just stated Obama’s numbers are falling to earth and overall the long-term trend is not positive for Obama.
Remember Obama and the Dems set the benchmark, he is the messiah.
I along with every single other true conservative do NOT believe that anything Obama/Geithner are doing right now is going to help the country.
People are still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt but some of us have principles and our principles are sound and inline with our founding fathers. They understood the tyranny that Obama/Pelosi/Reid, etc represent and where they are taking our country.
Why else would Obama being asking for authority to nationalize any business? That is pure insanity.
They will destroy the small banks, merge the remaining few and nationalize our banks.
SEIU is a very dangerous organization and the people that voted for Obama have no clue to what is going to happen now that this group has been empowered. Literally any business they can’t nationalize they will flip into a union shop with SEIU that is the plan.
Do you really want a country where we have 20-30 million people enslaved by a union?
Do you really want a country where the immigration laws are so lax that we add another 30 million liabilities to the costs of our existence? Who do you think they are going to vote for?
So bottom line do you want union thugs and immigrants on the government tab (your money) deciding the elections in the future?
(79) BTW do you know why our healthcare is slipping so badly…could it be that all the hospital workers have been enslaved into a union…bet you can’t guess what union: SEIU.
They also are the union for the public workers…
Gee don’t you feel like your being set up?
I have several family members in the medical field and NO OF THEM had a choice in regard to SEIU – they were forced 100% into the union.
The SEIU has numerous lawsuits against it for illegal hiring practices, etc…
This is a complete and total circus.
Glenn I’m really curious about why you think Rasmussen Reports latest headline, top of their website, right this minute, is the following:
Voter Confidence In Country’s Course Remains High
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/right_direction_wrong_track/right_direction_or_wrong_track
(81) Joe look at the numbers.
A 35% score in any realm of reality is failing miserably. It is mind numbing that the sheeple of this country think 35% is a good thing when 60% still think it is the wrong direction. The headline should read at least 60% of America still thinks we are on the WRONG track.
Obama/Pelosi/Reid, etc are doing everything they can to ignore the majority of people in this country and the tide is swinging and this big gamble on socialism is going to hurt us all.
It is just like the crap they are pulling with the economic data they leak really bad data ahead of the real data. The real data comes out and it is horrible but just not as bad as the leaked data so they high five each other…lol.
This is the dumbing down of everything. When at least 50% of America thinks we are heading in the right direction then I think we are making progress. Until then it is the same old stupid games that Bush was playing to destroy our country through financial recklessness.
Think about this stat: Nearly 1/3 of younger Americans view Colbert, Stewart as alternatives to traditional news outlets. Think about that insanity for a minute…these people are getting their news from satire…that would be like getting your news from SNL News.
Our country needs to get back to the principles and values that our founding fathers set. You know they did something very ingenious when they finally figured out the formula that lead to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. They included the following in the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Whether you believe in a specific God or not doesn’t matter…what matters is we all have rights that the government cannot take away from us. That our unalienable rights were given to us by a higher power, bigger and more important than the government.
The liberals want to change that…they want the government to be your “Creator” and they want to determine what rights you have and they want to manipulate your freedoms to further their agendas of power and control.
Joe here is your alternative…note the last comment that ALL GOP suggestions were summarily rejected by the Democrats.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) recently outlined the principles guiding his party’s alternative budget: The videotaped message is posted on his Web site.
Lower taxes: “First, our budget alternative will help create and protect jobs by letting families and small businesses keep more of what they earn,” Boehner said.
Fiscal restraint: “Second, our budget will make sure the federal budget doesn’t grow faster than family budgets. Americans are making tough spending decisions every day. It’s time for Washington to do the same.”
Health care: “Third, our budget will aim to expand access to affordable health care for every American, while preserving Social Security and Medicare for future generations.” (Republicans are pushing for medical liability reform to reduce the number of “frivolous” lawsuits.)
No more bailouts: “Fourth, our budget will end the bailouts to protect taxpayers and reform the financial system so this crisis never repeats itself. Instead of raising energy costs through a ‘cap and trade’ energy tax that will cost every family up to $3,100 a year, our budget will encourage an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy that harnesses new technologies, encourages greater conservation and efficiency, and increases American energy production in an environmentally-safe manner.”
Inflation control: “And last but not least, our budget will fight inflation so the prices of goods and services Americans depend on every day remain stable during and after this economic crisis.”
Boehner and other Republicans say President Obama’s budget spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much from future generations.
The House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday passed a Democrat budget blueprint. Republicans offered dozens of amendments during committee debate, but “Democrats chose to reject every substantive GOP proposal,” Boehner said.
