Dismal Jobs Numbers Expose a Leaderless White House on Economic Policy
As today’s calamitous jobless numbers report came out and the official unemployment rate spiked to 9.8%, Obama’s economic dream ended.
The economy is now his mess. It’s his car that’s in the ditch. There will be no economic recovery any time soon for millions of American workers under this president. And that may end up being Barack Obama’s political legacy.
The depressing new numbers — only 39,000 jobs created after 150,000 were generated last month — also shine a bright spotlight on the fact that there is no economic leadership within the Obama administration. The president’s economic “dream team” dissolved after Labor Day and there is no discernible Obama plan or vision to get America back to work and to generate millions of new jobs. It simply doesn’t exist.
This fall, two of Obama’s key economic chieftains — Christina Romer and Peter Orszag — called it quits and returned to their universities and academic centers. A third – Lawrence Summers — will leave at the end of the year. He’s going back to Harvard.
In August, Christina Romer, who promised unemployment would not top 8% if the federal stimulus was passed, announced she was going back to her position as an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Orszag left earlier in the summer for family reasons. Upon their departures many commentators said Obama’s economic brain trust dissolved.
The word on the street is that no economic stars with real business experience are interested in joining the Obama White House. Two Clintonites, investment banker Roger Altman and numbers cruncher Gene Sperling, have been publicly courted but have not decided to share Obama’s bed. That appears to be the best the president can do.
No one is being sought who has any experience running a 21st century corporation and who actually knows how to produce jobs. This is what happens when you declare war on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and your closest business ally, the Business Roundtable, excoriates you as they did this summer, saying you have created an “increasingly hostile environment for investment and job creation.”
And Jack Lew, the new Office of Management and Budget director, who is in charge of spending priorities for the federal government, has been operating without a deputy since he was confirmed.
The policies most likely to work are anathema to the President. The policies that appeal to the President are DOA in the House. Result: status quo. Need: Status quo ante Obama (and Bush II, Clinton, and Bush I).
And what exactly was the so called dream team supposed to accomplish, or did accomplish? Dream team, bad joke, they followed the lead of The O, stimulus package excuses & explanations, but we see the results.
It will get worse before it gets better.
Just like the affirmative action wonder boy and Castro wannabe said:”Hope and Change”.How’s it working out for you libtards?
So what we have folks here is a man that has never been even aboard a ship trying to be the captain who picks a crew that really has never been on a ship, but might have read a few novels about such things that are leaving their duties and now the ship is hopelessly lost at sea with our fearless captain sure he can figure it out somehow.
I do not think this is gonna end well, since he doesn’t seem to take criticism to well much less advice…nope he’s goona wreck this thing or fix it all by himself!
This is Obama’s ‘war on the wealthy’. As he said to any and all who are earning money: ‘Haven’t you earned enough’?
Since Obama defines wealth as essentially anything above sustenance, and ignorantly ignores that wealth or ‘surplus’ MUST be created in an economy that can provide more jobs…Obama’s strategy destroys any ability of the US to create jobs.
His refusal to continue the tax cuts – which include all small businesses – and small business provides 50% of the US economy – is a key indicator of his ignorance of economics and his antipathy for private enterprise. By refusing to deal with these tax cuts and leaving it to the ‘lame duck’ session, Obama is creating an economic crisis. The economy doesn’t know what will happen to their tax base in less than a month. Obama’s refusal to provide leadership and enable an economic infrastructure – might lead to the collapse of the stock market.
Obama’s strategy of dealing with the poor – rather than providing an infrastructure to set up new enterprises and small businesses (by those tax cuts)…was to PAY OFF the poor, by borrowing from the youth of the future. His massive deficit spending hasn’t even set up a jobs infrastructure. Most of the money went to support, not private enterprise, but public employees who were already employed in bloated bureaucracies.
His health care, which had nothing to do with health but was instead setting up a statist infrastructure, is rapidly being shown as outrageously expensive – and – insuring less people, as unions and businesses find they cannot afford to insure their employees under this new act.
The Gulf Oil spill? His indifference was remarkable – and he has now ordered the cessation of all offshore drilling, thus throwing that area into an economic disaster. Why? To support his friend, George Soros, who is funding offshore drilling in Brazil.
Obama’s foreign policy is a disaster – including his loss of the S.Korean trade agreement…and numerous other disasters in the Middle East, Honduras, and Europe. His refusal to secure the borders, his focus on illegals as ‘potential voters for Obama’ reveals his indifference to the laws and the Constitution – and the rights of American citizens.
Obama is ignorant and arrogant, a pathological narcissist who is unable to deal with policy and program development, has a long history of anti-American beliefs – and whose only activity is to ‘campaign’ or ‘charm people’. He cannot analyze, explore and develop policies for America. He can only ‘charm’ – manipulate and misinform…and what he wants is adulation and control.
The WH is reduced to sending him off on campaigns – where no questions are allowed – because he cannot answer them. Now, they are sending him to Afghanistan – where he can pontificate and praise the troops…rather than dealing with the economic and jobs crisis at home.
