"I Hope Obama Fails"

[BrentAllen]

OGE,

I believe that was Hillary who said that.

 

Beavah,

What are you smoking? Did you not see Pelosi and Reid writing the bailout bill, and twisting arms to get it done? Did you not see Obama vote for it?? Rush was firmly against it, as was Dave Ramsey. Maybe you should actually listen to Rush sometime. You could join the 20+ million listeners who I guess are in bad need of comedy.

[GernBlansten]

If history serves me, it was Hank Paulson who requested and engineered the bailout. Paulson works for Bush. Bush lobbied for it. McCain suspended his campaign to help pass it. Trying to lay the bailout soley on the democrats is a bit untrustworthy.

[allangr1024]

"If Obama fails, there won't be a nation to rebuild."

 

What kind of crazy statement is this. I think someone took the stuff about Obama being the Messiah a bit too literally.

 

As for Bush being the one to start socialism in this country, I seem to remember that his argument was that the government should buy the bad mortgage debt, that it should restructure the debt, and if anyone defaulted on a mortgage, at least the properties could be sold to recover the money, and he thought that 95 percent of the mortgages would be repaid, and the government would recover the money. His error was that he signed a 400 page bill without reading it, or he did not care at that point, that what he asked congress for was not what they gave him. And the bailout did not go to buying bad paper, but directly to what the Democrats always said they hated: Corporate welfare.

 

Bush also did not try to reign in the stupid mortgage policies of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac. He did not try to stop Barney Franks interferance in the mortgage business. He should have cried a warning from the rooftops. He had spent all his political capital on the war on terrorism, and had none left for domestic problems. He kept us safe from killers abroud, but not from short sighted idiots at home.

 

Do we hope Obama fails? I hope the president learns that the country will do better if the hand of government is kept out of the lives of people and businesses as much as possible. Will that happen? Probably not, but I can hope.

 

Am I a traitor? Then I guess they will come take me away in the night any time now.

 

 

 

[Beavah]

You have my word that I will be at least as fair and supportive of of our president as you were with our previous president.

 

Yah, excellent. In my case, then, you've got a year and a half of being enthusiastically supportive, and another year and a half of bein' cautiously supportive, before yeh can start becoming disllusioned.

 

I seem to remember that his argument was that the government should buy the bad mortgage debt, that it should restructure the debt, and if anyone defaulted on a mortgage, at least the properties could be sold to recover the money, and he thought that 95 percent of the mortgages would be repaid

 

Yah, I don't remember that argument, eh? But if that was really the case, then the man clearly was as clueless as he looked on the subject. Default rate on subprimes was runnin' near 20% at the time, and on near-subprimes upward of 12% and climbin'. And these were tranched and leveraged instruments, eh?

 

Given a choice between flushing $700 billion of taxpayers' money down the toilet and flushing $700 billion of taxpayers' money down the toilet but getting ownership of the bank, I'll take the latter, eh? Maybe I'm a greedy taxpayer to expect somethin' for my money, but at least if we own the bank we have something of residual value. There is no marketable residual value in most of these toxic credit default swaps, eh? They're just insurance contracts on houses that are already on fire.

 

Beavah

 

[eisely]

It is perfectly legitimate to oppose policies you think are wrong. In this regard I agree with Rush. We will have to see what Obama actually proposes, but I am not optimistic.

 

What concerns me as much as any particular policy position is the cult of personality that has developed around Obama that he seems to encourage. This is something novel to the American experience and worrisome.

[SR540Beaver]

eisley = "What concerns me as much as any particular policy position is the cult of personality that has developed around Obama that he seems to encourage. This is something novel to the American experience and worrisome."

 

Ronald Reagan and Heritage.org's "what would Reagan do?" agenda.

[TheScout]

Don't worry. Personality cults around dead people are far less effective.

 

If any dead President has one I think Lincoln does. Apparently he did nothing less than save America.

 

( hey all, OGE here I just want to assure everyone this comment is to be taken as a comment, not a suggestion as many have pointed out to be in PM's. Sorry about response time, I was out in Port Jervis new York spotting Bald Eagles) (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

[Lisabob]

eisley, I hardly think that the focus on an individual is novel. Camelot, anyone? (And he wasn't the first either, just one of the better known recent examples)

 

People have the right to say what they want about Obama and they certainly have the right to disagree with his policies. I think Rush (and others) sounds rather silly because, jeeze, the guy has hardly been president long enough to do anything yet and here he's blathering about failure. Hey, whatever.

 

The difference between the Obama administration and the Bush administration here is that while Bush's henchmen tried to turn any expression of disagreement (whether well-reasoned policy concerns or just angry left-wing rants) into a question of patriotism, I have not yet heard Obama do the same to his opponents. Instead, he talks about why he disagrees with their ideas - not why they're bad Americans. In fact, heck, I believe he hosted a dinner in McCain's honor earlier this week.

