What Once was Naivete is Now Idiocy
Update: Brad DeLong appears to confirm that Obama’s inner circle would be best served by being placed in a circular firing squad, given live ammo, and being told to “do what is right.”
The plethora of disingenuous claims that Barack Obama “won” with the McConnell-Obama “compromise” are legend. See, for instance, the idiocy of Andrew Sullivan (of which Andrew Samwick is too generous when he describes it as “poor political tactics“; see also Brad DeLong), and the Administration’s disingenuous “what ‘we’ won” chart.
The big question was how this is supposed to stimulate the economy. Those of us who argued that it would do damage noted that it was the first move.
Obama has so far played (as I noted earlier): 1 g4 e5
Now, Mark Thoma discovers that he really does intend 2 f3 and then will wait for the Republican’s next move:
The second part, now being teed up by the White House and key Senate Democrats, is a scheme for the president to embrace much of the Bowles-Simpson plan — including cuts in Social Security. This is to be unveiled, according to well-placed sources, in the president’s State of the Union address.
followed soon by what may be the stupidest serious paragraph ever written by someone who isn’t Donald Luskin:
White House strategists believe this can also give Obama “credit” for getting serious about deficit reduction — now more urgent with the nearly $900 billion increase in the deficit via the tax cut deal.
We have always heard that the first Black President would be subject to an increased threat of assassination. Only now do we discover that he intends to commit seppuku.
The optimistic version of his chances for re-election now appears to be the case presented by “Norman” in comments to my previous post (slightly edited for clarity):
If “O” continues his so called compromise—giving in to whatever the right wants—doesn’t pull a LBJ and gets the nod in 2012, the Repubs nominate Sarah [Palin], then it’s quite possible he could win again. Only this time, the Republicans would be a deciding factor in the win. Why? Because they know he will cave on just about everything they ask for.
The only quibble there may be the “just about.”
palin will not get the nod in ’12, or probably any other year. we right-of-centers may be crazy, but not enough of us are that stupid.
I think Mitt Romney will have something to say about that 2012 scenario. I see him coming at Obama from the left. Don’t laugh. His father was a porgressive Republican, and Mitt served as governor of the most progressive state in the nation. Plus, another flash, the SC is about to take the Gay issue out of play with a ruling on SS marriage. Abortion is nothing now. Here’s another flash: the truly progressive party in American politics was the Republicans prior to FDR. In fact the Republican party platform of 1920 contained almost everything (well almost everything!) that FDR put into law in 1932 and beyond. The democrats were too conservative so he had to go to the racist southerners to get his agenda implemented, and is why he couldn’t take on racial issues. But he took everything the Republicans had planned for on social agenda. There are loads of Republicans who have been waiting in the wilderness unrtil the craziness passes, and Mitt may signal that passing.
Ken,
This was a great line. I must complimenty you for it. I laughed for quite awhile.
“We have always heard that the first Black President would be subject to an increased threat of assassination. Only now do we discover that he intends to commit seppuku.”
Always remember Obama is your guy – and the Dems have been in charge these past two years. Welcome to Democratic party governence!
BTW and off topic
Did you see 60 minutes yesterday? They had a nice piece on the coming disaster that are state budgets. Focused on just how bad Illinois is – may actually be worse than California if possible. Showed Christie in a positive light, which surprised me from 60 minutes.
Also, had a very interesting section on some people who have very unique memory capabilities. Fascinating.
Islam will change
Democrats – masters of the circular firing squad.
Liberal and progressive Democrats – grand masters of the circular firing squad.
Mitch’s bitch did not seem to get social security during the primaries in 2008, his appointing the Catfood Commission was another indication that he truly did not get it. I have called for his resignation and thinking Democrats are thoroughly disgusted with him. History is set to repeat itself. Someone who is a decent, socially middle of the road and economically progressive candidate will mount a credible third party campaign and whoever the GOP candidate is will win in a landslide–maybe all 50 states, but not DC. Hard to believe, but we have arguably had the two worst presidents in American history back to back.
This is my favorite quote:
“White House strategists believe this can also give Obama “credit” for getting serious about deficit reduction — now more urgent with the nearly $900 billion increase in the deficit via the tax cut deal.”
There is some wiggle room to argue this belief, however.
Zero Hedge puts on their tin foil hats, signal a “huh?”, and point out that the the US Debt Clock site just upgraded their real time debt clock. They added a section that extrapolates current trends to 2015.
The realtime number for total federal debt is now $14T. The exprapolated total comes to $24.5T in 2015.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/245-trillion-us-national-debt-144-trillion-unfunded-liabilities-2015
Of course if we have rapid growth between now and then that won’t happen. Obama would also be the first supply side Dem, so maybe it will work this time. Never know.
