There’s talk once again about having a primary election for the presidency. While I’m less anti-primary than Russ Feingold or Dennis G, I’ll stick with Obama.
Many of the complaints about the possibility of primarying Obama are the same complaints we heard about Hillary Clinton staying in the race in the last primary. That it’ll somehow damage Obama, and he won’t be able to win. That didn’t happen last time, and I trust Obama on the campaign trail enough that I don’t think it’ll happen if he faces a challenger this time.
While Kennedy challenging Carter is a counterexample, generally speaking primary elections are good for whoever emerges from them. Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and a bad economy were more responsible for the result of that election than Ted Kennedy. Primary elections serve the party that undertakes them in a few ways. They clarify where we are as a party and they draw some attention to the positions of the incumbent.
If Cornel West, Ralph Nader, or whoever wants to try to convince Democrats that they have a better way forward for the next election, that’s fine. We’re a big party that can accommodate its own liberal wing. I’d certainly rather they do it in a primary than in November when they might cost Obama votes.
As for the news cycle, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather see coverage of someone going after Obama for being too centrist than hear Rick Perry and Mitt Romney discuss how much of a socialist he supposedly is. Of course with the 24 hour news there can be plenty of both. But a primary against Obama might crowd out some of the silly stuff from the Republicans, especially in print and network/local news where there’s more limited space.
Still, if there’s a primary challenge and it’s still going on, somehow, when Washington caucuses, I’ll proudly go for Obama. He’s brought us the most comprehensive health care reform of my lifetime, moving us a lot closer to universal coverage. He’s winding down Iraq. He’s passed meaningful consumer protection laws. Oh yeah, and he got Bin Laden. None of those is perfect, and there have been baffling strategic decisions along the way, as well as policies I’ve opposed. Still, he’s earned a second term.
And besides, if you’re looking for Democrats to primary, I’d like to suggest that there’s much more bang for your buck at the local level or at Congress.
The only thing a Democratic primary contest will do is put Rick Perry or Mitt Romney in the White House. I oppose that. But I wouldn’t mind a bit if Obama decides to step down and make way for someone who has a better understanding of the job than he does. (Read: The job of a Democratic president forced to deal with intransigent Republican Hooverites at a time of national crisis is to kick Republican asses six ways back to Sunday.) He’s got about 6 months to change my mind by showing some spine.
I wouldn’t mind a challenge from the left, that might help Obama get his butt in gear and help define him as a centrist. I don’t see how a challenge from the center would do much good.
I’d support a 3rd party candidate if it looked like they could win the thing, but chances are all they could do is screw things up.
I can’t think of any Washington Democratic congressman I’d want to primary. Obama, on the other hand, has broken so many campaign pledges to his supporters that he should be sued for false advertising. Gitmo is still open. Where’s the public option? Worst of all, he’s setting the U.S. up for a replay of the 1930s by caving in to the Republican Hooverite idiots’ demands for austerity. ABSOLUTELY EVERYBODY in the worlds of economics and financial journalism is saying the economy needs stimulus because it won’t restart itself. I’m sitting on nearly $100,000 of cash that I won’t spend on what look like very cheap stocks because I think things are going to get much worse. Why do I think that? Because I can read, and I do read, and from my reading I know that the experts on this subject agree on what needs to be done and I know we’re not doing it … and we aren’t going to do it until someone stands up to those fucking Republican jerks who got us into this mess in the first place and have their heads so far up their asses they couldn’t balance a bag of peanuts on a coach-class airplane fold-out tray let alone a checkbook. Want to know what it takes to get America moving again? I’ll tell you: Short-term stimulus, long-term deficit reduction. You don’t reduce deficits by cutting taxes to zero. You don’t reduce deficits with policies that make the economy contract even more, because less economic activity produces less revenues. This stuff is so fucking simple even third graders could figure it out, so why can’t the fucking Republicans figure it out? They need to unfuck themselves fast, or we’re all gonna be fucked.
Here’s an example:
“In testimony Tuesday to the Senate Budget Committee, former Congressional Budget Office director Alice Rivlin made the case for short-term stimulus combined with long-term deficit cutting.
“‘Rather than conflicting, these two sets of policies complement and reinforce each other. The faster we get people back to work, the easier it will be to move toward a sustainable budget,’ she told the committee.
“But what seems like a sensible policy mix to experts such as Rivlin and the IMF seems poison to Republican members of Congress. They want no additional stimulus from spending — and only tax cuts, not tax increases.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44609575/ns/politics/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Say whatever you want, trolls, Rivlin knows more about this stuff than you shitheads do.
