What really should tell you all you need to know is the sense of jubilation of the Republican Right right now. I mean if Americans are struggling that's great news-the better to bludgeon the President with.
Of course they have no solutions and wouldn't try to implement them if they did. Obama and Barney Frank pointed out all the tremendous GOP obstruction of the last 2 years. Rick Perry spoke of Bernanke's interventions as treason but if anything is close to treason it's as the people's representatives to root against the recovery for partisan political gain.
Rush of course was having on air ejaculations yesterday absurdly claiming that it's a no-brainer give the choice that we would be better off going back to Bush. I agree it's a no-brainer in that only someone without even half a brain would make it. Rush likes to claim he can beat his opponents with half his brain tied behind his back but I think he long ago took out way too many halves.
Frank makes a good point:
“The American economy today, of all the economies in the advanced nations in the world … we’re doing the best and we’re doing the best because we’re mixing policies. Now, we’ve been retarded by conservative opposition,”
Frank backed up what he was saying by making a point about public sector hiring. Frank said the economy “lost over 600,000 jobs from state and local government: teachers, firefighters, police officers because the right-wing has sort of cut back on that.”
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/245811/barney-frank-conservative-opposition-retarded-recovery/#OG2dpROrm3hoRpo4.99
We are still doing the best-are recovery has slowed though that's the script every year-2010, 2011 and now 2012. If it holds to form we'll see the economy come back by the Fall. Whether or not it will be too late for the President is a worry though I think he'll pull it out. The American people continue to understand that Obama is not at fault, that in reality he inherited this from W.
To be sure the obstructionist Republicans have been a huge drag-it's thanks to them that we have had austerity lite but thanks to the President that we haven't had full blown austerity. It is also true though that the real problem right now is Angela Merkel's Germany. We'll see if she insists on forcing Greece from the euro which the market has already made clear will by cataclysmic whether or not Ms. Merkel tries to pretend that Greece leaving will be no big deal.
As W. Peden puts it:
"It would be a real shame if Obama lost because (1) he missed the boat on a fairly administrative measure of Fed appointments and (2) he was a victim of overseas incompetance."
"That said, “Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama” is one of the least objectionable US presidential conflicts ever in my book (right up there with Clinton vs. Dole and Eisenhower vs. Stevenson). Obama is economically centre-right (by UK standards) and I think that Romney is also centre-right insofar as he has any strong beliefs. Both are good compromisers and will work with congress; neither is dogmatic. Of the two, I favour Obama because while he’s not as socially liberal as I would like (e.g. his views on the war on drugs have turned out to be basically the same as Bush’s) he is socially to the left of Romney and his announcement of support for gay marriage was one of the best presidential decisions on social freedom since Nixon ended the draft."
http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=14623#comments
The real problem for Obama right now is even more than the House GOP, Germany and the ECB. One wonders if we always have to learn everything the hard way in economic matters.
P.S. It's amazing how good Nixon looks these days to me. I found out that I'm not alone, there are many like me-Richard Nixon Liberals.
http://www.amazon.com/Nixon-Reconsidered-Joan-Hoff/dp/0465051057/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338651134&sr=8-1
Just remember--in 2010, Obama warned us not to let the GOP take back the keys to Congress. We ignored that warning and lost the House and several governorships.
ReplyDeleteNow, in 2012, we see the results. The GOP takeover of 2010 was meant to slow down and prevent any chance of the President doing anything to fix the mess that the GOP had caused in the eight years of Bush. It also doesn't help that the mainstream media is blessed/cursed with short-term memory loss and is more about sucking up to the GOP than holding their feet to the fire.
True Mark, but the GOP is getting a major assist by the EU. That's what's hurting the economy now. Obama actually beat the GOP in their machinations which is why like Frank said we actually are in much better shape than Europe.
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