Campaign 2010 - Economy Poised to Take off if Republicans Win Big

.

One of the realities of economics is a favorable (Conservative) Congress can always trump an unfavorable (Liberal) president and never is that more obvious than in the 2010 midterm elections. Obama has clearly staked his claim as the enemy of the business community, big and small business, with harsh anti-business and class polarization rhetoric and a Progressive agenda threatening income redistribution and regulatory interference in a broad range of business interests.

Anyone wanting to send a message to Washington need only vote Republican and the extent of GOP wins will dictate the extent of the positive economic bounce that may result in the stock market and throughout the business community. Seldom, if ever, has a sitting president run against the entire scope of the broad based business community that fuels the American economy.

Perhaps Obama had no choice because he relied on the far left and self-serving special interests to get elected in the first place in 2008 and as feeble as his efforts were to take care of the unions, health care industries like insurers and pharmaceutical giants, and the housing industry, he built a base of special interests with diametrically opposed agendas.

Whatever he did to help his Goldman Sachs base hurt his SEIU union base. His efforts to protect the union health care plans while trying to appease the health care industry left him with a phony health care reform that may extend coverage to the uninsured at some point, but assured the health care industry they could raise prices and premiums to cover any loss. By guaranteeing that unions could keep their Cadillac high cost plans he assured future health care would drive up prices for all Americans.

As for his so called economic reforms, his highly heralded economic reform program did not even touch the housing industry which brought down the economy in the first place. His hundreds of millions of dollar contributors from Wall Street not only did not even get a slap on the wrist, they got federal bailouts and record bonuses since Obama was elected.

To protect his contributors to the most expensive presidential campaign in history in which Obama and the Democrats spent well over ONE BILLION DOLLARS to get him elected, he had to create a straw dog to blame for his failure to keep unemployment under 8%, his promise not mine, in order to get his TRILLION DOLLAR non-stimulus bill passed. Thus the Republicans and Bush became the enemy.

Certain truths have been conveniently obscured by our young president and he seems convinced the people of Main Street America are too stupid see through the political smoke screen. He cannot deliver on his promises to his own liberal base because the nation and the world are rejecting the folly of a liberal nation dominating the world. Unfortunately someone has to pay for the socialist agenda and it won't be the socialists who claim to be entitled to cradle to grave care from the government.

Every socialist experiment in the world in which there is no capitalist base to pay for the program has failed, pure and simple. Nearly every country in Europe has had to elect a conservative government to undertake the painful budget and deficit reforms needed to save the nations from bankruptcy while gutting the liberal promises previously made.

At the same time, Obama has run against the Bush and Republican record the 8 years before he got elected and forgets to mention the Democrats under Pelosi, not the Republicans, controlled the House the last two Bush years and approved the record deficits. During the entire 8 years many Democrats had to vote with the GOP in order for the depending to happen. In fact during the entire Bush years Republicans never had control like Obama did the last two years with huge majorities in the House and Senate, yet Bush always got the Democrats to approve his budgets and deficits and never whined about the Democrat minority or majority blocking progress.

A whole lot of misinformation has been thrown at the electorate in this, the worst year in campaigns in ages. It is a testament to the fact Obama made no effort to reform the campaign laws that give special interests more control than citizens and give campaign funds more importance than citizen needs. He owned the national agenda and made NO effort to fix the corrupt campaign mess we are in.

So we shall see to what extent the people were fooled by the politicians like Obama who has now taken his rightful place among the political establishment he is so quick to condemn. As I said, the stronger the Republican vote against the Obama agenda the stronger the recovery of the economy and the return to bi-partisan cooperation to solve our problems.
.

Obamaville September 9 - A Bush League Obama Turns Back the Clock 2 Years

.

Was I dreaming or was that Barack Obama yesterday, or two years earlier, blasting the Republicans just after John McCain and Sarah Palin had been nominated and the polls showed the 2008 election closing rapidly? There was Obama before another by invitation only Democratic rally in Ohio slamming the GOP for the Bush years, condemning them for destroying the economy, and demanding a chance to give us hope with change.

Of course he forgot to mention back then that the Democrats had been in control of the budget since Nancy Pelosi became Majority Leader in 2006 and was thus responsible for the budget deficit and the wars. Or that the Clinton White House had made the regulatory changes that resulted in the sub-prime mortgage fiasco that caused the economy to collapse. But that was campaign bravado and facts never got in the way of a good speech. President Obama, your enemy now may very well be Nancy Pelosi, she's a Democrat Mr. President from your very own party, who has been in control of the federal budget for the last FOUR years.

Turn the calendar forward two years and Obama is wrapping up his second year as president with a huge Democratic majority in the House and the Senate and what does the commander in chief have to say about the outlook in America? He is still blasting the Republicans for causing the economic mess, still lamenting about the cost of the two wars, one of which he has expanded, blames the GOP for blocking his legislation though his own party controls both houses of congress now, and seems to have forgotten that Bush has been long gone from the scene.

His polarizing political speeches continue to divide the nation. His condemnation of the "rich" continues to promote class warfare. His build up in Afghanistan has been dropped from the speeches. His promise to help heal the nation is lost by his vicious attacks on the GOP. And then there are the straw dogs he creates to win a point, like attacking House Republican leader John Boehner at least seven times by name. John WHO? Most of Main Street America has no clue who John Boehner is and could care less about a congressman from Ohio. What kind of presidential strategy is that?