Joe look at this data point…everyone reported sales of new homes rose in Feb.
Talk about looking at the world through rose colored glasses. The reality based on how they normally report housing sales…sales fell 41% in Feb.
We have to stop being sucked into this game of twisting the perception of what is really happening. This is all just a big shell game that is eventually going to come home and roost.
WSJ: Sales of new homes rose in February for the first time in seven months, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday, another sign that the housing market is thawing
Bloomberg: Purchases of new homes in the U.S. unexpectedly rose in February from a record low as plummeting prices and cheaper mortgage rates lured some buyers. Sales increased 4.7 percent to an annual pace of 337,000 . . .
Marketwatch: The U.S. housing sector continues to see signs of improvement. The latest government data showed new home sales climbed in February for the first time in seven months, sending shares of home-building companies soaring.
>
A parade of the mathematically innumerate business writers (and even worse headline writers!) continue to misread data. The latest evidence? New Home Sales.
After incorrectly reporting the Existing Home Sales, the mainstream media misread the Census department report of New Homes.
No, New Home Sales data did not improve. In fact, they were not only not positive, they were actually horrific. The year over year number was a terrible down 41%. Sales from this same period a year ago have nearly been halved.
Why did the media report this as positive? If you only read the headline number, you saw a positive datapoint: February was plus 4.7% over January.
To get the the facts, you need to read below the headline. In the present case, it wasn’t the seasonality factor that was confusing, it was the “90-percent confidence intervals” — or as it is more commonly known, the margin of error.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/new-home-sales-fell-41-in-february-2009/
Think about this stat: Nearly 1/3 of younger Americans view Colbert, Stewart as alternatives to traditional news outlets. Think about that insanity for a minute…these people are getting their news from satire…that would be like getting your news from SNL News.
I agree, to some extent, that many young Democrats (or Demos who fancy themselves forever young) seem conditioned and shaped by the Media. They aren’t discussing economics, or the proposed budget, the corruption of trade unions. They are interested in ridicule, and defamation, the Stewart-like bad comedy and low-level satire of SNL.
To the average DailyKOS or HuffPost type, politics equates to ID politics. That’s not traditional democratic politics. Why discuss the bailout when you can chant “wingnut”, post the pics of Cheney in his nazi uniform, etc? Bad satire much easier.
When you got some fat clown like Limbaugh as your spokesman, you really can’t complain about much, however. Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, started it however, and created a backlash –the loudmouth liberal, the SallyFields democrat who relies on endless emotional appeals.
(85) Horatiox…I fully agree and I don’t listen to Limbaugh and if I did it would be purely for entertainment. I have known a lot of people that listened to Limbaugh religiously every day…however in a somewhat ironic twist they all seemed pretty liberal and not conservative.
Some of us really just want the truth whether it be bad or good…just tell us what is really going on then we wouldn’t have to play all these games and waste a lot of time.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pak-set-to-reap-35-billion-windfall-from-terrorism/articleshow/4318277.cms
When you read stuff like this…it just has to make you wonder…WTH are people in our government thinking?
Seriously…this is just so out of whack to what they really should be doing!
The teleprompter issue also sort of interesting. Even a few Democrats (at least rational Dems–a subset of Dems as a whole) have questioned Obama’s regular use of a teleprompter during impromptu speech–I think it’s slightly Orwellian, at least. He has made verbal gaffes when not using it. The teleprompter may indicate a certain deceptive quality–I don’t think it’s as big a deal as some of the more rightist wing-nuts think, but it IS an issue, as much as Bush’s verbal gaffes were. When a HuffPo pundit like Bob Cesca simply dismisses the entire issue, he’s no better than the rightist pundits who did the same when complaints were made about Bush’s language problems (Cesca has also refused to discuss the bailout, the proposed budget, Hillary problems, etc)
Bush was not a good speaker, and many in blogland made fun of his ineloquent speech–rightfully so. So, tit for tat. Anyone–even so called leftists–who defend mainstream politicians are marching along with the sheeples. Even in 60s the counterculture rebels were not exactly defending mainstream demos like LBJ and Humphrey: and Obama’s pretty mainstream, apart from the frat-boy liberal hype.
(88) yes we didn’t elect a POTUS…we got TOTUS…
Seriously the guy can’t even take a presser without the TOTUS and he pre-arranges who is going to get called on? Why even have a presser…just have a fireside chat and read a script!
Are we serious America? This is the new definition of a leader, the leader of what used to be the most powerful nation on the planet…
We deserve better.
Horatiox I think the G20 is really going to show just how bad things really are.