Year 2

1/26/2010 1:04:02 PM

Quote :

"This sure makes it sound like he secretly knows capitalism is a good thing."

Can you not grasp simple comprehension of the statement he is making? He is saying "hey, Obama hates capitalism. He doesn't want the economy to turn around, because then he would have to say good things about capitalism." Obama doesn't want to say good things about capitalism, BECAUSE HE HATES IT. that is what the dude is saying. jesus, how fucking hard is that to comprehend?

Quote :

"So which one is it? Is he a radical pushing his agenda, or is he a moderate not getting the things he's promised done?"

Can you, too, not grasp simple statements? He is a "raging socialist in moderate sheep's clothing." As in, he is HIDING HIS SOCIALIST SIDE under the VENEER OF FAKE MODERATE VIEWS. durrr

1/27/2010 12:52:58 AM

President Obama igned the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, he signed a bill to expand veteran benefits, he signed kids tobacco legislation, he signed a major land protection act, & SCHIP, gave the Cairo speech to the Muslim world & has represented our country abroad (Europe seems to be pretty fond of him for the most part), he oversees an EPA that has shown it is willing to get tough on environmental issues via regulation if the congress wont via legislation, he gave a widely watched education speech, he's advocated for science in our schools, & is for stem cell research, he's appointed a supreme court justice, he's ended torture, respects the Geneva Convention, and has plans to close Gitmo (albeit behind schedule after responding to facts on the ground), he's going to have us out or Iraq next year and starting to pulling out of Afghanistan (the one that actually attacked us) at the same time.

And since he gets a hard time on gay rights, here is a section on what he has done so far. On the gay rights from he has signed legislation such as the hate crimes bill, and ryan white care act, he has lifted the travel/immigration ban based on HIV status, he has expanded federal benefits to gay spouses which is the largest employer in the US & in some sense sets the tone for many other employers, he's invited gay couples to public white house family holiday events, he's appointed openly gay officials as well as gay ambassadors. He's called for the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell on the campaign trail, again after taking office during the National Equality March weekend, and said he would sign legislation relating to repealing DADT, the repealing of the Defense of Marriage Act, & enacting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

And then of course there is all the day to day of meetings & running the country. All of this without mentioning any health care reform efforts.

You can make the argument that speeches don't count because they are only speeches, or that the day to day administrative stuff doesn't count because we elected him to do more than that, or that signing legislation doesn't count because it is mostly congress that comes up with that stuff, or that appointments don't count because they aren't very far reaching, and basically any action of any kind doesn't count because taken in isolation it is only a small action of one type, and I've seen those arguments made against almost every single action he's taken, but when you total them up it isn't that bad. Granted it isn't enough yet, but he gets until the end of his first term before you have to decide whether or not you want to re-elected him.

1/27/2010 1:59:02 AM

Oh yeah, Cash for Clunkers. How could I forget that one?

1/27/2010 12:29:52 PM

ahahahhaa

http://www.youtube.com/user/RP4409#p/a/u/2/iEbIrOR6YEQ

1/27/2010 12:34:36 PM

Quote :

"Cash for Clunkers"

The history books won't judge that one kindly.

[Edited on January 27, 2010 at 12:36 PM. Reason : ]

1/27/2010 12:35:52 PM

Quote :

"He has no inner desire to get the country rolling again, because it would mean he would have to say positive things about business"

Oh no, he's giving tax credits to businesses and saying positive things about businesses! There went that theory.

1/29/2010 6:26:20 PM

just because he does things, doesn't mean he wants to. Which was the point of what was said

1/29/2010 8:10:56 PM

1/29/2010 9:02:53 PM

what's the unemployment rate again? btw, even NPR has said that number is misleading and, ultimately, bullshit.

1/29/2010 9:24:16 PM

Means nothing when the G in C + G + I + X-M = Y is almost entirely funded by deficits. Arguably, no real growth has occurred since at least the dotcom bubble of the 1990s.

1/29/2010 9:26:15 PM

^^ the point is, if the number were still dropping, you and the rest of the right would have been screaming their heads off that O’Bama is a failure.

I’ve never been one to attribute swings in economic metrics directly to the president, but the media sure does, just apparently not when it could be spinned positively.

I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of hundreds of billions of dollars dumped into the banks and “stimulus” having some effect on it though.

[Edited on January 29, 2010 at 9:27 PM. Reason : ]

1/29/2010 9:27:00 PM

Quote :

"the point is, if the number were still dropping, you and the rest of the right would have been screaming their heads off that O’Bama is a failure."

bullshit, that's not "the point." You were trying to say Obama has done something positive, when he clearly has not.

