Comments on: Obama: Too many broken promises

By: Jim C

Jim C — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The problem is that seemingly all of his advisors are conservatives , so what kind of advice do you think he will be getting ? Hint , he’s already backing away from raising taxes on the wealthy which is historically one of the best things you can do to help the economy . Conservatives hate the idea but history shows clearly that when taxes are raised on the rich the economy improves. They stop hoarding funds and paying themselves enormous amounts ( not to mention buying fresh new politicians ) and plow funds back into their business to lighten their tax payment ( look what happened when the wealthy were taxed at over 90% , huge growth and reinvestment ) . If I may offer an analogy , If your car was running badly and you knew of two mechanics , one who every time he worked on your car it stopped running or ran worse than when you took it in and another that you then had to always take it to who would fix it . Which would you go to with car problems ? By the logic you attribute to Obama I guess you keep taking it to the guy who doesn’t know how to fix it assuming that because you told him to fix it he will this time . As far as not caring what their ideology is , if they are steeped in right wing ideology that is the approach they are going to try to follow ? If all his advisers are right wing ideologs ( which they are ) what kind of advice do you think he will be getting ? Ideolog and pragmatist are opposite and opposing terms . By surrounding himself with right wing ideologs for both advice and implimentation I find believing he is going to be pragmatic a bit hard to swallow . I am also not saying they won’t get results , but you might refer back to my Einstein quote .

By: eggplant43

eggplant43 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

We’ll know nothing for sure until policies start being implemented. I think implementation is the key here. Obama is already on record that his cabinet’s job will be to carry out his policies. When the rubber starts to hit the pavement, then we can criticize. Until then, it’s just speculation. If these folks don’t perform as promised, then we’ll see.

Obama and his crew have got to perform under very delicate circumstances, and frankly, I don’t care what their ideology is, as long as they get results. I hope I don’t live to regret those words.

By: AustinRanter

AustinRanter — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A great line was delivered by Robert Duvall in the movie Apocalypse Now in which he said, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” I’m beginning to appreciate that line more and more. When you live in an explosive, violent, and vile world long enough, eventually you have to be able to find something about it that you like.

I do believe that a few folks are ready for another presidential election as this past one wasn’t quite satisfactory enough for them. I’m not a Christian, but let’s just pretend that Jesus ran and was elected as President-Elect (I might have voted for him). I just don’t believe that Jesus could have been elected and kept all of his campaign promises…or selected all of the right cabinet and advisory members that would have completely appeased all.

Seems to me like we (society in general) are always looking for some reason to hang somebody on a cross (metaphorically speaking, of course).

Damn good thing there’s no official or legal mandate for multiculturalism. There’s enough groups vying for power as it is.

As my grandma use to say, “When it hurts hard enough, long enough, you’ll stop doing whatever it is that is causing the pain.”

So you ask…what’s all of the above have to do with broken promises? Welp, think about it.

By: spartacus

spartacus — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s keep in mind, too, that the reason Obama and McCain didn’t agree to use public financing was that McCain wouldn’t agree to call off the 527s: the same swift-boaters who made a mockery of the process by turning a war-hero (John Kerry) into what appeared to be a coward, while he was running against someone who didn’t even bother to show up for his stateside job of keeping the skies over Alabama safe! Saying he bought the election is ridiculous, unless you want to compare that to the way Republicans have used their campaigns in the past, with public funds accentuated by 527s spending millions on hate ads and PAC ads that are equally reprehensible in most cases. Obama was simply too smart to go along with the usual Republican game plan: McCain couldn’t even put a lid on Sarah Palin, his rabble-rousing VP pick, when she started her hate-filled rhetoric and incited her crowds to shout threats and show their violent tendancies, assuming he wanted to put a lid on it.

Obama obviously knew just whom he was dealing with. That’s why he didn’t take the money. Don’t you think other organizations could have taken in those contributions for his campaign as well? There were millions of people who wanted Barack Obama to be elected president (though not you I suppose), so they would have found a way to give it to somebody for that purpose, I assure you.

This election was not bought, unless you consider that it was paid for by millions upon millions of Americans who gave contributions averaging less than $100 each. That IS public financing.

By: Janice

Janice — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Good morning Doug,
Glad to see you’re up and feeling better. I also hope that Obama will come through with his campaign promises .. and do have a wait and see attidude. The waiting will go on until the end of January, and I better see a damn good plan and lots of fast action.