With the leadership vacuum, the Democrats are imploding and in-fighting. They are uncertain what to do with Obama, apart from sending him off on campaign-style trips, and have no leadership. People like Pelosi and Reid, the old guard, have prevented any dynamic regeneration of the Party (compare with the GOP which has, during its time-out, come up with a host of bright young people). What’s next?
Everyone assumes that he wants the economy to improve, because that is what every prior US President would have wanted. But after 2 years, what evidence is there of that?
I think he wants the economy to be just tolerable enough to get himself relected. If it gets bad enough that even the msm can’t cover it up, he will switch to Plan B. Plan B will make the first two years look like boom times.
And if he can somehow get reelected, the next 4 years after that will be the end of the country as we know it. The mask will be completely discarded and Vladimir Obama will begin his reign.
2 years and House and Senate at his disposal and this idiot can’t create any jobs.
I don’t think that Obama even thinks about the economy. He is basically extremely ignorant about economics, as well as history, political systems, societal systems. And has no curiosity or ability to learn.
Obama has two components to him. Basically, Obama lives in an artificial bubble. He has no connection with reality. No connection with hard facts. No ability to interact on an equal basis with other people. He lives in a virtual world of his own rhetoric.What’s it made of?
First, are his prejudices, instilled in him since childhood and maintained by his wife: anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-white, anti-wealth. He doesn’t THINK about these issues; they are just part of him.
Second, is his pathological narcissism, a pyschological state wherein he requires constant adulation from ‘workers’ or those deemed beneath him, controlled by him. If you question him – he’ll first get testy (people call him ‘thin-skinned)..but then, you will simply cease to exist for him. You are no longer part of His World.
That’s all there is to him. So, he’s fine as a community organizer where he doesn’t think about the effects of his exhortations and all he does is preach to his workers to ‘go out and activate’. He’s unable to develop policies, analyze their long term results…He requires that ‘feeding’ from people who are controlled by him and go out and do His Word.
I don’t think he considers the election as in doubt. He doesn’t acknowledge the November elections as ‘real’.If there are people who dissent from him – he considers them non-people. They don’t exist.
The problem for the Democrats is – what do they do with someone who is utterly dysfunctional as a president? Obama can’t lead; he can’t devise policies and programs; he can’t discuss them with others and analyze their effects. He delegates EVERYTHING…and the group around him are radical socialists: George Soros, Pelosi, Reid.. who are isolating the Democratic Party from any moderates who might be able to take back the party from these radicals.
It is becoming obvious that Obama can’t lead; he can’t even answer questions about policies because he can’t THINK. All he can do is parrot the words he’s told.
So- his handlers are reduced to figuring out what to do with him. They send him on election campaign stints…because Obama requires constant ‘feeding’ from adoring crowds. The election is over..and now what?
They sent him to Afghanistan to hide the fact that he’s not involved in the tax crisis – and it IS a crisis – and he’s not involved in job creation. So – he’s a ‘community organizer’ in Afghanistan, exhorting the troops to ‘go out and do it’. Wearing a bomber jacket even though he’s never done a day of military work and hasn’t a clue about flying a plane.
The moderate Democrats are in serious trouble. The agendas of Soros and Pelosi and Reid – which are all personal and nothing to do with the nation – are in control. The moderates will try to get rid of Obama before the next election.
I approve of every paragraph above.
What will really baffle everyone is how all the liberal political rats will stay on board the Obama administration ship in 2012, because, hmm, that’s what they do. The financial rats will pour their money into RINO’s.
Before this little black wonderboy was elected,I saw the trouble. So did a few others with his friends of Wright, Soros etc etc. It is not too late ,but after getting rid of Obama, you have to purge the whole commie base.
Most of these guys are only commies by reading a book.They have never seen the starving millions in NKorea. University liberals are the worst. Get rid of all commie professors and it is a start.
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
The only way to sell Barry’s economic policy at this time would be calling attention to the fact that illegal immigrants are returning to their countries as it gets harder and harder to get any job in the USA.
Thank you Mr. President! Now we just need the Russians to nuke 30 million Americans and we are all set. I know, I know… you’re working on it.
First, 39,000 jobs is about 80,000 jobs below what we need EVERY MONTH to stop sliding into a deeper ditch. Second, while the government claims 150,000 jobs were created last month, wait awhile and they’ll downgrade that figure. For the past 18-24 months, each time they’ve reviewed a job-estimate number from prior months it has typically been revised downward. Third, the US economy needs to create 200,000-300,000 new jobs EVERY MONTH for a minimum of 3-6 months to even start a decent “recovery” phase.
We’re in deep, deep trouble.
Mr. Pollock:
“The president’s “dream team” of economic advisors is mostly gone and no one is stepping forward with any idea on how to get the economy moving again.”
This is untrue.
There are many people stepping forward with plenty of ideas on getting the economy moving again.
