Obama needs an economic adviser

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Clinton Cites Her Economic Credentials, Attacks Obama (Update1)

By Kristin Jensen

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said her rival Barack Obama was offering ``speeches vs. solutions'' and portrayed herself as the candidate best able to spur the U.S. economy.

While Obama spent Valentine's Day with his family in Chicago, Clinton planned a full schedule of events across Ohio, which holds a primary on March 4 that is crucial to her strategy for regaining initiative after a series of losses to Obama over the past five days.

Clinton, 60, a New York senator, said Obama followed in her footsteps yesterday by pledging to create 5 million jobs in the ``green energy sector'' and proposing a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to put $60 billion over 10 years into construction projects. She said she offered plans for both months ago.

``There's a big difference between us, speeches vs. solutions, talk vs. action,'' Clinton told workers after touring a General Motors Corp. assembly plant at Lordstown, Ohio.

After serving as the Democratic front-runner for the presidential nomination for most of last year, Clinton is now trailing Obama, 46, an Illinois senator, in the race for delegates who will decide the Democratic nominee.

Delegates

Obama has accumulated 1,034 pledged Democratic National Convention delegates to Clinton's 955, according to an unofficial tally by thegreenpapers.com, a nonpartisan Web site that compiles election statistics. The count doesn't include the 796 so-called super delegates, Democratic Party officials and officeholders who aren't bound by primary or caucus results and can back whomever they choose.

A candidate needs at least 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination at the party's convention.

Clinton picked up 26 more delegates today when she was declared winner of the Feb. 5 New Mexico primary. Brian Colon, chairman of the state's Democratic Party, said Clinton received 73,105 votes to Obama's 71,396. The state completed its count today.

``I am so proud to have earned the support of New Mexicans from across the state,'' Clinton said in a statement.

Ohio, Texas Primaries

Along with Ohio, Texas also holds its primary March 4. The two states have a total of 334 pledged delegates available, and Clinton has campaigned in both over the past two days. Before Texas and Ohio vote, Democrats hold caucuses in Hawaii and a primary in Wisconsin on Feb. 19.

Clinton today renewed attacks on Obama over his record and rhetoric.

The former first lady said Obama let the nuclear industry ``water down'' legislation that he was pursuing and unwisely voted for an energy bill that benefited special interests.

``You can't just talk about the special interests,'' she said. ``You have to take them on.''

Obama's spokesman accused Clinton of distorting Obama's positions and being hypocritical.

``Barack Obama doesn't need any lectures on special interests from the candidate who's taken more money from Washington lobbyists than any Republican running for president,'' Bill Burton said.

Chafee Endorses Obama

Obama was endorsed today by former Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, another state holding a primary March 4.

Chafee, who was defeated in the 2006 congressional election, left the Republican Party in September and registered as an independent. He told reporters that Obama has the ability to ``bring people together to solve complex issues of the economy, environment and global stability.''

Both Obama and Clinton are stepping up their focus on the economy, an issue that has favored Clinton in the past. In a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll published Jan. 25, Democrats named the economy -- along with the Iraq war -- as their top concern; Clinton was favored by those voters by a 2-1 margin.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee today that Fed officials have lowered their forecasts for economic growth after the U.S. lost jobs in January and consumer spending was threatened by falling home and stock values and rising energy costs.

Clinton told the GM employees that she is in the best position to create new jobs and help revive the economy.

``Speeches don't put food on the table, speeches don't fill up your tank, speeches don't fill your prescriptions,'' Clinton said. ``That's the difference between me and my Democratic opponent. My opponent makes speeches, I offer solutions.''

She said her proposals would close loopholes that encourage outsourcing, fight predatory lending practices in the student loan industry and curb practices such as sudden rate increases in the credit card industry.

Bloomberg

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Quote:

The former first lady said Obama let the nuclear industry ``water down'' legislation that he was pursuing and unwisely voted for an energy bill that benefited special interests.

Hills got that right, otherwise why would Excelon be such a big, big contributor to Hussein Obama's compaign? Idea

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Mark Penn Tied To Controversial Nuclear Firm
Sam Stein

February 14, 2008 03:46 PM

Even as Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was blasting Sen. Barack Obama for his ties to the Exelon Corporation, the firm of Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist, was earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from the very same nuclear energy giant.

This past week, Burson Marsteller, Penn's powerhouse consulting agency, was paid more than $230,000 by Exelon to help renew a nuclear energy license in New Jersey, the Huffington Post has learned. The payment was for work that took place over several months, and Burson is still employed by the company.