Quote :

"I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of hundreds of billions of dollars dumped into the banks and “stimulus” having some effect on it though."

NPR most certainly has.

1/29/2010 9:28:48 PM

Quote :

"bullshit, that's not "the point." You were trying to say Obama has done something positive, when he clearly has not. "

I would have posted this in the “Obama Credibility Watch” thread if that were the case.

I noticed though that you didn’t deny my statement.

1/29/2010 9:32:37 PM

so, instead, you posted it in the "A Busy First Year" thread? A busy first year for who? And busy, in a good way, right?

1/29/2010 9:36:30 PM

Quote :

"the point is, if the number were still dropping, you and the rest of the right would have been screaming their heads off that O’Bama is a failure."

Hey I'm happy we've got a little good news for a change.

1/29/2010 10:53:33 PM

Quote :

"He has no inner desire to get the country rolling again, because it would mean he would have to say positive things about business"

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/02/obama-calls-for-30-billion-small-business-lending-fund/?fbid=_uZnLbrB2TV

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/02/obama.nh/index.html

Quote :

"Obama pushes small-business job growth in New Hampshire "

Businesses are good, they are the engine of capitalism, we need to give them more tax credits & increase lending to them.

When is he going to stop spewing this radical socialist message that he'd rather the economy fail, at the cost of re-election, just so he doesn't have to say good stuff about businesses.

2/2/2010 10:23:56 PM

Supplanter, it should be getting clearer to you by now. He says whatever the group he is speaking to wants to hear. At noon he is talking about cutting spending/taxes to a group in Ohio, at 5pm he is talking about "investing" 400B in green shit to a group in california.

Considering close to 80% of business owners consider him antibusiness. He creates a lot of uncertainty which is a bitch in the business world. Its hard to plan expansions, etc if you arent sure what burden is going to be thrown down on you and how much.

With that said, if he does cut taxes and get the spending under control. I will give him credit, but I have no faith he will do so. And im not counting spending 1T more then trimming 100B and call it a cut. Goes along with the BS "create or save" line with jobs.

2/2/2010 10:44:31 PM

Earthdogg's theory was that he'd rather let the economy fail than have to say something good about businesses, whereas he clearly expresses both a desire for the economy to succeed, and for businesses to be a part of that.

My argument isn't that he isn't a politician or doesn't act politiciany, my argument is that he isn't the radical socialist wolf in sheeps clothing that wants to see the economy fail that Eartdogg thinks he is or that the right makes him out to be.

2/2/2010 11:14:58 PM

Well I'm an admitted communist and I'd do the same things Obama is doing now. It's not about seeing capitalism fail, that's already happened, we all watched it happen, what we need to do now is inject money into businesses and let them do their thing, once they bring us back up to a normal state, then we stabilize. Socialism isn't about getting rid of capitalism, it's about stabilizing it and mitigating its boom and bust cycle.

2/2/2010 11:58:30 PM

Regardless of one's political or economic perspectives, I think it should be pretty clear to anyone not addicted to Fox News, that President Obama does not have a secret desire for the economy to fail because he just hates business so much.

2/3/2010 3:11:34 AM

That's stupid. When a business fails you make it go away, you don't prop it up with government money. We have lots of other businesses that are not bankrupt and would love to be free of the competition, but no, you are so desperate to socialize something it might as well be losses?!?!

2/3/2010 3:37:26 AM

Quote :

"he oversees an EPA that has shown it is willing to get tough on environmental issues via regulation if the congress wont via legislation"

translation: bypassed the constitution.

2/3/2010 5:01:09 PM

The EPA regulating the environment is unconstitutional?

2/3/2010 7:19:03 PM

no, but the EPA making a ruling that flies in the face of the law that governs the EPA most certainly is unConstitutional.

2/3/2010 7:36:15 PM

^^the EPA taking the Clean Air Act (which was NEVER intended to be used for CO2, something that's been explicitly stated by the main author of the bill) and modifying it to apply it to CO2 is unconstitutional. The Clean Air Act calls for the regulation of anyone/thing that emits more than 250 tons per year of any applicable airborne pollutant. The EPA would have to regulate almost every entity within this country if they follow the law. Instead they want to modify it to work for them.


Yeah, you can't do that.

2/3/2010 8:24:45 PM

This recent speech is a decent summary of several accomplishments for those not interested in watching all the videos on the front page:

2/4/2010 11:28:34 PM

Quote :

"that President Obama does not have a secret desire for the economy to fail because he just hates business so much."

Obama's push to get money for small business loans reflects his ignorance. Small Business doesn't want to borrow any money right now. They aren't looking to expand...that's the point!

