Whenever I watch Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on TV or learn that yet another Administration nominee has withdrawn his name from consideration, it seems I’m not watching the actual government of the United States, but a group of high school students playacting.
These guys just don’t seem serious about the business of governance. I mean, sometimes it seems like “amateur hour” at the White House.
We face an economic crisis which started in the financial markets. And the president repeatedly reminds us about the crisis while blaming his predecessor for its scope, yet he still hasn’t tapped individuals to fill top jobs in the Treasury Department, the federal department primarily for handling the financial markets. The Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board, headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, “the blue-ribbon panel” the president appointed “to help him dig America out of its economic crisis. . . has yet to hold an official public meeting.”
He rushes passages of a multi-hundred trillion dollar “stimulus” package with a provision allowing from AIG executives to take bonuses, yet gets all huffy puffy when it comes that they did just that. He refuses to take responsibility for that provision, just as he blames the deficits he “inherited” on his predecessor as if he were not part of the congressional majority which voted for the previous two bloated budgets.
And as for that “stimulus,” well, one day he signs the budget boondoggle, then the next week hosts a “Fiscal Responsibility Summit.” One day, he signs a spending bill laden with earmarks and then decries earmarks the next day. He promises to cut the deficit in half while spending at a rate sure to double it.
It doesn’t seem like we have to endure 46 more months of this, that the real president will soon be coming home and we’ll get an Administration which actually attends to the business of government.
You are absolutely correct. It seems this group only knew how to campaign and had NO plan, let alone a Plan B
btw, i by no means think we’re in the clear w/r/t to the economy, nor do i think we should base our evaluation of the economy purely on the ups and downs of the stock market. but why has there been little mention on this blog about the market’s recent upturn when you went on about the downward spiral before that? the s&p is now around 813 points as of yesterday’s close, higher than the 805 on the close of jan. 20, obama’s inauguration day. when the market takes a bit hit, you blog about it, but when it recovers…silence. why is that?
I’m just taking the advice of our more liberal posters that it’s ‘too soon’ to credit or blame the Obama recovery plan 😛
Oh, and FWIW, yes, the market isn’t the only factor. I’ve noticed the pound has gone from being worth $1.30 to being worth 1.47 (as of this AM) in a 5 day period. It took weeks to drop to 1.30. I was watching, since if it hit 1.20 it would have been worth it to order minis from Ral Partha UK.
I’ve not looked vs other currency. but you’re right (stopped clock and all that) we’re not out of the woods yet.
“Pathologicially incapable of accepting responsibility” borrowed from MPE Hannan.
If it’s not a pathology, then it is as you say; immaturity. But what of the voters who elected him? Whether pathology or immaturity, it’s pretty widespread.
When Obama refused to get specific about his plans during the campaign I knew it was for one of two reasons:
1) he had no plan and was clueless about what he was going to do
2) his plan was so dastardly that he knew it would never be accepted
Now it’s clear that the plan was to accomplish dastardly deeds while appearing clueless.
“when the market takes a bit hit, you blog about it, but when it recovers…silence. why is that?”
Perhaps he’s taking his cue from reporters who covered Iraq. They were all over every incident and story that showed the country was on the way down but when the surge was implemented, violence began to fall, and things started to turn around they were strangely silent. I even remember an interview show where two reporters were asked to justify that and their answer was (to the effect) “Well, we don’t know if this a permanent thing or not or if it’s really a trend…”, i.e. “so we’re basically going to ignore it”, notwithstanding the fact that it was the most unusual thing that had happened in Iraq in a long time. So apparently that’s the current journalistic standard. Every little thing that makes things look bad is covered in detail regardless of its meaning while large things that point to improvement are ignored because who knows what they mean.
Huh? The Dow went from over 14,000 to near 5,000 and is now wobbling up and down in the mid-7,000’s and we are aksed
OK, I will mention that it feels hopeful that the Dow crash is pushing above the level of losing a frigging half of its value. Geez! I don’t mind losing my arm, I got another one. Thanks, Obama, we can all appreciate exactly which brilliant economic moves you made to the Dow to where it is today. Now, if you can just community organize the foreign powers into buying our worthless bonds and T-notes.
” when the market takes a bit hit, you blog about it, but when it recovers…silence. why is that?”
