Comments on: The Economist: “But could he deliver?” [UPDATED]

By: Obama Launches The Worst Kinds of Lying Attacks That Undermine Americans’ Hope for Universal Health Care : NO QUARTER

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:03:02 +0000

[...] “latte elites” and the MSM drunk on his phony rhetoric. But he is a FALSE Messiah with rightwing economic plans that will harm Social Security, Medicare, and any hope for a real economic recovery that reaches [...]

By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:16:38 +0000

The candidates running on the democratic ticket for the various house and senate seats are Obamacrats? The governors and local legislators running as democrats are really Obamacrats?
Obama is not a democrat

They have the same financial interests, they aren’t interested in governing, they want power, and money, no matter who they have to blow to get it.

Just because they call themselves democratic doesn’t mean they’re are, Pelosi, Reid and Obama have been a disaster.

Why?

By: Can They List His Qualifications? (Part Deux) : NO QUARTER

Can They List His Qualifications? (Part Deux) : NO QUARTER — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:58:54 +0000

[...] the concerns of Der Spiegel (”Change You Can’t Believe In“) and The Economist (“But could he deliver?”): Then, I saw one of his supporters - a congressman from Virginia, Bobby Scott - being [...]

By: RalphB

RalphB — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:45:20 +0000

Do you actually have anything to say that makes even one bit of sense? If so, you might try posting it instead of this crap.

By: dragoneyes

dragoneyes — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:26:12 +0000

You nailed it, Anne…great archetypal analysis!

I am reminded of my favorite quote from my favorite cranky libertarian science fiction writer, Robert Heinlein… from his Hugo winning book The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Typically shortened to TANSTAAFL

By: CK

CK — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:25:15 +0000

Possible explanations:
1) The perfect is the enemy of the good enough. ( each fan knows that their fave is perfect and the other guy is one rung below whale shit )
2) If things don’t go exactly the way I want I will hold my breath until I turn blue or I will go outside and eat worms. ( When I am feeling optimistic this is my preferred explanation for it )
3) I like war. I want your kids to be involved in a war. I want america to spend the next hundred years at war. But I want an efficient war not a bollox like Bush gave us. ( This one fits a lot of dems unfortunately)
4) The boomer generation is marching off the stage, Obama’s generation is marching on. The boomers do not want to go softly into that good retirement. ( this is my preferred explanation )
5) They actually believe that Bush and McCain are getter for America than Obama would be. ( this was the big think of the turncoat dems in 1960 … that Nixon would be better than that kennedy boy; 8 years later they voted for Nixon again and got their wishes)

By: TeakwoodKite

TeakwoodKite — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:04:12 +0000

And you will vote for 4 more years of Bush why?

I don’t get this way of thinking, I wish someone could make a rational arguement as to why this makes sense… I don’t get it.

By: TeakwoodKite

TeakwoodKite — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:58:51 +0000

Surpreme Court? Re:Far less Damage?

By: CK

CK — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:55:13 +0000

They who?
The candidates running on the democratic ticket for the various house and senate seats are Obamacrats? The governors and local legislators running as democrats are really Obamacrats?
Obama is not a democrat?

I want McCain to lose. I want him to lose so badly that he retires in disgrace. I expect any other person and most domesticated animals would do less damage to the country than McCain in the presidency would. I would like to see the dems run the table 50-0 this time out. And you will vote for 4 more years of Bush why?

By: ellag

ellag — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:14:13 +0000

They are electing Obamacrats not Democrats…big difference.

If you want McCain to win you better defeat Obama now…

Between those two I (long time dem) will vote for McCain. He will do far less damage to our country.

By: CK

CK — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:10:43 +0000

Highways and schools are owned by states and localities. The states are already selling of their toll roads, ports and other assets to foreign countries without any federal help at all.
To privatize social security, the congress has to do that. Given that the democrats are hell bent on electing more better democrats this time to both houses of congress, social security does not appear in danger of privatization. If your worry is that social security will go bankrupt 40 years down the road, the easiest and least painful solution is to raise the cap over which income is not taxed for social security.
The mess in NOLA you can lay entirely at the feet of FEMA and DHS and the Bush administration. You might want to add a bit of congress bashing since the dems have had the power for two years now to do something about NOLA just as they have had the power to defund the war anytime they wanted.
I have not seen a list of who Senator Obama has chosen for his economic advisors, they might be from the Chicago school of monetary economics, I am fairly sure they are not from the NYT editorial pages or failed Keynsians from Yale and Harvard and Princeton.