What I am pissed about are the bailouts for the financial crooks that put us here. I’m also pissed about our jobs going offshore that laid the ground work for the mortgage mess – and no one is talking about it. I hope that Obama’s plan for a massive work program/restructuring of the infrastructure/god knows what else will work, and I worry about the horrible debt.

You have to hand it to Bush, he out did himself on this world economic failure. I knew he was taking down our country, but he managed to trash the whole world economy – now there’s a legacy!

But, seriously Doug, “…makes Karl Rove look like a Sunday school teacher.” .. I think you may have pushed that one a little far – the devil himself couldn’t make Karl Rove look like a Sunday school teacher.

If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.
Mark Twain

By: dtotire

dtotire — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

DanT

Once the program is up and running, the economy will recover. Unfortunately, it will take at least 9 to 12 months before we see any improvement. After Reagan took office, we had a recession. He cut taxes, but he also tripled defense spending from $100B to $300B. This was the fiscal stimulus that made the economy recover, not the tax cut. All the tax cut did was to increase the national debt. Unfortunately, many people still believe it was the tax cut that caused tax revenues to increase.

By: Walter F. Wouk

Walter F. Wouk — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Workers in Chicago occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory after getting 3-days notice that the plant is closing. They said they they won’t go home without assurances they’ll get severance and vacation pay they say they are owed.

This sort of action hasn’t happened in decades. It’s a sign that people are pissed off and they’re tired of bullshit.

Obama would be wise to read the writing on the wall.

By: Jim C

Jim C — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Excellent article and spot on . He ( Obama ) also said he wanted input from all perspectives , what he seems to have really meant is all ” conservative and DLC ” perspectives , I’m yet to see a liberal appointed to anything or as an advisor . While I disagree the Emanual is as bad as Rove , he is part of the republican wing of the democratic party . The main competition these DLC ” democrats ” seem to have with the republicans is who can pander for the most corporate money . It does appear that the conservative power players have been moving to infiltrate and take control of the democratic party for a while , possibly realizing that the religious right and one issue wingnuts ( and historically poisonous policies ) would eventually turn the general public off . So the DLC was born and has been quit well funded giving them a foothold . We may be seeing both political parties returning to where they were in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s , both serving the powerful and well connected , different sides of the same coin . This situation wasn’t corrected until when in the early 1900′s the american socialist party won I believe 27% of the vote in an election . Both partys panicked and the democratic party adopted many of their ( the american socialist parties ) planks ,40 hr work week , child labor laws , worker protections etc thus forming the modern democratic party and setting the table for FDR’s new deal . We seem to be backsliding , the rich and powerful are like water on a rock . They just keep using their power and privilage to chip away at middle class rights which they see as an abomination to the natural order of things . I have listened with concern as Obama backtracks and modifies his positions , always to the right , never the left . His comment about ” not being able to apply the measures of the 30′s to the present situation ” is also troubling . The root of the current mess is the dismantling of Glass Seagal along with other regulations that had worked just fine . A little old fashioned trust busting would be nice also . Too big to fail to me means too big period . I have also heard little about reregulating or real accountability for those who caused this mess . Why are we bailing financial firms out with no oversite , regulations ,nothing . Why are upper management allowed to make 400 to a thousand times what average americans make , I say after a certain point , tax it away , it worked for 70 years just fine . These guys eventually use their wealth to try to establish themselves as royalty and royals need serfs to both serve them and as cannon fodder , guess who fills that position ? Oh , Obama didn’t say he would ” agree ” to public funding , he said he would ” consider it ” , sometimes we hear what we want to hear .

By: Flapsaddle

Flapsaddle — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Already we see the deer-in-the-headlights look from some of the Obama devout as the promises of the campaign are being isomorphically replaced by the business-as-usual attitude that prevails regardless of which half of the party wins the presidential election.

Cant help being reminded of the line of H. L. Mencken about no one ever going broke from underestimating the intelligence of the voting public, or Lincoln’s saying about how many people can be fooled how much of the time.

Most sincerely,

T. J. Flapsaddle

By: Jim Shelton

Jim Shelton — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Get real. President elect Obama is one of the most intelligent and pragmatic elected officials I have ever had the pleasure and reassurance to follow. My career as a student of politics began after returning from Vietnam and supporting George McGovern.