For one thing, the big media is blasting the story from the rooftops, so what is to be gained by blogging it?
Second, with trillions of dollars of spending, for which Obama has the votes, in the offing, it is likely that what is moving the market may not be what looks like what is moving the market, but second order effects from *huge* trends that we can only guess at right now.
If the market is still going up in August, I will join the Obama bandwagon. Promise.
I should have said “spending for which he has the votes, *but not the money*”
Boob — The economy has nowhere NEAR recovered. Do you think it HAS? Do you work at AIG? Or for the US Government, perhaps.
Comparing March 2009 as “recovery” of the US economy to March 2009 of the results of the surge is childish nonsense.
Boob, watch the latest SouthPark episode, it’s brilliant.
Even if the economy does manage to right itself despite Obumble’s incompetence, I still don’t see myself becoming a supporter. I simply don’t wish to live in a socialist country under San Fransicko values.
Dan, I gotta think that maybe you’re on-to something here.
Maybe we ought to start building a metaphor between the line the Obama Campaign used to discredit Iraq… we didn’t have an exit strategy… and Obama’s Team failing to enter govt with any plans other than spend… spend a whole lot more… and if that doesn’t do it, spend a whole lot of more more.
The Obama Team didn’t have a plan. Doesn’t have a plan. Doesn’t know what to do.
They had all that time from the Election Eve to the Inaugural and they spent it planning cocktail parties and learning to bowl.
It is interesting how many of the left have a hard time dealing with any criticism obama gets from ANYONE. Come on, did you really think we were electing a deity? So far obama looks like he is in way over his head and he’s doing exactly all the wrong things economically. But I will spot him till this summer to show everyone here how quickly he learns and can quickly he can collect himself.
I share your in-the-bleachers feeling as if we’re watching a play, not something real. The only thing scarier than the play is the moments of reality when I realize it isn’t fiction. OMG, this is really happening!
That said, I think there are only two possible explanations:
1. When those of us on the right complained about Obama’s lack of “executive” experience, people didn’t know what that meant (why governors, not senators are generally elected). This guy has never “managed” anything. (We should have used the “managed” word, not the “executive” word?) He hasn’t managed a lemonade stand, let alone have any experience as the economic leader of the free world and commander-in-chief.
2. Good presidents make the job look easy. Bush’s unease at public speaking made people think he was a boob, rather than the competent administrator that he was (agree or disagree with his policies, but those within and around the administrative never complained about his ability to lead a meeting or get an initiative finalized). Many people probably armchair quarterbacked the job and thought they could so it (if someone they thought as stupid as Bush could), so why couldn’t the community organizer (who quit doing community organizing, because he couldn’t achieve his goals) do it?
The grown ups have left the building and we’re stuck with these idiots for 3.75 more years.
Your questions are rhetorical, right?
Your befuddlement is pretend, right?
If not, then y-o-u are as much of a problem as the little hitlers and lenins who are taking the wrecking ball to America at this very moment.
It’s getting monumentally tiresome to day after day read you so-called blogpundits express a kind of surprise or impertinance that these mother-f*&^rs are doing what mother-f*&^rs do.
Why don’t you grow up?
Mrs. du Toit, well said. I’d apply that old analogy comparing a brilliant hostess to a duck: serene and unruffled on the surface, paddling like heck underneath. I didn’t vote for Obama, I don’t like Obama’s policies or those with whom he consorts, but I swear I actually feel sorry for him these days as I watch him flail about. It’s embarrassing.
Bush wasn’t truly embarrassing, ISTM; there was a lot of faux or manufactured embarrassment at his putative “cowboy” or “frat boy” behavior (which seemed to be more anticipated than observed – and anyway, ave Texas), but in fact he was always impeccably dressed, well mannered to foreign dignitaries and well versed (that is, well briefed) in cultural niceties, unbelievably civil to his detractors, friendly and personable one-on-one (so I’ve heard), able to delegate yet also able to be “the decider” (I don’t know why he caught such heat for saying that; of course the President is the decider), and utterly free of scandal in his personal life. (That is, boring.) President Obama – well, he’d better be a very quick study.
