Barack Obama

[randolph]

New York Times, Paul Krugman

February 10, 2010, 10:59 am

Clueless

I?m with Simon Johnson here: how is it possible, at this late date, for Obama to be this clueless?
The lead story on Bloomberg right now contains excerpts from an interview with Business Week which tells us:
President Barack Obama said he doesn?t ?begrudge? the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.
The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is ?an extraordinary amount of money? for Main Street, ?there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don?t get to the World Series either, so I?m shocked by that as well.?
?I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,? Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. ?I, like most of the American people, don?t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.?
Obama sought to combat perceptions that his administration is anti-business and trumpeted the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies. He plans to reiterate that message when he speaks to the Business Roundtable, which represents the heads of many of the biggest U.S. companies, on Feb. 24 in Washington.
Oh. My. God.
First of all, to my knowledge, irresponsible behavior by baseball players hasn?t brought the world economy to the brink of collapse and cost millions of innocent Americans their jobs and/or houses.
And more specifically, not only has the financial industry has been bailed out with taxpayer commitments; it continues to rely on a taxpayer backstop for its stability. Don?t take it from me, take it from the rating agencies:
The planned overhaul of US financial rules prompted Standard & Poor?s to warn on Tuesday it might downgrade the credit ratings of Citigroup and Bank of America on concerns that the shake-up would make it less likely that the banks would be bailed out by US taxpayers if they ran into trouble again.
The point is that these bank executives are not free agents who are earning big bucks in fair competition; they run companies that are essentially wards of the state. There?s good reason to feel outraged at the growing appearance that we?re running a system of lemon socialism, in which losses are public but gains are private. And at the very least, you would think that Obama would understand the importance of acknowledging public anger over what?s happening.
But no. If the Bloomberg story is to be believed, Obama thinks his key to electoral success is to trumpet ?the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies.?
We?re doomed.

Well, you guys are going to have a hard time accusing him of being a Socialist after this.

[jimnaseum]

I'd say Bill Clinton was at his greatest BECAUSE of Wall St. I recall that all the guys at my office who had Thrift Savings Accts were on schedule to retire as full fledged Millionaires, then Bush came in.
When Democrats talk about helping "poor" people, the poor people react like republicans because poor people don't think of themselves as poor people, they think of themselves as "working" people.
There's not a true American alive who doesn't secretly want to be rich as a Wall St Banker. You don't get rich getting money, you get rich saving money. And for that you need Banks.

[Talvenada]

RANDY:

Sorry, you're wrong. They will forever call him a socialist, like they do with FDR. If they still are asking for a birth certificate with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers still as open issues also, you can forget them stopping anything. I'm surprised they aren't blaming the stock market on him lately.

We bashed Bush for torture, The Iraq War, Katrina, Abu Gharib, bin Ladin's freedom, Gitmo and others. So, social security, Medicare, unemployment comp. and other government programs are socialism. And all socialism is Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Commie, FDR, Lenin and others. We are entitled to an opinion, but not facts.

TAL

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by Talvenada

RANDY:

Sorry, you're wrong. They will forever call him a socialist, like they do with FDR. If they still are asking for a birth certificate with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers still as open issues also, you can forget them stopping anything.

Yeah Randy. Don't you know that all those issues have been resolved? He did bring his original birth certificate. It has been conclusively shown that Jeremiah Wright doesn't hate whites, capitalism or apple pie, and that at no time during BO's 20 years attending Wright's services did Wright ever utter a disparaging word about America. And come on... Bill Ayers was cleared of any wrong doing and he's a sweet old school teacher. And yet STILL republicans bring up these issues.

Actually the whole thing's a strawman argument. It's TAL who likes to bring up these issues. But I will continue to bring up the socialist direction BO is taking us.

Ok class... from Webster:
Socialism
1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

TAL
for definitions 1 and 2b. Do you deny that BO has tried to grow the government, and incorporate banks, insurance companies, car companies and health care into the government?

definitions 2a and 3: He's limited CEO salaries. He's raising taxes on the wealthy and lowering taxes on the poor & middle class while directing taxes to the poor via welfare. He hasn't gone all the way on this yet, but do you deny that BO advocates "sharing the wealth"?

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

Yeah Randy. Don't you know that all those issues have been resolved? He did bring his original birth certificate. It has been conclusively shown that Jeremiah Wright doesn't hate whites, capitalism or apple pie, and that at no time during BO's 20 years attending Wright's services did Wright ever utter a disparaging word about America. And come on... Bill Ayers was cleared of any wrong doing and he's a sweet old school teacher. And yet STILL republicans bring up these issues.

Actually the whole thing's a strawman argument. It's TAL who likes to bring up these issues. But I will continue to bring up the socialist direction BO is taking us.

Ok class... from Webster:
Socialism
1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

TAL
for definitions 1 and 2b. Do you deny that BO has tried to grow the government, and incorporate banks, insurance companies, car companies and health care into the government?

definitions 2a and 3: He's limited CEO salaries. He's raising taxes on the wealthy and lowering taxes on the poor & middle class while directing taxes to the poor via welfare. He hasn't gone all the way on this yet, but do you deny that BO advocates "sharing the wealth"?

TRACY,

Did you miss this:

So, social security, Medicare, unemployment comp. and other government programs are socialism. And all socialism is Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Commie, FDR, Lenin and others.


I said it was socialism, and it's been here since 1932.

All socialism is prevalent in bad countries: UK, Canada, France, Germany, etc.

The difference is that there is good and bad socialism, like there is good and bad capitalism.


Do you buy the Obama birth certificate if not every one of his opponents gets an original copy hand delivered from Hawaii by their governor, and if one opponent doesn't get that other-than-special treatment, his citizenship is still in question.

Don't tell me you've accepted a copy on an Internet web site?

Usually Conse 'Pubs will stick to their facts unless they are questioned strongly.


RANDY:

Aren't you OUTRAGED that Obama mispronounced the word corpsman 4 times?

FOUR times!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you believe the GAUL of The Libs to point out that Newt said that the shoe bomber was American?

TAL

[randolph]

The rich take care of their own. The poor bastards that do the work are out in the cold.

[randolph]

G W Bush who?

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by randolph

G W Bush who?

RANDY:


My answer is YES, and I like you being away.



TAL

[randolph]

Originally Posted by Talvenada

RANDY:
My answer is YES, and I like you being away.
TAL

Sorry you don't have a sense of humor.