I’m looking for an answer. The story grows progressively more disheartening. Lies and deception pervade every issue regarding economic consequence. I can’t imagine how a working class black person with any political awareness must be feelong at this point. Our first minority president and he turns out to be a total fraud in regards to progressive ideas. He’ll continue to reassure the public that he is winning enough on each front, inn each battle. Yet all we can count is the number of real accomplishments of the conservative Republican contingent. Yes, Dems hold a majority, but a Senate minority and a complicit and duplicitous President have carved out the heart of any reasonable economic recovery for the middle class. Life imitates art and the Manchurian Candidate now holds office.
Exactly.
Why did you guys elect him? I sure didn’t.
Hey, CoRev–I thought he’d be mediocre, middle of the road and ultimately unexciting. I admit it never occurred to me a Democrat would screw up Social Security. Wrong again. NancyO
The President of the United States has an empire to run. There is no possible way for a president to govern if the powerful institutional actors are not at the head of the table where the interests of the empire are not totally dominant. No hold that, unless they have all the seats at the table. There is no way to lead in another direction because there would be nobody to follow.
One can piss and moan about it just as people throughout history cursed their kings but there isn’t a thing that can be done about it. The king may miscalculate and the empire may weaken or collapse but its subjects will have nothing to do with it.
The President of the United States has an empire to run. There is no possible way for a president to govern if the powerful institutional actors are not at the head of the table where the interests of the empire are not totally dominant. No hold that, unless they have all the seats at the table. There is no way to lead in another direction because there would be nobody to follow.
One can piss and moan about it just as people throughout history cursed their kings but there isn’t a thing that can be done about it. The king may miscalculate and the empire may weaken or collapse but its subjects will have nothing to do with it.
I voted for the other black person running for president (yes, there was another). There was a real progressive in the 2008 election: Cynthia McKinney, the former Democratic Congresswoman from Atlanta. She was not sufficiently pro-Zionist, so she got Rahmed (Emmanuel was head of DCCC, and he basically kicked her out of the party, but refusing to support an incumbant Democrat).
I voted for the other black person running for president (yes, there was another). There was a real progressive in the 2008 election: Cynthia McKinney, the former Democratic Congresswoman from Atlanta. She was not sufficiently pro-Zionist, so she got Rahmed (Emmanuel was head of DCCC, and he basically kicked her out of the party, but refusing to support an incumbant Democrat).
I voted for the other black person running for president (yes, there was another). There was a real progressive in the 2008 election: Cynthia McKinney, the former Democratic Congresswoman from Atlanta. She was not sufficiently pro-Zionist, so she got Rahmed (Emmanuel was head of DCCC, and he basically kicked her out of the party, but refusing to support an incumbant Democrat).
Because the only alternative we had was Grumpy McVain and Caribou Barbie.
true; however, at least you wouldn’t be bitchin’ against your own and may have had a better chance in ’12 with more ‘successes’ (at least in your terms).
i said to several of my friends just before the ’08 election that whoever won ‘lost.’
“i said to several of my friends just before the ’08 election that whoever won ‘lost.’ “
jeff, I’m old enough to remember that folks were saying that before every presidential election for the last 30 years. It’s graduated to a cliche by now.
having dabbled in state and federal elections since reagan’s first term i must’ve missed that one.
I never thougght I would say this:
Hillary in 2012
Andre
you may not have noticed, but they just destroyed Social Security… which was not welfare, but an insurance program paid for by the workers themselves… the craziness may pass, but it has accomplished its purpose.
Grumpy McVain — LOL
rapier:
Speaking of cursing kings, you are reminding me of King Charles I on the scaffold:
coberly,
???
You comment doesn’t match what Andre was discussing. Where did that come from? Or did I miss the fact the (still) the Dems totally control both the house and Senate and the White House.
The ‘they’ you are refering to are Democrats not Rs. Please keep it straight. Nixon went to China, Obama destroys FDRs greatest accomplishment. Many historians call Nixon’s opening to China is greatest accomplishment – will historians say the same about the Democrat President Obama’s gutting of SS?
Islam will change
coberly,
???
You comment doesn’t match what Andre was discussing. Where did that come from? Or did I miss the fact the (still) the Dems totally control both the house and Senate and the White House.
The ‘they’ you are refering to are Democrats not Rs. Please keep it straight. Nixon went to China, Obama destroys FDRs greatest accomplishment. Many historians call Nixon’s opening to China is greatest accomplishment – will historians say the same about the Democrat President Obama’s gutting of SS?
Islam will change
str,
I voted in the Dem primaries and my wife caucused for her down here in Texas. To no avail – especially since Obama’s organization had the game rigged…
But I do not see any Dem doing a primary challenge against the first black President. A challenger needs the black vote (95% Dem) to win the general election. I can see no better way to alienate the black vote than primary Obama. And without there vote even a Palin might win.