By: ellag

ellag — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:45:23 +0000

Krugman is correct:

“I know that Mr. Obama’s supporters hate to hear this, but he really is less progressive than his rivals on matters of domestic policy.”
Obama is the good-looking suit out front for the “Chicago Boys”. He will oversee the privatization, not only of social security, but also highways and schools.
Take a look at New Orleans and see what a mess that turned out to be.
Obama will pay down the national debt by selling off our national assets…most likely to foreigners.

PS: The use of the word “boys” is not intended as a racial slur so dont get your undies in a knot over that.

By: CK

CK — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:42:26 +0000

I doubt many people here need more sources of right wing/neocon thinking to absorb and regurgitate.
We know what is in store for whoever heads the ticket. This crap did not start with bush it will not end with the next president. It is old hat and holding it up as some fearsome bogeyman is just foolish.
Denenberg is an old rightwing/AIPAC hack. He has polluted the PA newspapers and TV for decades.
Every con artist and campaign manager has studied Rove and his techniques for the last 8 years. And most of them have also studied Rove’s abject failure in 2006.
So I beg to differ, in this case it is a source.

By: SusanUnPC

SusanUnPC — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:32:15 +0000

I was merely quoting what their opinion page said to give a flavor of where they are coming from.

By: CK

CK — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:21:37 +0000

Denenberg now, Glenn Beck soon. Eventually Bill Kristol will be the responsible voice; loved here almost as much as he is loved on The Daily Show.

By: CK

CK — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:17:45 +0000

The price the guy who owns my local bakery has to pay for a bag of flour has gone from $9 last year to $24 this morning. His butter costs have doubled likewise his milk costs. The gas to run his ovens is up about 30% over last year. He cannot hold the prices on his donuts but then neither can any of his competitors. So the price for a dozen donuts is raised by $1.00 which doesn’t cover all his cost increases but is what he thinks he can afford to raise them. Donut sales have fallen. Bread prices are up, so bread sales have also fallen.
He and I were commiserating a few months ago about the 50% increase in health insurance premiums he faced. He dropped his health insurance. Lucky man that he is he paid off his mortgage last year after 15 years of scrimping. His property tax bill just got a nasty hike.
It used to be a pleasure to stop into his bakery, drink a cuppa, schmooze a bit, enjoy the aromas and buy a dozen donuts. Today the aromas were still good, the cuppa was as good as ever, the schmooze was maybe less than happy, but I only purchased a half a dozen. Rinse lather and repeat a couple of million times every day.

By: Gloria

Gloria — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:15:57 +0000

The piece was posted to illustrate what the right wing is going to put out….This was clearly stated by Susan

“READ ALL to find out what’s in store for Sen. Obama — the deluge of attacks he will face from the right and Sen. McCain. This should concern every voter who wishes to put behind them the days of George W. Bush, another wholly inexperienced president — as Larry Johnson has written about here many times.”

It is not a “source” per se, but an example of RW thinking. You can ignore at your own peril…

By: Adam B.

Adam B. — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:53:45 +0000

Herb Denenberg, Susan? That’s just shameful. Here’s what your source wrote about Clinton:

Hillary is a phony, hypocritical, congenital liar who won’t accept responsibility; she’s so insecure she relies only on gurus, consultants and other advisers instead of thinking for herself, she’s unprincipled; she’s far-left liberal despite her pose for purposes of the election; and she’s likely to be a big spender and big taxer (she admitted to having a million ideas, which we certainly can’t afford).

But there is a more fundamental issue. Ms. Buchanan proves that Hillary does not have the character to be president or, for that matter, to be trusted with any important office, such as dogcatcher. Ms. Buchanan offers this summary: “Hillary’s character is not a pretty sight. In stride she can lie, cheat, steal, commit perjury, obstruct justice, malign reputations and destroy the lives of innocent people. Driven by ambition, arrogance, greed, elitism, power and entitlement, Hillary’s road to the top has been a bloody one. Reputations and lives of real people have been left in the dirt along the way. But it has worked for Hillary. She made it to the top - and may do so again.”

