McCain is irrelevant. Presidential elections are decided on atmospherics and Obama has already won. And he has become a bit Sphinx-like recently. Yesterday he said at one point "I agree we have to do something but I resent it, raising his voice ever so slightly and bobbing his head a bit. For Mr. Cool, these are signs of populist rage.
There is no reason to believe that Obama will be an FDR. There can only be hope that the horde of young new interconnected voters he has called up will take on a life of its own. Their inchoate impulses may lead them far to the left of Obama.
I received a lengthy email from Oregon congressman Peter DeFazio yesterday. He represents a district that includes Eugene, as left as it gets in the US, and rural areas that are as right as it gets, places where you can see "Get the US out of the UN" signs.
He is violently opposed to the bailout unless it includes a variety of things it never will, including purchase of shares, not a loan, and an emergency public works job bill. (I don't know if it is understood, but the dominant notion of an economic stimulus is that DC sends everyone a little check even as unemployment rises and out infrastructure collapses. That is a measure of how committed we seem to be to the idea that it is all about finances, there seems to be no real world of goods and services out there any more.) We will see today how many agree with him. Just a very few on the left, as usual not enough to extract any meaningful concessions. For a moment there was a chance of getting together with rejectionists on the right, but I suspect they wiill all fall in line behind the leadership after several hours of armtwisting and threats yesterday
There is no reason to believe that Obama will be an FDR.
And it would be great if we could avoid a World War in the transition and recovery process... Vote McCain for war without gain
What is incomprehensible is the failure to connect the cost of all these wars, even the immediate cost, never mind further out, to our financial problems, literally the cost of imported plowshares.
Marginal food production in A India and Pakistan coupled with the already existing low-level military actions could very easily tip into outright war with the always present danger of escalation into a nuclear exchange.
And then what does China do? Allied with Pakistan, they have a strong 'tug' to enter the conflict. Would they? And if they do then what happens.?
He is violently opposed to the bailout unless it includes a variety of things it never will, including purchase of shares, not a loan, and an emergency public works job bill.
He is to be commended on a "trickle up" theory of economic justice. (People like to forget the '37 recession. The New Deal did not delivery the "market stabilization" that Gen XYZ fantasizes about.) Frankly, Obama can't hide his Rubinomic biases (Volunteer labor! Tax credits! Opt out mutual funds!) He should be commended on his creativity in socializing risk.
See warrants though for critical info about what a share buys. It does not buy "ownership" any more than a mortgage buys "ownership." Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Not evilly-weavily nationalization, but Wall Street paying for its woeful ways ... but waiting until it won't put Main Street at risk ... that's the political sweet spot if there is one. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
