- A complicit and willing press. I hope Obama is everything he pretends to be, but we don't really know do we? While the press pours over Alaskan travel vouchers for footing errors and rail against Palin's expensive wardrobe, ACORN registers untold numbers of fraudulent voters, Obama's ties to ACORN go unmentioned and any other item that could possibly cast doubt on Obama's self reinvention as a mainstream Democrat disappear into the ether.
- George W. Bush. Bush is a good man and was right on the primary issue facing the West today, Islamic Extremism. Other than that, he screwed the pooch. How else does Joe Biden become vice president of anything other than the Hair Club For Men?
- The financial meltdown. If the financial shite hadn't the fan when it did, the GOP may have had a chance against such an ostensibly inexperienced candidate. It would be nice if one in ten American voters knew which administration repealed Glass-Steagal. See item one.
- John McCain. You're a Maverick, I get it. Years of pissing in Republican ears are not without cost. To salve the GOP wounds and to shore up the base, McCain was forced to choose Sarah Palin, whom I like, but the choice removed the biggest cudgel with which to beat the upstart Obama - lack of experience. I don't know if any other choice for VP would have made a difference, but it's kinda hard to knock Obama's inexperience when a 72 year presidential candidate chooses a woman, no matter how promising, of scant experience herself. Again, the press in an amazing feat of intellectual flexibility found it easy to mention Palin's lack of experience every other breath while never noticing the same in Obama.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Obama Wins
I always thought the first African American POTUS would be a conservative. I was wrong. President elect Barack Obama has ascended to the presidency because of three or four key phenomena:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
It doesn't matter which admin repealed Glass-Steagal. The repeal of Glass-Steagal didn't cause the problem. Moreover, it was a Republican controlled Congress that sent the repeal of Glass-Steagal to Clinton for his signature.
The repeal of Glass-Steagal didn't cause the problem, it just greased the skids. The bottom line is that in the last 8 years there has been no significant financial deregulation, contrary to what the Pelosae of the world would have you believe.
But it didn't. The repeal of Glass Steagal allowed "financial supermarkets" like Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase (and now BankAmerica with their purchase of Merril Lynch) to be created. None of these companies have been part of the problem.
A case can be made that Sarbanes Oxley played a role with the new mark to market accounting rules. (see here and here) I'm agnostic about this aspect of Sarbanes Oxley. Just because it was a contributing factor to this crisis doesn't mean it's a bad idea. The problem at it's root goes back to Fannie and Freddie. When Fannie and Freddie's crap finally hit the fan there was ALWAYS going to be a mess.
And, by the way, you can blame the Dems (mostly) for Fannie and Freddie's crap.
Post a Comment