When the President of the United States is daily using words like
“horrific catastrophe” and decling economy, what do you expect the stock market to do? When he is constantly asking for new legislation and new regulation without debate, what do you expect a business exchange market to do? It will tank until more grown up people convince him to fill his position like others before him, with maturity, calm, and level headedness.
heliotrope…please read my post. i never said the economy had recovered.
and fyi, i see there is another bob posting now. somehow i don’t think people will confuse us.
oh, and heliotrope, go back and check the historical prices of the dow. when obama became president (january 20) the dow was around 8000, not 14,000. that fourth quarter of 2008 in which the gdp dropped something like 6.3%? yeah, that was still the bush era.
Boob: June 3; Obama wins delegate count; market is 12402. Aug 25 – Obama nominated; market is 11715. Nov. 4 – Obama elected; market is 9625. Jan 20 – Mother-F*&^er in Chief sworn in, market is 7949. Today – Mother-F*&^er in Chief has it back to lousy at 7924.
Almost all of this market slide is down to the fact that the market – which is all of us – has known a piece of sh&^ no count who never worked a day in his life would be in charge.
He is a piece of human sh*&. So is everyone who voted for him. The odds are that America will never recover from him and you. You broke the greatest thing there ever was because you are a spoiled little fu*&.
bob,
Please reread my comment. I did not say you said the economy had recovered.
bob,
Please spill your guts about what a whiz bang job Obama is doing with the economy. Don’t hold back. Give us your predictions. Let it all hang out. Be a leader. I hunger for the audacity of hope.
You can do it bob! Take a risk. Be a man. Stand up and show everyone what a real Obamanaut believes.
You can return to the backbencher status later. Obama has ordered you to speak out for his budget. Are you going to wuss out on him? Meow! Don’t have it in you, do you? Here kitty, kitty. Come get a tummy rub. The mean old conservatives just don’t appreciate what a good little fur ball bob really is.
What a differnece two weeks make.
People were arguing it’s ‘too soon’ to see if it’s working. http://www.gaypatriot.net/?comments_popup=9407#comment-383774
http://www.gaypatriot.net/?comments_popup=9407#comment-384002
You should be happy. We’re agreeing 😛
the economy peaked in october 2007, you noobs.
…and how depressing it must be to sit around, hoping for your 401k to continue to shrink into a 201k, all so you can say “i told you so”. yeah, that’ll show ’em.
Having a 201(k) is far better than a 001(k), which is what we’ll have when Oblahblah nationalizes retirement savings and insists that those of us who earn more must pay more while receiving the same amount as those who don’t contribute for the purposes of ensuring “equality”.
You should be ecstatic, boob. After all, as an Obama Party member, you don’t have to pay taxes; not that we believe you actually did before, but now you’ll get to see your welfare check get bigger and you’ll get cheap housing and a no-show government job, just like Oblahblah’s illegal immigrant aunt.
NDT, i’m sure i make about double your salary, so leave the welfare jabs for your fellow trailer trash friends.
Quite frankly the main of the Democrat Party’s real “job” is sittiing home waiting for the postman to come with the checks. It’s the reason Katrina was so devestating. All those folks wouldn’t start moving north, even walking north out of the path of that storm. Simply because they were afraid to leave thier post box. They had gotten to the point where that’s all the knew how to do. Obamateleprompter has that same kind of dependant society in store for all of us.
#28 – Income doesn’t dictate class or breeding, as both you and the Kennedys have ably demonstrated.
Regards,
Peter H.
NDT, i’m sure i make about double your salary, so leave the welfare jabs for your fellow trailer trash friends.
Oooh — boob must be getting checks from the state AND the Federal government.
Boob:
Since you’re making so much, why don’t you do the American, patriotic thing and give it away?!?!?! If you were, you would have said so. So I can only gather that you are in fact, un-American and unpatriotic.
I, on the other hand, make very little. But I still pay for the majority of my community to sit around watching their plasmas, making babies, and breaking the law all while living in public housing, while I struggle to pay my bills living on mac’n’cheese through actually working (and I’ll define working to exclude walking to the mailbox to collect from the government).
But, I will continue to go to work, and continue to pay my taxes, because I’m a republican, and we’re the only ones who do so.
P.S. Could you spare some change for my electric bill? It’s $78.31 and due on the 16th.