John F. Kennedy came into office wanting to be a transformational president, but he started with three false assumptions: He was convinced that the Third World was about to go Communist, that the Soviets would soon have a nuclear advantage, and that civil rights legislation could wait. When he realized all three were wrong, he was able to course-correct. Obama also came into office wanting to be a transformational leader. He was convinced that as long as Wall Street was sound, the rest of the economy would follow; that as long as he surrounded himself with smart old pros like Larry Summers, he was in good hands; and that bipartisanship was a worthwhile goal unto itself. He was wrong about all three. His response after the Massachusetts defeat shows that he is capable of learning on the job. If he follows through, he still has time to be a transformational president and turn the country around.
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Obama's ability to be a transformational president, or whether he has the ability to turn this country around will be moot unless this country addresses the biggest threat to freedom and democracy in America we have witnessed in our lifetimes - the supreme court ruling in Citizens United on January 21, 2010.
You should call for ALL Americans, Republicans, Democrats and Independents to find a way to rescind this ruling immediately.
This is what patriotism is all about. United we stand, divided we fall. Do Americans decide their own future or are we going to leave it to foreign-owned corporations and governments?
This should be America's priority.
Do this and see how quickly America is back on the road to recovery...
The lack of success of the President's stimulus plan should make this obvious by now but it appears that Obama's gonna ride this same failed strategy of government salvation to oblivion. Too bad...I voted for him. But like the MA voters, I'm terribly disappointed. 65% of MA voters feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction. If you're heading the wrong way, who are you gonna blame? The leader, that's who. Time for Obama to do something more than demonizing bankers to get things back on track.
As to all the other great solutions you've offered, gotta wonder what's gonna happen to inflation with all those companies paying higher wages, the government adding to the deficit with all its increase hiring and fewer taxes coming in because corporate profits are disappearing. Get a clue, dude!
Do you have a source for this?? When I learned Economics, we went into the mathematics of the Multiplier Effect, and the dollars spent by government employees were as welcomed by landlords, grocers, etc, as those from private sector workers.
I serously doubt that the Economists you cite are close to as accurate, I think they're using their position to pump an ideological position.
Think about this: Under GW Bush, trillions of dollars were transferred from the middle class to the so-called investor class but we had fewer jobs at the end of Bush's term than at the beginning. If putting money in the hands of the private sector worked, there would have been more jobs, not fewer.
It has the most immediate upside and is something we have to do.
1. JOBS - CANCEL AMERICA'S INVOLVEMENT IN DISASTROUS INTERNATIONAL TRADE TREATIES
Mr. President, many Americans are absolutely mystified regarding your non-committal stance on jobs.
While you publicly lament the jobs situation for your fellow Americans, nonetheless, you continue America's participation in INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS THAT COST 2,000 JOBS EACH AND EVERY DAY THAT PASSES.
2. ECONOMIC STIMULATION - CANCEL THE PERSONAL & CORPORATE INCOME TAX FOR 2 YRS
President Obama, Americans did not need a 1,000 page economic stimulus law that no one who voted on it read ( or could read ), and all of the additional debt that goes with it.
Mr. President, if you truly want to stimulate the economy suspend the personal and corporate income tax for two yeas and watch the economy take off like a starship ! This is EARNED MONEY Mr. President and not debt - just let people and businesses keep what they earned ! You dont have to **DO** anytthing ! You simply have to STOP doing something ! After you suspend the income tax for 2 years, start charging foreigners for access to the most prolific sales market on the planet - OURS ! As it is, you are giving away the candy store - OUR CANDY STORE ! Additionally, please bring home our troops from some 270 countries world wide to save money. We are broke. We can not afford these wars.
Thanks Barry,
TomTheSeal
But if Obama does that, sticks with the far left, he will most likely destroy his presidency and become a one term wonder.
I wonder, Obama is making noises about educating the voters and fighting for the progressive agenda but I wonder if that's just for show to keep his left of left base happy and his actions will be to finally, actually, REALLY work across the isle and move toward the middle?
You cannot spin progressive liberal Obama and his rabidly partisan and heavy handed administration into a bunch of moderates....the VOTERS disagree with you and if Obama doesn't listen to the voters....he's finished.
As a member of the far left, I'd be interested in knowing when Obama stuck with me. Did he hire Brooksley Born and Joseph Stiglitz to his Council of Economic Advisors, or did he hire Larry Summers and Tim Geithner?