Never forget this is who the Democrats decided would be your standard bearer. He won, he’s yours! And your probably saddled with him through the 2012 election.
Islam will change
MG,
You falling for the pretty words again that everyone (but you) have already forgotten. You can grasp at straws all you want but Obama hasn’t changed his spots. He will sign into law the extension of the Obama-Bush tax cuts. And if you thinik Obama would seriously entertain reducing the size or reach of the federal government you haven’t been paying attention these last two years. Or did you forget all the Czars?
Or did you miss Obama leading the charge to gut SS? Bruce and coberly haven’t.
MG stop drinking the Koolaid and come back to reality.
Islam will change
Buff,
You need a taste of reality. If the President doesn’t raise the questions, everyone is going to sit on their asses until the country implodes. And we’re headed in that direction right now about as fast as we can go.
You can laugh at Obama, but you know that these issues have to be addressed. Pretty words they aren’t. Get a grip.
Well, Optimism, that the Republicans in the next 2 years will be anything but a pack of egotistical prima donna’s playing “gotcha” includinmg those who consider themselves P.O.T.U.S. material or near so, will certainly make for some interesting “KABUKI”, along with “O”‘s performance. I certainly didn’t think that I’d have to compete with my 3 cats, who would eat first.
For all the progressives that are bummed about O and wishing that McCain haqd won, just two words: Sotomeyor and Kagan. While they might not be the reincarnations of Duglas and Black, just imagine for a minute where we would be if McCain had apointed 2 more Scalia clones to the court, giving the “give businesses everything they could possibly want regardless of precident or the Constitution” crowd a solid block of 6 votes. O has certinaly not been everything I wished for, but he has managed some fairly solid accomplishments.
Buff
the “they” I was talking about was “them” the powers that be. Your distinction between Democrats and Republicans is exactly the way “they” want you to think. It makes it easier for them to rob you.
I have to resist the tempation to thin the “good cop” is really a nice guy. You ought to resist the tempation to think he is “soft on crime.”
My comment was addressed to Andre because he failed to notice that “they” including his “progressive Republicans” have just gutted the New Deal, which he seemed to be saying was a Republican Idea all along… as it could have been since Social Security, at least, was not “welfare.”
Note the “failed to notice.” Andre gives us a lot of news about the future of some political contest or other, utterly failing to notice that it will have nothing to do with the way we are ruled.
Meanwhile, you, my friend, failed to notice that the Republicans “helped” Mr Obama gut Social Security. I will be glad to give Obama all the blame… after all he is a traitor to his class… but I seem to remember that some Republicans were in that room when the deed was done.
MG
thanks for the long quotes. I am afraid I agree mostly with buff about the pretty words. I guess the first thing that strikes me about an education based plan to “save the country” is that it is standard politics, has been for sixty years that i know about. You aren’t going to “improve education” by pulling it by the ears. In the first place half the country has i.q.s less than 100. You aren’t going to make them into rocket scientists. And those who have i.q.’s well over a hundred go to Harvard and become non partisan liars… no help to the country there.
Where Buff goes wrong is he still thinks it’s a Democrat versus Republican issue. It’s really a them vs us issue, and they have the high ground.
Education will follow the needs of the country… that is, what the country is willing to pay for an education in the job market. Right now we are paying to educate Chinese and Indian Engineers.
Here is a link for you… I don’t have time to quote from it extensively, but it is from a former Reagan economics expert (deputy treasury secretary) and it says that Reaganomics has been misunderstood, but it definitely was not what we have been seeing lately from Clinton and Bush. And I presume O’bomba. [Link deferred until I can manage the technology.]
here is the link (i hope)
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/4339-reaganomics
the reason it takes me so long to provide it is because when i go outside angry bear to get it, my computer closes angry bear and then i have to reopen it and find this thread and the comments section again.
no doubt when O’bomba has educated the american people, second graders will be able to manage this chore. and if they are good little students they will spend the next twelve or twenty years learning to be better and better at computer related skills. and if they get a good paying job they will think of themselves as the “elite” educated and meritorious part of society, but they won’t have any education at all, and probably not much character. they will have been turned into a new aristocracy. vain, dumb, and crass.
Dirk
you may be right. but stealing Social Security from the people is a much bigger crime than forcing gays to be discrete if they want to be soldiers, or women to be discrete if they want abortions.
those issues are important to the people involved, and to the rest of us who naturally sympathize with the victims of old religious taboos, but that is why the Democrats use them to win elections… and then use the elections to do exactly what the Republicans who win elections do.