Even the president's facts and sound bites are bush league. He said he would not hurt the middle class or small business by raising their taxes, yet his tax of everyone over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples means, according to independent small business groups and even ABC News, that over 894,000 small businesses in America will pay higher taxes thanks to his policies.

The only thing more predictable than Obama being bush league is MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, the resident Republican in the liberal conclave of the Morning Joe Show being shameless in his quite obvious efforts to make it look like the GOP is hopelessly ineffective and impotent. Joe, if he really is a Republican, needs to change his party registration to the Democrat party he seems to espouse so fervently.

.

Obama Closes Door to Iraq Combat - Even Mentions the Economy for a Change

.

In a rather strange 19 minute prime time address from the Oval Office President Obama talked about the end of combat in Iraq, the Afghanistan war, President Bush and the economy and never cracked a smile nor showed much of any emotion, not a good performance for one considered the great communicator.

It was a hodgepodge of subjects, all of which were important, but none of which got much discussion in his address. Clearly the talk of the economy at the end of the talk was a last minute addition to address the fact the entire nation is wondering if the President will ever get around to addressing the economy, unemployment and the national debt.

His mention of Bush was awkward at best and said nothing that everyone didn't already know. The only thing unusual about it was Obama did not blame Bush for everything but he also didn't mention that Bush signed the agreement to withdraw combat troops while president or that Bush implemented the troop surge strategy used by Obama in Iraq and Afghanistan but then when he uses the former president as a punching bag he really can't say too much good about him.

Obama did make reference to the terrible cost in lives and money of the war which we also know. However, as for the $700 billion cost over 7 years, Obama didn't mention he spent that much in one day with the stimulus program and over $4 trillion on his own legislative agenda the past 18 months. Some think that $4 trillion was wasted as well.

Again he gave our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan a heads up by reinforcing his deadline for leaving the war zones which is something no president has ever done before through the news media. Many believe this is an indication of his inexperience.

As for the economy, it was the standard line of blaming the Republicans and the prior 8 years, though he didn't mention Bush by name, while offering nothing but a trivial bill pending in congress as a step toward healing the wounds. It will take a lot more than a small business incentive to fix the mess we are in.

Obama appeared tired, lacked the energy he has on a basketball court, and seemed almost distracted when giving the talk. Of course his foreign policy agenda was not what the people want to hear and his meetings on Mideast peace the rest of the week will keep him from addressing the economy for another week.

Since he just finished a ten day vacation at Cape Cod perhaps he needs a few days to rest up from his busy vacation schedule.

.

Why Can't Obama Talk about Successful American Companies? Hope Works Too!

.


Today on MSNBC's Morning Joe Show they had a guest from CNBC, the NBC Financial Network. It seems the CNBC team is always more upbeat about the economy and recovery than MSNBC who find political nonsense and entertainment trivia more news worthy.

This morning Jim Cramer, the Host of Mad Money on CNBC and certainly one of the more entertaining financial analysts you will ever hear was a fill in guest commentator on MSNBC. It was during an interview with Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, an Obama admirer and apologist for the Administration on the Obama Stimulus program that Cramer got my attention.

You see Obama was scheduled to speak at the groundbreaking for a new plant in Michigan that is alleged to be a result of the Stimulus and the Governor was hosting him. To hear the Governor talk about Obama you would think she is a cheerleader for him like the Governor of Pennsylvania, Edward G. Rendell. I guess neither read the polls and know that only 40% of the people have a favorable view and over 60% say the Stimulus did nothing for them and want no more Stimulus if what we have got is the result.



But then neither is running for reelection and while Rendell also has a fading favorable rating, Granholm cannot run again and she will be history unless Obama hires her. After all, Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, has lost over 1.3 million jobs recently, and has over 1.8 million people receiving food assistance from the government. The GM and Chrysler bailouts by Obama have not been too good for the local economy.

At any rate while Granholm was droning on about the value of the Stimulus Cramer suddenly interrupted her and asked why she never talked about the successful companies in the US instead of just those who received money from Obama. It caught her cold. Cramer then got excited as only he can do and said the problem with the economy in America is that it is a political football and it should not be a political issue but an economic issue.



He asked her why she never talked about one of the greatest success stories in the world, the Ford Motor Company story, and the phenomenal job being done by the CEO Alan Mulally. Cramer said no one in the Obama Administration ever talks about successful companies unless they received government money and Ford survived without the government auto bailout and is now one of the strongest automakers in the world. Since they are headquartered in Michigan, he thought it was odd the Governor was talking about a company that would employ 400 people sometime in the future and never mentioned Ford who was now employing thousands of workers.

The Governor was speechless and tried to answer without mentioning Ford, a rather formidable task. It was clear Ford was not in the talking points the White House wanted mentioned but Cramer's point was clear. If politicians would talk about the successful American companies, especially the ones like Ford who are making it without a federal bailout, maybe people would have more confidence in the future. Right now Obama only talks about those receiving Stimulus money and since people do not believe the stimulus is working it only reinforces that the government doesn't know what to do about the economy.



If our politicians want to lead they can start by giving us a positive message, not the negative nitpicking we now get. We need to stop blaming people for what is wrong and start talking about those people who are doing things right. Hope is earned in America and the politicians in America seem to have forgotten the need for hope.



Let us all hope the politicians get the message and start giving us a reason to believe in the future, not look back in disgust. The people, not the politicians, have the knowledge, creativity and drive to get us out of the recession and economic downturn if the politicians would just shut up. If only political ads would be banned from TV there might be a way out of the morass we find ourselves in.

.