Gawker 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 5:08 AM
Sat Dec 12
46 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip Your Editors:
Tipline: 646-214-8138
Editor-in-Chief:
Gabriel Snyder |
West Coast Editor:
Richard Rushfield |
Contributing Editors:
Valleywag:
Ryan Tate |
Media:
Hamilton Nolan |
Politics:
Alex Pareene |
Investigations:
John Cook |
Entertainment:
Brian Moylan |
Nights:
Adrian Chen |
Azaria Jagger |
Ravi Somaiya |
Weekends:
Foster Kamer |
Video Editor:
Richard Blakeley |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
Tell ya what. How about no tax increases for anyone who earns less than $100k per year? Hm? How's that look for ya, you sniveling boot-licker of the uber-wealthy? Hm?
12/02/09
etc.
12/03/09
12/02/09
These guys are completely morally bankrupt.
12/02/09
12/02/09
Next up "Only capital punishment until there are no more homicides, then let's keep capital punishment on the books for convicted ________ ."
12/02/09
12/02/09
However, please send thinking folks. We need more.
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
I'm terribly sorry you have to deal with South Carolinian politicians. DeMint, in particular, is a real anus. I mostly feel sorry for poor, closeted Graham.
12/03/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
11/24/09
But! His comment wasn't "thoughtless." It was intended to be confidence-boosting. America is tough, we'll get through this, our fundamental assets - hard-working Americans, know-how, etc. - are still strong. He allowed it to be played as a gaffe, that was his mistake (because he really didn't "get it"). And yes, Obama hung it around his neck like a flaming tire. But a more skillful politician wouldn't have reacted with the above-referenced weeklong meltdown (also including a hastily staged White House meeting including Obama, arranged to save face for McCain, where he had nothing to say).
And to tell the truth, Obama has some of the same problem, connecting with average people and showing empathy for their distress, like Bill Clinton did, but that was not a factor during the campaign because contrasted with McCain, Obama looked like the one you'd want to have in charge: cool, calm and collected. But that doesn't make it a major gaffe when, for confidence-building reasons, he makes the case that our underlying economy is strong - even though he did demagogue the hapless McCain over a similarly aimed comment.
The biggest factor in the economy right now is consumer confidence, which depends on people expecting the future to be better than the past (as has been on the rise) so they will spend over the holidays, and that is what Obama is hoping to encourage. Sheesh, when he talked about the gravity of the crisis after he was elected, everyone said he was scaring everyone and spooking the stock market.
11/23/09
As for the jobs thing. There are ways out of this mess but the Administration is NOT listening to the right people and, yes, those are the strains of the same old song that we're starting to hear.
I work with an organization that is involved with the international building sector (architects, builders, contractors, carpenters etc.). We have a plan that's been in front of the Administration that will create 4.5 Million Jobs in one year, reduce CO2 emissions by 101 MMT, reduce energy consumption by 907TBtu, as well as save consumers $103 billion in mortgage payments and energy costs annually.
I feel like Professor Harold Hill saying it but this plan of ours really can work. Basic premise: If you renovate your home to be energy efficient, you get a crazy low (like 2%) mortgage rate (which has been bought down by stimulus $$). All the laid-off electricians, plumbers, earth movers, and every other construction trade (the sector suffering the highest job loss b.t.w.) go back to work renovating the 93% of our existing building stock that DESPERATELY NEEDS to be renovated for efficiency and the homeowner saves like $500 every month. We call it the "One Year 4.5 Million Jobs Investment Plan" (no kidding). Instead of throwing 800 Billion at highways, we're asking the Govt. to spend a mere 30 Billion buying down mortgage rates so We The People can afford to fix up our drafty, dumpy, coal guzzling houses.
Maybe we need to get out in the streets and demand the stuff we want (?)
11/23/09
This could be Obama's "Mission Accomplished" moment -- pretty risky given the employment numbers
11/23/09
11/24/09
#tips
11/24/09
11/24/09
#tips
11/24/09
What I mean is there is a LARGE difference between hanging a banner off a ship that says "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" in regards to Iraq, and Obama saying "The core of America is strong" in regards to the economy.
Mission accomplished is a statement that "We are done. We have accomplished what we set out to do." The equivalent, I believe, is if Obama hung a huge banner that says "ECONOMY FIXED" behind him during a press conference. He didn't do that.
11/24/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
This nitpicky, zomg did he just make a gaffe?! style reporting was grating even then. Now it's doubly obnoxious. Can you really not recognize the contextual differences between a) a candidate blithely shrugging off what seemed, at the time, like impending economic armageddon and b) the President reminding a country weary from a year of financial stress that no, this isn't going to last forever--at the end of the day we still have the most powerful economy in the world bar none and the jobs will come back?
McCain said the worst thing possible at a traumatic moment in history. Obama is trying to coax everyone back to sanity in its aftermath. Sort of big distinction?
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
We're not in the aftermath. I think the statements are similar. But I agreed with McCain then, and I agree with Obama now.
11/23/09
Yes, the unemployment situation is still horrible, but things are less worrisome in general; at the time of McCain's comment, I wasn't entirely convinced that the fundamentals were strong enough to resist what was coming.
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09