The problem is that the Alleged Hawaiian does not want to listen to them because they are Republicans.
This is how we have arrived at this sad destination.
There were voices a-plenty telling both the Congress and the “O”dministration that what they were doing was a foolhardy and perilous course of action that would further damage the economy, but those voices were not only ignored, but also shouted down as being solely motivated by partisan politics and racism and greed.
You are probably correct in that and I do not think that this idiot will ever reject Marxism and that is the real problem.
He seems to have a lot of that surrounding him in his sinking administration!
He is now the captain of a ship lost at sea with a captain (him) that has never been aboard a ship, much less being a captain or executive of well anything!
I think that some of the leaving may be an attempt at people, whom may be blamed for, “bad advice,” giving the president room to explain the nature of the current economy. They are trying to distance themselves also to give the democrats a breathing space for being perceived as to statist and socialist. Then again maybe they are really fed up and left even though it is their supported policies that helped create, and sustain the disaster we’re in.
Another possibility is that they are seeing their socliast, statist dreams die. Now they look else where to continue some social engineering aspects from more typical sections like acedamia. Perhaps they are even just distancing themselves from Obama for another go at 2012.
One item to note though. Obama picked these people because the supported his socialist, failed beliefs. His dream team didn’t run out of steam so much as reality of the dole state, a state run economy, and corporatism came back and bit them. His policies were a FAIL from the beginning. There was never a dream team. It was a delusion team from the get go. Maybe they are just mad because they didn’t get to the 3rd level of a communist take over.
The economy is now his mess.
Oh, so it was going along fine and dandy until he took over? Idiot. Go look up how long it typically takes to turn around a large corporation that had fallen on hard times. Anyway, the job numbers come from government jobs being shed and from wealthy corporations being loathe to hire any more people than they can get away with as their profits surge.
Just bear in mind that a Republican president would have likely given us 15%+ jobless rate, no market recovery, and probably a 3rd war front just for the heck of it.
The greatest financial collapse in history was 1920 (Wilson). 38% of the national wealth was destroyed in a few short months, as compared to 8% in Sep, ’08. Once the next administration rolled back the taxes which caused it, the economy recovered in 6 months.
Reagan’s tax cuts took effect in 1983. The economy grew 6.75% that year.
The Bush tax cuts took partial effect in 2003, and the economy began to grow. The rest took effect in 2005, and the growth became strong. In fact, the deficit closed from 280 bil in ’05 to 165 bil in ’06. We were on 9our way to a balanced budget by ’08, when the Dems took over Congress.
Kennedy did the same thing, and the economy took off. The 60′s were boom years as a result.
Once the government rolls back the intervention which caused the ruin, the economy always recovers in short order. The answer is always the same. Government IS the problem.
So, spare me the talking points about how long it takes a business to turn around. We are not talking about a failing large corporation. We are talking about the overall economy with some businesses in position to grow, but unable to do so, because of the government roadblock. Remove the roadblock, and the economy takes off. Your argument compares apples and oranges.
To use a Dem talking point as an analogy, “Weather is not climate.” A single struggling business is bad weather. The economy is the government-made, bad-business climate.
To Mark Malone: A little bit of disingenuous economics there, eh? The supposed economic revival under Reagan was mostly illusionary — those tax cuts caused the deficit to skyrocket, the consequences of which conveniently didn’t hit home until Bush Sr. took office. And there is absolutely nothing whatsoever good to say about Bush Jr’s handling of the economy, including those stupid, idiot tax cuts of his.
Judging from the types of businesses in the Boston – Cambridge area that are opening up in storefronts that had been closed up for a few years, the recession is already very much over for the wealthy, and the economy is on the mend overall — so why screw with things by driving up the deficit even more? Which is pretty much all that’s going to happen if you keep those moronic Bush tax cuts. Actually it’s hard not to think that the only reason Republicans are being extra hard in their stupidity on these matter is that they don’t really want a recovered economy by 2012 — what would be in it for them?
BC, come on, you need attention, you don’t get enough at the hospital, the DNC pays you $5 per hr to spew your bile, you are nothing and you know you’re nothing.
BC, try and accept this, disappointment is part of life, Obama and the Dems have fallen on their faces, though they struggle even now to cause their moron supporters as much grief as they can, as well as Normal People.
And the unemployment rate? As if Government is the answer, as always, back into your cell BC!
johnt wrote something that basically went: “Waahhh! Mommy, mommy, this mean old Internet person is using facts and logic, and making my head really hurt. Make him stop, mommy, make him stop. Waahhh, waahhh….”
Thanks BitChie, you needed that.
Not being disingenuous at all. I was merely refuting your apples-to-oranges comparison. Turning around the economy is simply not that hard is all that I am saying.
I studied your link. Mostly agree with it. It doesn’t change my point about the economy. I am not talking about government spending here; only about the economy. Do not try to conflate the two.
