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by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sat Aug 30th, 2008 at 02:45:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Leonhardt provides an excellent exposition, Jerome.  With respect to ideology Obama appears to be a radical pragmatist.  Replace any part of the ideology that is disfunctional, but replace it with something that works.   Obama's approach, at least as implied in the article, reminds me of John Stuart Mill's observation that, while the market had been shown to be the most effective means of creating wealth, that fact said nothing about how best to distribute that wealth.  

Perhaps some more familiar with the econometric statistics can say whether the current deficit, which the author describes as 2.5% of current GDP, includes the yearly cost of the war in Iraq and the interest on that money.  The other factor that was not discussed is the inheritance tax, the effective repeal of which is due to expire soon.  Should that tax be rejiggered for the very top ends along the lines of the income tax it could, over time, go a long way towards putting the budget into balance and reversing the current trend towards ever increasing concentrations of wealth at the top.  Could trust babies get by on the proceeds of a mere $2,000,000.00 trust fund?  I would think so.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat Aug 30th, 2008 at 05:05:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
So Obama is Center-Right (in EU terms.)  

This is surprising, how?

To forestall ARGeezer ... ;-)

Yeah, if O came out with positions I would enthusiastically support he wouldn't be the nominee.

 

by ATinNM on Sat Aug 30th, 2008 at 05:43:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
... be the nominee, but the defeat would be of McGovernesque proportions after the corporate media was done with him.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sat Aug 30th, 2008 at 05:52:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Hey!

As a former fanatically devoted volunteer and worker for McGovern who worked his ass off during the campaign that ....

is ...

uh ...

accurate

:-(

:-D

by ATinNM on Sat Aug 30th, 2008 at 06:04:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]
McGovern was the first candidate I was really aware enough of to be able to support ... as an onlooker, mind you, not as a voter ... and even then probably after my parents let us stay up late enough to watch his acceptance speech ...

... and since then I guess I only ever supported the nominee as my first choice in an open primary once, in 2000. From Udall to Gore to Babbit to Edwards ... the ambition reached for in the primary has almost always exceeded the grasp ...

... and the only time my primary pick was the nominee, he won the election but was not sworn in as President, so now I'd probably be nervous if my first choice was, in fact, the nominee.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sat Aug 30th, 2008 at 06:49:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
... positions I could enthusiastically support.

There are bits and pieces of Obama's policies that I can enthusiastically support. Establishment of an HVDC grid to connect sustainable wind and solar resource areas to the big population centers of the east and west, I'm real enthusiastic about that one. The substantial increase in funding for rail, that one also has my enthusiastic support.

And some of his policies that I only lukewarm support in absolute terms, when placed in relative terms there is no comparison. His Versal Health Care plan (that is, 2/3 of Universal), when compared with McCain's plan for the Healthy and Wealthy and a tax increase on health care spending on everyone else, its clearly by far the better alternative.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sat Aug 30th, 2008 at 07:04:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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