An Awfully Painful Way to Convince the President Our Economy Is Not Moving
Remember when Robert Gibbs justified his attack on the professional left by suggesting that they didn’t understand–but the rest of the country did–that Obama had gotten our economy moving again? Remember Recovery Summer, Obama’s effort to convince Americans that the economy had turned around? Well, we’ve already seen that voters don’t take their understanding of our economic state from the same wonky metrics the White House does.
You think the White House is beginning to understand that no matter how many times you repeat the news that the economy is good, voters know better?
Six in 10 voters named the economy as the nation’s No.1 problem. Roughly four in 10 said their family’s financial condition has worsened under Obama. About six in 10 said the country is on the wrong track.
I assume yesterday’s defeat is the kind of metric that will finally make it clear to the White House that the economy sucks and people are pissed about it.
While these midterms may have made the problem clear to the Obama White House, there’s no question they will pick the wrong reasons and prescribe the wrong medicine. It’s their nature.
Yo9u got that one right.
Apparently they think the reason the Ds lost so many seats is that the WH and the DNC were too far to the left: they plan to be more bipartisan.
F*ck the WH and the DNC.
I want to be able to tell the parties apart without a program.
(I was thinking, maybe the national elections should be decoupled from the local and state elections, by having them in a different year and with an entirely separate set of voter rolls. Keep the leaden coat-tails from f8cking up everyone else’s chances. Also, it might make it easier for third parties to get off the ground by doing well in elections that don’t actually require a national presence and a huge budget.)
This is phony baloney.
80 progressives were running for re-election– and 76 (95%) of them got re-elected. But of the 54 Blue Dogs, only 55% got re-elected.
So what this shows is that many of the marginal seats that the Democrats captured in 2008, thanks to Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy, did not remain in Democratic hands.
Bob in AZ
Announcing a couple of weeks prior to the election that people on Social Security would not get an increase this year was one more nail in the coffin.
I am fully aware of the argument that Soc Sec is tied to the COL index but in looking at that index one can see obvious faults with the reasoning. The average market basket that is counted consists of not one organic item but it does count agri business “foods” that are just full of dangerous drugs….I guess people on Soc Sec are not supposed to eat drug free foods. In addition the COL takes into account the cost of petrol but no that it costs more to get to the food store as there are no local, walk to, food stores any more. Oh hell there is a bunch wrong with the COL index but the fact remains that this administration has made it clear that they are married to the big financial institutions and the rest of us can go to hell.
Well I for one did not vote for the democratic candidates on my ballot, I wrote in my own choice of candidate.
Since elected, Obamaco relied on their own metric. The disaster yesterday will not change their calculations. Negotiate with the GOP after giving the store away and settle for even less.
A poll prior to the election found 47% of Dems didn’t want Obama to run in 2012. I wonder what the per cent is now?
Geithner will jump ship.
I’m basing that on his nervous demeanor, his unsucessful attempts to undermine Warren and his dislike for playing on a losing team.
I predicted a while back that Obama would have to turn to Warren because she is the one member of his economic team that has any remaining credibility with the electorate.
I don’t know if she has the chops for treasury secretary but could Obama do any worse? Even if he does, what can she do without a reasonable power of the purse?
The Senate is pinned between an ill-intentioned House and a weak President.
It’s lost some of its best and most principled expertise.
What remains is a rocky ride.
I dun’o… if BO actually had an meaningful ideas or understanding, he would have executed/acted on that by now.
Somewhat noteworthy I think, reading these recent weeks that “young people” were entirely unmotivated by BO, and largely going to sit this one out. My reaction (I’m only young-at-heart ) is the same: BO speaking has no stature whatsoever… tinkling brass.
Beyond that, though, the momentum of this particular election is “back to the future”: not much more then pulling the econ/banking/environment (etc.) cops back of the street so our captains of finance can begin another “free market” exercise in (who knows). It also seems like GOD has a bigger/expanded role w/this incoming group.
From where I sit, BO’s affect on anything meaningful has been, is, and will continue to be approx. +/- 0… just another adornment on the scenery.
Oh well…
I meant to add… just how mis-informed the electorate is/was in this one.
Bloomberg (don’t have the link) wrote a few days ago on surveys for a few things. (From memory) Majorities said…
a) their taxes went up.
b) BO’s responsible for current huge debt increase.
On 1st point (taxes), most people have had tax cuts under BO. So rethug/FOX/Rush rhetoric to the contrary seems more persuasive than people’s own tax returns. I mean, really… (pounds forehead on wall).
The debt thingie… well, where & how this happened, even w/TARP, it’s directly traceable by any accounting method (OK, not WS accounting, but any *honest* accounting) to Rethug prez & congress. Beyond that, the FED agencies responsible for overseeing various US econ/finance matters were not only called off their beat, W’s WH & Delay’s congress pretty much gave ’em the Captain’s chair for legislation (or lack of it).
So… what are these people voting for?
Think is, BO just did nothing to fix things, to call a spade a spade. Nothing. NO-THING. Nada.
Oh Well…
You know that scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where the kid who wants to be on TV gets digitized, transmitted, and reassembled — only at one-tenth his former size?
It’s just dawned on me how that’s the perfect image of what’s happened to the fundamental units of our political economics over the last few centuries. Namely, we’ve been shrunk to sizes manageable by the TPTB.
In order to form more efficient spreadsheets (as defined by biasing wealth redistribution only in one direction), and keeping in mind the Quantico circuit that allows Uncle Sam to watch over us day and night, just like his god would do, both individually and collectively, we’ve been reduced to data points and treated worse than dirt.
Citizens United was another quantum leap ahead of us by a full factor of magnitude or more. On the plus side, look at all the titanic effort it takes to jack us around like they do. That’s one big Achilles Heel they got there, be a shame if something were to happen to it.
I mean, even that damn flashy thing (in Men In Black) had limits, not the least of which being driving the subject batshit crazy in the name of “good governance.” At least we have this, right here, creating our own shared narrative of our own shared experiences of our own beliefs about what it means, to be an American today.
Feels likes mighty thin protection at times. Like right now. During natural or man-made disasters. But that’s not always a bad thing, if you know what I mean by ‘protection.’
“I assume yesterday’s defeat is the kind of metric that will finally make it clear to the White House that the economy sucks and people are pissed about it.”
Huh. What on Earth makes you think so?
Who knew? /s
Bob in AZ
Isn’t that supposed to be, “who could have anticipated?”
Yeah, maybe, but what are they going to do about it. Oh, I know, reach out to the corporate masters that just kicked their A$$ and ask them if they won’t please accept more taxpayer money and please, after appropriating a worthy sum for their bonuses, deign to hire a slave or two, lest there be no one left to purchase their goods; but only after a proper tax credit and reduction in income brackets and gutting of burdensome social security contributions. And if they hesitate, sweeten the pot.