Yes, spending increased enormously under Reagan. He had a DEMOCRATIC Congress. Congress controls the spending, although the President has some influence. His part of the spending was on the enormous increase of the defense budget. The new deficit was mostly that. It led to the end of the USSR. Cold War means just that: War. It was war spending, thus justified… especially as it was so effective!
That said, I am not a supply-sider. Such believe that deficits do not matter as long as the economy outpaces the debt. During Reagan’s boom, the deficit actually shrank as a percentage of GDP, so their argument seems to have merit. The flaw is that these things are unsustainable. Sooner or later, the economy has a downturn, then that deficit represents a much bigger portion of the GDP, doesn’t it? Eventually, there is a price to pay.
Once the Cold war was won, we received the “peace dividend”, i.e. the reduction of military spending. During the Clinton years, or more properly, with a Conservative Congress, the budget was balanced, because the military was downsized from 30 divisions ready to go to war in 30 days, to just 3! The Navy was also vastly reduced. I think they cut too deeply, but that is another discussion. The CIA was also heavily cut, and NASA was reduced vis-a-vis inflation.
Again, the economy boomed, once the government was not siphoning off so much money. This was not true for government receipts. Clinton raised the capital gains and income tax rates, resulting in far less money to the government. With spending way down, the economy boomed anyway, and would have boomed even more without those tax hikes.
So, you may rail against those tax cuts all you want, but the data is beyond contest. They work. You are only confused because you conflate spending with tax policy.
Tell you what, if you will agree that reducing taxes increases revenue to the government and boosts the economy, as the data requires, I will agree that spending needs to be drastically cut, which will also boost the economy. Of course, as a Conservative in that scenario, I am giving up nothing!
“The Boston/Cambridge area”???
MA and NH have always had lower unemployment than most of the rest of the country, owing to all the high-tech businesses that come here to be near M.I.T. and the vast Boston hospital complex.
Try looking at what’s going on out West or in the Rust Belt.
I have a better suggestion: Since MA is doing so well, why don’t you just get out of our way and let us conservatives deal with the rest of the country. While you remain in your little Cambridge MA ghetto.
“Idiot.”
Easy BitChie. Mr. President and Fellow Travelers do deserve some credit for the present situation. Please tell what the But Crack estimate is. That is reality, and not some dream debacle created for Crack Consumption.
“Just bear in mind that a Republican president would have likely given us 15%+ jobless rate, no market recovery, and probably a 3rd war front just for the heck of it.”
Yeah The Crack in the Universe opened up “just for the heck of it” and BitChie fell in. “Just for the heck of it” does Goldstein watch Mrs. Palin’s show?
We already have that third war-front. Just take a look at our southern border, where there had been nearly 30,000 civilian casualties over last several years, and Obama has done nothing about it but sue Arizona.
Our nation’s dying thanks go to Obama’s childhood Communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, for teaching Obama everything he would ever need to know about economics and free markets. By the way, wasn’t Davis also a drunkard and a rapist?
God save our Republic from our megalomaniacal narcissist-in-chief.
Hey what about that Krugman fellow?
[Most] everybody of the newer generations are lost in a world of falacy!
The cold hard facts are simple! America no longer has the traditional economies to support low unemployment…except…for those times of those dastardly fake and unsustainable bubble economies the federal government contrives up at the taxpayers expense. THANK YOU Greenspan and Clinton!
There is no rocket science behind why we’re stuck in a jobless stock market recovery….though stock market value ratio’s remain grossly inflated to actual book values. America has become nothing more than supermarket for imports, surviving on unsustaniable comsumer credit and a small portion of remaining industrial economies….oh, and lest we not forget those “service industries” that can only survice during the very best of economic conditions.
Another fact! Inspite of the “jobless” stock market recovery, they are turning a blind eye to the fact that the “employment” numbers are still more than is needed to drive a lean economy…maybe by as much as 3-5%. Actually it is possible that we are at that point and have no clue due to the “formula’s” the government keeps coming up with.
America has to rid itself of the federal governments commerce regulatory authority by amending the Constitutions’s Article I, Section 8 Commerce Clause. That is the only way in which we will ever regain our industrial economic supremacy and become competitive again…domestically and must I say….globally. We could say bye-bye to the corrupted labor union authority over commerce…or at least, it would be reduced to States choices at their own peril. Anybody remember what the employment was before the federal governments socialist ideologs began [consolidating and centralizing] the nations economies?
Anybody remember when communities far and wide had locally or regionally owned flour mills, feed mills, creamery’s, bakeries, soft drink bottlers, slaughter houses and butchers, machine shops, metal smiths, family farmers, ranchers and dairymen, etc., etc? Anybody remember what “unemployment” was in those days? THANK YOU KENNEDY/LBJ for the beginning of the end of America’s commerce!
During the Coolidge years, aka the Roaring Twenties, unemployment was… ready for this?… 1.2%.
The federal government was miniscule.
Marc…I missed them thar roaring 20′s but I caught all the morning after the night before parties… the market collapse the dust bowl and depression.