 

Dissent is a part of American culture. So let Rush rant. Intelligent people on both sides will recognize his hot air for what it is, dismiss it, and get back to serious discussion about serious problems.

[Eagledad]

>>I have not yet heard Obama do the same to his opponents. Instead, he talks about why he disagrees with their ideas - not why they're bad Americans. In fact, heck, I believe he hosted a dinner in McCain's honor earlier this week.

[BadenP]

Lisabob and Beavah

 

You are the only true voices of wisdom and reason here among so many right wing rednecks spewing pure ignorance. Thank you.

[vol_scouter]

To the liberals on the list (I will not call them names as others have done to conservatives): Obama attacked a sovereign nuclear power today in a move that could be likened to the bombing of Cambodia by President Nixon. I am sure that the liberals will be decrying the move which could broaden the war. They will be shouting 'warmonger'. The media will be covering the action 24/7. The media is relatively silent including Fox. Don't worry, Obama will have little covered dissent.

[GernBlansten]

I must admit, I am experiencing a bit of Schadenfreude watching the reaction to the Obama Administration. I hope it lasts.

[vol_scouter]

If the pleasure you are experiencing is from others misfortune, then in the case of the president it is all of our misfortunes. BTW I remember bumper stickers saying "He's not my president". The left did not like what Bush's stated policies (and before it was over neither did the right as he destroyed our personal liberties and went more rapidly down the path to socialism). The left was not supportive and often rather vitriolic in voicing their lack of support. That was as it should be and criticism of Obama's stated positions is appropriate as well. As Obama's presidency proceeds, we will see what are his actual policies.

 

The left adores this guy but everyone does not have to do so to be a good patriotic American just as the left correctly pointed out with the last president. Don't worry, you will hear little criticism since we no longer have a news media in this country. We only have left wing propoganda machines and one slightly to the right. If Geithner (sp?) was nominated by a Repubilican president, he would have been said to be not very bright or a crook. The news media parroted the democrats by saying an 'honest mistake' even though he got letters from the IRS that he ignored. So don't worry, Obama will be treated gently because the left finally has their socialist president.

[Beavah]

Yah, vol, I remember those dumb bumper stickers, eh? Felt the same about 'em as you do. Didn't care for the na, na, na goodbye thing at the inauguration. And I'd certainly agree there are a lot of left wingnuts out there.

 

But at some point, it's got to STOP. Folks who adhere to a higher set of principles have got to stop pointin' at the other party and rememberin' grievances of days of yore, like we're some modern reincarnation of da Hatfields and McCoy's. Look what Democrats did to Reagan! Look what Republicans did to Clinton! Look what Democrats did to Bush! Enough already. All three of 'em to some measure deserved some just criticism, and there will always be nutters. The job of us regular citizens is not to be nutters.

 

I see Obama tryin' to stop the crap, and I'm all for that. Because I'm an American first. Bein' a conservative and a Republican comes way down the list behind that, and always will. I do my bit to push the policies I want and campaign against policies I don't think make sense, sure. Recognizin' I could be wrong. Or at least that my ideas could be made better by others. But da president gets my support, until he doesn't deserve it because he's harmin' the country in a big way and failin' to fulfill his oath. Not because I disagree on policy.

 

I reckon, though, that it's perfectly OK to heckle Reid and Pelosi.

 

As to Geithner, I honestly couldn't give a hoot about the tax thing. The man is an intelligent moderate (started out workin' with Kissinger, has Republican affiliations) who has as good a handle on this current mess as anybody. Certainly better than Paulson. When your house is on fire, you want the best fireman, and yeh don't particularly care about a 4% mistake on his 1040 years back.

 

This is right up there with the folks trying to sink Clarence Thomas' nomination with the odd sexual harassment complaint from years before. We Republicans can be better than that.

 

Beavah

(This message has been edited by Beavah)

[frankj]

Put me in the same column with Rush Limbaugh. Although I have not listened to his show for years, I saw the clip and agree with him. I do not want BHO to succeed with policies that lead to even greater government involvement in our lives. I do not want to end up with universal (socialized) health care.

I don't want the youth brigade (or whatever name they for it) established. I don't want government to issue "refund checks" as a stimulus to people who don't pay federal income tax in the first place. Lower the payroll taxes instead on both employees and employers. I don't want federal energy policies that favor, via subsidies, wind and solar which produce a tiny percentage of energy needs. I don't want energy policies that ignore nuclear. I could go on but I think you get my point. I am not in favor of trying this stuff out to see if it works.