In Pundit World, particularly TV Pundit World it seems, the common wisdom appears to be that if President Obama doesn’t somehow manage to accomplish the near impossible task of reducing the level of unemployment from its current level of 9.1 percent down to somewhere in the 7 percent range, then his chances for re-election are seriously at risk because no president since Depression-era President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has ever won a second term with unemployment higher than 7.2 percent.
As I watch and listen to Mike Huckabee lie about Obama Care being rammed down our throats blah, blah, blab, blab in a paid for commercial on TV, and the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads, in their designer clothes, perfect hair, access to health care, 401k's, and bright smiles blabbing about Obama's poll numbers and what the republicans candidates are saying (WTF cares?), I'm thinking to myself, they (the media, tea party, republicans) must think we the people are stoopid. I mean really!
Contrary to popular and misinformed opinion democrats and the majority of the American people aren't mad at President Obama because democratic policies aren't working for them. We're mad because President Obama pandered to the right at the expense of his base. We're mad because President Obama surrounded himself with advisers who don't know their Donkey from a hole in the ground. We are mad at President Obama for letting Yes We Can get hijacked by HELL NO YOU CAN'T with the media driving the getaway car.
I for one am happy the TeaPubliKlans caused America to lose it's AAA credit rating because America will experience what the majority of Americans experience every day.
No, what makes America look unreliable isn't budget math, it's politics. And please, let's not have the usual declarations that both sides are at fault. Our problems are almost entirely one-sided - specifically, they're caused by the rise of an extremist right that is prepared to create repeated crises rather than give an inch on its demands.
The truth is that as far as the straight economics goes, America's long-run fiscal problems shouldn't be all that hard to fix. It's true that an aging population and rising health care costs will, under current policies, push spending up faster than tax receipts. But the United States has far higher health costs than any other advanced country, and very low taxes by international standards. If we could move even part way toward international norms on both these fronts, our budget problems would be solved.
So why can't we do that? Because we have a powerful political movement in this country that screamed "death panels" in the face of modest efforts to use Medicare funds more effectively, and preferred to risk financial catastrophe rather than agree to even a penny in additional revenues.
The real question facing America, even in purely fiscal terms, isn't whether we'll trim a trillion here or a trillion there from deficits. It is whether the extremists now blocking any kind of responsible policy can be defeated and marginalized.
Psst President Obama! Do something! And I don't mean travel around the Midwest in a bus making speeches. Your people are losing HOPE. If you are one term President it will be your own damn fault. Bring the Professional Lefty's in.
Psst President Obama! Independents are really republicans who are ashamed to call themselves republicans. They are not, and will never be your friend. You stand for everything thing they oppose. You need to stop listening to the gaggle heads and listen to us Professional Leftys. You need to surround yourself with some real Political Scientist and kick the clueless consultants and their enablers to the curb.
Go back to your Community Organizing Roots. Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians, enabled by the main stream media and their failed policies.
Bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan before more lose life and limb for nothing.
Restore honesty and integrity to the Justice department and end the political prosecutions.
The thing to remember is that just because folks are mad and broke doesn’t mean they’re stupid. Sure Obama has made his fair share of missteps, and he has for sure worn out his welcome with the adult in the room business, let alone his over willingness to negotiate with folks who hate his guts. But in the end he is still so far ahead of every last one of the Republican challengers in his potential ability to manage this crisis that it’s not even a fair fight.
We are mad and broke, but we are not stoopid. And neither are you.
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