Yes, one can chart the destruction to America’s economy and employment by direct federal interventions and many indirect events created by the feds.
With so many decades in the making to reach this point, I think folks just cannot see the big picture and put all the facts together. There doesn’t seem to be any thought or action towards fixing the real underlying problems that has brung us to this dance.
Liked your response up the line!
What’s next? How about FEMA camp’s for the fascist nazi opposition! Just reinstate Glass/Steagall in Washington!! Then we no longer give our treasure to the British empire (Jacob Rothchild and the dope pushing Queen of England) thru the inter alpha group of banisters; set up in 1971 by Rothchilds when Nixion took the U.S. off the gold standard or the mixing of Brentenwoods. Barry Sotero is a British asset along with Geitner and Bernakie. These basterds along with our treasonous Congress have destroyed the USA. This economic destruction will usher in the New World Order, where the Trilateral commission will rule the world and the UN will run The North Americian Union. Also these ugenesists will cull the herd from 6.8 billion down to two billion! Floride and uranium in our water, at least twenty five toxic shots given to our children before the age of two, GMO foods, chem trails in our Skye, all an accident? Conspiracy theorys? WAKE UP, the elites are setting us up for a blood sacrifice to usher in the return of their Luciferian God (Apollo). Did I mention their playground (Bohemiun Grove) in California. Check it out, what I just told you all is truth!!! God Bless us all. A.B.
Government, no matter who is in charge of it, can not create private sector jobs (the ones we need), unless it starts one hell of a big conventional war. Government, no matter who is in charge of it, can only PREVENT private sector jobs from being created by over taxation, over spending, over regulation and unpredictable behavior.
If we want the economy to recover we must pray for and maintain GRIDLOCK, it is the only form of government that is not destructive to the nation and the economy.
After months of playing with the numbers, the chickens have hatched & can no longer hide the real numbers. 39,000 new jobs is a joke; it also exposes Obama’s precious Porkulus & his other ideas to be bad for America. As long as Obama is in the White House, his plans are simply antithetical to America. Period. Obama is a one-trick pony begging for more disastrous government spending when it is shown it does no good. Obama doesn’t care. His presidency is headed toward the center of the toilet bowl while Obama is oblivious to the danger he is to America.
Obama’s “Dream Team” of economists were “exhausted”, eh? Well, I suppose it is indeed hard work destroying the world’s largest economy.
If this experience doesn’t sour America on the idea of “progressivism” for at least two generations, then we’ve had it as a nation. How much more unecessary waste and suffering must be inflicted upon us for no good reason other than the pursuit of raw power?
And don’t get me started on the negative effects that the radical, unelected, leftist environmental zealots have done by arficially restricting our energy supplies…
There is no reasoning with a president schooled by Marxists in class warfare. Truth is the destruction of a capitalistic economy is the dream of the left wing ideologue. It leads to crisis and the opportunity for the ideologue-in-chief to issue fiats for taking over more of the economy and power over suddenly dependent people in the style of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, greatly admired by Obama.
Nailed it! While others analyze his ‘inner workings’, they fail to witness what’s really taking place: The Community Organizer in Chief is building a faction of disenchanted and otherwise hateful members of society that will demand everything from government and expect businesses to pay for it.
Heard about those “trillions” of dollars businesses aren’t spending that would create jobs? That seed was planted not long ago. Got unemployment problems? Blame the GOP for not extending benefits even further. Need someone to hate to deflect your attention away from your deplorable condition? Try a 250K’er- or anyone earning above an amount deemed ‘enough’ by your government.
The Organizer is accomplished at only one thing: pitting one group (his) against another. That’s all he’s got, nothing more. His main problem will be kicking-off a revolution as the head of the United States. Oops! Storming the castle is a bit trickier when it’s your castle!
Obama doesn’t need more economic advisors (they’ll only tell him what he wants to hear) – WE need less of Obama and his “government as the solution to every problem” ideology….
Actually, I’m tickled his economic “sages” are returning to their respective “cocoons”; my fear is that he’ll fill that void with “business savy” advisers who’ll offer more of the same Keynesian idiocy – under the camouflage of “jobs” initiatives.
If, by some happy fantasy, we could appoint Obama’s advisors by fiat, they would be ones skilled in the art of institutional amputation. They would recommend across the board spending cuts, the elimination of several federal bureaucracies, unfunded mandates and job killing legislation (healthcare for starters) and they would reduce federal pay levels for all positions. They would be his worst nightmare.
Obama is anti-business. And the American people are too. Lethal mixture. Some are waking up but mostly people are scared.
Think about it. Obama has NO ideas about the economy. He is economically completely ignorant and has no ability to learn about these issues. Obama is also historically, politically and societally ignorant.
ALL that Obama is – is a community organizer, someone who, as a clinical narcissist, requires adulation and a set of lowly workers to do His bidding. And all he can do as a community organizer, is tell these workers to ‘go out and activate’! He himself has no ability to think through their agenda, their actions, its results.