No doubt there are differences among Justices that matter to people, but it’s probably safer for you to remember that after the good cop and bad cop are done with you, a judge is going to give you twenty years for whatever “crime” is on the books, whether it is “just” or not.
Sounds like you need help with your computer, coberly. Are you so far out in the sticks that you have a telegraph connection to the internet?
coberly,
I agree there were some Rs in the room. But no one would have been in the room in the first place without the Democrat President Obama. This was a Dem initiative and could only have happened with the instagation and cooperation of the Dems in Congress and the Dem President. Do you forget 2005 so easily?
Put the blame were it rests. On your Democratic President Obama and his allies in the Dem controlled Congress.
Islam will change
Well, Dirk. Sotomayor I understand having read a number of her decisions. This is a straight up lawyer and judge, by the book but liberal in her views. Kagan has recused herself for something like 22 or 23 of the upcoming cases in this year’s docket. This leaves the Court with the potential to make a number of decisions binding only in the circuit they came from. Any of those cases could come up again later in new cases on the same points of law, an unusual situation in recent Court history.
So, since Kagan never sat as a judge and was so discreet as to be practically mute on a number of important issues, I am not yet persuaded she was a good pick. This President’s recent actions are not reassuring. If he is willing to undermine, if not destroy, SS, whom will he be willing to put on the Court? So, I would ordinarily be quite willing to vote for him on a “lesser of two evils” principle. But, now I am not so willing as I was formerly to give him the benefit of the doubt. NancyO
LOL…not quite Cedric, but close enough.
Dirk:
Nobody here who voted for Obama is “disappointed” that Grumpy McVain and Bible Spice lost the election in 2008. I can certainly manage to be unimpressed with BOTH McVain AND Obummer.
Seth–I can see what Bible Spice wants. I can’t understand McVain. I guess his current behavior shows his record of personal bravery during his military service is no guide to his character. Obama is much more mediocre that I thought when I voted for him. Very disappointing. NancyO
“a scheme for the president to embrace much of the Bowles-Simpson plan — including cuts in Social Security. This is to be unveiled, according to well-placed sources, in the president’s State of the Union address.”
That would create a giant opening to the left of Obama, for real primary challengers to exploit. I doubt Obama would suggest real cuts in Social Security – but if he does, expect Hillary Clinton to resign and announce her candidacy, a candidacy that I would expect to be successful.
Peter–It was Obama’s Catfood Commission just as MG and Buff point out. He will propose everything it came up with in the Simpson-Bowles report. And, he would sign legislation to cut future benefits in a heartbeat in the name of bipartisanship and fiscal austerity. Shared sacrifice for us, not for the Villagers, of course. Hilary won’t go up against Obama. She’ll wait for 2016 if she runs at all. Anyone who goes against Obama will doom his candidacy and the DNC won’t permit it. Dismal prospects, I fear. NancyO
He was dragged kicking and screaming to this compromise. I can only hope he will revert back to form. The Republicans in compromising with him, and making him do some reasonable things to revive the economy, may contribute to his re-election. I think the prople are onto his ideas, however, and there is not enough wealth to spread around for socialism to stick. It reminds me of a story on http://www.freemarketsfreepeople.net “Overleveraging Teaches Capitalism”.
“[the president to embrace much of the Bowles-Simpson plan] would create a giant opening to the left of Obama, for real primary challengers”
Well maybe, for suitably small values of “giant”. I see no realistic prospect of a primary challenge even starting and none whatever of it being successful in doing anything but entrenching Obama in his right-wing positions yet simultaneously weakening his chances against some racist theocrat from the R-team. The “left” in this country — such as it is — will be sent to the polls in 2012 without their supper to vote dutifully for the lesser evil. Again.
A third party challenge might start, but will go nowhere as usual.
This is WHY Obama’s eager embrace of hippy punching is so depressing. If we had a real means of punishing him, we’d just drop him for somebody else and move on. It’s this institutional rigidity that’s so depressing. Would you like Coke or Pepsi? Oh, not impressed with Pepsi? Well how about a choice between Coke and Diet Coke, then?
cedric
i tried to upgrade. no deal. you don’t want to hear the details.
Buff
it is most discouraging to see your answer suggests you did not read that which you are answering. i said i’d be glad to give Obama all the blame. you urge me to put the blame on Obama.
i say the R’s and D’s are good cop bad cop game designed to fool you. you tell me to blame the Dem President. Which I did. But you don’t address my contention that it was all a game designed to fool you.
I mean, it’s like I have been talking to myself. Don’t be offended. It’s par for the course.
Rusty
no doubt true. but the point of the post was that Obama’s advisors would be better employed shooting each other. Instead they have been laying IED’s for the rest of us.
peter
that giant opening to Obama’s left is the grave for the New Deal.