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Tag Archives: Rahm Emanuel

Time for a Leader, Not a Politician

07 Wednesday Jul 2010

Posted by Craig in budget, Congress, economy, Obama, Politics

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1937, anti-deficit, anti-spending, clean energy jobs, David Axelrod, Debt Commission, depression, fearmongering, Gulf oil spill, long-term unemployed, mid-term elections, middle-class, President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, recession, right-wing noise machine, Ross Perot, Social Security privatizers, Tim Ryan, unemployment

“The easiest thing in the world for a politician to do is tell you exactly what you want to hear.”—Senator Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign when the other candidates were calling for a gasoline tax holiday in the face of soaring oil prices.

It’s time for President Obama to take some advice from Senator Obama and not from his political advisers in the White House, like David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel, who are telling him that the public mood is anti-spending and anti-deficit, and that it will be politically advantageous in the upcoming mid-term elections for him and the Democrats to play to the fear of a deficit boogeyman being ginned up by the right-wing noise machine and the president’s political opponents. Opponents who, let’s face it, don’t want to see unemployment go down or the economy improve between now and November. If the Republicans can get the president to focus on the deficit and cutting spending while unemployment hovers around 10%, they’ll be happy as pigs in slop, so to speak.

President Obama doesn’t help to counteract  the fearmongering when he does things like proposing spending freezes and initiating a debt commission stacked with deficit hawks and Social Security privatizers. In my opinion, this is a golden opportunity for a teaching moment.

If I were advising the president I would suggest a series of television appearances like Ross Perot did during his short-lived presidential campaign in 1992, (before he went all black helicopters, that is) complete with charts and graphs to illustrate his points. The American people, for the most part, aren’t stupid. We get a lot more than politicians and their political advisers give us credit for.

The president could start with a history lesson from 1937. About how FDR gave in to the deficit hawks of his day and started cutting spending before the country was out of the Great Depression which led to a “recession within the Depression” and delayed the recovery.

He could explain the stimulative effects of unemployment benefits. How that every dollar which goes out comes back as $1.64. How that almost half of the unemployed have been out of work for 6 months, something that hasn’t happened since the Labor Dept. started keeping that statistic in 1948. How the unemployed aren’t lazy bums looking for a handout—another popular meme of the noise machine—but that there are 6 applicants for every job opening, and that those over 50 who are disproportionately affected are Americans who have worked for the better part of their lives and have been caught up in an economic situation beyond their control. In their time of need they need our compassion, not our condemnation.

He could use the Gulf oil spill as a springboard to re-invigorate American manufacturing jobs in the field of clean energy, which leads to more people paying taxes and reduced deficits. We could be a country that makes things again, and in the process breathe new life into the rapidly disappearing American middle-class. As Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) said recently:

“We know what happens when the economy depends only on financial services and the creation of wealth through bookkeeping. Manufacturing jobs are good paying jobs that support families and communities, create spin-off jobs, and leads to innovation…We’ve spent the last 30 years pandering to those who have taken manufacturing off shore and in turn we lost the heart and soul of our country. We need to see ‘Made in the USA’ again.”

With signs of a slowing economy and the prospects of a double-dip recession looming, this is not the time for a politician with his finger in the wind gauging public opinion or re-acting to the misinformation and disinformation being put out by his opponents. This calls for someone to lead, educate to populace, and shape public opinion, not react to it.

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Self-Contradictory Sarah

25 Friday Jun 2010

Posted by Craig in BP, Gulf Oil Spill, Politics, Republicans, Sarah Palin

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

article, Hitler, Jewish World Review, Joe Barton, lamestream media, Louie Gohmert, Obama, power grab, Rahm Emanuel, Sarah Palin, shallow, This Week, Thomas Sowell, Tweet

Poor Sarah. She wakes up in a new world every day. Following White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s remarks on ABC’s This Week on Sunday that the sentiment Joe Barton expressed when he apologized to BP was…

“…not a political gaffe,” but rather a statement based on “prepared remarks.” He linked Barton’s comments to the GOP’s “larger philosophy,” saying it “is an approach to what they see. They see the aggrieved party here is BP, not the fisherman. And remember, this is not just one person.”

Palin almost immediately responded with this Tweet:

 

 (Just as an aside, for this dingbat to call anyone shallow is like Paris Hilton calling Lindsey Lohan skanky. But I digress). That was on Sunday, however, and our girl Sarah has slept since then. She woke up today and tweeted this:

 

 (Another aside if I may. For Palin to assume her followers can read is a bit of a stretch if you ask me). So  to review, she calls Rahm Emanuel a liar for saying that Republicans agree with Joe Barton and then a few days later Mrs. Palin, still a Republican I presume………agrees with Joe Barton. (The Thomas Sowell article The Quitter references is the lunacy Sowell wrote for the Jewish World Review in which he made yet another of the right’s Obama—Hitler comparisons, and which was quoted from on the floor of the House by Screwy Louie Gohmert.)

Don’t worry, Sister Sarah. We’re not laughing near you, we’re laughing at you.

Rahm Goes to the Capitol to Get Pelosi’s Mind Right

27 Saturday Feb 2010

Posted by Craig in Congress, Democrats, health care, Obama, Politics, Progressives

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bait and switch, health care, House, Nancy Pelosi, President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, reconciliation, Senate bill

Don’t do it, Nancy. Don’t do it:

“Rahm Emanuel ventured to the Capitol Friday evening to hash out health care strategy with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a White House aide confirmed.

Senior Hill aides speculated to HuffPost that Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, would bring the message that the House must move first, with a pledge from Senate Democrats that they would follow.”

The meeting comes as Democrats are searching for a way to get to the health care finish line, though neither chamber wants to move first. Senate leaders want the House to pass the Senate bill first, after which the Senate would use reconciliation to fix the legislation to the liking of the Senate. House leaders contend that the votes aren’t there for the Senate bill if the upper chamber doesn’t move. The House, after two centuries of watching the Senate lag behind, doesn’t trust that it’ll act.

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

You’re being conned. The Senate wants the Senate bill without the modifications. President Obama wants the Senate bill without the modifications. He only proposed them as bait, next come the switch. And trust me, President Obama is the master of the bait and switch. Just ask those who voted for him in November of ‘08. Ask me, I fell for it. If you go first and pass the Senate bill the promised reconciliation fixes will NEVER happen. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Sincerely,
A victim of OBSS (Obama Bait and Switch Syndrome)

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