Arianna went on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown with Savannah Guthrie this morning to discuss the upcoming midterm elections and the number one issue facing voters this November: jobs.
"Continuing to look at what's happening in the country right now as a left versus right issue is completely obsolete, completely wrong," Arianna said. "People, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, are really hurting."
She went on:
The American public right now us offered absolutely laughable solutions by the Republicans and inadequate solutions by the Democrats. There is an enormous amount more that the administration and congress could have done. They could have brought the sense of urgency that was brought to saving Wall Street to saving Main Street. ... There is an enormous amount that can be done but we are not doing it, and there is absolutely no plan at the moment that is going to get us out of where we are, mired in the mud when it comes to jobs.
WATCH:
Mr. Obama, what am I losing sight of? I am not sulking. I am upset. I am going to sit out this election. I will not vote a democratic ticket, "just because". Most Republican candidates I see are dangerously crazy and offering us "laughable solutions" as Arianna said, but I will not support an administration and a democratic congress that, from my view, has done nothing to improve the welfare of Americans on a substantive level. Why am I upset?
1. While in the majority, the administration and my democratic representatives have compromised or bailed on every major domestic issue and continue to support Wall Street CEOs and corrupt regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2. A poor, young, single mother from my town, serving her country as an Army policewoman, was killed in Afghanistan two weeks ago by a roadside bomb. Yet I see headlines that read "Striking at Afghanistan corruption: Former CIA official says Kabul corruption has played into the hands of the Taliban."
3. Continued business as usual on the job front; old-fashioned economic thinking, offshoring, focus on ephemeral, low paying jobs.
Mr. President, the Republicans will not get my vote, but the Democrats to not deserve it. I have met the new boss, same as the old boss. I Won't Get Fooled Again.
Arianna is absolutely right! If the President and Democratic Congress had used the same "sense of urgency that was brought to saving Wall Street to saving Main Street" the President wouldn't need to use urgent words to coax people to the polls next month. I could list many places where this was true for the last 2 years. What really concerns me, besides jobs? My having to defend facts and voting records against political spin and ally bashing coming from the White House. Where is the change in that? It's time for the administration to stop bullying their base and inspire us the way they did in 2008. Mister President, if you couldn't summon up the audacity to champion Public Option/open Big Pharma deals or keep your campaign promise about no oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps you shouldn't call your base "whiners" and "sulkers" when it was YOU who gave us excuses instead of true reforms!
Mister President, if you want to inspire Democratic voter turnout in November and lead the way to victory, please change the White House rhetoric: from negative prods against your base to illuminating the voting records of your political opponents!
The urgency of the bailout was all in 2008, not after the President assumed office.
The major initiatives under TARP, after this President came to office, were bailout of auto companies. You can look up the data.
So, when you agree or disagree, you must pay attention to facts.
Now, would you please name a President, at least since LBJ, who has done more for the Middle Class than this President has done in just 20 months?
Tell us which President and what he did.
I'll wait for an answer. And please don't respond by saying that you don't care what others did. One cannot judge performance of this President with against some absolute standard or a new yard stick.
We have the most liberal President in decades.
And you are upset?
And of course you must vote, and absolutely don't let the Republicans take the wheel.
However, Obama certainly is not a liberal. Look at his record. No Presidential fight for Public Option in either the House or the Senate -- Nancy Pelosi passed Public Option without President Obama's assistance and Harry Reid got ZERO help from the White House when all we needed was the time to pressure key Senators, which a President as skillful as Barack Obama could sway if he wanted too. Cutting a deal with Big Pharma -- behind closed doors after chiding others against doing the same -- to keep Canadian drugs locked out of our market wasn't a liberal idea. Neither was calling for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico on 31 March 2010, which broke another campaign promise; that's a deal I expected from the Texas predecessor. Stimulus didn't go far enough -- Progressives said so at the time. TARP was passed under the Bush administration and carried out by both Presidents. I have no problem with saving Wall Street if there is reciprocation for Main Street. President Obama allowed golden parachutes with only a scolding, allowed a known mess at MMS to go out of control until disaster struck, and has a dismal record on the housing plan -- "by the summer, only 9 percent of those eligible had been helped".
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/credit_crisis/housing_plan/index.html
LBJ got 'er done when the economy was far better.
First we are THE AMERICAN PEOPLE with diverse backgrounds but we are THE AMERICAN PEOPLE---we are stong, can be better educated and will not accept that we are third rate. Today, banks, international banks, are saying that you are failures because they created a montster-the blame the worker game- this is wrong as is the media and government in accepting it- AMERICAS FUTURE IS BRIGHT BECAUSE of you. Are you willing to do what has to be done to make that future? WILL YOU ROLL UP YOUR SLEAVES AND RE-BUILD, RE-TOOL AND RE-EDUCATE THIS GREAT LAND? From a shining lady to a great bridge and every little or big place in between we can make this land better. I know we can have a great future, not third rate and I know how to do it. Re-build, Retool and Re-educate means building this nation from cities to power plants, producing with modern equipment what we use and training the next generation!
Why do they allow the repubs to put their negativity on everything?
I absolutely agree with this, as well as people are growing tired and cynical of being looked at only as votes. I have not understood the lack of urgency by either party on reaching immediate, mid range and long term solutions to the economic crisis. We have a crippled economy, hemorrhaging job losses, people dealing with upheaval in their lives who cannot pay their bills or meet their obligations who need answers today.
Politicians have forgotten what it is to be anything else but politicians.
LET's END WELL FARE for The RICH !
Tax Capital Gains at the same Rates as WORK !
And then use the New Money to Put People Back to Work In America !
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-07/job-openings-in-u-s-climb-by-60-000-to-3-2-million-in-sign-market-healing.html
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-07/job-openings-in-u-s-rose-in-august-to-3-2-million.html
LET's END WELL FARE for The RICH !
Tax Capital Gains at the same Rates as WORK !
And then use the New Money to Put People Back to Work In America !
Don't know about that - but would you have preferred it get WORSE?
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I respectfully disagree.
It is very much a Right versus Left issue.
The Right messed it up and the Left is faced with the job of fixing the mess. And, in fixing the mess, there should be no input from those who caused the disaster, especially since the remedy they offer is no different than what caused the mess.
I also disagree that this President has not addressed this mess with the same sense of urgency as the financial crisis. It is just not true.
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