Arianna Huffington:
Keeping in mind that I don't remember Arianna complaining about taking up health care first, she has always been against all the compromises. I do feel this Monday morning quarterbacking is pretty darned good. :) Going forward, I'm not sure what an attitude of no compromise would result in. Could go either way, and certainly would mean gridlock. I'm not sure Americans would realize so quickly that gridlock did them in since they already feel done in.
I think Arianna does hold on to some mistaken notion that all Democrats are actually liberal and it would be easy to get things through Senate any old time we wanted to. Compromise didn't get any Republican votes, but how many conservative Democratic votes were necessary to overcome the now 60 vote barrier in the Senate?
Robert Reich:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2010/1102/Obama-learn-the-lesson-of-1936-not-1996
This article makes lots of sense on going forward. I like the idea of explaining things over and over until people actually understand it. Voters are truly on the island of Lost changing their minds so rapidly it makes your head spin. Think of the fall in Bush's aproval ratings from the 90's to the 20's. Think back to just two years ago when voters recognized the recession was actually owned by the Republicans.
I'm not sure the economy will be so anemic in 2012 with all the plasma the Fed is now pumping in. It seems like inflation, at some point, will be the menace and it plays right into the hands of the Republicans as well. Not only does it handily help to balance the scales for all the tax cuts but it portrays the Democrats as big spenders. Of course, spending was and is the only way out of the Great Bush Recession. The pattern seems to be that the Republicans spend tons of money on wars, tax cuts and just stuff, but their followers don't recognize the actual loss of money. Republicans effectively hide the economy with tax cuts (apparently not akin to spending) and borrowing (again not recognized as spending) until the inevitable recession hits. The Democrats pick up the pieces with real and obvious spending. The Republicans blame the Democrats for all of the spending.
I don't envy the job of actually explaining the economy to the voters. The Great Bush Recession is taking our jobs and now inflation is taking money out of our pockets because few of us realized we needed to actually pay for wars and things.
I think I'll go for a long walk and forget all of this for a while.
Thanks, Ike, for the second link.
Robert Reich:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2010/1102/Obama-learn-the-lesson-of-1936-not-1996
This article makes lots of sense on going forward. I like the idea of explaining things over and over until people actually understand it. Voters are truly on the island of Lost changing their minds so rapidly it makes your head spin. Think of the fall in Bush's aproval ratings from the 90's to the 20's. Think back to just two years ago when voters recognized the recession was actually owned by the Republicans.
I'm not sure the economy will be so anemic in 2012 with all the plasma the Fed is now pumping in. It seems like inflation, at some point, will be the menace and it plays right into the hands of the Republicans as well. Not only does it handily help to balance the scales for all the tax cuts but it portrays the Democrats as big spenders. Of course, spending was and is the only way out of the Great Bush Recession. The pattern seems to be that the Republicans spend tons of money on wars, tax cuts and just stuff, but their followers don't recognize the actual loss of money. Republicans effectively hide the economy with tax cuts (apparently not akin to spending) and borrowing (again not recognized as spending) until the inevitable recession hits. The Democrats pick up the pieces with real and obvious spending. The Republicans blame the Democrats for all of the spending.
I don't envy the job of actually explaining the economy to the voters. The Great Bush Recession is taking our jobs and now inflation is taking money out of our pockets because few of us realized we needed to actually pay for wars and things.
I think I'll go for a long walk and forget all of this for a while.
Thanks, Ike, for the second link.