When facing a radical agenda of the gov't take-over of health-care, cap n tax, massive gov't debt, new taxes on the most productive etc...Small Businesses are simply scared to do anything. They are basically waiting out the rest of Obama's term until a more pro-business gov't replaces him and his people.

Obama should be creating an environment that would encourage small business to expand.

2/5/2010 10:51:38 AM

2/8/2010 10:58:07 PM

2/9/2010 2:05:41 PM

Given that you continue to use a "strongly"/Rasmussen poll even after it's been refuted ad nauseum, I can't help but get the feeling that you have no concern over intellectual honesty.

2/9/2010 2:09:50 PM

The Cairo speech to the Muslim world has been mentioned in this thread. I thought it would be better to mention this follow up effort here rather than starting a new thread.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/13/obama-picks-special-envoy-to-world-muslim-group/?fbid=CeukDESvFZn

Quote :

"Obama picks special envoy to world Muslim group Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama appointed a special envoy Saturday to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the 57-nation organization that calls itself the "collective voice of the Muslim world." He is Rashad Hussein, an Indian-American Muslim who has been a deputy associate White House counsel, described by Obama as "an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff." Obama made the announcement Saturday in a video message to the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. He said he made the move to broaden the outreach strategy toward the Muslim world he laid out last year in Cairo. "Rashad has played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo. And as a hafiz of the Quran, he is a respected member of the American Muslim community, and I thank him for carrying forward this important work," Obama said. A hafiz is someone who has memorized the Quran, the sacred book of Islam. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be speaking Sunday at the 7th annual forum and Obama took the opportunity Saturday to laud the event and reiterate what he calls the "new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world" - a relationship that he says has been marred by "misunderstanding and mistrust." "The United States is responsibly ending the war in Iraq; we are removing all our combat brigades from Iraq by the end of August, and we will partner with the Iraqi people on behalf of their long-term security and prosperity. In Afghanistan and beyond, we are forging partnerships to isolate violent extremists, reduce corruption and to promote good governance and development that improves lives. "We remain unyielding in pursuit of a two-state solution that recognizes the rights and security of Israelis and Palestinians. And the United States will continue to stand for the human rights and dignity of people around the world," he said. Obama said his administration has held thousands of events with students, civil society groups, faith leaders and entrepreneurs, including Clinton's "landmark" visit to Pakistan. "And I look forward to continuing the dialogue during my visit to Indonesia next month. This dialogue has helped us turn many of the initiatives I outlined in Cairo into action," the president said. Obama also listed outreach initiatives toward the Muslim world in education, economic development, science and technology, food security, and global health. "None of this will be easy. Fully realizing the new beginning we envision will take a long-term commitment. But we have begun." Hussain has served as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He posted a message on the White House blog saying he is "honored and humbled" by the appointment. "I am committed to deepening the partnerships that he (Obama) outlined in his visionary address last summer. I look forward to updating you on the Administration's efforts in these areas over the coming months," he said. The Organization of the Islamic Conference says it is the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations and that its 57-state membership is "spread over four continents." "

2/13/2010 5:45:57 PM

Quote :

"President George W. Bush first named a representative to the OIC in 2008, noting that the envoy "will listen to and learn from representatives from Muslim states, and will share with them America's views and values.""

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/81005-obama-names-envoy-to-muslim-group

2/13/2010 9:56:23 PM

2/13/2010 10:55:35 PM

Going to Boone's point:

3/15/2010 9:39:45 PM

^
That little print there...
Yes..down at the bottom in little bitty letters...
Does that say the chart was made by a guy from Dailykos?

3/15/2010 11:28:42 PM

Yeah, but if he used every poll pollster.com lists I think you'd be hard pressed to make a case that the person who created this plot was introducing bias. I think it is pretty clear that Rasmussen is the one introducing the bias.

Quote :

"To illustrate this point, I generated a series of scatter plot charts using pollster.com's index of polls. Every poll in pollster.com's index is represented on each chart by a dot, plotted horizontally by the date of the poll, and vertically by the results of the poll. Rasmussen polls are in red; every other poll is in green."

[Edited on March 15, 2010 at 11:44 PM. Reason : .]

3/15/2010 11:41:19 PM

Simply following the majority doesn't mean you're right.

Quote :

"At the end of the 2008 Presidential Election, there were eight national tracking polls and many other polls conducted on a regular basis. Polling guru Nate Silver reviewed the tracking polls and said that while none were perfect, "Rasmussen -- with its large sample size and high pollster rating -- would probably be the one I'd want with me on a desert island." After the election, Rasmussen's poll was rated as the most accurate, when compared to various other final pre-election polls."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Rasmussen

3/17/2010 10:23:20 AM