And I laid out the following scenario: So here's the picture that scares me: It's September 2009, the unemployment rate has passed 9 percent, and despite the early round of stimulus spending it's still headed up. Mr. Obama finally concedes that a bigger stimulus is needed. But he can't get his new plan through Congress because approval for his economic policies has plummeted, partly because his policies are seen to have failed, partly because job-creation policies are conflated in the public mind with deeply unpopular bank bailouts. It's only June, but Republicans are already claiming that the Obama economic plan has failed. (Yes, that's insane -- hardly any of the money has flowed to the economy yet -- but this was predictable.) Meanwhile, unemployment is already above 9 percent.
And I laid out the following scenario:
So here's the picture that scares me: It's September 2009, the unemployment rate has passed 9 percent, and despite the early round of stimulus spending it's still headed up. Mr. Obama finally concedes that a bigger stimulus is needed. But he can't get his new plan through Congress because approval for his economic policies has plummeted, partly because his policies are seen to have failed, partly because job-creation policies are conflated in the public mind with deeply unpopular bank bailouts.
So here's the picture that scares me: It's September 2009, the unemployment rate has passed 9 percent, and despite the early round of stimulus spending it's still headed up. Mr. Obama finally concedes that a bigger stimulus is needed.
But he can't get his new plan through Congress because approval for his economic policies has plummeted, partly because his policies are seen to have failed, partly because job-creation policies are conflated in the public mind with deeply unpopular bank bailouts.
It's only June, but Republicans are already claiming that the Obama economic plan has failed. (Yes, that's insane -- hardly any of the money has flowed to the economy yet -- but this was predictable.) Meanwhile, unemployment is already above 9 percent.
you are the media you consume.
I think the health care fight will be the important one to watch. If Obama gets a genuine universal program together that the typical person can afford, then I think it's probably Game Over for the Reps in 2012, because suddenly even the Bubbas are going to look around and say, "Huh, I got me some health care. This Obama feller's lookin' out for me."
You can't beat that, even with a good nominee, which is why the Dems need to get it together and win this fight. It'll make their lives a lot easier down the road.
Obama and the Dems have fucked up repeatedly so far on that, but thankfully they seem to be finally -- slowly -- finding their footing just as the Reps are again reeling and pissing on each other. Note that Obama's -- and, to a lesser extent, the Dems' -- polling has improved since he decided to cut the shit and start hitting on the public option with a new PR push.
Three years is a long, long time in politics. Remember that unemployment under Reagan was above 10%, too, and it was above 10% in the third year of his presidency, whereas Obama will face it in the first year of his (Most Important Rule in American Politics: Hope to God your recession comes early if one's going to come).
Add the fact that Obama's probably going to be raising $100m per month, and that no Republican is going to come close to that, and you see that, even if he's had a rough go of it, Obama will like be overwhelmingly favored.
And if the guy from the Young Turks is right again (after predicting al-Zawahiri's [or whatever his name was] demise) -- that bin Laden is now Dead Man Walking and gone in a year with the American and Pakistani forces breathing down his neck in Waziristan -- the Reps will really be finished. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Really bad news on the health care front. After making the case for a public option, and doing it very well, Obama said this: "We have not drawn lines in the sand other than that reform has to control costs and that it has to provide relief to people who don't have health insurance or are underinsured," Mr. Obama said. "Those are the broad parameters that we've discussed." There he goes again, gratuitously making a big gift to the other side.
"We have not drawn lines in the sand other than that reform has to control costs and that it has to provide relief to people who don't have health insurance or are underinsured," Mr. Obama said. "Those are the broad parameters that we've discussed."
There he goes again, gratuitously making a big gift to the other side.
Although he's right on the rest -- that the reformers need to go out and stiffen the administration's spine. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
the reformers need to go out and stiffen the administration's spine.
what spine ? I hope everybody is right about these green shoots of liberalism emerging from the White house cos all I see is the same old pre-emptive surrender to the repugs that disfigured the dems during the Bush administration.
I mean, Harry Reid is still there isn't he ? So that's a great big jellyfish-stained white flag all over DC to start with. keep to the Fen Causeway
Obama can stand up there and talk about the public option until he's blue in the face, but if the work to get the asshats in Congress on board isn't done -- and that requires the activists -- then it ain't gonna happen. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
'Over to you with my aggressively incoherent backhand!' [fumble, fumble] 'No, over to you with a wild shot which takes out a ballgirl!' [pitiful pratfall] 'Back atcha!' [serious self-inflicted eye injury with an angry Argentinian carp] 'Whuuu...!' [catastrophic collision with a soft toy vending machine]
Repeat until no one cares any more.
that last speech of obama's he had enough eyeliner, mascara and lavender-hued eyeshadow on to give zsa zsa gabor a fit of envy.
it gave a bit of an some-girls edge to the grave, lofty peptalk, more saturnalia than saturnine.
i guess maybe he always used it, but not laid on with a trowel like now.
greasepaint is, er, un-statesmanlike, (unless you're dario fo...!) ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