Obama requires this constant platform where he can pontificate and preach. He’s unable to sit in a room with others and discuss policies and programs. So- he delegates all policies to others.
The other aspect of Obama is his long nurturing from his mother, grandmother and wife – of anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-white. That’s a basic part of Obama’s viewpoint.
Notice that Obama is taking no leadership in any situation – and that includes this current economic crisis. All he can do is campaign. Now that the elections are over (and Obama doesn’t recognize the results)..can he sit down and develop policies? Work on the economy? No. All he can do is campaign.
He was supposed to go on yet another vacation. To Hawaii. His handlers obviously thought that would look bad – and so, sent him off to Afghanistan, where he can do his ‘community organizer’ schtick, and ‘activate the troops’. There’s nothing more to Obama. Now that he’s back – can he deal with the economy? Nope.
His refusal to act as a leader and make a decision on the tax cuts and then, work to see that decision is implemented – means that the decision has been left to the infighting within the Democratic Party. This party is focused on politics and their image to their leftist base. Instead of dealing with the crisis in these taxes…they are leaving the entire economy on the brink of a collapse because the small businesses don’t know the fiscal structure of next year.
The Democrats are painting anyone earning over 200,000 as a ‘millionaire’! Incredible. Ignoring that this includes all small businesses – which provide most of the jobs in America. To tax small business – will destroy the economy. That’s Obama’s agenda?
Will Obama run in 2012? Obama himself doesn’t think about this; he sees himself as invincible. He ignores anyone who disagrees with Him as beneath his feet.
But I think that the Democrats will have to get rid of him. A key problem is that with Obama there as the puppet, the Old Guard, such as Pelosi and Reid…and George Soros..who is a major figure in this set…can do THEIR agenda. Get rid of the puppet Obama, and they might be hampered. Will the moderate Democrats (and they DO exist) fight this radical set who have taken over their party – and get rid of them and get rid of Obama?
You seem to be onto an important insight with this train of thought, ETAB, and you are the only person saying it. This is pushing it beyond the malignant narcissism and explaining many things about his behaviour.
It fits the facts perfecly. It’s been noted many times that he doesn’t seem to take a leadership position, ever. Stick-it-to-us…all Pelosi. Obamycare…all Reid (only because of Scott Brown, otherwise it would have been Pelosi again). Afghanistan…very very painful no-decision process. Taxes….nada. Amnesty….nada. Crap and Tax….nada. Now wikileaks….more nada.
And when he pontificates, he gets most of it wrong. All the laugable (if it wasn’t so destructive) misinformation about Obamycare. Lots of people wondered why he was so wrong about everything. Moreover, he’s sticking with what he said, apparently forever.
And the part about him not recognizing the results of the election, it’s not the first time. Scott Brown, Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell. That was a big shout-out as well. And the Tea Parties, the near total non-acknowledgement of unemployment, the disinclination to shift in the slightest about Keynesian economics, the tone-deafness about Holder and so many others. It’s as if events don’t impact him at all. There is no ability or even interest in adjusting anything, ever. It fits perfectly with your view that he lives in a fantasyland of his own making.
Exactly, proreason, Obama’s psychological state is beyond his basic malignant narcissism.
Yes, he’s a malignant narcissist, and this is not just ordinary narcissism, but a deep pathological state that prevents him from interacting with others on an equal level. He can only relate to others as their Controller, and he requires obeisance and submission from others. If he can’t achieve this – and he acts by misinformation and manipulation – then, the other person simply ceases to exist for Obama. I mean that; they do not exist.
Coupled with this need to control is another psychological state which further isolates him from reality. The malignant narcissism means that he must control others and render them hapless; this other state sets Obama up as the Author of his own Reality. He lives in a bubble, a virtual world, where his words define reality. The real world, the world outside his bubble-words…has no impact on Obama. He cannot let it enter. Obama’s world is confined to his bubble, his words. A virtual not a real world.
That requirement – to make a world entirely out of one’s own words – is what others erroneously saw as his ‘gift of rhetoric’. Think about it. It isn’t a gift of speaking the truth; it’s a device to hide from the truth. That’s Obama; he hides from the truth.
And think about his reliance on words; he actually has felt that all it would take to deal with our enemies is to ‘talk with them’. All it would take to deal with terrorism is to ‘rename’ it to ‘man-caused disasters’.
I suspect he moved into both psychological states – the malignant narcissism and the bubble-world, that virtual world, as a young boy. He is incapable of moving out of either state.
Leave someone like him in a local arena, where his contacts are confined to a small number – and he’ll do little harm. Elevate him to great power, AND…into a situation where the number of people around him are so numerous that it is beyond his capacity to control them all…and you’ll see him start to fall apart.
He’ll try to control by misinformation; he is a pathological liar and he himself doesn’t recognize reality. He’ll tell one audience one set of data (this will save jobs) and the next day, ignore that this same act has actually lost jobs. He’ll say contrary things to two different audiences. He will try to emotionally manipulate people – he’ll use racism – and he’s racially polarized Americans to a degree unknown for a generation. He’ll polarize by class, by political filiation..whatever.
