Still thinking about canvassing this past weekend, which causes one to pare down one’s political pitch to the basics, because you don’t have much time to express yourself — out of courtesy for the listener.
You know, we gotta keep this simple. The GOP is really just teeing it up for us for next week.
Were George Bush’s economic policies a success?
Or not?Do you think more war is a good idea?
Or should we generally try to stay out of it?Is it good that we still have an American auto industry?
Or is it bad?Why was Romneycare OK for Massachusetts…
… but a catastrophe for the country?Should we have Medicare more-or-less the way it is?
Or should we drastically pare it down, hollow it out, privatize it?Who had a better foreign policy: Barack Obama?
… or George Bush?Do rich people need more tax cuts?
Or not?Did tax cuts for the rich work out well for the middle class in the last 10 years?
Or not so much?Do the big banks who broke the economy need fewer rules?
Or a shorter leash?
Etc. This ain’t hard. The choices are clear. We’ll be fine.
Discuss
8 Comments . Leave a comment below.EW has branched out a bit with a new TV ad about woman’s right to choose, but STILL steadfastly does not call out Scott Brown by name as part of the problem. Isn’t it worth at least a mention that he cosponsored the Blount Amendment in this context? Going negative is not prohibited by the people’s pledge, right? Is her campaign afraid of being tagged as the first to go negative. Granted Brown hasn’t mentioned her in his ads either, but it’s starting to sound as if they aren’t even in the same race.
Not a GW fan, thought he made a lot of mistakes (including the economy) but the downturn in 2008 had a lot of components, and the Bush administration wasn’t one of the major ones. In general people were relatively prosperous (though of course some of it was fake)during those years.
They (Greenspan, et al) should have let the economy stay in recession in the early part of that decade, but of course then Bush would not have won in 2004….
More war is a bad idea, and I thought the Obama doubling down of the Afghan war was a major mistake.
When Daimler bought Chrysler was it still part of the “American” auto industry? With Chrysler owned by Fiat, is it part of the US auto industry? Is a Honda owned plant in TN part of the US auto industry (note you can if you want own Honda stock)? I don’t think this is a simple question. Current estimate is that the US government is going to lose at least $25B, maybe as much as $75B on the deal (GM sales are currently going in the wornf direction, and so is the stock price).
I think that the Republicans are wrong on Romneycare but now it’s a symbolic issue and we’re all stuck.
Medicare’s not sustainable the way it is and we need to open a dialogue on changing it. I’ve already given up a couple of years in Social Security (in the 1986 deal) and I’m ready to take a few lumps again.
I think foreign policy takes a while to play out (see Osama Bin Laden, US ally against the Soviets). I predict the whole Arab Spring stuff will someday be a total nightmare as all these countries spiral into anti-Israel states.
Rich people don’t need more tax cuts. I thought this was going to be settled when Bush cuts were due to expire a few years ago. What happened there?
I have benefitted from the Bush tax cuts. I guess I’m going to have to take my lumps on that as well. Actually my kids are going to have to take some lumps because I think I’ve cut as much as I can from the household budget.
It is very very difficult to regulate complex international companies. Any regulation will probably spawn some other activities in an unregulated sphere, we’ll have to see.
I’m back to taking issue with the “shooting fish in a barrel” analogy. If accentuating the positive was so easy for the President, why is he so big on the negative messages? Where are his “we did this” messages?
Succinct. I have faith (yes, faith) that these arguments will resonate.
“Were George Bush’s economic policies a success?” is much less salient question than “Were Barack Obama’s economic policies a success?”
And, of course, they weren’t. I’d argue that’s because the stimulus was too small, but that doesn’t change the fact that he failed. That’s why he stands a serious chance of losing this thing, and that’s something presidents should remember when they push lousy economic policies because they’re scared of the word “trillion.”
Side note: this is another fun example of how presidential elections are a lousy was of getting a lefty message across.
the size and makeup of the stimulus package (1/3 tax cuts, which are way less stimulative), plus the fact that the White House couldn’t enact any more of such when it became clear that the downturn was worse than previously thought (these things often only become clear after the fact) is NOT HIS FAULT for the most part. Sure there were moments when we wanted him to play more hardball than he did, but by and large, you have limited choices if you are dealing with hostage takers, and really care about not harming the hostages.
It was good to see both Charley and Christopher up in Lowell. We need to keep talking to voters. Now.
Thomas Paine pointed out that many confuse society and government. He thought the former was a wonderful thing and if properly working was the engine for our needs and wants. Society, he also believed, implied a Social Contract. In his words no one joined a society to be worse off. Further he said no one by themselves can fulfill all their needs and wants. Government on the other hand is formed because of our “wickedness.” Humans need a set of central rules or else disagreements lead to conflict, some major and some minor. Individuals also can not address issues when there is suffering either made by unforeseen disasters or one human injustice against another and it has grown to a size that no small group of individuals can adequately solve the problem. So the purpose of government is to relieve suffering and ensure our greatest freedom, freedom from harm. Lack of regulations and encouragement of overly aggressive zero sum games has led to this deep recession. Squandering of national resources by 2 wars, non-payment of large programs, and an unwise tax cut emasculated the government’s ability to temporarily relieve this suffering. With the loss of revenue from taxes, the organs of government that bolster societal goals were lost. Teachers, police, administrators of programs that aid in hard times no longer could be financed and became a deep part of the recession spiral. In the meantime over 1 trillion dollars sits idly by since its possessors have grown accustom to the type of deals offered by an over-bloated unethical financial sector. Their social patriotism does not extend to their fellow countrymen. They are blinded by the strong desire to accumulate cash rather than investing in the productivity of American workers. Yes it takes longer to retrieve the input but it comes. There is no suffering on their part while they wait, and they gain something very precious. They gain the respect and gratefulness of their fellow citizens. Further since the society with this unused money, that is suppose to represent a medium of exchange, not wall decoration, is placed once again to its societal use as part of a social contract and properly employes fellow citizens with living wages government actually becomes less necessary. It is Republican philosophy that creates big government and diminishes freedom, not Democratic philosophy. Without a social contract more human misery is created and then it will fall to government to overcome this “wickedness.” It is time all Americans learned this important civics lesson. This is not trickle down economics but the realization that we are no longer on the barter system and it is incumbent on all of us to do our part to have a sustained prosperous country. We should want positive sum games, true capitalism, where it is win-win, instead of win-lose, and the country as a whole increases in wealth.
It was nice seeing all of you. Let’s do this again soon. I love Lynne’s ide of combining it with art studio shows.
« Blue Mass Group Front Page
Thu 20 Jun 2:22 AM