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America Is Back!
History was made on November 4, 2008, when Barack Obama overwhelming won election to become the 44th President of the United States of America. Forty-five long years after Martin Luther King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, the manifestation of that dream has come to pass. The fulfillment of this dream is a declaration that we can come back from the dark days of division that characterized the past eight years, and much of the past two hundred. And it is evidence that the people, when inspired, will rise up to take back their country. Barack Obama is merely the reflection of our own hopes and dreams. We are America, and…
America’s Barack
However, if the media, led by Fox News, is to be believed, then the next administration should provide some surprises. Obama was castigated by John McCain, McCain’s supporters, and the omnipresent rightist press, as a Muslim and a Marxist. His patriotism was challenged. Television anointed experts told us that Obama would raise our taxes and ruin our economy. And this dangerously risky, untested, neophyte, even palled around with terrorists.
But America voted for him anyway. Does that mean that a majority of American voters have just given a mandate to the President-elect for an agenda of Godless Socialism? Rejoice Pagans, for the day has come that the United States has affirmed its commitment to spreading both wealth and heresy.
Either that or the vacant ideologies of limp-brained, bile-spewers like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, etc, has been fiercely rejected, repudiated, and denied.
Time will tell.
I witnessed 2 sides of Fox News today. Hound dog faced depression from the triplet bobble heads on Fox & Friends licking their wounds with some of their buddies. Then a surprising Neil Cavuto even talking Ann Coulter out of some of her hysteria on Your World
I agree – and briefly blogged today as much – that America isn’t voting for left-wing extremism or even stereotypical liberalism. America wants change and Democrats – Obama included – need to steer a centrist course, albeit center-left, to meet their expectations.
Working with the Republicans will be difficult. Many moderates have been flushed in favor of Democratic gains leaving something like 50% the Republican delegation coming from the South. It’s the Southern strategy pushed by folks like Delay (Texas) and Gingrich (Georgia) that led to the most rigidly ideological and partisan Washington in my lifetime.
Unfortunately, Obama’s over-promised. He’ll have to break a lot of promises since our government is looking at possibly a trillion dollar deficit.
Take his tax cut. A non-partisan group scored it as raising the deficit by $2.9 trillion over 10 years. Lest right-wingers start screaming “Socialist” McCain’s tax package was scored by the same group as costing $4.2 trillion.
Can we afford it?
Add to that promises to dramatically raise veteran’s benefits, expand the military, invest $15 billion/year in green technology research, cash for early childhood development, universal health care, free internet for poor kids, a tuition assistance cash windfall for college kids, modernize our infrastructure, paying people to save, yada, yada, yada.
It’ll be an interesting 4 years.
Good stuff. I mostly agree. A couple of notes:
I saw Cavuto tease a segment with the suggestion that Obama’s choice of Rahm Emanuel was the reason the market tanked today. When he came back from commercial though, he downplayed the notion that the Dow’s 500 point drop had much to do with Obama (it was only a part of the reason). It seemed like he really wanted to blame Obama but even he couldn’t sell that lie. The market’s gonna go down again tomorrow on Cisco’s earnings and their downbeat assessment of the next quarter. But look for the blame to fall on Obama.
Obama says that his spending initiatives are paid for with other cuts. It remains to be seen if that’s campaign rhetoric or not, but either way, some of his tax proposals could produce higher revenues. Cuts for the middle class will put money in their pockets that could end up fueling more retail spending. Investing in green technology will create new industry and jobs. And universal healthcare, if done right, will save billions, although it should be noted that Obama does not advocate a universal plan. I wish he did.
I had to update my blog post because News Hounds caught the bottom third text blaming the drop on Obama’s win even as what Cavuto read off the teleprompter didn’t.
Plus, I caught a promo today for his show indicating he’s going to delve into what an Obama presidency means for the stock market. Up to the same old tricks? Probably.
I’ve heard Obama mention offsets at times. However, in the case of the tax cuts the offset is supposed to be higher taxes on those earning greater than $250,000. Still, his plan doesn’t score as revenue neutral by a non-partisan group.
The other cuts I’ve heard from him is earmarks which he admits is a drop in the bucket and pulling troops out of Iraq which won’t be completed until at least 18 months into his administration.
Keep in mind even if those are enough to pay for his ideas – which they aren’t – that means he’s accepting the Bush’s bloated deficits for the entirety of his administration.