How dare he came from the righties-- the man is so out of touch. *rub hands together with satisfaction* Oh woe if it was a leftie-- we're going to lose we're going to lose *wring hands*. Either way, those few words were the story.
How could he say the private sector is doing fine when the unemployment rate is still so high? Try this--
The problem is Obama tries to say something that is true and give Americans credit for understanding it's part of the story. That is always a mistake. Never give humans too much credit.
Everywhere I go in my part of America (which means throughout the West), I see new construction, businesses expanding and scratch my head. How can there be so much growth when we are supposed to be in so much trouble? This much building and new businesses isn't enough? If not, what would be?
Part of the problem is with this new growth, new business strength, rise of the stock market, some people have been left behind. Some of this always happens in times of growth as markets and needs change. There are multiple reasons.
The workers left behind were trained in something that is no longer needed.
Their manufacturing can be done cheaper overseas.
The government has not done anything to make it unprofitable to close a company here and reopen it in a Third World Country or in some state where there is a tax policy that has been created just to draw the company to them.
The government has not helped when a company goes bankrupt and actually is rewarded by tax policies while the feds pick up the pension and the investors walk off with millions.
Retraining workers costs money. Some don't want to spend it.
Some workers don't want to do it (or can't meet the needs of the new markets).
If you are a Republican, you can't really elect a president who will fix it anyway because you don't want the government doing anything-- free market and all that, right?
As for Obama, he needs to quit apologizing, figure out his story, learn how to tell it like Republicans (with zero deviation and no logical extensions of where that leads) and maybe he can get the zombie vote also!
14 comments:
The thing I don't get is the line at Starbucks is out the door every day and has been for the last 7 years. If the economy was truly that bad don't you think people would slow down on buying $4.00 lattes
Earlier this morning I decided the problem is that people don't read. I suppose they listen to these politicians and believe what they hear because they don't know any better and don't know how to reason or think. I've decided the culprit is lack of reading. Or else reading only 8th grade level books.
I have never been able to understand why our government hasn't taken away or at least reduced the tax incentives & benefits of companies who move jobs out of our country. They may still be headquartered here but it is rather in name only that they are an American company.
One other point you raised about stockholders making money when these companies go bankrupt sure isn't always true. I was a very small stockholder in Washington Mutual Bank. It seemed safe, over a hundred years old, paid increasing dividends for years and was valued at over $300B dollars. Yet overnight the government gave it to Chase Bank for $1.5B with absolutely nothing to the stockholders. A similar thing happened to me with Wachovia Bank. I will no longer buy stock in ANY US bank. Maybe some of the fat cats made out okay on these exchanges, certainly Chase Bank did very well, but we little guys were left with nothing.
That's true for Lehmen Brothers and Enron too where they also lost pensions. I think though some of the top guys did make away with a lot of money at least in Lehmen Brothers. The ones who lose are always the little guys. It's no wonder people are so angry. Our government isn't help the middle. It talks it but too often it's all about the ones who can donate big bucks to their campaigns and now these super PACs.
Farm Boss had done some small investing some years back and they were also with companies where he lost it all. I wonder though if the big guys did there either. Certainly Bain regularly got out their money and everything they could take from the companies before they went under leaving the taxpayers picking up at least those pensions.
All of the comments I read say basically the same thing. Obama has failed to use the bully pulpit to explain what is going on. He has started saying 'Republicans' instead of just blaming congress for inaction, but I fear that a lot of minds are already made up.
I think it's too early to assume it's over. We panic too quickly on both sides. The conventions will be a factor in how some vote, then the debates. It's not over until the fat lady sings and that ain't happened yet ;) My biggest concern now is that Democrats get it together as they can sabotage themselves and have many times.
I was reading how many blogs and radio programs out there are paid shills. Those of us who are not, we better make sure we stay active with putting out the charts and facts every chance we get. Let the independents read them as they will but at least they will have them and not just rhetoric.
Oh I think it's over. Over 80% of all (unregulated) PAC money goes to Republican causes and candidates. Look what money bought in Wisconsin. I feel like I am beating a dead horse here but an uninformed and easily manipulated populace will easily be swayed by the preponderance of Madison Avenue political advertising.
It wasn't all about money in Wisconsin. A lot of those who voted for Walker did so for another reason. They saw a recall as a wrong approach. They said they felt he had been elected and done nothing dishonest. He simply followed the tea party agenda. To them it was like voting for someone, losing, and trying to renege on the election. Now whether that makes sense, it was a factor and not being able to refute it was a factor in the loss.
It's not over until it's over. The money and the ads don't have to work. There is a social media now and it has an influence that hasn't been measured before.
I might add a lot of Republicans have felt this is the case also-- that when people can vote themselves benefits, they will. That has not worked out to be true.
My question and it has been mine for some time. Who are Americans? That's more the issue than the money. Do we believe in individual rights for things like birth control, abortion, pot, death with dignity, and also believe in a government that regulates the environment to make the air and water safe to drink, the food safe to eat? Do we want programs for the poor or let them starve? I am not sure who we are but that's more a factor, I think, than the money.
Incidentally if we all, those of us who are middle class, give to the Obama campaign and to PACs, we have a lot of power too. Will we do that or sit back and moan without even trying? Who are we? Who are Democrats for that matter?
The DNC told the Dems in Wisconsin not to go after Walker. They expected to lose. That is the same reason that you didn't see Obama campaigning for his union masters there either.
The issue was bigger than lose or win. It's whether you should impeach someone from an office they won for doing what they were elected by one segment to do. Obama may have felt the whole thing could apply to him and end up being a situation where impeachments ran rampant. A lot wanted him to campaign there but he did not. Now whether it was valid to impeach Walker, a lot felt it was not and voted not for him but against that process of losing and then impeaching which ends up doing nothing. A lot of those rightie governors have done exactly what many of us on the left feared. Independents better think long and hard on voting for a right winger. It has broad implications and a lot beyond economics-- which many could argue over the right methods anyway.
Incidentally-- if Obama had union masters, he'd have come to do their bidding. Can you say the same thing about Romney with the oligarchs funding his campaign where he is now speaking their bidding with saying we need less teachers, firemen and policemen. Since he has private schools at his beck and call and can afford to pay for his own protection, easy to see how it wouldn't bother him to take that away from other Americans who can't pay for a subscription service. Who has the master?
I know in Wisconsin they have hired more teachers and reduce class size because they are no longer broke but some still regard him as the worst governor in history.
What statistics do you have for that, ingineer? I have heard the jobless rate is worse there than elsewhere.
You aren't addressing the question though. If Obama has union masters, whose are Romney's? And how can you vote for someone who favors a personhood law, would ban gay marriage federally regardless of how states voted, who won't release 10 years of his tax returns to let us see how patriotic he is? A guy who got out of serving because he's a Mormon when he could have fought in his own war but opts now to promote war as a good thing by talking of adding Iran to our list of where we fight wars? This guy won't even reveal who his big donors are.
To me Walker is yesterday's story. We'll see if he wins re-election and how he governs now. What got people though was more how he took away the right to collectively bargain-- pretty much the only power the middle has where it comes to salaries, benefits and working conditions.
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