This is who you’re relying on?

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:50:55 +0000

What’s interesting to me is that from the beginning, Obama never went after voters using policy or substance; after 8 years of an incompetent and power-hungry president, he cleverly tapped into the huge desire for change. He was the candidate who made them feel good after so many years of feeling bad – we were going to overcome and the only one who could make it happen was the one who made them feel so good. Once he had them hooked, he didn’t need to explain how it was going to happen, or exactly what he was going to do – his followers don’t care, and have decided to just trust that he will never let the good feelings end. They are truly “hooked on a feeling.”

Hillary, on the other hand, reminds people of the reality – that no one who takes the oath of office is issued a magic wand in a back-room ceremony, or the secret codes that make all the wishes reality.

Obama treats people like children. He reminds them of the magic of believing in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy – magical, mythical figures who made all their dreams come true as long as they believed. He hasn’t thought ahead to whether he can deliver or how much he can deliver or for how long. It’s all about the magic and the power of manipulating people into believing.

Hillary treats people like adults, like partners in this great adventure called democracy and government. She knows there is no magic wand, that wishing doesn’t make things happen, that nothing happens without hard, hard work in the trenches.

This is an instant gratification society, a something-for-nothing society, full of people who have been handed a lot without ever having to expend much effort – and I think these are the people who vote Obama.

You know and I know that Hillary’s approach is the honest one, the real one, but Obama is tapping into people’s desires to escape reality and live in a land where everything is wonderful, the birds sing, and nothing goes wrong.

If she could sprinkle a little fairy dust on her message, I think it would go a long way to grabbing the attention of those who may not have fully bought what Obama is selling.

I shudder to think of the damage that cascades through the Democratic party and whatever majority we have in the Congress, when all these believers wake up on Christmas morning and discover that Santa didn’t bring them all the presents they wished so hard for, that there is no Easter Bunny, and that the Tooth Fairy is tapped out.

By: CK

CK — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:36:35 +0000

You choose to use Herb Denenberg to assault Obama?
and Denenberg chooses to use Human Events as his main source of disparagement. And what is diparaged is that Obama has a very liberal voting record in congress. You know those old 100% ratings from CORE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONSTITUENCIES.
If I point out that Denenberg and The Bulletin and Human Events mag all toe the AIPAC line and that Obama is not currently AIPAC’s preferred candidate, and that if Hillary is not the nominee then McCain will become the AIPAC preferred candidate, would that make any difference?
If I point out to you that Obama has the lowest % of old dem hacks, neocons and CFR types among his backers of all of the remaining four candidates would that maybe make a dent?
If I point out that we are now in a recession and by convention time there is better than a fifty % chance that we will be in a DEPRESSION and that none of the high flown gimme gimme pandering is going to amount to a small pile of crap underfoot?
States and Local governments CANNOT sell bonds.
Empty, overpriced houses do not contribute to property tax collections.
Unemployed wall street bean counters and magic SIV promoters do no pay income taxes.
Neither do 35,000 soon to be unemployed GM workers.
Neither will Chrysler nor GMAC after Cerebus closes them.
Foreign nations do not wish to hold the debt of a nation when that debt loses 10% a year in purchasing power and pays less than 6%.
If the foreign nations, China, Russia, Japan and Saudi Arabia do not buy US debt, the only way to keep your damn Iraq fiasco going is to print more paper money and depreciate existing money and incomes even more than the current 10% the US is already doing?
have you read anything about what it was like in Wiemar Germany in the early 30’s or in Zimbabwe today?
None of the four clowns currently left in the race for president will be able to do a thing about the coming fiasco that will be the Bush Depression.
Whichever person gets the brass ring will find his or her name added to that depression.
And unlike the last grand depression, where there actually were factories and plants and firms sitting around unused but able to be restarted, there is no industrial base left in america; it is all in China and Malaysia and India and Vietnam.
Atrios calls it the shitpile, well Atrios is understating what is coming down the pike.
It is a convoy of 18wheel manure carries all without breaks and all headed for the same spot.
The MSM, the dead tree media, the talking heads cannot report this without making it come true even sooner.
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/
Just read the list of things that have gone tits up today.
If I sound just the smallest bit alarmist, it is because I AM alarmed.
And we have four lightweights to choose from to try to solve any of this.