"They did some work for us in New Jersey between June and November," said Craig Nesbit, vice president of communications for Exelon Generation, a subsidiary. "That bill was invoiced on December 12 and it just took that long to pay these things... We still are paying them a little bit but it is ramping down."

It has been public knowledge that Exelon is a client of Burson. But news of the recent payment comes less than two weeks after the Clinton campaign, and Penn himself, took Obama to task for what they implied was preferential treatment for the company.

On February 3, 2008, the New York Times reported that Obama had backed away from criticism of Exelon following revelation that the company had not disclosed radioactive leaks at one of its nuclear plants. The Illinois Senator, the paper noted, chose to push legislation that offered guidance, rather than mandates, for prompt reporting of leaks. Moreover, the Times added, Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod worked as a consultant to Exelon, and "since 2003, executives and employees of Exelon, which is based in Illinois, have contributed at least $227,000 to Mr. Obama's campaigns for the United States Senate and for president."

Following the article's publication, the Clinton campaign pressed the notion that Obama had succumbed to pressure from his donors, even though Clinton had supported the bill. In a radio ad before the Nevada primary, the campaign used Obama's Exelon ties to cast doubt about his opposition to Yucca Mountain, a proposed nuclear waste depository. And in a memo to "interested parties," Penn himself highlighted the Times story, arguing that what Obama says is often contradicted by what journalists find "when they dig into the facts."

Nine days later, Penn's firm, Burson Marsteller, received $230,627.05 from Exelon -- roughly $3,000 more than the sum of Obama's campaign donations from Exelon employees -- for work deemed "Public Affairs."

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/14/mark-penn-tied...

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Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship

Statistics: Hillary Clinton has sponsored 354 bills since Jan 22, 2001, of which 307 haven't made it out of committee (Extremely Poor) and 2 were successfully enacted (Average, relative to peers). Clinton has co-sponsored 1723 bills during the same time period (Average, relative to peers).

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd?id=300022

According to the FACTS, basicly NOTHING she has proposed has made it out of committee.

So exactly what good are these "so called credentials"?

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Miller wrote:

Quote:
The former first lady said Obama let the nuclear industry ``water down'' legislation that he was pursuing and unwisely voted for an energy bill that benefited special interests.

Hills got that right, otherwise why would Excelon be such a big, big contributor to Hussein Obama's compaign?

What's racist and annoying like?

By the way, Hillary's still behind, in spite of your efforts. Keep trying though, it just might work!

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They BOTH need advisors as BOTH their plans are wrong for America.

To squeeze a few more pennies from top taxpayers, Clinton and Obama would also phase out all personal exemptions at $250,000. That means large families would pay higher taxes than childless couples with the same income. They'd also phase out itemized deductions - which would force two-earner families in New York and California to pay more federal tax than those living in Texas and Florida.

And this politically suicidal tax discrimination against New Yorkers, Californians and big families would bring in only an extra $15 billion a year.

All in all, these tax hikes add up to, at most, $47 billion a year - only 1.5 percent of federal spending and 0.3 percent of GDP.

And even that assumes nobody makes the slightest effort to avoid the increased taxes. In reality, many two-earner families would become one-earner families; doctors would play more golf; some folks would quit working long hours and others would retire early. Top-bracket taxpayers would maximize deductions (take out a bigger mortgage, put more in the 401k) and minimize taxable income (buy municipal bonds or just spend rather than invest).

Such tax avoidance alone would cut the estimated revenue in half. The tax hikes' adverse effects on the stock market and the economy would more than eliminate the other half.

Meanwhile, both candidates are eager to spend more tens of billions a year on health-insurance subsidies, billions more for biofuels and (in Obama's case, at least) tens of billions more for several more refundable tax credits - checks to people who don't pay income tax. All these shameless vote-buying schemes would only worsen the real budget problem - which is runaway spending, not taxes.

Marginal tax rates are now much lower than they were in 1993 to 1996 on all incomes, large or small. And tax rates are much lower on dividends and capital gains. Yet the individual income tax brought in 8.5 percent of GDP last year - the same as in 1996 and much more than under the higher tax rates of '93-95.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02152008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/tax_delusions_97785.htm?page=2

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Quote:

Obama needs an economic adviser

Miller needs a therapist. Seriously; why don't you just save space and put all your obama 'news' under one thread?

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Obama needs an economic adviser

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