The guy never said anything even remotely liberal on the record, and that single speech didn’t mean anything, because he didn’t have to vote on the issue in the state senate.

Looking at what he has done so far is not at all reassuring.

We didn’t have another real option in PA – write ins didn’t count, although we could do it. So why would I not want my vote to count, in a state that could very well have gone Republican? Gawd forbid Palin got anywhere near the White House.

We both know, you have to have jobs to start things moving, because you can’t hire until you know there is something for people to do and consumers to buy what is produced.

It would be nice if they kicked things off by rebuilding the Gulf Coast. There are a lot of projects that need to be built, and until they are the area won’t recover. There are also funds already allocated for a number of things that could be used to kick-start the program before Congress does whatever it is going to do.

Money is, fundamentally, either funny pieces of toilet paper with pictures of dead white men on it, or 1’s and 0’s inside a computer memory bank somewhere. That’s it. Neither toilet paper nor 1’s and 0’s have any intrinsic value. If they’re just sitting there, doing nothing, they’re worthless as far as their contribution to the economy goes. You need a propensity to spend, i.e., trade that toilet paper for goods and services, before that toilet paper has any value.

Oh, why jobs, and not just give money to people? Because you want people to work, and thus add goods and services to the economy. If you add money to the economy *without* adding goods and services to the economy, what you get is inflation, and a lower standard of living for everybody (since you’re reducing the effective incomes of those who *do* have jobs). That’s why FDR’s jobs programs were genius (if not sufficient in and of themselves), because they were adding things to the country that are still in use and adding value today (e.g. the Emigrant Ranger Station in Death Valley National Park was built by the CCC in the 1930’s, and is still adding value to the nation today).

– Badtux the Economics Penguin

I will tend to side with the current Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman, and the combined memories of my extended family, who lived through it, rather than the people who missed seeing the current situation develop, and who have advocated policies that helped in that creation. World War II was another massive jobs program, not all that different in economic effects in the US to the WPA.

As a confirmed capitalist and small business person, I have personal knowledge of exactly how the economy works, and the effects of all of the policies of those who claim that Keynes was wrong. The supply side crew have failed miserably because they watch only the stock market, rather than the real market, and don’t understand the substantial difference between what happens there, and what is going on in the real world.

When you give the management of an enterprise to people who don’t understand that the price of its stock is not as important as the value of its product in the long run, and who can’t see beyond the current quarter, you are guaranteeing a disaster in the making.

When you are in business you should never lose sight of the reality that your customers are more important that your investors.

The only point at which FDR stumbled in the recovery was when he stopped the process briefly before it was finished because of the pressure of those who thought that enough had been done. The effect of the attempt to return to “conservative” policies, what was more pain, and FDR returned to what worked.

Bernacki and Paulson tried the “fix” that was supposed to stopped the slide proposed by the FDR critics, and in case you haven’t noticed it failed rather miserably. You should always try the methods that worked in the past rather than those that failed: it saves a lot of time and pain.

Jobs are the key to problem. Always were, always will be. Without jobs and paychecks you don’t have an economy, because you don’t have consumers.

In a way, it isn’t just a bad decision, it’s a lie about who you are.

For the record, I voted for him for the same reason Steve and Tux did. He was not my first choice… or even second.

This is the second time Ted Kennedy has screwed up an election, and he will have to answer to his own conscience for his mischief.

Unless there is a major intervention and large dose of reality delivered to the incoming administration, a Depression is guaranteed. Someone needs to sits these people down with a biography of FDR and make them read it. Lincoln was dealing with a Civil War, FDR dealt with the Depression. People had better start pointing that out.

Steve, I know why you voted they way you did and I’m not including you in the “they”, but those lowlifes who pushed Obama have screwed up major league, and I am in no mood to listen to their mewlings.

If I were a foreign leader, I don’t think I would be thrilled by today’s comments on the economy, Kryten. If they have good people advising them, they have to know where things are heading.

Agree Steve. Scalia has much to answer for, but I doubt he ever will. Also agree on the final *real* choices, sadly. *sigh*

Well… Maybe we all just have to hope that at least Obama won’t make things worse, and by 2012, a real choice shows up. I say *we* because unfortunately, when the US sneezes… many od us out here get pneumonia! 🙁 Much of that is no thanks to Howard in Australia’s case, and because of the current global climate, I don’t see much changing for quite some time (here or there).

I supose that, if nothing else, the past 8 years have forced the rest of the World to realize that the USA affects us all and to keep a close watch on the USA from now on to hopefully minimize any further global disasters. Not that I expect any of that to make much, if any, difference anywhere. 🙂

Sorry, Bryan, but no.

I see a significant distinction between voting for Obama as part of a cult of personality and voting for Obama to assure that the worst of horrors did not happen… c’mon, admit it, McCain would have been much worse, and Palin is unthinkable. It did make a difference, and will make a difference.

Despite what you say above, we could NOT have had someone who “would have fixed things.” No such person made it through the primary process. We had three actual real-world choices: Obama, McCain, or waste-your-vote. Choosing “waste-your-vote” no more absolves you of the resulting mess than choosing McCain or Obama.

If you’re really looking for someone to blame, blame the senators who voted to confirm Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court in 1986. He is by all reports largely responsible for Bush v. Gore (2000), which in turn is largely to blame for the unholy mess we’ve been in for eight years. Despite what your Libertarian friends may fantasize, “none of the above” will never appear on a presidential ballot in a general election. Voters do the best they can with the ballot they face; it is unjust to say that they don’t.

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