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Obama Wins a Third Clinton Term

Texan

Well-known member
WHATEVER WORKS

O'S NEW ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY

Rich Lowry


Barack Obama has succeeded where Hillary Clinton failed. She hoped to win a third Clinton term, but it is her vanquisher who is reconstituting the Clinton administration.

Obama's just-named nominee for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, served under Clinton Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. Summers himself is Obama's choice to head the National Economic Council. Both are part of Rubin's circle, known for its brains and its relative moderation.

Few would have guessed back when Obama rose from the snows of Iowa that highly experienced economic technicians would represent "change we can believe in." Thankfully, Obama's airy rhetoric about a new kind of politics was more a pitch for impressionable new voters than a description of his governing style.

So far, President-elect Obama has acted with a ruthless pragmatism. He ignored the yowling left-wing blogosphere when it demanded Joe Lieberman's head, turned (reportedly) to the initially pro-Iraq War Hillary Clinton for his top foreign-policy job, and staffed up with former Clintonites.

Obama has been a shape-shifter throughout his brief political career, and the latest shape - an establishment Democrat determined to do whatever works - is the best version yet.

Obama appears to be reconsidering for now his promised repeal of President Bush's "tax cuts for the rich." Twice during the primaries, Obama hinted that he might put off the tax hikes if the economy was in distress, but he could never admit what was obvious: Proposing tax hikes in the teeth of a recession is madness.

We are entering one of those periodic cycles when liberals have to bless rather than dump on a profitable private sector, because without it there's no way for Obama to meet his pledge of creating or - in his elastic term - "saving" 2.5 million jobs. One of Bill Clinton's most valuable insights was that a favorable business climate fostering economic growth trumped any government jobs program.

If Obama is wise, he'll not only jettison his plans for a tax increase that in aiming at the rich would also hit successful small businesses, but also forswear all his protectionist sentiments from the primaries and ditch his support for a "card check" plan to promote the unionization of the American work force.

Anything that burdens business should be anathema to Dr. Fix-the-Economy.

For now, the showpiece of Obama's economic program is a massive stimulus bill that the Democratic Congress wants to have ready for his signature as soon as he departs the Capitol Hill steps after his inauguration. Even some conservative economists believe a fiscal stimulus is necessary to keep us out of a deflationary spiral, but Obama is only asking a Democratic Congress - given to fiscal incontinence even in rosy economic circumstances - to do what comes naturally.

We can't know what new twists the crisis will take (the latest financial institution in need of rescue is Robert Rubin's Citigroup). We do know that Obama will need more than a ruthless pragmatism to navigate through it.

In his masterly "The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath," Robert Samuelson chronicles the extraordinary stalwartness of President Ronald Reagan when he allowed Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to squeeze inflation painfully out of the economic system the last time we had a downturn this severe, in 1981-1982.

That took guts. Obama will need them as well, and they won't be on loan from any adviser, no matter what his pedigree.



http://www.nypost.com/seven/11252008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/whatever_works_140558.htm
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Well no matter how bad you or I hate Bill Clinton- you have to admit he surrounded himself with some of the brightest minds in the country- and had a much more economically and internationally stable and succesful terms of office than GW could ever wish for...
Most folks would gladly take back the Clinton days- so its no surprise that Obama is picking some of the brightest of the bright out of that era to try and get us out of all the mess's GW will be leaving in his nest...
 

Texan

Well-known member
Obama LIED when he made his claims of "CHANGE." He LIED just to win the election. What do you think the outcome of the primary would have been had he been honest?

After the primary was down to just Obama and Hillary, how do you think it would have turned out if he had told voters that he planned to bring in the Clinton bunch instead of his lies about "CHANGE?"

How do you think it would have turned out if he had been honest and admitted that he was going to surround himself with lobbyists and ex-Clinton staff?

Why would voters have elected him when they could have had Hillary to do the same thing if that's what they wanted?

How long is it going to take you to admit that you've been duped? :lol:
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Texan said:
Obama LIED when he made his claims of "CHANGE." He LIED just to win the election. What do you think the outcome of the primary would have been had he been honest?

After the primary was down to just Obama and Hillary, how do you think it would have turned out if he had told voters that he planned to bring in the Clinton bunch instead of his lies about "CHANGE?"

How do you think it would have turned out if he had been honest and admitted that he was going to surround himself with lobbyists and ex-Clinton staff?

Why would voters have elected him when they could have had Hillary to do the same thing if that's what they wanted?

How long is it going to take you to admit that you've been duped? :lol:

He didn't dupe me- nor do I not think he isn't bringing about change....Anything besides GW Bush is "WELCOME CHANGE"......
 

Texan

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
He didn't dupe me- nor do I not think he isn't bringing about change....Anything besides GW Bush is "WELCOME CHANGE"......
Bush wasn't running. And no matter how many times you repeated the LIE, McCain wasn't Bush. Are you ready to admit that you were duped? :lol:
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Texan said:
Oldtimer said:
He didn't dupe me- nor do I not think he isn't bringing about change....Anything besides GW Bush is "WELCOME CHANGE"......
Bush wasn't running. And no matter how many times you repeated the LIE, McCain wasn't Bush. Are you ready to admit that you were duped? :lol:

Nope- and neither were the majority of the US voters that could see that all John McCain represented was 4 more years of GW Bush and the incompetency and failed policies we've had the past 8 years (including 6 years of which he had a Repub Congress)....

I'm willing to give Obama and Dems 4 years, the same as I did Bush, before I complain .....
 

Texan

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Nope- and neither were the majority of the US voters that could see that all John McCain represented was 4 more years of GW Bush and the incompetency and failed policies we've had the past 8 years (including 6 years of which he had a Repub Congress)....

I'm willing to give Obama and Dems 4 years, the same as I did Bush, before I complain .....
You seem to have an aversion to the word, "duped." Would it be easier for you to admit that he made a FOOL out of you? :lol:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Texan said:
Oldtimer said:
Nope- and neither were the majority of the US voters that could see that all John McCain represented was 4 more years of GW Bush and the incompetency and failed policies we've had the past 8 years (including 6 years of which he had a Repub Congress)....

I'm willing to give Obama and Dems 4 years, the same as I did Bush, before I complain .....
You seem to have an aversion to the word, "duped." Would it be easier for you to admit that he made a FOOL out of you? :lol:

Nope- I've saw thru McCain for years....
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Texan said:
Oldtimer said:
Nope- and neither were the majority of the US voters that could see that all John McCain represented was 4 more years of GW Bush and the incompetency and failed policies we've had the past 8 years (including 6 years of which he had a Repub Congress)....

I'm willing to give Obama and Dems 4 years, the same as I did Bush, before I complain .....
You seem to have an aversion to the word, "duped." Would it be easier for you to admit that he made a FOOL out of you? :lol:

Nope- I've saw thru McCain for years....

Thought it was not that long ago that you thought McCain was who you would support? :? To lazy to go searching for the quote.

I wonder how pizzed Hillary is that Obama presidency is basically what she would have did. Same people just a less experienced more liberal leader to lead them.

And as for welcoming Clinton back, a big part of the mess we have had the last 8 years came through decisions made by Clinton not Bush including economy and Terrorist!
 
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