@2 We could use a Teddy Roosevelt, but we don’t have one. There are only two parties in this country, plus a bunch of inconsequential sideshows. The next president is going to be either Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or Mitt Romney. Obama got the crucial job done of keeping Great Depression version 2.0 from starting in 2009. Now he should get out of the way so Hillary can keep it from starting in 2012. I’m not kidding, the situation is extremely fragile, the U.S. economy is slowing to stall speed and a European meltdown is all but certain … if you think it’s bad now, it’s about to get worse.
The first stimulus Obama proposed was weak.
The latest stimulus he’s proposed is weak.
Obama’s frustrating proposals are a product of both political and economic realities. The political parts we all know about – the utterly braindead degenerate Republicans Obama has to deal with.
On the economic front, I’ve come to the conclusion that any stimulus that does the job – puts everyone back to work just drives up the price of oil and crashes the economy again.
A working U.S. economy burns oil like crazy. People drive more for work and play. Trucks transport more goods.. More goods are produced wrapped in oil consuming packaging, etc, etc.
Yes, the U.S. is more energy efficient than in the past and continues to improve in that area. But the U.S. is not nearly as energy efficient as Europe and Europe in turn is not nearly as good on that score as Japan.
Then there’s the hog wild growing energy consumption of India and China. Some of the greatest growth in oil consumption comes from the oil producing countries themselves – yes, Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, the Middle East, etc.
Again Keynesian stimulus worked wonders in the past when fuel prices were low. Not so much now when there are so many countries wanting that fuel and competing for the kind of growing economy burning that fuel promises.
Until we substitute out oil we’re in a bind I think. Natural gas from frakking is an environmental disaster on the verge of exploding. Continued growing use of coal sucks beyond belief. I can’t believe we’re now exporting that stuff to China. Growth in the use of renewables I don’t think will make a dent in the problem any time soon and I’m not sure I want to live in a world whose future is dominated by giant wind turbines or acres upon acres of solar thermal collectors in rural areas . The environmentalist in me does not wish to see the human footprint on the planet extend in that fashion.
A future Republican President will start a war for oil.
The Libyan adventure was a taste of war for oil on the cheap.
But a right winger has to make a show of killing brown people and their obnoxious dictator who thumbs their nose at the U.S. for their oil. That buys a second term.
Venezuela maybe?
Idiot Obama and his Idiot Staff strike again!!
Who is advising Obama?? What a bunch of fools. One boneheaded move after another. At least he provides late night TV fodder to make people he has lead to Unemployment laugh for a few seconds.
Dow down over 300 points again this AM.
Thanks Obama you stupid SOB!
8,9 – So this dope has moved on from blaming Obamacare and its “massive taxes” for the unemployment catastrophe in North Dakota.
Uproarious laughter abounds!
# 6: The U.S. has become a nation which can’t seem to address long-term issues. And by long-term, I’m thinking anything longer than two years (the House election calendar).
The problems we need to fix are piling up, with no action. Any politician that proposes that we incur the short-term costs necessary to create a long-term solution usually finds himself/herself in electorial trouble.
The health care reform is just one example. If we had enacted a form of single-payor health care in the early 1990’s, as Clinton had proposed, we would have saved billions of dollars nationally. Instead, we waste our time spending a year debating what turned out to be a watered-down system which has some incremental reforms but will be electoral fodder in November 2012.
The problems which are still being fought over, which should have been settled policy long ago:
(a) The tax rates being set at a reasonable level to balance the budget, on average, without regard to normal ups-and-downs of the economy, resisting the urge to cut rates in the good years. Again, following Carter’s policies in 1979-80, we would have had a balanced budget before 1990, instead of 2000.
(b) A federal policy to wean us off oil as an energy source. Again, if we had stuck with Carter’s policies, we would be largly independent of imported oil by the early 1990’s.
(c) Regular infrastructure maintenance & replacement. Our highways and bridges built in the 1930’s through the early 1960’s are nearing the end of their lifespan, they need major overhaul and/or replacement within this decade. Instead of continually deferring this necessary job, we need to budget for this on a regular basis.
(d) Some thirty years since the “Why Johnnie Can’t Read” article appearing in the major press, the fact is that the U.S. education system has declined since then. In contrast, the education systems in the countries we compete with economically (Japan, China, S. Korea, and more recently India) have all invested heavily in education and are enjoying the results now. This has become a partison issue, but it shouldn’t be. Some sacred cows need to be sacrificed, but first we have to approach education with the same vigor which we applied to the space race. Relying upon the 1950’s mantra that “the U.S. has the best education system in the world” is pure denial in the face of all factual evidence.
I’m sure there are others, but that’s all I have time to list right now.
But I can guarantee that you won’t see any real discussion of this in any of the primary debates among the Republican candidates, or in any hypothetical debate between Obama and a Democratic challenger.
