Panic on the Streets of DC
I'll be the first to admit I know fuck-all about economic matters. I really can't follow the recent crisis beyond the fact that some folks got greedy and the regulations put in place the last time we had a big problem like this (like, 1929) were either weakened or ignored altogether. Beyond that, I leave it to smarter people to figure out and hope the best.
So, it's with some ignorant bliss that I chuckle as Obama dismantles John McCain over the Republican nominees seeming confusion over what the best course of action is. First McCain was all for letting the market "correct itself" and then just 24 hours later said he supported the Bush administration's massive bailout plan. You really can't have both.
Today, Obama twists the knife just a little but more by saying McCain is "in a panic." I love it. It's cuts to the core of McCain's perceived strength as a steady leader under pressure...and it's funny to imagine Johnny Mac running around screaming while the rest of us check our 401 (k) portfolios.
"At this point he seems to be willing to say anything or do anything," Obama said in a Reuters report.
But this is also why I am supporting Obama. From every incident the last two years we've seen McCain's reactionary impulses come out in contrast to Obama's thoughtful restraint. It's not that i don't think Obama would make mistakes as President, but that his approach to problems is what i think this country needs after either years of shooting from the hip.
"You don't do it in a day. We've got to do it in an intelligent, systematic, thoughtful fashion," he told reporters after meeting his advisers outside Miami
And check out this unrelated mention in the Reuters piece:
A group of black protesters holding signs reading "Blacks Against Obama" disrupted Obama's speech in Coral Gables but were drowned out by the crowd's chants of "yes we can."They were led out by police after a brief interruption.
Blacks Against Obama? Really?
Comments
the thing that gets me is that both Obama and McCain are calling for tax cuts, which doesn't make sense. how can you cut taxes when the country suffers from a $9 trillion deficit? we all have to pay for it somehow.
the young Obama protesters are just haters and were probably paid $100 each by a Republican interest group to raise hell.
Posted by: Todd | September 19, 2008 4:52 PM
Because you simply cannot win an election by saying you'll raise taxes. Americans will not be inconvenienced.
Posted by: Derek Phillips | September 19, 2008 5:04 PM
My suburb is being overran w/poor people coming out of the city because they were foreclosed on (house loans given to poor people who they KNEW should not get them). Used 2 be you could work w/mortgage companies but now that everything is being bailed out, that stopped cuz they don't care. now they just take your property. The poor people are snapping up all rentals cuz they have no credit now 2 do anything else. Those people may not realize they can't vote if they don't get registered very quickly. McCain's folks will like that cuz they would probably have voted 4 Obama. This is the economic mess that greedy Repubs have put us in.
Posted by: patymo | September 21, 2008 11:31 AM
patymo, that is an intersting fallout from this mess.
But if we're honest we can't blame "greedy Repubs" for what's happened. It was Clinton who started this all by trying to figure out how to get loans to people who shouldn't have been able to afford them. Seemd like a good idea at the time, because it went the "third way" of wedding a progressive idea of holding a hand out to lift up people near the bottom and give them a stake in society the most natural way: good old fashioned property ownership. Bush merely continued this idea with his "ownership society."
What this mess goes to show is what happens when government engages in social engineering. I highly doubt people will learn that lesson, even though examples of it are everywhere you look.
Now it will be ugly and lobbyists and lawyers will make lots of money and your taxes will be spent to make it all better.
Posted by: barabajagal | September 22, 2008 8:57 AM