Let me be clear about this: I believe that Barack Obama will win four more years. Indeed, I believe the electoral landscape is shaping up such that if he wins with less than 55% of the vote – he’s an incumbent running before a fawning media and a hysterical following, for crying out loud – and the Dems don’t take two seats in the Senate and retake the House completely, they should consider it a crushing loss for the party as a whole.
Still, there are signs all is not well for front-runner and favorite Obama:
U.S. consumer sentiment worsened sharply in early August, falling to the lowest index level since 1980, even though retail sales posted the biggest gains in three months in July, separate reports on Friday showed.
1980? Why, I remember that. That was the golden age of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale! The era of stagflation! The Iranian Hostage Crisis! 13% inflation!
Make no mistake; I think Obama’s going to win, and if he doesn’t win big, it’ll be the same as a loss. But this would seem to be a bit of a hurdle…
You forgot 21% interest rates.
Kerm, interest rates are at an all time low and likely to stay there for the near future.
Using the same reasoning, Mitch, was the loss of 2 seats for the GOP in WI a crushing loss? Would the successful recall of Walker mean a crushing failure of his and the Koch Brothers policies? (Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell who the real governor of WI is, Walker or the Brothers Koch.)
Doggie, unions and leftists spent north of $20 million to gain two seats, but it’s almost a certainty they will lose one and not improbable they’ll have their entire gains wiped out next week.
And in a practical sense, what will change in Wisconsin? The GOP still controls everything, and even more disturbing for you, the number of votes cast for Republicans overall was higher than that cast for Democrats in the election despite the counties involved having gone net for Obama in 2008.
More of “victories” that lead to no change and more draining of the NEA/WEA’s coffers certainly smell like typical Progressive results to me.
We’ll see if Walker or the Koch brothers rule WI, but I seriously doubt we’ll be seeing drug legalization and gay marriage even being contemplated under Walker’s rule you idiot. Geez, for the “smart side” leftists are pretty clueless about reality.
Uh, Dog? Kermit was talking about interest rates under Carter.
Otherwise, what nerdbert said.
Oh! Koch Brothers! Everyone playing the Liberal Talking Points drinking game has to take a shot.
And just to make a point that will be totally lost on Dog Gone, the artificially low interest rates we have now are part of the problem. Investors can’t get a decent ROI on savings, so they’re sitting on their surplus capital. Is it a surprise that gold is over $1800.00 an ounce?
Economic illiteracy is really sad.
Actually, Kermit, it’s even worse than that. ZIRP is driving capital into some very high risk behavior. You’ve noticed that ZIRP is driving up the prices of stocks, commodities, driving capital into emerging markets and the like all to chase return. Once again, Fed policy is creating all sorts of bubbles that will pop and cause pain. These politicians are really pain averse, they refuse to take the inevitable now and keep trying to put off the day of reckoning without realizing they’re making things even worse by manipulating things.
Chanting points I’ve been hearing more of lately — meaning since the debt ceiling crisis began to make the news — is that the deficits were caused by “Bush’s wars” and “Bush’s tax cuts to the rich”. The numbers are nonsense, but what interests me is the phrase “Bush’s wars”. It’s used with so much familiarity it must be a talking point generated at one of the left-wing media sites.
Here are some facts:
The bill that authorized the Afghanistan war was passed on Sept 14, 2001. The vote in the House was 420-1, 10 not voting, in the Senate 98 ayes, 2 not voting.
The Bill that authorized the Iraq war was passed on Oct. 16th, 2002, the vote was 297-133 in the House (85 Democrats voted for it) and 77-23 in the Senate (29 Democrat senators, a majority, voted aye).
In January 2007 the democrats took control of the House and Senate and could have shut down spending on both or either wars at any time.