# 9: Gee, Greece is likely to default, and that’s been pushing markets down overall for the past week or so, with minor corrections. The U.S. is unable to do anything to help prevent Greek default – even by providing symbolic leadership – because the Republicans refuse to balance the budget by agreeing to modest tax increases on the wealthy, who already pay far, far less in taxes than their European counterparts.
The economic situation here is still suffering due to the real estate bubble and debt crisis where the blame rests entirely with former President Bush and his administration’s complete failure to exercise it’s regulatory and oversight responsibilities when there was clear evidence the markets were behaving abnormally. Instead, the doubled-down, bragging about the temporary up-tic in the economy based on borrowed money which didn’t really exist.
Nice try, Everett, but no cigar. You and your ilk (Republicans) are like the teenage partygoers who trashed the house, and are now complaining that it’s taking too long for the parents to clean up the mess.
Somehow this is Obama’s fault????
Obama is you guys’ best candidate for retaining the White House.
rhp–
Yes, this mess is Obama’s fault. Giving speeches and fueling class warfare is doing absolutely nothing to create jobs and increase confidence about consumers and job-creators. If Obama did a handful of things today, things would approve–
1) Energy–Drill HERE, more refineries & more nuke plants.
2) Repeal ObamaCare
3) Repeal Dodd-Frank so banks will start lending again.
4) Put forth a Flat-tax plan immediately
5) Eliminate the Repatriation Tax so companies will bring back overseas profits.
6) Moritorium on Government Regulations and roll back regs to 2008.
There are a few more, but this a$$hole sitting around making speeches and pitting citizens against each other with class warfare rhetoric & proposals that will accomplish virtually ZERO ain’t getting it done.
There is no money RHP. It’s all gone. We MUST grow the economy now. Save your leftist utopian dream world & ideology for the hereafter or some other planet. It won’t work on this planet. You are talking “long-term”. The f***ing house is on fire dumba$$…and you are looking at putting on a 50-year roof??
Damn you educated leftists are ignorant.
Must be Evergreen grads!
Oh and RHP–
Obama & you fools have been pushing the failed European Model on us. Yes Greece is defaulting. Why? BECAUSE THEY GAVE AWAY SO MUCH TO PUBLIC EMPLOYEES AND ENTITLEMENTS!! Sheesh. Why in the world do you think Greece is defaulting? Because rich people have too much $$.
Dumba$$es!
Obama has screwed himself and is seen as desperately making things worse. Desperation does not bode well with Independent Voters. They voter for him because of his air of confidence..not his record because he didn’t have one. Now Obama does. And Americans are rejecting it.
OUCH!!
Well, looky here. The dumbfuck Klown is back from the barn and furiously posting teh stupid again.
Actually, we were pushing for the US to be more like Germany, which is doing pretty well right now.
@18
Where do these idiots come from?
The moronic stupidity of the “friendo” from Montana continues:
We are drilling like crazy HERE and there’s not enough HERE to supply demand – that where the imports come in – duh!
The estimated bill for upsizing a nuke plant in Texas (Commanche Peak) came in at 5 to 10 billion. The original build costs were estimated at 779 million and ended costing 9.1 BILLION!
The current generation of nuke plant are non-starters. I thought we had no money! Who’s going to pay for these expensive nukes?
Yeah more kids are in poverty right now because of the crappy economy but more kids are insured than ever before?? Why – the policies of the Obama Adminstration – SCHIP and PPACA.
Tell that to the Bank of North Dakota.
i.e. raise taxes on the poor and the middle class and CUT the taxes of the wealthy.
While the greatest growth in profits IS overseas.. They’re just going where the money is, and that’s the oil producing countries and some of the cheap labor domiciles.
i.e dirtier air and dirtier water and more unhealthy people – a right wing recipe for prosperity. Obama can’t win – already he’s punted on ozone regulation but the right wing won’t stop until their rich patrons are breathing easy in their remote gated communities and the rest of us are choking and being poisoned by the refuse of their greed.
Hey “friendo” from Montana,
Why is the unemployment rate lower in Massachusetts, the birthplace of Romneycare than in your own backyard?
Everett is an idiot, but we all knew that.
Stale talking points, anyone? I’m surprised you didn’t mention the teleprompter.
Peak oil, dipshit. Can’t drill your way out of THERE’S NO MORE OIL. As for nukes, what part of Fukushima don’t you understand?
Net deficit reducer, dipshit.
Oh yeah, regulation is why there is no lending. Who ya gonna lend to, when no one has a job?
Flat tax, flat earth, what’s the difference? You are a moron. Didn’t the flat tax go the way of Steve Forbes?
Oh yeah and the taxes are higher in Taxachusetts as well…
The EROEI of traditional nuclear power is right about the same as fire wood. And besides, there would be no market for that power anyway.
Gasoline use has peaked as well. Ignore the part about millions more cars clogging the roads. Car ownership has peaked as well.