And when he can’t control these large numbers – then, he’ll lose interest in these people. Obama cannot accept the existence of anyone whom he cannot control. So- as president, he’ll withdraw more and more from Americans. We see this happening – eg, in the Gulf Oil Spill. People complained that he was ‘too detached’; and some put it down to ‘oh, he’s an intellectual’. Nonsense. Obama isn’t an intellectual; he’s shallow, ill read and ignorant of economics, history and politics. Obama is unable to feel empathy with anyone whom he cannot control.
I suspect that his psychological state is getting worse as he feels he cannot control people. His handlers have been ‘feeding’ his need for adulation by sending him out on the campaign trail. The election is over; what can they do with him? Obama is unable to sit down and discuss policies. He can’t interact on an equal basis with others; all he can do is ‘pontificate platitudes’. So- in the midst of a tax crisis, they sent him to Afghanistan, where he wears a bomber jacket (despite never having been in the military and unable to fly a plane)..and ..exhorts, in the best community organizer style to ‘go out and do it’.
I don’t think he’s certifiable. Yet. But he’s moving more and more into an isolate state, more and more unable to work on any policies, leaving everything up to others. I suspect he’ll begin to hate the role of president, hate Americans for expecting him to lead…lash out at his staff, at Congress, at any and all. I’m not sure how the WH will deal with him.. I suspect they’ll keep him busy with vacations and parties to stem off a vicious reaction.
Re: Moderate Democrats.
Thanks for sticking up for moderate democrats in a two party system. There are some very moderate democrats still left but the Tea Party Movement knocked most of them out in this past election. Seemingly, it looks like 2012 may leave the congress holding majorities from within the two party’s extreme elements…..the democratic socialist-progressives and the religious right/libertarians. We’ll have to see what the ratio’s turn out to be across the two houses. I’m afraid its going be be more of the same caustic battlefield in congress.
The constitution says that districted population is to be the mechanism to determine the house of representatives. Unfortunately, 11 or so States can in effect control the House and the Executive and they are essentially populated by socialist progressives.
Until something can effect a reversal of the decades of consolidated economies and [populations] in these 11 or so States, we face the potential of remaining in a mess…..unless the constitution is amended to creates representation with some mechanism similiar to the Senate. Amending the constitutions commerce clause will effect a reversal of the consolidated economies and help in time, to disperse the centralized populations. The latter amendment is really the saving grace for America if such a movement would occur.
Obama has stopped drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. If he was serious about turning our economy around expediting the resumption of drilling would be the no-brainer, any-fool-should-be-able-to-figure it out thing to do.
Obama, however, is doing the exact opposite.
He is not interested in turning this economy around. The economy is not going to be fixed until he is gone. If I thought there was any chance of it happening I’d be pushing for his impeachment.
No doubt Husein got word of the unemployment numbers and hopped on “THE PLANE” and flew to Afghanistan where no one cares if he lives or dies in the first place, but it was the furthermost place he could go, at a cost of a few million dollars, and leaves the other idiot-in-chief, Joe Biden to make excuses why nothing he does actually works.
Forget the ‘dream team’ rhetoric. This ‘president’ has demonstrated an incompetence in critical character traits for success since long before the 2008 election.
Leadership is NOT rhetoric. You can’t get men to run into battle for you if you aren’t a leader of men. A speech just isn’t going to cut it. And you can’t get Americans to support you if you don’t walk the walk. Ohbummer trips over the unevenness of the walk.
Diplomacy is NOT ramming through your ideology despite legitimate concerns and protests without debate or acknowledgment.
Maturity is NOT being condescending to your nation, or being divisive or name calling or ignoring compromise.
This man is an impostor American. And a poor one at that.
You’re correct, and it’s even worse than that. The “birth/death model” that Commerce uses to account for small businesses’ creating jobs has been systematically overstating private sector job growth all year. In February 2011 this will be corrected. In February 2010 the correction eliminated 600,000 “jobs” that had been dreamed up by the “birth/death model” but that had never existed in the first place.
I’m not sure why everyone is surprised at the jobs report- we know retailers and manufacturers are sitting on inventory still, or are producing at a reduced amount to match the economic climate, so they aren’t likely to add much until people start buying, or their stocks deplete. As for the hiring jump in through October/November- if you’ve worked retail, or mildly paid attention, you know that retail stores add holiday staffing, usually part time, or between part and full time, to deal with the holiday rushes. If sales are good, you can expect them to keep a few people, but don’t be surprised if the jobs/unemployment report gets a little worse again in January and February. Yes, it’s Pres. Obama’s mess, but the numbers at least reflect a retail cycle. Granted, we’d be better served if he took a couple of months to actually work a retail job (floor management, where he has to know hours, scheduling, be concerned with payroll/profitability and know that how well his store does makes a large difference in how many people can stay on afterward, or even if there IS an afterward…). Or better yet, have him work for the lean months in the late spring/early summer, when a store has a good chance of running in the red (least we forget, black friday is an accounting term, when the ledger finally showed black ink instead of red). Let him deal with juggling hours to keep the store staffed and people get paid at least some, but not so much in the red that the parent company considers closing that branch so the people loose their jobs. Actually, i think everyone in congress needs to have done this too. Then they might actually understand a little of what’s going on, instead of relying on academic theory of tenured professors.