The Democrat President and Vice President candidates in 2004 voted to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, as did the current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
nerdbert, if I may add to your points; every day more of the successes, surpluses at school districts (Geez. Didn’t some raving left wing union backed shrew run her campaign on the blatant lie that $800 million was pulled out of education by the GOP), the City of Milwaukee (although brain dead libtrud Barrett won’t admit it) and saved jobs, of the GOP’s actions are being revealed. How many more will be revealed before the recall gains traction?
You know Doggie, if you weren’t such a hypocritical useful idiot libturd and would admit that the unions are openly attempting to corrupt elections, as opposed to spewing the unproven chanting points regarding the Koch brothers, you might get a little cred once in awhile. But, we won’t hold our breath!
Some people would have you believe that after the Bush tax cuts (2001 & 2003), monopoly millionaires showed up at the treasury dept. with wheelbarrows to cart off the cash.
In fact 52% of the tax cut went to filers making over $200k (top 5% of earners) and the average benefit for those folks was something over $5000.
On the other hand, if we are talking about the Bush tax cuts as job creators they don’t seem to be helping us now, anymore than Bush’s multi-hundred billion dollar annual stimulus spending (oops! I mean deficit spending!) is helping us lower unemployment, or our globalized economy is helping us create jobs in the US.
GDP is 25% greater now than it was in 1998, in constant dollars, yet we have about six million fewer people working. I am confident that a lack of investment capital, per se, is not what is causing high unemployment. If our $200k earner takes his five grand of Bush tax relief and uses it to buy three ounces of gold, how does this create jobs (and yes, I am aware that old gold mines are reopening with gold >$1500/oz.)?
If the fed took another percent or two of GDP I honestly don’t believe it harm job creation. Of course the tricky thing is who pays that extra tax. Small businesses are very sensitive to tax policy and it is the creation and growth of small businesses that drives economic recoveries.
Oh! Boss mentioned the Koch brothers! Time for another shot!
Last year for Halloween I dressed up as Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street. This year I’m going to dress up as a Koch brother. Scarier, you know.
I think the conspiracy believers (Dog Gone! cough! cough!) think that it works this way: Koch brothers give money to Walker’s election. When Walker is elected he busts the unions and stops poor people from voting. This clears the way for Walker to sell WepCo to the Koch Bros. for far less than it is worth. Koch brothers use the money they make from WepCo to fund Israeli settlements on the West Bank & in Gaza, and also to start a factory that makes matzah out of Christian babies. Earnings from the matzah factory are used to buy up mortgages in Germany so they can kick war widows and their children out of their homes.
I read all about it at jewwatch.com. It must be true!
Mitch prattled: Make no mistake, if Obama wins with anything less than a 50-state landslide, it’s really a loss.
Mitch, I want to debate you so badly on this its not even funny. Obama will be crushed in this next election cycle.
Ben, there is no possibility of Obama being “crushed” in the next election. If by some divine providence he does lose (please God, please, please, please) it will be by the narrowest of margins and the ensuing legal battle will make Florida 2000 look like a high school debate.
I heard that Obama is secretly funding Romney’s campaign.
Not because he wants to run against Romney, but because Obama wants Romney to win!
The bag man is Hugh Hewitt.
I don’t know how 2012 is going to go, but Wisconsin 2011 seems like a pretty good preview of what to expect.
Obama wants Romney to win!
Because this whole “president” thing is cutting into his golf time. And it’s not as much fun as his advisers told him it would be.
Gosh! I hope that’s not true, Kermit! If Obama leaves office, why, the planet will stop healing and the oceans will start to rise again, and unemployed people won’t be able to find jobs anymore. We’ll get stuck in all these wars, deficits and the price of gas will go through the roof, the Whitehouse will become a revolving door for lobbyists and crony capitalists, and, worst of all, important countries like Iran and Ghana will be disappointed with us!
I think that maybe Obama should set up a “Man’s weekend” with Vladimar Putin. Vlad could teach Obama to harpoon whales and wrestle bears! Maybe that would put a little steel in his spine!
Terry, you should go measure the sea level. I think Hawaii is doomed. Except for that volcano part.