Obama '08?

A very bad day for team Obama.......the Palestinians went ahead a demanded UN recognition thus forcing Obama to veto Palestinian statehood in spite of the fact that we have long called for it...Geithner lectured the Europeans on how to save the global economy and in response basically got told to **** off, Obama's poll numbers are down again, there is a new book making the rounds that paints the top of the administration as dysfunctional and incompetent.......

I suspect that Obama wishes he was with Cameron and Sarkozy on their victory tour of Libya even though on this day the rebels tried to take some towns that the Gadaffi forces hold and failed miserably.

Did the famous J.K.Galbraith actually say that hawk?

Aside from the crass pat on his own back at the end there is the problem that we can only eat so much and only drive one car at once whereas cleaner streets, better schools, improved recreational facilities, more efficient law enforcement and public housing are not only psychological problems but there is an unlimited demand for them. It's a moot point whether the private sector could handle them at all.

Squalor is caused by people. Reducing it can't be measured by profit.

Liberal democrat people.

That's Clegg for you. They're not to be trusted, too quick to make a deal with the Tories.

No one is analyzing the economy fully and correctly which means that no one can do anything about it . . . yet. Sadly, it might mean that there is nothing to be done.

There was a piece on NPR this morning about the median income for a blue-collar male head of household in 1973 compared to that equivalent person today. HE's earning $1,500 less. Now, the awful republicans (my Dad always felt that republicans hate the "working man") are talking about taxing this median-income blue-collar man and of depriving this same man of the right to vote.

As I typed the above just now, I thought of Sojourner Truth asking, "Ain't I a woman?" with the gender corrected. Ain't the median-income, blue-collar head of household a man?

According to the piece, that same Sisyphutic fellow is rolling the stone of his family's needs up the same hill but the weight of that $1,500 his father earned that he doesn't is making that stone that much heavier.

The piece did offer some solid analysis, suggesting that Europe and Japan were still rebuilding their manufacturing bases destroyed by WWII. Alright, I accept that. However, the piece went on to say that that same fellow in the middle is just like his father (or grandfather) in one way: he's a high school graduate. Although I teach at a community college, I have to defend the right -- and, unlike the ron paul right to cancer or the michelle bachmann right of teenaged girls not to be traumatized by vaccinations -- think that for some, not to go to college is a right.

Jesus Christ! When I was a grad student at Wayne STate in the 69-74, the lefties all wanted the restoration of the seven liberal arts as the hallmark of an educated citizen. When there was a piano recital or a student art exhibit or when a famous author like Anthony Burgess came to speak at campus there would always be the same coterie of leftwing students in attendance. You never saw the Greeks there.

Frankly, I think it is sad that a university degree or a degreelet in a field that is wholly career directed are sought just to earn money. I also think it is unrealistic to demand that everyone go to college. Not everyone can. Not everyone should

pom, Well stated; not all are interested or motivated to go to college, but they can be productive citizens of the country. Germany has the right idea; they provide apprenticeship programs for those children who do not wish to attend college, and most of us understand the economic powerhouse they have been.

By heck pom--you are a cut above the average A2Ker aren't you just.

You teaching at a community college and being a grad student at Wayne STate in the 69-74 and all.

That must be why I can't understand your post. It's way over my head. You think that not to go to college is a right. That's really advanced thinking. As is that not everyone should go to college.

Gee spendi, i believe that you are beginning to realize what a perfect asshole you are.

Well-I'm not given to wagging my tail when pom's infantile and self-complimentary drivel is being unloaded into my earhole.

Perhaps you need to do that sort of thing to be socially acceptable.

Nader and company vowing a primary challenge to Obama. His chances for re-election (dicey without a favorable turn on the economy) have just turned abysmal.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/19/liberals-vow-challenge-obama-democratic-primaries/

I don't agree. I believe a primary challenge from the left, particularly a non starter like the one cited in the article, is more likely to help Obama than hurt him. I'll bet his political advisors are welcoming (perhaps even helping) it.

Why would it help him? He's already in deep kimchee with independents. Therefore, he's counting on a strong showing from the far left. This development will peel off a chunk of his base that he can't afford to lose.

He isn't going to lose to a primary challenger no matter who might run against him, and, unless I'm mistaken, the article refers to a primary challenge not a 3rd Party challenge in the General Election, so the only way such a challenge can hurt him, is if he pisses off the people who support the challenge (to "make a statement," or "send a message.") by rather blatantly suggesting they are racists or fools ...or foolish racists. I can imagine him doing so, but not that the number of angry liberals who, in reaction, stay home on Nov. 2 will amount to a game changer.

On the other hand, I guess it's possible that such a challenge will roil his African-American supporters who might perceive it as being racist in nature, but here again, I just don't see such a reaction resulting in a significant pick up of votes he couldn't already count on.

Seems to me to be just the sort of meaningless political performance theater that Nader and his ilk consider so profoundly meaningful.

I can't believe what passes for analysis on your side of the fence. You don't seem to be able to separate your fantasies from reality.

Cycloptichorn

While you're peeing on yourself, you might add that I also went to Harvard.

Is that really worth bragging about?

We've forgotten that you get your posts off National Public Radio talking heads.

I presume Harvard is the epitome of what Veblen described in The Higher Learning in America.

Well that's better than getting all your soundbites off The Archers.

I wouldn't know about that izzy.

You've never understood context. But, then, your general level of comprehension is abysmal.