Did Obama greet this 60 Vote business by promising to make Republicans pay for their obstructionism--including telling them that any filibuster would have to be the good old-fashioned all-night talkathon; or did he go along with the pretence that there was a new Constitutional Amendment, ratified in secret, that I hadn't heard about?
If nameunused wanted to persuade me that Obama was as far to the Left as I am, he should have done his homework. Instead, he's engaged in a kind of wishful thinking, that if he repeats his lies often enough, that'll make people believe them.
President Obama cannot serve two diametrically opposed masters. He cannot publically pretend to follow the sage advice of Paul Volcker and Elizabeth Warren while retaining Larry Summers and Tim Geithner. He simply cannot have it both ways..... He must choose. His choice on this matter will largely influence the American people's choice in 2012. Many saw a ray of hope with last week's banking reform proposals and were eagerly preparing to rally to their newly returned “prodigal son” of a President’s side.
However, this weekend brings news that the Administration is lobbying hard for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s re-confirmation? What to make of this….?
Is the Administration simply playing a populist con in attempting to appear to fight the "Mega-Corporations" knowing full well that it's most probably already too late? Is this change in tone, but a pseudo-populist head fake....A Machiavellian deception solely meant to allow the President to falsely claim the mantle of the "failed trustbuster" who has "fought the good fight.” for the American people?
No amount of pseudo-populist speeches in Ohio or anywhere will obscure the fact that President Obama has inextricably linked his administration and its policies to Wall Street.
Mr. President are you with Volcker, Warren and Black or with Summers, Geithner and Bernanke? The majority of the American people are now following your actions…..not your words.
Make your choice.
ThomastonPaine.com
Wall Street has already avoided lending money that could create jobs because 1) you told them there are too many risky assets already on their books and 2) you've lowered interest rates so much that they can make oodles of money without making risky loans. So now you're gonna lay some taxes on them to punish them for all those bonuses. And is that what's gonna get them to start making loans?
Sorry, but I just don't get the logic in all this.
I respect your views as an independent liberal voice. However, your assertion that JFK's read on the third world going communist was false is pure revisionism. The U.S.S.R. was a real threat and for decades afterward they exported revolution throughout northern Africa and Central America. Even today there is a strong affinity in Latin America to the socialist/communist message with lingering influences in Europe as well.
Socialism seldom achieves the lofty goals it sets. It's not that the goals aren't admirable, it's that they fly in the face of human nature. The moment someone stops gaining more by working harder, they stop working harder. And despite the best efforts of such movements, the power simply bleeds away from the upper class into the hands of an ultra-upper class while the middle class deteriorates. There is no question but that capitalism is a better engine for overall prosperity, with even China and Russia turning to it for economic stimulus. Shouldn't this tell us something? Or is the U.S. some kind of late adopter of ideas, grabbed onto the failed socialistic model well after it has been debunked.
He says he has been too focused on health care and lost touch with the people and he needs to get his message out how about getting out and listening to what the people want instead of telling them.
the independants are paying attention I voted for him but would not again unless he makes changes we can believe in...
And this is a problem because...not giving bipartisanism any chance is a Republican privilege???? Seeing how not one Republican Senator would give the health care bill the same Up or Down vote that they were demanding for their judicial nominees 4 years ago, I don't see how it would have made any difference if he had.
"I disagree Obama has not given bi partisan any chance "
COINCIDENCE!!!
"...they worked together"
That's an interesting take on the Lewinskygate issue. How were the Republicans working with Clinton by trying to impeach him for lying about illicit sex--after saying that looking into Reagan's selling arms to a sworn enemy was the "criminalization of policy decisions??"
Until Obama genuinely wants to make things better from the bottom up, as he said in his campaign, all his words are just more lies. When was the last time Obama mentioned poverty, homelessness, not just foreclosures but people so poor they lose even the tiny run down apartments they have. When has he mentioned the tent cities or the hungry? When has he spoken about children, the physically and mentally disabled and the elderly that have to live on the streets and go hungry or people that have to decide between having rent or food and electricity? When was the last time Obama acknowledged any of the suffering of so much poverty in America?
Words are cheap. Obama's seem to come from a 99 cent store. Until you hear Obama again talking about helping all Americans, from the bottom up only this time with actions that back up his words I think you can assume he has no real desire to do right by anyone other than WS, the banks, insurance and drug companies and his own pocket.