@20 This particular troll says he comes from a barn in Montana. Of course, wingnuts lie about everything. As Klynical, he vowed to never post here again. But it would appear that goatfucking still revs the Klown up enough to come back and post his mindless blather under another screen name. Darryl has outed the dumbfuck Klown several times of late.
Peak car ownership!
The Road…Less Traveled: An Analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled Trends in the U.S.
27 – Yep, the people have gotten the price signal.
All the easy oil has been got and this isn’t going to change no matter what fantasies morons like the “friendo” from Montana spin in their empty heads.
We’ve been living that lifestyle for a long time. Our family vehicle we bought new in 2003 has just a little over 40k miles on it. We live local and frugal and do just fine at it.
And this won’t change until we find an acceptable substitute for finite oil.
Everett @ # 15 is still trying to blame the Bush rescession on Obama, and his remedies is to go back to the same policies which got us into this mess in the first place.
Talk about idiotic! He’s got his head so far up his nether regions he doesn’t even realize how ridiculous his spouting of right-wing ideology is, both factually and rationally.
Oh, Everett, for the record, I’ve got a graduate degree from the U.W., and I’m reasonably sure I have a lot more experience working in and with businesses, both large and small, than you do.
@9 Speaking of stupid SOBs, this is a “Made In GOP” depression, fool.
@15 Hey dude — You’re supposed to wipe your ass with your left hand, not both hands, when you’re eating.
I’ve been selling stocks and stashing away cash since April. The stock market is getting juicy, but it’s not time yet to spend on stocks. This is gonna get worse. Man, I sure enjoy taking FREE MONEY from rich Republicans!
He’s the fucking PRESIDENT, dumbass.
This dumb fuck thinks we’re Greece?
Wanna start a pool on how long this jamook lasts around here?
@34 Unfortunately, people with negative IQs enjoy a long shelf life around here. It’s hard to run them off, because they’re too stupid to know they’re getting their asses handed to them.
It’s hilarious to hear scary Perry and Mittens attack each other over Social Security.
Both idiots are “promising” to “save” Social Security. Yes “ponzi scheme” Perry is saying this.
Hey right wingers I thought Social Security was “socialism” – even though all your elderly relatives who paid into the system are getting it.
You gonna vote for either of these clowns?
Wow. This is stunning..
Jon Huntsman is polling 3rd place in the Republican field…
Ohhh my. Could he end up being the last man standing???
Wow…
uh oh. I predict the “friendo” of Montana to launch an impending salvo of right wing talking points.
@37
Huntsman’s the one with the best shot at beating Obama. No one other than the far right would vote for Perry Or TeH CrAzY LaDy and Mittens is a has been.
If it’s Huntsman vs. Obama that’s one tough fight for the independents.
Whoa! Nirvana! Dude!
However, Huntsman seems far back of Mittens in New England and South Carolina???
That’s scary Perry country.
I wonder who’s gonna bring the biggest load of the krazy to tonights debate? I mean, besides Fox and the audience. heh. I bet we get an audience death chant if they bring up executions. “Death!! Death!! Death!!”
CNN went pretty low with their game show approach to presidential politics. But now that the gauntlet has been thrown down, my money is on Fox finding a way of taking the bar even lower. I suggest having nude blonde Fox newsbabes as moderators. We’d at least find out if the cuffs match. No, no, not Gretchen what’s-her-name. I said “newsbabe”. The leggy kind Fox is known for.
Doesn’t Fox have Paige Hopkins? Yeah, have her moderate the debate in the flesh and I just might lean Republican for an hour.
Sorry to rain on your parade right wing dings:
http://www.aarp.org/politics-s....._APR26_011
OOOOPS!
On second – NO FREAKING APOLOGIES ARE NEEDED!
@44
Yep! Everyone wants to cut someone else’s funding. My funding’s my hard earned right, his funding is pork.
45 – The seniors are going to push back against these tea bagging nutcases.
I predict they run from them like whipped dogs!
46 – The teabaggers run from the seniors to be exactly clear.
@32 I’ve been selling stocks and stashing away cash since April. The stock market is getting juicy, but it’s not time yet to spend on stocks. This is gonna get worse.
—
A lot of thinking like this right now. What’s your cash position? And if you’re convinced it’s going to get worse, why not short the market?
Imagine the impact on people near or in retirement with pension funds, just sitting there like deer in headlights.
@48 “Imagine the impact on people near or in retirement with pension funds, just sitting there like deer in headlights.”
First they took away pensions and told workers to save for their own retirements; now they want to take away workers’ tax deferrals to pay for budget-busting millionaire tax breaks.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/20.....-shake-up/
@48 I’m about 45% – 48% cash at the moment.
@8 – surprise, but the local media doesn’t seem to agree with you.
Hey what do you know, another city that can’t get things built in a timely fashion.