Wouldn’t it be hard for [all] businesses to be required to submit a quarterly employment report to IRS…..The business tax #….current number of parttime & fulltime employees…..foreign/legal resident employees…..number of employees terminated or layed off during the reporting quarter. The IRS can cross payroll SSN’s to the employer and verify the counts. Then the DOL can get the numbers and do their thing by cross checking their normal resources and compare to the census labor eligible data. Though not a perfect concept, it sure would be on the road to a better system the the current “hokie-pokie” formula’s used on a weekly and monthly basis.
Is it wise to have Obama pick yet another bunch from his academic cohorts and fellow travelers so that we get yet more theoretical, unproven intellectual economic gambits that more than likely exacerbate the economic malaise and do nothing to create jobs?
The new Republican House will need to make heroic efforts, unlikely given past performance even with the Tea Party holding their feet to the fire. Couple that with the constant disparagement and ad hominem attacks against “the party of no” and “the party of the rich,” the impending business regulatory nightmare “affectionately” called Obamacare, the still hidden economic impacts of the 2000+ page financial regulatory reform bill and all of the shadowy regulations to come, an energy policy designed to strangle this industry, and worsen the economy in its wake, and two more years worth of worthless and damaging executive orders sure to come out of the Obama White House and the immediate future looks anything but bright.
Strap yourselves in and hang on like life as you’ve known it, depended on it. Get a FAX account and FAX your Senators and Congresspersons every chance you get. Flood their offices with copy and pointed, if respectful, commentary on anything and everything you feel strongly about (At $10/month MyFax allows 100 outbound and 200 inbound FAXes/month). It’s not a big thing but it’s something everyone with a computer and internet access who can afford it can do, without a dedicated FAX machine, and then, of course, there’s email and, other than the cost of internet access, that’s free.
These people have to be imbued with the knowledge that they’re being closely and critically evaluated and will be treated accordingly in the next election cycle. Government of, by and for the people and we have never been better equipped to actively participate on an ongoing basis than from here on out.
You have an error in your link: ttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR2010062205279.html, page 1, last para. Add an “h” to the “ttp:”
Clearly the Obama White House doesn’t understand how bailouts are supposed to work. An Australian friend explained to me how the Irish do it. You’d think that O’Bama, being Irish himself could have managed the American bailout better. Mr Pollock, please forward this to the White House, if it’s not too late.
Irish Bailout Package Explained
It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmers’ Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub. The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him “services” on credit. The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note. The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything.
At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that, Mr President, is how the bailout package was supposed to work.
i really dont see what all the commotion is about
obama is succeeding in ruining our country— the very thing he believes in
the people that keep refusing to believe this are the ones causing the trouble
The economy is recovering, it just happens to not be creating jobs. Last quarter was on the most profitable for companies in the US in the last 40 years. Why are no jobs being created?
Because the mission of business isn’t to be charitable; the mission is to make money. You want economic charity? a. move to a communist country, and b. resign yourself to living in poverty forever.
When businesses believe that hiring additional workers will increase profits rather than increase taxes, then hiring will begin anew.
When it comes to job growth, everything else is irrelevant.
If we were in a period of productivity breakthroughs (i.e., when cars were invented or the internet geared up), it might be different because profits from breakthrough technologies could overcome high taxes and restrictive regulations. But we aren’t, and reaching a new period of productivity improvments becomes more and more remote the longer that the government refuses to remove the thumbscrews.
Regarding proreason’s comment:
“Because the mission of business isn’t to be charitable; the mission is to make money…..” let me add:
Charity may not be business’ mission, but one of its results is charity. Before the income tax, the so-called robber barons gave an incredible amount of their profits–their wealth–to charitable causes. Examples include Carnegie and Rockefeller. Since the imposition of the income tax, entrepreneurs are motivated to give their wealth to charitable causes rather than the government through estate taxes. Examples include Gates and Buffett.
The capitalist (I do not use this term as a pejorative.) is consumed by building more and more, until he fully realizes that even though he is blessed with wealth, he, too, is mortal. Then the capitalist is consumed by his securing his financial legacy. Where he once devoted his energies to creating a business, he now creates the memorial pile of cash and assets named after himself to keep the memory of his name alive—-as in “The following program is brought to you by the John and Mary Smith foundation….”
The “team” is breaking up for two reasons
1) Their job is done as they have achieved the ends they wanted = Wrecking what was left of the economy.
2) The Gig is up America is starting to wake up and the “Liberal Dream Boat” is starting to sink so the rats are leaving the ship.